Book: In His Image

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It is better that the audience, when it breaks up, should gather into
groups and discuss what the speaker said than to go away saying, "What a
delightful speech it was," and yet not remember the things said. Whether
the statements made are true or not it does no harm to have them
challenged; if some dispute what has been said and others defend the
speaker it is certain that thought has been aroused, and thinking leads
to truth. That is why freedom of speech is so essential in a republic;
it is the only process by which truth can be separated from error and
made to stand forth in all its strength. We should, therefore, invite
discussion.

While acquaintance with the subject and heartfelt interest in it are the
first essentials of convincing speech, there are other qualities that
greatly strengthen discourse. First among these I would put _clearness
of statement_. Jefferson declared in the Declaration of Independence
that _certain_ truths are self-evident. It is a very conservative
statement of an important fact; it could be made stronger: _all truth is
self-evident_. The best service one can render a truth, therefore, is to
state it so clearly that it can be understood. This does not mean that
every self-evident truth will be immediately accepted because there are
many things that interfere with the acceptance of truth.

First, let us consider depth of conviction. Some people take their
convictions more seriously than others. In India I heard a missionary
speak of another person as having "no opinions--nothing but
convictions"; while one of the enemies of Gladstone described him as
being the only person he ever knew who "could improvise the convictions
of a lifetime." Depth of conviction gives great force to an individual
when he is going in the right direction, but he is difficult to change
if he is going in the wrong direction. When I visited the Hermitage for
the first time they told me of an old coloured man, formerly a slave of
Jackson's, who survived his master many years. He was, of course, an
object of interest and many questions were asked in regard to Jackson's
characteristics. One visitor inquired of him if he thought Andrew
Jackson went to heaven. He quickly responded, "If he sot his head that
way, he did."

Prejudice also delays the spread of truth. People sometimes brace
themselves against arguments. If I may be pardoned a personal
illustration I will cite a case of political prejudice that came under
my own observation. I was speaking in a town in western Nebraska, an
out-of-the-way place that I had seldom visited. A friend heard a man
say, "Well, I never heard him and I thought I would come and see what he
has to say." And then, with a determined look upon his face he added,
"But he will not convince me." Political prejudice is not so hard to
overcome as race prejudice and race prejudice is not so deep-seated as
religious prejudice; but prejudice of any kind, whether it be personal,
political, race, or religious, seriously interferes with the progress of
truth.

Narrowness of vision often obstructs acceptance of truth. One must be
made to feel interested in the subject before he will listen to that
which is said about it. Aristotle has suggested a means by which each
one can measure himself. "If he is interested in himself only he is
very small; if he is interested in his family he is larger; if he is
interested in his community he is larger still." Thus he grows in size
as his sympathies expand--the largest person being the one whose heart
takes in the whole world. In proportion as we can enlarge the horizon of
the hearer we can increase the number of subjects to which he will give
attention. The minister has an advantage in that he deals with the one
subject about which all mankind thinks. The soul yearns for God: it is
man's highest aspiration and his most enduring concern. When one's
heart is changed--when he is born again--he listens to, understands and
accepts arguments that he rejected before.

Selfish interest is one of the most common obstructions to the advance
of truth. Very often this difficulty can be overcome by showing that
the party is mistaken as to the effect of the proposed measure upon his
interests. Fortunately in matters of government a large majority of the
people have interests on the same side and the real task is to make this
plain. Where there is a real opposing interest, argument is of little
use unless it can be shown that the public welfare outweighs the
personal interest--that is, that a public interest is large enough to
swallow up the interest that is private and personal.

Whenever one refuses to admit such a self-evident truth, for instance,
as that it is wrong to steal, don't argue with him--search him; the
reason may be found in his pocket.

Next to clearness of statement, I would put conciseness--the condensing
of much into a few words. This is a great asset to a speaker. The
moulder of public opinion does not manufacture opinion; he simply puts
it into form so that it can be remembered and repeated; just as my
father used bullet-moulds to make bullets when he was about to go
squirrel hunting. The moulds did not create the lead, they simply put
it into effective form. Jefferson was the greatest moulder of public
opinion in the early days of this country. He did not create Democratic
sentiment; he simply took the aspirations that had nestled in the
hearts of men from time immemorial and put them into appropriate and
epigrammatic language, so that the nation thought his thoughts after
him, as the world is now doing. The proverbs of Solomon are priceless
for the same reason; they are full of wisdom--wisdom so expressed that
it can be easily comprehended.

