THE NASTERY THAT OVERCClv1ES TYRANNY

By

Roy A. Burkhart

l3?C C!ambridgo Blvd.

Columbus, ()hio

Submitted February 22, 1958

in the Abingdoa A"Vrard contest for 1958

•. Submitted to AbiD&doD ftesa

hbruar;r 21, 1958

-l-

Seekin& the .. cret ot him Who

is the only Muter in hUDian

experience who does not 1mpoee

ue.atery but leada those vbo are

reedy to tbe 1n.aer mastery that

1a true treedom -- the mastery

tla 'i overcome• tya.nny.

-2-

-3-

TABU: 01' OOltlll'l'B

CBAP.l'D I TJ1I MIAIIItG 01' 'l'BI MASTERY WI: S.IIIC

CBA.P'JSR II MASTllltt LIAI8 '1'0 SOUJ'fiOD

CIA1"1U In OUR USP018B TO TBI GOD WHO DVD CODCIS '

ClW"SB IV 'l'D Clf.ULilllB 07 Bl!GID'Il«l

CiAP1'D V T.D MASDRY THAT IS 'l'JWB FDillOM

CBAPrD VI MASTDY TlllOWH PBAYD POWD

CBAP.fiR VII 'fD MASTD! 'l!BAT :LEA.m 'l'O '1.'.0 PDSOI YOU LOVE

CBAPfiR VIII MAS'l'DY D SUJT.IBDG

CHAP1U IX GI:OWDlG D'1'0 A LIVIlll I'AITR

CJI.APl'.lm X A PlaD.W4 01' 01 GOilll: GBOlrl'H WB 'l'BI BIGITD MABTDY

LOOKING FORWARD

I hear beyond the range of sound,

I see beyond the range of sight,

New earths and skies and seas around,

And in my path the sun doth pale his light.

Thoreau

-4-

There are two ways or life. One is the way of compassion; the other,

the way of coercion. The way of compassion is the way of love, of

helpfulness, or freedom. The way of coercion is the way or dependenqy.

World Communism today seems to keep people dependent. Individuals are

not the au-creme value J rather, they are a means to an end. They are

more like tools than living spirits. They are not trusted. 7hey are

controlled, and even their thoughts and information are directed in

line w:i. th the purpose of the leaders.

The way- or coercion imprisons the soul J the person is under an im­

posed or accepted outer authority. Millions are forceably enslaved.

There are others who have a diabolical adherence to authority. This

was true or Germans or all levels of living in their response to a

fanatical Hitler. There are others who ,yearn to be tree, as demonstrated

in all parts or the enslaved world, and as dramatically shown by the

Hungarians late in 1956.

There are those who wish to be dependent. They adhere to authoritar­

iani.sm in religion, in bowing to social stereo"Grpes, in becoming a

reflection of the herd. Or they are nushed around by fear, hate, guilt,

-5-

anxiety or other compulsive forces.

Lewis ~ord said during the war that God died in the German heart and

the people made a god of Hitler. The trageqy became so great that their

paranoid god almost conquered the world. If he had possessed the A-Bomb

first, who knows what the world would be like now.

WOK AT THE WMLD NOW

There are lSOO million people in the uncommitted nations or the earth

who are asking, WWhich way shall we rise? By the way or killing and

coercion? nr by the way or Jesus Christ, the way of compassion?•

The outcome is not certainJ the battle is on for the souls or men.

()n the one hand the Co11111unists are :making greater strides than we are

aware. When the,y once take over they no longer sellJ they coerce,

they enslave, the,y kill the landowners and manJ of the intellectuals.

We, the freemen, who in theory believe in compassion, have slipped into

ambivalence. We are trying to be compassionate and yet we coerce. We

have much good wtll but we talk big, we talk war, we hurl threats. We

Christians withhold love as can be seen dramatically in our missionary

givinga.

As a nation, in our total diplomac,y we have slipped into thinking of

nations as tools, of Fol"'lllsa as an unsinkable aircraft carrier. How

has this come to be?

THE CHISIS IIJ<' THE HOUR

There is still chance~ for the human race to reach a most uribelievablf

happy tormorrow. The d,ynamic surge of a scientific civilization promises

to relieve man of the handieans of ignorance and poverty and disease.

There are those who feel that the insights and skills can be found to

feed as many as $0 billions of people by 1975. This in turn may release

man's creative artistry at a level thus far unimagined. We seem to be

moving, with increasing speed, toward a world-wide Golden Age. This,

however, is onlf one of the two highly contrasted possibilities.

There is extreme danger on the other hand that the road we new travel

will suddenly carry us over the cliff, and into an abyss from l'lhich it

would require centuries to recover, i.f' we ever did. AmS.dst the dreams

and hopes and promises of one world we face the posstbili ty of no world

at all. The creative genius o! man has fostered a towering structure

of technology now threatened with cataclysmic collapse. Civilization

seems to hang in the balance, sick and ill-suited to choose between

sat·i ty and suicide.

The danger which surrounds us has no parallel. Never before has there

been the combination of so intense a display of hostility, coupled with

organization for antagonism on such a large scale, implemented by such

powerful instruments of destruction. Men appear to be unable to negotiate

this crisis. Our danger is pro~essing. We move with unprecedented

speed toward disaster o.f' unprecedented proportion.

The paradox of human contradiction has reached an all-time high. With

well-nigh universal desire to live, men seem to be making the most elaborate

preparations to die. While sick of the sight of slaughter and miser,y and

-7-

despair thus far produced b.f war, the nations of the earth are making

their moat prodigious preparations for even greater war. At the stage of

man•s greatest enlightement and humanitarianism, the foremost nations

of our time pile higher and higher their stock of tools for destruction,

This we do for the sake of seeurit;y and w.1 t.h an aesUII.:ption of sanity'.

With the conquest or hunger and disease on the earth only partially

completed, the resources of the earth are being wasted in human conflict,

Human ingenuiv is increasingly dedicated to human frustration and

destruction.

It is not the purpose or these pages to give answers to the world's

dilemma in terms of group action. There are many of these plans. We

know the roao to destruction; we need to focus on the road to peace.

Ve can find it. We must.

But the urgeney of these pa~es is to help you find how you can win the

requirements personallY for peace in the heart, in the home and in the

world. This is the Primary issue, and there is a mastery that overcomes

tyraney.

In the first .300 years after the resurrection of Jesus the way of com-­

passion overcame the way of coercion of the Roman l''Jnpire. 'lbe mastery

ot Je~us was of a new type, and those who gave themselves to him and his

way found his mastery. Wherever they went, they in time overcame tyranny.

However, when the way or compassion overcame the tyranny of the Roman

F~Pire, the church leaders began to impose on the church the pattern of

-8-

the Roman Empire, and ~ile it has had its eras of recover,r, the church

never has round the full power of the early church to redeem persona

and society.

The purpose of these pages is to help you find the mastery that over­

comes tyranny.

You can be a victim, pushed around by life, or you can win mastery in

all aspects of living. There is the truth that makes possible the

wholeness of the body and of the person. There is the truth that lead~!

to the maximum possibilities in friendship, to the complete fulfilment

in marriage and parent.hoot:l or t.o a life without marriage that means its

equi.valent. There is the truth that leads to excelleno. in vocatior.al

living, to creative leadershiP in civic life, to the fullest witness in

and through the church, and to the best efforts tmrard the buildin_g of

thet bettPr world of which all persons dream.

It is possible, we know, to excel in one or two ereas of living ann to

neplect other areas. •For what wtll it profit a man, if he gains the

whole world and forfeits his H.fe?11 Suppose a man goes t·ar in his work

bHt ~'nUs as a husband or father.. V~hat does it profit if a man wins a

fortune but in middle life ends up with a broken body or a fatal sickness?

We were never meant to be slaves or to be pushed around. We are meant

for mastery, for exoellence. Once Studdert Kennedy put it well, ~en

I come up to the end I am sure the Master will ask, 'Well, What did you

make of it?••

-9-

These pages seek to start where you are, blocking out a co,,rse of research

and growth that will lead to mastery in evP.:ry walk of life.

Jesus said, "I came that they may have ld.fe, and have it abundantly.•

What a mission for our MaeterJ But when we refer to him as Master, we

know that for the first and only time in history the world knew a new kind

of master. To know him and follow him is not to be pushed around but to

know in our own lives the mastery that was his. 'Ihe mastery he knew you

can win and kn0'111'.

It will not be eaSJ'• Jesus said that his grace was sufficient. True,

it is. There is no lim.i t to Ood 's ghtng. The test lies in your re­

sponding and your disciplining and your trying. We read, RTo him who

conquers I will give some of the hidden manna.• God in Jesus is a

revelation of what life can be like. The grace is given, the power,

the love, the life. OUrs is the challenge to win it, to know it, to

make it our own, and then to share it. for we can only keep it if we

give it awq.

It is our faith that each person is the image of God. He may be a

distortion or a caricature but, nevertheless, he is the image of Godo

The goal or life is that each one may come to reveal the real likeness

of this imar.e. Paul s~• that if Christ lives in us, our spirit will

live and we will love what is right.

How ca.n one come to the :reality or the likeness or the image? l'fnat is

the nature of this wholeness? What are the qualities of the total

person? What is the nature of the faith that leads to wholeness? How

can we grow in this faith until it becomes our w~ ot life?

V.'e seek this mastery for ourselves so that we are true to the law of

our lives. We seek it so that God may fulfill '-?is purpose through us.

r;:e know that only character can save a people. Only righteousness ca:n

exalt a nation. In God's will is our place. 'I'o live in harmony with

t..~e deep design of God is to i'ind a way of life J to resist it is to

know the judgments of God.

As we give thought to the way by which we 11tq achieve mastery, it becomes

ever nlainer that the impotence of our generation, the weakness of our

religion ~a well as the secularization of' it, is born of an easy, vague

and undemanding faith. God has been an affiliate. He is a memter emeritus

of society. We have a C<Od who gives celestial sanctivn to our own prejudices

and desires. The glorious and holy One in whose hands the nations are as

a drop in the bucket we have forgotten. We have a hazy, hu;.nanized God,

whose ~ctivi~ is seen vaguelY ever,ywhere and clearly nowhere. The God

for ~ose glory we axist and in the doing of whose will is the only

reason tor life has been too largely lost. Macaulq said of the Puritans,

"They reared nothing 'but God." nt our generation, some historian m~

yet write, nThey feared ever,ything but God."

The tragedy of our time is that we have gotten lost in materiality and

increasingly life has lost its meaning. .Hermann Hagedorr.. once commented

on the heroic business era of which Hobert Browning was a part: "It

carried civili~ation to vast desert areas, uncovered hidden wealth,

made the American standard of living the envy or the world. The tragedy

was that its triumphs born of earth, remained true to their origin. It

healed the bodies of men ~! 9~gree (underscored words the writ~r•e)

and trained their minds and gave their religious ceremonials expen::>ive

settings; but it did nothing to give their lives meaning or direction,

-11-

or to suggest that the golden aDples were not the onlY fruit worth

gathering. Rather the spectacular harvest gave the impresoion that

there was no other fruit; and men ate it and 110ndered. why they starved." 1

It is not the writ~r•s purpose to criticise our scientific devotion and

the fruits of scientific research in all of its m&Iy aspects. Let it

all continue. There are visions of truth that will never let men go,

so the :research will go on. This may continue until the way will be found

t0 el imtnate disease, hunger, nakedness from. the face of the earth.

Even now, if we had the wisdom to love and share, we could go a long

W3Y' throughout the agonized areas of 'the world to e.limir.ate disease anc!

pain and hunger.

TWO WAYS IN l¥1JICH THE M'!RAL PURPOcE OF THE UNIVERSE IS IN FVIDENCE

As we look f'orward to th':l.s adventure that -we are making together to .find

mastery we will see that there are two ways in which the moral purpose

of the univer&e is evidencing itself. One is the change in history

wrought by' morally creative characters who have come to such an e~

perience of the Muter that they know mastery. The supreme turning

point in history was a man with God in his soul, a man who climbed to

a cross. 'l'he mighV power for good of the human family has always been

wielded by men who walked by a higher light, in whom there was growing

this spiritual mastery.

Have you ever stood with uncovered head at the grave of William Penn in

that quiet little churchyard? Just a tiny stone marked his final resting

place. Since he dedicated his colony to God, pleaGing vainly with the

king that it be called Sylvania, lest his name should be glorified - -

-12-

since then, sigh~ men have lived in that state of Pennsylvania who

have controlled empires of industry. They are gone and forgotten.

Othera will be gone and forgotten. No travelers from afar will seek

the resting place of their dreamless dust. What makes the difference?

A little way tram the country churchyard is the barn adjacent to a w~side

inn where one can eee what is said to be the ribs of the Mayflower. "

What a tiny vessel she wasl Think of the Queen Mary. You could string

a half dozen Mayflo'ftlrs on her deck, but when the Queen Mary is forgotten,

the Mayflower will still sail the seas.

We know the influence in history of consecrated minorities. They are

always defeating visionless majorities. It was a tiny minori~ in the

Roman empire who believed they had seen the quality of God's life in the

carpenter of Nazareth. It was only a tif\Y majority ot our colonists who

believed that we could build a democracy on these shores. As we see

history we see that it has always been true that the Kingdom or God has

been like a little leaven hidden in three aeaeuree of meal.

The important thing has been that the8e consecrated individuale and

these minorities have known that they had a strength not their own, a

comradeship closer than brotherhood, and the assurance that no one could

bring them ultimate defeat because within them was the secret of the

Master whose mastery they had come to know in a great measure. The

moral verities of the universe were finding in them some true expression.

They had got hold of reality and reali tr had lifted their souls by their

surrender to high master.y.

The difference between a magnet and a piece of steel is not in their

strength. One has 1 ts own strength, but the othf"r has the strength of

the universe. In the Eteel molecules the oosit1.ve and negative poles

are jumbled in such a way that they counteract and neutralir,e each other.

In a magnet they are ordered in such a way ~1at all the positive poles

point one way and the negatiVII point all the other wq, and through

them all the current of the earth's magnetie can pass. This is the

secret of these creative perscnelitie~ who have s•Jrrendered to the

hiGher mastery and have had maste~. The ~oral nurnose of the universe

finds a channel in the human soul (")r a rtedicated :ni.nority •

. But there is another wrq in li1·1ich the moral ourpoee of the universe can

be seen in the structure of life. There is a darker side to the truth.

When we get completely out of step with the divine purpose, when we

blatantly rebel against it, when we no longer surrender to this higher

mastery in which we find mastery, our souls and society know confusion

and disintegration. 1nce I read in a took whose title I do not remember

a sentence by Dr. Henry "itt Van T}usen, President of Union Theological

beminary: "Man ltUFit take the hare oath upward or he mm;t sink to lower

depths t.ha.n he ever k11ew-. There is no return to "barbarism. A man cannot

~o bact:: to childhood. Let him try and he becomes something foolish,

for~ign to childhood.M

Suppose a person who hae made the moral experiment of beauti.t'ul consecrated

l 5.v1 np; decides the way ie too hard, the land ie too lonely, and he

dete't'mines he will go back and live on the same level ae hi~ friends

whom vision has never disturbed. Can he do it? Never. He will find a

cynicism in hie soul and a meanness and hardness he never knew ~fore.

So with a nation that sees the vision of righteousness and the freedom

of opportunity for all men and a commonwealth where all men shall coooerate

as brothers. Let that nation turn from its dream, let it decide to

make commercial success the main motive of life, and it will sink lower

than any old world tyranny-. Let an individual who has once moved toward

mastery, who has seen something of t.~e wcnder and glory of \."!hrist, and

then turn away from it, and he will move into a tyranny far worse, far

more horrible, than anythin~ that would have haopened otherwise.

These are oot +:.he arbitrar:r judgments of a cruel God. This is b~.:t. the

law jf \>rog:ress, the 189" of life, when it has been violated.

The writer was struck rec~mtly by a great soul from Indi~ He wore

horne~pun clothing and upon entering the church he removed his shoes.

As he talked, those who listened were more and more aware of Christ and

less :md loss aw~t:r·e of him. Here before us \'UlS the likeness of the

image of God. Here was one in whom Christ lived and in whose spirit we

felt not only the eapacit;; for reeeivir:g love but for givi!1g love. We

were moved by his faith, by his humble witness of the amazing achievements

wrought in pra.;,er and lator. Before us was one in whom we saw mna:.::ing

spiritual mastery.

THE STAGES 0F THIS APVE~N'fUFE

This book calls for a dynamic re5earch in how we can start whare we are

anc move toward that spiritual mastery where the wisdom of God is expressed

through us, where the Holy Spirit guirles our living, where we think and

feel as God thinks and feela, where we act in terms of the wisdom that

runs the universe and lay bolo of the elemental energy that created the

universe and recreates it.

-15-

The plan is to oegin with the story of a man who found mastery. He could

say at the end of hie life, '*I have fought the good fight, I have finished

the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me

i~e crown of righteousness ••• n 0nce raul was a master, imposing his will

on others. Then he cmne to knnw mastery and grew to great spiritual

achievement•

0ur second step is the story of a man in the Old Testament who learned

how to move into solutions by knowing God in his li.te. We move on then

to learn from a ~odern disci~le who lost a faith he inherited and in

sweat and tears won a faith of his own. And we move from here, step by

st•p, until finally we come to the place where the faith is growing.

l\e will never arrive. The i.rnoortant thi.ng ie that we will be en route

toward achieving the mas t€? ry that can be known in Christ; the mastery

that overcomes tyranny.

The debt of the wri tf·r is beyond his words to describe. The adventure

outlined in these pages is not theory but rather a record of what he and

hundreds of others have tor.;ether shared, eJC"Oerienced a.nd come to know.

While he has recorded the results of these observations and these deep

experiences, there is a great army of .fai tl:tul searchers who a.re a part

of the witnessing fellowshipp It is L~possible to begin to name them.

'Ihere are, however, a few individuals who at the right ti"e, made a

snecial contribution to the growth and awakening of the ~tar.

Silas Orris, a country school teacher in Pennsylvania, made a aignitieant

contribution. William Boddy 1 Presbyterian minister in Chicago while

the writer was doing his graduate work, and later minister of the West­

minister Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, had a profound influence.

The leadership and recorded experiences of Dr. Franz Alexander, w. n., were of great significance. Dr. Karl Menninger, M. D., meant much at

certain stages in the writer's search. w. G. Clippinger, once President

of ntterbein College, was responsible tor motivating the writer to move

farther in his educational life.

John Chambers, who in his lifetime was associated with Harper Brothers,

opened some significant doors. It was through him that the writer met

Gerald Heard and this was an epochal event in the writer's life. Later,

Dr. Paul Brunton responded to inner leadership to become the writer's

teacher and continued tor six years.

Always fellow staff members, both on the program and office staff, have

d.one more than they can know to help in the wri ter•s growing. There

are many l~men who at critical moments and over m4n7 years have not

only been great friends but very helpful.

The writer•• family, and the family that is First Community Church are

all eloquent in the thoughts of this book. The writer mentions with

appreciation his secretar,y, Viss Rosemar,y Weimer, for her help in pre­

paring this manuscript, and to Mrs. Jane Sell for the final typing•

-17-CHAP'l'D I

"The central fact in human life, in your life and in mine,

ie the coming into consciousness of a vital realization

of our oneness with this infinite life and the opening

of ourselves fully to t~is divine flow.•

Ralph Waldo Trine

We see all al:out us those who are growing toward spiritual maste17.

There are those who have grown naturally into the freedom to live their

lives by an inner light. They are free from outer tyranny, they are

sensitive to those aLout them, they are responsive and aware, and yet

they are true to their own inner lilht•

-A young man was born into and grew up in a family in which the right

things happened between the members so that the right things happened

inside of him. His parents were not overly permissive. They set lL~its

for him When he was a child, knowing that he was not ready to do it for

himself. As he grew older the,y let him set more and more of his limits.

They respected his rights and he learned to respect their rights and

those of his sister and two brothers. Thus he did not grow up to be

impulse-ridden nor was he the object of his parents' hostilit,y.

In high school and college he was able to go into groups on his own terms.

He could be vitallf a part of a group and still be true to the integrity

of his own life. The quality of his freedom was seen once when his

fraternity had a "hard liquor" picnic. He took a thermos bottle of

-18-

lemonade ae he went wi tb his girl. Later he reported that the boys

drank his lemonade.

The writer observed a girl who was also blessed with such a relationship

in her childhood. When she went to the university, she was rushed by

the leading sororities but she declined. Said she, "If I join, I will

bar some girls from my fellowship. If I bar some, in a degree I bar

all or them."

This girl became a brilliant light on the campus. It was said of her,

"She is we leo me in any group and !a any boys would give aeything to have

dates with her --yet she drank her way through the university,

s_p~cializing in orange juice•" She, too, was tree to move on her own

terms, sensitive to others, yet true to the visions of her own soul.

The writer has the honor of knowing Branch Rickey. 'What an amazing

demonstration of mastery that overcame the tyranny of custom when he

opened the wa:y to bueball for Negro players. In light of his deep

devotion to the Sermon on the \.{ount, it is plain that Mr. Rickey did

this out of loyalty to the inner light. Several years before he had

made a speech to the Agonis Club where he talked about the Golden Pule.

Later, with real daring, his words became praeticel

TH:F::RE APE '.Fr!0fE 1'110 WIN THE MASTEFY 'mAT OVERC0MES 'IYRANNI

A young brilliant Communist attended one of our state universities.

He always had lived by adherence to authority. Ae he came into maturit,y

he was elevated to a position of leadership where he was told what to

do, and passed on the orders with ruthlessness. Having been pushed

-19::-

around, he pushed others around.

0f course, we see this in our free land. For example, many parents

are tough parents to themselves and their children because they them­

selves had tough parents. In our free world in all areas of lite and

even in the church there are those who are pushing others around.

As this Communist caught the spirit of America and the idea of freedom,

he saw that the wrq of life of Communism made people dependent; they

actuallY became victims. He •aw that cur way of life helped people

to become free, to be persons who act on motivation froa the inside

and are true to the wisdom that rune the universe.

He made such an impression in the university community that a group of

business men offered him an automobile. He declined, but agreed to

accept a modern American kitchen. Said he, "! will let this kitchen

speak the message of what can happen when men are free to labor together

in the spirit of your people." To the president of the university he

confided, "I don't know how ! will do it, but one way or another, I must

break with the determinism of Communism.•

A WOrld Neighbor's project in India made such a demonstration of love

and mutual helpfulne!s that a Communist boy's worker begged to be pe~

mitted to work w1 th this team of men who acted from what he called "out

of your hearts for the good or everyone.•

The mastery that overcomes tyranny is being won by perrons in any vi tal

relationship where the freedom to grow can be found.

Here is a woman who is mastered by alcohol. She is so nervous that she

has difficulty in holding a coffee cup. This tyranny began soon after

she left high school and reached its desperate climax after she was

a wife and mother of foc"r children.

She joined Alcoholics Anonymous 'Which met in her church, and wi t.h all

her heart sought God's help. Almost miraculously- she became free from

the mastery that alcohol had over her and fran ttat time on she grew in

spiritual mastery. She is today the inspiration of many. Once a victim,

now she is free.

A father was pushed around by ~refound bitterne•a, following the fatal

illness of his only son. He was under the tyranny of it until he no

longer cared. His minister spent hours with him, apparently to no avail.

One day hie minister said, "It you knew that one day you liOUld see your

son again, would it help you?• "'It wouldl" he almost shouted. "Then

it must be true," eaid the minister, "'tor otherwise a lie would help

you."

To the legal mind of this attorney this thought was the light that

pierced the dismal darkness of his soul. Love flooded his life and he

moved away from the tyrarm.y of hate to the inner mae ter,y that made his

last d~s beautiful and highly useful.

Another man, instead of being pushed around, mastered others. He had

a need to impose his will on those about him. He did it not so much

by violence, though there were times when he was e:xploeive and abusive,

but for the most part he ruled b,y a subtler method. He kept his employees

under a feeling of obligation to him. They all were •Yes" men, and

most of them hated him.

Re was influenced to join a research grour in his church and in this

creative fellowship he came into insight. Be saw the tyranny he imposed

and he came to see why he did it. A change came over him as gradually

he moved from imoosing tyranrr,r to finding ld thin a mastery that developed

mastery in his employees.

Here is a young woman 'Who grew up in a home where there were a number

of daughters. She hated the fact that she was a woman, for she felt

that when she was born her parents wanted a bo7. Afo~over1 as she grew

up, she was the rebellious one, while other daughters were comnliant.

She had a mtnd of her own, and this led her paTents to diagnose her from

time to time as being stubborn and bad, and unruly.

As she came into motherhood she t~ought of her children as intruders.

She wanted her husband to be a f'ather to her rather than a lover.

She came for counseling, and gradually grew in insight. She ~aw that

she had trouble with the little girl in her, that the little girl never

had grown up so that she could find tho satisfactions necessary for

her maturing•

As insight grew she began to feel more free. She recognized her feelings

and no longer experienced guilt about them. And then one time in the

counseling situation, the counselor said, Wlhy don•t you pray at~ut it?

You have been talking about it and you have found insight. Now let the

power of divine love come into your life." Her answer was that She did

not know if there was a God. The counselor said, •Talk to Him as if

He existed."

-.22-

She began to pour out ber soul. She moved from herself as the focus

to being concerned about her husband, and finallY came to accept the

living Christ as the focus. When she started to pray she was sobbing.

When she concluded there was a S!11le on her face. She rose and left

the counselor's office. tater she ca1ledt "For the .first time in my

life I .feel I am a woman." Since that day she has been growing in

ma.stery, in freedom to be a wife and to be a real mther.

A man came to his minister one day. It was apparent that he was in

the depths of despair. He said, "I can't go on. If I had the nerve,

I would commit suicide." His mtnister listened to him, entered into

his feelings and returned those feelings. After a number of hours of

counseling, the minister finally suggested that they go to the private

worship room. This they did. The minister suggested, "Why don't you

talk to God?" The man said, "I don't know how." "Well, just talk to

Him. Just express what feelings you have."

The man began to talk and something happened to him. It was vivid.

He became alive inside and that man has since moved on into a glorious

mastery because he is mastered from within.

THE UNTVERSALITY OF TYRANNY

We could go on reporting stories of people who have found freedom,

who have moved from tyranqy, from the feeling of being a victim. There

are maqy, but we know that there are hundreds upon hundreds of people

who are either dictators or victims.

Tyraney is far too universal. MtUJ" people become victims without knowing

-23~

what really it; happening. l''ran babthood they grew into tyrannies or

the negativest sickness, the death :fear, the deAth wish.

~"'~there ooneeiously choose tyranny• '!'hey want to respond to authority.

They cannot stand alone. 'r'hey want someone or some group to t.hink for

them and ::>lan for them.. This attitude :may account for the growing

authoritarianism in the church and in the enlarging functions ot govern­

ment. Lacking inner leadership, millions of individuals rell. on outer

direction and domination.

'l'here are those who have an almost diabolical adherence to authority.

This makes for dictatorship. The difference between dictatorship and

the .free way o.f lite is that one makes perMnsdenendentJ the other

frees them to rise to a glorious and wholesome independence.

At this moment we are in a race for space. The paradox of human

contradiction has reached an all-ti.'!l.e hight with universal desire to

live, men seem to be making the most extravagant plans to extinguish

life on the planet.

We can win the race fpr space. We can lead the world toward peace and

extend the boundaries of freedom. But we must begin with individual

Persons, and find the mastery thAt overcomes tJra~ in personal lives.

There is no other beginning noint. It it starts with you and the writer,

a chain reaction can develop that will reach around the world.

A G.REAT DTSC1:PLE OF JEfUS

We can perhaps get clearly at the nature of the mastery we seek by a

careful study of the apostle Paul. Once he was a conqueror. Re im­

posed his will on others, he was a victim of an illusion, a fear, a

...24-

prejudice. After he come to know the Master, he moved .from being a

conqueror to the mastery that overcomes tyra~.

We are stirred to reads ''What then shall we say to this? If God is

for us, who is against us? He mo did not ~are his own Son, but gave

him up for us all, will he not give us all things with him? i\ho shall

bring any chat'ge against God's elect? It is God who justifies; who

iB to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus who died, yes, who was raised from

tha dead, who is at the right har~ of God, who indeed intercedes for us?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or

distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? •••

No, in all these thinge we are more than conquerors through him who

loved us."

As we read these words we know that there is nothing that can be added

to this. No hymn has been sung by man that makes more clear the high

meaning ot spiritual mastery.

0ne day Paul had mingled with the crowd as they welcomed the vict.or:toua

army and its commander. Through the festooned arches of triumph he saw

the g<\Yly decorated legion march to the blare of a thousand trumpets.

He heard ~~e cheers of the populous as they reverberated through the

encircling hills. He an the Prisoners as they came, chained with their

captors, and there was the conqueror hitself in a chariot draped with

banners and flanked by Caesar's imperial guard. Now the crowds are wild

with enthusiasm as they shower flowers upon the conqueror's chariot and

shout the praises of the stern-visaged hero.

~erhaps a few d11s later in his own little home down a by-street of the

great city, Paul was ~nning his Epistle. He described the battles and

the tensions, the conflicts and the victories of redeemed souls, and

then when he searched for a figure to describe it all he thought of

that festal street scene that he had witnesFed a few days before, and

he wrote, KWe are more than conquerors through him who loved us.•

It was hard for the Romans to think that aqyone could be more than a

conqueror. It ie hard for us to believe that there be anyone greater

than a conqueror.

It is not through conquest tut through surrender that life 1 s enduring

values are discovered; not in mastering but in being mastered do wo

find the richest insigr~ts of life. The conqueror is alw~·s seeking to

im7'ose hie will upon life and therefore he never escapes himself. He

that is more than a conqueror seeks to do a harder thing - - that is1

to let a higher will and a holier PUrpose live through him.

Paul knew both ways of life. He had b!3en a eonq,Jeror. Trained in all

the knowledg~ of the Jewish and Greek world, a young man and yet a m.mber

of the Sanhedrin, chaapion of the faith, who put to death those who

taught hereq and practiced it, he knew the satisfaction of bending

life to his Will.

Then one day he saw a vimion of Christ J he knelt by a <1u3ty roadside

and said, tttord, What wilt thou have me t~ do?• And that day he be­

came more than a eonqueror, eomethlng quite different and even moreo

In all the brilliant career that followed, he was a maet~red man, one

who loved to eall M.1nsel.f' the slave ot' Jesus of NazAreth. Tt was he

who eaid, "Tt is no more I that live but Christ that liveth in me.

The life r now live I live by faith in the Son of man. You are dead

and your life is hid with Christ in God. 11 I

These are not the words of a conqueror. This is the testimony of one

who has come in the spi rlt of the ~faster of life to know mastery that

overcame tyranny.

