With an Open Mind

     [EGW editor’s preface:  I found this article in the book Christian Pulpit by John H. Horst and others, published sometime during the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.  Before finding this article, my only real familiarity with William Jennings Bryan was that he appeared for the prosecution in the 1925 Scopes trial in which a teacher was tried for teaching evolution in the classroom.  Researching Bryan in the encyclopedia I learned that he lived from 1860 to 1925 and was active in national politics as U.S. congressman, as a presidential candidate, and later as U.S. secretary of state under Woodrow Wilson.  He was also described as a staunch advocate of the religious Fundamentalism movement resisting popular liberal theology which tried to redefine Christian teachings in light of the scientific and historic thought of the time.  This advocacy helped explain to me his participation in the Scopes trial.  (Since including this article in 2003, I've learned that Bryan died only a few days after this infamous trial and also that he was raised a Baptist, but became a Presbyterian at age 14.).
     If you have not yet read the editor’s note defining and caveating the purpose of the With an Open Mind column, please do so at this time before continuing with the article.]

The Prince of Peace
by William Jennings Bryan

     Man is a religious being; the heart instinctively seeks for a god.  Whether he worships on the banks of the Ganges, prays with his face upturned to the sun, kneels toward the Mecca, or, regarding all space as a temple, communes with the Heavenly Father according to the Christian creed, man is essentially devout.
     There are honest doubters whose sincerity we recognize and respect, but occasionally I find young men who think it smart to be skeptical; they talk as if it were an evidence of larger intelligence to scoff at creeds and refuse to connect themselves with Churches.  They call themselves “liberal,” as if a Christian were narrow-minded.  To these young men I desire to address myself.
     Even some older people profess to regard religion as a superstition, pardonable in the ignorant, but unworthy of the educated — a mental state which one can and should outgrow.  Those who hold this view look down with mild contempt upon such as give to religion a definite place in their thoughts and lives.  They assume an intellectual superiority and often take little pains to conceal the assumption.  Tolstoi administers to the “cultured crowd” (the words quoted are his) a severe rebuke when he declares that the religious sentiment rests not upon a superstitious fear of the invisible forces of nature, but upon man’s consciousness of his finiteness amid an infinite universe and of his sinfulness; and this consciousness, the great philosopher adds, man can never outgrow.  Tolstoi is right; man recognizes how limited are his own powers and how vast is the universe, and he leans upon the arm that is stronger than his.  Man feels the weight of his sins and looks for One who is sinless.
     Religion has been defined as the relation which man fixes between himself and his God, and morality as the outward manifestation of this relation.  Every one, by the time he reaches maturity, has fixed some relation between himself and God, and no material change in this relation can take place without a revolution in the man, for this relation is the most potent influence that acts upon a human life.
     Religion is the basis of morality in the individual and in the group of individuals.  Materialists have attempted to build up a system of morality upon the basis of enlightened self-interest.  They would have man figure out by mathematics that it pays him to abstain from wrong doing; they would even inject an element of selfishness into altruism, but the moral system elaborated by the materialists has several defects.  First, its virtues are borrowed from moral systems based upon religion; second, as it rests upon argument rather than upon authority, it does not appeal to the young, and by the time the young are able to follow their reason they have already become set in their ways.  Our laws do not permit a young man to dispose of real estate until he is twenty-one — Why this restraint?  Because his reason is not mature; and yet a man’s life is largely molded by the environment of his youth.  Third, one never knows just how much of his decision is due to reason and how much is due to passion or to selfish interest.  We recognize the bias of self-interest when we exclude from the jury every man, no matter how reasonable or upright he may be, who has a pecuniary interest in the result of the trial.  And, fourth one whose morality is based upon a nice calculation of benefits to be secured spends time figuring that he should spend in action.  Those who keep a book account of their good deeds seldom do enough good to justify keeping books.
     Morality is the power of endurance in man; and a religion which teaches personal responsibility to God gives strength to morality.  There is a powerful restraining influence in the belief that an all-seeing eye scrutinizes every thought and word and act of the individual.
     There is a wide difference between the man who is trying to conform to a standard of morality around him and the man who is endeavoring to make his life approximate to a divine standard.  The former attempt to live up to the standard if it is above him, and down to it if it is below him — and if he doing right only when others are looking he is sure to find a time when he thinks he is unobserved, and then he takes a vacation and falls.  One needs the inner strength which comes with the conscious presence of a personal God.  If those who are thus fortified sometimes yield to temptation, how helpless and hopeless must those be who rely upon their own strength alone!
     There are difficulties to be encountered in religion, but there are difficulties to be encountered everywhere.  If I were going to present an argument in favor of the divinity of Christ, I would not begin with miracles or mystery or theory of atonement.  I would begin as Carnegie Simpson begins in his book entitled “The Fact of Christ.”  Commencing with the fact that Christ lived, he points out that one can not contemplate this undisputed fact without feeling that in some way this fact is related to those now living.  He says that one can read of Alexander, of Caesar, or of Napoleon, and not feel that it is a matter of personal concern; but that when one reads that Christ lived and how He lived and how He died he feels that somehow there is a chord that stretches from that life to his.  As he studies the character of Christ he becomes conscious of certain virtues which stand out in bold relief — purity, humility, a forgiving spirit, and an unfathomable love.  The author is correct.  Christ presents an example of purity in thought and life; and man, conscious of his own imperfections and grieved over his shortcomings, finds inspiration in One who was tempted in all points like as we are, and yet without sin.  I am not sure but that we can find just here a way of determining whether one possesses the true spirit of a Christian.  If he finds in the sinlessness of Christ an inspiration and a stimulus to greater effort and higher living, he is indeed a follower; if, on the other hand, he resents the reproof which the purity of Christ offers he is likely to question the divinity of Christ in order to excuse himself for not being a follower.
