The Supreme Appeal

THE SUPREME APPEAL AN ADDRESS BY THE, RIGHT REV. JOHN TAYLOR SMITH, K.C.B., C.B., C.V.O., D.D. (ENGLAND) (Links of Empire Series) 10th November, 1927

The Speaker was introduced by the President and said: I consider it a very great privilege to be invited to join you at lunch today. These gatherings exercise a much wider influence than I think anyone present realizes. Gatherings where men get to know one another as they cannot under other circumstances, are most valuable assets to our great empire. (Applause). Therefore, good luck to you, carry on as they say in the Senior Service, and when the day comes-it may come, let us hope it may be far distant-when once again heart to heart and man to man and shoulder to shoulder we have to stand up for our flag, you may be the better prepared, and your sons who are following you.

This is not my first visit to Canada. Seventeen years ago I had the privilege of landing at Halifax for the consecration of their new Cathedral. After the special services I made a flying visit to Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, the Military College at Kingston, and of course I could not leave out the Queen City of Toronto, (Applause), on my way to New York and home again. There is one incident that stands out more than any other in connection with that visit and it was when I went to see the Falls of Niagara, with which you are so familiar. My chauffeur that day was a young American, a fine specimen of physical manhood. He told me he was only twenty one or twenty two years of age, and that he had been driving the car for some seven years. I ventured to ask him the question " Are you a religious man? " " Religious? We haven't time to be religious on this side of the Atlantic." (Laughter). "Don't you get your Sundays?" "Sundays sir? I haven't had a Sunday for seven years. They drive me mad on a Sunday; I assure you, sir, I am asleep at the wheel. It is the hardest day in the week, Sunday. " I got my bearings; no religion, no Sundays, twenty-one years of age, and the most important twenty-one too. For the foundation stones of his future manhood were already laid, the foundation stones of his physical life, his intellectual, and his spiritual. And then I commented on the scenery and the great rushing waters where Webb lost his life, and then I came back again. "This is a good car you are driving me in." "No fault with the car sir; it has carried me thousands of miles, and I never had an accident. " " Well, " I said, " you have much to thank God for. How many cylinders has it?" "It has six cylinders." " I suppose you have six cylinders so that if one is not sparking you are driving on the other five?" "No sir, I want to know the reason why, if every cylinder is not doing its little bit." Then I said, "You are the most unreasonable fellow I have met for a long time, not to be satisfied with five working out of six." " No, sir, no owner and no hirer of a car would be satisfied unless every cylinder was working. " " Well, " I said, " I know a car of three cylinders. " What is the name?" I said, " Wait. I know of a car of three cylinders; do you think the maker or the owner is satisfied if it is only sparking on two?" " Certainly not, but what is the name of the maker and of the car?" I said, "The name of the maker is God, and the car is humanity, and you think God is satisfied when we are only sparking on the physical life and the intellectual and not on the moral and spiritual. " And he said, " You are getting at me?" And I said, " I am. " I am also getting at some of you here today. Oh the folly of human nature trying to make a threelegged stool stand on two legs! You can't do it. You can no more be man unless you develop the whole trinity of your being, than a three-legged stool can be made to stand on two legs.

