THE PROPHET—LIFE

John B. Willis

When a man faces a life—problem, with an ethical purpose, and having found a key thereto, works out the difficulty to its end, he brings into relief the true meaning of service for humanity. He enters the "holy place" of Christian ministry, begins to live the prophet—life, a life which not only declares the nature of light but which, torch in hand, seeks out every dark place in human experience, that there, too, a flame may be kindled which shall never be put out.

The significance of the prophetic word cannot be over—stated. It speaks for the dawn, as did the voice of him who came "preaching in the wilderness of Judea." To open the heart to the divine illumination, so that intuition may lay hold upon eternal verities,—this means inspiration, and it is potential; but the practical demonstration of the truth of the spoken word, the living before men so that they may see our good works and glorify the Father which is in heaven,—this is realization; it is dynamic, and it is the Christian Science standard and ideal.

As the supreme exmplification of this prophet—life the Christian world instinctively recalls the story of the Nazarene, but human annals have not lacked the life—record of those who have proved worthy to follow in his steps and bear his name. The Stephens and the Winkelrieds of history have studded the firmament of the past with galaxies that can never fade, and their greatness finds its explanation in the simple fact that they were loyal enough to the ideal not only to speak for it but to stand for it in the crucial hour. They not only pointed the way, but they walked in it. A simple rose may voice the appeal of a beauty as vast and impelling as the divine manifestation, and a humble man may become the "minister plenipotentiary" of a truth so all—encompassing that the resources of the infinite are pledged to its maintenance. Herein lies the secret of great leadership and of immortal service.

The moment we come to realize this possible sovereignty of Truth in men, that moment the naturalness and the simplicity of all greatness is apprehended. We see that it is achieved for each one (and that its beneficence is thus assured for all). in so far as his ideal of truth, of freedom, of beauty, or of goodness is divine and he is genuinely and continuously loyal thereunto. Thus the "brotherhood across the centuries" of Socrates and St. Paul, of Aurelius and Mazzini, of Washington and Lincoln, with all their kind, appears. These, the great, have not all seen alike, and some of them have not been orthodox in the estimate of their times, but all have been in love with a light that is above the sun,—the light of Truth,—and in their fealty to it they have given place to Truth, and the wonders of Truth's overcoming have been wrought through and for men. "God with us" has again been interpreted in the prophet—life.

With respect to the great American all the world honors today, there was that unswerving, unpretentious devotion to the common sense of right, that dogged confidence in its adequacy to work things out, if men would but stand by it. which gave him the sobriquet of "Honest Abe," and which made him the nation's bulwark of righteousness in her trying hour. This stanch nobility is seen again in the unvarying adherence of our Leader to that apprehension of Christian truth which she has demonstrated to be true and saving, and which, as she has lived the prophet—life, has become a priceless inheritance for all mankind.

John B. Willis.

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LETTERS TO OUR LEADER

February 6, 1909

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