(1) A man's life consists in the abundance of the things he knows.
^ I was once the guest, for a little time, of a man who owned a magnificent art gallery. But he could say more than " I have these pictures." He could say " I know them." He had a marvellous pipe-organ in his house. But he could say more than " I have the organ." He could say " I know the organ, its sweet- ness and its power." Some men are content to say " I have this, that, and the other beautiful thing." He is not so ; he says, " These books — I know them ; these flowers — I know them ; they seem to me like children ; they have a speech that is all their own, and I understand it." By the things we know, our reason is enriched, and we are to live in our reason. We are to know the meaning of things is no less substantial than the things themselves. We are to know the things below us — that is power. We are to know the things about us — that is culture. We are to know the things above us — that is character.^
(2) A man's life consists in the abundance of the things he does.
He who plants a tree
Plants a hope;
Rootlets up through fibres blindly grope, Leaves unfold unto horizon free.
So man's life must climb
From the clouds of time
Unto heavens sublime. Canst thou prophesy, thou little tree, What the glory of thy boughs shall be ?
He who plants a tree, He plants love ;
Tents of coolness spreading out above Wayfarers he may not live to see.
* Spenser, The Faerie Quee^ie.
• C. C. Albertson, The Gospel according to Christ, 143.
266 A MAN'S TRUE LIFE
Gifts that grow are best,
Hands that bless are blest;
Plant! Life does the rest. Heaven and earth helps him who plants a tree, And his work its own reward shall be.^
(3) A man's life consists in the abundance of the things he loves.
^ Walt Whitman was a strange man. He may have been a degenerate. But his degeneracy had genius in it, and he left a name that will never die. He once said, " I love God and flowers and little children." Was there any such thing as bankruptcy for him ? Not so long as God sits upon His throne, and flowers spring up in every meadow, and little children smile. Whitman was poor, but he lived an abundant life, for his inner resources were inexhaustible.*
^ Shields' old friend, the Eev. Hugh Chapman, who had ministered to him in his last days, said at the funeral service at Merton Old Church : " After a friendship of twenty-five years, I have no hesitation in saying that Frederic Shields knew and lived on his Bible as few whom I can recall. Literalist to a large extent he ever was, however mystically inclined in his role of artist, and there was about him somewhat of the rugged Covenanter who brooked no compromise where for him the honour of his Master seemed to be concerned. Severe to himself, he was infinitely tender towards those who suffered, nor could he hear the mention of pain without his eyes filling with tears. For those who knew him well, and who had sounded the depths of his remarkable personality, he had a unique charm, nor could you be with him for long without leaving his presence a better man. Frederic Shields hated money as much as he loved God, and it is these two points which stand out as I think of him now, promoted to his well-earned rest."'
3. We can possess of outward things only as much as we can use. God has endowed man with certain faculties and gifts, which are to be exercised and developed by certain things which this world of His produces. Our bodies are to be sustained and developed by lawful food ; and for them Mother Earth caters by her yearly supply of the good things of the harvest. Our minds are to be cultivated and matured by observation and study, and
^ Lucy Larcom.
2 C. C. Albertson, The Gospel according to Christ, 144.
» E. Mills, Frederic Shields, 347.
ST. LUKE XII. 15 267
for these God's book of nature and the works of genius, the broad fields of history and human experience are the pasture-grounds in which the human soul is to feed. We have, moreover, a spiritual character to develop ; and for that, Jesus is the very bread of our life. But neither body, soul, nor spirit of man or woman, possesses anything which it does not take up into itself, and utilize by making part of its being. The demands of the body are satisfied when it has used certain elements of food ; but all food besides is for the time being practically nothing to the body, because it can use no more.
^ Wealth is a tremendous trust ; it becomes a dangerous one when it owns its owner. Our Brooklyn philanthropist, the late Mr. Charles Pratt, once said to me : " There is no greater humbug than the idea that the mere possession of wealth makes any man happy. I never got any happiness out of mine until I began to do good with it." ^