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THE CHRISTIAN MYTH
Origins, Logic, and Legacy

Burton L. Mack
2003

The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc

1 5 East 26th Street, New York, NY 10010

The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd

The Tower Building, 1 1 York Road, London SE1 7NX

Copyright © 2001 by Burton L. Mack

All rights reserved. No pan of this book may be reproduced, stored

in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the written permission of the publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mack., Burton L.
The Christian myth : origins, logic, and legacy I by Burton L.
Mack.

p. em .
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8264-1355-2 (alk. paper)
l. Christianity-Origin. 2. Christianity and culture. I. Title.
BR129 .M33 2001
270.1-dc21
2001032495
 For
BJ and Barbara
who have already redefined religion
 CONTENTS

PROLOG 9

PART ONE: Setting Aside the Gospels 23

1 The Historical Jesus Hoopla 25
2 The Case for a Cynic-like Jesus 41
3 On Redescribing Christian Origins 59

PART TWO: Constructing a Social Theory 81

4 Explaining Religion: A Theory of Social Interests 83
5 Explaining Christian Mythmaking: A Theory of Social
Logic 101

PART THREE: Tracing the Logic and Legacy 127

6 Innocence, Power, and Purity in the Christian
Imagination 129
7 Christ and the Creation of a Monocratic Culture 153
8 The Christian Myth and the Christian Narion 1 77

EPILOG 195

ANNEX: The Christian Origins Project 201

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 217

REFERENCES 221
PROLOG
 ll peoples tell stories about their past that set the stage for
A their own time and place in a larger world. This world
expands the horizons of memory and imagination beyond the bor­
ders of their contemporary world and becomes populated with im­
ages, agents, and events that account for the environment, set
precedents for social relations and practices, and intrude upon the
daily round in odd and surprising ways. These agents and images
usually have some features that are recognizably human, but are
frequently combinations of figures that do not normally appear in
the real world and they can also be grotesque. Most peoples have not
found it necessary or even interesting to reflect on the "truth, of
their stories or grade them according to their degree of fantasy as has
been the case in modem Western societies. When asked about such
things by modem ethnographers, the answers have been a smile and
a frown. As a story-teller for the Hopi indians of the southwestern
United States said, when asked how he knew their stories were true,
"Because they are told.,
There does seem to have been a measure of curiosity about
the stories of other peoples as contacts have been made throughout
human history. But the stories of another people will probably not
have been the first features to catch attention. Behavior, dress, and
language have usually been the features of another people that reg­
ister difference and call for explanation. However, when the con­
tacts are dose and the threat of conflict or cultural competition is
felt, the stories and the ways in which the stories are cultivated by
a people take on added significance. But even then, the range of
critical responses to another people's stories, from finding them cu­
rious and interesting to worthy of satire and disparaging humor,

11
 PROLOG

does not seem to have included questioning their rationality or

"truth."
From antiquity there are many examples of what might be called
friendly intellectual curiosity about other peoples' stories and cultures
as well as attempts to explain them. The Greeks especially turned
their curiosity about other cultures into research projects and pro­
duced explanations for the differences they encountered when com­
pared with their own stories and systems of philosophy and thought.
They produced vast collections of data about other peoples, such as
we have in the works of Herodotus, and they looked for ways to
understand the stories of other peoples by noting similarities with
their own and often assuming that they therefore meant the same
things as Plutarch's treatise on Isis and Osiris shows.
Pausanius lets us see that the Greeks were capable of focusing
curiosity upon their own stories, and Comutus provides us with a
remarkable documentation of the way in which the Stoics made sense
of Homer's stories by means of allegory. This means that the Greeks
had taken note of the figures and events storied in their world of the
imagination and had wondered about their difference from the way
in which people and activities appeared in the real world. They had
learned to call the agents of that imaginary world "gods" and "he­
roes" and were starting to ask questions about them. At first they did
not bother to give the stories about the gods and heroes a special
name, referring to them just as they would refer to any story (mythos)
or report (logos). But eventually they tried to distinguish between
"myths," "histories," and "fables." And since they had developed
many systems of logic, science, and philosophy to account for the
real world, translating the stories of the gods and heroes into allego­
ries of the real world was not too difficult to imagine. They also
came up with other explanations. Euhemerus, for instance, argued
that the gods and heroes had once been real people and their stories
real historical events. It was in the process of venerating them and
retelling their stories that they became gods and the events became
fantastic. Thus the Greeks are an early example of thinking about
both their own stories and the stories of others, and developing
theories in order to make sense of them.
One might have thought that the early Christians, living in the
worlds of hellenistic thought and cultural mergers, would have

12
 PROLOG

learned from the Greeks how to accommodate the stories of the gods
of other peoples in their desire to imagine the world as a single
"house" (oikoumene) in which all peoples would live together as chil­
dren of the one god. But no. For some reason early Christians came
to think of their own stories of the God of Israel and father of Jesus
as true in a way that made all of the stories of other peoples false and
dangerous. It was not long before Christians used the term "belief"
to express their acceptance of the truth of the gospel story. As for the
many other stories that did not recognize and agree with the pur­
poses of the god and hero of the gospel story, they eventually were
banned, if not burned. The reasons for being so adamant about the
"truth" of the gospel story are very complex, but one factor seems to
have been the way in which the Christian myth was set in history.
That it was a story of the gods, in some ways like other stories of the
gods and heroes known to all in the Greco-Roman age, is clear. But
one of its features that Christians were expected to believe was that
the high god of the gospel had plans to expand his kingdom and rule
over the whole world, and that the inaugural event happened "under
Pontius Pilate." This introduced a combination of mythos and histuria
which is very tight, and especially so in that the event of importance
was definitely dated and of recent, not archaic history. This is an
exceptionally odd feature of the Christian myth, and Christian apol­
ogists have always used it to claim that the gospel is not "myth," but
"history." However, as will become clear in the course of this book,
the "setting in history" of the gospel story is one of its more obvious
mythic features.
One can trace the effects of this story and its claim to be the
truth throughout the long history of Christian dogmatics with its
focus upon "heresy" and "orthodoxy." One can also trace the effects
of the story's claim to reveal the truth about the one true God
destined to rule the world throughout the histories of Christian
societies and their encounters with other peoples. It helps to explain
features of the emergence of Christendom in the time of Constantine
(fourth century), the Roman era missions (fourth to sixth centuries),
the encounter with Islam (seventh to ninth centuries), the crusades
(eleventh and twelfth centuries), the period of European empires
(twelfth to fourteenth centuries), the so-called age of discovery (fif­
teenth to seventeenth centuries), the era of colonization (seventeenth

