05.05. The Present Opportunity

5 The Present Opportunity

It is always difficult to measure correctly the times in which we live. It has been said that no man can write the history of his own times. Consequently it is not easy for one to understand the spirit of his own age, and yet those who are called to lead must know something of that spirit; indeed, it is one of the essential qualifications for leadership. When the tribes came up to make David king at Hebron, it is said of the children of Issachar that they “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do,” and immediately afterwards it is further said, “all their brethren were at their commandment.” That is to say, the men that led were the men of Issachar, and all the rest of the tribes were willing to follow their lead. That was the qualification of leadership, “men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” To any of us God calls to leadership, and I do not mean only conspicuous examples, but those called into the ministry of the Word in any form, one of the prime qualifications is an understanding of the times. It is pre-eminently difficult to form an estimate in spiritual matters. There is a wide application in the words of Jesus, “The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” There are things about the blowing of the wind we do not know, so also with regard to the spirit of the age. And yet the Master rebuked the men who did not understand their own age. He said, Ye hypocrites, “When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather, for the heaven is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the heaven is red and lowering. Ye know how to discern the face of the heaven; but ye cannot discern the signs of the times.

Recognizing both the difficulty and necessity then, I want to speak first of the spirit of the age, and then to ask, Have we an evangel that meets the demand? The spirit of an age is not always to be discovered at first glance, or by a merely casual survey of the field. Much that is about us is the issue of a past, and the true spirit of an age is not to be defined by the general consensus of opinion, but by the single voices which are beginning to sound, which for the moment are startling and full of surprise. If I casually survey the age, the first thing which I notice is its materialism. We are cursed by materialism. Commercial prosperity has seemed as though it would grind under its heel all spiritual life. That is the general outlook. Yet if a man should say that the spirit of the age is that of materialism, he has missed the deepest note. He has not heard the deepest voice, but has taken the casual outlook. A general survey is not what we need. It was said of President McKinley that he was a great statesman, because he had the faculty of putting his ear to the ground, and listening for the things that were coming. It was a remarkable capacity. A man who knows how to listen for the new voices, and see the fresh visions is the true statesman. In the words of the Bible he is a man “who has understanding of the times,” and knows what the people ought to do. We don‘t want to be led astray by the clamour of the mob. We want to listen for the new voices, the voices which are forming public opinion. If that be understood, I want to say three things. I think that the spirit of the age is characterized first, by a revolt against materialism. That is the very opposite of the first impression. Yet I believe that to be the note which is sounding clearly at the present moment. And next there is abroad a new passion for the practical. Call it altruism, utilitarianism if you will. I prefer the other phrase because it is more simple. And the third fact is that there is a great sense present in the hearts of men today, of some coming visitation. These three notes mark the spirit of the age in which we are called to live and serve; first, a revolt against materialism; second, a new passion for that which is practical; and finally, a great, mystic, mysterious sense of some coming visitation.

