03.04. Chapter 4

IV. THE PRELIMINARY ADJUSTMENT— SELF LOST AND FOUND

It is necessary that we take time to define the central term in this subject. The word self is in constant use, and has many shades of meaning, which we express by coupling it with other words, as we speak of a self-centred man, or a self-denying life, of self-consciousness, of self-assertion, of self-abnegation. Our enquiry then is as to the first and simplest meaning of the word in such common use.

It comes into modern English from the Anglo-Saxon, having blood relations in all sections of the Gothic or Teutonic branch of the Aryan family, being found with some slight modification of spelling in all of them. As to its origin nothing definite or final is known.

Two suggestions have been made by philologists of eminence, which I propose to name be cause I think they may help us in our study.

Skeat suggested that the word comes from the old form Selba, or Seliba, which again is made up of two words, Se, and Liba, meaning quite simply, left to self. But this, it is at once evident, is a definition which includes, in order to explanation, the word we are attempting to define, with another word, for se alone is the Gothic equivalent to the Latin se, meaning self. The word Liba, which radically means left, being added to se, intensifies the suggestiveness thereof by indicating the fact that it is self, with all other facts excluded. Seliba, therefore, means personality alone, left alone, considered in its actual being, without relation to other beings. The use of the word being in that connection is also suggestive, for the old Saxon word Liba is first cousin of lifan, which not merely means to leave, but to live. So that there is the suggestion in the word of existence, not merely exclusion of others, but the actuality and continuity of the thing left. Self therefore according to that definition, indicates some one being, complete in its loneliness, without reference to any other beings.

Kluge suggested that our word self has come from the old Irish Selb, which radically means possession, and that therefore the thought suggested by the word is finally that of lordship, ownership, and consequently of power, that is, of doing, rather than of being.

According to this definition the word self suggests the realization of being, the exercise thereof, but still within its own borders. The difficulty of defining the word is discovered by the fact that in attempting to do so, it is al most impossible to avoid making use of the word in the course of the definition. So that finally one is inclined to say self is self. For purposes of this study, however, I propose that we incorporate the two suggestions already referred to, for whatever the philological origin of the word may be, it is perfectly certain that in our use of it we do combine 88 Christian Principles both ideas. In that use self ever represents being and doing, and these in their inter-relation ships. It stands for the / am and the / can which constitute the sum total of conscious individual personality. I express the whole fact of my life when I say, / am, I can. It may be objected that there are other statements necessary to completeness of expression, such for instance as I think, I love, I act, but a moment’s reflection will show that these but serve to express the different possibilities of the I can, for in each case the I do is the outcome of the / can, I think being the activity of I can think, I love of / can love, I act of / can act. Therefore I repeat that the whole fact of conscious individual personality is encompassed and expressed in these two simplest of all sentences, / am, I can. In ordinary use, therefore, I submit that this word, self, suggests being and its necessary sequence of doing. Individuality has existence and potentiality. Self is that in any given instance which can say, / am, I can. In our study, then, the word self is used as indicating personality, such personality as has been defined in our previous considerations.

Let these then be restated briefly. Every human personality is spiritual in nature, has a right of access to God, which is also an obligation, and has as the method of its intellectual activity both reason and faith. Out of these facts all the activity of human personality proceeds. While man may live without recognition of the spirituality of his nature, and without exercising the right or obeying the responsibility of his access to God, he cannot live and act save in the exercise of that spiritual nature, and having relation to God either false or true by his exercise of reason and faith.