     Humility is a rare virtue.  If one is rich he is apt to be proud of his riches; if he has distinguished ancestry he is apt to be proud of his lineage; if he is well educated he is apt to be proud of his learning.  Some one has suggested that if one becomes humble he soon becomes proud of his humility.  Christ, however, possessed all power, was the very personification of humility.
     The most difficult of all the virtues to cultivate is the forgiving spirit.  Revenge seems to be natural to the human heart; to want to get even with an enemy is a common sin.  It has even been popular to boast of vindictiveness; it was once inscribed on a monument to a hero that he had repaid both friends and enemies more than he had received.  This was not the spirit of Christ.  He taught forgiveness, and in that incomparable prayer which He left as a model for our petitions He made our willingness to forgive the measure by which we may claim forgiveness.  He not only taught forgiveness, but He exemplified His teachings in His life.  When those who persecuted Him brought Him to the most disgraceful of all deaths, His spirit of forgiveness rose above His sufferings and He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!”
     But love is the foundation of Christ’s creed.  The world had known love before; parents had loved children, and children, parents; husband had loved wife, and wife, husband; and friend had loved friend; but Jesus gave a new definition of love.  His love was as boundless as the sea; its limits were so far-flung that even an enemy could not travel beyond it.  Other teachers sought to regulate the lives of their followers by rule and formula, but Christ’s plan was first to purify the heart, and then to leave love to direct the footsteps.
     What conclusion is to be drawn from the life, the teachings, and the death of this historic figure?  Reared in a carpenter shop, with no knowledge of literature save Bible literature, with no acquaintance with philosophers living or with the writings of sages dead, this young Man gathered disciples about Him, promulgated a higher code of morals than the world had even known before, and proclaimed Himself the Messiah.  He taught and performed miracles for a few brief months and then was crucified; His disciples were scattered and many of them put to death; His claims were disputed, His resurrection denied, and His followers persecuted, and yet from this beginning His religion has spread until millions take His name with reverence upon their lips and thousands have been willing to die rather than surrender the faith which He put into their hearts.  How shall we account for Him?  “What think ye of Christ?”  It is easier to believe Him divine than to explain in any other way what He said and did and was.  And I have greater faith even than before since I have visited the Orient and witnessed the successful contest which Christianity is waging against the religions and philosophies of the East.
     I was thinking a few years ago of the Christmas which was then approaching and of Him in whose honor the day is celebrated.  I recalled the message, “Peace on the earth, good-will to men,” and then my thoughts ran back to the prophecy uttered centuries before His birth, in which He was described as the Prince of Peace.  To reinforce my memory I re-read the prophecy and found immediately following a verse which I had forgotten — a verse which declares that of the increase of His peace and government there shall be no end, for, adds Isaiah, “
He shall judge His people with justice and with judgment.”  Thinking of the prophecy I have selected this theme that I may present some of the reasons which lead to believe that Christ has fully earned the title of Prince of Peace, and that in the years to come it will be more and more applied to Him.  Faith in Him brings peace to the heart, and His teachings, when applied, will bring peace between man and man.  And if He can bring peace to each heart, and if His creed will bring peace throughout the earth, who will deny His right to be called The Prince of Peace?
     All the world is in search of peace; every heart that ever beat has sought for peace, and many have been the methods employed to secure it.  Some have thought to purchase it with riches, and they have labored to secure wealth, hoping to find peace when they were able to go where they pleased and buy what they liked.  Of those who have endeavored to purchase peace with money, the large majority have failed to secure the money.  But what has been the experience of those who have been successful in accumulating money?  They all tell the same story, viz: that they spent the first half of their lives trying to get money from others, and the last half trying to keep others from getting their money, and that they found peace in neither half.  Some have even reached the point where they had difficulty in getting people to accept their money; and know of no better indication of the ethical awakening in this country than the increasing tendency to scrutinize the methods of money-making.  A long step in advance will have been taken when religious, educational, and charitable institutions refuse to condone immoral methods in business and leave the possessor of ill-gotten gains to learn the loneliness of life when one prefers money to morals.
     Some have sought peace in social distinction, but whether they have been within the charmed circle and fearful lest they might fall out, or outside and hopeful they might get in, they have not found peace.
     Some have thought – vain thought! – to find peace in political prominence; but whether office comes by birth, as in monarchies, or by election, as in republics, it does not bring peace.  An office is conspicuous only when few can occupy it.  Only when few in a generation can hope to enjoy an honor do we call it a great honor.  I am glad that our Heavenly Father did not make the peace of the human heart depend upon the accumulation of wealth or upon the securing of social or political distinction, for in either case but few could have enjoyed it; but when He made peace the reward of a conscience void of offense toward God and man, He put it within the reach of all.  The poor can secure it as easily as the rich, the social outcast as freely as the leader of society,and humblest citizen equally with those who wield political power.
     To those who have grown gray in the faith I need not speak of the peace to be found in the belief of an overruling Providence.  Christ taught that our lives are precious in the sight of God, and poets have taken up the theme and woven it into immortal verse.  No uninspired writer has expressed the idea more beautifully than William Cullen Bryant in the “Ode to a Waterfowl.”  After following the wanderings of the bird of passage as it seeks first its northern and then its southern home, he concludes:
     