13
 PROLOG

to nineteenth centuries), and the modem period of globalization

(twentieth and twenty-first centuries). For the first several centu­
ries of the Christian era there was little friendly curiosity about the
stories of other peoples or questions raised about the "truth" of the
gospel story.
Of some interest to our theme of the Christian gospel and the
concept of myth is the change in attitude occasioned by the Enlight­
enment and the era of colonization. The Enlightenment introduced
a rational critique of the basic tenets of Christianity and encouraged
intellectual curiosity not only about the natural world but also about
human history and the overlooked texts from antiquity. The era of
colonization had produced intriguing reports of "primitive" peoples
and their "beliefs" that explorers and missionaries brought back from
Africa, Asia and the Americas. What happened was that the reports
of other peoples and their stories began to merge with the now
burgeoning archives of textual information about the pasts of many
ancient Near-Eastern and European peoples. Scholars pored over
older texts from the classical period of Greece and from the later
Greco-Roman world. North European sagas, epics, rituals, and folk­
tales were collected, published, and studied. The texts available to
scholars from the ancient Near East and India were published in 5 1
volumes by Max Mtiller as The Sacred Books of the East. And the
modem study of myths began.
The first phase of the modem study of myths was largely an
academic and textual exercise. The written accounts of what other
peoples "believed" and/or had believed were translated, compared
with other texts, and studied. The Enlightenment had taken the edge
off the sharp and unthinking rejection of other cultures and made it
possible for intellectual curiosity to explore the rationales and logics
of other peoples' stories, ways and thinking. But the Enlightenment
critique of Christianity, the substitution of "reason" for "faith," and
the shift from metaphysical theologies to Deism did not dismantle an
essentially Christian mentality in the approach taken to the study of
myth. Myths were thought of as systems of "belief," and the under­
lying questions had to do with the "reasons" for thinking that the
myths were "true." "What were these people thinking?" and "How
could they possibly have believed these stories they told?" were the
questions driving scholarly curiosity.

14
 PROLOG

A first approach was to classify stories by type and distinguish

the lot from essays, treatises, manuals, and the "sacred texts" of high
culture "priests" (such as Brahmins). Stories were divided into fairy
tales, fables, sagas, legends (with "heroes" as protagonists), and
myths (with "gods" as agents). The assignment of a particular story
to one of these classes was frequently uncertain, but the concepts
associated with the classes were quite clear. That is because the prin­
ciples of distinction had to do with the "nature" of the principal
protagonists and the problems they encountered. In fairy tales, smal­
lish, fanciful "little people" appeared as helpers to children and youth
who had gotten themselves into trouble. In fables, animate characters
turned the surprising consequences of their actions into morals. Sagas
told of leaders-to-be on extended quests for the establishment and
rule of a place and a people. Legends told of heroes tested under
assignment to combat the external forces that were threatening a
people. And in myths, superhuman agents of a cosmic or transcen­
dent order of reality created the world and controlled human destiny.
Naturally, the focus fell upon myths. While there was some inter­
est in the other types of story, and though the interest sometimes
registered as questions about the social and psychological "meanings"
of these stories, only myths created problems that required cognitive
theories of explanation. That is because, with myths having to do
with stories about the "gods," the questions of "truth," "reason,"
and "belief" immediately surfaced, their relationship to "ritual" had
to be explained, and the "religion" they were assumed to support had
to be assesd
se . In retrospect it is not difficult to see that the assump­
tions underlying the very problem that myths created for the Enlight­
enment intellectual were the result of centuries-old familiarity with
the Christian system of myth and ritual and its theological and phil­
osophical rationalizations. There was, to be sure, a backlash to the
rationalism of the Enlightenment. But the backlash, especially that of
Romanticism, only succeeded in making the comparison and expla­
nation of myths more difficult. With notions of symbolism and rev­
elatory religious experience used to "appreciate" all myths, there was
no way to account for their differences.
Many studies of myth and schools of myth theory developed
from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, most based on
the assumption that myths were attempts to explain the material

15
 PROLOG

world or rationalize historical events of dramatic significance to a

society. That myths imagined gods in order to render such explana­
tions was thought to be a mark of the pre-enlightenment stage of
human intelligence and mentality. Some myths were mistaken ac­
counts of such things as the creation of the world, the emergence of
animals and human beings, the astrophysical functions of the sun and
moon, the reason for the round of seasons, the fertility of the crops,
and the causes of natural disasters. Other myths were fanciful at­
tempts to express the significance of social practices such as the
enthronement of kings, New Year's celebrations, May Day games,
and the harvest festivals. Since myths rendered obviously poor expla­
nations, they were evidence for a "disease of language," the confused
state of thinking at earlier stages of human evolution in which igno­
rances of causes and the lack of proper names resulted in faulty
reasoning. All of these theories are now reviewed in retrospect by
scholars as versions of a common explanation of myth based on a
rationalist critique. The rationalist theory was still quite strong at the
end of the nineteenth century when ethnography began to change
the data base, and other theories of myth began to be developed.
There was, however, a legacy of this first phase of myth studies that
determined the way in which scholars and ethnographers would
look at myth throughout the twentieth century. That legacy was the
way in which the concept of myth had been linked to ritual and both
to the emergent concepts of religion and culture. Ethnographers and
historians of religion would record and discuss the myths of a peo­
ple as parts of a larger pattern of thinking, activity, and cul­
tural production.
The reason ethnography made a change in the study of myths is
because of the way in which the descriptions of myths were recorded.
Fieldwork as the method for doing ethnography meant that the
researcher was "reading" and recording the entire round of activities
that defined the life of a people, not just a text from a distant time
and place about a myth or a ritual divorced from its life context.
Myths were part of the life of the people, as were rituals, and though
"religion" was rather quickly seen as an unhelpful concept, the notion
of culture easily took its place. Thus the data base changed in myth
studies. The number of myths available for study increased exponen­
tially. The familiar themes and "types" of myth were compounded.

