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A MAN'S SOUL AND HIS WORLD

By William Jewett Tucker

(Sermon delivered in Dartmouth College Chapel.)

"What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"-MATTHEW XVi, 26.

It is among the traditions of the classroom of Mark Hopkins, I have been told, that he once put the question of our Lord to his class in this way: "You would like to have the world, as much of it at least as you want. Would you be willing to have the world, all of it that you want, and be deaf? Perhaps you would.

"Would you be willing to have the world, all of it that you want, and be deaf and dumb? Perhaps you would.

"Would you be willing to have the world, all of it that you want, and be deaf and dumb and blind? Perhaps you would, but I doubt it: for the time comes in such a reckoning when you must face the issue of being or having."

This question of Jesus, if put before men as an alternative, can have but one answer. There is such a radical difference between being and having that few men will deliberately sacrifice anything which they feel to be a vital part of themselves for things that lie outside themselves. It requires very little reasoning to understand that the loss of a sense means a corresponding loss of the world, that it takes so much out of the value of things for which the exchange is made. And as men go deeper in their reasoning they can see that the principle acts with increasing force the farther it reaches below the range of the senses. one of you believes, on second thought, that you could use or enjoy No the world without a conscience any better than you could without sight. You can see that the world is not the same object of pleasurable desire with those in whom the moral sense has been reduced or enfeebled, just as you can see the loss to those who suffer from physical disabilities.

We may assume, I think, that there is substantial agreement, so far as the principle goes, that a man cannot afford the world at the cost of his soul. But in any endeavor to apply the principle we find ourselves. confronted at once with the very practical difficulty that as everyone See page 671.

of us has his soul, so everyone of us has his world. Naturally and rightly we wish to make the best of each. Interpreting the common desire by our own desires, we are not to think that the average man wishes to throw away his soul any more than he wishes to give over one of his senses. That is not the way in which men lose their souls. Neither are we to think that the average man ought to throw away the world in so far as it is his world. To entertain this opinion seriously would carry us back into the narrowest type of medievalism.

What, then, shall we say is the true and proper relation of a man's soul to his world?

If we had been present when our Lord put the question now before us, we should doubtless have wished to say to Him,-"Master, must a man lose his soul in trying to gain his world? You say, 'if a man gain the whole world and lose his own soul.' Is that the alternative? a man lose either his soul or his world?"

Must

It seems, I say, as if we should have wished to put this direct question to our Lord, had we heard the words which fell from his lips. But why should anyone to-day doubt the answer in the light of his after teachings, or in the light of his whole personal life? Christianity, as it comes to us from Him, does not mean other-worldliness. It does not mean medievalism, the monk's world. Nothing is further from the spirit or the word of Christ than any mockery of man in his relation to his world. The world element in our lives may waken the pity of Christ, it is so transient; it may call out his warnings, it has in it such possibilities of evil; but nowhere does He speak of it in contempt, or in scorn, or in hate. A man's world may represent that which he has rescued from the fleeting years, that which he has conquered from the grasp of evil; or, it may represent the honorable accumulations and earnings of his life, the very increment of his soul, his knowledge, his work, his friends, his plans and struggles and hopes, against which his soul can have no contention, and from which it can suffer no loss.

And there is a sense, truer even than that in which we have the world by gain or conquest, in which we have it by original endowment, just as we have our souls at the hand of God. The prodigal was right when he said, "Father, give me the portion of goods which falleth to me." His sin consisted in that he gathered all together and took his journey. into a far country and wasted his substance in riotous living. Had he remained at home he would have heard for himself the word which came to his brother, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." We make the fatal concession when we yield our rights of ownership in this world. There was the very point of Christ's temptation and of his victory. When the tempter came to Him, and showed

to Him the kingdoms of the world, and said to Him, "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me," he overreached and betrayed himself. The answer of Christ was instant.

"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." This world is God's world. It goes with the worship of Him. It belongs to His worshipers. So Christ met his temptation. He saw at once the unreality and sham of it. The tempter stood before Him with the offer of something which was not his to give. It was a piece. of bold, naked assumption Christ saw the deception, and met the deceiver with the word of rightful authority. The usurper of this world found himself in the presence of the true heir and master of the world, and in this capacity the representative of humanity. That was the issue. of the final temptation of our Lord.