We may become the vehicle of a higher beatlty and truth and goodness.

The sheer romance of earthly existence, the mystery and glory of 1 t,

is in the fact that God t s S'Oiri t seeks to live a human life through us

and that we may become vessels sanctified and fit for the JRaster•s use.

It is only in the humble and surrendered soul that the sPirit ot beauty

We cannot know the oower of a ~esden Madonna or a b'ifth SymphoJV except

by a deep self-surrender in wr.ich our souls become plastic in the hands

of beauty. Indeed, a great artist, when asked if in his highest moments

ot ecstatic in~ight he felt he was using hie own power or being used

by a higher power, replied, "It is both, but mueh more the latter. I

am the obedient servant of a beauty that is ever seeking to express

itself in concrete forms.•

In a fuller sense it is true that the Eternal Goodness seeks for humble

and contrite hearts in which to dwell. All the problems of life, its

success or its failure, is a question of the surrender of self. "We

cannot •" says Chesterton, 0 think too little of our selves and we cannot

think too mueh of our souls.•

~'ho expor:!.enee of God, no mattor l'lhat the religion through which it is

mediated, alV"ays s~rikes the soul with two convictions. r~irst, there

is an awareness of unconditional demand, the so.1l must make a surrender.

Second, there is the consciousnes~ that the highest well-being of the

soul is bound up in obedience to that demand. The selfish man comes

one day to the place where he has no self. There is nothing but the

perpetual clash of contradictory desires.

~n a memorial tahlet in Oxford erected to Lewis Nettleship, there are

these words, "He loved great things and thought little of h~selfJ

desiring neither fame nor tnnuence, he won the devotion of men and

was a power in their lives.n That is being more than a conqueror. ~f'hat

is eoming to know the !fllster until he knows masteey within hie own being.

The more we look at life the more we see evidence that the most refined

self-assertion ie not the greatest valueo Thomas Carlyle had this to

say1 "MY brother, the brave man has yet to give his life aw~. Give it,

t advise thee. Thou dost not expect to sell thy life in an adequa+.~

manner. v;-hat price, for example, would content thee? Thou wilt never

sell thy life nor any part of it in an adequate manner. Give it like

a royal heart; let the price be nothing. Then hast thou in a certain

sense got all for it.'*

F.very conqueror is seeking for these values. He wants power, freedom

and a sen!le of significance. These desires someti.-nes flaming into lust

are back of all the cruel oppressions of the world. In search of their

fulfilment men forget God and goodness and trample upon the weak and

helpless. Power, the feeling ti:at in a large degree one can manipulate

men and forces m1d impcse upon them the dictates and direction of his

will; fr-eedom, the corresponding sense of rot being bound by the limit....

tiona of an environment or by the will of others; !Significance 1 the

consciousness of having one's community ascribe worth to one; the feeling

of beir1g known and having the envy of men if not their admiration and

respect - - these are all instinctive desires, but we seek their ful­

f:Umen t in w:rong ways o

'1he power of any conqueror, political or economic or personal, is short

lived. This is true whether he is a political conqueror, a father or

mother, the head of a businefls1 a friend. It has its little day and

is gone. Another lord arrives and makes the heritage his own. The

conqueror il bound to the chariot wheels of hi!! own success. And all

about him are the smoldering resentments he has engendered. His life

must be lived in constant tension. And his sense of significance COJT:,es

only from h:i.s own self-into:xica+.ton; it has no sure foundation. Let

him look soberlY at life and history and he knows that he nlays a little

part upon a stage and soon the act will be over and forgotten.

The only way to have power and freedom and significance is to lose one's

self in the wi.ll of the universe, to let the nuroose and intention of

God now so freely through our souls that we art+ no longer our oWR.-

We have taken our hande off our lives and seek to become units of human

nature thrl':lugh wr:ich the life of God may be revealed in its power and

gentleness as it is revealed in Jesus Christ.

~ore than conqueror! !lastered by a divine purpose! Set free by eternal

I.ovel Cloryir,g in the victor who has possessed our souls and yet through

whom we become rr:,ally ourE~elvesl

IN TRUE ~,i.ASTERY '1l!E !:'I't;RNAL IS NOW

The conqueror depends won the e:nrichment of his earthly cireumstancasJ

the more-than-conqueror transcends his temporal event. Paul knew even

as he w:rcte that the flowers flung at the triumphal car of the conqueror

lay wi therlnt in th('; streets of the city; alrecdy they were tnking

down the arches. If the 1.-:an 11ere tc continue ar.ong the g,-reat, he would

be even now buttressing himself in Caesar's favor, planning some new

conquests, some di;:,lomatic victory. Ee 't'?as reall~ the slave of st;ceese J

he v¥a:3 the creature of circumstences, and always he must seek to ooster

them. 1lo matter what he did the c1.rcun;.stances of life would triutlph

over him. Bven if he retained pcpular f~vor, age would creep o~ w~alth

would likely be lost, and death at last ensue. Aeyone whose joy and

success are predicated on externals is a servant and not a master.

;l() bE;tter illustration of one who f'indJ victory ln transce~lding ctr­

Ctl!lu:l+ances em be seen than in t.'le life of Paul. He says, "I know h"w

to te abased, anri I kr;o·.,. how to around J" I know how to live triumpha.ntly

in any kind of c~ndi tion. I am not dependent on environment. .And again,

"In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plen'o/

and hunger, abundance and want." That is not a servile resignation,

that is a spirit that is bigger than circumstance. It is in this very

hymn of faith that the apostle utters words that have come across the

-30-

ages full of promise and enriched with the experience of multitudes of

Jesus' followers: UWe know that in everything God works for good with

those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. • All

things -- gladness and grieving, success and failure, riches and povert,y,

life and this that men erroneously call death -- all work together not

for temporar,r happiness but all things work together for good. These

have surrendered their lives to a relentless p11rsuit of the highest

good, and as long as they love that w:l th all the might of their souls,

every circumstance in lite shall help in the achievement of that goal.

It we read the writings of Paul carefully we find that he had a kind of

contempt for circumstances J he stodll in awesome reverence before the

eternal event. He knew the sacrament of the eternal moment. If you

said to Paul, "See, that is the richest man in town," he would not p~

the ellghtest heed, but would sq1 "Oh1 a man, a potential son of GodJ

'What is happening in his soul?" If he would see a family living in- a

beautiful house, he would not eay1 "Is not that a wonderful house?"

He would say, "Is a real family growing there? Is it becoming a unit

of God's kingdom on the earth?"

It Paul met a poor man 'Who wu unemployed, his first interest we ,;ld not

be the injustice or maladjustments of tte society that brought his

misfortune. He would not ignore these but first he would s~, "Is the

man lord of his circumstance? He can be. Ibes he keep the dignity of

his soul? Dbes he shut out resentment and refuse to harbor hatred? Is

the man a king in his poverty? Don •t judge a man by the enrichment of

his circumstance} judge him by the growth of his soul."

'l"RERE IS A HIQJ.JER CALLING THAN THE CONQUEIDR

Let us go a step further and ea:;r that success that does not go beyond

conquest i5 often a threat and not a ;:romise. We have been making the

mishke in our modern world of bel:i.eving thet to be a conqueror is all

that matters. We have spoken much of conquering nature and of making

it serve our ends. Ancl this we haYe tione in an almost rnaric~l manner.

Tre t.andc of cur age are full of t.he snoils of battle, the f:ru:Hs of our

C<.:mquest are everywbE:~:re. The humblest citizen today controls more p('lwer

and ~as access to roore material satisfaction that a feudal lord ever knew.

We are a generation oi' conquerors ard ~· et we a:rfl an impotent, fear-ridden

-:oeoole who can do r:ot 'ing to save ourselves as we see our civilizat1.on

'·:eaded either toward ruin, o:r if ·>~";e ha::J +.he wisdom, tow2::'d g)ory. We

have :1ade ''!any C<\nquests b'lt we 1Have f~dled tn do:'!tcate then to flo:' !'itual

ends. ;':e are sha-ping the insti tut.ions of f:.}!e atomic age and yet in

the dee'Pe~t !'lense we do not know •Vlw we <..re. W'e have kept the sniri t

of the conquerr-r supreme and now our conquests t~reaten t" be our de­

struction.

~wreau sa·w t:8at long ago. "'hen t.hey 'lB~<"ed htm 1-f' he must nnt ~dmi t

t;:at a tr:1in eo tng thirty m·Ues an ho Jr '18s rAnresented an advnr.ce over

the ~tage coach, he s~.ri.ri, ,.No. 'If C'nrse rot, i.f 1. t is only the chance

for a mean rran to go raster."

What is the uee of all our l!onquest of d:t~ease i! we rear our young

men to die in a b~ttle'E hell? What gocd is the conquest of the air

if tJ~e nrlnctpal uee of ;:Jlanes is to drOT:' bombs on defenseless people?

'."hat gcoc of wimd.ng the race for S'Pace if the end is racial suicide?

Does the motion picture and television represent any real progress if

they are to be a means to promote inanity and obscenity?

Dr. Harry Fmerson Fosdick one time made an interesting contrast between

civilization and culture. .A~l these gadgets and devices represent

civilization but unless they are made to serve spiritual ends they do

not mean culture. And civilization will die; it is only culture that

survives.

Civilization is achieved by the conqueror; culture comes through those

who are more than conquerors. And the only hope for our civilization

if that it shall be dedicated to culture, ~~at all these means of life

shall be directed to sp1.ritual ends and that conquerors shall bring

their fn;its of victory and bow before him who can make us more than

conquerors, through him that loved us, not by &ll7 strength of our own

but b,y the great love whereb,y our lord imparts himself to a dedicated -

eoul and a eurrendered sociev - we shall become more than conquerors.

'lFE OTHEr SIDE '1F THE CONQUEROR

We have giTen, in our intent to make clear the •aning of mastery,

emphasis to a contrast between the conqueror and the more-than-conqueror.

The other side of the picture is the 'Victim. Where there are conquerors

there are victims, oouls conscripted and imprisoned•

The conqueror sp:irit is in the vast process of the Communist regime.

This is true of some branches of the Christian Church. Social st.ereo-

t.ypea are coercive. For these reasons and others, the .orld is full of

slaves and victims, all under the t,yranny of one form or another. Yet

tr'> fulfill tl-:ei:r cja~tirr.r.

n~ere are t: oee who are under the tyranrtr of a fear, of a feeling of

umvor t,hiness, of a driving sense of guilt or an awful fear of

our,htodness. 'l'hey are meant to be free but tl1ey are onsla~,~cd.

CONCLdSION

ttStumbling trr a lonely hill, tt Baid an old saint as he mused a1Put Jesus,

t1J saw a crose-ladened man. '.'ben he reached the cross, the,f nailed him

t.o the Gibbet he had brougb t. Far tack in tl'-.e shadows stood Alexander

and Hannibal, ":ilate and ,Judas, Ferod and :'iberius - and they mocked

in scorn and Di ty. They said, ''lhis man might have been a success;

he mir,ht rave been a CC'nqueror. Now, he hangs there, a broken victim - -

l:'nely 1 fri,endless and by the y;orld forgotten.'"

rut thBy f:ic; nc,t tcall:; see, they cculd not ~now, that he cil0se to le

more than they, for no conqueror cc;.,ld redeem the soul. It had to be

the son of God, one who was God's son in a special way. It took one Who

was more, much more, than a conqueror. And to find his leadership in

our life, the lordship of hts sp'i rit in o~ l:ii' e, is to c.-me to k> ow

the mastery it was his :rrif:sion to reveal to the world, and help each

of us come to achieve tJ-:is mae tery until tnanny is banished from the

relati0m; of men.

CHAPTER II

•He who ruleth his own spirit

is greater than he who ruleth

a city."

-34-

People are alike in man,y wqs. They all walk and sleep, they have ayes

and ears and a nose. All have problems. Sometimes you may think that

you are the only one who has a Problem, but the person next to you bas

some nroblem with which he is wrestling. Anyone who is living has

problems and oftentimes a good many problems. It is in fact a good

thing, tor w1 thout problems we would find it pretty difficult to grow.

The people who have the greatest insights, as a rule, have faced the

greatest problems.

There ie a difference between people, however. Some focus on their

problems and are a part or the problemJ others focus on the solution,

become a pet of that solution and lecoma an inspiration. At this

noint people differ.

We saw the apostle Paul in the first chanter. He faced a problem and

to the early church and the first Christians he was a serious, threatening

problem. Then he found a solution, for he came to know the living Christ

and 1n time he l•flc&me a great inspiration, one of the greatest the 110rld

has e•er known. He came to know mas tcny that overcame tyraney 0

In the C'ld Testament there is a story of Saul. Ha was chosen to be

-35-

the king because he was head and shoulders above other men. flbile he

was tall p~~ically, we find that 1n his mind he was little. He was

not tall in thought. \";e lcr:ow that the real signiti.cance of a man's

stature is not in hia height but in how tall he feels. So while Saul

was Mighty in muscle he was feeble in heart.

The day came when Saul saw the adoration of people focus on David.

After David had overcmne an enemy of Israel, Goliath, the women sang.t

nsaul has slain his thousands, but David his tAns of thousande.tt Saul

became v*'ry jealous, and jealouq is a sign that he was insecure. He

was outdone b,y a lad and hatred burned in his heart.

One night David had a chance to sla;y Saul, but he refrained, and later

when David came won him ai'tflr he had fallen on his own nord, f>avid

wept - reminding us of centuries later when Jesus was on the cross,

saying, "Father, forgive them, tor they know not what they do."

faul had a problem. He ended up w1 th his problem and he himself be­

came a tragic problem.

AN ANCIENT SE:ARCHER

In the 7 Jrd Psalm there is the etor,r of another man who had a problem.

Hie exnerience might give real evidence to us, and if we look carefully

at lite w will find increasingly ooncllJsive evidence that each of ue

has onl.7 one problem, and th.at is to know Clod and to grow in Christ

consciousness. '.lben all problema can be solved or transcended ..

-36-

Saul wandered away from God. ~~ headed into his problem and ended a

problem to himself and to his generation. This unkrdJII'n disciple in

the 7)rd l)salm came to know Ood, and then all hie problems were solvable

and he became a trrilling inspiration.

As we read the 7.3rd Psalm we find it begins with •Put a~ for me, my feet

had almost stumbled,. and then concludes wi. th the etatement, '*But God

is the fltrength of my heart and my ?Ortion forever." Eetn'een these

two sentences is the deep experience ot a soul. In those two stanzas

or this great Psala, a human spirit has descended from the sunlit heights

or f'ai th to the dark caverns of despair and struggled back again to

the dawn-lit hills of hope.

Rere is the story ot a man who lived by gn~at beliefs snd in the hour

ot crisis almost thrn them aside forever, to walk by the hand-to-mouth

philosophy or the world. Discouragement, the deepening darkness of doubt,

a cry hurled at the throne of God dei:':'!Alnding that He justitY his way

with manJ bitterness, lonely thoughts, a search for refuge, a handclasp

in the mO('nlight, light of dawn on dark-drenched hills, a little song

in the hid~en place or the heart, and then a shout or Yiotory in the

market place of lllen - all thie in the experience of this searcher ot

long avo.

v,e OOt;ld well wonder who he was. It could be that he came from one ot

those fine old Hebrew homes. \torning and evening he had heard hie

parents raise their voices to God in prayer and praise. They lived

-37-

in the presence of Jehovah. To Him they sacrificed the choicest lamb

ot the flock, brought to His altars the first fruits of their crops

and gave to Him the seventh of their da,.vs that all their days might

be san.ctified. Ji'or hirn, their son, they made life and religion sane

and simole and real. And when he was leaving home they enforced upon

him ~mew the fundamentals of treir faith1 "Be good and you will prosper.v

But the years had gone bJ. Life had come to a s'larp crisis. The man

looks out upon the world and tries to see it as it is. The romance o;f

reU;rion gives way to t.l-te realism of t.he truth1 ttFor I was envious

of the a:rro~ant, when I saw the nrosPerity of the wicked... And then

he erles1 "I have been wrung. All rq piecy, 'If!'¥ honesty, rq meticulous

righteousness - they count :for nnthing. It is in vain that I have

kept my heart clean and my han~s unstained.n

TPIS IS A PR0BIJ!:M Af OLD AS LIFE

As we examine the heart of this searcher o:f long ago, we find that his

is no academic query. This is a tragic moment. The man's whole life

depends upon the decision of the hour. Either there is moral law running

through all o! life and history, or there is not. Either the univer~e

is on the ~ide ot goodneFs or else out there is nothing but a vast in­

dttterence. He must know. He can•t tight on the side or an illud.on.

Amid the mockery ot unbelief anti the harsh cruelties ot iniquitious

living, let God rise up and make himself known.

Ee:re is an epic discouragement. Tt is no petty impatience with the

failur• of perRnnal pla;M, no whining benauee some little ship of human

desire failed to make the harbor. Here is no childieh cr,y, ntife, coddle

me, cushion~ way or else I will not believe in God.n This is a great

reflective soul, looking realistically at the Wl:lrld and finding for the

moment no basis for optimiD. Jbt the lose of fortune or of fmdly

he mourns, but the fact that he can find no footsteps of God on the

highvfay of history. He llstena, and amidst the clamor of selfishness

and <~vu he can hear no whi~rner of the voice ot God. He is not concerned,

really, tor hir self, but tor the character or God.

We need not question long u to 1l'h7 the ext'erience ot this ancient

searcher is important to us who would seek to win master,y, for there

are times when we can't help but think it is the wicked and ar:rogar1t

and God-defying w!1o prosper. "Therefore pride is their necklace J

Violence covers them a~ a glll'ment.."

And yet, if we take time really to think it through and look across

history and examine the experience of this ancient searcher, will we

not conclude that there has never been a time in history when looking

at the oortemporary human scene would have cctJpelled men to believe

that this ie a morally governed unive:rRe J never a time when the workings

ot a righteous C~d were so evident that men w~re con~trained to believe

in Him? Always on all the surface-seeing of history is the triumph ot

the iniquitous and the godless. No one could have lived in any age

where righteousness and truth seemed enthroned. It is easy to look back

-.39-

and isolatA a phase of 8nf civilization and think, "Ah, to have been

alive in such a time would have been ecstacy indeed.~ But that is

roma.noe.

Ally man wi tll a paseion for justice in his E>oul would have walked the

streets of ancient Athens with a broken heart. The Augustinian era

of Rome produced a few flowers in the slim.y swamps of falsehood and

tyrar.ny. There certainly wae nothing in the human scene of Jesus 1 da;y

to 111..ake men believe in a sovereign God • Religion - a rigid set of

rights and rules, the temple a place of ~erce and human exploitation,

the priesthood corrupt and worldly. Even a quarter of a eentury ago

when most -people were lulled to sleep by the thought of inevitable

Progress wap not a time when men turned to God. Indeed, it. was a time

when secularism reached itt" cli."lla:x and all of our prosr·erity we know,

then and now, was and is but a "beautiful blush on the cheek of a con­

sumptive society."

It is clear that we do not find God, men never have fo,md Him fully,

inductivelY, that is, searching the events of eontemporar,y history,

picking up a bit of evidence here, and something of proof there, and

injustice punished yonder, righteousness rewarded here. And at last

saying, •surely God is here. I have fo\; nd Him. God is good to

Israel, such as are or pure heart.• No, ~~e first look at the human

scene is always discouraging to the •t-ker after God. wickedness 18

always obvious and obtrusive and claimant. It dominates the stage,

-40-

or seems to. But let us face the .facts. We are not living in a

world of exact moral requital. Speaking or God's irlfinite love, Jesus

~aid, "He sendeth rain on the just and the unjust" and then pleading

tor the same grace in the human soul he said, nae ye perfect even as

your fat.her 1n heaven is perfect.•

Should we not be glad this i* not a world where evil is immediately

punished in kind, and where virtue receives a quick and obvious reward?

That would be a world without an,y grace, a world without generosity or

magnaminity. ~here would • be :tr a law of exact requital nrevailed,

if' life had never been 'better to us than we deserved? Surely it would

be a 1110 rld without childhood, because children sulsiat unon the grace

and love of a parent and not upon a~ metieulnus and measured justice.

A world of exact moral requl tal would be a world not of human beings

but of human calculating machines.

It ia true of course that if we do right, if we are true to the laws of

life, if we eurrender to the high and holy will or God, there are

immediate resul ta, an immediate reward within the heart. It we go

against this will we move away from life, we move away ft'oa wisdom•

away from power.

To go further, we do not !!lean that there ie no evidence of God in

histocy but it is not always obvious. It does not float upon the aul"­

taee of the stream. N01r and then we need to reach some hilltop and

look back to see the working of Cod it w use this inductive methode

Ood is not an earthquake, a whirlwind.. God is in the still, small

-41-

voice, unheeded otten by the passing throng. When this nameless poet

sang his dirge of discouragement, where was (iod? He was 1n the soul

of a young !!'l&n kneeling in the temple, crying, ~oe is me. I a unclean, tt

as he saw a vision of eternal n'!&jesty. f(,r Ieaiah proved more creative

in history than all those wicked men whose pride and power seemed to be

so great.

If we knew the whole stor.y, there would be in the Gospels a narrative

ot a yo·,mg man who followed Jesus wi tb ,igh hopes and deep dedication,

and "When at la5t he saw him there on the stonq hill, went back home

and said, nrt is no use. Jot,hing but wickedness gets al'O""he:re in the

world. If there were any God, surely He w·;:~uld have trtood by that

Galilean. In. vain. I have washed rq hands in innocency.~ And perhaps

this young man moved out of this dimendon disillusioned and never heard

the sequel to the erose.

Who could have realized in those days soon following, as the Romarr

legions tramped up the roads ot the great empire, that the futu.re was

not with them but with a little Jew who gave to us the deep insiy,ht as

to the rneani.ng of mastery as he crept from ghetto to ghetto in the

Graeco-Roman worlde

It we had been looking for God in r.'roud, voluptuous, decaying Athens,

we would not perchance have round Hill, but He was there. A good and

humble man, Socrates, was praying this prayer to the great F'am ''Give

me beauty in the outward soul. Mq the outward and inward be one."

The power and pride or the ancient e1r.pire are gone; her beaucy lives ..

-42-

You can find it upon the ~treets of our modern cities and in the galleries

or art, but above all she lives in the spirit of her sage and saint,

tide praying man, So era tes.

WHA'!' WAS THE SECRET '1F 'nlE TRIUMPH OF THIS ANCTEN'!' Sf~ARCHER?

Did this ancient tu:aarcher suddenl.T see some dramatic victory of right

o'"r 'flfl'ong? I'id he l;1ehold the wicked cry out in sackcloth and ashes?

Not at all. He says, "Until ! went into the sanct11ary of Ood; then I

perceived their end." And suddenlY the man gives lyric expression to his

experience of Goda "Thou doat gt1ide me with thy counsel, and afterward

thou wilt receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And

t.l-ters is nothing upon earth that I desire besides thee. •

The lesson is plain. The certainty or God's government is not found b;r

observation alone but deeply found by comunionJ it comes not alone

by science but in the deepest sense it comes by surrender. It is not

the knowledge or the lal10ratory alone but more fundamentally the secret

of the sanctuary. Those who have been ver;:l sure or God have pillared

their certainty upon their own soul's fellowship with Him. That is the

lesson of Job. 1'hat is the testi.t''10flY of the prophets: know God by

your own dedication to hie Hoq willJ live in communion with Him arrl

you will see Him 1n the rise and the tall or the tidee of history.

It was not history that made Jesus sure of God, when he said, 11 These

have not known thee, but I have known thee.•

-43-

We mi~.,.ht ask, "Were not the prop~ets ever interpreting history as the .

rewards or punishments of God?" It is true they were but the point is

they did not fine C'10d in histo17. They found Him in their souls and

brought their vision to the interpretation of history. Amos found God

under the stars in the wilderness, Isaiah in the hour of despair in

the temple, Jeremiah in the quiet o! little orchard-girt Anathoth -

ar~ that makes all the difference.

flow man1 people have we heard give the reasons why they cannot believe

in God. They say, "'l'he climax of it all is war, or hunger, or tyrann,y

or t!':e s<lffering imposed by brut.al men - there cannot be a God 1! such

horror is parmi tted. 11

Isaiah and Jeremiah, knowing God, would tak:e the opposite view. They

-would say, "The nati0ns lived for years as though there were not anr

God and see the awful cataetronhe that has ensued. What a nroof in

history of the God of righteousnes~.· Many modern people see man as a

vict1m, but the prophets see him as a violator of t~e laws of living.

That is the difference, and it is perfectly plain that the hope is all

with the prophetic view. If, as some, we were to conclude that nature

or rate or some crt.el a\)solute causes war, there ie mver any chance

for r>eaoe. No one can reform an absolute. llut if man 1 s sine make war 1

if God ie on the side of peace and justice, and the violation of His

will results in such awful calamity, then men can surrender to God's

-44-

soverei~n will and kr·.ow the dawn of hope and peace and cane to the mastery

that will lead rot only to the f'ulfilrnent of life in persons but in

the human family.

We started out b.r saying that our one problem is to corr.e to know God

and then He will use us to solve problems. If they cannot be solved,

then they can be transcended. Jesus said, "If it be possible, let this

cun pass from me J oovertheless, not as I will, but as thou wil t.tt

He .faced his cross and it became a throne.

