Invitation. 1 Come to the house of prayer, O ye afflicted, come! The God of peace shall meet you there, He makes that house His home. 2 Come to the house of praise, Ye who are happy now; In sweet accord your voices raise, In kindred homage bow. 3 Ye aged, hither come, For ye have felt His love; Soon shall ye lift a holier song In fairer courts above. 4 Ye young, before His throne, Come, bow; your voices raise; Let not... more...

PREFACE. This is a book made up of fragments.  The Master once said “Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost.”  It may be that victuals will be found here that may feed those who cannot sit down to a meal.  Many of the articles have appeared in Joyful News already, but, perhaps, are none the worse for that.  We send out this little book in the hope that both crust and crumb will be eaten! I.  SPIRITUAL... more...

INTRODUCTION Praesentia tangens. . . . .  Futura prospiciens. Problems characterize every age, sum up the complex life of nations and give them their distinctive features. They form that moral atmosphere which makes one period of history responsible and tributary to another. And indeed, in every human problem there is an ethical element. This imponderable factor, which often baffles our calculations, always remains the true, permanent... more...

ALWAYS TELL THE TRUTH Truthfulness is a mark of Christianity. The heathen go astray, speaking lies as soon as they are born. In China a mother will give her boy a reward for the best falsehood that he can tell. Beginning so early, and regarding it such a fine thing to tell wrong stories, they become skillful in falsehoods. Some parents in Christian America are very careless in this matter. It made my heart ache one day when I saw a lady in a... more...

Christ IF NOT GOD—NOT GOOD BY I. M. HALDEMAN, D.D. “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God” (Matthew 9:17). THE world has accepted Jesus Christ as a good man. The evidences of his goodness are manifold. He was full of compassion. He never looked upon the people as a crowd. He never thought of them as a mass. He saw them always as individuals. His heart went out to them. All his impulses were to... more...

In sending a second impression of the following little work into the world after a lapse of four years from the publication of the former edition, it may be right to state, that my views on the subject of it, have undergone no change in the way of relinquishment; but on the contrary the experience of every day in my own history,--every observation I have been able to make on the history of those with whom I have come into the closest contact, and... more...

LECTURE I [Greek: "Hêmin de apodeikteon hôs ep' eutuchia tê megistê para Theôn hê toiautê mania didotai hê de dê apodeixis estai deinois men apistos, sophois de pistê"] PLATO, Phædrus, p. 245. "Thoas. Es spricht kein Gott; es spricht dein eignes Herz. Iphigenia. Sie reden nur durch unser Herz zu uns." GOETHE, Iphigenie.   "Si notre vie est moins qu'une... more...

INTRODUCTION A PLEA FOR THE STUDY OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS If, as Matthew Arnold says, conduct is three-fourths of life, then a careful inquiry into the laws of conduct is indispensable to the proper interpretation of the meaning and purpose of life. Conduct of itself, however, is merely the outward expression of character; and character again has its roots in personality; so that if we are to form a just conception of life we have to examine the... more...

CHAPTER I. THE GOTHS IN SPAIN. Just about the time when the Romans withdrew from Britain, leaving so many of their possessions behind them, the Suevi, Alani, and Vandals, at the invitation of Gerontius, the Roman governor of Spain, burst into that province over the unguarded passes of the Pyrenees. Close on their steps followed the Visigoths; whose king, taking in marriage Placidia, the sister of Honorius, was acknowledged by the helpless... more...

THE COLE LECTURES The late Colonel E. W. Cole of Nashville, Tennessee, donated to Vanderbilt University the sum of five thousand dollars, afterwards increased by Mrs. E. W. Cole to ten thousand, the design and conditions of which gift are stated as follows: "The Object of this fund is to establish a foundation for a perpetual Lectureship in connection with the School of Religion of the University, to be restricted in its scope to a defense and... more...