He gave it no label, but it has subsequently become known as the Golden Rule. There is no higher rule and no greater developer of the highest there is in the individual human life, and no greater adjuster and beautifier of the problems of our common human life. And when it becomes sufficiently strong in its action in this, the world awaits its projection into its international life. This is the truth that he revealed--the twofold truth of love to God and love for the neighbour, that shall make men free. The truth of the Man of Nazareth still holds and shall hold, and we must realise this adequately before we ask or can expect any other revelation.
We are in a time of great changes. The discovery of new laws and therefore of new truth necessitates changes and necessitates advances.
But whatever changes or advances may come, the Divine reality still survives, independent of Jesus it is true, but as the world knows him still better, it will give to him its supreme gratitude and praise, in that he was the most perfect revealer of God to man, of God in man, and the most concrete in that he embodied and lived this truth in his own matchless human-divine life; and stands as the God-man to which the world is gradually approaching. For as Goethe has said--"We can never get beyond the spirit of Jesus."
Love it is, he taught, that brings order out of chaos, that becomes the solvent of the riddle of life, and however cynical, skeptical, or practical we may think at times we may be, a little quiet clear-cut thought will bring us each time back to the truth that it is the essential force that leads away from the tooth and the claw of the jungle, that lifts life up from and above the clod. Love is the world's balance-wheel; and as the warming and ennobling element of sympathy, care and consideration radiates from it, increasing one's sense of mutuality, which in turn leads to fellowship, cooperation, brotherhood, a holy and diviner conception and purpose of life is born, that makes human life more as it should be, as it must be--as it will be.
I love to feel that when one makes glad the heart of any man, woman, child, or animal, he makes glad the heart of God--and I somehow feel that it is true.
As our household fires radiate their genial warmth, and make more joyous and more livable the lot of all within the household walls, so life in its larger scope and in all its human relations, becomes more genial and more livable and reveals more abundantly the deeper riches of its diviner nature, as it is made more open and more obedient to the higher powers of mind and spirit.
Do you know that incident in connection with the little Scottish girl?
She was trudging along, carrying as best she could a boy younger, but it seemed almost as big as she herself, when one remarked to her how heavy he must be for her to carry, when instantly came the reply: "He's na heavy. He's mi brither." Simple is the incident; but there is in it a truth so fundamental that pondering upon it, it is enough to make many a man, to whom dogma or creed make no appeal, a Christian--and a mighty engine for good in the world. And more--there is in it a truth so fundamental and so fraught with potency and with power, that its wider recognition and projection into all human relations would reconstruct a world.
_I saw the mountains stand Silent, wonderful, and grand, Looking out across the land When the golden light was falling On distant dome and spire; And I heard a low voice calling, "Come up higher, come up higher, From the lowland and the mire, From the mist of earth desire, From the vain pursuit of pelf.
From the attitude of self: Come up higher, come up higher."_
_James G. Clark_
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: The Emmanuel Movement in Boston in connection with Emmanuel Church, inaugurated some time ago under the leadership and direction of two well-known ministers, Dr. Worcester and Dr. McComb, and a well-known physician, Dr. Coriat, and similar movements in other cities is an attestation of this.
That most valuable book under the joint authorship of these three men: "Religion and Medicine," Moffat, Yard and Company, New York, will be found of absorbing interest and of great practical value by many. The amount of valuable as well as interesting and reliable material that it contains is indeed remarkable.]
[Footnote B: "War and Laughter," by James Oppenheim--The Century Company, New York.]
[Footnote C: Henry Holt in "Cosmic Relations."]
[Footnote D: From a notable article in the New York "Times Magazine,"
Sunday, April 1, 1917, by George W. Perkins, chairman Mayor's Food Supply Commission.]
[Footnote E: Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? And are his sisters not here with us?--Mark 6:3.]
[Footnote F: From that strong, splendid poem "Buttadeus," by William Samuel Johnson.]
[Footnote G: "God's Message to the Human Soul"--_Revell_.]
[Footnote H: The thought of the layman in practically all of our churches is much the same as that of Mr. Lloyd George when he said: "The Church to which I belong is torn with a fierce dispute; one part says it is baptism _into_ the name of the Father, and the other that it is baptism _in_ the name of the Father. I belong to one of these parties. I feel most strongly about this. I would die for it, but I forget which it is."]