          Thou art gone; the abyss of heaven
               Hath swallowed up thy form, but on my heart
          Deeply hath suck the lesson thou hast given,
               And shall not soon depart.
     
          He who, from zone to zone,
               Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
          In the long way that I must tread alone,
               Will lead my steps aright.
     
     Christ promoted peace by giving us assurance that a line of communication can be established between the Father above and the child below.  And who will measure the consolation that has been brought to troubled hearts by the hour of prayer?
     And immortality!  Who will estimate the peace which a belief in a future life has brought to the sorrowing?  You may talk to the young about death ending all, for life is full and hope is strong; but preach not this doctrine to the mother who stands by the deathbed of her babe, or to one who is within the shadow of a great affliction.  When I was a young man I wrote to Colonel Ingersoll and asked him for his views on God and immortality.  His secretary answered that the great infidel was not at home, but inclosed a copy of a speech which covered my question.  I scanned it with eagerness and found that he had expressed himself about as follows: “I do not say that there is no God, I simply say I do not know.  I do not say there is no life beyond the grave, I simply say I do not know.”  And from that day to this I have not been able to understand how any one could find pleasure in taking from any human heart a living faith and substituting therefor the cold and cheerless doctrine, “I do not know.”
     Christ gave us proof of immortality, and yet it would hardly seem necessary that one should rise from the dead to convince us that the grave is not the end.  To every created thing God has given a tongue that proclaims a resurrection.
     If the Father deigns to touch with divine power the cold and pulseless heart of the buried acorn and to make it burst forth from its prison walls, will He leave neglected in the earth the soul of man made in the image of his Creator?  If He stoops to give to the rosebush, whose withered blossoms float upon the autumn breeze, the sweet assurance of another springtime, will He refuse the words of hope to the sons of men when the frosts of winter come?  If matter, mute and inanimate, though changed by the forces of nature into a multitude of forms, can never die, will the spirit of man suffer annihilation when it has paid a brief visit like a royal guest to this tenement of clay?  No, I am as sure that there is another life as I am that I live today!
     In Cairo I secured a few grains of wheat that had slumbered for more than three thousand years in an Egyptian tomb.  As I looked at them this thought came into my mind: If one of those grains had been planted on the banks of the Nile the year after it grew, and all its lineal descendants planted and replanted from that time until now, its progeny would today be sufficiently numerous to feed the teeming millions of the world.  There is in the grain of wheat an invisible something which has power to discard the body that we see, and from earth and air fashion a new body so much like the old one that we can not tell the one from the other.  If this invisible germ of life in the grain of wheat can thus pass unimpaired through three thousand resurrections, I shall not doubt that my soul has power to clothe itself with a body suited to its new existence when this earthly frame has crumbled into dust.
     A belief in immortality not only consoles the individual, but it exerts a powerful influence in bringing peace between individuals. If one really thinks that man dies as the brute dies, he may yield to the temptation to do injustice to his neighbor when the circumstances are such as to promise security from detection. But if one really expects to meet again, and live eternally with, those whom he knows today, he is restrained from evil deeds by the fear of endless remorse. We do not know what rewards are in store for us or what punishments may be reserved, but if there were no other punishment it would be enough for one who deliberately and consciously wrongs another to have to live forever in the company of the person wronged and have his littleness and selfishness laid bare. I repeat, a belief in immortality must exert a powerful influence in establishing justice between men and thus laying the foundation for peace.
     Again, Christ deserves to be called the Prince of Peace because He has given us a measure of greatness which promotes peace.  When His disciples disputed among themselves as to which should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, He rebuked them and said, “
Let him who would be chiefest among you be the servant of all.”  Service is the measure of greatness; it always has been true; it is true today, and it always will be true, that he is greatest who does the most good.  And yet, what a revelation it will work in this old world when this standard becomes the standard of life!  Nearly all of our controversies and combats arise from the fact that we are trying to get something from each other — there will be peace when our aim is to do something for each other.  Our enmities and animosities arise from our efforts to get as much as possible out of the world — there will be peace when our endeavor is to put as much as possible into the world.  Society will take an immeasurable step toward peace when it estimates a citizen by his output rather than by his income and gives the crown of its approval to the one who makes the largest contribution to the welfare of all.  It is the glory of the Christian ideal that, while it is within sight of the weakest and the lowliest, it is yet so high that the best and noblest are kept with their faces turned ever upward.