Leaving for the moment the first two of these principles it is perfectly patent that activity proceeds from the exercise of reason. Whereas the deepest truth of all is that as a man “ reckoneth within himself, so is he,” it is equally and consequently true that as a man reckoneth within himself, so doeth he. It is impossible in the case of rational beings that they should do anything which is not preceded by thought. The thinking may be subconscious, automatic, mechanical, but it is nevertheless present. The simplest acts of life are preceded by thought and decision. Therefore when we speak of self in this study, we refer to being, spiritual in nature, having a right of access to God, which is also an obligation, and having reason and faith as the method of the consciousness preceding all activity. A still further word by way of definition is necessary. The subject of the preliminary adjustment, self lost and found must be under stood not to indicate a discussion of the method by which man has passed into the condition in which he is conscious of something wrong, and of how it may be possible for that to be set right. Our subject is rather a discussion of the second half of that larger whole. We are to consider the subject of the preliminary readjustment of lives that are lost, the adjustment which Christ distinctly described as self being found by being lost, of life entered through the gate of death. This must be clearly before the mind even at the cost of tediousness of statement. I am not about to discuss how a man is lost in any evangelical sense of the word. To that I shall have to make passing reference, but in the whole argument it is taken for granted. I am rather desirous of stating the teaching of Christianity as to how a man lost, in the sense in which that word describes a common, human experience, may be found. The teaching of Christanity is that the lost life may be found by being lost in a new sense, thus ceasing to be lost in the sense already referred to.

This, however, makes it necessary that we should insist upon the fact that Christianity be gins with man as lost. On that subject the word of Jesus is all-inclusive and final. “ The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” That description of the condition of humanity harmonizes with the conelusion of the scientist to which I have made reference, when he said that one of the common convictions of religious experience is that there is something wrong about us as we naturally stand. Christianity accounts for that fact by its doctrine of the fall, both the original fall and the continuous fall. That doctrine I do not now discuss, but accept the fact by whatever term it may be described. My purpose is to state the teaching of Christianity as to how the “ something wrong “ may be set right, how the lost may be found. In this study for purposes of simplicity and lucidity we confine ourselves exclusively to the teaching of Christ. Let me first of all then, in broad statement declare what that teaching was. He consistently affirmed that in order to man’s restoration to right relationship with God, it was necessary that self should be lost. He declared, moreover, that whenever man consented to the loss of self, self would be found. These are the commonplaces and simplicities of our holy religion, and yet there are no truths which have greater need of new and forceful statement, and insistent emphasis than these. That man must lose in order to find himself has long been emphasized, yet never over-emphasized. The other side of Christ’s statement that a man losing himself does assuredly find himself has certainly not had adequate enforcement in the general teaching of recent years; and yet it is the final truth of the whole declaration that a man through the gate way of death, does enter into life, by the process of losing self does find not life of another quality, but his own life, the life he possesses by the first creation of God. But let us first give attention to this teaching concerning the necessity for the losing of self. The fact of the necessity is emphasized by the consistent and superlative demands of Christ. It was the perpetual burden of His teaching, and in some of His recorded words, where it may not appear upon the surface, a little thought and honest attention will reveal the fact that the necessity was always present to His consciousness, and always emphasized in His teaching. When after His baptism He set His face toward public ministry. Matthew tells us, “ From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” I do not propose here to enter into any discussion of the long-continued controversy between the Roman and Protestant theologians as to whether repentance evangelically is Recipiocentia or Poenitentia, but at once declare my conviction that the Protestant theologians were right, and that the word which Christ is reported by Matthew to have used at the beginning of His ministry is the one that reveals the real meaning of repentance. That word simply means a change of mind, and we do no violence whatever to the text if we read, From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Change your mind, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. That is the first call of the Master as He begins His work with individual men. By no means the final call, but it is always first, and the reason for it is to be discovered in the recognition of a truth already referred to in the present study, namely, that as a man “ reckoneth within him self, so is he.” If a man’s character is to be remade, his conduct must be remade, but if his conduct is to be remade, it must be by there making of his creed. Of course it will be recognized that I use the word creed in its simplest, and therefore its truest sense, not of a statement compiled by some, and recited by others, but referring to the conception, the conviction of the mind. In this sense it will be seen that the first word of Christ was revolutionary. He called men to change their creed, their conviction, their conception. In effect He declared that at the centre of their life men were out of harmony with essential truth.