16
 PROLOG

The occasions on which myths were told or evoked, as well as the

social roles responsible for protecting and rehearsing them, hardly fit
the older notions of "ritual" and "priest." And the depictions of
mythic figures and the images used on ritual occasions started to
blend into what ethnographers began to call cultural symbols. Thus
the second phase of myth studies had to develop new theories.
If the first phase of myth studies was quite content to explain
myth away, or at least to explain why the older, archaic and "primi­
tive" myths were now passe, the second phase sought to understand
myth as essential for the creation and maintenance of a society.
Functionalist theories looked for ways in which myths inculcated
values and attitudes. Symbolic theories emphasized the contribution
myths made to images and symbols of importance for the definition,
identity, and celebration of a society. Structuralist theories analyzed
the way in which myths were put together in order to get at the logic
of the story and the mode of thinking of a people. And so, in the
hands of ethnographers, myths became essential ingredients in social
description and analysis. And in the hands of cultural anthropolo­
gists, myths became windows into the otherwise unexpressed ways
in which a people imagined themselves, thought about themselves,
and negotiated their plans and values.
One might have thought that scholars interested in Christian
origins and cultural history would turn their attention to the Chris­
tian myth and explore its social functions and rationale in keeping
with modem myth theory. That has not happened. The Christian
myth has not been an object of scholarly investigation. The very idea
of the gospel story being called a myth has been anathema to Chris­
tians and scholars alike. Although the gospel was the Christians' story
of the gods, and although it was always in mind when scholars were
working with the stories of the gods of other peoples, only the stories
of the gods of other peoples were called myths. The gospel story, by
contrast, was referred to as the gospel and it was imagined as "true"
in ways that other myths were not. That means that a study of the
Christian gospel as the Christian myth will have to chart new terri­
tory. It also means that, since the gospel is well known as the story
that doaunents the "origins," reveals the "logic," and constitutes the
"legacy" of the Christian faith, asking the reader to see it differently
presents the author with a threefold challenge.

17
 PROLOG

The first challenge is that, in order to consider the gospel as myth

and to account for its origin, the customary direction of cause and
effect at the beginning of Christianity will have to be turned around.
The gospel will no longer be the document that accounts for (rec­
ords, attests, tells the story of) Christian origins generated by the
historical Jesus. The portrayal of Jesus in the gospels will have to be
seen as myth and accounted for as mythmaking. It is the origin of
the gospel as the myth created by early Christians that needs to be
explained. The second challenge has to do with the need for devel­
oping a theory of religion that runs counter to the way in which
religion is understood by most Christians. If we want to see the logic
of the gospel as myth we will have to reconstruct the social situations
in which it first came together, look for the reasons early Christians
had for imagining things as they did, and apply a bit of social theory
about myth and social interests in order to see that logic at work.
And as for the legacy of the Christian myth, a sweep through
two-thousand years of history will have to be imagined in order to
ask about the way it has worked and continues to work at the
beginning of the twenty-first century. This is the third challenge, and
in some ways it is the most difficult of all. That is because current
scholarly investigation of religion and culture has learned to be cau­
tious with respect to generalizations held to be definitional for a
religion or a culture conceptualized as a single system with organic
functions. It is also the case that scholars have learned about the
importance of social practices and behavior when describing a soci­
ety. They have also learned that discourse always needs to be related
to practice in order to see the dynamics of planning, rationalization,
contestation and negotiation that characterize social life. To promise
a reflection upon "the legacy" of "the Christian myth" is therefore
brash and easily mistaken for a reification of the history of an idea.
However, what I have in mind is a composite of many myths that
were created, considered, compared, sorted, and arranged during the
first 300 years of Christian history. The result was the formation of
the New Testament with its focus upon the narrative gospels, and
the Christian Bible with its rationale as Christian epic. Naturally, I
will have to be careful to acknowledge the changes in the tenor,
scope, and character of the gospel story in the course of 1 700 years
of Christian cultivation, and include the social circumstances and

18
 PROLOG

social reasons for the various appeals to the Bible in the history of
the United States. Thus the "legacy" of "the Christian myth" is
actually the story of its repeated rehearsals, replications, and reinter­
pretations, not the story of an impingement upon the human imagi­
nation driving human history from without.
Part I is about the scholars' quest for the historical Jesus and the
notion of Christian origins that it assumes. That notion is the tradi­
tional Christian persuasion that something about the specialness of
Jesus and the events of his life and death inaugurated the Christian
faith. The earliest texual layers of the Jesus traditions project an image
of Jesus that is quite unlike that portrayed in the gospel story. In this
respect "The Case for a Cynic-like Jesus" (Chapter 2) is similar to the
portrayals of the historical Jesus by other scholars (Chapter 1). But
in contrast to all other pictUres of the historical Jesus presented by
scholars of the quest, the point will be made that neither a Cynic-like
Jesus nor any other portrayals of the historical Jesus can account for
Christian origins. The argument will be made that even the earliest
layers of the "teachings of Jesus" do not contain the "authentic"
sayings of the historical Jesus or project a true pictUre of what he
must have been like. Thus the process of "mythmaking" had already
begun, a process that eventually produced the narrative gospels and
"the Christian myth." That being the case, a serious critique of the
traditional scholarly quest for the historical Jesus, together with its
assumptions and aims, is justified and presented. It is instead the
process of social formation and mythmaking that needs full descrip­
tion and theoretical grounding if we want to redescribe and explain
Christian origins. Part I ends with the challenge of redescription,
given the state of New Testament studies, the contours of the tradi­
tional "map" of Christian origins now in place, and the fact that the
discipline of New Testament studies has apparently not found it
necessary to question the notions of divine intervention and miracle
at the fountainhead of Christianity.
Part II is devoted to a social theory of religion and myth. These
chapters are necessary lest the project of redescription be seen as an
attempt to forge a "new hermeneutic." The project in Christian ori­
gins called for in Chapter 3, and understaken by the national seminar
described in the Annex, is not being pursued as a new hermeneutic
with contemporary theological interests in mind. It is being pur-