I was out in Australia, and I went over to Tasmania, two years ago. I was invited to a Rotary Club. The President in introducing me-I cannot refrain from telling this story and I hope the Bishop will forgive me-told this story: There was a father walking along a country road with his son Freddie. And all at once they saw in the distance a Bishop coming, and the father said to Freddie, " Do you see that person coming towards us, Freddie?" "Yes, father." " He is a bishop." " Indeed, " said Freddie. And the father went on to say, "Wouldn't you like to be a bishop, Freddie, when you are grown up?" "No, father, I would rather not." "But why not?" "I would rather be a man like you, father." (Laughter). And that was my introduction that day. (Laughter). So when I got up I said, "Gentlemen in what way do you expect me to address you? As a Highlander in mourning, or as something less than a man?" But it gave me an opportunity which I availed myself of. I pointed out that there was not a man amongst us; we are only fragments of men. "Behold the Man." I told them the story of how I visited Oxford on one occasion and I was surrounded by a number of under-graduates who said to me, " Chaplain General, what makes a man?" I said, "That is a rather hard question; I will tell you what will not make, a man; brawn only will not make a man, and brains only will not make a man, and brawn and brains together will not make a man. You have only two-thirds of a man when you have brawn and brains. Yes, the world has only seen one Man, Behold the Man. If you would be men you must contemplate the Jesus of history, you must make Him your hero, your ideal; you must read His life and study His character, and seek to be like Him. " And as I said it my conscience smote me; had I not tried in my youth to be like unto Christ and failed? Haven't we all tried and failed? No, I said, the perfection of that character does not inspire me, it depresses me. I cannot attain unto it. The contemplation of the Jesus of history will not make us men. Then I said, "They say you must live with a person to know him, " and then I thought of those disciples that walked and talked, and heard those marvelous words of wisdom and truth and life. I remembered how they saw his miracles, and when it came to the crisis there was not a man among them; they all forsook Him and fled. And so I said to those Oxford undergraduates, "It is not the association in service and sacrament that will make you men, not the contemplation of the Jesus of history in the distance. I will tell you what will make us men; it is the appropriation-" to as many as received Him. " Not a system but a person, a character, nothing less than the Son of God. "To as many as received Him, to them gives He the power to become men, to become the sons of God. " And so I told those Rotary men that incident that I have just told you.

That was my first link with Canada. I saw little of it, but what I did see I loved, especially the City of Toronto, for I saw for the first time why it is called the Home City-no barriers between your houses, but all sharing your flowers and grass alike. It was the first time I had seen it; it was an indication of the spirit which I have found from experience pervades the city. (Applause).

The second time I visited Canada was last year, and then I had not time to alight from the train from Vancouver to New York, once more by Niagara. It is a wonderful attraction, that Niagara of yours. I wanted to see it under different conditions, I wanted to see it under winter, and so with some temperature below zero I stepped out of the train, and saw your icy Niagara and enjoyed very much the privilege.

And now I am visiting Canada and seeing more of the place and more of the people. I believe if I stayed long enough I would be a Canadian. (Hear, hear, and applause). "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Canadian." (Laughter). For I am charmed with your country, its vastness, its beauty. I have seen it under its most beautiful garb, the coloring of autumn, and as I passed through the Rockies in the sunshine, and back again the other day in the snow, I just realized what a privilege it is for you to live in such a country and breathe such an atmosphere, where, as I have already told my kind host, Dr. O'Meara, with whom I stay, I feel twenty years younger than I was. (Hear, hear, and applause). At ten o'clock this morning I was turning back somersaults in the pool in Hart House. The undergraduates that were sharing the pool at the time looked up: " You are old, Rather William." (Laughter).

But when I meet a body of men such as you members of the Empire Club, my mind goes back to the Great War, and I think of the sacred links that we had then when you sent out that great contingent to form the living wall between our enemies and our homes; your sons laid down their lives that the enemy might come so far and no further. That is the time that I can never forget.

I met the first contingent at Salisbury Plains, some thirty-four thousand. I have often remarked to the generals in the British Army that I have never seen such magnificent specimens of men as those Highlanders coming over the hills for their service on Salisbury Plains, and I had the privilege of speaking to them, some seven thousand at nine o'clock, three miles off at ten o'clock, at eleven o'clock, and at twelve o'clock, until I had covered the whole of that first contingent-a sight I can never forget. And that was my introduction to the army that came over from the Dominion, the Dominion which is second to none in love and loyalty to the King and to the flag. (Applause).

