Archives: Episodes

Hypocrisy

There is no longer any shame in hypocrisy: it is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtues. To act the part of a good man is the best part one can act. The profession of hypocrisy has wonderful advantages. It is an art the imposture of which is always looked upon with respect; and although the world may see through the deceit, it dares say nothing against it. All the other vices of mankind are open to censure, and every one is at liberty to attack them boldly; but hypocrisy is a privileged vice, which closes the mouth of every one, and enjoys in peace a sovereign impunity. By dint of cant we enter into a kind of league with those of the same party, and whoever falls out with one of us has the whole set against him; whilst those who are really sincere, and who are known to be in earnest, are always the dupes of the others, are caught in the net of the hypocrites, and blindly lend their support to those who ape their conduct.

You could hardly believe what a number of these people I know, who, with the help of such stratagem, have put a decent veil over the disorders of their youth, have sought shelter under the cloak of religion, and under its venerable dress are allowed to be as wicked as they please. Although people are aware of their intrigues, and know them for what they are, their influence is none the less real. They are well received everywhere, and a low bending of the head, deep sighs, and rolling eyes, make up for all they can be guilty of.

It is under this convenient dress that I mean to take refuge and put my affairs to rights. I shall not give up my dear habits, but will carefully hide them, and avoid all show in my pleasures. If I am discovered, the whole cabal will take up my interests of their own accord, and will defend me against everybody. In short, it is the only safe way of doing all I like with impunity. I shall set up for a censor of other people’s actions. I shall speak evil of everybody. If I am ever so slightly offended, I shall never forgive, but bear an irreconcilable hatred. I shall make myself the avenger of the interests of Heaven; and under this convenient shelter I will pursue my enemies, will accuse them of impiety, and know how to let loose against them the officious zealots who, without understanding how the truth stands, will heap abuse upon them and damn them boldly on their own private authority. It is thus that we can profit by the weaknesses of men, and that a wise man can accommodate himself to the vices of his age.

—Moliere.

Alternate Reading: James 2:1-13.

Jesus Talks On Forgiveness

Then Peter came up, and said to Jesus:

“Master, how often am I to forgive my Brother when he wrongs me? As many as seven times?

But Jesus answered:

“Not seven times, but ‘seventy times seven.’ And therefore the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he had begun to do so, one of them was brought to him who owed him six million pounds; and, as he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold towards the payment of the debt, together with his wife, and his children, and everything that he had. Thereupon the servant threw himself down on the ground before him and said ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ The master was moved with compassion; and be let him go, and forgave him the debt But, on going out, that same servant came upon one of his fellow-servants who owed him ten pounds. Seizing him by the throat, he said ‘Pay what you owe me.’ Thereupon his fellowservant threw himself on the ground, and begged for mercy. ‘Have patience with me,’ he said, ‘and I will pay you.’ But the other would not, but went and put him in prison till he should pay his debt. When his fellow-servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and went to their master and laid the whole matter before him. Upon that the master sent for the servant, and said to him ‘You wicked servant! When you begged me for mercy, I forgave you the whole of that debt. Ought not you, also, to have shown mercy to your fellow-servant, just as I have showed mercy to you?’ Then his master, in anger, handed him over to the jailers, until he should pay the whole of bis debt. So, also, will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each one of you forgives his Brother from his heart.”

—Matthew.

Gyges’ Ring

Gyges, a shepherd and servant of the King of Lydia, found a gold ring which had the remarkable property of making its wearer visible when he turned the collet one way, and invisible when he turned it the other way. What should we do if we had such a ring? We could do anything we pleased and no one would be the wiser. We could become invisible, out of the reach of external consequences, the instant our deed was done. Would we, with such a ring on our finger, stand fast in righteousness?

—William DeWitt Hyde.

The Value Of Work

For there is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in idleness alone is there perpetual despair. Work, never so Mammonish mean, is in communication with Nature; the real desire to get work done will itself lead one more and more to truth, to Nature’s appointments and regulations, which are truth.

The latest Gospel in the world is, Know thy work and do it. “Know thyself”: long enough has that poor self of thine tormented thee; thou wilt never get to know it, I believe! Think is not thy business, this of knowing thyself; thou art an unknowable individual: know what thou canst work at; and work at it like a Hercules! That will be thy better plan.

