and crime.

The positive method is the only efficient way to combat intellectual
error and spiritual evil. False doctrines are never argued out of the
world. They are pushed back by the incoming of the truth as the darkness
is pushed back by the dawn. Phillips Brooks was right. It is not worth
while to cross the street to break a man's idol. It is worth while to
cross the ocean to tell him about God. The skilful fencer who attacks
your doubts and drives you from corner to corner of unbelief and leaves
you at last in doubt whether you doubt or not, does you a certain
service. He gives you exercise, takes the conceit out of you. But the
man who lays hold of the real faith that is hidden underneath your
doubt,--the silent longing for God and goodness, the secret attraction
that draws your heart toward Jesus Christ as the only one who has the
words of everlasting life,--the man who takes hold of this buried faith
and quickens it and makes you dare to try to live by it,--ah, that is
the man who helps you indeed. My brothers, if any of you are going to be
preachers remember this. What we men need is not so much an answer to
our doubts, as more nourishment for our faith.

The positive method is the only way of victory in our struggle with the
evil that dwells in our own nature and besets our own hearts. The reason
why many men fail, is because they thrust the vice out and then forget
to lay hold on the virtue. They evict the unclean spirit and leave a
vacant house. To cease to do evil is important, but to learn to do good
is far more important. Reformation never saved a man. Transformation is
the only way. And to be transformed, a man must welcome the Spirit of
Good, the Holy Spirit, into his heart, and work with Him every day,
doing the will of God.

There are two ways of fighting fever. One is to dose the sick people
with quinine and keep the fever down. The other is to drain the marshes,
and purify the water, and cleanse the houses, and drive the fever out.
Try negative, repressive religion, and you may live, but you will be an
invalid. Try positive, vital religion, and you will be well.

There is an absorption of good that guards the soul against the
infection of evil. There is a life of fellowship with Christ that can
pass through the furnace of the world without the smell of fire on its
garments,--a life that is full of interest as His was, being ever about
His Father's business; a life that is free and generous and b