When I was a boy my father would call me in from work a little before
noon, read to me from Proverbs and comment on the sayings of the Wise
Man. After his death (when I was twenty) I recalled his fondness for
Proverbs and read the thirty-one chapters through each month for a year.
I was increasingly impressed with their beauty and strength. I have used
many of them in speeches. The one I have most frequently used in the
advocacy of reforms reads: "A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth
himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished."

I have often used a story to illustrate how much can be said in a few
words. A man said to another, "Do you drink?" The man to whom the
question was addressed, replied rather indignantly, "That is my
business, sir." "Have you any other business?" asked the first man. The
story is not only valuable as an illustration of brevity but it has a
moral side; if a man drinks much he soon has no other business.

In this connection I will speak of the words to be employed. Our use of
big words increases from infancy to the day of graduation. I think it is
safe to say that with nearly all of us the maximum is reached on the day
when we leave school. We use more big words that day than we have
ever used before or will ever use again. When we go from college into
every-day life and begin to deal with our fellowmen we drop the big words
because we are more interested in making people understand us than we
are in parading our learning. The more earnest one is the smaller the
words used. If a young man used big words to assure his sweetheart of
his affection she would never understand him, but the word love has but
one syllable, just as the words life, faith, hope, home, food, and work
are one-syllable words. Remember that nearly every audience is made up
of people who differ in the amount of book learning they have received.
If you speak only to those best educated you will speak over the heads
of those less educated. A story is told on a great scientist who made
two holes in the back fence and showed them to his wife, explaining that
the big hole was for the cat and the small hole for the kitten. "But
cannot the kitten go through the same hole as the cat?" inquired his
wife. If you use little words you can reach not only the least learned,
but the most learned as well.

Illustration is one of the most potent forms of argument; we understand
new things by comparing them with what we know. Christ was a master of
illustrations--the master. No one of whom history tells us has ever used
the illustration as effectively as He. He took the objects of every-day
life and made them mirrors which reflected truth. His parables give us a
wide range of illustration--the Sower going forth to sow, the Wheat and
the Tares, the Prodigal Son, the Wise and Foolish Virgins--in fact, all
the illustrations that He used might be cited to prove the power of this
form of argument.

The question has been used throughout history; at every great crisis the
orators of the day have used the question form of argument. Its strength
depends upon the completeness with which the speaker includes all of the
essentials involved in summing up the situation. The greatest question
ever presented as an argument was that in which Christ concentrated
attention upon the value of the soul. No one will ever place a higher
estimate upon the soul than Christ did when He asked, "What shall it
profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"
No greater question was ever asked, or can be asked. (See Lecture, "The
Value of the Soul.")

Courage is the last attribute to which I shall invite your attention.
The speaker must possess moral courage, and to possess it he must have
faith.

Faith exerts a controlling influence over our lives. If it is argued
that works are more important than faith, I reply that faith comes
first, works afterward. Until one believes, he does not act, and in
accordance with his faith, so will be his deeds.

Abraham, called of God, went forth in faith to establish a race and a
religion. It was faith that led Columbus to discover America, and faith
again that conducted the early settlers to Jamestown, the Dutch to New
York and the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock. Faith has led the pioneer across
deserts and through trackless forests, and faith has brought others in
his footsteps to lay in our land the foundations of a civilization the
highest that the world has known.

I might draw an illustration from the life of each one of you. You have
faith in education, and that faith is behind your study; you have faith
in this institution, and that faith brought you here; your parents
and friends have had faith in you and have helped you to your present
position. And back of all these manifestations of faith is your faith in
God, in His Word and in His Son. We are told that without faith it
is impossible to please God, and I may add that without faith it is
impossible to meet the expectations of those who are most interested in
you. Let me present this subject under four heads:

First--You must have faith in yourselves. Not that you should carry
confidence in yourselves to the point of displaying egotism, and yet,
egotism is not the worst possible fault. My father was wont to say that
if a man had the big head, you could whittle it down, but that if he had
the little head, there was no hope for him. If you have the big head
others will help you to reduce it, but if you have the little head, they
cannot help you. You must believe that you can do things or you will
not undertake them. Those who lack faith attempt nothing and therefore
cannot possibly succeed; those with great faith attempt the seemingly
impossible and by attempting prove what man can do.