God is bound to act and pour f..'imself into us as soon as He finds us

reaqy; finding us ready, He i~ bound to overflow us, just as the sun

must needs burst forth when the air ir; bright and clear. He 1s not

farther off than the door of our hearts. He stands lingering, waiting

patiently for whoever is ready to open the door and let him in. We

need not call afar. He waits r·a tiently • In fact, God is to tally ore sent.

~~~ need to come to such an e:xl)erience of Hir: in Christ that we know

that He has not abdicated. And we will come to the serene confidence

that. arrogarrt wickedness w'lll have its little day and be gone. But

abiding when the last flower has faded and the last ~un has been buried

in its grave or blue, abiding forever, are faith and hope a~d love,

and the grea.test of all is love. Knowing God in the sanctuary of the

soul, we s~all not lose him in the tragedies of life or the cataclysms

of history.

-45-

tti went into the sanctuaey. Then T underetcod.n It was not any revelation

received. This man was lifted to a new level of tt:ought and feeling.

He fo:md eecurit¥• Something lifted him above the bitter hour through

which he was oaseing. "Nevertheless I am continually with thee.'* He

went into the ttanctuary a desperate manJ he came !JUt o:t: the sanctuary

a confident man. Fe did not find a complete explanaM.on of life. He

found God and that was enough.

This ancient one of old had one problemt and that was to know God. He

moved ~; a solution and became a great inspiration. ne have one problem

and that is to lmow God.

'I'he writer has been working with individuals in all walks of life .for

many years. He has had con:t:erenees with as many as fifty peor.le in

one week. He has ministered to pe<Yole in sickness, in the crises of lite,

in the hi~;h moments of life. He has seen those who have faced their

problem, lived with their problem and ended a problem. Ee has seen

those who have faced their probJem, moved to a solution and found the

fulfilment of life.

Helen Keller has thrillingly solved this one problem. She knowt-> God

and l1ehold what has come into the world through her physical handicaps!

'''e see in her a glimpse of the tnfinite potentiality of ecch perenn.

The writer saw the power of God in the lite of his daughter who was

stricken with polio. There were those who said, "l.'hy would a good God

let t.hls happen?" In the years since mar~y have said, "l')nly a good God

could have made possible r'at she is and has revealed."

-46-

'l'oynbee tells ua that in all the history of man onl.T six oorsons found

the secret of life. All of the tix made prayer the center of life.

;;!'hen a n~rson knows fellowship with God and lives by His will., whether

it be st. Francis, Brother Lawrence or you or the writer, life has

meaning,. direction and unlimited spirl tual power.

To know God 1s by His infinite grace to know who we are, to grow into

the Chrtst-consoiousness., to be and to become. To know God is to know.,

to love and live by His will for the good nf all His children. This

is mastery t.hat overcomes tyr~mny, and of this we want to think t.ogether

in the nerl stage o.f our adventure.

CHA?TF.R !II

"Care not to present a finished work

to God who is infinite love and demands

of thee only infinite cleEire."

St. Catherine

-47-

We learned from the apostle Paul that mastery comes only through

surrender to the leadership of Christ in our living and to the will

of God in all of life. Vie learned from an ancient searcher that we

have only one problemt to come to know God, and then all problems are

either solvable or can be transcended•

WHY IS ann SECRF'l'IV'E?

God is secretive. He lets us see His ways and His works only imper­

fectJ.7. Clouds and darkness are round atout Him. His light glimmers

thrr:mgh a broken crevice. He leavePJ a f0otnrint on the road to t:r ack

Him by. There are those who feel they can interpret all the ways of

the f ternal and define Him with nrecision. This is not because they

know God so wnll but because they know Him so little. The teacher

may be closer to the truth who, standing in the presence of God, a.,-s,

"I do not know. His ways are past finding out. But this I know: I

love Him and He loves me."

-48-

But how often we wish we did knowJ ~ow often we look toward the un­

answering heavens and cr.y, "Light& nh tor light&" If only God would re­

veal Himself, if He would rual<e His ourpoees known that we might understand

Him better and love Him more. Why does God nload with men to serve

Him and trust Him and yet leaves them where they can doubt His goodness

and even His existence?

To these Questions lonp, ago the heart nt the wise man ~ade answert ~tt

is the 61ory of God to conceal a thing." It is not a reflection l.lJ'On

God that the dif.!closure of His h-i_gh ?Ul'posee is not more complete; it

is part of His moral splendor. "!'he secretiveness of God is an element

in His fatherhood. It is not the impotence of God; it io the glory

of God that withholds the .f'ulnees of His revelations. Let us coneider

here the mercy of God's hidden secrets.

THE LURE OF A SECRET

Some petentiali ty is hidden in nature and in life, and corresponding

to it in the soul of man is t 1-Je spirit of insatiable que~t. That mighty

teleecope man has perfected in order that the heavens :nifht be searched

for their hidden mysteries is the answer of man to the concealments ot God.

The outreaches of the infinity ot space call to the Tel'ltu:rOuaHipit1t.

of man and rushee with feverish haste as if the future will not wait•

Like a magnet, an uncharted land draws a Columbus to Pmerica, a Livingston

int~ the jungle, and a Captain Scott and Commodore ?erry to the lonely

and ~eriloua wastes or the earth's poles. Before the morning stars

sang together God made t.he laws that govern the universe, trom the

mighty march of the sun to the unfolding of the daffodil. But He left

it for ma:n to discover these laws. God p•Jts marble in the hills t ut

He builds no cathedral. Ha buries coal in the earth but He does mt

light the fire on t}le hearthstone nor turn the wheels of industry's

engines.

That which gives unfatling charm to those whom we love is the lure of

some secret folded in the hidden det:tths of personaltty. It is not the

known but the unknown that holds our interest. It is the half-hidden

depth in the soul or a friend that calle to us and keeps calling, some

glimpse or thought or motion that we do not understand, some evidence

or eonrage and lo:ral ty and 11uiet endurance that lies beyond our ken.

George Morrison says of books: "There are bo:-;ks I never want to read

again. I have mastered them, exhausted them and moved through and be­

yond their lr'euage. But other books like Shakespeare and the Bible- I

come back to the hundreth time and they are alluring and attractive

still. They inspire me and yet t~ey escape me. I hear them calling,

but when I follow I am lost in the magnificence of the forest."

That is the secret, mysterious element in every cerronalitv. When we

think we know anyone nerfectly we deceive ourselves. In every human

heart there are depths we have not plumbed, there are dreams we have

not shared, altars before which we have never bowed. Not only of Jesus

Christ but of eve:ty nerson dear to us we may say, "Whom having net

seen, we love."

-5o-

This conviction that we may yet build a better world, that life can be

kinder and more humane, that society n:ay be organized on the basis of.

altruism rather than eelfiRhness - why does it persist? V..by do the

choicest sr;irits of the race live and move into the next dimension

for that vision? ~hy do they not share that complacent fatalism th~t

says, "Life always has been cruel and selfish and it always must be~?

0r why not r'ostpone all moral victory to some other kind of world where

God shall set up His throne and command the kindness of men? ~by not?

Because God has c0neealed in the heart of man a divine restlessness and

in the heart of humanit.Y a divine pOS$1bility. Somewhere behind the

hills awai. te the beautiful dt scovery.

0n the wide world's rim there rise the spires of a civilization whose

bulwarks are rikhteousness and truth. 'E"le greatest glory of' "tt'le earth

are theRe so •ls who in all generations follow the gleam. Defeated,

scorned, trampled, crushed under the chariot wheels of the world, they

riEe and go forward, praying, hoping, believing. And they Bing a song

that echoes over the hills and down all the dark canyons of the yearst

tt'I'his one thing we do, we press on. lte count not ourselves to have

apprehended. We press on. God has concealed a thing. Vie must find

1t. The lure of it is the passion of our souls. Here we have no con­

tinuing city. We seek one to eome. 11

Yonder they go, climbing toward the ~awnt Savonarola, Assiei, John

Hampden, Wilberforce, Elizabeth I!'ry-1 Wesley, Lincoln - and before them

all, one about whom there lingers the shadow of a Cross. Pilgrims or

-51-the unseen, explorers of the unknown, rising out of selfishness and sloth

to respond to the glory that conceals a th i.ng.

With his r,reat mind yearning for knowledge, VJalt 'l<hltman clinbed a hilltop

bl:lfore the dawn of the day, and looking at the l'l'yt'iad of stara of the

heavens he cried, !+When we become the unfolders of t ose orbs &nd the

r.>leasure and knowledge of everyt'hing irJ them shall we be filled and

sa tisfieri then?" "No," be replies, "we but level that lift to pass

and continue beyond•" But it was a poet of even greater insi~~t who

loC~ker< into the restless outrt:~<lcbings of his own scul and then looked

up to the F:ternal Goc and cried, "I sf:all be satisfied when I awake in

thy likeness!"

A hundred years ago in the far west was 'torn a great-souled American4

As a child he lived through t.."le blood-J fratr;_cide of our Civil War. He

saw the West rise from the wilderness into a mighty emnire and he sang

the dreams of that unfolding rlay; then at sixty he saw the beL innings

of the World War. But on the day he reached fourscore years, Edwin

)~arkham lifted un his voice and sang,

I am cbne with the years that were, I am quits,

I am dane with the dead and the oldJ

They are mines worked out1 I delved their pits,

T have saved ~~eir grain of gold.

Now I turn to the future for l'line and trEJad,

I have tidden the past adieu

I laugh and lift hnnde to the yearfl ahead

Come on, I am ready' for you. 3

The lure of the secret, the fascination of the unknown - what a blessing

to ull

-52-

Jn the life of the alive ::;erzon t.he:te is ever a stretching .forward to

that w· ich is before., The heart knows the restlessness of the traveller.

In a deep ser,se all of us are strar,gen: and pilgrims upon the earth.

't1e do .1ot come to a place where ·we say 1 *'Oh, this is the land or m:f

desire J here let ne always dwell" if' we are true to our destiny.

::onet."l ne calls and we must follow across the :reaches of life. At the

core of life is nt)t satisfaction but de~ire, not a 1uiet hone but the

re!'!tless ro~n. We shall never understand ''urselve!" o:r our fellO"i'!men

unless we :realize that interwoven lf'to the fabric of evory hu'Lan S'·irit

there ie a nameless longing.

A Doet once interPreted man by the discovery of ;.~; lander, the tor' of

which was lost in the clouds and upon ~~ieh stood a being with outetretched

arme and upturned, yearning face, crying, "I wantJ T wan~l" 'l'he master

sensed this when he sairt, ttAsk - See:!k - Knock."

All of our materisl civilization is built upon fostering the spirit of

want and then seeking to supply the demands; all education and science

is the recognition of man 1 s outreaching soul and atter.rpting to direct

hie hungers and satisfy hie thirst. Religion on the ::anward side is

pillared in the infinite longings of the human snirit. ~Come unto oe,

all ye that lat or and are heavy laden. • • Tn rr;y FatheT • s house are

many mansions. • • Ho, eve~fone that thiretetb. come ye to the waters. • .,

Happ;y are they that hunger BOO thirst after righteousness."

There ie a kind of peace that may be found in making one's &elf the

center ot one's existence and living for the present moment. But the

only way to achieve thie ie to commit spiritual suicide. It is to be

vrilling to live a vegetative life or, at best, to become an animal re­

tmondirig only to external stimuli.. And it i~ als0 true th!lt this

deepo-lyine hunger r:'f the spirit of man when it f5ecke only the th:ir.gs

of materiality, is ~he impellii.1[ force of man's sh@!rlelasl" sin, his

grindtng greed, his narrow riationalism and his wars.

BRck of most of the injustices of the world, its eoornful selfishness,

its clashing ambitions, are the E<tc:rmlng desires of human souls directed

to wr0ng ?:Oals or pntting upr.ermost ends that were ,-,,eant to be subordinate.

This fundamental of the soul, these persistent hungers, are dis as troua

and def'tructive unlese they are directed toward spiritual val~es. Puddha

saw des·lre as the very core of life and also as the heart of the world's

tr0uble1 and he said, "You must free your life of all desire, denude

your heart of evecy want, and in utterly passionateless existence you

shall fll1d reet.n

Jesus saw that yearning war the motive force of life. he wLld not

destroy, but rather exalt ito He said, rrseek ye first the kingdom of

Clod, and all other thinge: shall be added. • • Set your affections on

things above and not upon things on the earth •• • You cannot serve

God and mammon."

-54-

In other words, he was saying, "Work for your homse but also for y(lur

.family; tind things but give thought to your soul; your materiality

has it~ place but nev~r neglect your mind, your heart, your soul.•

Tt i~ a strange pararlox that those who achieve the fi!lest satisfactbna

know the most Passionate hun?eN'. Paul looked at all the ex):.~rieneea

of~life and uttered his sunreme tho~.1ght of life, "Tn all these things

,.,e are l'll"'lre than eon~'pw.rora. '' Put it was also !'a ul who said 1 "t do not

C"r";Si.rfer t'lat I have rr:ade :tt my crnm; but one thing T do, •• r ~n·e~~ on

toward the goal for the prize of the u:oward call of Ood in Christ .Jesus.'*

ll.ven Jesus partook of thia deep human yearning. He wa.s always looking

forward. Of himaell he said, "I go to my Father," and ever he ,ointed

t."' the ~hinti'D{';ring towers of t:n10ther civ:tlization whose builder and maker

is GC'>de And when men asked him what to MY when the;v nrayed, he safd,

"Say, 1'hy K1l1gdom r-ome •"

In Jesus we see what is a profound truth: that amid the deepest satis­

factions to which great souls have wr.n their way, there is this pain

of longing and the unvoiced cry for some higher fulfilment.

The f!Oul is charaetc,rized by its unspeakable outrflach; ngs. f:o native

to 1' fe is th ~ s nure:ui t of something that we have a difficult time de­

ciding bet~een the truth and the ori.ilege of searching for it. A

-55-

sculntor, receiving on every ~and nraise of what was deemed his master­

?iece ''as seen by his friends to be quietly weep-tng. As'kftcl what inJ'qced

his sorrow on the d;<y of hj_e triumph1 he said, "But you see, t am E~atis­

fied. I feel no torment of difference between what I have done and what

I wanted to do. 1'herefc:re, I know that my oowers have begun to decay."

Rufus Jones, in HThe Eternal Goscel," snaaks of Clutton Br1ck who has

a poem entitled, "Sa pson 1s Choice" in which Brock describes how Sampson,

who has lived a selfish life, wakes up in the land beyond this dimennion

and finds to hls deli.ght that it is just like the nlace he left. He

exnected a worse fate. And the Devil hae to convince him that it is

really hell te which he has come. Of those who have gone to a higher

place, Satan s~vs derisivelya

Death brings no peace to them, for they are cursed

,Just like fond mortals with :tmmortal thirst

For beaut,r, love, and k owledge and what notJ

But here such vague ab~aetions are forgot

~~o friend of mine has ever asked for wings J

We rest cor. tent with facts and concrete things. 4

All li.fe i.e the throb of insatiate desire. Great life is knowing the

exquisite torment that cries. "I shall be satisfied when I awaken in

thy likeness."

v;e go further to see this ama:.dng truth that the greater the fulfilment

the greater the longing. When we lonk at the Sistine Hadonna, or hear

-56-

the Nt, th f'Ymphoey1 or look at. an unsr:eakably t•eautitul flunset or feel

thtt~ impact of a b€autiful and balanced life in lf':ich is the achiEvement

of '"lastery, we knew joy an0 some sense of peace, but it awakens, too,

lnfinite; outreaches that call us ab0v19 and teyonn these little interests

and pf'tt,y conce-rns a:1f:l makes us long for the mastery that is Ot<r true

potent"i.al.

So we know that at the core of human life is longing. 'l'he lost soul

is the soul that feels the pangs of no great desire, nor feels the hurt

of any noble discontent.

We have all felt the nain of longing. We are never satisfied. We are

meant for mastery not for tyranny. The eternal m·ge is within lts. But

we find O'Jrselves a comrni ttee of salvos w":to contir~ue to outvote each

ot..."'ler. \'.e a.!·e aware of the~e ramele.:·s l~r•t~1n;Js, of eont:rartictions -and

conflicts. We k;;ow doubts and temptations, conflicts and disquietude,

struggle and aspi.ratbns and wi thall, vis:!.onl!l of truth that never let

Sometimes we are weary and broken. bometi es we see the glint of gold

dawns on our visions of tommorrow. We emerience climbing, falling,

limping, despairing, anrl rlsing to elimb aFain. But onward we are de­

termined tn go, P.ev;;r finally defeated, victory never fully won. "Aa

the hart oanteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee,

~~ God. n

-57-

There is t}:Je inner ~tr~..gtlE: we all n:-rcrie:nce. Did Bn ancient poet

h&ve this in mind when he f'l~id that CXld took tht:~ oust of the earth and

made man, anc: .r>d b:reathed into ::'!an and he became a living soul.

Certainly both clust a"ld divin:t ty are in ue J e~ome slothful C'Jntent which

c~ ld nake com..fortatle dwell tnp· in life's swampy lowlands and scme winged

desin:: tb3t wo'..;ld find its home a1nid the silver ~nenee of the starsJ

lured by the good and tempted by t."le evil; earth crying, ttyou belong

to men and heaven wr.isDering, 11Your heme iE he:::en - that is rr"an., In­

Etinct says, "Your vury to haopiness i!! through your animal nature.!!

Aspiration cries, "O eoul, you were :neant for climting."

This is what maker: temptntion, this is what makes for evil. ~in is a

refu~ al or ina} ili t.y to f'!'OTr. A heart is not evil, and a man who lives

on the lcveJ of t.}'e heart i5 net evil, except that for one reason or

ano !:her he fnils to Mek the :reali!'.ati::m of the deepest mastery of his

splri. t 1n terms of l1i!'! ;s:r8ate:ot "'!:'oten+ial. WhRt one might be is alw-ays

calling 'JUt t0 lV;..tat he is.

~orne divine diSC''ntent is inshrined in all our being. There are these

who, it eeem~, can denude the soul flf all a::rn ·ration and know some "peace,"

cut it is :re8l~ not neace. Instead, it is the quietude of death. The

persor who h eeeking to achieve' :real mastf':ry knows always a m:Lngling

of : eace and the ps.in of lorw:l.ng.

Each person is fighting a hard battl€ if he is S<:eking mastery, I.'o.!"

there a:re doubts to replace with faith, hungers to be disciplined,

disappointments to meet and patience to achieve, balm1ce to organize

-58-

in all the phases of living until we move t.ward that higher master,y

of the ~1ri t through Christ.

'r.BAT IT ALL l~EAt~S Tn US

'~'here is the eternal lonring of the '-'Pi rit. r,·e arc 'i:H:mt for climbing.

1'~ are r.u:a:nt for hirh !:Jastcry. Its achievement is the supri?!me art of

life. 'The lonrtn~ is our tr'.<E" Ntt.l:re. His grace ie sufficient.

But why then does Cod 1fi thho ld Hi1lwelf • Why is Cod reticent? It is

because of huma.n limitation that divine revelation is withheld. It is

a fundrunental prineil'Jle of education that truth m~st be aceomodated to

the capacity of the mind for which it is intended. Hieber mathematics

are not for the child in the nursery. If they are wise parents will ~

not. t..tL the young questioner all t.hey knov; atout 11 fe. They 7d1l let

rhe revelation awaits the cspaci~.

Jesus said to his dieciple~ that he had many things to fay to them,

but they were not able to hear them. The lonely heart of a mother ached

for one wi t.h whom to s~are the secret sorrow trat hung like a wir:tter

cloud upon her soul, and so one day she drew hE<r half-grown, glad-hearted

c1sur;hter into the sacred circle of her confirlence .and told her th~ burden

of her years, 0nly to sec agony in the face of her chile and hear a hurt

vc l.ce cry 1 llOh, T wish you had not told rr.e." JJife had rot yet prepared

her. ~ecrets were revealed faster than the mind gr,;w to erasp them.

-59-

a J.-t -;:ht that blinds; there j s a light that conr·-1ses all who are not

rnady f'o:r 1.ts ra'iiance. T-t. ir; alWf\:fS in "the fulnees of ti1re"' that God

There is in t.he Old Testament the story of God's :revelation and the

ellllgerness of the E:temal to unven him~elf as He leads Hie ?ro-o4 ng:,

stumbling, cinninp children from crude and cruel conceptions to the

r~agnifieant moral in~tights of 3'" Isaiah or ~~icah. It i5 l't far cry from

a prtest scr.'lr::Lng ~he fat off the vi tal organs of a slain beast and

burning thorn as an o!!'ering to God, to a -pl!asant :nrophet who cried, "What

rk,th the Lord ~ecuire 0! t:":ee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to

waJk tmmt.~ly wi t.h 'l'hy God. tt Put in all the interim of ni.nr;led light

and dark!"'0ss Cor WClC ;·o;l.tr e:-11 pati.ently >vat tinE until Hir; rhtld:ren

weJ"e +:-'ai.ned b;r life for t!";e ~er»e:· and truer inEiights. "As yo"r 1iay

i13, so y0ur l"trengt~ shall l:e. 11 '','e do not kr ;w the mean"'~ ng of (·ur tears

br>~!!u~c we arc not _,-et re:::.(J<J to krY'W it. It :ts still better that .fl'Otn.

our Ge thsamanes o.nd Cc:·l varies we should Sf\\r 1 .. Father, thy will and not

mi.ne be done" than that we Fhould understanti all the secrets o! God.

'I'he exnlanations of knOW'ledge are not so necessary as the inspi:ra+ions

of faith•

The f"!'eate!3t i!!ternret.er 0:f -Je~'JS said, "l<~ye hath not seen, ear hath

not heard, neither hr:tth ent.erP.r :inh the "!'!art of ,an the t}, 1n8:s Gori

has nrer:-a:red for them who love Him." A pa::-ent sai.d to the wrl ter not

long apo, "! ha' e been able by C{>.re and frugality to o•.:t aside some

-60-

hundl"~ds of ~ollare in my c~iltPe nal"'e. Put T don't tell him. Fe works

hsrd 1::-ut fin~s d1.ff1 eul t-.; tc F!aveo If he kr:ew he har! t!">ie reserve I

fear he 1!'JC lc relaY. h1.f': efforts."

Withheld revelations. And wlthheld for a fint: 1 mcral purpoFeo ''Lord,

when saw -thflff we hu11gered and fed thee? l'hy didn't Jou tell us thct

our commonplace mereieF were of eternal si?,.nificsnce? Lord, we tha.nk

Thee for this .ioy, but why didst Thou not r.;ake thyself known?" 1!'ihy not?

i'.hy, of cC'urse, the beauty ami d~.sinte!"et'ltedne~s of motive vmuld have

been lost. F:nter into the joy of your Lord. Pa.rtic:i:pat·.~ in the surprise

of withheld revelation.,

In a i':o:r·l·~ ;~ade fo:r the croa+~on of !'llC'ral chnractcr, !:len must 'Walk by

fni th and r.r>t by si;:-ht. 'l'h:lnk cf' the r1inir-tr;y c'!:' 11T1CE:rtaint:... Tt is

gN'd tlur.t lt'e can. dnur·t the va1. ·l ,,.,o~_t;r o? mn,..al lt~~s. It is C'OOti that- men

ear: cc-r.vin~e ther.":.f.'clve!l that ~elfishnesr and imruri ty and dishonor have

no eternal cnnseouences. Beca·;se, if it W<'i"e not for that, Wt?. woulrl

not ~ee rr:en choose t,'Je ~i[)l path anri ty f'l!'fort of will hold themselves

to it. 'The snblim€'Rt th' ng in an human excerienee is a aoul that can

doubt and which yet believes; a soul that can dng and yet passirmately'

pursue truth and beauty and ~?,oodne~s. All that adventure wculd be lost

if God did not withhold !!is revelation. It is better that immortality

be not n::roved with mathematical oreclsi.on in order that men might live

irJlllortall.y here and now. !t is making the moral adventure that does

sometring for the soulJ that is the fai~; that saves. It evokes power

anrl love and constancy and the realization of a great Companioning

Adventurer. No man is a man of faith who does not have in him the

p0S::>ibilicy of doubt. Faith is the so1.~l's highest choice, the S?irit1e

imperial affirmation.

re hope till, in f,helley 1 s .fine phrase, '*hope creates from its own truth

the thing it contemplates." It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.

The lure of a secret, the Patience that awaits car;a.city, the moral mlnistry

of uncertain~ -- these are elements in the divine glory that cor:ceals.

The secret of the Lord is wi t.h them tha.t fe::ar ~im. re mr..y not know

God's purnose but we can know his heart. "Lo, I am with you elway81

even unto the end. AV" peace I give Ul'tG you. tt In the h..,ur ot bewilder­

ment ~e find refuge in the Roul of an unseen Friend.

V<e must wait the eJ-,plal'..ation, but not the insp:..ration. ::e nay rot have

the final ohilosophy, out we mey have tte never-failing Friend. l1nc

that will be enough. In patience o.t' vd.thheld revelations ne ehall bE">come

alive wtth the living Christ w:i thin. .e flhall then, through him, move

forward to the mas 'tA;ry that overcomes evt'rY form of tyratny•

THE CHA.LI.ENGE OF BEGnmiNG

Man has had the choice between tvo roads

to happiness. • • The only reality recognized

by the first is the material world. The

second, on the contrary, admits as an important

reality only imponderable, spiritual forces. 5

- Lecomte duNouy

We have seen in our last stage in this research for inner mastery

that the healthy soul is Gothic, with its visions of' truth that

never let it go. Why then do we need to think of' the challenge

of beginningf If' we are meant for climbing, if it is our nature to

be and to become, why is not the person always becoming! Why is

there a need for beginning!

This is a profound question. It strikes deep into the nature of

the human dilemma. On the one band man has infinite possibilities

but on the other hand he seems to be shackled and blocked. He is

headed toward becoming an illusion of himself, a distortion of the

God image, rather than growing by the infinite grace into the like­

ness of the God i~ge.

-62-

TH~ NATURi£ O:F' TB :'.: HOi'!

At birth the bab:J is highL organizeo, ready tc' be love<.~ and to love.

In one spiritual laboratory, over a period of years incraasing evi­

dence has been found that if the bab.'l is loved truly he can grow up

naturall r to love and to be loved, with understanding and freedom.

Parents love with understanding and freedon. if their response to

their children is without need. They can set limits, the;v· can curb

wisely. And yet they have no need to get from the child 'What they

should get froiL each other, and they do not have need to project their

own self-hate intc the child.

If the relationshie is right, the child v..?ill not lose the freedom of

m.ovement, the free flow of life. Li.fe will not be squeezed cut cf

him. e will grow naturallv into the freec'o1r, to think and feel, into

the wholeness cf the body and soirit, into awareness, and into eternal

life now until he is free from the death fear and death wish.

If the relationshin is not right, if the parents are not ITlcving toward

S?iritual mastery and thus cannot set limits, are overly permissive,

withhold love, reject the child, oass on their own pressures to the

child, or respond tc: the child with their own needs, soon life is

squeezed cut cf the chile". He gets ncinched." Then ha becomes hostile

or withdrawn or overactive. He begins to move toward the tyranny of

the negative. He lives by fears instead of tr~..tstsJ by hates instead

of loves; b, resistance instead of accenting. He becomes wall-in

instead cf being f'ree tc 1:ove intc life. He is headed toward the

tyranny of sickness of bod v and n.ind and in tiiHe the tyranny of the

death fear or wish.

-63-

-64-

If the latter is true, even if he conieS into awareness through Ghrist,

he has a feeling and habit sy-stem that will not sunDort the newness of

life. If the former is true, when he comes to an awakening in Jhrist

and makes his cornmi tm.ent, he has the supnort of his feeling and habit

Moreover, in the right relationshio curiosi t.y is not dulled, appreciations

are nurtured, the eJPiri tual sense develops from birth and the Gothic

'lUali ty of the soul which we eroerienced so clearly in the last stage

marks livin:' across all the seasons of life.

There has been much said about original sin. If the theory of original

sin becou,es a lazy substitute for the nurture of love from birth, those

who hold to it resnond to th•3 tendency to shift blame. As the wri tar

studies personality he sees the roots of perscnalitv· disorders. He

thinks cf net one troubled person, one ca. e of sickness, one incidence

of os.vchopatholcgy -- whether neurosis or psychosis -- in l<bich the one

identifiable factor was not love withheld.

Currently, the writer is working with two oeoole, both of whom have

made a full conmd tment tc God and are devoted to the way of Ghrist.

lfet the husband has onsets of serious mood s'Win;: s with intervals of

suicidal ~~oughts and with death phantasies for his wife. There are

times when he becomes co.moulsivel:;r angry, often when he and the family

are driving.

On the other hand his wife has her r-Jasons for being uoset. 3he .feels

rejected and this leads to seasons of crying or tim'!!ls of painful

silence. A certain look in his eyes has the meaning of a hard

spanldng. If she can verbalize her feelings, h·3 adds tc her gu.il t by

ren;inding her of scn.e good thing he did for her.

-65-

The wife's mother expired when she was two years old. Her stepmother

not only rejected her but was cruel. The father gave silent consent.

Her older sister spanked her brutally many times. The husband came out

of a home in which the mother was overly nermissive, never setting limits,

while the father was vindictive and gave his son the feeling that he was

a bad boy.

We need go no further. The clues are clear. If a ca.refu.l study were

made of the psychonaths -- the alcoholics, the ho11.osexuals, the other

addicts, the thieves, the criminals the causes o.f the behavior pat-

terns •muld become clear. 'Ihe same is true of the various aspects of

mental illness, as we have said..

Holorever, having said this, there are .factcrs in the human scene that can

be analyzed only in ter£r;s of original sin. Out of the life stream, the

1om,; reaches of human inheritance, there are forces that need to be

understood. For example, note the rapid pace of learning of a child

fron; birth until he is 12 years old. Then oftentirnss he begins to

settle down. P.e begins tc ccnform, He loses his desire tc· know. He

no longer responds to visions that ~~11 not let him go. This state of

unawareness, this 11 fe on the vegetatiV•3 level can <vntinue until he

CCJ>les into the ultimate mcn,ent. Then he learns fast, ha grows in faith,

in understanding, in a state <.d soiri tua.l baing, unless he graduates auickly.

Sheldon in his valuable book, "Psychology anc the Protr.ethean Will,"

gives real noint tc this.

Again, it seerlls quite clear that something has hanpened to man so

-66-

that he gets confused between time and the timeless. He gets so

involved in ti:me that only a few persons seem to know the eterr:al. We

know that life is whole only if a nerson lives in we worlds at cnce:

on the cne hand, the timely world, the past, the nresent, the future;

on the other hand, the tlmeless, the life that transcends ti111e and

space. This is eternal life now.

Finally, something seems tc block the canaci t~r to see and hear. It is

reall.v a matt,;r of insight. If one sees clearlr, he automatically

meets the requirements for fulfilment. There is some force that blocks

this capa.ci ty to see and to hear. Now and then we meet people with

the gr :.ater insight. They have such a quality o.f awareness that they

are totall.? alive as a self -- totally alive to others, even those in

t.f}e agonized areas of t.f}e world. And 'What is more, the,, are alive _to

those cf the othi::'lr dimension -- they- can sea, hear and communicate.

Without reco:~nizing these influences it lllay not be 1JOSsible to under­

stand man in his str:.1.: gle to become the likeness of the :..rod in.a.ge which

is the Christ ccnsciousnass. God's grac:; is infinite; mar's freedora

of rasnonse, his oapaci tv tc seek, to know, to desire, seez:" to be

liw~ted first because of a lack in his total relationship since con•

cepticn and also maybe because of forces which ccme out of the long

inheritance of the rat.::e. There is, however, nc lirr..it to the possibility

of salvation, of the ~ower cf God in Christ, for the wholeness of the

person if th':a person becomes clear, if he understands, if he pays the

price, if he finds what he needs in the redemptivt~ fellowship that is

the fSJdly.

-67-