Therefore their conduct was wrong, their character was wrong, and they were lost. That being the keynote of His ministry, it is interesting to follow Him, listening ever to what He has to say, and watching closely the effects He produces. Taking this latter first, one is impressed by the marvellous effect of His perpetual attractiveness. Wherever He went, men crowded after Him. But it is equally patent that He was for evermore repelling them, holding them back. Whenever the crowds gathered to Him, almost tumultuously assembling with such irresistible force did He draw them, He nevertheless withdrew from them, or sifted them, consistently revealing how hard a thing it really is for men to follow Him. When He saw the multitudes He left them and went up into a mountain, and as His disciples gathered to Him He taught them, not the multitudes, but the disciples; and the manifesto He gave them contains an ethic which, rightly interpreted, from beginning to end insists upon the necessity for a change of mind and a denial of self. The multitude followed Him and He turned and said to them, “ If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” He saw men trifling with sin, and revealed to them the only attitude toward sin which can possibly count in the tremendous process of remaking in or der to righteousness, “ If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee... If thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee.” An examination of the whole ministry of Christ in order to an appreciation of His teaching, will reveal the fact of His unvarying insistence upon the absolute necessity for denying self. In this connection let me make a remark which is old and almost commonplace, but yet which needs to be clearly understood. There may be all the difference in the world between a certain practice of self-denial, and denying self. The practice of self-denial may be cheap and easy, and may even contribute to the strengthening of the self-life. To deny self, on the other hand, is to deal with the whole of personality. When self is denied, neither wish, nor desire, nor call of the self-life is to be considered for a moment, save as it is yielded to the supreme arbitrament of the will of God.

Thus in a word, radical, drastic, and revolutionary, Christ perpetually confronts human nature as He comes in order to save it. This is not a popular doctrine. Human nature says, I am my own master, I can please myself, I will not be a slave, and in answer Christ replies, You are not your own master, you cannot please yourself, you must be a slave. So consistent and imperative a demandproclaimed by Christ must be based upon some ab solute necessity. Let it then be carefully noted that wherever Christ declared the necessity either directly or inferentially, He did so by putting the man to whom He spoke, into comparison with Himself. “ If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up His Cross, and follow Me.” The comparison is self-evident. The man is to deny himself in order to follow Christ, which most evidently means that Christ is moving in one direction, while the man has been going in the other, which is but another way of saying that Christ’s ideal of life and that of the man to whom He appeals are not identical. That, moreover, is the profound significance of the familiar passage, “ Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” His appeal is to men who are wearing a false yoke, and He calls them to wear His yoke; and so throughout His teaching He perpetually placed Himself in comparison with men, and thus explained the meaning of the tremendous claim He made that men must deny them selves. What then is the revelation of this teaching? That the “something wrong” — and I again quote Professor James’ phrase — in human life is that self has found itself in a wrong way, and therefore the first necessity toward restoration is the denial of self, and the loss of life. Man having taken his being and doing, the / am and the I can of him, out of relationship to God, is out of orbit, is inarticulate.

Therefore the man who says, I am my own master, I can please myself, I will be no man’s slave, is unable to master himself, never pleases himself, becomes the slave of forces which he does not know how to manage. To that man Christ says, Lose your life, in order that you may find it. Submit to the true Master that you may become master of yourself.

Please God that you may find the true pleasure of life. Be His bond-slave in order that you may become His freeman.

All this, however, becomes yet more clear as we turn to the other side of the consideration of the preliminary adjustment, and in this connection let me at once attempt to make definite and forceful the positive side of Christ’s teaching as contained in His superlative promise. “ He that loseth his life shall find it.” I have sometimes thought that there would be a value in a grotesque illumination of passages of Scripture. By that I mean the printing of a passage with one word which is generally considered unimportant, made to flame in letters of fire. If I were illuminating this particular text in this way, I would let all the words be in small and ordinary characters until I came to that last one of two letters, making the “ it “ arrest the attention, and demand consideration. Christ declares that a man losing his life shall find it. He does not say if you will consent to crucify the flesh, and crush the powers of your being, you shall find an other being, another kind of life, a new order of existence, but rather if you will lose your life, with its intellectual capacity, and its emotional power, and its volitional ability, you shall find it. Whatever may be the peculiar quality or quantity of your life, whether it be that of artistic temperament, or mechanical skill, you shall find it. All that a man is in his first creation by God, he becomes when he obeys the call of Christ, and denies him self. This may be stated in another way. No self centred man can paint a picture. There will always be something about it of inexactitude, of false impression, something of dust mingling with the colours, and robbing them of their brilliance. But if the artist will lose his life and paint no picture from self-governed motive, his picture will be true, in form and colour, in suggestion and inspiration, a veritable work of art. Christ has come to spoil no picture, to make discord in the midst of no music, to rob no man of his natural ability, but rather to create the picture, to make the music, and to find the man, and make him what God meant him to be. Account for the second birth as you will psychologically, experimentally it means the realization of the potentialities of the first birth. To return to our definition, self is the / am and the / can of individual conscious personality. A man yielded to Christ finds the / am and the / can. He finds the / am, that is the conflicting elements of his life are merged into a consistent and forceful whole, and instead of being at war within himself — and war is always hell, whether in a man, or a nation — he is at peace. He finds the I can, that is all his powers act with ease, and to the accomplishment of purpose, he thinks, he feels, he does.

