THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

IN THE

MODERN WORLD

THE SIXTH SEries of John Calvin McNair Lectures AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

IN 1913

EXPANDED AND REVISED

•The

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS
ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED

LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO

IN THE

MODERN WORLD

BY

FRANCIS GREENWOOD PEABODY

PLUMMER PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN MORALS

(EMERITUS) IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY

New York

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1916

All rights reserved

COPYRIGHT, 1914,

BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1914. Reprinted
May, 1915; April, 1916.

BV

4501 P35

1916

TO G. W. P.1

IN VIGILS PROSTRATE AND WITH FASTINGS FAINT,
HER VISIONS OF THE CHRIST SUSTAINED THE SAINT,
AND NO RUDE NOISE OF WORLDLY WANT OR CARE
DISTURBED THE STILLNESS OF THE CONVENT'S PRAYER.
WHERE, LORD," ONE ASKED, "MAY THEY WHO LOVE

66

THEE MOST

BEHOLD THY COUNTENANCE ERE THEY DEPART?"
"SEEK ME," THE SAVIOUR ANSWERED, "IN THE HOST
OR ON THE ALTAR OF SAINT GERTRUDE'S HEART."

NO MYSTIC VOICES FROM THE HEAVENS ABOVE
NOW SATISFY THE SOULS WHICH CHRIST CONFESS;
THEIR HEAVENLY VISION IS IN WORKS OF LOVE,
A NEW AGE SUMMONS TO NEW SAINTLINESS.
BEFORE TH' UNCLOISTERED SHRINE OF HUMAN NEEDS
AND ALL UNCONSCIOUS OF THE WORTH OR PRICE,
THEY LAY THEIR FRAGRANT GIFTS OF GRACIOUS DEEDS
UPON THE ALTAR OF SELF-SACRIFICE.

1 Saint Gertrude of Eisleben (1256-1302) passed her entire life from five years of age in a convent, where she was permitted to see many visions of the Saviour. When another suppliant asked where Christ might be found, the Saviour answered: "Either on the altar or in the heart of Gertrude." (Man möge ihn entweder im Tabernakel oder im Herzen Gertrud's suchen.) The "Revelations" of Saint Gertrude (Insinuationum divina pietatis exercitia) were published in many editions during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.