It could well be that when the story of this century is told the great

issue will not be?! intercontinental w.isailes or the fact that the new

era of the atomic age took shape, but that in this age the greatest

thing that ever broke in the heart of humanity, Christianity, was

discarded and died cf I~glect.

Someone has well said, nch:ristiani ty has not failed; 1 t has not really

been tried." There is nc dcubt in the min<:!s of the students of all of

life that there is validity in Jesus Christ. His teachings and ethics

are validated by psychiatry and sociology and even by anthropology.

Those who n:e.ke a list of the graat men of all time alwa 'S pat Jesus

Christ at the head of the list.

Bernard :3haw said, with grc3at insight, that the only ruan who came out

cf the last war wi. th his reputaticn unmarred was Jesus Christ.

'we face, therefore, a basic question: 11'ihi is it that sc few people go

far? When we think of all ht41Um history, isn't it inter:;sting how few

persons st.and out? When we think of the history of America, few ner­

sons are soiri tual human mountain peaks.

We d.ght ask ourselves, ther'3fore, what is the r!~aeon why so few go

ver •.T far in winning sniri tual. masterv, why people wait so long to find

the thing that la the secret of life, the wholeness of life?

l. Cne Block may be Our i'.<iteri.ali ty.

Undoubtedl'/ ona reason why people do not go far sniri tually is due

to our materiality. we become so engrossed in things that it is

hard for us, really, to give thought to our souls. In fact, it is

so strange that as cur material satisfacticns have increased, as we

have had more to eat and to wear, our anxieties have steadily become

sharper and gr,:ater. Fears have not decreased as material security

has increased. We have come to .feel that we ca.11 11 ve by bread alone

but the essence of virtue is the ability of ML'1 to care for something

above and beyond hiriJSelf. And yet, why de so few oeople see 1 t?

-68-

Im.·noral life is governed by selfish inward desirss and passions. ):\,oral

life is governed by a moral ideal, at once inward and outward.

It is the confusion of the secondary with the essential which so com­

plicates life and drains it of its peace and stability. We garnish

the frame and neglect the picture. We have so mch of tha.t which we

can do without; we are so lacking in that which is necessary for full

living.

When we step to think of the farnily of Jesus we see a relationship in

which there were few of the things which we so passionately pursue.

~~e wculd have shunned its me:mbers because of their social and material

inconsequence. Yet they had that rare something through v;nich God could

make Himself known tc the world: true love, f'aith 1 the deep simplicities

of the soul.

Surely we would all agree that one can find enough of materiality and

still keep things as a means to an end. There is nothing wrong with a

fine house, with good rood and clothing, with some ec<momia security,

as long as these are considered for what the:r are -- means to an end.

But when the'/ b~come first, then the soul is neglected, then the spiri­

tual adventure is by-passed and the emnhasis in life is on what people

possess, not on what t..~eir spiritual growth is. In the end they become

victims of things, moving toward tyranny not mastery.

2. Another Block is the Pressure of Conformity.

Jesus was ccnstantly· asking, "In what do you rise above the rank and

file'? What do you r..ora than the,·?" God, says Jesus, demands a

-69-

righteousness that is ranarkable, a love that is adventurous and in­

clu8ive. Jesus seems to have indicated that those who are satisfied with

even the accepted standa:r. s cf their own age, who are ccntent with the

moral values of the f!1llti tudes - they cannot share the fellowship of

the Father.

In every area of our living there is strong pressure toward oonformi ty

in which individuals beoome mastered and shaped instead of being masters

in The .3piri t of Ghrist. Certain r::~<s.tterns are approved by the group or

by the society and to braa..l( with those standards is tc win the displeasure

of society. If one falls below the level of 'itlat is generally accepted

then he is a criminal or a libertine and is punished, unless he has

enou,:h n,r:,ne:r to escaoe the sentence. But likewise there is punishment

for him who rises above the level that is collectively aporoved. Por

that reason Socrates was forced to drink his hemlock, Jesus bore a

heavy cross up a loneL hill and Ghandi in his lifetime was a subject

for ridicule by en.pty heads at some nmsty dinner. There is punishment

for those who seek to rise above the average. Always the group seeks

to level up fro1,; below, and that is good; b-1t also it seeks to bend

down from above, and that is tragic.

"Co:-:foru:1 Conforml Con.fcrrr.l 11 th:J multi tudes cry accusingly at

every adventurous soul and thousands of influences bear upon it and

seek to beat it into a corrancn mold and manner. Fer men stand awed

and disturbed by one who lives and thinks upon heights beyond which

the.: h.rtve gone. Fools and dreamers and dangerous they arel And. so

-70-

1 t is that onlv- ww and then, sometimes in the quiet places of thought

and consecration, sometimes in the conspicuous highways of achievement,

their souls escape the imprisoning pressure. For it is so much cosier

to live within the natternJ to think what one's group thinksJ to sub­

scribe to their convictionJ to pronounce their shibboleths. The temota­

tion is subtle. ,Jesus experienced it on the mountain when he "saw all

the kingdoms of the earth and th.eir glory stretchin:r before him and

heard a voice within him saying, 1 These w:lll I give you if you will

fall down and worship me. 1 n But he turned from these to the garden

and the lonely cross beyond.

Of course, there is a silly and superficial unconventionality that

has nc moral meaning. It is seen in those who affect and emloi t

differences in external u.anneriems, who loudly profess creeds and

codes that they thin.l.c are shoeking but which are r ~ally just the

prattle of babes whose mouths are still stuffed with the nipples cf

infanc,v. It is not of these that we are thinking. Such as these

... 1.11 be fcund the most servile conformists in all matters of selfish

indulgence. Not, "What do 70u different frcm others?" asks Jesus,

but, "In the realu, of righteousness and love whAt do ye I:;ore than

others?" How far out ahead of the :!rowd ars~ -·ou? Upon what lonely

oe a.'<s have you set the gleaming white of your s oul• s banner a?

::-each the ,,.h!.dJ.•3 years, surrender their idealism or relevate thel!.

"A pcet t.a born in everJrone bt.t u a r·JJ.e he Perished young"'? The

loss of adventurous faith is suggested by the epitaph one man cu.ased

to be inscribed en his t rnbstcne: "Born a human ooing, died a :retail

grocer. 1t

-71-

side of London in ~>ihich '~ HCGK was given. The chorus of this paseant

was written b;'l T. ;5. Uliot. A church is being built,. The cockney

workmen have grown discouraged. bu.t unseen allies oome to help them.

They see visinns cf the past and they receive words of C(:t;fort and

cour~:e frc One who ia called "Th~ Reck." l~r. :Uiot describes the

sickness cf our titr,es in these wcrds:

Our age is an age cf moderate virtue

And of moderate vice

Where r·.e:1 will not la; doll"'l1 the 8ross

Because the 6 will n•!!Ver assu.rne it.

As the pageant progresses, group after group whc; think they hold the

secret cf the world's salvation, OOJ!:te upon the stage. They are the

blae:k shirts and t,he red shirts. But the chorus sing'S these) •rords of

profound insight, lfThere seems nc hope for these who march in stoo. 11

There is nc hone for S 1.wh; nc hone for enrichlng disoovr:~ries in their

own souJ.s; no hone in th•!ir ooing an:>rthing creative in the collective

life c.f community and natic-n.

Jesus, however, is not only warni nf; us against ecnforr.~.i ty. He is

-'72-

challenging us to regal recklessness and noble daring. Jesus believed

in the possibilities of human nature. He believed that JUen could be

wooed away fror' the cozy comforts of grrun standards and delivered

fror1: the vitiating inertia of shallow faiths and petty hop as. Jesus

sees man as a oioneer scaling new heights of moral. achievernent.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." That is a

call to an adventure. Let me try it. Let one, in the secret place

of imagination, in those dean wells fror.i whence humnn notive.:; surge,

be pure at every cost ,and find the incr aaing assurance of God 1 s radiant

reality. That is no invitation to the cringing, dependent upon popular

applause. "If anyone would oorne after me, let him take his cross daily

and follow nHa.n c:r.ristianity is a challenge to the most daring, hazard•

ous quest ever made by the BOul of n1an. Christi ani t,;.r is a religion for

heroes. No others ought to apply. It purposes to build '}od-'s Kingdom

here upon the earth. It su.nunons men to ethical daring and foolh3l'dy

faith. we have no right to make it less than that. lr./e are infidels if

we take the passion of that •outhful, God-filled heart and make 1 t con•

forn~ to our 11 ttle 'Patterns of practical possibility.

This pattern of oonfon11i ty is general in our r:;odarn life. ?..eisrnan

gets hold rJf it in his bcok, "The Lonelv Crowd," in the thought that

persons t<.lday become 'What others expect. In the ralati<ns of persons,

in the lo: a.l communi t;' this functions strcngly. People are afratd to

be different. vJhen spiritual awakening comes, their li.ves, their

appreciations, even their ::onversations change. This change sets them

off cr it means that the'r seek a different fellowship.

3. Another block to Bpiri tual Growth is the Price.

'ro i'ina spiritual master,- is r:;ore difficult, ana takes more training,

mGT'S hard work, than to ba a great surgeon or a great golfer ar a

great carpenter. It is the supreme skill in life, for it involves

how tc be k:t.nd to one's self, how to be free to be loved and tc

love, how to move into the freedo1t• of thought and feeling.

lhe writer once heard Dabe Zuharis say that she hit a thousand balls

a day with each club to help her find skill. He c:nce heard Ben Hogan

saJ that he had to practice four hours a day if he l-Janted tc :maintain

his &<:ill.

-73-

And tc: move toward spiritual mastery :!ostB a price. One never makes

progress without the grace cf God, tori. thout all that is given, but all

t."l.at is gi. van can onl)' be his if he wins it. The price is gr-:·at. The

longer one pa;rs 1 t, the greater it becomes, but the easier it is, for

the rewards begin to come and the rewards are gr::at.

What are these rewa:rcs? They are joy. They are the fr-3edcm to lev~

and to b~ loved. They are the ability to see so clearly that one

meets the r·~uirentents of fulfilment. Thay are heal thy bodies in a

healthy mind, and the maximum beccming of the self ir: friondship, in

love, in :marriage, in pe.renthood, in vocaticnal living and in citizenship.

4. A Fourth Block is an Unreasonable ~"ai th.

There is so much in the stateinent of faith of the averS,f;e church that

doet'! not make sense. In fact, the writer believes there is nuch in

the faith taught by the church that rr..akas peoPle sick. This will be

elaborated more in detail later.

For exarq:>le, the thin=s that are taught about the Bible which can be

-74-

disproved. raake it difficult fer intelligent peoole. Any church that

teaches things that can be disproved provides a block that is pretty

insurmountaole. The church ought to teaoh thin;':s that can oe validated

oy human experience. Of course, we know that the vi tal church will

teach thin~zs that cannot be proved, becaus·3 a 1'ter all the great things

of life cannot oe proved.

Hany churches teach that God loves you if you love Him, and this is

net a oig enough God for real people. If' God only lov·es us when we

love Hir:;, then He is too 11 ttle. )Ut we know that God loves us no

matter if we love Hiu1 or not. Jesus made this very clear, 3Spec1ally

in the story of the Prodigal Son.

i"•oreover, so n.an.y" churches put the emohasis on fear. They try to scare

people into the gooa life, and this is a noor motive. Nany ;rd.nisters

find it necessary to consign pecple to damnation, and they need to ask

therrtselves wheth ar this isn • t their way of 1.rorking off their aggression.

Would it not oe better for them to have a vegetable ge..rden in which -

they could work them off? The writer said this once to a group of

ministers, anci a q.1ick witted :;.rother asked, "How :;ip is your garden?"

It is important that people have the opoortuni t.y· to grow into a. faith

that is psychologicall;r and psychiatrically sound, a faith that .makes

sense in light of the exneriem e cf the race, a faith that is in ha.r­

ntorrt with the teachings of Jesus rather than many of the theologians

of history who proclaim a theology for other theol<'.gians rather than

a theology that ma.i<es sense to a oeginner.

So it :,;ay :..>e that a faith that r:.akes people sick, that does not make

sense, that is net livable, is cne reason why sc fr;w ne~;ple are

held vn a dead level.

5. Another 3loek is the Withheld Loyalty. It is deeper than the

foroe that .makes a narso'-1 conform.

In the l9ti~ Gha.ptar of John we read about a dis:!iple of Jesus who

did not declar:: his loyalty. It says he was 11 a disc-Lnle1 out secretl ·

oeoause of fear. 11 And there are man;;r who hold in their hearts a

deep conviction that in Jesus is the way to God, to truth arrl to life.

They would oontenplate with horror a. world in which His redernntive

influence is not known, and yet they never have declared their lo·ralty

to Him. How manv live u;)on borrowed moral capital and yet never add

to the orincinal? How many people live by convictions and truths

imparted. to them ov the lives and teachil'lf s of godlY foroears, and

whenever they are temnted to giv•a themselves tc shallrw or sinful

lives they cannot do it without hearing the soboin · of their souls.

All through life they have known the ling•SJring fragrance of a sin-

cere anci simnle devotion. Somehcl-1 even through the clouds they have

never lost sight of a star on the wide horizons of the world. Their

hearts are grateful for this heritage but nc: one knows "tfhencs it comesJ

no one looks beyond fueir lives to th~; snring s that rise in the higher

hills. For all they know, they are men and wo.men with stronger wills,

born witt finer tastes and having some ine:xplainal.lle touch of idealism.

And yet behind all these moral standards is a. stream of moral con­

sacra.tion, genera.ticns of .men and women not afraid of great oo:nmi t­

ments and costly loyal ties. Theirs was m' easy faith. They paid for

it in r.:isunderstanding and loss of worldly· gain, in the dedication of

-75-

their lives to the service of ke3ning the flane of religion ourning

in a dark and unfriendly world. With lives and with lips, they de­

clared their faith and their fealty. Anyone can trace that lineage

back tc a man climoing a hill with a cross upon his shoulders. That

is hew the ll1oral caDital of society was accu."llulated and that is how

were storeci up the .:oral reserves upcn which ao many are living today.

We know that if all the half-hearted loyalty and the secret disciple­

ship and the lukewarni f"alty tha.t are accorded tc God were suddenly

-76-

to fl&he intv the fire of vital devoticn, this generation of Christians

could Illove toward oeace in the world. Less and less nlaca is there

in th.e worla cf toaa:r for secret devotion anc half-hearted lo,; alty.

A detached, non•comdtal attitude is perhaus the greatest dar~ er of

den;ooracy and of the free world, for nc fine living is possible in

any sohera, whether we look tc efficiency in business, poise in the

hcrM~, or grandeur in politics, without so:ne comn;anding standards,

the acknowledgment of scme unqualified loval ty frc:;; which everything

also derives its value and tc 'Which at the test all else must be

sacrificed. And whc is calling to that loyalty, save the church?

1-Jhere else save in Jesus Christ are those inner and independent

standards that disdoline life and cleanse society? Toda;:r, the Hllin who

does not openly decl,9.1'3 his loyalty to Jesus Cr.rist is an onlooker and

inquiring neutral in the time ( f the greatest test of Christia."li ty in

all history and in the tine of civilization's most dir ~ danger.

These five olocks seem to oe real hazards in man's adventure to

achieve soiritual ;;1astery.

-77-

STA.HTING

There are those who break free tr resoo~;d tc the power cf the Holy

Spirit and !rove toward spiritual fulfilment.

1. While it is true that scn:.e persons, maybe n~ost oeoole, nake church

mernoer shin a sUbstitute for C:hristia."'l living, it ne~1d not be so. The

writer sees in one church many persons who cctne intf a vi tal eJq>erience

of spiritual rebirth in the experience o:f jcinint;: tr·~ oody cf G'P.rist.

They £:1ove fraE a distc;rticn tc the likeness of the in;a e.

TheJ oonm,i t thettselves. They giv~ themselves tc God in Jhrist. They

oegin tc follow the teaohings and S?iri t of Jesus, they grow into

self-knowledge, they repent and r;,ake if necessary restitution and move

on fro.; there in r 3al research and in service. Thls is and should be

a real point o! beginning.

2. A seoond point of beginning is in the ultimate mroH:mt. Persons

come up to the and of life and g .::t a sense that they have not much

m.ore time left in this dimension an they they really get ousy.

Not long age the writ::n:- went to tha hosoitel to see a man who was in

an oxygen tent. They had been friends for a long time. The writer

had had many experiences with hil::. He had [{ fine relaticnshio with

his wife, tmt he had nc inter;;ost i.n finding the truth that r:.eant for

the whol,mess cf his oody, nc inter ::.st in finding peace c:f nind, in

findin;;;; God and living by God's wisdor~> and the leadership of C.b.rist

in his life. He made fun of the church. P.e had some real excellenee.

He was brilliant in his field. Again anc avain men would steal ideas

frtJr.: him and he never fought them, he never sued the.mJ fro;h then on

he just ignored then ••

The day the writer went tc the hospital, the f<.an had sor:1e difficulty

in soea.'<ing at first. Then he said to the writer, "l.f you hadn 1t

C(l'ile, l w uld have thought you were slipping. 11 'lllere was a neriod

of silence, afterwhile he said, 11Isn 1 t it inter-asttng. I have oy­

passed God. I made Light of Him and o.f the ehurah, and now I am pray­

ing like hell. And I run answered. I k:;ow God loves me anc understands

me. I knew that He has oeen olessing li!S all of my life. I just never

recognized Him. And now I a.r11 grateful Qeyond words. I now know that

ever:rthine I have heard yru say, not in churoh, out in various groups

wher•::: ycu spoke, was true. I nev'3r let myself consider it. I thought

it was for weaklings. I just want ~ru tc know new that I knew it is

true. I just grieve that I lived my life without it. ;3Ut I a:ra grateful

for the peace I knew new. It is t.;,nderful for n:e to realize that I

am in God • s love, that He did not get mad at ti.e, that He is a great God.

He loved me W'"·.en 1 did ;,ot love Him, He oared fer iT.e when I gave no

thought to Him, md :oow when I turn to FJ.m, His lcve is there, His love

is real. I kn<.,'W that I run His. I shall enter int<.• I~\Y im.1r.orality which

is His gift. And I have a sneaky feeling that I will have tc rr.ake up

fer what I have net done in lll'J Lifetirr:e."

The next day this man graduated cut of this dimension.

The writer has never knoll.'!l a person who oan1e Ui) to the ultimate ncment,

if he had time, who did :1:0t turn with all his ;;,ight to find the secret,

k enter intc the grace and tc COIMt t knew the living Ghrist within.

And he never has kncwn one who has f.' ailed tc find tl"i s.

This is what we :night call a crisis religion and it is tragic for a r-.an

-78-

tc wait this lcng. sut 1 t is the po:nt of oeginnil11!; for rncr'"' people

than rre have enr idea. And we c.ught tc faoa sericusly the question

why it is so.

3. Another point of oeginnins can be identified ~11. th tha severe in­

terruotions in life. It can oe the experience of ~~rief. The writer

has known many Deople who, when they have gone through grief, have

turned toward God. They had no other solution. 'I'hay oanil! to kna~

that coxr.fort oo;~;es only from Clod and for them~ often, it became a

point of beginning, though in the writer's experience, n;any titnes they

make a &18ginning but do not carry on.

In a severo interruption in life, like the losing of a job, or a ner­

vous ore,;kdown, or in the acounmlation of nroolen1s "~-.twse roots are

back in earlY childhood, some persons seek spiritual mastery.

A person con<eB to the point of a breakdown which is the culmination

of the nlague that was passed on usually to hin: from the parents in

earl;;r childhood. Insight is gained, he comes to understanding and

a f;raa.t ~miri tual advantur e is oegun.

l'.any indi victuals come uo tc the oulitination of a oroolem, like al­

coholism, or anxiety, or a depressed state, or a state of hallucina­

tion cr disillusic,nrnent, or a threatened :failure, or some other ba:ffie­

ment, and in the :risis they finally turn to God. All counseling and

all psychotherapy falls short, is nothing more tha11 reoair work, un ...

less an individual comes to the vital exoerience o:f God and the saving

power of Christ in life. This, and this onl.·/ 1 is the true culmination

of therapy and the fulfilment of treatment.

-79-

When an individual OOllieS through nroolems and. crises and interruptions

t<-' a livin1; experience of Christ within, he net only oeoor.!es a nerson

of ii(raat insight and understanding out has maximum usefulness in being

helpful to other pecple.

4. Another point of oeginning is at a time of personal awakening. The

writer worked 1d th a man for nmny years tc try to gat hi•T, interested

in the church. He is a man of marked ability. He had unusual skill

as an actor, as a. salesman, as a business executive. He was always

polite to the writer out passed him by, and wisecracked a great deal,

and ended up with the sta.ten;ent, "You know I am just as good as any­

body in ycur church."

It was all friendly. There was nc argumentative contest. The writer

never got defensive, out he continued to pray and hope that the time

woult.:! COILe when this man would oome not only tn knew the i'taster but

become a channel of his witness in hwnan relatirns.

One 0unday there was a heavysnow ani very few oeQple came to the ser­

vices. This man and his wife drova five ,,,iles, and hew they got tD

the chllrch, the writer did not know-, but there the\· sat, in front of

the ~ulpit, looking smug.

When the service was over, the man srld1 "I want to ask you, where

are all y·our church melllbers today? Isn't this a proof that they

are a bunch of hypocrites? If they really meant o:usiness they would

co;,.e." Then he paused a minute, and when there was no response :.mt

a smile, he said, 110h1 I take it all back, because scn.ething happened

to H.e this morning. I can • t explain it. I want to see you."

-80-

That very night the three persons got together and both hus.Jan.d

and ·w-ife made a comn,i tment of their lives to the way of Jesus Ghrist

e.nd fron, that day C'n with all his heart he sought God's leader2hip

for his life. He was devoted. He has never ceased his search. He

is still seekin;;, as is his wife.

He works 'Wi. th as many as a thousand business men in a certain type of

clinic and he never misses an opportunity to bear v.':i tness of the new

life that is his. Again and again he writes such statements as these:

"How in the world. did I get along without what I know oowL I would

give my right hand if I cwld helr: more peonle find it. I meet :.ien

who shy away front it, and how tragic it is for a :man to gc through

life and never really live."

Tile writer has seen an inerc~asing nu..'Jiber of people who have made a

point: of oeginning at a time when there was a'tiakening. fl&ny cf them

were not in any crisis or threatened oy earlr graduation out of the

physical body but for one reason or another, they found the freedom

within the life of the church to respond to the Holy Soiri t.

5. Another point of beginning can be known in a vi tal group fellow­

ship. The interesting thing is that it hardly ever ta..l.(es place in a

public worship service. The bast that public wcrship can de is to get

a person ready, to create the groundwork, to help an individual get

ready to respond.

}lost of the people who are now movinz toward spiritual mastery got

their beginning in a. dynamic group fellowship, in a nrayer cell, in

what is called a research group. It may have been in a. retreat at

-81-

oaliro or in a oa..tnpine session, or in a r~search grrup, or in a couples

circle cr in 0ome grcur: 'Aher~~ necple broke fres from tha social stereo­

types and frcrr1 all that holds oaok and frustrates -- free to respond

to the leadership of the Holy dpiri t, and then to grow.

Tbese are the common points of beginning.

We have thus far tried to lay the foundation for -this adventure. The

lll"iter has oerndssion to record here, briefly, the steps of one per-

son.

This individual we will call !>'Jr. X. He grew uo in a Christian ho;~te,

but a ho:ne where there were many d~mamics. His aunt lived in the home

and she really llruled the roost." She controlled X• s father and dom­

inated his nether and while they nrofessed love on the surface, under­

neath there were deep feelings of rage.

X• s father did not love him. He preferred his older brother. This

led t,c· the n sychology of contrast. l'lany thincs developed in his early

life vttich were negative. He did find something of an over-all feeling

of God out r:mch of this was not healthy. He graw up feel:!.ng that when

he did scn.eth"Lng good, God marked it down. \'1/hen h3 did sorhething evil,

God marked it down. And at the end of his life this tally would. deter­

mine v.bether he want to heaven or hell. So in his earl:r life he acted

rr;ore cut of fear than anything else.

There were a number of crises in his life. His older orotLer, whon; his

father preferred, graduated out of this physical life. The unabating

-82-

grief cf the father for this son was a continual rejection cf X.

\<fuen the funeral servi.ce was held for his orcther, and the body was

taken tc the cen,etery· to a gra.V'.3 wbtch had water in it, the minister

said, "Your Drother will oe in this grave until the resurrection."

Then and therra, X developed a prcfcund claustrophooia and a haunting

fear of death.

In hio earl,. life he wa!:' taught to speak Germar~ and at school he

got that language mixed with 3nglish, and the tuacher worked out her

rage on him by hitting hi11< on the head. This created a major speech

olock.

w'hen he was four .vears old1 he overheard his nl:lther say that he had

a oad eart and that he would not live beyond 16. This was &"1other

source of t:b..reat and fear. His 16th birthday was one of horror and

fright. He carried the fear of deat.~ and the fear of a heart attack

far into his adult life.

As a boy he was ta."<en to church. There was no choice. If he did

net go he did not eat. There was fa.uil7 wcrshin in his home, and

heated discussion, and arguments aoout infant oautisru.

vJhen he went t<.1 colleg':> be was told that .·ioses could hot have written

the first five oooks Gf tl1e 0iole, and the teacher seemed to prove

this. He was told that the earth just had to ·ae w.ore than (/JOO years

old. This began to shake his faith. han·y other things happened,

and finally step oy step he gave up his faith and for a while he was

an agnostic.

His father belonged to one cf the peace churches and had arrangeL'. for

-83-

him not to go to the .first hforld War, out then under pressure the

father bought a thousand dollar liberty oond, and when he did this,

X seJ.d to his father, "Your money is going; so :raust you.r son."

X went into the servia<:! as a non-eomoatant and was always respected

:for his stand. He always knew that he was no better than those who

carried a r;un out he just .felt he could not shoot another human being.

While he had a sense of God in the service and bOre his witness by

organizing 3unday 3chools·and doing many things, living by the spiritual

disciplines, when he got out of danger, when he arrived hoine, he was

without a faith. He was ulank. He was cold. He could not pray.

Strange as it may seem, while he was still in her womo, his mother

had prayed that he would oe a minister, and then the drama unfolded.

He went intcJ high school work, into Hi•Y trork, then into Sunday :School

Associatioc •·wrk, and finally beoatne head of youth work :for his de­

monimations, and in due time went into professional work 1tli th young

people on an interdehOminational oasis.

And yet God was net real. He had given W> the faith he had inherited

and he had net found a faith yet that was his. The farthest he could

go was tc think that there was son.ethinr: greater.

Then he had a nervous or ~akdown. He went into a deep depression and

went thrcugb ps'.'Ohothera:r:v for a.;cut eight months. The therapy did.

repair work and helued him get free from many of the old :feelings,

helped him get free frorr; guilt, and some of the self hate that he kner1

and his feeling of amdety and insacuri ty.

--84-

One day the opportuni t~r came for hili. to become minister cf a church.

His family shared in this decision and at the time he thought of God

as the process of integration, and yet it was very difficult to pray

to a process.

Then he bega1·1 to :.mild a faith as he worked with people. This offered

to him the opportunity to build for himself what he wanted the oeople

themselves to find.

X could net proceed en the oasis cf ~rishf\1l thinking. E(il could not

accent thilli!S olindly. p,, had to proceed on the oasis o!' vmat he

could see and he looked about and saw that there is sc:nething which

makes f'or fellowship. ~'V'hen he had been in graduat•; school he tcok

anatc>my and cliS·.~overed that th~ calls cf the oody -..:hen t.hay are

heal tby make for .fellm-1shio, and for wholeness. He looked at life

and he saw that there was this >tlich draws a child to parents and

pa: ents to a child, a girl to her group and a boy to his gang, and in

time, a u.o·r to a girl. He saw· that the world was moving toward oaing

a neighocrhood, moving so fast that it had not had time to buiJ.d

integrative lo:~ties.

rt,oreover, he looked aoout him. and he saw that there is this which

makes for a hUlnan body, and to him in all human experieme the human

body seemed to oe the most precious J:~aterial thing. He marveled at

it. The more he ~mew about the oody, the more he felt that the body

is a litUe univers,3 and that the person is the divine spirit living

in the oody. It grew upcn him that the universe is God's oody, and

that the ind.vidual is whole only when God lives within thts human

frame. It grew further upon him, that when the person knows who he

is, he is alive with God, and in t.lie deepest sense he then is God's

revelati( r in human relations.

Lookint at th'7 oody he cruld net h9lp uu-:, c0nclude that since there

was a :.>rain t),..er.a n.ust oe tha sc1rce of the brain in the universe.

Since the nerson is mind, there mu2t ::>e mind in the universe. Since

the person can see, something in the uni V3rse a an see, can hear, can

feel, is sensitive. There is that in the universe tl:at ftr3ls and

hears and is sensitive.

horeover, he besan tc feel that something in thr3 un:i.verse is sed}dng

ma..-·1 oeca.use man sooner or later reaches out and s'3.ks t..hat grea.t~;r

fellowship in mich alone he cornes to thedeepest se~f knowl·3dge.

Then, too, he went further and looked about and sav; that there is

that which makes the pen·scn. The kOre he looked at life the >1ore he

knew that man is more than a ood;y-. Soon after he became rdnister of

a church, he saw a. gr3 at brain surgeon opera-'-e on a man t s skull. It

was a long operation, lasting nearl:,: four hours. It was a failure.

~'hen it was ov~r, X met the surgeon, and asked, ttD1d ycu find any of

his thcughts. 11 And the sursaon shr1~ged his shc.tlders. The .dnister

persisted. "::tid you .find his z;;emory?" And again the surgeon shrugged

and s:dled and ~~alked c:wa;,r.

As X worked with hi.s peo le, 2nore and :;nre it Ocecan.e clear that it just

would not satisfy., that it denied a lot of the facts, to say that all

a n arson is is dust. Th·J parson has a bod·:, but the -persm is a living

spirit. This he could not prov _; but for it he had evidence, and he

moved fro,u evidence ani reason to r'3ason become courageous and this to

--86-

hin, was faith, and increasingly it oecru .. e knowledge.

These three observations beoatne the basis of a. living faith for X.

There is this which makes for fellowship, and wherever the individual

is 11.cving into fellowship on t..'le highest level, the level of Jesus