19
 PROLOG

sued in the interest of explaining Christianity in terms appropriate to

the academy and with potential for explaining the effective difference
Christianity makes in our time. Those terms will have to be derived
from academic disciplines in which social theories of myth, ritual,
and religion have been generated. New Testament scholars have not
thought it necessary to discuss theories of religion. As hermeneuts
familiar with the Christian religion and trained in theological disci­
plines, New Testament scholars have been more or less unaware that
a particular theory of religion has implicitly been at work in the
discipline of New Testament studies. Thus the theory is unacknow­
ledged and unexamined. It is the popular view of religion taken from
the long history of Christianity as the prime example of religion and
standard for the study of other religions. This book will challenge
that view of Christianity by analyzing the reasons for the construction
of its myth at the beginning of the Christian era and by offering
another theory of religion to explain it.
Part III presents analyses of two variants of the Christian myth,
the Gospel of Mark (Chapter 6) and the New Testament as a whole
(Chapter 7), plus a brief history of a social affect of the Christian
myth in the United States (Chapter 8). The analyses focus on the
social logic of the myth that is quite different from the customary
theological interpretations of the gospel, and question its helpfulness
at the turn of the twenty-first century. Chapter 8 is a reflection on
the way in which the Christian myth has influenced political and
social practices in the United States. The reader will know that the
myth is alive and well at the beginning of the twenty-first century,
but may not have thought of its legacy in contemporary terms. Thus
these chapters are examples of the cultural critique made possible by
the design of the redescription project. The same theory of religion
used to question the "origins" of the Christian myth will be used to
reflect upon the "logic" and "legacy" of the myth in American society
and culture.
The critique of American society and culture with which the
book ends is basic to this study. Though it is grounded in a purely
academic approach to the New Testament and Christian origins, the
critique of its continuing influence is not merely a matter of academic
interest. Both the Gospel of Mark and the New Testament are what
Harold Bloom would call "strong texts" that continue to be read as

20
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
THE FORGIVING FATHER, Molitor
 X
THE FORGIVING FATHER

"A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to The parable of
his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to the prodigal.
me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days
after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far
country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he
had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in
want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he
sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his
belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And
when he came to himself, he said. How many hired servants of my father's
have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and
go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven,
and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as
one of thy hired servants.

"And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off,
his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and
kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against
heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But
the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him;
and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted
calf, and kill it; and let us eat. and be merry: for this my son was dead and is
alive again; he was lost and is found. And they began to be merry.

"Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the
house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and
asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come:
and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe
and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his
father out, and entreated him.
"And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee,
neither transgress I at any time thy commandment and yet thou never gavest
me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: but as soon as this thy
son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed
for him the fatted calf.

"And he said unto him. Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is
thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy
brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found."

Of this beautiful parable, the great Dickens said very truly, "It The forgiving
is the most touching passage in all literature." Most people Father.
think of it and speak of it as the story of the prodigal son. It is
really, however, the story of the forgiving Father. Jesus wanted the Jews to
learn to know God as the Father of all men—great and small—and
therefore interested in the welfare of all of them. Jesus knew only too well
that sin held possession of the lives of the people of His day. He saw plenty
of evidence of it. Men were living corrupt lives. Corruption had defiled
their minds as well as their bodies. They crowded about the Master to be
healed of both mental and physical diseases, that, in many cases, had come
upon them because of their sins. Jesus knew, too, that no hope was held out
to the sinner in the perverted doctrines of the rabbis. These doctrines made
it impossible for the sinner ever to return to the presence of God. But Jesus
wanted men to think of God not as a stern, severe, and relentless being, but
as a loving and forgiving Father to all men. So, when the younger son of the
parable had recognized his sins, had sorrowfully repented of them, and had
returned and had confessed them freely, the father forgave them freely, and
received him again joyfully into the household. Of course, the prodigal son,
though forgiven, would never be able wholly to efface from his soul the
marks of his offenses, any more than you would be able to remove from a
post the hole made by a nail you had driven in. You may be sorry and pull
out the nail, but the hole remains; and even though you fill the hole with
putty, and cover all with paint, yet in the post remains the mark made by
that nail. However, that the Father will fully forgive the penitent sinner
without upbraiding is indeed a consolation worth knowing. It was without
doubt the desire of Jesus to illustrate God's intense love even for the sinner
and His eagerness to reclaim him.
Now there were present, when Jesus related the parable of the Condemnation
forgiving father and other parables teaching the same of the self-
comforting lesson, a number of the scribes and Pharisees. righteous.
These self-righteous men derided Him, and found fault with
Him because He treated sinners as if they too were men with souls. To these
self-righteous ones, Jesus spoke after this wise: You scribes and Pharisees,
you justify yourselves before men. You think yourselves so righteous that
you need no repentance. But God knows your hearts; and often that which
is highly esteemed among men is abomination before the Lord. The great
brotherhood of man are all children of God; when one who has sinned
repents and returns to Father's home, there is more joy over his return, than
over ninety and nine like you who think they need no repentance. To
illustrate your case, I may tell you this parable:

"Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, The publican
and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus and the
with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men Pharisee.
are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I
fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican,
standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote
upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man
went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that
exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be
exalted."

Fortunately, then, God the Father is ready, nay, eager, to forgive the sins of
the wrongdoer who repents. Likewise, He is ready, eager, to answer the
prayer that is spoken in sincere humility. But there is no justification for
him who thinks he has no need of repentance, or who self-righteously exalts
himself above his fellowmen. Said Jesus to our own great Prophet, "I the
Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, nevertheless,
he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven."