But you cannot have faith in yourselves unless you are conscious that
you are prepared for your work. If one is feeble in body, he cannot have
the confidence in his physical strength that the athlete has, and, as
physical strength is necessary, one is justified in devoting to exercise
and to the strengthening of the body such time as may be necessary.

Intellectual training is also necessary, and more necessary than it used
to be. When but few had the advantages of a college education, the
lack of such advantages was not so apparent. Now when so many of the
ministers, lawyers, physicians, journalists, and even business men, are
college graduates, one cannot afford to be without the best possible
intellectual preparation. When one comes into competition with his
fellows, he soon recognizes his own intellectual superiority, equality
or inferiority as compared with others. In China they have a very
interesting bird contest. The singing lark is the most popular bird
there, and as you go along the streets of a Chinese city you see
Chinamen out airing their birds. These singing larks are entered in
contests, and the contests are decided by the birds themselves. If, for
instance, a dozen are entered, they all begin to sing lustily, but as
they sing, one after another recognizes that it is outclassed and gets
down off its perch, puts its head under its wing and will not sing any
more. At last there is just one bird left singing, and it sings with
enthusiasm as if it recognized its victory.

So it is in all intellectual contests. Put twenty men in a room and let
them discuss any important question. At first all will take part in the
discussion, but as the discussion proceeds, one after another drops out
until finally two are left in debate, one on one side and one on the
other. The rest are content to have their ideas presented by those who
can present them best. If you are going to have faith, therefore, in
yourselves, you must be prepared to meet your competitors upon an equal
plane; if you are prepared, they will be conscious of it as well as you.

A high purpose is also a necessary part of your preparation. You cannot
afford to put a low purpose in competition with a high one. If you go
out to work from a purely selfish standpoint, you will be ashamed
to stand in the presence of those who have higher aims and nobler
ambitions. Have faith in yourselves, but to have faith you must
be prepared for your work, and this preparation must be moral and
intellectual as well as physical. The preacher should be the boldest of
men because of the unselfish character of his work.

Second: Have faith in mankind. The great fault of our scholarship is
that it is not sufficiently sympathetic. It holds itself aloof from the
struggling masses. It is too often cold and cynical. It is better to
trust your fellowmen and be occasionally deceived than to be distrustful
and live alone. Mankind deserves to be trusted. There is something good
in every one, and that good responds to sympathy. If you speak to the
multitude and they do not respond, do not despise them, but rather
examine what you have said. If you speak from your heart, you will
speak to their hearts, and they can tell very quickly whether you are
interested in them or simply in yourself. The heart of mankind is sound;
the sense of justice is universal. Trust it, appeal to it, do not
violate it. People differ in race characteristics, in national
traditions, in language, in ideas of government, and in forms of
religion, but at the heart they are very much alike. I fear the
plutocracy of wealth; I respect the aristocracy of learning; but I thank
God for the democracy of the heart. You must love if you would be loved.
"They loved him because he first loved them"--this is the verdict
pronounced where men have unselfishly laboured for the welfare of the
whole people. Link yourselves in sympathy with your fellowmen; mingle
with them; know them and you will trust them and they will trust you.
If you are stronger than others, bear heavier loads; if you are more
capable than others, show it by your willingness to perform a larger
service.

Third: If you are going to accomplish anything in this country, you must
have faith in your form of government, and there is every reason why
you should have faith in it. It is the best form of government ever
conceived by the mind of man, and it is spreading throughout the world.
It is best, not because it is perfect, but because it can be made as
perfect as the people deserve to have. It is a people's government, and
it reflects the virtue and intelligence of the people. As the people
make progress in virtue and intelligence, the government ought to
approach more and more nearly to perfection. It will never, of course,
be entirely free from faults, because it must be administered by human
beings, and imperfection is to be expected in the work of human hands.

Jefferson said a century ago that there were naturally two parties in
every country, one which drew to itself those who trusted the people,
the other which as naturally drew to itself those who distrusted the
people. That was true when Jefferson said it, and it is true to-day.
In every country there are those who are seeking to enlarge the
participation of the people in government, and that group is growing. In
every country there are those who are endeavouring to obstruct each
step toward popular government, and that group is diminishing. In this
country the tendency is constantly toward more popular government, and
every effort which has for its object the bringing of the government
into closer touch with the people is sure of ultimate triumph.