Christ, h 3 is not c:nL coming to know God out he is oo.w.ing to find out

who h.:3 is -- and the ;:.,ore this ha.1·mens, the more he rroves into the

who lane ss of the body and ther .;>,fore the g,ore he C<mles tnt o the whole­

ness of spirit.

Then something hapnened to X. At &bout the same time he net two

great !!lasters cf the spirit, one Gerald. Heard an.d the other, Paul

;Jrunton. JOth vf thec11 aecsme his teachers. He read their books, he

1-:ent tc their. and sat at their feet i.ihBnever he could. Then he began

seriousl.v tc do res larch in the life of the sr:irit, in the life of

prayer. He began to org8.J."1ize small res"'arch grouos of young people,

of men and. we men and couples, and for 17 years now he has been carry­

ing on this research as a person and. with groups. H·~ hasmt gone fa!'

out he has gone far enough to know that it is the most valid thing

in the world.

He can say that he has r:oved frtH:t self hate and come rrore and "ore

to know the person he can love. He has mcved nora and nore frcr.1

oonfusi( n within himself tc. understanding. He has grcwn more and

more fr' m anxiety to oertainit,, .. ore and more from a n:<Jed tc prcmote

himself tc the :'reeck'lt to oeac·me a channel ·through which the livi.ng

Ghrist could oe manifest. He has liWVed more and ; .ore from disturbance

to positive and fundamental concern. He has moved fron, mOv0. srnings to

-87-

jo'l, a"d this jcy is a sniri tual Gift out it is a gift that ;::ust

oe won.

He has moved more and .:nore frcn, the tyra.rmy of the ot@;ht to a

relationship in which increasingly he does lllat he does because

ha loves.

He has not gone very far but he has ~:one far enough to tell the

readers of this book that the adventur"3 is valid, that aniritual re­

;:~earoh is the most i:m;.;ortant research in all the world.

~{e are doing research in technology • in medicine and. in every other

area of life, out the 1:1ost nrin1ary research is for man tc• find out

wh(1 he is, for if he deeply comes tC> know whc he is and if he c01r.es

to know the perscn he can love, then he can oe a part of the solution

of every nroblem that haunts our day. He then has moved fron a legacy,

to a spiritual ac1venture thut leads, in ~hrist, to the Jl1astery that

assumes t.-ranny.

-f38-

Cl:iAIJTE.R V

Tlih .il.iAi;, 'l'.l:JtY Tl:iA T IS TRu.t.. FRkJ.;DOM

What other lib,rty is there worth having.

if we have not freedom and peace in our minds;

if our inmost and most private man is but

a sour and turbid pool?

Thoreau

•89-

We heve looked earnestly at the factors iuvolved in ~~king a real begin•

r.n.ng. V'te go further now to see the maatery that is true freedom. We

are truly free as we come through the grace of our Lord actually to win

the likeness of the image of God thet we are.

l!.ach person is the image of God. He can be a caricature or a distortion

but he is en ima e nevertheleu.

The Prodigal Son was the God image. He wu e. distortion. He was a

caricature. He went e.way from the F·ather. He did not know who he was.

He became en illusion. But he 11nus. nevertheleu the image.

When he carne to himself he said, "I will arise and go to my father ~tnd

ask him to make rne one of hie hired sernnts." Signifio•ntly. when

he arrived, he did not make this request. George Buttrick with keen

insight. points out that the reaaon was because he was already "made."

He wae already a sou.

This is true. Each of us is the image of God. lr¥e ay not know it.

We •:r be an illueion but the image we are. We did not oree.te

-90-

ourselves. We are not cosmic accidents. ~e &re part of a creative

plan. We are moving in to the a stery thB t 1a true freedom e a we come

through the grace or our Lord to know the likeness and to be the like-.

neu of the 11\&ge.

WJiA T AilE 'lli~· ~IQNi .OP'. ~Hi!. .LlKU~,.&~ Qt THh ... l~iiAGR?

There are three signa which the lUc:enesa of the imt.~e manLests and

this i a clear as we read the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Jne sign is the t our living 18 marked by giving, not getting. As we

come later into a discussion of love we will see that love gives rather

the. t receive &• It focuses on others not on 1 tselt. And the more we ere

the l1k:e;1eu of the li vbg of God the more our living is ms.rked by

g1 ving not getting. Our 11 ving, is me.rlced b,, witnessing, not focusing

in the self. 'fie are the channel, not its object.

A second aign that by His grace we are coming into the likeness ia the t

we care ratner than ignore. We become aware of others. Other• know

that we care. *'• know thst God ceres. 'fie sre told that one eparrow does

not !'all without His notice or one hair does not fall from the head

w1 thout Hh t:t.Otlce. And the more we come i.nto the like!'e aa of the God

image, the more we care. ~\e care and do not ignore those 'd th whoa

we live in the family. those with whom o work, those with whom we

share. But we neve ooape.slion for all of those about us and we have

compassion for those we cannot see. God therefore oan use u& in our

p;ayer power. in our leadership power. in our giving power, to bleas

others, even in the agonized ere~ts of the local or world community.

There ia a third sign the.t we lc:ow by .li1.s gre.ce the likeneu of the

image and that is that we ere respo:,sible. We can be trusted. We

-91-

know that we cen trust God. the seasotll ere sure. the sun seems to rise .

and seems to set the law of gravi tetion never slips. It is ama.zin!

as we watch neture how sure God is. how we can count on God. lie will

not let us down. llie promises are sure.

The more we oo.me to be the likeness of this image by His grace the more

we trust ourselves, the more we trust God and the more we can b.e trusted.

These. then. are the signs of the mastery that is true freedom. Our

living is merked by giving not getting, by oaring not ignoring, and by

responlllibleness not irresponsibleness.

We went to go further to see the importance of the discipline of duty,

for we must know the discipline of duty if we are ever to know its

delight. kestery is not doing just what we wish. Freedom is not that.

It is important f'or us to see the difference between license and

freedom. Licente is doing w·hat what one wishes, but this is compulsive,

this can lead to being impulle-ridden. If one always does what he

wishes, then one day he will not be able to do whet he really wishes.

Whf> t is the freedom of the great musician? It is obedience to the

laws of harmony. and out of his obedience oomes a freedom to produoe

music to which e,.n the angels listen. If we ere, therefore, to know

true freedom we must oo.me to accept the discipline of' duty•

-92-

We have depleted the currency of some of our words. very much to the

impoverishment of our language and sometimes our lives. The word

"duty" is one of such concepts. It isn't on our lips very often. The

idea back of it is not in our hearts as much as it ull8d to be. It

suggests actions the t are forced. impulses that are repressed, end

lives th8t are limited and thwerted. "Deaire" is to us a much more

gracious word. It augtesta freedom. spontaneity and pleasantness.

Duty has about it all the vivid lightning end muttering thundera of

the clouds of Sinai but desire baa about it the love and glad willing•

ness of Calvary. We need to ask if this interpretation is ahallow and

false and h working end leu he.rm in human life today.

It is true that we are interested in moving beyond the tyranny of

oughtednen aui the tyranny of the "ahouldtt. to come to the.t ate te

or being where we do what we do because we love. But thia doe• not

mean that we ignore the lawa of life, the disoipli~s of life, for

as we have said, we must absolutely accept the discipline of duty

or we will never know its delight.

The writer committed hie life to the life of prayer many years ago.

There were timea when he had to force himself to pray to meditate.

He weiit through dry periods tha.t lasted as long as six montha. He

kept at it doggedly. Then inl!light and refreshment would oome. Then

he would hit a dry period again• But doggedly he kept at it, and

now he 1s grateful to eay that he has not had a dry period for nearly

four years.

There are some things we must do. there are requirement• we .must mEH>t,

~nd beyond this there is a deep sense of moral obligation to whioh we

must be sensitive. It becomes more olear ths.t if there il to be true

freed01n in the world, meA must be self governed from wt thin. F'ormal

laws end legal statutes will not stand the atreu put upon them by men

who in their inmost hearts have no fundemer~ta 1 loyalty to some higher

lew, some Being above end beyond themaelves. Laws and regulations can

direct and complement but they can never be a substitute for an in•

wrought sense of loyalty that lies back of the crime wave and the

breakdOWll of moral sa.notion.

The trouble is not ao much with our social machinery as with our

social ideals. If the aooial ideal is wrong then the whole plen

and purpose will miscarry. That is what Jesus said in picture form,

there on the hillside of Galilee: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God

and his righteousness." Get your ideal right and all other things

will be added unto you.

There is a lot of shallow thinking on this matter of the oompulliona

of duty. Seeing rather wideapread rebellion and confusion. some have

been quick to say, "We must find a new standard of life, something

more winaome then duty." And so we ere offered instead of right

and wrong. good taste. It is one of those emergency remedies that

one se he s more or a s s blindly before the physic is n e.rr 1 ve a.

Part of' the ree.aon for the relaxation of moral senaitivity is the

new knowledge that bas been growing in the pest fifty yea.rs of the

proceues by which mon,li ty is b ,i lt up. People are learning the

tremendous function of custom and they are saying just as they used

to say when they found the world was not built in six days but

through countless millions of yearsJ "There can't be any divir~

will in all ot thil• It moral standards arise out of ageless cuatoms,

I don't !'eel that I em obligated by them. I shall originate custom.&

tor myself. •

We don't realize thet the Eternel God is speaking .Uia will through

these ouatoma or modes which heve evolved through the slow moving

centuries. ~e want a preoip.t tflte God. He ~ust call a world into

existence. He must declare in a moment all the laws of life or Me

is no God for ua. But everywhere, a 11 the time. God is working with

the care and patience of an infinite artist.

As we plant the acorn and after decades it becomes an acre-covering

oak, so the £ternal One has planted in ~1e subsoil of human society

germs ot everlastin' truth that are gradually being revealed. God

speaks to us in the modes of conduct, not rnere customs not oaaue.l

customs but cu1toms evolved through ages of painful upward movement

of our raoe, customs drenohed with the blood of souls and wet with

the treasure of tears.

rl&ck of our social customs is conscience. It is native, original,

elemental. It is far more likely that oonsoieLoe made society

possible than it is itself the product of social values. There is a

difference in content among different peoples in the categories or

right and wrong, but that which back of it all investa right with

rightness end wrong with wrongness is something native to the soul.

It is the far faint whisper of the voice of God and the moral

authority with which He ape~•·

W!; :~EED TO RLCOl-,SECRA Tl:i OUR SOlJ LS

This is the deep intent of the adventure we are taking here. We need

to surrender to something higher. We need to oonaeorate ouraelves,

our homes and our education in the faith that some things are in ...

herently e.nd eternally right and other things are eternally wrong.

We have tried to dissect and analyae and chart our moral impulses

until our souls have grown flabby and futile. We ere reaping a woe­

ful harvest from the education that haa predicated a right that ia

only reL-ative and an accountability that does not ree.ch beyond social

welfare.

There are those today who sey of an action. " So long es it does not

hurt me physioelly or mentally or anyone assooia ted with zr..e in the·

atotion, I recognize no other law of right." This may sound like good

ethics, but in reality it may be very dangerous. An ethics that is

only horizontal. which is only from man to man. is not sufficient.

Wherever you have the ethics which lee.ves God out you will find the~t

soon it grows insenai ti ve e.nd callous as to what harms man. Sin is

treason against God. Sin hurts the universe. As George Buttrick

says, "It puts a blot on the sky." It delays the purpose of God and

of oouree in wholly imponderable ways it dwarfa and stultifies the

soul of snan.

-98-

David, after he had desired bathsheba and had sent her husband into

the front line of battle so that he might be killed, was confronted

by the prophet and made to feel his sin, and it is thought that he

gave utterance to the 51st Psalm: "Have mercy on me. 0 God ••• Against

thee, thee only, have I sinned." 'fihet about Bathsheba? What about

Uriah? David had come to the place where he realized that the funda-

mental ~ture of sin is the betrayal of the universe. It is war

against God. It is refusal to grow. The chief end of a righteous

n1an is to discover and do the wi 11 of God.

T.llb DISCI.PUNl<.. Or Tfii:. SOUL IN DUTY

1'here is e. fine discipline of the soul in duty. Th~ writer found it

as he continued to pray when he did not feel like praying. He hae

found it in many another relationship of life. The golfer finds it.

Once the writer talked with Kreisler, who said that in the beginning

-he practiced with dread, he had to be forced to. In due time it be•

oe.m.e a delight.

There is a moral fibre thst is developed by doing some thinge beoauae

they are right and because we ought to do them and for no other reason.

Sometimes young people say "I keep the laws of my parents. but I

don't want to. I might as well disobey as not to want to do so."

Sometimes a husband will say to the writer "I don't desire to live

with my wife 11nd of oour1e it would be wrong to go on living with

her when r don't desire to do so." Sometimes a young woman will say

whet one did recently. She que~tioned the advisability of legalizing

marriage because it might make people live together after love had

gone. Thet, she thought, would be immoral. She was a women atartinc

out in married Hfe. But other women in later life sometimes com.e to

the counselor in the shipwreck of their homes. Hu1bands and wives

sometimes leave home and children, and the reason is that love is gone

and therefore 1 t would be wrong for them to remain.

Of course, the important thing is for two people to know who they are

when they marry so thst they do not come to this situation. It can be

understood that if two people cannot find fulfilment in marriage, that

if it is not great to live together. if it is not a high moment to be

together, then it is tyranny. But neverthebss one &newer to such

utterly shallow reasoning as this is that he who acts upon immediate

dominate impulses and never does!anything from. superior motives is

destined not for the highest self expression but for the narrowest

self lim.i tetion, beoeuae whether we like it or not the highest personal

freedom. issues from the sternest self discipline. Only he who has en•

throned law in the oenter of his soul wi 11 know true Uberty.

U.T US SE1 THIS PRINCIPLE FURThER n, MAftRI.ED IJJVB

Even love needs to be directed and motivated by the sense of moral

obligation. One m.a.y ask "Do you mean to let duty intrude upon the

sacred precincts of love?" But the anewer is "She is no intruder.

Without a sense of moral oblig&tion love beoom.es a thing of fitful

starts and impulses.'' There h not one real home in all its beautiful

integrity that has not at times been held together by the steadying

hand of duty, "stern daughter of the voice of God." Love that is not

consciously or unconsciously undergirded by this sense of duty will

soon eplit up into vagrant impulses.

•98-

The home and monogamous marriage have been achieved at infinite cost,

though to be accurate, monogamy like the kingdom of God has not fully

come. It belongs to e. later development of man. It is nevertheless,

the highest way of social life revealed by the painful progress of

centuries.

And naw comes one who is influenced by the intellectual tm&rt set and

he says with the fiuali ty of the foolish, "Oh, but man was prom.ilouous

before he was aonogamous." That is true. Me.n was also dirty before he

developed the instinct for cleanliness. ¥an was save&e before he be•

came approximately civilized. !s that good reason for giving up all of

our hard eerned gains? If we are going to base morality on all from

which we came and give validity only to primitive instincts we might

as well turn once e.nd for all to the jungle for our morals.

Man has now upon his feet the mud from swasups through which he he.s

passed on hh long upwerd journey but .maD e lso has on his garments the

glint of gold from some far off destiny toward which he toes. And we

cannot interpret the love of msn mbrely by pointing to his animal in­

stincts. i'te must also remember these impulses and aspir~>tions for a

higher good than he he.a yet attained. And in theoe is tht~ stuff of

moral authority. The greatest social tragedies are the result of love

when 1 t is ungoverned by the ::'ense of spiritual sovereignty.

in fact, intenai ve interest is not constant. 'l'his is true of elrnost

every experience, and it is true of love. There e.re times when love

leaps up end glorifies all of lif'e. And there are times when the in­

tensity wanes and then quiet will e.nd the deep aeuse of loyalty a.nd

truth carry the lovers over into even fuller and deeper life. The

road is not always on the brow of the hill overlooking vistas of en­

trancing beauty. Sometimes it winds through the monotonous dusty

valley. but the highest hilltops •n•e never attained eave by thoaewho

have walked with consecrated footsteps the weary ways of the valley.

If the waning of euthusiaam, the temporery subeiding of the spontaneity

of affection is going to dissolve marriage, then the truest meaning of

love, the highest conquests of ths spirit, are going to be tote lly

unknown by this generation.

'l'here h fine discipline in duty an.d it reaches even to love, steady•

ing er..d giving constancy to what else might be fitful starts. .But it

reaches into the life of the spirit, it reaches into every vocation,

into marriage, i,1to every activity, even into the discipline that under•

lies great achievement in sports.

THB D:bUGHT OF' DGTY

In a deep ser.ae 1 t is a mistake to contrast duty and desire. In

their highest forma they be long together, one complementing the other.

Duty followed, duty t.ppreoie.ted is God's will and issues in the

sponteneity of the pure and constant love. F'or a boy meeting the re•

qulrements of practice in athletic games is not ell delight. It is

far from it; it is tiresome. it is hard. aut wh&t happens ultimately?

he knows the delight.

The writer knew a boy in medical sohool who studied 62 hours a week

outside of the classroom. One day he knew the delight. for he oould

choose almost any hospital in which to work. Here is a person who meets

-100 ...

the discipline of duty in the pereo.l8.1 disciplines of life and one

day knows the delight being a person of wholeAess of body end whole-

ness of spirit walking into the sunset of life, feeling th~t he knew

mastery not only in his body but in friendehip in marriage in parent•

hood, in gra rl.d parenthood, in great grand parenthood in hie work, in

his church, in his citheaship locally EHicl in the world.

There is e. place where law and love are blended into one 1ndistinguish-

able whole. There is e. ple.oe where we find freedom and spontaneity

not for the futile following of our -whims, not by being impulse .. ridden.

but by having all duty and all desire fused into one experience that

controls the courses of the soul. This is the only true freedom, and

it is found only when one hns surrendered at~:.e 11 costs to the demands

of duty. to the highest challenges of the soul.

Someone once said, "lt W~>s my duty to have loved the best, It we.s my privilege, had I only known."

The f·aalmist realized this delight of' duty when he oried, "Thy law h

within my heart." lAw is no lon6er e.n external thing. l.Alw is now sub-

merged in the affections. Far down in the center of love, le.w lies

buried but giving moral content s.nd spiritual beauty to the affections.

The gres.t purpose of law is to become love; of duty to be lost in desire.

One man who had experienced this transfiguration of duty cried in

surprise, "Thy ste;tute he.s beoom.e my song." fihat a change the..t is·

"The t which used to be law on the outside is now melody in the 1nmoat

heart of life. I am no longer a subject. I am e. sovereign. I know

-101-

how true that was of our Master whose msstery we seek- V'ie referred

early in this chapter to the contrast of Sinai and Calvary, but of

that love that gene itself on the cross, Jesua said to his companions

on the .bmmaet\U Road, 0 0ught not Chrht to have su.ffered these thinga'l"

The light on Calvary's height is the light of love ar1d duty wh.en they

are one. It is moral oblitation when it has become a sheer necessity

of the soul's life.

The light of the cross on Ge.lve.ry is the light of love e.nd duty. It

is love issuing iu the highest moral obligation love crying "Ought not

~hrist to suffer?"

CONCLUSIOl~

It is a sign th£<t we are moving towerd the mastery that overcomes

tyranny when our living is merked by giving not getting, by oaring not

ignoring, by responsibleness not irresponsibleness. But we move in

this direction by being true to the highest and best we know, a.s

revealed in Je1us Christ, in the experiencea of the race end in every

revelation thet eomes to ua. And a~ we are true to the highest,

with a deep sense of duty, we come to know delight for did Jesus .not

aay. "These things I have spoken to you, thst my joy may be in you,

and that your joy may be full."

CHAPTER VI

Lord, 1t'hat a change within us one short hour

Spent in th7 presence w1.ll avail to make. 7

Richard CheveniX Trench

-102-

Prayer is t: e key to the .,astery we seek. Prayer is the way by which

we ean actually la;y hold on the elemental power that created the ur.;iverat

and that guides it ar.d sustains it and all ll.ving things. i:Jr. Alexis

Carrel, the great neurological surgeon, pointed out that Drayer relea~es

the greatest enerr:f kr:own by man.

V'{HA T If T'R.AYER

Prayer is not a substitute for effort. It is mobilizing the wisdom,

the power, the life ot God, in the heart of effort. Prayer is laying

hold ot the elemental power that crt'<stes all Hfe and sustains itJ it

iP power that created the univA:rr·e and g> .. Jides it in its unfolding.

'With God's gift and man's fullest effort there is genius an<i an7 con­

ceivable human goal ts ponible.

Prayer 18 asking and becoming a part of the answer. Prayer b opening

our lives to God and opening ourselver as a channel for God. Prayer

1e thinking and feeling in harmoDT with the mind that rune the universe

and t~ at crentee and sustains all life. It is the freedom of thought

and feeling. It is the reality or a healthy m~nd in a healthy boqy.

-10.3-

It is the to tal awareness that means wholenfH'·S or the self and the

outreach of P'1si tive energy to others, those near and ttose ovt>r the

world. ~nrl it is knowing lite eternal now which rN::ans freedom from the

dea t.h fear or the death wish.

Prayer is not unreal but works in hanony with law. It dnef; not con­

travene natural law but it is a part of it, and that to 'te sure is a

mystery. rr~yer is as someone has eaid, the bloodstream ot rt.atural

law. The sntri tual l&lf8 work whether we recognize and observe them or

not, and herein lieF many a bitter protest e.g~dnst apparent injustice.

Pierhal stat..es its _.Although supernatural, it is not anti-natural.

Prayer is the victor 1 5 spirit over matter and it it ap}·ears out o! the

ordi.nary it is beca:..~se the ordinary does not know the ;:;ower ot t!i.e SPirit

or believe in it."

It is interesting to see the giants like Millikin, Jeans, Ca:rrel, du New ,

speak out of their achievements of a niscovery of a moral purpose in

the univerE:e, a gran.d Design and a good Designer. To that Designer we

mq go in prayer and t,:rust Fie goodnesc:.

Dr. Alexis Carrel ~ives a scientist's definition of prayer when he says,

.. ?rayer se+,ms to be essentially attentton or the s-:;1 ri t toward the

immaterial substre tum of the world. In general it consists ot a complairt,

a cr.y of a~guish, a demand for succor. At time~ it becomes a s~:rene

contemplat.ion of the immlnent and transcendent princiPle of all things.

One can define it eQually as un uplitting of the soul to God, as an act of

-1::14-

love, an act of adoration tOl'fard Hill, and from Hill comer, the wonder

which is life. In fact, prayer renresents the effort of mcm to communi­

cate with an invisible Eeing, creator of all that e:d:t:ts, s;,p:re:ne wisdcm,

strength• b.-•auty - rather ar1d ftavior of each one of us. Just al!! with

the sense of b: auty and love there is no demanrl for book knowled£,~,

•.he simple are conscious oi' God as natural, as of the wa,rmth of the sun•

the perfume of a tlowf~.r. But this God, so approachable bJ hill who knows

how to love, is hidc,en frr>m him who knows only how to understand •••

That is wh;r nraver finds i te higher e,-t:ression in a soaring of lcve

through the obfieure night of the intelligence.tt 8

Ten years &frO four intellectuals wrote a Declaration of Pra,yert Geor~e

Washington Carver. Olen F:rank, Rufus Jones, Muriel Lestf.~r. And they

said, "Sometimes a bridge falls, but that does not mean that the law

of gravity ';as !ailed. ScmeU es lines are short circuited, but that

does not mean that the law of electriei ty has failed. And someti, es

a di seiple be trqs his Lord but that does not mean that the law of love

has failed. Sometimes a prayer is not answered but that dc1es nrt mean

that the power of pra/er hae failed. '!he scientist does not quit when

the 1 ights are short eircui ted, nor when the bridge falls. 'lhen why

should we. Just think w•1at would happen if all church people united

in n:rayer wi t~1 as great a faith in the laws of God as scientists have

in the las of nature.

ttSeience is showing us that the smaller and more invisible a tning is,

the more powerful it is. Pasteur proved to an unbelieving world only

-105-

70 years ago t.hat bacteria ten th'>mumd tirnes smaller than a flea co~dd

kill a man. Physicists are proving that the tiny cosmic ray 1a far more

l)Otf'lnt and ~netrating than the large visible sun ray. Radio optn·ators

are proving that the ~hort wave ler ~th carries a message farther than

the lon~ wave length. And love is invisible, but all-POwerful love is

more notent and penet~ating than canons, sub~~rinea or airplanes ever

can be. Prayer in the inner ror11!, invisible to the e,yes of ~en, is

stU 1 as potent as in the dayl!l when .Jesus said, 'Prq t..c·· thy fat."'ler who

is in secret, and th'y fatter who seeth in secret shall reward you openly. n 9

IS P F.A YER Af'.KJ '00?

In the I.ord's Prayer we are told to pray, "<live us this day our daily

bread. Lead us not into temptat1:1ns. i''orgive us our s:tns." These are

petitions. ~e are also told that if we ask, we will receive; if we

seek, we will find; if we knock, it will be opened unto us.

¥\:hile prayer is much more, it is asking. When we ask, do we alwa.,va

receive? l'e net':-<! to be assured that our prayers are always anfl1fered.

We may not get the antrffer we want, but there is ar at•swer. Cod always

gives us an answer. God is n ·t only totally pret-tent. He totally hears

and responde. :':o cur nra.vers are anne:red.

\\hy, then, do we not get what we ask tor? There r.r,ay be rr.any reasons.

We may not krow how to ask, or we m~ not know what to ask for J we

m~ not be willing to become a part of the anner, or perhaps really

the anPWer should be '*No."

-106-

IS PHAYE:R NA'rtrPA.L?

We cannot help praying. One ti~~ or another, in 01~ kind of crisis or

another, all of us pray.

Somelfhere the writer read tht s t "Like plan tt; under a macadamized road

can in due t.i:~r'e brEJak t:.1:rough, seeking the light and the surface, so

prayer breaks through nur self sufficiency. !ur ne1 d is stronger than

our doubt. We turn to God even tn spite of ourselves, if only b an

instinctive cry when suffering or feAr is too much for us. ~e cannot

live without prayer, no matter how proud our intellect or how sure.

There is a hidden hunger of the sririt just as, eo the nutriticn experts

tell us, there are hidden hungers of the body, inarticulate craving for

some e!~ertial food element that must and wUl be ~at.isfied. Vihen tbe

heart ie fed only on the roods of materialism, ~0mething within us drives

ue back to the power which alone can give us the Bread of life. Refuse

to feed the hidden hunger of the soul and.t.t bfc<gine to 1ri ther, but u

St. Thomas p..,ints out, 'Prayer is not a va~:ue aspiration toward God;

i.t is a rational act.••

Each or us prays all the tirje, for every thought, every wiah, is a

prayer; f!Ner:t· act ba81~alcy stems f:rom prayer. '1he big quest.ion ie,

what do we pray for and how do we Prtfl? Vfuat is the quality of our

praying? Tf the tho11ght 1s good, the prqer is good. If the tho'lght

ia not good, the Dr-yer is not good•

=107=

Great men have testified to the power of prayer in directiLg historic

careers. Of divine guidance, Abraham Lincoln had this to sq: "I have

had so many evidences of His direction, t!O many instances of tt;:,es when

I have been controlled by some other J=ower than my "wn will, that I

cannot doubt that this power comes from God. I frequently see my wq

clear to a deci~ion when I am ~)n~ci0us that I have not sufficient facts

on which to found it. I an satisfied that, when the Almighty wants me

to do or not to do a particular th·1 ng, He finds a way or letting me

know it. I a:tr. a fim believer t.'lat God knO'Ws what He war,ts a man to do

that pleat~~es Him, and it is never well with the man who heE>de it not.

I talk to God, and when I do, lf'tT mind seems relieved and a way is sug­

gested. I shall ~ a shallow and conceited blockhead in my discharge

or the dutiee that are put uPOn me in this place if I should hope to get

alt:'•ng without the wisdom that comes from God and not from man."

In this P.tatement, Abraham Lincoln is saying what we have been saying

all along, that mastery comes only as we surrendftr to the high and holy

will of God and grow in our M~~Bi tivity to His leadership in our 1 ves

in all rt::lat.innships.

Pierhal, wtom we have already quoted, se.ys "In the very heart of ardent

faith there must remain an irniducible nucleus of the irrational, an

unfathomable myst~r.r, a good, all-beneficient and all-power, a good

st.ront~er tha.n evil. We prsy without considering w'he t.her our prayers

will be grant~d or not. ~. pray because it is good to pray, because

it gives us immediate comfort. To believe in God is not to draw a till

of exchange on the future; to believe is to partake at. once of eesta cy 1

of perfect joy, a joy that cannot be darkened b,y the fall or Singapore

or increaf'ed by the defeat of Hitler, because it is tndependent of ti'e•"

It is only through prayer that we can actuall;y come to krK'W ourselv.::s

and to ent. r into the wisd011 and the love and the po~ver of the universe

whi.ch are nart of the fulfilment of the destiny of each one of us. It

is really very natural for us to rray and the tact is, we do pray. '1he

big question is, do we nray with full wis(lom and with full power? Do

we have this master key, really, in our possession? It is natural for

us to have it. i~e miss the whole point of life if we do not have it.

The values of prayer ma,y not be proved but they certainly can be known.

'L'he research being M.ade by the Religious Research Foundation in Cal~­

ornia, and others, sent'! to indicate a real validity in at le&st the

po1ror of thought. Dr. Francis ¥\oidich, doing medical researoh in

Washington, D. c., is doing some interesting reBfMArch in the field of

preyer.

Those of u19 who are sincerely trying to cb re!'i'earch in prayer have

convincing evidence of the vitality and the reality of it. If one r('Htlly

Prays, he himself is a proof of Prayer. If we observe ca:re.rulq, we

know this ie true. We have observed it in lives, we have seen the

results of it.

Despite this faet, we know so little about prayer. That is why we need

-109-

research. In fact, 'J'I"8Tilr is- thif"''f:lrimar.y ?esearch .. now to be done in

the 110rld. In the spiritual laboratory where the writer has been tor

2.3 ;rears, we have been dd.rtg reF.eareh of various tyres. V:e have in­