First of all I suppose having referred to materialism, and then having declared that there is a revolt against materialism, it is perfectly fair to ask me to demonstrate my statement. One of the evidences that there is a revolt against materialism in the air is the marvelous and astounding growth of Christian Science. As to Christian Science itself I hold it to be characterized by an absence of the Christian, and an ignorance of science. But here is a great movement, and it is fair that we should ask, What does it mean? I have traveled in your railways over eighty thousand miles, and visited cities, and touched all sections of the Christian ministry, and there is hardly a place where Christian Science is not successful. It is not only that they gather into their fold fanatics or people characterized by neurosis, but some of the sweetest and best Christians have also gone over to them. What is the secret? Christian Science stands for two things: the negation of sin, and the affirmation of the spiritual. That is an attempt to get at the heart of it. It says, There is no material, everything is spiritual. Matter does not exist. It is a mental fault, a mental miscalculation to imagine you have matter. Thus they emphasize the spiritual, falsely emphasizing it as we believe, and absurdly too, but this very emphasis of the spiritual has been the attraction of a people tired of materialism. The materialism of the past said, Matter is everything, but today Christian Science says, No, matter is nothing, the spiritual is everything. The argument we hold to be ridiculous and absurd and laughable, but the underlying principle is the thing that draws the multitudes, a reaffirmation of the spiritual. And then the negation of sin. Here is where we supremely join issue with Christian Scientists. They are calling something Christian which denies atonement, because it denies sin. Any theory that denies the sin of man, and denies the Cross of Christ is something to be dreaded. And yet even though they deny the atonement of Christ, they endeavour to get rid of sin by denial. I do not hesitate to affirm that if the Christian Church had only been true to the Gospel of spirituality, and the Gospel of holiness, there would have been no room for Christian Science. And yet the presence of it in our midst is evidence of a revolt against materialism, and though it is but a will-o-the-wisp, that dances among the quagmires, men would rather have the will-o-the-wisp than the dense black darkness of materialism. It is a sign of the times. But still far more striking is it that the affirmations of science at the present hour most remarkably demonstrate the truth that the age is characterized by revolt from materialism. Huxley, Spencer, Tyndal, Darwin twenty-five years ago denied the reality of anything except matter. We heard much of the atom, of the protoplasmic germ, of the fortuitous concurrence of atoms, and these were given to us as the final solution of which man was capable, of the whole riddle and mystery of the universe. Lord Kelvin, the nestor of British scientific thought, perhaps the most remarkable living man of science, has said, that “Science positively affirms creative power, and makes everyone feel a miracle in himself.” He says, “It is not in dead matter that man lives, moves or has being, but in the creative and directive power, which science compels them to accept as an article of scientific belief.” The latest scientific pronouncement of the age is that there is something at the back of matter, that there is a spiritual force behind. Science has not yet gone far enough to define, but it has absolutely abandoned the position of twenty-five years ago, that all that is, is the accidental coming together of atoms. Darwin’s evolutionary theory has passed. The evolutionary theory has not passed but has come to stay. It is probably true in certain realms. But the evolutionary theory of Darwin is not held by reputable scientific men today. That some germ of truth lies within the theory there can be no longer any doubt, but we are now coming to see that while the evolutionary theory may have an application to the material realm, it does not account for spiritual life at any point. And the scientist is acknowledging it. Two very remarkable books have recently been issued. First that of Professor James of Harvard University, entitled, “Varieties of Religious Experiences.” This is a book written not from the standard of a Christian man, a book written not by a professor in a Christian Theological Seminary, but by a professor of psychology, plainly and simply upon the basis of scientific study of the psychological problems of life. He has gathered up all kinds of religious experiences, and after carefully and systematically examining his data, has made his deductions. Let me read you one sentence from the part of the book in which the Professor gives his conclusions. He claims they are scientific conclusions based upon an examination of data. “We and God have business with each other, and in opening ourselves to His influence, our deepest destiny is fulfilled.” Here is a scientific testimony that thousands of men are reading in this land today. Men that call themselves scientists, take this book up, and they read that after examination of the experiences of men, the professor has come to this twofold conclusion, first that man has dealings with God, and that human life can only fulfill its deepest destiny when man is submitted to the government of God. The influence of such a deduction by so eminent a scientific thinker is bound to be that of creating a revolt from materialism in the minds of thousands of the thinking youth of our colleges and universities. And yet once again, there has issued from the press, since Prof. James’ book, a book by Frederic W. H. Myers. The history of Myers is an interesting one. He was an Oxonean, and a pronounced High Churchman and during that period of his High Churchism, he wrote the poem of “St. Paul,” to me at least one of the most exquisite pieces of poetry in the English language. After that he passed into agnosticism, reverent agnosticism, never attacking Christianity, but declaring himself to be unsure. There he lived for years, became interested in the work of the Psychical Research Society, of the phenomena of spiritual existences as they manifested themselves in ordinary life, and outside the church. He has left two volumes, published after his death, the title of which reveals the subject. “Human Personality, and its Survival of Bodily Death.” Such a book is received by scientists, they will read this book, and they will not all agree that he has proved his case. But as Myers says, twenty-five years from now no reputable scientist will question the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead. In the next twenty-five years we have to speak to people in whom there will be a reawakened sense of the reality of the spiritual. There is nothing more encouraging than this, that in the world of purely scientific investigation there is a re-affirmation of all the things we stand for. The next note of the age is a passion for the practical. I need hardly stay, in speaking to American audiences, to prove the truth of this. You have a passion for the practical, for you have no respect for ancient things. Americans have no respect for institutions merely as such, and I confess I have the profoundest sympathy with them. It is the altruistic spirit which governs this great people, and it is in the van-guard of humanity at the present moment. The cry today is for an ethical and social Gospel. Everywhere men are crying for a social and ethical Gospel, for something that touches all needs of men’s lives. There is a passion everywhere for something that conditions actual life, and affects the details of every man’s doings. It is a true passion. The passion for the practical is manifesting itself in England in a new antagonism to Christianity. Robert Blatchford is writing the most definite articles of attack on Christianity. He is rousing the whole of the pulpits in England to consider and answer them. So strong a paper as the “British Weekly” has thought it necessary to devote space to answering these attacks. What is it this man is attacking? He is attacking the miraculous and supernatural elements in Christianity, the virgin birth of our Holy Lord, and His resurrection. Why? Because Christianity fails to do what he thinks she ought to do; and consequently this very antagonism of his is a new sign of the passion for the practical. And lastly there is a sense of coming visitation, of which we hear from all sides and from divers voices. Mistakes of interpretation there may be, but the general fact is recognized. Men everywhere are looking for something, they hardly know what.