It has been written, “An endless significance lies in work”; a man perfects himself by working. Foul jungles are cleared away, fair seed-fields rise instead, and stately cities; and withal the man himself first ceases to be jungle and foul unwholesome desert thereby. Consider how in the meanest sorts of labor, the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind of real harmony the instant he sets himself to work! Doubt, desire, sorrow, remorse, indignation, despair itself, all these like hell-dogs lie beleaguering the soul of the poor day-worker, as of every man: but he bends himself with free valor against his task, and all these are stilled, all these shrink murmuring far off into their caves. The man is now a man. The blessed glow of labor in him, is it not as purifying fire, wherein all poison is burnt up, and of sour smoke itself there is made bright, blessed flame!

—Thomas Carlyle.

Love And Work

The world waits for help. Beloved, let us love so well, our work shall still be better for our love, and still our love be sweeter for our work, and both commended for the sake of each, by all true workers and true lovers bom.

—Robert Browning.

Alternate Reading: James 1:19-27.

The Mystery Of Living

Three visions in the watches of one night
Made sweet my sleep—almost too sweet to tell.
One was Narcissus by a woodside well,
And on the moss his limbs and feet were white;
And one, Queen Venus, blown for my delight
Across the blue sea in a rosy shell;
And one, a lean Acquinas in his cell,
Kneeling, his pen in hand, with aching sight
Strained towards a carven Christ: and of these three
I knew not which was fairest. First I turned
Towards that soft boy, who laughed and fled from me;
Towards Venus then, and she smiled once, and she
Fled also. Then with teeming heart I yearned,
O Angel of the Schools, towards Christ with thee!

—W. H. Mallock.

I Know I Am Deathless

In all people I see myself—none more, and not one a barleygrain less,
And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them.
And I know I am solid and sound,
To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually flow,
All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means.
I know I am deathless,
I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter’s compass,
I know I shall not pass like a child’s curlicue cut with a burnt stick at night.

—Walt Whitman.

Alternate Reading: James 1: 2-18.

True Citizenship In The Kingdom Of God

On the same occasion the disciples came to Jesus, and asked him:

“Who is really the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus called a little child to him, and placed it in the middle of them; and then said:

“I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven at all. Therefore, any one who will humble himself like this child—that man shall be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And any one who, for the sake of my Name, welcomes even one little child like this, is welcoming me. But, if any one puts a snare in the way of one of these lowly ones who believe in me, it would be best for him to be sunk in the depths of the sea with a great millstone hung round his neck. Alas for the world because of such snares! There cannot but be snares; yet alas for the man who is answerable for the snare!

“If your hand or your foot is a snare to you, cut it off, and throw it away. It would be better for you to enter the Life maimed or lame, than to have both hands, or both feet, and be thrown into the enduring fire. If your eye is a snare to you, take it out, and throw it away. It would be better for you to enter the Life with only one eye, than to have both eyes, and be thrown into the fiery Pit.

“Beware of despising one of these lowly ones, for in Heaven, I tell you, their angels always see the face of my Father who is in Heaven. What think you? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them strays, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills, and go and search for the one that is straying? And, if he succeeds in finding it, I tell you that he rejoices more over that one sheep than over the ninety-nine which did not stray. So, too, it is the will of my Father who is in Heaven that not one of these lowly ones should be lost.”

—Matthew.

An immoral home is an open door to the bottomless pit.

Better Things

Better to smell a violet
Than sip the careless wine;
Better to list one music tone
Than watch the jewel’s shine.

Better to have the love of one
Than smiles like morning dew;
Better to have a living seed
Than flowers of every hue.

Better to feel a love within
Than be lovely to the sight;
Better a homely tenderness
Than beauty’s wild delight.

Better to love than be beloved,
Though lonely all the day;
Better the fountain in the heart
Than the fountain by the way.

Better a death when work is done
Than earth’s most favored birth;
Better a child in God’s great house
Than the king of all the earth.

—Leigh Hunt.

Be Worthy Of Immortality

It were better to live an immortal life and be robbed of immortality hereafter by some supernal power, than to live the mortal, fleshly, animal life, and live it endlessly. Who would not rather have a right to immortality than to be immortal without a right to be?

—Lyman Abbott.

Alternate Reading: Colossians 1: 3-12.

Childhood’s Universal Fraternity

Seeing An Egyptian Mummy

When the four quarters of the globe shall rise,—
Men, women, children, at the judgment-time,—
Perchance this Memphian girl, dead ere her prime,
Shall drop her mask, and with dark, new-born eyes
Salute our English Mary, loved and lost:
The Father knows her little scroll of prayer,
And life as pure as His Egyptian air;—
For though she knew not Jesus, nor the cost
At which He won the world, she learned to pray;
And though our own sweet babe on Christ’s good name
Spent her last breath, premonished and advised
Of Him, and in His glorious church baptised,—
She will not spurn this old world child away,
Nor put her poor embalmed heart to shame.