creasing evidence but we would not claim to havo proot. ~e need research

not on}1 in prayer but in the nature of thought.

The writer began many years ago to do refleareh s~riously in ~1e lite

ot prayer. His one rell:ret is that he waited so long. He is Si..re that

it is the most valid thing that he has ffVer done. He has .found himself

growing .from physical state of all kinds of symptoms to a state of close

to perfect physical health. He has moved from a way of thinking Where

he was frequently disturbed and had serious mood swings to an attitude

wr;ere he is never di~turbed, only concerned - and has not been blue

with one brief exception, for to:1r years now. He feels confidently

that he hat'! moved from the nec:.:d to be a Great \',hi te father to a relat.ivrt­

ship in life where this is no longer his need. He feels that he has

moved more and more from an at~itudo where he had to focus in self t~

a relationship where it is m't he but Christ. He fef ls also that he

has moved from a feeling about himself that was one of self hate to

the fre' dom to resp'~'nd to God' a love until it overflows to himself and

moet other neople. He has moved from a state or mind where he became

weary and wast(';d energy into a state or being in which he increasingly

is able to secure ma:rlmu:'l'l results from minirnum eJ~:pendi ture of energy.

To the wr1 ter, therefore, prayer 1e the most vali.d an<:! amadrw thing

he has ever done. He understands wt".y his Lord and Master -would spend

ma.ny- a night in prayer while he ministered by day, and why the Bible

-11()...

says "?ray without eeasing.f! He can understand why the disciplea figured

out that the secret of the W)nder of their Master wr.s that he prayed,

for one da;y they said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray. t?

Prayer is opening our 1111es to L.',odJ it ie opening our lives to a ereati11e

goal, to oti'ters, or to a high ouroose for God. 'The power or it and the

meaning of it is beyond words to describe or arr.y device to ~rove.

Fe need to rti:member that pr<\Y'er is not a scienceJ it is a process

governed by law. We need to be careful about the way we pray. Dr.

Harry Err,erson Fosdick said on one occadon, t•A. man with a small lll£:an

eelt-inr'.ul~nt life cannot generally offer a n:·al prayer. 1h1 s is the

meaning of the eaylnp that it is easy to commit t~e large prayer to

memory but difficult to learn it by hcart.11

V'.e muflt be snre that we face in the direction that we wish to go. '!his

is esoecially true in Praying. J;e prtzy by askint;, by ',alking with God,

by coming to know .• b:r surrendering to the will of God, by doing, by

loving, by resp,ndi.ng to the truth that will never let us go. We prey

w:i th words, wi t.h thoughts, wi t.h our hands and with our deeds •

And it is important t1 at eaeh of us develop his own plan of p_; eyer.

'l'he writer's plan of prayer is really quite simple. Yhen he comes to

the end of the day he liee in bed with his hand~ open kee~ing five ideas

vi"fid. S"'meti•~es he may spend five min"tes, sometimes twenty-fi"fe

minutes, sometimes an hour, someti:·,es two hours.

-111-

The first step is to be receptive. Uod is tryi.ng every moment to give

us evf,rything we ne£.d if we jlJat a.ccept it. Did not Jesus say 1 "The

father knows what you ;eed before you ask"?

'I'h.e second step is to become aware of God and come into a grE" at and

wonderful sense of God, responding to his love.

The third step is to become swa:re of the Felt, to see the self through

God's life. Tbis is &";metimeF painful but it is very important and ver1

fundamental. In due tir:e, by His grace, we come to kr,ow the person TM

carl love•

The fourth step it! to see others through God's eyes, those closest and

those farther away until we see the hungry children over the world.

It is Um'ortant, too, that we see people we do not like, teeat: se if q

do not like them, we are bound to them. Ye a;·e only free froiD the~ if

we are free to love them, and if we see them through Cod' e eyeS! we can

love them.

The final step is to come to an awarenere of all the blessings of life,

and then our hearts are flooded with thankfulness and we give thanks.

We can hardly wait to go 1'orth and ~~ive witness of m;r g:ra ti t~de. i'•hat

a wonderful way w go to sleep 1 ld.th thankfulnel"s in our heart, and then

to g() into th& day and do what we do n0t because we should but because

we love.

Tn the early morning, the writer on awakening seeks to be receptive to

God, to truth that seek~' to be revealed. He may wake at 4:00 and be

-112-

awake until 6t00 and then go back to sleep. He does not try to think

or &l11"thing. He trles to open his heart to the truth that seeks to come.

The f!l'l'atest insights of his life have come in the early morning.

'{e need to remember that the body sleeps, but we do not. While the body

sleeps we really do s~~me of o,r most crt.ative discovery, come to some or

our great~st insights. Alllaking in the mol"'"ling, before we rush into

the day, these insights l.~ecome clear, t.hf!y become known to us, and to

miss them is to m1.ss perhaps the moet nrecious thing God can do for us.

The third step in the wq of prayer on the part of the writer is to

start the day in a sense of the wisdom that guides the universe. He

knows he can entE>r into it. It will guicte and direct him. It is available

to him. It. will give power. 'Then he goes through the day with a sense

of God's lave and God's leadership in his life. t;nd he goes, therefore,

not on his own. It i• not he but Cr~ist who goes. There is J~wer in it,

there is wisdom in it, and to miss it is sheer blindness. Prayer really

is not an act but a dynamic w~ ot lite.

The lite ot prayer leads one increasingly to knew vr·,o he is, and this

is important, for if ycu come to the place where you understand yourself

then every person who is near you will have a n;ood chance to understRnd

himself.

And as you go further in prayer, ;!lOU will kr,ow joy, you will be free to

love and be loved, you will understand. You will come more and more

-11.3-

to f!ee clearly, which meane that you will rr·eet the requirements to fulfill

the goal.

But there are other basic truits. The more we grow in pr~er the more

we move beyon~ 0essimism and 5ucerfieial optimism, for after all, beyond

oessimism and ~ntimism lies hope. Albert Schweitzer writes, "To the

question as to whether I am a pesdmiat or an optimist, I answer that rq

knowledge b t:•essimi5tic but nr:f -.illing and my hoping a:re cptin:istio.•

As !or other fr'Ji ts, the more we grow in prayer the more we live by

righteousness and live by the Golden Pule. As a world we c&n only move

toward peace as we are committed to righteousness, doing unto others as

we would want others to do to us i! we were in their place. Let that

be our nrtnci~le and peace will grow.

Prayer builds another principle, compassion. Love reaches out thro\;gh

every channel that ie open to ua. It reaches <·ut through our thoughts,

tP~ough our petitions, through our love, through our money, through

our leadership.

Compaeeion if! the 0ut.flow of love, the outflow of concern. It is under­

standing other peorle !.~ completely that we know how they fe~l and we

enter into their lives, those we know intimately within our rmr~ilies

and those around the world.

Prayer leadF to humility and o~dienee to the highest will. It is in

true obedience to the l-,ighest wisdom that we find the fullest frel!'dom.

These, then, are fr~itsa joy, freedom to love, self-knowledge, seeing

-114-

clearly the way to dynamic hope and to a world bz!il t on righ teoueness,

and com?assion, and humili~, obedience to the wisdom that guides the

universe.

How does one learn to swim• to play aolt. or to achieve any other skill?

He learns by doing. And so with prayer. A oerson learns to pray by

praying. He learns also by stud'.1ing, by reading. by joining with ot...l).ers

:5.n research. It will not come all at once. The writer has been at this

now for 17 years and he has only marle a berinning., But this he lmowst

it is valid•

The more one prays, the more he moves toward the achievement of the

mastery tha.t is the fulfilment of life. In the last cbapter there are

s~ecific sugeestions for a program of training in the life of prayer

-11.5-

CHAP'~:R VII

tttt you love yourselt, you love everybody else an you do

yourself • As long as you love another person lese than

you love yours~l£1 you will not really succeed in loving

yourself, but if you love all alike, including yo1"rselt',

you will love them as one per8on and that. ~rson is both

God and man. Thus he ie a gre.at and rightcoue nerson who,

loving himself, loves all others eoually."lO

Meister Eckhart

1f,e come now to a very important st.ago in our adventure. n•Jr Master

whose mastery we seek said so nlainly, "Love the Lord thy God with all

thy heart, mind and soul - and thy neighbor aB thyself •" ~'o haYe h-eard

th1.s great commandment repeated many times. But ha-ve we really heard

it?

Read again the quotation by Eckhart under the title above. Here is the

insi11;ht of one of our great master!!!.

Walt Whitman, a man with an extra dtmenPion to his mind has some inter­

esting thoughts. He sees the glory of being a •air.role separate oeraon."

The wor,der of sheer existence seemed to him the greatest of -.nxiers.

That he loved himself and that other hUl!la!l beings loved themAelves he

never doubted waE a 5apreme achievement in the full becoming of each

person and in the achievement or ap~ritual mastery.

-116-

lfbile Whitman loved hiluelf, he always made it clear that one of the

conditions of self love was the love or others. Vilhen he celebrated

his own existence he celet:rated that of all human beings. "Y<'hoever

walks a furl~ng without ~pathy walks to his own funeral drest in his

shroud. 11

He says, in utter beauty and with dynamic power:

I am the man, I suffe:r'd, I was there

The disdain and ealmneee of martyrs,

The mother of old, condemned for a witch, burnt with dr,y

wood, her children gazing on,

The hounded slave that nags in the race, leans 'L7 the

tenee, blowing, covered with sweat,

The twinges that sting like needles his lers and neck,

the murderous buckShot and the bullets,

All these I r~~l or am ••••

Agonies are one of my chan~es of garments.

I eo rc:t ask the wcunded person how he feels, I myself

become the wounded person. • •

Behold, I do not give lectures or a little charity,

When 1 eive I f:ive myself. 11

By way of contrast, let us see one who hated av,ther and must have hated

hersalts "And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David,

Michal, Saul's daughter, l0oked through a window and saw kir1g David

leaping and dancing before the Lord J and she despised him in her heart. 11

-117-

What i~ the meaninl! of her hatred for her husband? The rocord says that

when he achieved the goal, she love<" him; but apparently ehe could not

real:cy love him, tor love and hate never can dwell togetrler.

Might it not be that she felt toward him as her father felt toward him?

')ne or the pl'tlfound factors about us is that we tend to l0ok at life

as the most influential parent in n:or lite did. If one or both of our

parents ware hostile, authoritarian, dogmatic, coercive, when ~ get

n:q from home one of the strange things about life is that we may have

the same attitude toward ourselves as :Jur parents had toward us.

The fact is that we are in charge of ourFelves. The reeli11g1 "It is

not I but Christ, ft is the goal. No matter where we are in our growth,

we f't.ill are in charge of ourselves. Either we are under tyraney or we

know reastcry, being in tune with the infinite Purpose, living in Christ

c0nsoiousnee:s, with the wisdom of the univeree gui~.ing o ~r path.

We have been saying that only as we give ourselves fully to the leader­

ship or Grd in our living are we truly ourselves. As we move in this

direction we more artd '::'101'6 know the person we love. Thus we are kind

to ourselves. Kindne:>s must start with the self. It ean only move to

others it love is in <)Ur hearts.

Jesus saw this so clearly. It is eo strange that tles~~i te tl!e influence

of JeF.Us a~ro~s the millenia, people are trained in o~ culture to

consider ourselves kindly is selfish. Perhaps, as Dr. Hugh Missildine, K.D.,

a child pqehiatrist of Columbus, points out, when we think of btdng kind

-118-

to o :rselvtra we are thinking of treating ourselves indulgently.

In a lecture, tilie sensitive physician said:

"Kindness and consideration and respect have very little to do with

indulgence. rn fact, it we treat ourselvec indulgently, it's actually

very difficult to be kind to ourselveE>. He;cause WtJ find curselves

getting more and more irritated by the thing we find by our impulsiveness.

So T think it's ar: im.p"ssibility to treat ourtselves with e .cersive

indulgence, and rf'ally te kind to o1;rselves. We're too sere at our-

selves for the mess we got :)urselves into, so that culturally we got

self-indulgence mixed up wi.th self-respect, ard we think it ien•t ~uite

nice tc treat m1rselvee5 with eonside2'ation, respect and kindly lovingness.,.

In the family, in love, in .friendship and in every relationship, we know

that the ~al self is a channel of love; the .focus is in the other

person.

Dr. Fosdick in his book, "0n Bein& a Real Person," has a good chapter

on "The Principle cf Self Acceptance." nr. Viktor I"rankl in his book,

"The Doctor and the Soul," makes this matter of self love very clear.

Dr. Eric .r romm in his book, "'l'he Art of Loving, n says, ttFreud speaks ot

self-love in psychiatric termf! but nevertheless, his value judgment is

the same as t.hat of Calvin. r·or him, self-love is the same as narcissism,

the ~rn1ng of the libido toward oneself. Narcissism is the earliest

stage in human development, and the nerson who in later life has returned

to this narcissistic st.age is incapable of love; in the extreme case

he is insane. Freud assumes that love is the manifectation of libido,

-119-

and that the 1' t~ido is either turned toward others - love J or toward

oneself - sel:f'-love. Love and Sflf-love are thus mutually exclusive

1n the sense that the more t· ere is of one, the less there is of the

ot::or. If rcl!-lov£1 is bad, it follolfs that unselfishnets is virtuous.

"These questions arise1 Does psychological observation saoport the

thesis that there is a basic co:ntradi tion between love f"Jr orlflf":<)l.f and

love for «?thers? Is love for oneself the same phenomenon as selfishness,

or are they opnosi tes? Furthermore, is the selfishnesF of mod~,rn man

really a concern for hi,:osel.f as an individ\utl, with all his intellectual,

emotional and sensual potentialities? Has 'he' not become an appendage

of hie socio-economic role? Is his selfishness identical with self-love

or is it not caused by tht1 very lack of it?" 1~

Jlr. Frankl u.yrs, "It i.t is a virtue t.o love my ooighbor as a human beir1g1

it must he a virtue -- and not a vtce - to love myself, since I am a

human being too. 'Ihere ir. no e-::mce?t of man in which I myself am rrot

included. A doctri.ne wtich pr<"elaims such exclusj_on proves i tselt to be

intrins1eal1:: C"ntradictory •" "Self'ishness and self-love, far from

being identical, are actually orpoed tes. 'the sf1lfish porson doe5 not

love himself too much but too lit~ le; in !act he hates himself. This

lack or f"ndnes~ ann e.~re .for himself, '#lhieh i~ only one e=--rrefi~ion of

his lack of ~orluctivenet::;, leaves him empi{y and frustrated. He is

necessarily unhappy ar:d anxiously concerned to snatch from life the

satisfactions which he r.locks hir:1.self from attaining. Ee se ms to cal"e

too MUch for himself, but actually he only makes an unsuccessful attempt

to cover up and compemmt,e for l~~ ~ faJ.lure to care for his real selr.

-120..

Ji'reud hol1e that the r"elfish 'l":erF.~on is narci.P.Fistic, as if he hai with­

drawn hie love fr,.,rn others, and turned it toward. hta Ol'f!l neraon. It is

true that selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not canP.h le of loving them eel ves eit.her."

We see from this dtscussion and from our own e:oeriences that the love

of others and the love of self is part of one package. Dr. Fromm goes

further to point out that the "nature of uru;elfishness becomes p~uticularly'

apparent in its effect on others, and most frequently in our culture in

the effect the 'unselfish' mot1:er !cas on her children. She believes

t.llat by her uneelfiahneeF her children will e.{perience -..hat it l'f<eans

to be loved and to learn, in turn, what it means to love. The effect

of her unselfishness, however, doe~ not s.t all correspond to her ex­

pectations. '!he children d·.:> ~ot sho"'!' the happiness of oer,ona Yr.lo are

convinced that they are loved; they are an~ious, tense, afraid of the

mother's dtsapnroval and anxious to live up to her expectations. :Jsually,

they are aff'ect.d by their mothez"s hidden hostility t.oward lifet which

they sense rather than recognize clearlY, and eventually they become

imbued with 1 t the:mu~lves. Altogether, the effect of the •unselfish'

mother is not too different from that of the selfish one; indeed, it is

often worse, because t~1e rr.ot er' s unselfishne~s prevents the children

fran criticizing her. They are p~,;t under thE> obligation not to disanpoint

her J they are taught., under the mask of virtue, dislike for life. It

one has a chance to study the effect of a !i:<other with genuine self-love

one can see that there is r>othinp more eondueive to f!iving a child the

experience of what love, joy and haoniness are than being loved ty a

mother who loves herself •" 12

-121-

It is important as 1ro analyse Ud.s caref:..~lly to see that V'e person who

tattle himr~lf iB r:0t her-/py. He foc\:ses on himself. Be blocks the divine

energy. r:'t:r:r~ is that llf ich is ••given'' in lite, and the r"ore we become

channels for friendsl":.ip, for helpfulness to nthers, the more we are

ful.fillc•l ourselves.

However, the person wbo hat.es hitr'f>•~lf canfl\\t c!o it. Pe :i.s occupied with

himself. He centere 1.n h":'"self ~md tlis 'l·oanfl etcknf::'is both rf hody and

oi' minrl. '•he echb.oph;enic camot face htmfl~lf 5o he b~cflmes a differE>nt

person. 'The narano:td net only hatefl: htmseH' 'but LelievGS that ctherr.

hate him and beeol!'les noet acute "'t'en he decideF- to destroy the perf."on

he imagines is 'WOrking ara1 nst him..

The main cause of self hate is the withholdinF: of love. 'Jne of the

ministers of this natioD, who has been struggling by the infini t~ grace

to grow from self focus tc self love, points out that he !fl"ew up in the

"good and bad" culture. He was const~n~ referred to aa a bad boy.

"Your mother doesn't love you because you are bad."

As he looks back upon hts early experience, he feels that he bec~an to feel

a't:..,•.t himr>elf a,; his mr;tht!r mace hin feel. ~he EWd his fathf.'tr triet? to

control him by g1.vine: him tre fer::·ling he was bad in .~.rder to make him

The more this continued the v:ore he r.eemE1d to fall short of their ex­

pectations. Cradually he became so eor>vinced that he waF. bad that he

made morEt and more mistaken, got into more and more trouble. His failures

mounted. ·r'hen he wae eii;';h teen both of hiE parents were accidentally

killed.

As he catt;e c1.t of the ~~·r.>ck, he be~~;an more and more to ,iudge himself

as his r:a!"ontr: did. He "''arri~c'l and sc,c-n he w1u~ judging hie wife as ne

had been judged. .1hen ch~J~ren came, he round himself saying to them

what ris ·;:arents had said to ~-Jim.

In t.l-J.e meantime, he now fe•:~ls that as a way of solving his proble!l\8 he

went into the ministry. He drove himself to finit'!h coll~ge and .suppvrt

hh family, and then went on through seminary. In his ministry he wAnt

all-out to consign people tD eternal damnation. He was harsh, brittle

and yet under his compulsion his chut>eh gre·w. He worked hard. He w.ss

a harsh oa:rent to himself and to hi~ chi.ldren and to his people.

Then he had a n~rvous b:r&akdown, and went tnto a deep depression.

Gradually he was led out o£ it and came to in eight. He eaw the whole

pattern. He knew that his Parents did their test but th2.t they were

victims and not culprits.

Through 1t all hi8 fru:: ily loved. him and stood by him because of his wife

who saw the n:al person. flis peonle rtlUed to him with uueh love that

he mcV6d by the grAce of his living f.(}rd to know the person he could love.

He reS"''onded to God's love until it overflowed to him, to his wife, and

children and to his -peop1e. Today his compassion reaches around th6 world.

\\hat can we fine in this and in other e:xperienees as to the roots of

selt-hate? C'lne root is in the good and bad psychology. No bo7 or girl

-123-

should ever be called bad. ·rhis does not mean that they are not curb€:cl

but the curbing, the setting of limits on the child, is done in love •.

Love can be firm but it is never hostile or rageful.

Another cause of self hate is found in ov6r-submissivenesf. "arentf!

begin to aubmit to whi:ns• The ~t:..:re tLe.r give in, the r;Y..>re children

press, for they ar~: not ade to set li:ni ts on L.~e;rt~elvas. '~he.;; need

other people tt.J set l:iJni ts for them, fo:r otr~erwise the.v start :running

oVE·r ot.'l)er -:-;eople. 'n"iey may go so far as to say, "I.f you ckln' t e:lve l"'e

w'la t I ·want, I Yi on' t love you."

This child grows up. Be find€' himself interferring or tnfri nging on

somebody else. Then he is rejected. He expects others b cubmit as

did his parents. Soon he feels isolated. He is preoccupied with hi!nself

tut it is a self' he doesn 1t like. He Cktnnot understand why other peopJe

get angry with him.

!t works so many ways. f\ome t'lelf hate-ers were pressed in childhood.

f.ome were pushed around. Memories ring in our enrst "Get out of bed•

r:a.t yo1Jr breakfast. Wash your ea:rs. Make yo\JI' bed. You never do

anything right. ! wish we h1d a chile like Smiths. r.

In adult life persons say, ttGet it done. Make a living. Check it off.

Push, nress.n And i•tside, the self says, "If ;you con't, T'll frown on

you, and critici11e you.'' So the person 'Eishel'l himself, starts to daydream,

r:uts off, nr0crasti.T'~t.es, th.inking of each Job as somt~tth:ng terrible,

Just as he did in childhood. The ~erson af;sumes the role of M a rJarents

and at the same time he is parent tc himself. Instead of kindness,

-124-

unrlers+.ax~<~:ing and reas(matle firmness, he is tough on himself. He rnay

£::0 all-out ar1•1 i.rn' ose hi_e will on 0\'~:::r,t perscn or he may fall short and

heat hLt.E'elf down.

Can we summarize the causes of self hate? OD8 cause lies in the attitude

of the ~arents. l:id they love themselvee or r;ot? Did they love each

other?

f·nothe:r cause liee in the flay ~"te evalua i:A2d hit1sel.f' and his b.::havtor.

And this ag;dn largely is de:c:l:';Tii!led l:y '!'lt::; oarent.s. 'iihe?':l the wd_tcr

'~>~as ,v:"'ung, anc Le lied, he n;::t t;nly was :made to i'l'lr-cl very end but al30

that he wr-ul~ go to hell. '1'hi:s c1i'3 mt 5-t:.op .is lying; inst~::tr! it

seemed to intendfy the tendency.

0ne day the wriwr•s son said, "I saw a five-colored snake on tho way

to schoc:l. tt The wri t.'r' B mother who lived in the home flashed ;)ut,

nyou oup:ht to beat hun for telling such a lie. •· The wrj_ter was silent.

Later he asked his son, "Vihere did you Bef: this snake?" "On the way

to school."' ''Good, 1 '11 go with you irJ. the morning. tt

·:;n the wey, the two cmr:e to the t'lBce. The son fi&id, "Right tere is

wb'9re I taw it, but I don't see it now." Then a thought came to the

writer. "Was it a ·.ake believe, or a real snake?" "Ch, it was make

believe&" "'Good," said the writer. "AlYays be sure that yot~ know the

difference."

tater on wh~n the $On told wild ~tories he ws.s asked, "!s it real or

make believe?.. The t son grew up to be a wonderful physician, with a

ver,y well disciplined imagination.

-12~

Another cause lies 'c.n over-submissiveness or in over nuni ti vanes e.

Children a:;oo hUMan beinef:. If they are lovod, they will be loving.

If the relationship is rl~ht, they will grow up assuming others love them,

usuming others merit their love, and assuming that God loved them before

the.:t were C.orn, t.i-Jat He loves them now, that they cannot get. out of his

love even though they take the tt1fings of the morning and rtwell in the

uttermost part5 of the sea.»

Jf chtldren (:Tow 5.nto these a~ l!umptions they not only will love others

af' themeclvef!>. hut they never wtll be paranoid or schizophrenic or manic­

(lenresnive and thny will be able to handle aey neuroses t.~ey may take on.

The :f'irst, step is to see clearly the fruits o:f' self hate. ''e have

elaL·;:rated these and all we nef:.d to do is observe lite and we will see

what. is involved.

The second step is to realize that t.o move fron, self r,at,e to knGw th.e

person you can love r::eans hard work. '?'e can work this out alone, by

taking time to work on it. 1'he wrl te:r once really hated hi:treel.f. 'i'here

were rcasons. He rt:rc'V!'J hi!tseH'. He t•ad to ,,z•ove tc hirnself that he

wal'; better than he felt he was. H'ftinr; hirr-selt, he focL~sed in himself •

Tt was he, the illuFi':'ln, net the real self, that is the son of God,.

He ~t'Ot real help in meditation. He has beE·n at it across the .·veH:rs,.

')rogreas bas been sl :..IV but real. Fo :r Jearfl ago his people t;:ave a

wonderful demonetra tion of love and faith. This helped him. He llt<'1Ved

across the line. He has not erri•ed, but he is closer. He no longer

-l!26-

pushes cthPrs. He with all hi:s heart wants tc focus in C'hrit't, in

otberfl• ltihile he is bvsi.er tba~ ever, he no longt"r drives hi!!'eelf •

What te does now iE' a witness of love.

A third step is to l<€f,':in to take an interest in ueople. lfe begin to

center on them. We cultivate this kind of an attitude. Pick the he~dt,ant,

the timid :ocrson. ~.•nve towaro him, &> v~ings for hi.m. 'rork with bar)ies

and children. Remember the lonely people and become a cha1 ''el fc1r love

and helnf'ulne~e. Smlle at people. Ber:;in to aMume their love. They

should love you because you are a child of God. H' you begin to move

toward them they will respond and in the act of being loved back you can

come to love yourself.

A fourth step i~ to select one Perr-on to whom yau can open ,vour heart

rPally. li'ind a nerson wr'o is free to talk to you very plainly, who is

free to help you. 'ihis "'la:y you can come t.; insight. You can oval uate

what kind of o. parent you ere to Y0llrtlfllf. This does not mean that you

resent your parents but that ,vou understand and love them. 'they did

the best they could, as we have caid.

1hen become a part of a prByer cell or a research grcup, and thore ~o

do belong ought to realize that the greatest thing that can happen is

that each ~rson can come to feel loved and unders~c)od. Ve :::ee that

we have the same problems, the same expf,riences. Alcohelics I :~··nyrr.c"~As

is a thl'illint:: illu!!tration. :}ince we find that ot ers have the same

prr.;'bleras, when l'o unhc"ttle feelings, then we become different. ~e see

ot..;,ers 'Who are finding the freedom to be kind tn thereselves anc! t t 11!1

easier then for us.

-127-

Finall7, we come as the wr1t~r said of hi-self, to make a

serious research in the l' fe or flr&yer. Y4e come '00 a sense of God, we

respond to Hie love, and it begins to overflow to others. ~e come to

a sense of the w~nder and majesty of life. We come to feel with ~alt

Whi t.man 1 ts rraY'deur, its t:re!!lendous ~nr ivilege, its 5heer joy. 'l:hen we

reflect it. The song in our heart becomes the tvng ot every oerForl we

rr:r.:et. '!'hen we become rer;pont>ible. 1'e ke~Sp our r:-rcmises. v,e take our

nlace. il,t'e do"l't etand by and be critical. Vle d0n't sta~ri off and let

somebody elee do i', but rake ;;1Jr r>laee gladly and ftnd in so doing w

arc kind t.c OL'rselves and we feel real peace, we feel square wH.h lU'e.

Moreover, we still'Jula te others to do it anti they a~ encouraged. Wie find

that the;r anc lH'e become kind to us.

And deep in our heartP we know that we become poW•Hful channels t11rough

which God ekes I:is work, tuli'ills !:is plan in thf'l life of Ir!.lin upon the

earth.

VOKING

\''hat hanDens then. We no loneer roeue in O'Jrr:elves. ~e are no longer

the objoct, we are the channels of the Chri~t life, of the love o£ God.

We are the points of departure for saving love in ~~e home, in and

through our church, in the cozmnuni -cy, and we become oeacet:~akers. Love,

teginning wi t.1 C.+od, tlows thr0ugh ·~.~s by prayer, b)' leadership, b. the

;il't o! rnoney acrose the world.

We lPDrk alone and we join with others in Christ. •hile our Bcientists

-128-

seek to win the race for space, we sed' to 1 i..ft the level of life by

.~o~ning forces -with people across the world thro~'~ t.be o.,ltreach uf

miesions and V1rough every media 0!'on to us.

-129-

CH.A P'!':;<:J1 VITI

"Ee healeth the broken of } eart, and bindeth up their

wounds J he telleth the number of the eta rs, and calleth

them all by name."

~od is 'tA)tally nrosent. fie can !1ever as]{ anything f")f Sim that he is

not d::d.ng every n10'11ent. iJur ehBllenge is to keep walking i.nto the light

anr! carrying othem along. 1he m.ore we know ltlo we are, the more perecns

we take with us.

Put no matter ro"W surrAn<ie!'ed we are to the will of Cod, and how com-

mit te0 to the wa~' of Christ, we cannot rn1.ss the trn ged:i.es of life, i t8

interruptions, vnd the l::mely lor;s of the physical :'reaEmce of loved ones.

,\ T'''et, writing of Enster a.nci nll of its heartening hopes, has uttered

a sentiment -,vh:tch inspires our faith. He thinks of the t.ree, bled and

leaflees, lifting bare arms to heavan, and he says1

Undaunted by Decem·bers

'I'he M? is i'ai thful yet J

'l'he crowing earth reme1:1ters

And on1y raen forget.

rlature and l>tstory are never discouraged. ()nl.y men forget. Onl;r human

hearts see no p~mise in December. Only the souls of men find in shiP­

wreck and sorrow and defeat the end of all things.

-1_30...

There ie no dodging the t:ntfO:r.J'':l')t:tons and the hesrtbrral:s, though in­

oreasingl;r we can '!)revent them and nAver cause them to be inflicted on

others. Nevertheless is it not true ~hat the great gains in soul and·

sodety come when bleak barren d~s have turned men's thoughts from the

means of living to the r-:e;:ming of 1 · fe? ~Jost nf 0'..:1' t:rf;asures t:avo been

found :tr: the ''arkness. The ':.:uaker SRyi:rg has wtsromt "Don't curse the

darkness; l:i.e)lt s c~mdle. tt

c~ut of cefeatr; men weave the fat:ric of grPat victories; fcVI heartE have

been noble tLat wel'E:l not first broken. It :ts u .. t economic security that

develops the human Epiri t, but danger. Eo t in the hours of placidity

co men b·uilc' the great~st cat· edral or paint the frescoes in the E·ls tine

Chapel or write a Constitution in IndependencP Hall. If prosperity

means only houses and automociles ana refrigerators and nc life tbat

transcends them all, then may the blight pass.

Could 1 t be that he.artbrEH1k, interruption, defeat are the sPringboard

to growth? If so, a new adventure is beginning, a new search. Perha?s

a new renascence - lfho knows? The bHnd plo-mnan expressed a dee'O thought:

Set my hands to the olow

Hy feet u'!nn the sod J

Turn rr:y face then towar:l the east

And praise be to God

The God who makES His 8llll tc shine

Alike on you and meJ

The God who took away my eyes

That now my soul might see. 13

-131-

JeEOus facet! the v.:wle t:·agedy thr.t is at the heart of 1i.fe, he plut~ged

into be deepest dcarknes:J of the wcrld 1 s uain. All the desnerate tides

of the world's woe were pressed through the channels of that single soul.

Chrtfltiani t.Y is no eFcape from tragedy J it is f'ai th big enough to include

tr-agedy. It is not escape from the darkne!Ss J it is confidence in the

midnight. Someone was asked about a jeweled crown. she YOre, and she

replied, "'l")h1 that is the symbol o1' our fai thJ you have the cross tut

we have the crown. n But in the religion of Jes;..;s those two are insepo­

arable. Jesus won his crown through emtracing suffering, thNugh atsorb­

ing ill tO hi:: ovm love the guilt ar.c~ sine of ~J:e world, through lifting

up pain as a pn:.ciou:s incen:::e unto God. JesuF; mmt throueh the night

into the eternal mor: ing. Fe knew stn as no one ever knew tt; he laid

his hee.rt tedde the world'e wc.eful ht=Hirt to b€'at, ~nr! felt P11 its

throbti.npr hurt. h .. t Jesur; said sin and nain were not the ul timatefi or

life. Def!th and destiny are not synonomous.

There arG countless tndividuals who suffer for no reason t"\f their own.

i\ c~1lld is torn from H:.o m~;·the:q a young husband f01ls sick a.""!d dies

~l'o has li..ved cleanl., all !-;is lEe; fl'cilif:f struggle with low inc0mes

ard !'lave cne dckneEs after an0t.t:c::r. And in the face of' those harsh

r~:ali ties we sometimes find curselves feEling like one or the Obaractere

in Fobert Sherwood's dramas, "Idiot's Delight," which is a biting ctiatribe

