Paul Jones

“ What were the salient features of Jesus' message and ministry which found such a welcome acceptance in the hearts of plain, ordinary men and women? What were those truths so simple that the ignorant and uncultured could understand them, yet so potent that once they began to ferment their possessors became known as men who had turned the world upside down? ”

“ Creative love is the healing spirit most needed in the world today.
If, in presenting those aspects of Jesus' message which reached the hearts of the simple with a vitalizing power, giving them a new grip on life and a sense of at-homeness in God's world, I have conveyed the impression that here is a safe and easy way out of life's difficulties, I have failed in my task. Because a view of the world is true and because a method of approach is the only ultimately successful one, it by no means follows that it is always a safe method for the individual. ”

“ Most people, in their reasoning, ignore the fact that this human nature that we speak of has its two sides; that which responds to base motives and impulses and that which responds to the higher, and that it is for us to choose which we shall appeal to. It has been said that there is no average human nature any more than there is average organ music. What comes from the pipes of the organ depends upon the hand which touches the keys, whether it is a series of divine harmonies or just a jumble of discords. ”

“ One can go into a theological library today and find stacks and stacks of volumes on religion, ethics, theology, casuistry, exegesis, philosophy, the Bible, ecclesiastical history, mysticism, [8] apologetics, metaphysics and a dozen other subjects, all designed to illuminate, define and expound the realities that Jesus taught; but somehow they seem worthless when we note the clear grasp of the inner truth that the simple Indian had achieved without their help. We have tended to conceive of truth as something to be studied and apprehended intellectually rather than something to be lived. ”

“ The developments in scientific research, [44] during the last century especially, have led many to feel that in the ever-growing complexity of the life of the universe and in the ever-widening reaches of our knowledge there is, each decade, less and less place for God in the world and less and less occasion to pay attention to the words of a half-mythical Syrian teacher. But out of that very sophistication has come the reaction that is leading many to question the whole interlocking system of philosophy, science, industry and politics that sums up the universe in terms of material things. ”

“ They all lead us to speculation and to abstractions. Or if we ask similarly does religion depend on knowledge, on emotion, on sacramental connection with God, or on mystical detachment from the world, again we are led to try to find religion off by itself, where it may be weighed and measured and nurtured as if in a vacuum. They are interesting questions, but the only answer I have for them is that they suggest in no way the gracious words that came from the lips of Jesus, speaking to the hearts of babes. ”

“ We in the modern world need, above many things, a new understanding of forgiveness. In spite of much that has been written by our really great Christian thinkers who have been blessed with the child-like heart, and in spite of the experience of the many who have tried it out, forgiveness is still regarded by the great multitude as a somewhat difficult Christian duty. It is the response which we have to make when one who has wronged us comes repentant. ”

“ They proceed quite reasonably from a different but false conception of human nature.
It is useless to try to meet such reasoning and prove it false, as long as we leave unchallenged the basis from which it proceeds. There is where the work has to be done. There is where there is a call for a new evangel today, to reveal to men that same simple message that Jesus proclaimed so long ago, that this is God's world and that we can bring to development the good that lies everywhere about us in men. ”

“ Taking the will for the deed, the sincere intention for the achievement, or the yearning of the heart for the practical accomplishment, is subversive of all our standards of conduct. No business could be run on the basis of paying men in accordance with their readiness to [19] work, irrespective of the service rendered, as is the case in the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. But God seems to be able to run the universe on that basis. No wonder the common people heard Jesus gladly. ”

“ Truth for the sake of right living, not truth for the truth's sake or truth for God's sake, is the divine valuation. The wisdom and patient study of the ages have gone into the search for the [9] knowledge of God and His will, but to what purpose is it, when today as ever the mysteries of the kingdom are revealed to the hearts of the child-like? ”

“ If we can have the humility to see that there lies the heart and glory of the world, we can be content to let the wise ones erect their houses of cards as they may, while within the tottering structure we build the eternal Kingdom of God. ”

“ Is it possible for us sufficiently to divest ourselves of our inherited and acquired prejudices, our theology, our thought-forms and the accepted standards of conduct, to enter into an appreciation of the experience of those to whom the words and presence of Jesus came as a new experience? ”

“ The simple-hearted have in all ages sensed the import of this truth, for it has to them opened up great vistas of the possibilities of life, possibilities contemptuously discredited by the wise men of their time who base their calculations on human weakness rather than on human potentiality.
Your realist prides himself upon keeping his feet upon the ground. He will go no farther than he can see, and he sees truly enough the [16] evil and imperfection in the world. ”

“ Jesus loved men and women because He could always find in them something worthy to be loved—some possibility, at the worst, which was a fit object even for divine love. He could detect in each instance that which justified the declaration that man was made in the image of God. ”

“ The basis on which such people take their stand is so far removed from that of those who see this world of human relationships as a field for the operation of the creative spirit that only misunderstanding is apt to result from such discussions.
When one has not that understanding of human relationships, then domination, coercion, suppression, restraint are the logical methods which must be employed in all those fields when men and women do not evince a desire to co-operate in the common life. ”