—Charles Tennyson Turner.

Denial

I’d like to give ’em all they ask—it hurts to have to answer, “No,”
And say they cannot have the things they tell me they are wanting so;
Yet now and then they plead for what I know would not be good to give
Or what I can’t afford to buy, and that’s the hardest hour I live.

They little know or understand how happy I would be to grant
Their every wish, yet there are times it isn’t wise, or else I can’t.
And sometimes, too, I can’t explain the reason when they question why
Their pleadings for some passing joy it is my duty to deny.

I only know I’d like to see them smile forever on life’s way;
I would not have them shed one tear or ever meet a troubled day.
And I would be content with life and gladly face each dreary task,
If I could always give to them the little treasures that they ask.

Sometimes we pray to God above and ask for joys that are denied,
And when He seems to scorn our plea, in bitterness we turn aside.
And yet the Father of us all, who sees and knows just what is best,
May wish, as often here we wish, that He could grant what we request.

—Edgar A. Guest.

Alternate Reading: Luke 4: 31-37.

May Second

Jesus Preaching At Capernaum

They came to Capernaum.

When Jesus had gone into the house, he asked them:

“What were you discussing on the way?”

But they were silent; for on the way they had been arguing with one another which was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said:

“If any one wishes to be first, he must be last of all, and servant of all.”

Then Jesus took a little child, and placed it in the middle of them. Folding it in his arms, he said to them:

“Any one who, for the sake of my Name, welcomes even a little child like this is welcoming me, and any one who welcomes me is welcoming not me, but him who sent me as his Messenger.”

“Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons by using your name, and we tried to prevent him, because he did not follow us.”

“None of you must prevent the man,” answered Jesus, “for no one will use my name in working a miracle, and yet find it easy to speak evil of me. He who is not against us is for us. If any one gives you a cup of water because you belong to Christ, I tell you, he shall assuredly not lose his reward. And, if any one puts a snare in the way of one of these lowly ones who believe in me, it would be far better for him if he had been thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his neck

“If your hand proves a snare to you, cut it off. It would be better for you to enter the Life maimed, than to have both your hands and go into the Pit, into the inextinguishable fire.”

—Mark.

When the homes of the people become immoral the nation’s grave is already dug.

Mother

A Mothers’ Day Letter From A College Boy To His Mother

Mother dear, my heart is thinking
Of your love this Sabbath day,
Of the things that you are doing
In that “home” so far away.
Things don’t seem the same this Sabbath,
Church bells have a sweeter tone;
And the flowers by the wayside
Speak a language all your own.

I’ve been thinking of the fortunes
That have fallen in my way,
Of the great and many blessings
That are mine from day to day,
But there’s one among all others
That before me I can see,
And it tells me of my Mother’s
Tender care and love for me.

When I think of how you helped me
When I met with trials hard,
How you sacrificed your pleasures,
How for me your hands were scarred;
Then to me there comes the feeling
That from me is honor due,
And the one to whom I owe it
Is to Mother dear— to you.

I’ve been bad at times and trying,
And other things that I’ll not name;
But in trial, joy, or friendship
You have always been the same.
You have guided me and taught me;
You have left out not one thing;
You’ve presented me with riches
That excel those of a king.

So to-day these things confront me,
And I gladly here confess
That from you, my dearest Mother,
Comes my joy and happiness.
But I know I cannot pay you—
Gold and silver wont suffice,
But I’ll live a life that’s worthy
Of your loving sacrifice.

—Monteith Harper.

Alternate Reading: I Timothy 4: 6-16.

Of Such Is The Kingdom Of Heaven

“Of such is the kingdom of heaven”:
No glory that ever was shed
From the crowning star of the seven
That crown the north world’s head,

No word that ever was spoken
Of human or godlike tongue,
Gave ever such godlike token
Since human harps were strung.

No sign that ever was given
To faithful or faithless eyes,
Showed ever beyond clouds riven
So clear a Paradise.

Earth’s creeds may be seventy times seven,
And blood have defiled each creed:
If of such be the kingdom of heaven,
It must be heaven indeed.

—A. C. Swinburne.

The Here And The Hereafter

O yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill,
To pangs of nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood;

That nothing walks with aimless feet,
That not one life shall be destroy’d,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete;

That not a worm is cloven in vain;
That not a moth with vain desire
Is shrivell’d in a fruitless fire,
Or but subserves another’s gain.

Behold, we know not anything.
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last—far off—at last to all,
And every Winter change to Spring.

Alfred Tennyson.

Alternate Reading: I Kings 19:1-14.