-132-

ironical rlialogue, one of t.he c.hi::ractcre, the leader of a troups of

nif!,ht club entertaincrf:', feelinG tr.at like !':lee in a trap all men are

caught in the rrim fatalism of war, cries out, "I often thin.lr we ought

to r;et together nnd elect snnel ods else Cod • J\iie, for ir:st:E1Ce, I'd clo

a n:uch better ~iob•"

},~any of ue, 1d.thout a doubt, have Rotoet..5::~es .felt just the same. As

Von Hugel says, 11 As :regards evil and suffering it is as though we wero

out ~n a dark !light with one litt,le car;dle in c'Ur hands. 11 b:!t c.1:ore

are gl~ams we cc<n get in this darkness and for them we rnust search.

i\-nd to search ts our true nature sin~ we are nade for masterJ not tyranny.

'!oreover, persons cline to life in sn~ te of all suffering•• 1'hat hope

persists even def'pi 'ki the e:-:'i.lence of the experience we erroneously call

death is for many of us evidence enouwl that the hope is true; for how

could such a hope live in our world wt thout its •secret ansmer"? 'Ihe

dreams a.nc hopes 0f nen are as wide as the universe. Ltving in time,

our hopes reach beyond ttrr.e~ But Why sh uld the harsh c:trcumstanees

and the haunt:tng realities of every r!ey ke•:p threatening our faith?

The "rr•blorn 0f Why W&J" is possible is D 't thE'! hardest Side t' the question

of' suffering and evil. Cne could answer that war and all its insane

savagery is in the world because man wills it and for the moment man's

wi.ll is etle to thwart the :Jhine Y;ill. It is when we are face to face

-13.3-

with the tragediee of life tha.t. a:re not connected either with man's

ignorance or hi.F< sir that v-:e meet the problen• in its stark and st:archl..ng

dilenna. Fven he who nenetrated mcst deeply into life's !Piritual

my~t.c,.~.ee, ,.,.·led, ttJ.,~ God, my flod* why?": and tis greatest follcwer

t0··nd Fi·renp+r and refuge ln this ccmclusiona 11 Now we eee through a

gJ.e!'lf! ~ark1y, but then face to face.n

So we cannot expect exl)lana tions of the i},reat rcystci:t all neat and

finished and read·y tu ue: filed away for :reference. Tr1e f;urge r:,f t'-ic

world's sorrow c~nnot be compressed within the ·r.Tecincts of a fe·,-:

platihldes. fut toeether, we can find surer L'cotings for our fai t.h.

fhoul~ we not remember that the orol:.len, of good is just as inexplicable

81" the •>:rohlem of evil? for seven1l years there ccmee a drs~..;gbt tha.t

sears the land, and fields that once Frcy,r rrcm r:roen to t'olrl. with fl"Uit....

i't1l harvest now lie ;;arched and barr·Gn. fl~YJ-:at kind of Cr;(! is it whc·

sends such a plague?" we ask. ...,ut 'ii.d ar,yone duri..nf all the· years of

bountiful harvest cry, "I"\ God, the ;'";Od:-le~s of thy bounty and the mystery

nf thy ~enero~ity i~ nast our finding 0utl"

1iby is it that we think that teut;; ar;:! llo::;dni: are nr)r:nel to life but

tr .. at disappointr~ent and tu1gEH:iJi ste rut.hless ir~truders? In the s:1me

Ymrlc where there> is the ageless \'d.Ckedness of wsr thE>re is alro the

unfailing lo\re of mothers. On the r.hin that is driven to deat,h ;mon

a c:rarcy reef there are !':len who cry,"women and children first£" anc go

bravely to their ocean tomb. rr there is selfishness in the world,

-1.34-

the~ is aleo f:acrifice; if ther-e is the wuraerer, ttere :i..s also the

martyr' if there is the devastating hurricane, there is als·:> the i.~entle

splendor of the summer's setting euna 'Jhis i~ to su~;gest that :1. t is Y10t

o·nly thl'l "'"n of' the world that (@fflee: our rr:.tr:ds but its gl(lry as well.

I.f r ray, "T will no longer Ftrugple with the prr, blem of suffering,

rather I w:ill give up my belief in Goo,•' then we are left to account

for P.11 the ge"otin~l'le and heroism., the hooes and dreams and sacrifices

c1f men a~ '!'l'e11 ae the teaut;v- with which the infinite arti~t has filled

+h~ Vlf'rl("'. If we choose a .faith in a p;ood God and determine to trust

Him, we are left to wrestle with the world's pain.

'T'o an honest mind, untclief eam1ot • e an escaDe frou; ~nystcry. In human

e:rnerienee there are the data for desolating doubts; in human e.x;;erience

there are the data for creative and a&..renturous bolief. Christian _faith

is that high rEH!olutton of the will that determines to li.ve by the f.'Oul 1s

hirhest affirmation, its invincible surmise. Life is made uo or black

;;md white squarel'l 1 but as Philips Lrooks used to say 1 "The cer;tru faith

of the Christian ie that the lJlack squares are against tl::e white tack­

ground and m't the >'fhi 1A::l squares against a bl¢ick background. •1 So much1

then, .. ~·or the neceasi t;y of facing not only ':-he dark n;ystnr:f c,f tbe

world's e¥:U but th~ :radiant :rry:"'tcjr' ~'f tr~o world's ~:ood.

G'X>D AND EVl:L IN MJ(}T'rfE'\ I.I CHT

i're ce!l seE> this relation of evil and pod in ar:other light. In caee

of f;ieknef!s, the resources of the great human fanily come to our rescue.

-135-

lrhen we eat, when we dress, when we communicate, when we rie1e, we a:re

the bene!'icisr:tes of' tr·e efforts of the uni ve:r sal human family. Shall

we. then • receiving untold bfJnefits from 'ur membershi·p of the fm1 ily,

deem it unfair when we are asked to bPar t,he cnnser:uences of the family

ignorance, the fnn:i1y folly and the far.:ily sin? ''e Cctf' only ha''e the

benefits if we accePt fr1e ri~ks.

TS C:Of) u: OD?

i ut now f'..:rther, if vm are to e;nt cn1'7'e t:leaM of Eph t ecrr>:''S thrc tiarknesa

cf this continent of mystery 1 we must df' soMe t:.M. ::king ab0'lt God and

Iis nature. ·,e say gJihly, "God is all-PowerfulJ why doesn't He do

somethin?? He can 1 t stop wcr, at'ld in that cese He is not omnipotent,

or elE~e He l!'On1t, stm.J war, anc~ iD that case He is not r;ood." You !!lay

take your choice. Put let us tBke 8. l0ok at this concept of omni";.)otence

and Sf!e if vre ca-:1 find wb~t it met:Jns when it 'l s avpHerl to that •?lodous

being moral s:Jle:1dor we call "+.he Father w ich is 1.n h~aven.••

CVll) Yin K A GREA 'I' CHANCE

i; hen God made rnan in IIie o11·n imt;ge at1d t:UDpUed him wi t.h the sublime

gift of freE·dorn, Co(~ linli ted F bse1f. t:Ver after th.at there would be

tl iq;:s ~'od c0uld r:ot. r.o. \hat wr:nderful and awful ))Olf~r of choice w1dch

wal-:es us ;nen i~ a tift .from G0d t · wrich Fe i'l!"r:oses rePtrlctions tl'pon

T!i..rrself. It is only omniPotence that can gl:'ani:. such a gift. The very

1 i.mi ta tion Go~ pt· ts unon Eimsel±' is evidence <'f Pis powE-r • not of His

weakness.

~1.36-

Thi.nk of tl1is matter of ctcupinlv war. Of Col.l:rse, man makes wa!'. Every

war :ls .;tc:::;inst C0r1. Ttv~ry war is the calvary of Ood. Every bullet and

s>ell ·~.lv1t ~. s s}-,0t onens tho~e old wounda of the one on the cross.

liar roe~ an because when the morrdng star• of hmnan history sang together

God trave man hts freE-dmn, Cod so~ght for a te::.nv 'l>ho by chc1ice w~uld

love Him anrl do justly and love mercy. Iut no one can chc oEe [:'orlness

who has not the poWtclr tr. choose evil. No 1 ace Cali elect to 1 ive like

brotrers that does not ha.·e the power to live like c:emons.

•11:y did net Goo ~ake Uf: c~herwise? ''hy did Fe not create u~ automatons

who ccnnot do EVi 1 s.rri r'lust, rb >1ood? Of course, U·et brtngs us to the

:Jlace wl,f.le t•c +,~re::e thit"!71'! we Eire talking about have no Yreantng­

man, ;:oori, evil. 'i'hesf' are t"'tally wl thout r::ir.:rific~mce or valne when

once you l.nk~ army t.hA ,...nwe.:· of cho1ce. 'l''1e:rc is 1:1<1 man, n:; evil, no

good, :nor :for tt:at n;atter, is ti'l~!'f~ 8-ny c,,d l!; the moral terms that

Christ1.a".'li tJ conceives flim. b:Jt now, if liod tfli-:es av;ay t ... :e r•ow""r of

makinr:: war it means that He ta~es awa;y all that v•e call human resource­

fulness. It is w:r;; foolish to think of san "~ithcut now£r to make war

h)t ·.vlth thr~ "!i'\YCT t1' (:rc:8.te ~om erce, to erect societies, to build

catl·er:rals ano t, "'f:rl.te n:)etey. These all come from the same spiritual

resc·:Jrc~s, arc' it i.f; t.hc n:>-oetit.ution of these powers that makes possitle

"t,ar's a1arrr· and r:lead]y Pestilence." It. is as though Goa P,ave to one

the a'!. ility to lea::n to rearl, but the ncment one began to read an obscene

or profane ra:ragrBph 1 omnipotence would intervene with a preventing

blindness. God is eel! limited by the regal nower of freedom. He haa

-1.37-

world of law ne surronderEJd Hiro P<n'fer. I'his cioas no·t mean that God could

not inf-ervene and that I!e har:: not done so. But when this has occurred

:1 t has been through the oower or higher laws. If we have an orderly

W'l:rld it is inev:ttuble that at eome points the retrularity of nature will

defeat and seem to destroy values. That is w:- at happens whsn a <hild

elicl!~ on icll! cr falls ,..,ver a parapet, or when a helple::;s pilot feels

his· Plane hurtling to the ea::"t..~. Of c:hrse, if it were mt for the

t·egularity of r.ature :no c'"li1c' v;;::,ull evfr achifwa man's estate nor any

~;-.ip ever s2il t!:e ~kyly blue. I:era a;_;ain the very lan(1 t~·ia t br1ngs man

jo;y and hor:e anci .?ec'•rity, that af<su:ref, us of the rls:ing of the sun and

the going down of the srune, givint? the promise of seed time and harvest,

meAns alf'O the ca;Jse of much of the world's woe. I~ it not true that

Vi'tat we are saying ts t:.~at Gor:l rut us i.n a world which to us is unfinished?

VHhout thi.s fact there c:·l.lld he no becom1nE in cur €frowjng. God has

It must occur to us, t,hen, th&t some things ;-,s.ppen within tht:J sweep of

God's purnose that &t·e not the will of Joo. Cod' e r;urpcse cannot be

defeated but G<xl 's will 1,; often defeated.. You have a great "")t:rpcse

for your P.on, you want him to be striving, self-reliant, and posse~sed

-138-

of initia"tive 0 One da.Y sou me0t b. .t'riend 1:1rd ln the ir:timecy ot' ,rour

have EHlcuure:tgeri hix:n r,o s.:..ve, and T 've 1'1:'1 p!ld him and rJ<JW he wante to

draw alJ hi.s money out o:t' the bar:.k rmd ;:·urchase a second-hand ear and

t.ake a five thc·usand mile tour wi·:tt some other lad::' of his age. I've

not bP.en a Lle to talk him out of it." ttbut," s<.1ys JOUr .friend, "vihy

don't. you stoP him? Viby d.:;n 1 t you tell him that you refuee to allow it'?"

11 No, n Y·)U answer, "I can't quite do that. I want him to make his own

<iec:isions and I must let life te.;:;ch him, I sunpose." 11 I see, I see"

resuon·~s your friend, nyou have a &,Teat p lrPose in mind - a manly mm1.

In order tc achieve ;y·our purpoue YU evr.m all::l'l'r your will to be defeated. "

So does lrod.

If there were no disease, sufi'erin6, pain, we cc :lc1

and sni:d tually strong. liarsh e7Perienees beget on occasion our noblest

;joys, as life itself comes i'rc:n travail. ~·;os t, ::;.f us would not ~>urrf:nder

the wisdom gained from the r0 ugh stretches of our , ourney, even if all

me::norJ of pain and all a ttendar;t loss werE; t•~erety cl'!rcelled. An or~ration

in itself is not ';::c'""'nt, tut n~ "Ne lr:;.ok at it, if it is :·aced in faith,

it spells a n:'i!ll master:,> c-f lifE:, kirdn~~s of' friends, and a closer serse

of :f0d. 'he l or,crz tf frienrlfhlr an:: rtrcrr.thened bc,r a sharing of danger

cr a·:;;5.et~ or Aorrow. .,!)rJositior. makes r,trcnrer muscles. 0dcs of danger

insT)5 .. re heroic vdll. Y'ot.lG there be heroism wi t.hout. risk and il..anget•?

lr t.he f'eeking for God w-3. thout our cYtrer.Ji ty of need? Milton wa:; blind

but he had the cotnpensation of inward sight. r~nnyson d:i:pued his nen in

tears to write in hope. Thornt.on Wilder makes one of his characters say,

'*Wi 'ttl out your wound where would your power be?"

~139-

'V;l1at do we nE>an when we talk a'l'Out power? Power is the ntili t:i to

achieve the purnoses that are uppermost in mind t:nd heart. The businefls

mar who has p;r~at power is the one w:.:o has the influence to mold the

commercial str:1cture and ~-uide t:H3 tides of t1 u~ e<>mon1ic life .;f the

city into ccnstr·uctive and serviceible cnannels. ::.e t:as power if he can

ca:n·.y ont tte ~n~r;:oses th.!:t ore r.ative: to Lim.

"I is e::actJy ~c tt:a+ wE muft thlnk of the ::ower of (;0d. His rower i8

r:ot such a ~tr-rf,l€f>S ocean of force J it :i.s not an uncharted continent

oi' pot; nti.':!lit;t. '!:he ~.ower of r •. o<i if> the r:t:J_lity to achieve and tring

to final. f\llfilme:r:t the T)cJI'~OSI2S of !;is holy encl !l•·vereip:n will. But

what ;p thst nurunse? lie r;!cl:.E:::: it Dlain :i.n !:is word, in .r"'t'<lSt and in

the event.<: of 1dstory. He seeks r;en <>nrl wcn1en who L;y V.teir chc ice will

J.0ve Him ar•i of:ey Him sn::i join ~<'rith Hi1!1 in buildinP. a world of beauty,

.; :1st lee, BY'.'' righ:eousness. He se•:'ks to have His children live the

f::' ~.ri t of ~ creative world of br:.1 v·.or: ood. If Gorl were to say to a wicked

man, "flere b · fn rce I ti; rust goodross on ycu," it W'uld be weakness and

not rower l:.ecac:.se it ''v·~ld : e ~he •'lPfe.st :::>f r:'0d'~ own D~1roose. God has

>l\lcr, t.ut l:ie X•OS :::t l:>o.IIE' vi.JlE;rce. red i~ lr;ve. Pecan do only what

lnve c<m do. He canrct l.etrs.y :'i£ ra hne. Love can woo and Plead and

attract, but love car ne>;er ce:erce.

nr. LeE;lie Wentherhead quotes a V'J:ry interef' Ling illustration: "A man

had a wife who wa~s :-.,,t v<,r'Y strong, but who always imagined that she was

far worre than she was and complained <JCC'.JH::i ngly. The huEband was a

very strong man physically, and at first, gav~ in to h~r. He used to

carry her everywhere.

stunb1.u. In "' sense l:e '1-_:a,~ the 0011er to !"!:we her from falling; t,ut it

learn to ''~'alk. It was therefore the exercise of a grea,t.er power t')

stand away. ~o intervene would have teen weaknee~. To refrain was power.

1~ut it achieved his puroose, and we d€f'ined power as strength to Achieve

e:rr.ren1sion of po·.ver, ar,fi he m.lffi'H'ed ::;,,uething a;;uroaching a,nguish as he

~aw her fall. ru:, at last she ·x;s cured, her character was strengthened,

We know that to those who love God and f el themselves called to live

ty His high lJeckonint::s, all th .ngs work together to 1:1ake a Christlike

CGmradeshi;:: of r,:)ule. "Jur timeE: a:c in his hands, and ln his will is

ot:r nGace o"

-141-

F'nr 23 years in !!is oarish the •vriter has seer. oeople find rnaf:tery in

suff'e!'ing. Instead of bsin€: victims, they fcur"(:: that cr:r:fort i.e only

of r:od. Tn alJ the ,years only one fawily failed to find s;·r~ r·.tbJal

u:ne; t-er.r ir• uain, in suffering, (>r sc:ne o't~lEH' .form of interruption. They

transcended the experience. -r;.,~,v :t'(:,md the:; 61'1iWe -:.o share t.:1e cur:>, even

thougr bittEn·, wi~.,h c E:ng in t.!".teir },t:·<.rts.

'I'o conclude, here are four nri.nci'ples w' 1ch those neo!>le learn:

First, they come to a nhiloFonhy of suffering. ceccno, they learn not

to fight it or run awa.v from it m:t by the rrtlee of ~:or: t.c nccc~:t it.

When they ere r"ady to Recent it, thfl:J' f').i::14 the tzrace. 'l'hir-.1, tho;r

ar('; s1rrmJndac by love in thF beloved fellowsh:p that is the c!'n.:rch.

LT'd f·: .rth, the,y know that Gcd is tnta.lly piT sent.

-J42-

GROWING I!, TO A Llv LNG F'.AITH

"The further we go, the more the ultim&te explalistion

recedes from ua and all we have left 18 fe i th"

lialTaty

Faith is not wishful thinkingJ it ia seeing clearly. In a deep sense,

faith is reason grown courageous.

The writer is sharing in this chapter a statement of faith that has

grown in the spiritual laboratory where he has been Senior Minister.

And as a preface to this statement he wishes to emphasize two points.

The first is that no:one oan give you a faith. If one is given, it is

not your own. You can have a fs.i th only if you win 1 t. You go out on

your own, putting faith into life and you will find it there.

-If you let others tell you or impose a faith on you, you are a victim.

You destroy your own self. you surrender your own integrity.

F'or persona to believe the same ia deadly. It destroys selfhood. We

do not want sameness, we want union.

Once a man sought membership in the writer's church. lie said, "I

can't accept your creed. Will you aceept mine? I will join this

church with the understanding that I will be free to seek the truth

but with the further understanding that I live it in love."

lie waa wt:,rmly accepted. Be has been an earnest searcher and a devoted

worker ever a&noe. God surely ~onora an honest doubter more than a

Pharisaic believer.

To find a faith h a lifetime endeavor. .As we seek: we grow in

spiri tue.l m«-stery and thus in the freedom to fulfill our destiny.

In the book, "Anthony Adverse," there ia a striking statement: nThe

trouble with you is that you know too much. You have so muoh power.

You are so proaperoua. You have hold of so many of the techniques of

life but you do not know from whence you come or where you are going.

You don't know anything about thia life. And the trouble is thet

you don't know I!H;.ything ebout you. You haven't had tin.e to find

out. You are a wanderer." 15

To know you must first come to a living faith. You begin with

evidence. Then reason becomes courageous which is faith. Then in

time you know.

The second point is thisa God'e love ia in1'irdte. Imagine having

a God whom you believe loves you only when you love Him. Suoh a God

ie not big enough.

You may come as you follow Jesus to feel that nothing you ever do

can make God angry. Nothing effects his love. God is not only

totally present but God also loves totally.

If we rebel. if we bresk the laws of life, we suffer. But thie ia

not because God is angry. Th1• does not dis\pprove His infinite love.

It confirms His love. If we do wrong, God doea not get angry. ,. get

angry at ouraelves or do wrong because we ere engry.

God never coerces. God is polite. In the beginning of the book we

seid that he ever conceals himselt. He does not coerce us even by

too much evidence.

-144-

If we come to imow His love, we will inore&singly have no need to push we

others around. As we said in Chapter l: our when by His grace/ come to

reveal the likeness of the God-image, our living is marked by giving,

by oe.ring, by compassion, not coercion, and by responsibleneu.

he believe in God e.s the Omnipotent Creator of the uni verae, the Father

of the sensitive process of oreetion out of which all life has come end

within which all lif'e h sustained in its growing and its becoming. We

believe that God is Eternal, thet He sees from the beginning to the

end, that He has ordained laws that govern the stare in their courses,

and in harmony with which lives grow into His likeness and the broken

of heart are healed and sustained. God is a personal spirit who in

perfect love creates and sustains all life.

We believe that the value of man and the meaning of history is to be

found in the nature ai¥1 character of God, who has thus made Himself

known. The value of a man is not what he i1 in and for himself-

h1..Uil8.nism; not whet he is for society • Communism; but what he is worth

to God. This is the principle of Christian equality) the supreme

importance of every man is that he is brother to every other man, and

a son of God. Specifioally, we believe:

1. Regarding the nature of God.

We assume that God is personal since we are personal. To be personal,

God has to impose upon himself limitations so that He could create us

with the power of choice without which we would not be persons but

cogs in a wheel. We believe God oree ted tbh great universe tht\t

-145-

personality like Christ's might come to be. So God must be personal,

tor how could peraonality oome out of the universe if it is not within

the univerae? Nothing cannot create something J therefore only the

personal could create the personi\.1.

We believe that God is kinship since we have that capacity with each

other. Think of the greatest kinship of love you know .. a parent with

a child, a man and woman such as the Curies or the Robert Brownings,

or a man and a man - and it is just a little illuatraticn of the kinship

a :m.an can have with God. .From whence did the capacity for this kinship

come? f'rom the nature of God. lf we can have great fellowship with

e&ch other, how much more is it posaible for us to have fellowship with

liim who cree.ted us and M. thin whom we live and move and have our being?

We believe there ia undeniable evidence that two can grow fully in

kinship with eech other O<"lly as they grow in kinship at the same tbe

with God, tor after all, real kinship is union with the divine in each

other.

We believe tl:e. t God is ever seeking ua. God has created us with freedom

so that we can decide for or against Him. This freedom is very basic,

for without it there could only be forced obedience and that would

rob us of personality and leave us only automatons. Obedience to

God has meaning only when it is freely chosen. God is glorified only

when his child chooses to live by ills will. What lover wants a love

tt. t ill not freely given? God always respects this freedom to the

utmost; therefore freedom h fuudamenta 1 to Christian oi viUzation.

As the Archbishop of Canterbury has well said, man is tree to rebel

against God, and oan indeed do marvels through science and human

•146•

wiedom in controlling his own destiny, yet never oan he esoepe the

sovereignty of God. To deviate from the course of God's laws and to

violate the will of God is man's privilege but he is not free to

choose the consequences of thst choice for when he violetes the Will

of God, he brL1g1 disaster upon himself and upon his fellows.

So, God is ever seeking to win the love uld a llBgiance of man. hhen

m.an rebel$, God is not a dictator who is outraged, but ~< loving

F'ether whose love is et.erne.l.

He seeks obedience to a will that has as its only purpose the well•

being of all persons. Ne ~ow that God is ever seeking man, for if

men will not move into the next dimension too quickly, he will make

clear his need of God. •lfhence cometh the thought o1' eeeking God?

2. Regarding the Will of God for the ~orld.

God.'s purpose hee to do with a righteousne~s which is perfect in love

and liis purpose is the establishment of righteoutness end juetiee in

all the relationships of life. Be has choeen not to force men e.s e.

diott.tor to live by IUs will, but to entreat them in love.

In specific terms, what is l:lis will for our lives? The purpose of

life ie to glorify God, to glorify all of Ria creation - the physical

body of the person. the bodies of other persons, the selves of other

persons. the great spiritual and natural resources of life and the

truth, known and unknown. The purpose of life is to discover, love

artl live by the ftill of God in all the relations of life and tG help

others discover and love snd live by it too •

.And whet 1• the Will of God? On this point Jesus felt the hi 11 of

God to be "To love God with all your heart mind and soul, and your

nt:Jighbor as yourself." The Old Testement prophet asked "Whet doth the humbly

Lord require of thee but to do justly and love ntercy and we.lli/with thy

God." As we look about us we see those forces thet me.ke for the human

body. Therefore we ooo.olude thct it is the Will of God toot we do

everything possible to make of the hi.UlUUl body the most efi'icient,

healthy earthly temple in whioh the person can live. and whatever 1e

done to sustain, to shelter, to make healthy, to hea 1 the humen body.

is the lU 11 o.f God. Whatever obstructs these prooeues is sin•

As we become aware, we aee thr,t there h that which 1s making for

human personality and therefore it is our assumption thet whatever

helps a person to become Chriat•like. the bringing o.f the best and

~tee king God' a gift is the \H 11 o.f God. And all those parents.

teachers writers and others who directly or indirectly contribute

to that end, are doing the ~ill of God ALmighty.

And then, as ·,.,e observe we 1ee that there is that Which makes for

.fellowship between parents arxi children between boy and boy and

girl and girl. oetween young men a.1d young women. Therefore we

believe it is the ~Ull of God thet we build fellowship based on the

teachings of Jesus, b&sed on the Golden Rule, b~sed on the outgoinc

emphasis ... a fellowship that oa lla the best from each and suateins

each in his search for the best.

As we open our eyes we see that there are some nameless longin6s

in the human heart and we believe it is the Wi 11 of God that we so

live with each other in the family, in the school room. in the

market placeJ that we may help and inspire and enrich eaoh other

and encourage e~oh other to be true to the nameless longinbs that

-148-

God he.s hidden in the huma.a. heart - longings that .may be denied by

individuals in e.ny generation but longings that ever persist and

reappear because of the very nature of God.

3. Regarding our thought of sin•

Sin is disobedience. Sin is any act that is counter to God's creation.

Sin h a violation of any law of' the body or of the ap1ri t, of the

physical or the spiritual universe. Sin basically is a refuse.l to

grow, to grow in body, in e.ppreciation. in human fellowship. in one's

pCNier to sense GocPs presence, in one's ability to be sensitive to

the needs of men in truth seeking, in the ability of building kin­

ship. in one's capacity to reveal the V\ill of God in one's oepaoity

to spread the spirit of Christ, in one's ability to discern, to love.

to live by the 11111 of God Almighty.

Sin is violating the purpose of one's creation.a sin is violating the

Will of God J sin is e.ny act that defeata the purpose of God in one' a

life. Sin 1s living us though God did not exist. Sin is failing to

recognize that even though ma.n brin~s hia very best in ·will and

effort, it avs.ileth nothing without the gift of' God's grace, without

the gift of life through Christ, through faith, through kinahip with

God.

We believe thet only God can forgive sin becsuee sin is against our

creation. We believe that life is only truth oreL<.ti ve and rich when

men brings his best through sur render of self, and his will to a

higher will and God adds f'..is gift of grace. Then is sin overcome,

then is lite victorious, then is life creative, then is life Christ•

like. Sin is worshipping one's own will for ego-worship is the

major idolatry in the modern world.

•149-

4. Regarding Jesus Christ.

'l'ie believe in Jesus s.e the special son of God. The Inmost Spirit of

the universe whioh is our Father, entered completely into his life.

The Eternal God me.de a complete invasion i·:to his living eo that in a

true sense, we can say God is the way Jesus lived.

l"Je believe Jesus is the true fulfillment of the purpose of God in hl.llllan

life. ;ve believe Jesus is the flllfillment of all of God's efforts in

creating the universe and the sensitive and amazing process of creation.

To look closely at the spirit and life of Jesus is to see the reeson

why God created the universe and set into being ell the resources that

are here.

We believe that Jesus is 6\ revelation - the Lest revelation • of the

nature and spirit and purpose of !Jod that has ever been given to men.

\~e believe in the divi'lity of Juus and beoause of His divinity. we

believe in the potential divinity of all men. We believe that Jeaus

h the revelation of what can happen when the best in human life is

brought in complete consecration to God so that He may add his gift

of graoe and love. Je1ua is the highest fulfilhnent of human striving

in response to heaven's revealing.

We believe thet Jesus is not only the chief Son of God but He is the

proof of and the direction whereby each person alive may become a

true son of God. Did not Jesus say, "Be ye perfect even aa your

He&venly Fether 1a perfect,.? And are we not told thet we e.re "Heirs

of God and oo•heire with Christ"?

-150-

We believe thflt Jesus was the final culmination uf ages in longing

and discipline and preparation so that finally in Mary and Joseph

there was the culmination of wealth of character. vision and faith

resulting in one who was man'a completest an&Wer to heaven's reveal•

ing and God's calling. In Jesus, man answers fully and God reveals

fully. And Jesus is the final promise of what life is like when man

is fully God•led; when man loves with all hi& JUight in all relations

of life.

We believe that Chriat iB God and Iince God became fully alive in

Jesus he and he alone bears the name of Christ. Since we be.ve not

achieved the divine within us equal to him, the best that oan be

given to us 1a that we bear the name Christian, but only Jesus bears

the n.eme of God so to us he is Jesus Christ- man ttt his best with

God fully in his souL

In our fellowship eaob. person is free to believe as he wishes about

the birth of Jesua. We just ask that with all our hes.rte we follow­

him, give our lives to his purpose and his way.

5. Regard.ing the "ible.

·.ve Ue lie ve the Lib le is the aouroe book of the Christian religion.

:ve believe it is the record of God's call to m.e.n, the Holy Spirit's

yearning for the heart and will of man, and man's response, cover•

ing a period of about twelve hundred years. iie believe it is the

record of the revelation of God, Ria nature, fils purpo~e. lila plan.

lie be Ueve ths. t within 1 t there is Iii rove la tiou of the rea eon for

creation. Man ia created to glorify God, according to the Bible,

by glorifying all of Hh creation. We believe that within the bible

•151•

there are the prinoiplea made clear which men must follow if they are

to bring the New Jerusale~n on earth. We believe that w1 thin the Bible

there are the resources that lead to that thought of the universe at~

of God and of life and of death of others and of the self that will

mean for the bringing of the Kingdom of God within the he&rt. within

the spirit, and the bringing of ~1e kingdom into the relations of men.

?i·e believe thet the Bible gives an interpretation of the laws govern•

ing the universe and the reletions of men and the spiritual growth

of men. ·tve believe that it has the spiritual guidance by which men

can find ·ooth the ;U ll of God and the power to live by those laws

which are for his good. lie believe that the Bible contains a picture

of the consequences of violating those laws and that there is the

guidance th8t will lead men in being reinstated through faith and

through God's graoe into his holy fellowship.

•1• believe the.t the Bible is inspired and while we believe that it

ia the greatest record in existence of God's revelation and man's

arurweri~, it does not mark: the end of God 1 a reve la ti on. ¥\e believe

that that revelation continues through service and worship. We

believe thst wherever a hee.rt 1ls obedient and a spirit is aearohing

truly, there God seeks, there God leads. vv·e believe the Bible is

the co~plete source book for those who would find the secret of life.

6. Regarding the Church.

}aul says: "The atrate6Y of God is in his ChurohJ the strength of

mor~l truth la in a body of men and women united in a consecrated

comradeship - worshippin& at the shrit~ of light walking in its

radhnce, ar:d exalting in its word end acti.on." In Tirrothy we reed,

"It is the Church of the Living GodJ the pillar and ground of truth.n

The Church is a body of people bound together with a primary motive

of providing the spread of the spirit of Chri at. The church is a

body of people bound together to sesk:, to love a.rrl to live by the

wi 11 of God for the ;sood of a.ll men and to win others through the

appeal of Christ and the revelation of God's will. The ohuroh is a

body of those joined together by a common love of Christ and a oammon

devotion to make liis way and His spirit the way of all men.

we believe the ohuroh, despite all 1 ts weak:neues has k:ept alive a

heart of oompastion presented an enlightened conscience from genera•

tion to generation and kept alive a glorious gospel. and that now it

must be active in two distinct ways. lt must with fervent purpose,

maintain ita own apiritual life and grow f'ully to discover, to love

and to live by the ftill of God. And it must ao this with such power

that it will become the Church of Chriat in the home, in the market•

ple.oe. in the play life in the place of' government and in the grow­

ing appreciation• of people. The teat of its potency will be seen in

the degree to which ita members live justly with all men and work: for

justice for all members of the universal family, and in the degree to

which its members live in the true spirit of brotherhood with all

men, irrespective of creed color, race or station in life.

ne recognize that the world is at one of the greatest crises of all

history. iwerywhere me .. are reatlesa, for they feel tragedy in their

very joints, as a rheumettio gets stiff when rain is in the offing.

-153-

The issue before us is z can we make pe:aoe" or will we go on to

chaos? v'le are sure that we oe.ll ley the foundation for peace only if

enough men live by the will of God for the good of all men. Men

must .sive 1.1p the Norship of self. of privilege of money and with all

their heart seek love and live by the ~nn of God. Men and nations