From Salisbury Plains to Vimy Ridge. I have stood with your brothers and sons on Vimy Ridge in face of the enemy. And oh, the memories that rise between Salisbury Plains and Vimy Ridge. I was visiting one of your hospitals, not a hundred miles from London. I was asked to take a confirmation, which those of you who are members of the Church of England know, affords an opportunity to confess the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour, to consecrate the life to His service, and receive the Heavenly Father's power, His Spirit. I had taken the service in the chapel for those who were able to walk or be carried in chairs, then I went up into the wards and laid my hands on and prayed with those who were too broken in body to leave their cots. I was leaving the hospital by a corridor, and there was a long window, and under the window a long form, and on the form there were a number of convalescent men in their blue uniforms and their red ties, with which we are familiar. When they saw me coming-for I was not dressed in black but in khaki-they immediately stood to attention. I said, "Sit down, men," and they sat down. Taking out my watch I said, "I am just going to catch my train, but I do not like to pass you men for the first time, and who can say, it may be the last time, without leaving a seed thought to help you in the days to come, whether they be few or many. And while I was speaking to them, in my heart I was praying to God. I was availing myself of that great privilege which God has given to man of making conversation with Him. If you have not formed the habit, let me commend to everyone not to lose any time, but to begin to form the habit of making conversation with God, as regards your business, as regards your pleasure, in regard to everything, political or domestic or personal. It is the greatest privilege that has helped me through life, the habit of prayer and making conversation with God, and what we cannot ask God to bless, the sooner we throw it the better. Well I was praying in my heart to God, and all at once I saw in the middle of a table, running down the corridor, a white hospital bowl, which the military orderly had turned over. I do not know why, but they have a habit, those soldier orderlies, of turning over white bowls and other bowls in hospital; I suppose to keep the dust out. Well I said, "Men, you see that bowl. This is the thought I would leave with you. Just as the sun cannot shine into an inverted bowl, so the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ, cannot shine into an inverted soul. Have you it? I will say it again that you will 'never forget it, men. As the sun cannot shine into an inverted bowl, so the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ, cannot shine into an inverted soul. Shall I tell you what is inside that bowl, men? There are three things at least. First of all, there is darkness; then there is emptiness, then there is uselessness. And so it is with every soul that is turned away from God; there is a darkness which sometimes may be felt; there is an emptiness, which you and I have experienced, in the heart of man. And there is a uselessness, for just as man cannot use an inverted bowl, God cannot use an inverted soul. " I said, "Men, supposing I take that bowl and I turn it over, and I make it a converted bowl, what a change takes place! Immediately it is filled with light, and the darkness flies away. And then it may be filled with blessing from 'morning until evening-porridge in the morning, fruit at noon, coffee, cocoa or tea in the evening. In fact its life of usefulness is begun from the moment of its conversion. And men, it is so with the soul of man, when turned to God. The light of Heaven, the light of man, comes in and in His bright presence the darkness flies away. And then come the blessings of peace and pardon through the precious blood. And then comes the joy which the world can neither give nor take away. Then comes the power which He gives to us, His character, the indwelling power, the fulfilling power, the overflowing power. In fact there is no end to the blessings which come when the soul is turned towards God. Have you it, men? As the sun cannot shine into an inverted bowl, so the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ, cannot shine into an inverted soul. Good night. " And I went to catch my train.

Oh, I could keep you for a whole day telling you incidents of that great war. Pathos and humor you have blended together. Here is a Tommy, I recognize him and he evidently recognizes me, for there is a smile on his face, and so I come up to him and say, " Well, have we met before?" "Yes sir, six years ago I heard you preach a sermon I have never forgotten. " I said, " Yes, indeed?" "Yes, don't you remember telling us about your visit to China and how you went to a military gunners' mess?" I said, " I remember, and you remember that?" "Yes, I remember it; we talked about it for a week." And the incident was this. I was at Hong Kong taking the regular parade on the Sunday morning; then I was spirited away off to a little gunners' mess for an afternoon parade, and one of the young gunners thought he would just pull my leg, as Chaplain General, so he worked on a piece of brown paper a text which he put up on the mess right opposite where I would be sitting, and of course I saw it, and I didn't see it too. (Laughter). I made no comments. And the text was this: " We are all from the same mould, but some are mouldier than others." (Laughter). So when the time for the sermon came, I said, "You will find my text, not in the Bible, and the text is this: 'We are all from the same mould, but some are mouldier than others'. " And then I gave them a sermon on original sin, and the remedy, how to get rid of our sins. And he remembered it. I said, " Why do you remember those bull and cock stories that are illustrating sermons. " He said, " Oh, we remember the sermon as well. We talked about it for a week. " Oh, the sense of humor that those Tommies have.

I dare say you saw the picture yourself; it was a picture which made a great impression on me. Here is a Tommy that has got hold of an old cart horse with its feathery legs, and there it is, almost tumbling down on to its knees, and he is sticking in the saddle and holding on and saying, " Go on, go on, God bless father and mother, and make me a good horse. Amen. " (Laughter.) You must see the picture to really appreciate the joke. Yes, strange and wonderful those brave lads; and they received quick promotion, many of them being excused into immediate service, and are continuing that service for which this life is only the beginning. And cheerful at all times.