Thus I hold that today the age is characterized by revolt against materialism, by a passion for the practical, and by a sense of daybreak at hand.

Now let me ask, Does our evangel fit the needs of the age? Have we any need to find a new evangel, or what shall we do? I submit that the evangel of Jesus Christ exactly answers the need created by the spirit of the age, for it is a protest against materialism, and an assertion of the variety of the spiritual; it is practical, or it is nothing; and the visitation that is to come must have as its essential notes the very evangel committed to us to declare. The evangel is exactly in harmony with the spirit of the age in its revolt against materialism. What is the Gospel that we have to preach? What are the notes of the Gospel? The first note in the evangel of Jesus Christ is the assertion of His Lordship. The preaching of the Lordship of Christ will answer this cry for spirituality. Kelvin has affirmed the Divinity of creation or the Deity at back of creation. Jesus long ago stood among the flowers and birds, and said, God clothes these flowers, and feeds these birds. The last scientific assertion synchronizes with the simple statement of the Nazarene long years ago, that at back of the flower, and bird, and everything, is God. Dr. James says, “We have dealings with God.” That is the last affirmation of psychological science. Listen, “Seek ye first His Kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” That is the answer of our King. The last affirmation of psychological science harmonizes with what He taught. Frederic Myers in his posthumous work affirms in this day human personality to be stronger than death, to exist after the death of the body, that man does not cease to exist when his body ceases to exist. That is the whole declaration of two great volumes. Listen. “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.” In neither of these cases did Jesus Christ defend what these men are affirming. They refer to them as discoveries. He referred to them incidentally, as established verities. What this age needs is to show that Jesus is Lord in the intellectual realm, and that the last things scientists are saying, are in harmony with the things Jesus Christ said centuries ago. He was not the half-educated and half-ignorant Galilean peasant some would have us believe, but supreme among men in the intellectual realm; and stated as the common-places of His knowledge, things which they have taken nineteen hundred centuries to spell out. He affirmed the reality of the spiritual. He told men what they need is eternal life, and eternal life is not a quantity, but a quality, life that touches the infinite, that is homed in God, that takes in eternity. All this sighing after the spiritual is to be answered by preaching Jesus Christ as Lord, and bringing men into submission to Him. He will lead them into life, and they will find they have an answer to their deepest cry, the sense of the spiritual. And then as to the passion for practical things. How is it manifested? We are told we must have a social and ethical Gospel. Where will you find it? It is a remarkable thing that these very men when they tell us what they want, refer to the Sermon on the Mount. Whose Gospel was that? It is the Gospel of our King. You say you want a practical Gospel, that this age must have a social and ethical Gospel. Well, here it is. But Christianity as it delivers its message is more practical than the men who are crying for practical things. Men are saying, We want an ethical and social Gospel. We don’t want to hear about the Cross. We have had enough of the Cross. Give us something social and practical. Christ is so practical that He never asks men to obey His laws unless they are regenerate.

Christ takes into account the paralysis in human life. You cannot build up a regenerated society unless you have regenerated men. You will find that Christianity is pre-eminently practical. It does not attempt to construct a living society out of dead matter, neither does it attempt to realize a pure order among corrupt men, neither does it attempt to give a perfect ethic to paralyzed individuals. It takes hold of the man first, and remakes him, and then remakes society. It takes hold of the man fast bound in sin, and breaks his chains, and then tells him to walk upright. Men will never be influenced by a social Gospel until they have heard and obeyed the Gospel of regeneration.

Let us thank God for the wider outlook of the age in which we live. Oh how many children are crying in the night, and with no language but a cry. Our business is to interpret the cry of the child to itself. Men want something. They will sob out all sorts of foolish things, and tell us what they think they want. Never let us forget that they will never have the satisfactory answer to their profoundest and widest prayer save along the line of personal regeneration. It is a sad thing indeed when a minister of Jesus Christ thinks of himself as an interesting entertainer, an intellectual instructor of his people merely, or a social reformer, or a political agent merely. He ought to have something else to do. The principal work to which he is called wherever he may be sent, is that of bringing individuals into touch with spiritual realities, and in proportion as he is able to lead men to Christ individually, he is answering the cry of the age for the spiritual, for the practical; and contributing to that great visitation for which men are sighing and waiting in the darkness. The voices of the age are full of hope. I know the other side. I know the pressure of the burden, and the apparent strength of sin. These are but the symptoms of a day. God is moving towards victory. May He make us fellow workers with Him.