THE REFERENCES

Luke 15:11 ff. Doc. and Cov. 1:31.

Luke 18:9-14.

THE QUESTIONS

1. Retell the story of the Forgiving Father.

2. Justify Dickens's statement that this is the most touching passage in

literature.

3. What was Jesus's purpose in telling the story?

4. What views did the Jews generally hold concerning sinners?

5. What did Jesus say about the self-righteous?

6. What lesson do you get from the prayer of the publican?

7. What is God's attitude toward sin?

THE CONSOLING CHRIST, Plockhorst
 XI.
SINCERITY IN WORSHIP

One day Jesus called to Him the twelve disciples whom He Finding and
had chosen to be His special witnesses and instructed them in losing one's
the business of their mission. Amongst other things, Jesus said life.
to them, "He that findeth his life, shall lose it; and he that
loseth his life for my sake, shall find it."

Perhaps you may be surprised to know that this little saying has caused
many people to wonder. Or, perhaps, you may wonder yourself what Jesus
meant. Why should a man who has found his life lose it? Indeed, how can a
man both find and lose his life at the same time? And how can a man who
has lost his life find it? What does it mean to lose one's life, and to find
one's life? Undoubtedly, the answer to these questions must be of great
importance to men.

In seeking for that answer, we must recall the fundamental purpose of the
mission of Jesus, and of His loving sacrifice for the salvation of the rest of
Father's children. Jesus strove to teach men to know God, and, through His
cruel death, to bring men back into the presence of God. All of Jesus's
teaching, therefore, was based upon the fact that the chief thing in a man's
life is to recognize his divine right as a son of God, and to come into close,
real, and constant touch with the Father in heaven. But how shall a man
come into such close touch with the Almighty Being who rules the
universe?

Our lives upon the earth are full of illustrations of how The necessity
necessary it is for us to put ourselves into perfect harmony of harmony.
with our environments when we wish to attain certain ends. If
we wish to mingle with so-called society, we must conform to the artificial
standards of society in dress, and manners, and speech, and many other
things; otherwise, we become outcasts from society and are despised. Or
again, if we set up an apparatus for wireless telegraphy, we must, whether
we like it or not, make all connections close and in proper way, and we
must use the right kind of materials in both the transmitting and the
receiving instruments; otherwise, we can neither send nor receive messages.
If in the society of men, and in the application of the principles of science, it
is so urgently necessary to observe the rules of society and the laws of
science, it is very easy to understand that, if we would come into close and
constant touch with God, we must observe also the laws of such divine
communion. Anything at all that might come between one and real
communion with God would be disastrous. Indeed, in the teaching of Jesus,
it would constitute the greatest sorrow, the greatest tragedy in human
existence. Since it is life eternal to know God, not to know Him, not to find
Him, is loss eternal. Although a man may prosper, then, in this life—
although he may find his life, as it were, in this world—yet shall he lose it
eternally, if he has not found God. If we stop now, and think this out clearly,
we may understand very easily what Jesus meant when He said to His
disciples, "He that findeth his life, shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for
my sake, shall find it."

We may now ask ourselves, What is likely to come between Three forms of
us and close touch with God, to prevent us from finding God, temptation.
and thus to prevent us from gaining life eternal? You will
recall what we have already learned about the temptation of Jesus. The
devil tempted Jesus first through the physical, the bodily, appetites; then
through the desire, the love of wordly praise; and lastly, through the love of
worldly power and riches. It was these very forms of temptation that Jesus
feared might come between man and God. Especially did He fear that the
love of the praise of men might tempt people and bring about their
destruction. So, as He taught one time those who followed Him, He
explained to them the right attitude in worship.

"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men," said Jesus, Instruction in
"to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your praying and
Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms-giving.
alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do
in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.
Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms,
let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be
in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee
openly.

"And when thou prayest," said Jesus further, "thou shalt not be as the
hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the
corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you,
They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,
and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and
thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

"Moreover," continued Jesus, touching the third conventional form of

worship, "when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for
they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I
say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint
thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but
unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret,
shall reward thee openly."

Now, it is not necessary to think that these sayings of Jesus The real value
are to be taken literally. It is not absolutely necessary that, in of worship.
order to pray in secret, one should retire to his chamber and
shut the door, then pray; nor is it absolutely necessary that, in fasting, one
should anoint one's head and wash one's face. Jesus used these figures
merely to portray a condition opposite to that assumed by the hypocrites.
But Jesus wanted to teach that the value of worship depends upon the
motive that inspires it. If one gives alms to be seen of men and to be praised
therefore, one's reward lies there in the praise one receives. God will bestow
no other favor. Likewise, those who pray and fast to be praised of men, get
their reward in the worldly praise they receive. They have not found God.
They are not in real, vital touch with Him. Worldly ambitions have come
between them and Him. In gaining the life of this world they have lost life
eternal. They have yielded to the temptation of mere ostentation and
display. And this spirit has entered unfortunately, into the service of many
churches. "Obviously," says a noted student of the Bible, "many of the
elaborate forms and ceremonies which have developed in connection with
the worship of the Christian Church are contrary to His (Jesus's) spirit and
teachings. Only in so far as they lead the individual into closer personal
touch with God are they justifiable or of real value."

What then is the right attitude in worship? God Himself has Humility and
declared, you remember, that those who worship Him must do sincerity.
so in spirit and in truth. The motive of worship is of more
importance than the form. The value of worship lies in humility, in laying
aside all worldly ambitions, in approaching close to God for the sole
purpose of communing with Him. It is better to lose one's worldly life in the
service of God, than to gain that worldly life and fail to find God; for he
who thus loses the worldly life, shall find life eternal.

"I give unto you these sayings," said Jesus once to Joseph the Prophet, "that
ye may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship,
that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of
His fulness; for if you keep my commandments you shall receive of His
fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto
you, you shall receive grace for grace."

