March i, loie 



211 



A-i-Roo. I OUR HOMES 



Editor 



Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 

 I'litered into the heart of man, the things which God 

 halh prepared for them that love him. — I. COE. 2:9. 



I have been reading the Sunday School 

 'rimes for so many years I could hardly 

 attempt to tell how long', and it was one of 

 my " happy surprises " when I found 

 iiiimpses on its pages that its editors had 

 been reading these Home papers of mine at 

 least occasionally. Well, some two or three 

 years ago I was again "happily surprised" 

 to receive a personal letter from Chas. 

 Gallaudet Trumbull, telling me of a won- 

 derful new spiritual experience he had just 

 received. I at once wrote him asking per- 

 mission to print the letter in these Home 

 papers. I have never heard from him per- 

 sonally since, and, of course, I could not 

 give the letter to you all. I have, however, 

 been pleased to get glimpses of this expe- 

 rience in almost every issue of the Times 

 since. The tract we have been sending out, 

 " The Defeat of Injustice,* is one of the 

 fruits of that experience. A few weeks ago 

 at our Bradentowu prayer meeting I read 

 the following clii^ping from the Sunday 

 School Times: 



" Daddy, did you notice tonight tliat I l)owed my 

 head and put my hands up to my eyes? " 



The little girl of five years had cuddled into her 

 father's arms in a corner of the library while the 

 evening shadows were gathering, for one of tlie 

 precious little times of confidences. 



" I was naughty today, Daddy." 



" Were you, Annie? " 



" Yes, and I was asking Jesus to forgive me. 

 Whenever I am naughty now I how my head and 

 .iust tell Je^us, and ask him to forgive me." 



"And he always does it, doesn't he, Annie?" 



" Yes," the little girl answered. And then in a 

 sudden burst of confidence she poured out the prob- 

 lem of her child-heart. " Daddy, it's awful hard to 

 be good, isn't it? " 



That heart-cry of the little girl finds its resp iiise 

 in every Christian's heart. No man would wish to 

 deny the truth that is wrapped up in that confes- 

 sion. Yet there are two serious falsehoods implied 

 in our " axiom," " It's awful hard to Le good." 



It is not only hard to be good, but it is utterly 

 impossible for fallen man to be good. A Christian 

 has come to an encouraging point in his experience 

 when he is able to realize this. Not only is it true 

 that " none is good, save one, even God," but it is 

 also true tliat no one else can be good. This is the 

 message of the Incarnation. God in Christ came in 

 the flesh and " was good " — a thing that was im- 

 possible for fallen man. 



Then I followed it with part of a letter 

 from our son Huber, as below : 



Dear Father: — At the Laymen's Missionary 

 Conference in Cleveland last week I had the oppor- 

 tunity to hear Charles Gallaudet Trumbull, editor 

 of the Sunday School Times. He ""made a splendid 

 address, and I wish you could have heard him. The 

 whole tlieme of his address was this: During a time 



* See page 557, .July 1, 1915. 



of temptation make no effort to fight against it 

 yourself, but let Jesus Christ carry on the fight. He 

 illustrated bis point by telling a story. It seems 

 that a little girl, after joining the church, was asked 

 by an older person whether she felt any different 

 since becoming a Christian. She replied that she 

 most certainly did. When her friend a.sked her in 

 what way she felt different she said, " Now when 

 Satan knocks at the door of my heart I just tell 

 Jesus to go to the door, and I pay no attention to it 

 myself. When Satan finds Jesus at the door he 

 merely says that be guesses he has made a mistake, 

 and has come to the wrong house." 



After the meeting a lady who had just 

 attended some large religious gathering 

 handed me a tract, saying she felt sure I 

 would be interested in it. Now, to tell the 

 truth, so many " tracts " are piled up on 

 my desk unread I feared this would only 

 add to their number; but when I saw it 

 was from ray good friend Ti'umbull 1' 

 changed my mind. I have now read it thru 

 three times, and " then some." The title of 

 the tract is, " The Life that Wins." There 

 are 20 pages in the tract, and I give you 

 below the contents of the first two. 



AX ADDRESS (revised) BV CHARLES GALLAUDET 

 TRUMBULL BJ;F0HE THE NATIONAL CONVENTION 

 OF THE PRE.SBVTKRIAX BROTHERHOOD OP AMERICA, 



1911. 



There is only one life that wins; and that is the 

 life of Jesus Christ. Every man, )iiay have that life; 

 every man may live that life. 



I do not mean that every man may be ChristJike. 

 I mean something very much better than that. I 

 do not mean that a man may always have Christ's 

 help. I mean something better than that. I do not 

 mean that a man may have power from Christ. I 

 mean something very mucli better than power. And 

 I do not mean that a man shall be saved from his 

 sins and kept from sinning. I mean something bet- 

 ter than even that victory. 



To explain what I do mean, I must simply tell 

 you a very personal and recent experience of my 

 own. I think I am correct when I say that I have 

 known more than most men know about failure, 

 about betrayals and dishonorings of Christ, about 

 disobedience to heavenlv visions, about conscious 

 fallings short of that which I saw other men attain- 

 ing, and which I knew Christ was expecting of me. 

 Not a great while ago I should have had to stop 

 just there, and only say I hoped that some day I 

 would be led out of all that into something better. 



Please note above what he says about 

 " power." In these days of automobiles, 

 when not only boys but girls too learn to 

 run them; when you feel you have at the 

 tips of your fingers power to go just as fast 

 as any one can want to go, and, too, by 

 practice, run almost to a hair's breadth of 

 where you wish to go, who has not felt the 

 thrill of being entrusted with such power"? 

 Well, Trumbull speaks from experience of 

 something " much better than power." I 

 read the above part of the tract to our large 

 Bible class in our Sunday-school here, and 

 they Avanted me to go on with it, just as 