All this may best be apprehended by illustration, and I shall take my illustration from the New Testament, and from the experience of the man who was perhaps in the apostolic age, the most remarkable witness to the power of Christ. Paul declared “ By the grace of God I am what I am,” and “ I can do all things in Him which strengtheneth me.” There we have the / am and the / can of Paul’s fundamental personality. He found himself when he lost himself on the way to Damascus. Blinded by the light that fell about him, he heard the voice of the Nazarene, and in answer to His call said, “What shall I do, Lord?” That question is a revelation of the fact that he denied himself. In that moment Saul of Tarsus placed Another upon the throne of his being, and handed the keys of all the chambers of the citadel to the Nazarene.

Judged by the standard of the lost world, Saul of Tarsus in that moment lost himself, he flung away his individuality, and gave up his independence, and the world is true in its thinking so far. But the years pass on, and I find him writing the words of essential personality, “ By the grace of God I am what I am.” “ I can do all things in Him which strengtheneth me.” His declaration “ by the grace of God I am what I am,” is not merely a declaration of the fact that Christ has triumphed. It is also a challenge to men to examine him, and find out what he really is, and he affirms, “ I am what I am.” He was a Hebrew, he was a Roman, he was a Greek. By blood he was a Hebrew, describing himself as “ Hebrew of Hebrews.” By citizenship he was a Roman, claiming all the rights and privileges of such relationship. By sympathy he was a Greek, speaking the language and profoundly interested in the philosophies. None of these facts were ended by his relationship to Christ. They were rather found and realized. I am Hebrew by the grace of God, and in my experience there is fulfilled the religious ideal which lay at the centre of Hebrew history and purpose. By the grace of God I am a Roman, and all Rome’s passion for government and power of empire is consecrated to the establishment of the Kingdom of God. By the grace of God I am a Greek, and all the Greek love of mystery and attempt to see to the heart of things is in me, enabling me to correct the false by the interpretation of the true. Then he also says, “ I can do all things.” And do not let us interpret the / can of Paul in a small way. The context reveals his meaning. He does not say, I can write letters, I can travel, I can preach. These were incidental things. He rather affirms, “ I know how to be abased, and I know also how to abound.”

I am able to do the small thing, or to take the high situation. I can maintain my dignity in the hour when I am oppressed. I can retain my humility in the hour when I am enthroned.

I can do all things. It is the word that tells of a throne found, and a kingdom administered. This losing of self then means adjustment to the essential and the eternal. It is return to orbit, of that which had wandered there from. It is articulation, the putting into joint of that which was out of joint. The man who claims to be his own master cannot realize himself, or find himself. The man who submits to Christ finds himself, and realizes his life. In dealing with the text “ They that have turned the world upside down have come hither also,” a preacher of rare insight made use of three divisions. First, the world is upside down anyhow; secondly, to turn it up side down therefore is to turn it right side up; thirdly, let us get at it. That is the whole philosophy of our subject. Christ found men upside down. He came to invert the order and put them on their feet, that they might see things in their true relationship, and live as they ought. This is preliminary only. There is much to do after a man’s order of life has been changed, after it has become articulate, but nothing can be done till that is done.