THE REFERENCES

Matt. 10:39. Matt. 6:5, 6.

Matt. 6:1-4. Matt. 6:16-18.

Doc. and Cov. 93:19, 20.

THE QUESTIONS

1. What did Jesus mean by the saying "He that findeth his life shall lose it?"

2. What is the chief thing in a man's life?

3. Show how it is necessary to put ourselves in harmony with our

environments.
4. What is likely to come between us and close communion with God?

5. What is right attitude in worship?

6. Wherein lies the value of worship?

JESUS PRAYING, Liska

 XII
HOW TO PRAY

"And it came to pass, that, as (Jesus) was praying in a certain place, when
He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord teach us to pray, as
John also taught his disciples.

"And He said unto them, When ye pray, say,

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy The Lord's
kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. prayer.
Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins:
for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into
temptation; but deliver us from evil."

This is the wonderfully simple prayer uttered by the Lord Himself—a

prayer that has guided the faith of Christians since first it was spoken. You
may have learned it as the disciple Matthew has recorded it. Matthew's
version is just a little different from Luke's, which is here given. But Luke's
version makes two or three points just a little clearer, perhaps, than does
Matthew's; so, we shall use it for our text in this lesson.

According to St. Luke, Jesus gave this prayer to His disciples Jesus had
in response to the request, "Lord, teach us to pray." You have found God.
observed, of course, that Jesus prayed often. He lived in close
communion with the Father in heaven. He Himself had found God; and He
knew that God will answer the prayer of the righteous. He knew, too, that
only through the prayer of faith can a man come close to God, and obtain in
full the blessings that belong to him as a son of God. Therefore, Jesus
prayed often, and as no other man has prayed.

But if you will study carefully the prayers of Jesus, and The prayers of
compare them with other prayers preserved in the records of the Jews.
the Jews, you will find His prayers quite different from those other prayers.
The prayers used anciently—and still used—in the Jewish service are very
beautiful, noble in their faith and devotion. But they were distinctly the
prayers of a special people, inspired by the thought that this special people
was also a chosen, a select people. The type prayer which Jesus gave, on the
other hand, while individual is yet universal in its appeal, and in its
application; it is concrete and practical, yet it is profoundly spiritual. Of
course, it was not intended by Jesus that all men should repeat this prayer
only and no other. He gave it merely as a type, a model. Certainly, then, if
we wish to know how to frame our own prayers, it will be well to analyze
this one.

First, then, you will observe that this prayer possesses the characteristics
that distinguish most of Jesus's prayers.

It is brief. The prayer of

Jesus.
It is direct.

It is sincere.

It is unselfish.

It expresses a simple, unshakable confidence in the goodness of God.

Jesus addresses God as Father. So should man address God. Man should
learn to think of God as the Father of our spirits, and go to Him with the
same simple trust and confidence manifested by a little child when it runs
with outstretched arms to its earthly father. Jesus felt and manifested that
perfect unity between father and son.

"Hallowed be Thy name." In this phrase, Jesus taught that we The Lord's
should recognize the sanctity of the name of Jehovah, and at prayer
the same time that we should show our reverence and analyzed.
devotion. This is a personal, individual and profound emotion
on the part of him who prays sincerely.
Then Jesus prayed, "Thy kingdom come." Perhaps you do not fully realize
what this petition means when you repeat it in your prayers. What is the use
of praying for the kingdom of God to come to earth if we do not help in its
establishment? When we utter this petition, then, we virtually promise that
we ourselves will do all in our power to help. Only then can God's will be
done, "as in heaven, so in earth." And the doing of the will of God is,
throughout the teachings of Jesus, the essential element in the establishment
of God's reign.

These petitions, you will notice, are of universal interest. Now, Jesus asks
for that which will meet and satisfy personal needs. "Give us day by day
our daily bread." But even here, the petition is an expression of implicit
confidence in God's power to provide, and in His unlimited love, rather than
merely a request for some specific gift. Its meaning has been interpreted in
these words: "Provide for us each day that which Thou, in Thy Fatherly care
and wisdom, seeth is needful for us."

The fourth petition is also full of meaning. "Forgive us our sins; for we also
forgive everyone that is indebted to us." Jesus emphasized time and again in
His ministry the necessity of forgiving others, if we would ourselves be
forgiven. Only in a spirit of humility and sincere worship can we approach
the throne of God.

The last petition has been often misunderstood. "Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil." Certainly the words as they are here
recorded do not clearly represent the meaning of Jesus. Yet, perhaps, even
in the days of the apostles some people had failed to understand. For James
wrote once, "Let no man, who is being tempted, say, 'my temptation is from
God,' for God is not to be tempted Himself by evil and He tempts no man,
but each man is tempted with evil when he is drawn away by his own lusts
and enticed." The petition in the Lord's prayer is, therefore, a petition for
strength to overcome. Its meaning is, "Deliver us from temptations which
we can not withstand." Or, as our own Prophet has phrased it, "Leave us not
in temptation, but deliver us from evil."

These general points in the type prayer given by Jesus, it is Teach us to

well to remember. God is not to be reached by many words. It pray.
is the broken spirit and the contrite heart that call down the
love of the Father. Neither will the hollow, selfish prayer please the Father
of us all. But as we pray, finding our own words in which to express the
desires of our hearts, let us remember the characteristics of the prayer that
Jesus gave.

It is brief.

It is direct.

It is sincere.

It is unselfish.

It expresses a simple, unshakable confidence in the providence of God.

Moreover, Jesus prayed often. So should we all. Only then may we hope to
live in the presence of God.

"O Thou by whom we come to God,

The Life, the Truth, the Way!
The path of prayer Thyself hath trod;
Lord, teach us how to pray."

THE REFERENCES

Luke 11:1-4.

THE QUESTIONS

1. Repeat the Lord's prayer.

2. What prompted Jesus to utter this prayer?

3. What is the difference between the Lord's prayer, and the prayers of the
Jews in general?
4. What are the characteristics of Jesus's prayers?