Our form of government is good. Call it a democracy if you are a
democrat, or a republic if you are a republican, but help to make it a
government of the people, by the people, and for the people. A democracy
is wiser than an aristocracy because a democracy can draw from the
wisdom of the people, and all of the people know more than any part of
the people. A democracy is stronger than a monarchy, because, as the
historian, Bancroft, has said: "It dares to discard the implements of
terror and build its citadel in the hearts of men." And a democracy is
the most just form of government because it is built upon the doctrine
that men are created equal, that governments are instituted to protect
the inalienable rights of the people and that governments derive their
just powers from the consent of the governed.

We know that a grain of wheat planted in the ground will, under the
influence of the sunshine and rain, send forth a blade, and then a
stalk, and then the full head, because there is behind the grain of
wheat a force irresistible and constantly at work. There is behind moral
and political truth a force equally irresistible and always operating,
and just as we may expect the harvest in due season, we may be sure of
the triumph of these eternal forces that make for man's uplifting. Have
faith in your form of government, for it rests upon a growing idea, and
if you will but attach yourself to that idea, you will grow with it.

Fourth, the subject presents itself in another aspect. You must not only
have faith in yourselves, in humanity and in the form of government
under which we live, but if you would do a great work, you must have
faith in God. I am not a preacher; I am but a layman; yet, I am
not willing that the minister shall monopolize the blessings of
Christianity, and I do not know of any moral precept binding upon the
preacher behind the pulpit that is not binding upon the Christian and
whose acceptance would not be helpful to every one. I am not speaking
from the minister's standpoint but from the observation of every-day life
when I say that there is a wide difference between the desire to live
so that men will applaud you and the desire to live so that God will be
satisfied with you. Man needs the inner strength that comes from faith
in God and belief in His constant presence.

Man needs faith in God, therefore, to strengthen him in his hours of
trial, and he needs it to give him courage to do the work of life. How
can one fight for a principle unless he believes in the triumph of
right? How can he believe in the triumph of the right if he does not
believe that God stands back of the truth and that God is able to bring
victory to His side? He knows not whether he is to live for the truth or
to die for it, but if he has the faith he ought to have, he is as ready
to die for it as to live for it.

Faith will not only give you strength when you fight for righteousness,
but your faith will bring dismay to your enemies. There is power in the
presence of an honest man who does right because it is right and dares
to do the right in the face of all opposition. That is true to-day, and
has been true through all history.

If your preparation is complete so that you are conscious of your
ability to do great things; if you have faith in your fellowmen and
become a colabourer with them in the raising of the general level of
society; if you have faith in our form of government and seek to purge
it of its imperfections so as to make it more and more acceptable to our
own people and to the oppressed of other nations; and if, in addition,
you have faith in God and in the triumph of the right, no one can set
limits to your achievements. This is the greatest of all ages in which
to live. The railroads and the telegraph wires have brought the corners
of the earth close together, and it is easier to-day for one to be
helpful to the whole world than it was a few centuries ago to be
helpful to the inhabitants of a single valley. This is the age of great
opportunity and of great responsibility. Let your faith be large, and
let this large faith inspire you to perform a large service.

Because the preacher has consecrated himself to God's service and seeks
divine guidance from the Bible and through prayer, he is able to speak
with absolute confidence. His trust is the measure of his strength;
because he _knows_ what Christ has done for him he knows what Christ can
do for others. His own experience is the foundation of his trust in the
Gospel that he preaches. Because a miracle was wrought in his own life
he knows that the day of miracles is not past; because one heart has
been regenerated he knows that all hearts can be, and that Christ,
through His power to transform the life of each individual, can
transform a world.

I beg you to prepare yourselves to proclaim the Word of God by voice
as well as with pen. You have a mighty message for a waiting world--a
message worthy of all your powers of heart and mind and tongue.




BIBLE STUDY


_P. WHITWELL WILSON Author of the "Christ We Forget_"

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_J.J. ROSS

The author of "The Kingdom in Mystery."_

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_FREDERIC B. OXTOBY_

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In simple, direct language, Dr. Oxtoby brings his readers into close,
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Bringing Back the King

Another Volume on the Kingdom. $1.00

Continuing his study of the Kingdom, the author in this volume sets
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An exposition of Galatians from the standpoint that its main theme is
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WORK AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE


_HUGH T. KERR_

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A New Volume of Talks to the Young. $1.25

The stories are drawn from history, mythology, the daily newspapers,
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_Author of "If I Were You_."

To Be or Not To Be

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_Rector St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Richmond, Va. Author of "The
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