in fact, are transformed into willing servants of a conscience that works by love. The Christian's peace passeth all understanding, since it keeps the heart and mind serene in the hottest of the fight. "Love, Joy, peace, long-suffering." This is a marvelous thing. "It does not strive, or cry, or cause its voice to be heard in the street," yet it exists both in the street and in the home. The newspapers say little about it. It is silent by nature. Historic heroes have it, but it is more often in obscurity. Behold it in the tenement house and behind lace curtains. It is in the ill-mated household. It is tied in marriage to a drunkard. It goes cold, hungry and ill-clad to save for the children's Christmas. It stands white-faced, serene and silent, before the tempest of passion and the sting of scorn. Difficult things become easy. It is a fruit of the Spirit of God, belongs to the member of the Church within the Church. It is the only apostolic succession. “Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness.” Not that bland evenness of temper which is natural to many. We now study only spiritual development. Naturally one may be brusque, gruff, sharp-cornered. His pride makes you tingle, by reason of his arrogance. He becomes kind, when he shifts the center of control and is considerate of others' feelings, observing of others' need. The kind man likes the children and is in turn beloved by them. He has a wholesome interest in trifles and is not misled by anxiety. All hail to the "heart at leisure from itself to soothe and sympathize. "Love, Joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness." Are not all the rest good? Certainly. There is a unity implied, but the word goodness describes some people. They are not always brilliant, but they always succeed, because goodness is success. It is not considered essential to all callings, certainly it is not the distinctive trait required in any occupation, but it is necessary to success in them all. Some think goodness a requisite for missionaries and preachers. It is no more necessary for them than for lawyers or plumbers. "Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness." Being counted on. Freedom from vacillation. Steady steps forward. "Doing ye nexte thinge." Putting the hymn book into the ledger. Emulating the constancy of machinery without its slavery. “Love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness." It is very hard to give an acconnt of this quality. It is a complex state, not a single virtue. The apostle's order is significant, at least, to this extent, that having developed some degree of love, joy, and the rest, we have by that fact, reached some stage of the development of meekness. A little child might get a very wrong idea of Moses if told that the great general was “the meekest man." He might suppose that Moses was a soft, retiring nature, who always took Aaron around with him to do his talking for him. Meekness is a great power moving with ease and gentleness. It is more akin to the singing of the spheres than to the helpless and gentle butterfly. It adds tenderness to majesty. It is capable of snap and thunder. Cromwell was not perfect, but somewhat meek, likewise Luther. Paul is the best illustration of his own preaching. Meekness is a high grade quality of spiritual, in dominion over animal nature. "Love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance." Self-control, self-direction, self-restraint. Love crowns and includes all. Temperance harmonizes all, and excludes that which hinders harmony. It tunes and orders each faculty. Every power of the mind and body is to be trained, subordinated, brought into harmony with every other. The ranges of faculty are physical, mental, social, moral and spiritual. In all these respects every man begins in the seedform. Since temperance is harmonized human nature, it is at once seen that it must be the last of the fruits. It is the last stage of the ripening process. It is the full blush and flavor of autumn. It cannot appear wonderful to us that the apostle, when moving on this plane of thought, forgot whether he had administered the rite of baptism to two, three or more Corinthians. The question was not one of circumcision or uncircumcision, baptism, or any other ism. It was the grand truth that man is made with the ability to avail himself of the power of God. Paul's altitude is too great to permit him to see small figures in the valley. He has nothing that he cares to say about methods, opinions, creeds, organizations, parchments, hieroglyphs. This is a modern art. It differs from Paul's perspective, as Pre-Raphaelite pictures without background, differ from the best modern paintings. Paul knew that his business was to develop men in Christ Jesus. He has been describing the character of the one whose name is above every name; who entered the door of the first Christmas under the shadow of illegitimacy; who became a common carpenter,-a great teacher, yet without the education of the schools, without ordination and indorsement, without aid of literature, without working a single wonder for personal advantage, without organization worthy of the name, without the wealth of a fox or a crow, without effort at oratory or government, with absolutely nothing, save his perfect life, at which men could point and say, "This explains his power." He has transformed the world, not with three years of public life, in which he only planted the germs of Christianity, but by nineteen hundred years of development. The fruits of the Spirit in men and nations are the fruits of His presence. The correspondence of Christian civilization with the New Testament portrait of our Lord, demonstrates Christ a presence and not a memory alone. The trustworthy vision of His present face leads us "into all truth." We are not dearer to him for being Congregationalists, or Baptists, or Roman Catholics. We are valuable to him solely for our humanity, since to be a man is to be a developed man,―to reach our type in the Son of man. We are to be docile pupils in the University of the Spirit. In the seed form today, we are to germinate sunward, responding to summer in the soul of God. Here we can all agree. We are not asked whether we believe in this, that, or the other- small and impertinent dogma. No man is ashamed of the life of the Spirit, therefore let him say so in as many ways as he can. We are to count ourselves worthy to lead our one life in the best way. We are to see and confess in all practical forms the intrinsic value which makes man, man; God, God; Heaven, Heaven; and Earth habitable by reason of the fruits of the Spirit. "Theology as well as astronomy may be Ptolemaic; it is so when the interpreter's church, with its creeds and traditions, is made the fixed point from which he observes and conceives the truth and Kingdom of God. But theology may also be Copernican; and it is so when the standpoint of the interpreter is, as it were, the consciousness of Jesus Christ, and this consciousness, where it is clearest and most defined, in the belief as to God's Fatherhood and His own Sonship. Theology in the former case is geocentric, in the latter heliocentric; and only where the Sun is the center can our planetary beliefs and churches fall into a system which is but made the more complete by varying degrees of distance and difference of orbit."-A. M. Fairbairn. A Greylock Pulpit. A STATEMENT OF BELIEF. [A Paper read Dec. 28th, '94, before a Council of Congregational Churches, called to install Rev. Alford B. Penniman. pastor of the Congregational Church in Adams, Mass.] BRETHREN AND FATHERS: If I understand the temper of this honorable body, you desire me, without apology, to present a fairly adequate statement on the great themes of our faith, touching a common Fatherhood and Brotherhood. The emphasis given the several truths is presented, not as a fixed thing even for myself, much less dogmatically for others, but as obedient to the light of coming days. The point of view is that of vital faith, and the stress given is born, not of an effort to harmonize truth with truth, but to apply truth to life. Lest any eagerness of statement should be mistaken for a polemic tone, let me disclaim all antagonism to any real faith, whatever its form. GOD. I believe in an infinite and perfect being who has revealed Himself in my experience and to my reason as one, yet varied and complex: as personal, transcendent, immanent and just. He is one, as against the primitive fancy of polytheism, as against the modern error of tritheism. Unity is the first necessity of personality. God is not identical with Nature. He transcends his creation and abides in it. The soul of man is a part of His permanent residence. In the fullness of time God disclosed the richness of His nature. Father, Son and Spirit are more than mere theological terms. They are vital and real, not formal. They belong to the sphere where evidence enough for belief has proceeded in advance of comprehension. God is just, a true and filial parent, loving all. His transcendence does not contradict His immanence or His moral image in man. deny Himself.” "He cannot |