who live by the will ot' God live by the hi;!;t'.est justice, the highest

servloe, the .t.'ullest brotherhood and the deepest goodwill with all

men. i'then men live by God's will they work for juetioe and right­

eousness for allJ brotherhood with all menJ and equal opportunity for

all men lr~eapeetive of color. creed or station. We believe, simply

put that men and nations muat live as Christians; that is, they must

praotloe the Fatherhood of God and the br:::>therhood of man.

'fie believe that the church has four functions which it ~tlone oan fulfi 11,

1) It is the only institution that works with people from birth

throut;h the experience of whtst we cllll death. And of C·)Urse, it ~~

the oxtly inetitution that is dedicated to hel!Jiag the individual find

a.tl.d .l<.!tow and love and live ·by the will of Qod

2) It is the .::>uly institution that works Nlth the thJ.tire fa.mily am

it believes that the fan:.ily is the true church, am that only e.s the

ohuroh becomes the ohuroh in the family does l t fulfill i. ta truest

mission..

3) It is the only institution that h dedicated to finding e.nswers to

questions upon which all other answers depend for meaning •• ae,

ilha t is the purpose of lii'e? ~~hy were we orea ted T iHw t is the secret

of prayer 1 lihr t is the secret of life 1 .H.ow may we f lnd a faith

-154•

t_;l'l:ltlter than life a.od denth·? ;;•h&.t is the secret of overoomir;,g?

'mwt is the sec.tet of' pes.oe ana power? .low oan we find the chain

reaction that will li.u.k hEuu·t with tlEH'~rt i.nd all heE<rts with Joo

until finally all ~l&.tiot1S ~,re melted together into Ocl.e beloved

family?

4) '?he church is the only instl tution th&t enn call all agenoiet,

and incentives and resources into 11 teamwork: in the guidanoe ot

gro-rilng; life with the fullest meitning of religion. It is the or:.ly

institution thnt h•s entree to the ho.me, to the person. It is the

•) .. ly institution that can take these incentives and hallow them and

uring them to 11 hie;h dedication.

'/Ve add one more thought. the church is a family of families ·- the

body of which the f8.Blily is a cell and it is the only f&mi ly many

persons know.

7. Reg!irdin~ the Christian Eome.

l'Je believe that the home is instituted of God and is part of his

sacred plan for the fullest development of the sons of' God. ~e

believe in monoge.xq .. one man e.ri\ one woman l1 ving, in true devotion

to each other as long as they both live. We believe that young

people have their best chance for 8'-.lccess in marriage who save the

fullest sharing with one fitlother until marriage.

Ae believe 1 t is tM task of the home to help the church g1; ide youth

so us to be big enough in loye lty to God lllil the way of Christ, big

enough in understanding, big enough in arpreo iatiou to love Ol:l!!l

-155-

peraon a lifetime and to be loved by one person a lifetime. V'ie be­

lieve that young people ere wiee to marry those of a similar faith

and with a llli.mi lar phi loaophy of life.

We believe the home is that amall unit of the Churoh of Christ where,

if those who mek.e it up l1 ve by the ~H ll of God, the Kingdom of God

first comes to the earth. If the home is vitally related to the ohuroh,

it is God's greetest power to help persons grow to be His true son&

and daughters.

e. Regarding Life ~verlasting.

We believe that each perao.: has the possibility of experiencing three

birthai first he is born into the physioal life. Then he may be

born spiritually which is a new birth. This takes plaoe if and when

Christ becomes alive within hb~. And third, whst we call death is

birth out of the :rnaterial into the immaterial out of the physical

body into one that is spiritual.

When the third birth takes place, the physical house in which he lives

oan no longer serve as !,is dwelling place. 1Ve usually refer to this as

death, but we believe that how one thinks arld how one lives will have

a lot to do with the leng;th of' service in the body. We believe that

God hns created all of the stuff to make these bodiea pOS8ible, and

we believe there are amazing protections for the body and for ita

healing and suateining. But in a fundamental sense we believe that

God is the Keeper of the person and the person is the keeper of his

body. ~e see things happen to human bodies sometimes through an ex•

eessive use of energy, sometimes throup;h e.n unconscious or deliberate

-156

breaking of the laws of health, soa~.etb,es due to wrong thinking but

we heve yet to see a person e. soul 1 tae lf being hurt. who hss a

faith in God. Bodies may fail to serve ~~ the dwelling place of persons,

but the spirit is ever triumphant and victorious when one hss faith

in God because God is the Keeper of the spirit. We believe in the

immortality of man because it is a necessary o molusion from the fact

of good living. As we believe that good living involves a living in

the spirit as well as the body, we must believe in death as the end

only of' the body as such.

We believe that when one experiences the third birth that ~t&t is not

the end. The person is the height of God's creation and he is not

finished. The body returns to the good earth ana the universe con•

serves the energy that is the body, and, therefore, we believe thst

God will conserve eternally the energy thet is the person the soul.

lie believe in the immortality of the eoul because Jesus taught 1 t,

because the spirit of Jesus is still alive. We believe in it because

the universe that conserves all energy would certainly not reverse

itself and destroy the soul. fie believe in i~~~nortality beoetuae through

the generations the hi th perai sts ani it must have son.e secret anBWer.

~e believe in immortality because no thought is more wonderful and

sustaining to one who loves than that hie departing loved one lives

on. Therefore. it must be true, for a lie could not sustain•

We admit that faith in immortality is &n escape. It is escape in

precisely the same sense thet Edison's invention of the inoandesceut

l~p was an escape from the blackness of the whale oil taper. lie

sought uoa pe from dr.trkness into light. When we believe in immortality,

-157-

we are seeking escape from a life with Hmi tation, a life designated

between two dates on e. tombstone, to a life that is endless and

eternf, l. "1 know the. t my Redeemer 11 veth."

If life 18 a journey and not s destine. tion it gi vea more understand-

ing of the he Us ti':rougr: which we pass. If life i B .aot a goal but a

going, we may expect ita discipline to ml.oiater more to our total

progress than to e passing pleasure, more to our holiness then to

our happiness. One thinks of all the withheld completions of life.

Just when the thinker feels hia mind 1s beginning to penetrate a

little into the darkness, the torch of life hisses and sputters and

goes out in the night. \'Y.hen the saint feels the. t he he.s begun to

climb a little wa.y toward Cr.riat on the cr·osa, the summons comes.

The painter'• masterpiece, the wweetest song poet ever sang, these

are hardly more than a hint of the beauty that lures the ertist*s

soul, but now the brush must be laid down and the singer's melody

OOJriElS fluttering and is gone. In t~l;'rly youth, two ge.ve themselve~ i.n loving devotion. The years have gone by &lid each year that love

ha1 become purer and more divine; gradually the sensual threada

have been withdrawn and the fabric is almost entirely spiritual

and the twair1 have become one. {•hen, all pe.uions spent. they feel

that now they begin to know love aud all its meaning. then separation

comes. Whet is the meaning of it all? These broken promises, these

voicea that call and keep oalling, the hopes that find no fruition,

those hunger• thet are never satisfied, are they sent to jeer and

jibe at ust Are they foundations upon which no eathedr~·l can be

•168-

built? Are they ahips that shall never sail the sea? Then life irl

not only a mystery, it is a mockery. Ah but the answer of faith is,

"These are the foregleamings of something greater that lies beyond J

these are the call of your own completeness which h laid up for you

on high." 'f•e journey through the night toward the rnystic mountains

of an eternal m.ornin&·

~ny of the oirowmstencea of life seem. designed to further our pil­

grimage, to lr:ee p us from settling do"!n, building s home and growing

e. hedge to hide the restless road. Our loves and friendships grow

stale unless we lr:eep adventuring on in faith and devotion) material

wealth and a sensual satisfaction pall and leave some deep corroding

discontent in the soulJ at the midmoa>t heart of our pleasures there

is some pain o.f longing. Life seems always to whisper, "Go on, go

on," and when we •om• to life's latest r.ight fall still that voice

tells of' something which is beyond the horizon. Haven't you heard_

it? - don't you hear it - that unutterable sigh at the hidden heart

of life? l!.ven desth with its apparent fine.lty seema to help to

oreate a quality/ of life that cries for something that trax~aoenda

death.

9. Regarding l'aptioh

We are told in the acripturea - "Unleaa you believe a.ud are baptized."

Baptism is an outer sign before the world that one is right with God,

right with him.,.lf and right with his :fellow men. It ia a tolr:en be•

fore the world and before God that one has been forgiven and that one

is cleansed within.

.l::lapti am baa a very pre.ctioal meaning a leo. The e&r ly Chrilth.na

were a desert people. They w~r• baptized «ith weter because it

was the most precious material thing that they knew. And when they

were bapthed with water it was the hope ttwt ever after when they

would see wt.,ter 1. t would remin.d them. of their promises. Just 8S today

when two ~ople e.re married. they give each other a ring m.tlde of gold,

the most precious material to us with the hope that ever after it

d 11 remind them of their promhes in llilf.rriat;:e•

10. Regarding the wrd's Supper.

:·;e ~:~e Ueve th£~. t Jesus inati tuted the Lord' a bupper for aome very hun,an

reesona. After living .vi th hh disciples tor a short period of th.e.

lie k.oew thet they might forget whet he hfid taught so he si.id. '*••hen

you break breed and parte ke of the cup, do 1 t in memory of •e." .And

furthermore in the breeklng of bread wes '' Si&•' o£ purity. iihe.11

n•en e.te together au:l drao.lc together. 1 t wu: e. sign of comradeehip.

of kinship, none was unclear;., all ... elont;ed to the fellowship. 1Yhen

Jesus gevt- the bread, e & we look e.t the body of d.s tee.ehin.g,a, lie

must have hed me>ny thin..::• in mind. &oat of the sins or men are com•

mitted in their aearch tor bread. Jesus knew that if men win their

bread in the spirit of love f.lnd helpfulncu they will achieve the

greatest victory possible in human reletiona.

Ae one pe.rtakea of the bread, Jesus would remind him that just as

hh body needs material bread, 10 his spirit needs spiritual bread•

breed that eomea through prayer, thr.:,ugh medi te.tion. wo:rehip through

service and Christian fellowship, and through the 1 napiration of the

lioly Spirit.

-160•

In the taking of bree.d. Jesus would went us to be sensitive to the

uni verse.l effort of men to bring bread to the tsb lea of the fe.mi ly

of men - Jesus would have us remember that some of them work: e.t

starvation wages and they ory out "These ere our bodies broken for

you."

In the taking of brel:ld, Jesus would have us remember also that we

live in e.n interdependent world, thet a 11 work: together for the sue•

taining of each; and, therefore, eaoh in gratitude must give his

life for the good of the greatest number.

So we take bread as a token before the world that we are sinoere

in our devotion to Christ, that we are at peaoe with all men and

right w1 th God. We take the bread as an outeu· promise thet in our

atru;:-gle for bread we will l1 ve by the Golden Rule J that we will be

sensitive I!Ld thoughtful of the righta of others e.nd sensitive to the

struggles of others to bring breed to our tables, 8.nd that we will

live lives of loving service out of gratitude. As we take of the

bread we remember th8.t as our bodies ere euetained by material

bread, in like manner can our spirits be sustained only by spiritual

food. In the eating of bread we know that God in His inflni te love

has provided for the wholeness of the body. So if we eat in deep

oonsecrs.tion we by His power will work: for the kind of world in

whioh all His children ean have all they need for wholeness.

7ihen Jesus gave the cup, if we look at all his teachings, we can

hear him say many things. The cup represents the price of self•

denhl and self-surrender to the high end holy will of God. 'l'he

-l€1-

cup is eternal testimony that he who suffers most with true faith in

God will be greatest. No heart has ever been noble that has never

been broken.

Jesus would ren.ind us thnt he who has f~i th in God tu.d who has .valk:ed

in kinship with God oe..n take his cup of suffering and make 1 t luminous

with the light of tiod 's love and power J he can take his oro sa and God

wi 11 make it a throne. And as we take the oup Jesus would remind us

t~t just as our sins are forgiven us when we are truly per.itent and

ere ;removed from us as far as the east is frQm the west, ao we, too.

must 1 orgi ve the tau lts e r¥:l failures of our brothers. so that bitter­

ness may never enter our hearta and blight our lives.

So, whrn we tt1ke the cup, we give testimony to our share in the

Kingdom of God er~ of our willingness to share the price of it, out

reHdiness to surrender our wills ~nd deny ourselves so tl:li.t the will

and purpose of God may he.ve full sway i..:1 our life and that this cue

means to us ar.d to the world that we £re ruled by some high and

holy purpose within ua rather than by the circumstances about us,

so that we through Christ oan take those cireumstanoes those

tragedies, disappointments, defeats, arA build a stairway to the

light.

The cup is au eternal testimony that irrespective of the circumstances

of life, one can triumph; ths.t no matter what hhppen11 to the body,

the spirit can be victorious. They drove ne.i ls into Jesus' he.nds but /

never into Jesus.

-162-

In a deep sense the bre~d is a sign of God's loving provision for

the wholeness of the body, and the cup for the wholeness of the

spirit.

JHAP'r:~ X

A PRC(iRAi·; OF ON GCHl3 GRCw'TH FOH TH ~ HIGH~~r1 LA3T ~RY

Build thee ttore stately mansions, e my soul,

As the swift seasons rolll

Leave thy low-valll tod. castJ

Lat each new temole, nobler than the last,

3hut thee fro• H~~a.ven with a dome •.. ore vast,

Till thou at length art free,

16 Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea..

.. OU ver wendell Holme a

We are at the end of the adventure as outlined in these pages. If you

began s,grtously and followed steo by step ycu should be on the way, the

way for you.

In a deep sense the v.Titer has described his own trail, and the way ta.'<en

by ,r;any with whcm it was his Privilege to share the way of life. He is

past 60 and life is more exciting now and thrilling than ever before. He

rejoices that he lives every moment of the day and t.l'lat fuere is not one

act of' his life that he does not love. Yet he has not arrived. He has

just made a mere beginning, but the adventure is great. He does net know

what lies ahead but he has a Corcoanion who is totally present, 'w'ho sees

fron, the beginning to the end.

STA.'l.T T0 DSCIDE

In the adventure of seeking the mastery that overcomes tyranny, we have

to begin. In fact we continue to begin until we uass beyond the point of

no return.

A brilliant youn::: archi teet has grown up in tht:l church. lie has b >en doing

spiri tua.l research rtDs t of his life. One da.:-y, however, he made a new be­he

ginning. As he walked along the street,/threw away a Pi':!Ce of paper. On

returning, he saw a street cleaner gather it un and put it in the can on his

cart. Son;et.hing stabbed the youne man. 3a.id he, ttin nw thoughtlessness I

added tc the burden of the government. I arn part of the trend to nut rriOre and

rr1ore on t:r.e government until inst::•ad of being a creative citizen, I am a care-

less dependent subject."

He came to him.self. 3aid he, "Frcm now on, I'll be aware of every opportunity

to n.al<e life as pleasant as possible for my family. I' 11 take my place in my

church, in the Comrauni ty Fund, in ooli tical work, not only voting, but tc knm1

as much about ~ach office as if I were running, to know my nation, to be alert

to its great concerns, to exoress lt\Yr judgment tc those who represent ;;,e; to

know my world and take 8Very opport'J!li ty in prayer, in the ft of self, of

money 1 of leadership to be a world citiz an and tow ork with all t:ryd.ght for

peace. I &;; willin,:; i.f need be to die for my country but I'd rat.'1er live .for

it. 11

Another young J;,an who has inherited a faith, made a fresh start in this way:

"I don't know if God exists or not, but I' 11 live as though He does. I talk

to GoO. as to the most responsive person in the world. At first it seemed

silly, out stra.'lge to say, I began to feel dit'ferently inside. It is a great

feeling."

nr wok care of solile unfinished business. I had SOiue wron•:s to ri.ght. I had

borrowed sorr.e r'"oney in oolleg·a and never paid it back; I sent checks. I

hurt sons girls by thcughtless rejection; I went to each one to as}( forgive-

ness. 1 had made some careless statakEmts in secret criticis.n, about persons;

I straightened these out. 1Aith the unfinished business done, I was an,azed

how !'lmch bcttc::r = felt. 1 not only coul>,' loo:{ others in the +'ace but my sky

was more blue, I could live with myself.

"I had been a mezr.b3r of the church but it rueant nothing. l ohangsd chure."l-:las

so as tc have a chance to do work w1 th research in the secret of life. Soon

I was on the way to a new life."

In his book, "Ideas Have Legs," Pet,er Howard gives a very dynamic and beaut.iful

witness. It Ls me of the most vivid and helpful testin.onies of the power of

Goo in a life that anyone could read. How did Peter Howard ;~et to the nlace

where he oruld write such a book?

One day he was asked to go to a luncheon. He trie:t to get out of it, for he

had been told that he was to meet a grow~: of men who represented Ii1crt' al Rearma­

ment. It didn't souro good to him, but the invitation carae froth a man whom

he could not refuse. He wmt, anc. that luncheon eplit the calendar for Peter

Howard. Though he was not fully convinced llhen the luncheon w:as over, he was

determined to try SOIJJe of the suggestions. He went to his Glub and took a

niece of papar and \\Tote down all of the i te."s in his life that were unfinished.

He was anazed to discover how many there were. They included little dis­

honesties, unfai thfulnesses, broken promises. Hs bega.'1 to straighten these

thilli,s out.

Like the ;;,an already n.entionad, he oogan to set at the task of finishing his

unfinished business. Then he began to ask God 1 s guidame in his life. He

rr.areveled at the change tha.t too!~ olace inside of him. It was not long until

he discovered he was no loo:.~: :ir on his own. Slowly but surely he was moving away

--166-

from the little tyrannies tb at had enslaved hi:. toward an inner rr;astery that

set him free in every relationshio of Hs life.

In the first oha:pter of his 0ook, "Ideas Have Legs," he savs, "We are alive,

you and I, in an age when r:;.illiona drearnof death. Never, since man started. tc

run the world God made, has human agony been orgar,.ized by humans for humans

with such science and snccess.n 17

You r:ay want to go back and review the steos of the adventure you have just

taken. Then plan a progra~:< of li t'eti< .. e research.

· Hany find tl"..at the keys to spiritual mastery which Jesus gave to Peter are

clear staos that lead to the freedan we seek. If ycu wor::< for these keys

you move step by step tcrwards the c,,astery.

In the 16th chaoter of .i:·.atthew Jesus said to Peter that he rsave to him the

keys to the kiqgdot1,. Have ycu ever asked yr_•urself just what these keys are?

Once the writer was in a r11eeting in Illinois for the ordination of a minister.

The scripture that night w"S.s from the 16th chanter of ;_atthew. While it was

being raad, the writer asked, nwnat are th9 keys?'' It was aln;os t a shockin~

question. Revelation began to come to him ana it continued over a number of

years.

Surely the master key is prayer. As we come to win the nJB.ster key of orayer,

we , <;•; e then to the second key, which is the key of faith. Pra;rer is respond-

ing to God's rsvealing but we resnond with faith. We come to God not because

we know but because we believe. We cannot prove there is a God; we believe.

We o01ne to God on the basis of evidence that accu.Ji,ulates until finally faith

becomes courageous an:i we move Godward. Tr~is is the second ~'ey.

To lbat extent de you live by faith rathgr than by fear? Do you have a

faith great enough so that it banishes fear and anxiety? Are ycu moving in

tl-:ce direction you wish to go? F'aith is not only r?ason grown courageous, faith

is seeing clearly, and when you see clearly enough you no longer have anxiety,

you are no longgr disturbed but just concerned.

Coming to God by faith, then you know God, and you love. The third key is

the key of lO'le, and the goal is to come to such an exoerience of lcn;e that

hate and r!!sentment are banitshed.

As we come to God in love, then we are ready to accept, and this must be the

fourth key. Alcoholics Anonymous orint a Pr(\yer th.at is very wonderful:

"Give me the serenity to accept what cannot be changed. Give me the courage

to change what can oe changed. The wisdom to know one from the other."

It is very important that we come to the olace where we can accept ourselves

as we are, for only then can we move for1iard. Otherwise we run frcm O\lr­

selves, we delude ourselves. we must a.ooeot ourselves. Also, we nust accept

our loved ones, our children. vie must start where they are. 'fhis is ltlat

sales;,:.anshin is. 'fie bagin where the narson is and move from there. \rle rr.ust

accept others. Instead of h,posing goals uoon 1.her11 we accent them, we ;hOVe

froth there. We do not L.pose our wills uuon thea<, for this is ~,-ainst our

ohilosphy. l!Je believe in surrender to the hi~;h ~~.nd holy will, and therefore

we do not hpose wills that we ourselves have surr·end.ered to One who does

not in1ocse His 1t.'ill upcn us, as v-1e have seen.

J:iloreover, wa accept factcrs and ciraum~tances and conditions ac-: they are and

begin there. Some things cannot be changed. Those w~ accept.

physical preserx:e of a lcved one is lost, nothing can cl:1ange it.

lrJhen the

The

person is not lost but the phys ci al presence is lost. We have to accept

it. One of the greatest people in the writer 1 s na.rish is a YOUJ:lg woman who

is co:rrtplately paralyzed since contracting polio. She has accented the

situation, and what a glorious and wonderful soiri t she is 1 The key of

acceptance is an i~<-nortant key.

As we learn to win the key of acceptance, we move then to use more fully

--168-

the key of commitment. 4.nd we are moving toward mastery in the degree to

which we make a fu 11 gift of our 11 v es to God and His l :~a dersh in. This is

the whole meaning of mastery. He are no longer on our own. We no longer

Jive for the self'. We move out of the self and. make a full surrender, and in

the act, as we have said, we become the self. The end noint of a walled-in

penon is the catatonic. This is the J;,ost serious kind of mental illness.

The highest sign of health and wholeness is the ru.ll ;'ift of the s '!lf and then

the self is raally the self •

.,.'\.8 we win the key of con;~dtruent we are ready for the key of forgiveness, and

as we w"in this key, we are free frcm guilt, and resentment. ~v"e are free

from whatever bars us froth :icd and fror.; others. \t1e no longer have need. to

maintain anger toward a person and thus be bcund to hir:. \-Je corJ;e to the

wonderful realization that t..~e only way a perscn can hurt us is to make him

hate us. ~ve rise above it. We fcrgi ve and are forgiven a1d are free. \ve

are restored to union and life is fnlfi Had.

Anything that we have done in the past is no longar L,.portant when we haye

grorm beyond it, by the grace and 0ower of the holy snirit.

-169-

As we win the key of fcrgiveness we are ready for the seventh key, the key

of he ali~. 'Then we become dlannels of healing, of insoir.a.tion, of revela-

tion. 'l#e are channels of witness. God then is free to use us to reach out

to other neople, tc feed the hungry, to clothe the naked and to shane the

kind of world in "Ailich all of (}od 1 s children can win all they need for

elothing, for shelter, fer food, for healing, for renewal. And they are

ready, also, to come tc'· know the life that is His life within.

And when we have the seven keys then we are ready to m.ter into the 'r,ift

of eternal life nou, which is the key ring.

These keys, Bl.s you ~an see, are ways by which we ca.."l measure the growth of

our mastery. The degree of our becoming can be so rooasured.

If we are not moving in the direction of wirming these keys, then instead

of learning to pray, we beco~ an ill:1sion. Instead of the key of faith,

we have the tyranny of faar. Instead of the key of love, we have the

tyranny of hate. Instt~ad of key of acceptance, we have the tyranny of

-rejection. Inst ;ad of the key of eommitment, we have the tyranny o£' illusion.

Instead of the key of for~~ivenes.s, we have the tyranny of resentment and

guilt. Instead cf the key of healing we ha e the t;rranny of sickness in

which one beocmes the source of the T'lague. Inst,sd of the key ring, which

is eternal life now, the person is under the tyranny of the death wish and

the death fear.

A PfWGRAL OF' GRUvJTH

No one can tell you what yaur program should be. The inter;;;st raust be there.

The desire must be vivid. In the long run you do what yoo wish. Whatever

you want, truly, by the grace of God you oan achieve in the fH'iritual r:aalm.

There are areas in \ilich you , .. ay wish to develo' your a•astery. It is

important that you grow in your own sense of being. This we have been

saying a~ain and again -- that the most i n.portant fact in the world is

that you are. The further you go in this spiritual S3arah the greater· will

be your awareness, the gr,~ater your sense of being. It seems i:nereasingly

clear that the satisfactions of life do not come from what we cb but from a

state of spiritual ~HJi ng. If we have being then we de what we do because we

love.

Beyond being is ever the relentless challenge to become. There is no limit

to what you can becor:s if the living Christ :1 s within you, if' Christ lives in

you. Then your soiri t not only will live, then you not only will love what

is right but all 11 dtations itm)OS'Sd upon you by others or accented by you

begin to oe canoaled in the spiritual reaLm and nest of the lLitations even

in the physical realm are cancelled. At least they can be cancelled.

You may in your beoaning move toward 11astery on the level of your physical

life by the truth that Jr,aa.ns the wholeness of your booy. 7his truth involves

diet, the habit systen, of t.~inkinZ:; ar:d feeling, breathing, exercisinf, bodily

care and the degree to 'Which you recreate energy in the process of using it.

Your becoming, moreover, inclndes master;r ln your inter-personal relationships.

It includes nastery, if you are marri&d, in marriage; in your work, in your

citizenship in the local communi tv and in the world eow.muni ty. And basically

it inc 1:ucles mastery in coming t.o the greater s:;Jiri tual ifl.sight, in coming to

know and to love and to live by the v.1.ll of God in all the relatinnshl.ps of

life; in knowing more and ncre the leadershi n of Christ within your life.

For yo·.:.. to excel in your work and fail in health, or to exctll in your health

and fail in love ana friendship, is tragic. Life is only fulfilled when you

grow in your becoming in avar-j 1.umect of your living.

Thera are disciplines !'or the ongoing research. One o_f the dis:::iulines is to

lem-n to trust. This ia im-olied in al~r.ost everv pa'e of this book. It is one

of 'W.!:i! keys, but it beocrMt~3 speci fie now in yuur state of being and becaning.

In his autobiogran~ "The Living of ·J.'hesr3 Days," Dr. Fosdick tells now tll1ca

he almost gave un the ~r.inistry and the f~t that turned the tide fer him was

that he Jtl(IVed to a new level of s::iritual awarenes~h ::i'J.ddenly he became cl ar

just what Ha.rrv· -Imeroon Fosdick meant to God and God 1 s eternal nlan -- that

is, lfhat God could do throu~;:h hiLt and what io~truld never be c!t:ne if he refused.

lf<is was the act not only o:.· :~aiti'l but of cotuDlete commitll>e:nt.

Another disr;.i::lirH3 Ls an il.l-o-:.1i: couu>itrr.em:.. Ml hold r;cthl::" 'Jack. 'I'his w::.s

on.: of the keys. It ia basi~ t.l" the master; we ss-.?k, for we only find mastery

by giving ourselves fully to tiH: leadershb of Goo in our lives. _;.n fact, we

or~.,!.y b:cot:.e ourselves in th:a full ~;ift of ourselves. And just &<13 the loY'lr

continues to r:;a:f'firn, his lov·~ ?.P..d H•e worshinar tc r~~af'f'irr,: his faith, sn one

in this sniri tual aJventure nnkss a ccm~mitm.ent over and over again. He vives

his time, he dedica'es his wcrk and her •a.Hzes that his noesessicns re

God's, that he is '.;od 1 .s bank~r and then~i.'c:rt: he pays ird .. <~r st for the use ot

these oossessic:ns. '[he Bible i.'r1(1.cates tea per cent plus an offering. [f w··

trust ,}c d full,y, th is i m as tile n t 1 s !kad e bef ere taxes J if w d tru.s t Hi less,

afbr tax s. dut the 'l!oTiter has fcund that to t.r;..tst Him in this re;.·.ard is Oneil

of' the n.<>s :. thrUling sn iritual adventur"'•s any •;~ar, can tnake. In tha end we have

only what we ,;;j.v'3. ;_;nen we liv'3 by this high faith in the ,.·ift cr self, of

ti ":.1 of prayer pa.rer and of n,t:ne;r, we msk~ the amazir.,.g di;:;cciV:Jry that. we

have not :really given; we 9nd up having.

A third dis::::inline is to taka the open~ugs tJ1at con:e and tc nray tc have

our eyes op:med to be aware. This does not m®an that we alwa;y"B say 11Yes"

_;;172-

but we only sq "No" in the deepest prayer. God always gives us the strength

to do what His holy will leads · . .;.s to co. If we are moving truly into mastery

then what we do actually takes ll ttle energy. In fact, en.ezy:yis recreated in

the very act of using it.

Taking these opening doors rneans then that the jobs within. the church and

beyond the church get done and gat done not out of oughtedness but out of

love. .Horeover, there is a moo.entum of effort and an e:x:preseion of concern

in project grCY..lps am in channels of organized good will t.l-J.at work in the

loca.l commutrl.ty, that reach a_cross the nation and that roove in'OO the agonized

areas of the world.

It is the witnessing that wins neonle to this adventure, to JescJ.S Ghrist and

his way and tc ths commitment that leads to the nasterJ that i.s the fulfill•

ment of life. But it becor,,es such a ground swell of devotion. and service that

when put into one gr:;;at srjiritual packa: e could actually turn t.i1e tide -away

i'rcn. war toward neace.

The questicn is, will free men act out of lo e to build by the way of Ghrist·

or •Jill they be undone oy those llho are con.rr::i tted to the '~>ray of coercion and

tyranny? 'I'he test of all spiritual mastery lies in the eli ,ination of all

imposed tyranny on the lives of people.

We are in a crisis of history. The future belon:?S to us. The Golden 1.0e

is a possibility ahead. If Am~icans really wa11t oeace, if they really want

to keep the world free, they can do so.

T'ne hour is here when persons like us rr,ust do our part to change the trend,

to shift the e:~,chasis. It is the cr.1oial rLonent in all human history when

eac.h per son needs tc becorr.e aware and to rrlli.l.ce his all-out dedication to

the ideals of th<2 free world.

.... Jo. -U 1- .. ..._ Jlap4oftc Q\lOtecl 'b;y Artllu.r Compton in au ad4Naa t.o

17

51

55

6a

7l

101

tile Bcal'4 ot BelftW ot W..)Uactou UU1ven1t.7

a ... Ralph V..lAo ftinet l! 1!!!.!!:!.!. th4J IDt:latte. Boltba MeniU

3 .. 14vin IIU'khu

a.- autw~ loaea: at M!:raal Ooal!l· MaellillAn

5• JIIU'yiAGomte 4uiOU71 D!, ~!!! 'llliii&D J.lilni!lt J,oapau. P• 72

6- 'l, S. miot t !l:.la lock --l~ 8- Alexia Qanel: Pnl,!l'• MonhouM Qonaa

105 9- Cllriatian cet.m, AJI'il 3, 1940

115 10- Mltiti'Mr .,.bart. taMJA1:e4 'Dy a. B. Blakney. Ba:rper • l:rot.hera

1941. P• P

u6 u- W&l.t. Whi~: !!!I!! !z!!lt U9 12· Bl'1oh hel8: !!.! ~ .!£ Lorty. Barper aDd :Jzto'bllen pp.. 57, tt •

130 11· (tfrabla to l.oo&te aource)

lAo 1Jt.- t.eau.e D. Weatben-4: !!l !!! !!! lutfel'f .Aldaadon Cotea'bur;y

P• 36 ( t.uote4 from !!! !!!! .!!!!. lt!ylll! !!! Jxiatenoa 'b7 L117

Doupll. ftudaut Cbrlat.iarl MoveMnt. 1'l'eU Lt4. p. UO }

llt-3 u- •. Al.1en: ~ Ad;f-.rae

165 16- OUftr ._..U Bolaea: a!, ~red lautilua

166 17• Pnll' JIGtMt'ds !!'!!!!!!! 1!!1!.• Coal'4 KcCaa P• 1