Another hospital rises before me. There is a medical officer and the matron, and the sister of the ward taking me around, and here is a jolly fellow with a face like John Bull, the roseate hues of early dawn on his face, and there he is sitting up in bed, and the matron introduces him to me, "This is one of our oldest patients," and he is only nineteen years of age and I wonder how

it can be, "and the cheeriest, Chaplain General; he does us all good." There were hundreds of boys in that hospital and the doctors and the sisters were nearly worn to death. " Yes, he is always cheerful, always makes us happy, and he has lost both legs from the upper part of the thighs.' And as I looked into the lad's face I said, " Laddie. " I realized what he was musing. I had my limbs and had the joy of boyhood and manhood, but for the rest of his life he was to be without his legs. I said, "Laddie, what is the secret of your happiness? Is it Jesus Christ?" He was taken aback with these sudden words and he said, " I, I think so, I hope so, I am sure it is." He just took the trenches one after another. " I think so, I hope so, I am sure it is. " There was not a dry eye. The secret of his happiness was that the soul in his mangled body was in touch with God, and that is the secret of all happiness.

I must not keep you much longer. I will tell you one more story if you will bear with me. A Colonel who led his men bravely and well came to me at Sydney when I visited Australia two years ago, and said, "Chaplain General, "-I was not Chaplain General then, I had retired for age (Laughter). " Can you spare a day, sir? I would like to show you one of the beauty spots of Australia." I said I should be delighted, and the next Saturday I would be free. So he brought a car and members of his family about nine o'clock in the morning, and for about sixty or seventy miles he spirited me across country to a place which may be known to some of you here. He took me up to the top of the precipice and he showed me the finest seascape that ever I have been privileged to behold. There a mile and a half or two miles right beneath us was the Pacific Ocean with its great billows rolling up on the golden sands, and then bay after bay to the right, perfect visibility, not a cloud in the sky, blue sky and blue sea, and he told me the farthest point we saw that day was forty miles away. And away on the left, bays just the same for forty miles. A scene which I can never forget as long as I live. Well, we had our table along the precipice, and we enjoyed the