5. Analyze the Lord's prayer.

6. What do we learn to guide us in our own prayers?

RIVER JORDAN, PALESTINE

 XIII
PERSISTENCE IN PRAYER

Everyone who has prayed devoutly and sincerely has The Lord will
undoubtedly experienced at times the keenest kind of answer.
disappointment because he has not received an immediate
answer to his prayer, Perhaps you have yourself prayed sometimes for
something that you wanted badly. It was an insistent, an urgent desire. You
felt that you could hardly wait even to utter the prayer. Yet, your prayer has
remained apparently unanswered. At such times you may have found
comfort in this beautiful Sunday School hymn:

"Unanswered yet? Tho' when you first presented

This one petition at the Father's throne,
It seemed you could not wait the time of asking,
So urgent was your heart to make it known.
Tho' years have passed since then, do not despair;
The Lord will answer you, sometime, somewhere."

This is a beautiful hope, a sublime faith; and every one of us should

cultivate such hope, such faith. Moreover, everyone of us should practice
such persistency in prayer as is described by the poet in this hymn.

"The prayer your lips have pleaded

In agony of tears these many years?"

For very often, without question, our prayers fail to move the Father,
because they are not urged upon Him, nor are they upheld by that hopeful
trust which knows no wavering. Jesus emphasized two points in this
connection that we should grapple to our hearts.

As we have already learned, Jesus condemned long. Pray often and

repetitious prayers. He despised also the hypocrite, and the persistently.
hollow prayer of the hypocrite. But Jesus did not mean by such
condemnation that we should not appear often before the persistently.
Father, and press the case for which we are pleading. On the contrary, as
you will readily see from the following parables, Jesus emphasized the
importance of persistency in prayer.

"And (Jesus) said unto them. Which of you shall have a The
friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, importunate
Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his friend.
journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now
shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say
unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet
because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he
needeth."

"And (again) He spake a parable unto them to this end, that The
men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was unrighteous
in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: judge.
and there was a widow in that city: and she came unto him,
saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for awhile: but
afterward he said within himself. Though I fear not God, nor regard man;
yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual
coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.
And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto
Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them
speedily."

These parables speak sufficiently for themselves. The lesson An urgent

that Jesus wanted to impart is clear. It is important that we desire
persist in the prayer that we want urgently to be fulfilled. necessary.
However, it was not Jesus's purpose to teach His disciples
merely to repeat constantly an urgent prayer. Merely repeating a prayer is
really of no more worth than uttering a long prayer full of repetitions. Jesus
taught that Father gives His best and choicest gifts only to those who desire
them intensely. We keep on praying for those things that we truly want,
because the desire for them is urgent, intense and insistent; and we keep on
keeping on.

But there is a second element that must necessarily enter into Implicit trust
the right attitude in prayer to God. Not only should our necessary.
prayers express our intense desires, and be spoken frequently,
but they should be accompanied by a simple, childlike trust and confidence
in God.

"Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye Seek first the
shall drink," taught Jesus; "Nor yet for your body, what ye kingdom of
shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than God.
raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither
do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.
Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add
one cubit unto his stature.

"And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how
they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore,
If God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast
into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? . . . .

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these
things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow:
for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the
day is the evil thereof."

Now, Jesus did not mean by this splendid teaching that we Labor and
should not plan for the future; nor that we should not be confidence
industrious and spin and weave and harvest. His illustrations hand in hand.
impress the thought that we should not allow ourselves to fret
over the petty worries and anxieties of life. God knows our needs before we
utter them. We should rely implicitly then upon His providence, knowing
that if we serve Him and do our best, He will care for us as well as for the
birds of the air and the lilies of the field.
Undue anxiety may be called almost a sin. It preys upon the The sin of
peace of mind and happiness of untold thousands of men and worry.
women. The most learned and efficient men in the world have
devoted much of their time to the study of worry; but no one of them has
found a cure for it. Many books have, however, been written advising this
or that course of life to overcome the evil, and all these books possess
value. But it is to be noted that the cause of worry in any man is usually
something over which man has no control. Neither worry, nor any other
thing that man may do, can change the nature of things. We are forced
therefore to admit that the only cure for worry known to man is that
presented by Jesus. His cure consists of a childlike faith and trust in the
goodness of God—a trust so simple and strong that anxious care can find no
place in the mind. It consists of such a confidence in the providence of God
as Abraham displayed when he was commanded to offer his dearly beloved
son Isaac on the altar of sacrifice. Abraham wavered not; he worried not;
and God provided the sacrifice that was meet. Of course, it requires
courage, patience, and persistent effort to cultivate so supreme a degree of
faith. Yet, one who has it not can hardly say with truth that he has learned
fully to know God. Indeed, such sublime faith alone marks the truly
converted and nobly devoted soul; whereas the lack of such faith reveals a
lack of fulness of trust in God—almost a disloyalty to God. One cannot in
this world attain to real peace and happiness without implicit faith in God.
Without it, one can not keep on keeping on in fervent prayer to God.

Finally, it must be remembered that another phase of this God knows

childlike trust may affect the answer to our prayers. If they best.
remain unanswered, it may be because it is best for us so. No
other man has ever suffered as did Jesus in Gethsemane. No other man has
ever prayed as Jesus did there. Yet, recall the spirit of that prayer. "O my
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will
but as Thou wilt." This is the true spirit of faith-inspired prayer.

Such petitions Jesus would have us utter. He would have us Thy will be
pray constantly for those things that we desire intensely. He done.
would have us repose implicit childlike trust in the Heavenly
Father. He would have each one of us feel always, "Nevertheless not my
will, but Thine, be done." And in this spirit He would have us always keep
on keeping on.

THE REFERENCES

Luke 11:5-8. Matt. 6:25-30.

Luke 18:1-8. Matt. 6:33-34.

THE QUESTIONS

1. What should be the feeling of one whose prayer is not immediately

answered?

2. What is the lesson conveyed in the Sunday School hymn "Unanswered

Yet?"

