148 LXI. TWO QUESTIONS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY . . . . . . . 151 LXII. AN UNRECORDED DAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 LXIII. THE ANSWER TO PRAYER . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 LXIV. AN IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY . . . . . . . . . . . 159

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LXV. THE FINISHED LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 LXVI. ATTAINING TO THE RESURRECTION . . . . . . . . 166 LXVII. SIMON OF CYRENE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 LXVIII. POWER AND TEMPTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 LXIX. LOVING WITH THE MIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 LXX. AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER? . . . . . . . . . . 176 LXXI. PROFESSIONALISM AND PERSONALITY . . . . . . . 178 LXXII. THE CENTRAL SOLITUDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 LXXIII. IF THOU KNEWEST THE GIFT OF GOD . . . . . . . 182 LXXIV. THE WEDDING GARMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 LXXV. THE ESCAPE FROM DESPONDENCY . . . . . . . . . 187 LXXVI. THE DIFFICULTIES OF UNBELIEF . . . . . . . . . 189 LXXVII. KNOWING GOD, AND BEING KNOWN OF HIM . . . . . 192 LXXVIII. FREEDOM IN THE TRUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 LXXIX. THE SOIL AND THE SEED . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 LXXX. THE LORD'S PRAYER: I. . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 LXXXI. THE LORD'S PRAYER: II. OUR FATHER . . . . . . 203 LXXXII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: III. FATHER AND SON . . . . 205 LXXXIII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: IV. HALLOWED BE THY NAME . 207 LXXXIV. THE LORD'S PRAYER: V. THY KINGDOM COME . . . . 209 LXXXV. THE LORD'S PRAYER: VI. THY WILL BE DONE . . . 211 LXXXVI. THE LORD'S PRAYER: VII. DAILY BREAD . . . . . 213 LXXXVII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: VIII. FORGIVENESS . . . . . 215 LXXXVIII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: IX. TEMPTATIONS . . . . . . 217 LXXXIX. SIMPLICITY TOWARD CHRIST . . . . . . . . . . . 219 XC. OPEN OUR EYES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 XCI. THE WORD MADE FLESH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

LIST OF BIBLE PASSAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

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Mornings in a College Chapel

I

THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES

Hebrews xii. 1.

(FIRST DAY OF COLLEGE TERM)

No one can look for the first time into the faces of a congregation like this without thinking, first of all, of the great multitude of other lives whose love and sacrifice are represented here. Almost every single life which enters our chapel is the focus of interest for a whole domestic circle, whose prayers and anxieties, whose hopes and ambitions, are turning toward this place from every region of this land. Out from behind our congregation stands in the background a cloud of witnesses in whose presence we meet. There are the fathers, earning and saving, that the sons may have a {2} better chance than they; there are the mothers with their prayers and sacrifices; there are the rich parents, trembling lest wealth may be a snare to their sons; and the humble homes with their daily deeds of self-denial for the sake of the boys who come to us here. When we meet in this chapel we are never alone. We are the centre of a great company of observant hearts. And then, behind us all, there is the still larger fellowship of the past, the historic traditions of the university, the men who have adorned it, the inheritances into which we freely enter, the witnesses of a long and honorable associated life.

Now this great company of witnesses does two things for us. On the one hand, it brings responsibility. The apostle says in this passage, "that apart from us they should not be made perfect." Every work of the past is incomplete unless the present sustains it. We are responsible for this rich tradition. We inherit the gift to use or to mar. But, on the other hand, the cloud of witnesses is what contributes courage. It sustains you to know that you represent so much confidence and trust. It is strengthening to enter into this rich inheritance. You do not have to begin things {3} here. You only have to keep them moving. It is a great blessing to be taken up thus out of solitude into the companionship of generous souls. Let us begin the year soberly but bravely. Surrounded by this cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which most easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is immediately set before us in the swiftly passing days of this college year.

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II

"NOT TO BE MINISTERED UNTO, BUT TO MINISTER"

Mark x. 35-45.

The disciples in this passage were looking at their faith to see what they could get out of it. They wanted to be assured of a prize before they took a risk. They came to Jesus saying: "We would that Thou shouldest do for us whatever we ask." But Jesus bids them to consider rather what they can do for their faith. "Whosoever," He says, "would be first, is to be the servant for all, for even the Son of man comes not to be ministered unto, but to minister." I suppose that when a man faces a new year of college life, his first thought is of what it can do for him. He has studied the college programme, asking himself: "What can I get out of this?" and now he looks into the year, with all its unknown chances, and asks of it: "O unknown year, what happiness and friendship and instruction may I get from you? Will you not bring to {5} pass what I desire? I would that thou shouldest do for me whatever I ask." Then the spirit of Jesus Christ meets him here and turns his question round: "What are you going to do for the college during this coming year? Are you going to help us in our morals, in our intellectual life, in our religion? Are you going to contribute to the higher life of the university? For what do you come here,—to be ministered unto, or to minister?"

Of course a man may answer that this is an impossible test; that there is nothing that he can give to a great place like this, and everything he can receive. But he little knows how the college from year to year gets marked for good or evil by a class, or a group within a class, or sometimes a few persons, as they pass in and out of our gates. Sometimes a group of young men live for a few years among us and leave behind them a positively malarial influence; and some times a few quiet lives, simply and modestly lived among us, actually sweeten and purify our climate for years together. And so in the quiet of our prayers we give ourselves, not to be ministered unto, but to minister. {6} Nowhere in the world is it more true that we are members one of another, and that the whole vast institutional life is affected by each slightest individual. Nowhere in this world is there a better chance to purify the spirit and tone, either of work or of sport, and nowhere can a man discover more immediately the happiness of being of use. The recreation and the religion, the study and the play, of our associated life, are waiting for the dedication of unassuming Christian men to a life which offers itself, not to be ministered unto, but to minister.

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III

THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER

John xvii. 22.

This was the glory which Jesus Christ claimed for himself—to take the glory of God and glorify with it the life of man. "The glory that thou hast given me I have given them." It was not a glory of possession, but a glory of transmission. It was not his capacity to receive which glorified him, it was his capacity to give. In most of the great pictures of the glorified Christ there is a halo of light encircling and illuminating his face. That is the fictitious glory, the glory of possession. In a few such paintings the light