view and the food. A little distance away was another party. We were the only two there that day. A man and his wife and a small child, a boy of seven. The luncheon was finished and the members of his family took the remains into the forest to put into the car, and the Colonel sat on the seat and lighted a big cigar and said, "'Will you have a smoke?" And I said, "No thanks, I am not old enough yet to smoke." He said, "Not old enough? When are you going to begin?" I said, "When I am cremated." (Laughter)., So I walked up and down and he was smoking and I was telling him some of my past experiences, and how one day I said to a lawyer friend of mine, " Will you define life in as few words as possible?" And he thought for a moment and then he said, "Yes, I think I can; I should define life as the removal of muck." Well, it was a strange expression; the Colonel laughed as I laughed when I first I heard it, but there is a good deal more in it than appears on the surface. When you get up in the morning you wash your face, the removal of muck. You brush your clothes, the removal of muck. You dirty the plates and they have to be removed and washed. Life may be said to consist in the moving of material, which was the jest, the playful way in which he put it. Then we went on with other things and he went off to the car, and I could not tear myself away from this magnificent view. The other party had gone; I was alone. But in a moment the gentleman that I had seen a little way off came back and raising his hat he said, " Excuse me, sir, I could not but overhear the conversation that you had with your friend, and I was amused at your lawyer friend's definition of life, and if I am not impertinent may I ask you your definition of life?" I said, " Well, that is rather a hard question, I will give it to you though in the words of the Master, 'This is life eternal, to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent'." "Oh" he said, "but I am a Jew. " I said, " So was He, and I am indebted to the Jews, I am a lover of the Jews; I owe a debt to the Jewish nation I can never repay. They gave me my Old Testament, and New Testament scriptures; they gave me the best friend I ever had. Are you a Pucker Jew ? " "Well, I don't know about that, " he said. " Well, " I said, let me test you; are you a religious Jew? " Oh, well, I can't say that I am." "Well, if I speak about the Kanuka services, would you understand what I was talking about. He said " No. " " Well, " I said, " you are not much of a Jew, because if you were you would understand that the Kanuka service is a military service, to which I have been more than once in the Synagogues of London when they give thanks to God for the victories that He gave in the olden days, the time of the Maccabees. If you are not a religious Jew, may I ask what are you?" " Well, " he said, " I am a bit of a philosopher. " (Laughter). I said "Indeed; how old are you?" "Thirty-seven. I have visited the United States, I have been to Oxford; I am now with my wife on a visit to Australia and New Zealand, and then I am going home by China and India, and I am taking the best out of the various religions. " "Well," I said, " thirty-seven years of age more than half your life already gone; at the rate at which you are finding, where will you be at seventy? You mentioned Oxford." So I told him the story I told you of those undergraduates that asked me what makes a man. I said to him, "Let me tell you of another philosopher, and he was a Jew; he came of a good stock; he was born in a city of which he was justly proud, he came of godly parents; he was a university man, he sat under a great professor; but one day there came to him an experience outside the City of Damascus, which completely changed his view of things. He got a new perspective of life, and a time came that he began to weigh the things that mattered, and this was his decision, though he had position and possession-he must have been a wealthy man as well as a learned one, or they would not have tried when he was a prisoner to get him to buy his freedom--he came to a time when he said, "I put by all these things -birth and training, influence, position, possession, all that I had, and I count them as dung, compared with the superior knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Now when I was a boy of fourteen I had the privilege of hearing Professor Ruskin. In an hour and a quarter in the most beautiful English he described one of those little pools or eddies in a mountain stream in the English Lakes District, the flora and fauna as he linkened that little pool to a miniature ocean, and the gems that might be made of the sand at the bottom; and I came out of that lecture and said, "If that old duffer gets so much pleasure out of life, I am going to have a look in. And so, unconsciously, indirectly, he taught me to observe; and now I see without looking, though I am not an Irishman. And as I was having my lunch with the Colonel, with my left eye I saw one of the most beautiful pictures which I shall always associate with that glorious seascape and the picture was of a man who literally carried out by his conduct to his wife and child these words in the marriage service, "with my body I thee worship." His action was love and loyalty, I can never forget the impression it made on me, the way that he served his wife and boy. Every act indicated real love; and having seen that I ventured to say to him "You have come of a good stock?" He said, "Yes, I am thankful to say my father and mother are both living today, and they are both religious Jews. " I said " I knew it. " I said, " When I was in the army, not long ago, I used to meet men in the various garrisons, members of an officers' mess, fine fellows physically and intellectually, and they turned to me and said, 'I never utter a prayer, Chaplain General, and never read my Bible.' And yet they were most attractive personalities; if I was in a bad corner I would rather have one of those men by my side than a smug Christian, if there is such a thing. And yet it bothered me that these men were not on the side of God and Christ, until I began to make an experiment, and to this I found no exception, that every man was drinking of a stream of which he was not acknowledging the source. Godly mother, godly father, godly forebears, had given him the character that he possessed, and the attractive personality. I found no exception. " And so I realized that this man, with this attractive personality had come of a good stock and so I made a shot, a bow at a venture,

and so I ventured to say, "Sir, I am sorry for your boy." "My boy? Why are you sorry for my boy?" I said, "I am sorry for your boy because he is going to drink

lower down the stream. You are drinking of a stream of which you are not acknowledging the source, but he is going to drink without the memory of a religious home, where prayer is wont to be made." It was just as though I had stabbed the man. He turned ghastly white. He realized how much it meant for his son that he was not setting him an example of prayer and purity, which means power. I am not going to keep you longer, but to say this. I said to him " Is it an accident or is it a Providence that you and I, men from the Old Country,

thousands of miles from home, should meet at this particular place, this beauty spot of the world, and in less than twenty-five minutes exchange heart and mind as only men can, concerning the things that matter. " He said, " I think it is a Providence, sir. " I said, " I am sure it is.; Thank you so much gentlemen for inviting me to lunch and letting me talk in this free and easy way, which is my nature. You cannot change your nature when you are sixtyseven. (Laughter). What's bred in the bone will come out of the mouth. (Applause) The thanks of the club to the speaker were voiced by THE RIGHT REVEREND BISHOP SWEENEY.