     Christ has also led the way to peace by giving us a formula for the propagation of good. Not all of those who have really desired to do good have employed the Christian methods — not all Christians even.  In all the history of the human race but two methods have been employed. The first is the forcible method.  A man has an idea which he thinks is good; he tells his neighbors about it, and they do not like it.  This makes him angry, and , seizing a club, he attempts to make them like it.  One trouble about this rule is that it works both ways; when a man starts out to compel his neighbors to think as he does he generally finds them willing to accept the challenge, and they spend so much time in trying to coerce each other that they have no time left to be of service to each other.
     The other is the Bible plan:  Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.  And there is no other way of overcoming evil.  I am not much of a farmer — I get more credit for my farming than I deserve, and my little farm receives more advertising than it is entitled to.  But I am farmer enough to know that if I cut down weeds they will spring up again, and I know that if I plant something there which has more vitality that the weeds I shall not only get rid of the constant cutting, but have the benefit of the crop besides.
     In order that there might be no mistake about His plan of propagating good, Christ went into detail and laid emphasis upon the value of example, “
So live that others, seeing your good works, may be constrained to glorify your Father which is in heaven.”  There is no human influence so potent for good as that which goes out from an upright life.  A sermon may be answered, the arguments presented in a speech may be disputed; but no one can answer a Christian life — it is the unanswerable argument in favor of our religion.
      It may be a slow process, this conversion of the world by the silent information of a noble example, but it is the only sure one, and the doctrine applies to nations as well as to individuals. The gospel of the Prince of Peace gives us the only hope that the world has — and it is an increasing hope — of the substitution of reason for the arbitrament of force in the settlement of international disputes.
      But Christ has given us a platform more fundamental than any political party has ever written.  We are interested in platforms; we attend conventions, sometimes traveling long distances; we have wordy wars over the phraseology of various planks, and then we wage earnest campaigns to secure the indorsement of these platforms at the polls.  But the platform given to the world by the Nazarene is more far-reaching and more comprehensive than any platform ever written by the convention of any party in any country.  When He condensed into one commandment those of the then which relate of man’s duty toward his fellows, and enjoined upon us the rule, “
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” He presented a plan for the solution of all the problems that now vex society or may hereafter arise.  Other remedies may palliate or postpone the day of settlement, but this is all-sufficient, and the reconciliation which it effects is a permanent one.
     If I were to attempt to apply this thought to various questions which are at issue I might be accused of entering the domain of partisan politics, but I may safely apply it to two great problems.  First, let us consider the question of capital and labor.  This is not a transient issue or a local one.  It engages the attention of the people of all countries and has appeared in every age.  The immediate need in this country is arbitration, for neither side to the controversy can be trusted to deal with absolute justice if allowed undisputed control; but arbitration, like a court, is a last resort.  It would be better if the relations between employer and employee were such at to make arbitration unnecessary.  Just in proportion as men recognize their kinship to each other and deal with each other in the spirit of brotherhood will friendship and harmony be secured.  Both employer and employee need to cultivate the spirit which follows from obedience to the great commandment.
     The second problem to which I would apply this platform of peace is that which relates to the accumulation of wealth.  We can not much longer delay consideration of the ethics of money-making.  That many of the enormous fortunes which have been accumulated in the last quarter of a century are now held by men who have given to society no adequate service in return for the money secured is now generally recognized.  While legislation can and should protect the public from predatory wealth, a more effective remedy will be found in the cultivation of a public opinion which will substitute a higher ideal than the one which tolerates the enjoyment of unearned gains.  No man who really knows what brotherly love is will desire to take advantage of his neighbor, and the conscience, when not seared, will admonish against injustice.  My faith in the future rests upon the belief that Christ’s teachings are being more studied today than ever before, and that with this larger study will come an application of those teachings to the everyday life of the world.  In former times men read that Christ came to bring life and immortality to light and placed the emphasis upon immortality; now they are studying Christ’s relation to human life.  In former years many thought to prepare themselves for future bliss by a life of seclusion here; now they are learning that they can not follow in the footsteps of the Master, unless they go about doing good.  Christ declared that He came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.  The world is learning that Christ came not to narrow life, but to enlarge it — to fill it with purpose, earnestness, and happiness.
     But this Prince of Peace promises not only peace, but strength.  Some have thought His teachings fit only for the weak and the timid, and unsuited to men of vigor, energy, and ambition.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Only the man of faith can be courageous.  Confident that he fights on the side of Jehovah, he doubts not the success of his cause. What matters it whether he shares in the shouts of triumph?  If every word spoken in behalf of truth has its influence, and every deed done for the right weighs in the final account, it is immaterial to the Christian whether his eyes behold victory or whether he dies in the midst of the conflict.
     
