," he names
the three things which a man must have in order to lead a straight
life. Such a man must have first a way to go, and then a truth to
reach, and then life enough to get there. He needs first a direction,
and then an end, and then a force. Some lives have no path to go by,
and some no end to go to, and some no force to make them go. Now Jesus
says that the Christian life has all three. It has intention, the
decision which way to go; it has determination, the finding of a truth
to reach; it has power, the inner dynamic of the life of Christ. Life,
as has been lately said by one of our own preachers, is like an arrow.
It must have its course, it must have its mark, and it must have the
power to go.

"Life is an arrow, therefore you must know
What mark to aim at, how to bend the bow,
Then draw it to its head, and let it go." [1]

[1] Henry van Dyke, D. D., in the _Outlook_ for Feb. 23, 1895.

{90}

XXXVII

THE DECLINE OF ENTHUSIASM

_Revelation_ ii. 1-7.

I do not propose to consider the character or intention of this
mystical Book of Revelation. However it may be regarded, it is first
of all a series of messages written in the name of the risen Christ to
the churches of Asia, singling out each in turn, pointing out its
special defects, and exhorting it to its special mission; and there is
something so modern, or rather so universal about these messages to the
churches that in spite of their strange language and figures of speech
they often seem like messages to the churches of America to-day. First
the word comes to the chief church of the region, at Ephesus. It was a
great capital city, with much prosperity and splendor, and the church
there abounded in good works. The writer appreciates all this: "I know
thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil
men." It was a substantial, busy city church. What was lacking in the
church {91} of Ephesus? It had fallen away, says the message, from its
first enthusiasm. It had "lost its first love." The eagerness of its
first conversion had gone out of it. It had settled down into the ways
of an established church, with plenty of good works and good people,
but with the loss of that first spontaneous, passionate loyalty; and
unless it recovered this enthusiasm "its candlestick would be removed
out of its place," and its light would go out.

How modern that sounds! How precisely it is like some large church