“ Such a point of view entirely ignores the reality of human reactions. The Golden Rule is much more than an arbitrary obligation: it is an expression of the fundamental truth that men react to the stimulus that is applied. It may be true that a hungry pack of wolves will not discriminate between a loving Christian [29] and an angry heathen who is at their mercy; but the case is entirely different when a group of evil-minded men encounter a person radiating a spirit of love and good will as contrasted with one who shows hatred, antagonism or fear. ”

“ No, He admitted the evil that was present, that tended to obscure the possibilities which were also there, and told them how they could overcome and transform that evil and make real the good which had been overlain. Forgiveness and love were the transforming powers which were to accomplish it. He put a creative instrument in their hands, the full [27] possibilities of which we have not yet discovered.
Malcolm Sparkes has said: "Love treats every man as if he were the friend he ought to be." ”

“ Because it is God's world, it is the scene of great possibilities for the individual man and for the whole social group. The best is possible at any moment and for every person, and God sees us in the light of what we may be. ”

“ The additional thought which brings the first one to completion is that this world of those great possibilities is put in man's keeping: it is for him to create the realities which potentially exist. It is man's world, for, as St. Paul says, we are God's fellow-workers.
It is unnecessary to detail the expressions Jesus used to bring home to His hearers the understanding that it was for them to make real what was only potential. The thought is expressed in the large in the conception of the kingdom which was to be progressively realized. ”

“ When we can see the divine all about us in our fellows and live in a constant sense of it, many of the difficulties which people raise against the full participation in the Christian way will quickly fade. One will more readily see the necessity of relinquishing the way of warfare and following methods which will call forth the response of that divine element. ”

“ The task of creating the realities of the divine order which is entrusted to men rests constantly upon the primary fact that this is God's world, where possibilities of brotherhood and co-operation exist. ”

“ Those who say that we must forgive our enemies, but that of course it would be immoral to do so while they are still unrepentant, are as far from understanding Christ's principle as a certain churchman, whom I once heard say that he had no hope of our ever [38] achieving Christian unity, but that he was still praying for it. So far from being the dutiful response to an attitude of repentance, it is rather the creative power which brings out the latent possibilities which have been obscured by sin and evil. ”

“ The kingdom has a meaning only when we realize that far beyond the individual triumphs for love that may be achieved, there is a field that can be won only by the corporate [42] faithfulness to the ideal of the group. ”

“ He believes in us, believes that we are better than we know ourselves to be, for our knowledge seldom goes to the roots of our being. He can be patient while we are still stumbling through the shallows of existence. ”

“ When we are strong enough we'll talk disarmament. Knock the brute down first and argue with him afterward. Without discipline you can't have education. No government can allow its citizens to talk against it. ”

“ The Christian realist, however, sees the possibilities in the evil and weak of mankind. He recognizes elements of virtue and courage and honor that are waiting to be called out, sets himself to elicit them and bases his conclusions on those very real facts. ”

“ The bargain idea of religion as expressed by Jacob—if you will look after me and keep me then you can be my God and I will give my worship—is forever swept aside in the conception that God has made this a world where man can come to his best, and that when man responds to that vision and tries to live in the [25] light of it, he is rendering the only service God cares about. ”

“ The secret of Christ's demand is in the fact that forgiveness is the only ultimately successful way of overcoming evil. * * * It ends evil because it wins the evildoer. It gets at the root of evil and undermines the spirit which produces strife. It saves the sinner because it makes its appeal to the good that is in him and calls it into life. ”

“ Ignorance is no more a virtue than is wisdom. We must not forget the speaker at a church conference who began a tirade against the universities and education, expressing thankfulness that he had never been corrupted by contact with a college. ”

“ They had to maintain their different attitude the more vehemently. As some of our friends remind us, love is not a mushy thing, and it sometimes has to inflict pain.
The world is growing old in its sophistication. ”

“ The perfect young man who had kept all the commandments, no doubt the joy of his mother and the pride of his community, and also the substantial pillar of the church who had done everything that was required, were not to be compared with the social outcast who had failed but had the grace to admit it. ”

“ The one who gets that thought in all its bearings, that this is God's world from the be [20] ginning to the end, in all its implications, knows that no effort is ever lost, whatever the apparent outcome. ”

“ He recognized the evil, weakness and brutality in the world summed up in the fact that men generally were living on quite a different basis from that which He set forth. His was not the advice to shut their eyes to the actual situation and pretend that it was what they would like to have it. Many have thought that that was His message ”

“ There is very little use in arguing questions of the elimination of war, the reorganization of industrial relations, new methods of dealing with criminals, school technique, or the foundations of political government with those who are unable to detect in men elements of worth which can be counted upon. ”

“ He notes the weakness and failures of the best intentioned, takes cognizance of the low motives that so often dominate, and bases his conclusions on them. He spurns the idealistic twaddle of those who, he says, are guided by their hopes rather than by ordinary good sense, and fancies himself a practical man. ”

“ It seems that there had been a flag-raising at the agency headquarters, and moving pictures had been taken of the Indians as they reverenced the flag. He had been thinking about it during those months. "It means," he said, "that they want to take our young men away to fight. It is not right. The young men should not fight." ”

“ You hear about the ignorant foreigners who are working at our trades. Recently I tested out a large group in regard to their ability to speak languages and found a great many who could speak three or four and a considerable number who could speak five, six and seven. ”