3. Why are our prayers often unanswered?

4. What is the difference between long repetitious prayers and frequent

prayers?

5. What is the meaning of the parable of the importunate friend?

6. What is the lesson of the parable of the unrighteous judge?

7. Why is childlike trust and confidence in God necessary in prayer?

8. What did Jesus mean by teaching "Take no thought for your life?"

9. How can anxiety or worry be called almost a sin?

10. What lesson do we derive from the attitude of Jesus in the wonderful
prayer in Gethsemane?
"LORD HELP ME." Plockhorst
 XIV
THE POWER OF FAITH

It is, of course, evident to you now that the two essentials of Confidence vs.
acceptable prayer are implicit reliance on the wisdom and the Faith
goodness of God, and the spirit of forgiveness. The first is the
only attitude that can be rightly assumed toward God; and the second is the
attitude that we should all assume toward our fellowmen. There is certainly
no use in praying to God if we do not trust Him; and as certainly, God will
not forgive us and answer our prayers, if we are unwilling to forgive our
fellowmen and help them. But this attitude of unwavering trust in God is
really more than merely an essential of prayer. It is a principle of power in
both the spiritual and the temporal life of man. In this lesson we shall
consider the power of faith—the invincible power of childlike confidence.

It is recorded that Jesus cursed one morning a certain fig tree The incident of
that it should no more bear fruit. The next morning, as Jesus the fig tree.
and the disciples passed by from Bethany to Jerusalem, they
saw that the fig tree was dried up from the roots. "And Peter, calling to
remembrance, saith unto (Jesus), Master, behold, the fig tree which Thou
cursedst is withered away!

"And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say
unto you. That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed,
and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall
believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he saith.

"Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when Forgiveness
ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. accompanies
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against prayer.
any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you
your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is
in heaven forgive your trespasses."

Like the other sayings of Jesus, this one, too, is full of meaning and interest.
But as with the other sayings, too, the meaning of this one is easy to find. If
we try to remember what we have learned in the preceding lessons, we shall
be able easily to understand this one.

Many people have stumbled because of this forceful saying of Reason for
Jesus. How can a man by the exercise alone of faith remove concrete
mountains? But such people have failed to understand Jesus's examples.
method of teaching. Whenever He could, Jesus emphasized
His doctrine with concrete example. Because Jesus did not teach abstractly,
even little children may understand Him. And the people whom He taught
during His earthly life, were almost like little children. He had to make
everything very clear to them. So, now, He wanted to impress them with the
unlimited power of faith. He used, therefore, the vigorous and startling
figure of moving a mountain into the sea: or as St. Luke has worded it, "If
ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree
(mulberry tree), Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the
sea; and it should obey you."

You will remember, however, that nowhere did Jesus ever The
teach His disciples to pray for material things, except to interpretation.
supply their daily needs. Neither did He ever teach them to
ask for things impossible or impracticable for God to give. It is to be
understood, then, that Jesus did not intend to encourage men to try to move
mountains by the mere exercise of faith. He intended a larger, a spiritual
meaning. Faith is so powerful a principle, that, through the exercise of it,
one may remove obstacles to sublime spiritual blessings, as difficult to be
moved as a mountain. By such a striking figure did Jesus impress upon His
disciples that nothing is impossible to faith.

That this was what Jesus wanted to impart, is apparent from Jesus's own
His own application of the concrete illustration. "What things interpretation.
soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,
and ye shall have them." Or, as the statement is worded in a modern
translation, "Believe that you shall receive all things for which you pray and
ask and you shall have them." And this invincible power of faith in prayer is
supported by the words of Jesus to the Prophet, Joseph Smith. "All victory
and glory is brought to pass unto you through your diligence, faithfulness,
and prayers of faith."

In the story of the ministry of Jesus, there are many examples Examples of
of the necessity of cultivating unlimited faith. Do you the power of
remember what happened when Jesus walked to the boat one faith.
evening on the sea of Galilee? Most of the disciples became
afraid when they saw Him, and cried out, "It is a spirit." But when they
became assured that it was really Jesus, Peter said, "Lord, if it be Thou, bid
me come unto Thee on the water."

"And (Jesus) said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship,
he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind
boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord save
me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught him, and
said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

At another time, we are told, "there came to (Jesus) a certain man, kneeling
down to Him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick
and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
And I brought him to Thy disciples and they could not cure him.

"Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how
long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to
me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child
was cured from that very hour.

"Then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said. Why could not we cast
him out? And Jesus said unto them. Because of your unbelief: for verily I
say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto
this mountain. Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and
nothing shall be impossible unto you."

Such examples as these might be cited indefinitely. These are enough,

however, to show how profoundly Jesus impressed upon the minds of His
disciples the necessity of cultivating the gift of unfaltering faith—faith, the
one great principle of power, without which, as the learned Paul later said, it
is impossible to please God.

[Sidenote: The dispensation of the fulness of times, the wonderful

example.]

But perhaps the greatest wonder that has ever been accomplished, in all the
history of the world, through the invincible power of unhesitating faith, is
that which we ourselves experience every day of our lives. Continuing the
doctrine he had learned from Jesus, "James, a servant of God and of the
Lord Jesus Christ," wrote thus to the scattered twelve tribes: "If any of you
lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and
upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering." When he was perturbed in spirit, not knowing whither to go to
find God, Joseph Smith heard these words, and pondered them. He had
implicit faith in God. He did not waver. He prayed earnestly. In response to
his simple, faith-provoked prayer, God revealed Himself to Joseph Smith,
and through him, established the Church of Christ anew.

Are not the things that have been accomplished through faith, wonderful?
Must it not be a joy, a comfort, to possess the gift of unlimited faith? Like
the apostles of old, we feel to pray, "Lord, increase our faith."

THE REFERENCES

Luke 17:5, 6. Doc. and Cov. 103:36.

Mark 11:21-26. Matt. 14:24-31.

Matt. 21:21, 22. Matt. 17:14-21.

James 1:5, 6.

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