But as for us, we are still deceived and betrayed. We acknowledge at once the evil ownership. We allow the assumption that the world has gone out of the hands of God, and therefore out of our hands as God's children, and having made this fatal allowance we naturally begin to ask at what price we can get back the part of it which we want. And so concession follows concession: The premise once granted, there is no rescue from the inexorable logic. Nothing then remains to a man who wants the world except the surrender of so much of his manhood as seems necessary to the attainment of his object. Here we have the explanation of the choices of many men. One profession, or business, or calling, is chosen rather than another, because it is assumed that the less Christian a man's profession or business or calling is, the more of the world there is in it. And this choice made, then the method of the profession or business or calling follows the same assumption. It is the next logical step to assume that the less Christian the method is the more of the world will be the result. So the principle of exchange becomes a recognized principle. Christ saw it at work in his day. Anybody can see it at work still. There are few men, I believe, who go into their various pursuits without the latent feeling that concession or compromise may at some time become necessary to success. Some resolve that when the issue comes they will sacrifice success. Others go through life without raising any clear or sharp moral issue. If they lose morally, the losses are gradual and unnoted. All that can be said of such men is that their character lacks fiber or tone. Here and there a man sees the issue, accepts the assumed condition, and deliberately surrenders his manhood. He takes his soul into the market place, puts his price upon it, and sells it. Hence the constant succession of tragedies in the life of a great city. Transactions of this sort do not appear in

the quotations of the markets, but exchanges are none the less made and put on record.

Now a right theory of life will not insure right conduct. Wrong theories of life are much more sure to produce wrong conduct. My contention therefore is against the theory that a man cannot save his soul and his world. The issue is a false one. I protest against it in the name of religion. Consider what it means. It means that human life is nothing but a dilemma. Turn which way a man will, he faces loss. The game is against him. Do you believe this to be the moral situation? Does this accord with your conception of God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth? Does it seem to you to fit any rational idea of a moral government? Is it a fact? Does God send his children here to face the alternative of a lost soul or a lost world? Does He cast them into this dilemma and then withdraw to watch the fatal struggle? Is this a possible conception of God, of religion, of the moral significance of human life? The statement of the theory refutes it. I am not content, however, with any refutation of the theory. We need a theory of human life which is positive, consistent, and satisfying. Consistent, I say, as well as satisfying. We know that we do not want to be unsuccessful good men. The unsuccessful good man is not the normal type. The normal type is the successful good man. Modern Christianity is trying to produce this type. In other words, it is trying to save the world, not simply to save the souls of men out of the world. Medieval Christianity said that this was an impossible task, and gave it up. It took men out of the world, and shut them up in monasteries in protest against the grossness and violence of the times. Modern Christianity says that the task is not impossible, that it ought to be done, that it can be done, that it is being done. In proof of its faith it points to the process now going on, the organization of the world in the interest of righteousness. That is the meaning of good government, of good law, of good literature, of good business. There are failures enough to discourage some men, and to make others cynical and scornful. It is no easy task. But it is no harder than trying to save souls without saving the world. It is the peculiar task of the strong man of to-day, strong in intelligence as well as in purpose. The training of such a man, if it is worth anything, ought to give him the advantage of estimating values at their actual worth. He ought to be able to defend himself against the cheap, smart, superficial side of the world. He ought to know the difference between a professional success that has a value which cannot be fully expressed in money, and a professional success that has no other value than money, or its equivalent in something as transient. Every calling has two sides,-law, journalism, medicine, the

ministry. Each and everyone of them, and every kind of business, has a part which can be organized into the righteousness of the world. Each and everyone of them, and every kind of business, has a part which can be used to the loss of soul, with no real gain of the world. Suppose a preacher is vain, insincere, self-seeking, greedy of place or of applause, and uses his ministry to these lower ends. Can he not hear the diviner voice, the voice of the world, even, which is saying to him in moments of reality, "Come up higher; leave the low plane of your foolish ambitions and take to the heights of your calling?" Suppose the calling is law, or journalism, or the public service, and one puts it to second uses and gets the rewards of second uses, does not his trained nature revolt at the use and at the reward? If it does not, then his training has only made him a mere expert worldling. It simply enables him to grovel a little more successfully than the untrained man at his side. Or suppose one deals at first hand in money. Money is his business. Does he not know that money has two sides, one clean, spotless, bright; the other dirty, foul, and black? Is it any satisfaction to him that one dollar will buy as much of some things as the other, when he knows that it will not buy honor, respect, or gratitude from one human heart?

Yes, modern Christianity is making some things plain. It is showing that there are two ways of doing the same outward thing, and in so far as it can make the difference clear, it is redeeming the world by challenging all newcomers to take the better way. I cannot be mistaken in assuming that each new generation does something to make the world more worthy of the ambitions of men. If not, if we are bringing up men without moral vision, who have no power to strive by the better method, who must succumb after a little, and swell the volume of the thoughtless, indifferent, self-seeking throng, then we need to revise our training quite as much on the intellectual as on the moral side. The Scriptures use good, honest, searching language about men who do not know enough not to be deceived and snared and caught in the mere temptations of worldliness. They tell a man in one way or another that he is a fool; or, as in the calmer speech of our Lord, they put him to a reckoning of the profit that may be expected to come from that world which has been bought at the loss of soul. To every man who is taking hold upon life in the spirit of mere calculation, who is trifling with this principle of exchange, the words of our Lord come with as vivid and startling force as when they were uttered. What is your profit? What have you when you have your world, and miss your soul?

Let us go back for a moment into the calculation. You are thinking perhaps of the analogy with which I began my sermon, between the loss. of physical power and the loss of moral power. And you may be ready

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