          “Yea, though thou lie upon the dust
                 When they who helped thee flee in fear,
            Die full of hope and manly trust,
                 Like those who fell in battle here.
     
            Another hand thy sword shall wield,
                 Another hand the standard wave,
            Till from the trumpet’s mouth is pealed
                 The blast of triumph o’er thy grave.”
     
     Only those who believe attempt the seemingly impossible, and by attempting prove that one with God can chase a thousand, and two can put ten thousand to flight.  I can imagine that the early Christians who were carried into the arena to make a spectacle for those more savage than the beasts, were entreated by their doubting companions not to endanger their lives; but, kneeling in the center of the arena, they prayed and sang until they were devoured.  How helpless they seemed, and, measured by every human rule, how hopeless their cause!  And yet within a few decades the power which they invoked proved mightier that the legions of the emperor, and the faith in which they died was triumphant o’er all that land.  It is said that those who went to mock at their sufferings returned asking themselves, “What is it that can enter the heart of man and make him die as these die?”  They were greater conquerors in their death than they could have been had they purchased life by a surrender of their faith.
     What would have been the fate of the Church if the early Christians had had as little faith as many of our Christians now have?  And, on the other hand, if the Christians of today had the faith of the martyrs, how long would it be before the fulfillment of the prophecy that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess?  Our faith should be even stronger than the faith of those who lived two thousand years ago, for we see our religion spreading and supplanting the philosophies and creeds of the Orient.
     As the Christian grows older he appreciates more and more the completeness with which Christ fills the requirements of the heart, and, grateful for the peace which he enjoys and for the strength which he has received, he repeats the words of the great scholar, Sir William Jones:
     
          “Before thy mystic altar, heavenly truth,
            I kneel in manhood, as I knelt in youth;
            Thus let me kneel till this dull form decay
            And life’s last shade be brightened by thy ray.”



      EGW editor’s preface revised January 7, 2005. (rev.03xx-050107)
      This article’s presentation in Exploring God's Word ©2003, 2005 David G. Churchill.
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