Joy Power | Page 8

in Christianity are those which give it power to save and satisfy, to
console and cheer, to inspire and bless human hearts and lives. The
thing that I desire most for Presbyterianism is that it should prove its
mission and extend its influence in the world by making men happy in
the knowing and the doing of the things which Christ teaches.
The Church that the Twentieth Century will hear most gladly and
honour most sincerely will have two marks. It will be the Church that
teaches most clearly and strongly the truths that Jesus taught. It will be
the Church that finds most happiness in living the simple life and doing
good in the world.

THE BATTLE OF LIFE

Romans vii. 21: Overcome evil with good.
The Battle of Life is an ancient phrase consecrated by use in
Commencement Orations without number. Two modern expressions
have taken their place beside it in our own day: the Strenuous Life, and
the Simple Life.
Each of these phrases has its own significance and value. It is when
they are overemphasized and driven to extremes that they lose their
truth and become catch-words of folly. The simple life which blandly
ignores all care and conflict, soon becomes flabby and invertebrate,
sentimental and gelatinous. The strenuous life which does everything
with set jaws and clenched fists and fierce effort, soon becomes
strained and violent, a prolonged nervous spasm.
Somewhere between these two extremes must lie the golden mean: a
life that has strength and simplicity, courage and calm, power and
peace. But how can we find this golden line and live along it? Some
truth there must be in the old phrase which speaks of life as a battle. No
conflict, no character. Without strife, a weak life. But what is the real
meaning of the battle? What is the vital issue at stake? What are the
things worth fighting for? In what spirit, with what weapons, are we to
take our part in the warfare?
There is an answer to these questions in the text: Overcome evil
with good. The man who knows this text by heart, knows the secret
of a life that is both strenuous and simple. For here we find the three
things that we need most: a call to the real battle of life; a plan for the
right campaign; and a promise of final victory.
I. Every man, like the knight in the old legend, is born on a field of
battle. But the warfare is not carnal, it is spiritual. Not the east against
the west, the north against the south, the "Haves" against the
"Have-nots"; but the evil against the good,--that is the real conflict of
life.
The attempt to deny or ignore this conflict has been the stock in trade
of every false doctrine that has befogged and bewildered the world

since the days of Eden. The fairy tale that the old serpent told to Eve is
a poetic symbol of the lie fundamental,--the theory that sin does not
mean death, because it has no real existence and makes no real
difference. This ancient falsehood has an infinite wardrobe of disguises.
You will find it pranked out in philosophic garb in the doctrines of
those who teach that all things are linked together by necessity of
nature or Divine will, and that nothing could ever have happened
otherwise than just as it has come to pass. Such a theory of the universe
blots out all difference between good and evil except in name. It leaves
the fence-posts standing, but it takes away the rails, and throws
everything into one field of the inevitable.
You will find the same falsehood in a more crude form in the popular
teachings of what men call "the spirit of the age," the secular spirit.
According to these doctrines the problem of civilization is merely a
problem of ways and means. If society were better organized, if wealth
were more equally distributed, if laws were changed, or perhaps
abolished, all would be well. If everybody had a full dinner-pail,
nobody need care about an empty heart. Human misery the secular
spirit recognizes, but it absolutely ignores the fact that nine-tenths of
human misery comes from human sin.
You will find the same falsehood disguised in sentimental costume in
the very modern comedy of Christian Science, which dresses the denial
of evil in pastoral garb of white frock and pink ribbons, like an
innocent shepherdess among her lambs. "Evil is nothing," says this
wonderful Science. "It does not really exist. It is an illusion of mortal
mind. Shut your eyes and it will vanish."
Yes, but open your eyes again and you will see it in the same place, in
the same form, doing the same work. A most persistent nothing,