1 John 2:13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write to you, young men… I like the teaching of an elder philosopher, defining "power" to be that in a cause by which it produces its effect. Power in possession, but not in exercise, is practically as weak as its opposite. To be strong, but inactive, strong for good, but to do nothing that blesses, is to be both weak and wicked. What is the advantage of having a force never harnessed to the weight it was made to draw? I. WHAT IS PERSONAL POWER IN THIS AGE? 1. The earliest type of personal power is the physical. The first heroes were Nimrods, mighty hunters. To them the lyre was struck, for them the feast smoked, on them beauty smiled. The elder Hercules was one who could rend oaks and strangle serpents. The modern has other labours, only symbolised by those of his prototypes. 2. The next type of personal power is that derived from birth, and blood, and place — patrician greatness. This sort of hero drives across the stage charioted, coroneted, tilled. He bears a name made illustrious by dead men. We still cherish some little portion of this feudal deference, and make way, with decent homage, for the well born. But this greatness is in our day only a shadowy effigy of its once ducal preeminence. Not the crown, but what it circles, is the question; not the emblazoned star, but what beats beneath it; not the fountain, but the redness of the blood that flows in the veins. 3. Next arose in history the type of personal power derived from wealth. The peers of this new order of nobility are ever of redoubtable force. And yet, let one of these gilded peers be a narrow-souled miser, how like a great blot lie his mansion and surroundings on the smiling landscape. Let him be a mean man, how everybody in his heart despises him, even those that fawn! 4. A loftier type of personal power than any we have named is the intellectual. As the soul is the true man, intellectual stature is real stature. The force of this power is far felt and permanent. But this power in its distinctive inheritance, as a lordship among men, is for the few. It cannot be universal. Its conditions are too exacting. It does not go down to the vitalities of character and breathe through all the channels of the heart the spirit of the daily life. 5. Moral power. Its seat is the moral nature, the conscience, and the heart. Its life is the central law prescribed by the supreme Moral Governor — the law of his own being — the force that sways Omnipotence — the law, the force of love. It is ever obedient to the right, just, unselfish. It goes forth in beneficence whenever and wherever it can, as a full fountain flows down, give it open channels. This is the power that more and more asserts supremacy in our day. The humblest mind, the lowliest place may wield this preeminent force. All that was good and vital in other and outlawed types of personal force is restored and immortalised in this. The intellect may be wedded to it. Herein is the clearest mental illumination. Love is light. Here, too, the golden ingots, the silver bars molten in this crucible of love, pour out their shining streams in farthest currency, and dust that perishes is transmuted into polished gems that burn as the stars forever and ever. II. HOW, AS INDIVIDUALS, MAY WE POSSESS THIS MORAL POWER, FIND OURSELVES CLOTHED WITH IT AS A PERSONAL FORCE, AND BY IT LAY HOLD OF AND BLESS OUR AGE? 1. The heart itself must be the home and court of this power. The individual heart must yield itself to the control of this truth, come loyally under the monarchy of this right, and pulse in every throb with love. 2. There must be personal purity and integrity in action. The law of unselfish living, enthroned in the heart, must extend its dominion over the life. The man must be seen walking with his conscience at his left hand, the Bible at his right, and God before him. 3. The ascendant law of unselfish devotion to the good of beings must assert itself also, to be puissant, in forms of self-denial — a cutting off of self-indulgencies, a careful personal abstinence from all that may be harmful to our fellows. 4. This power grows and becomes effective by being employed. It must declare itself in action. He who loves will do what love prompts and what love can. 5. As to the particular ways in which this personal force will attach itself to human interests and live in their histories, we may say the circumstances and opportunities of every man alone can give the definite and detailed answer. But these ways are all the ways possible to the man. It will go forth into the vineyard to see what needs to be done, and ask the Master for employment. III. CAN ANY MAN INAUGURATE FOR HIMSELF SUCH A LIFE AND HISTORY, AND POUR HIMSELF OUT UPON IT AS THE NORMAL HABITUDE OF HIS SOUL AND NOT BE FELT? Can such a life fail to take hold of the age? Can this power work, and not tell controllingly and abidingly upon individual interests and issues — the making and shaping of character and the advancement of the unseen Kingdom of God? (A. L. Stone.) Parallel Verses KJV: I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. |
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