Mr. Bryan’s Bible Talks
THE GRACE OF GRATITUDE
By WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
BIBLE TEXT—LESSON FOR FEBRUARY 4
(Luke 17:11-19)
And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem,
that he passed through the midst of Samaria and
Galilee.
And as he entered into a certain village, there
met him ten men that were lepers, which stood
afar off:
And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus,
Master, have mercy on us.
And when he saw them, he said unto them. Go
shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to
pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
And one of them, when he saw that he was
healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glori
fied God.
And he fell down on his face at his feet, giving
him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten
cleansed? but where are the nine?
There are not found that returned to give glory
to God, sa#e this stranger.
And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy
faith hath made thee whole.
Nine short verses in Luke, recording Christ's
healing of the ten lepers while on His way to
Jerusalem for His crucifixion, deal with the very
prevalent sin of ingratitude and bring to us a
practical lesson with a searching inquiry.
Ingratitude has been characterized as a mean
er sin than revenge because, while revenge is
the repayment of evil with evil, ingratitude is
the repayment of good with evil.
Every poet and every prose writer has ex
hausted epithet on those guilty of this s'n. The
indictment given by Shakespeare is probably the
c-ne most quoted:
“How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child.”
Young puts it above all other sins:
“He that is ungrateful has no guilt but one;
All other crimes may pass for virtues in him.”
Christ, who laid bare evrey sin that wraps
human character and puts a blot on human life,
has given us the most stinging rebuke ever ad
ministered to ingratitude.
His question, “Were there not ten cleansed?
But where are the nine?” “But where are the
nine?” has echoed through nineteen centuries
and is as much needed today as when it was
spcken.
If the ten lepers had been afflicted with a dis
ease easily cured, the case would not have been
so strong. But leprosy was incurable. (It is even
today one of the most hopeless of diseases and
appeals to the sympathy of the Christian world.
We have an American society, known as the
Mission to the Lepers, which cares for many
thousands of unfortunates, and our government
has recently made an appropriation for the care
of lepers.) And yet when Christ had healed
them all only one returned to give expression to
his thanks. Is gratitude manifested by all today?
The Bible is a mirror in which we see our
selves just as we are. Attention has often been
called to the fact that it is the only book that
offers no flattery to sinful man. Because it con
tains a faithful inventory of man it has been at
tacked as no other book, and for a longer time.
One cannot read the account of the nine un
grateful lepers without examining himself; and
who can examine himself without being con
scious of his own ingratitude?
On Thanksgiving Day we are wont to as
semble at church or in the home to give expres
sion to gratitude for bountiful crops and other
material benefits, for the enlightened govern
ment under which we live, and for the blessings
of peace. But have we ever attempted to set
down all the things for which we should be
thankful? *
Let us consider first what may be called provi
dential blessings—those for which neither we
nor our immediate ancestry are respons ible.
Man comes into this world without his own
volition; he has nothing to say as to the age in
which he shall be born, as to the race of which
he shall be a member, or as to the land in which
he shall first see the light. Have our hearts
been lifted up ini gratitude to God for birth in
the greatest of all ages and in the most blessed
of all lands?
What is it worth to live now instead of a
:--——-—- —
thousand or two thousand or five thousand
years ago? Of what value is citizenship in this
land as compared with citizenship in other
lands?
And who shall estimate the benefits that came
to us from being members of a race with cen
turies of civilization back of it? Not all of the
billion and half who live upon the globe today
are so fortunate.
GRATITUDE FOR CLEAN BLOOD
How, too, shall we estimate the value of a
fortunate family environment? Next to heredity
the greatest molding influence is the home life
during childhood.
What is it worth to have clean blood that car
ries with it none of the diseases that follow in
the wake of immorality?
Of what worth is it to have impressed upon
us from the very beginning the lessons of pu
rity, truthfulness and honesty, and to have im
planted in our hearts ideals that make for char
acter and noble living?
If we have education, it is because people
long since dead established our school system,
with universal education as the national ideal.
We are not only indebted to former genera
tions, but we are indebted to those who were
about us in our youth—who built school houses
and trained teachers so that education came to
our lives as the air enters our lungs.
Education is so largely dependent upon others
that it is a gift rather than an accomplishment
—at least, the earlier part of our education
which we receive before we are old enough to
decide such matters for ourselves. Are we grate
ful and do we show our gratitude by a deter
mination to pay back the debt we owe?
When we finish school, do we count the cost
to others and appreciate th3 sacrifice endured by
those who made our education possible?
Do we resolve to discharge the obligation by
making the world better for those of our genera
tion and for those who come after us?
What is the ratio between those who mani
fest gratitude in their lives and those who, like
the ten lepers, enjoy but make no return?
Some even plot against the public and use
against their fellowmen the very training that
the public has, through education, given them.
President Roosevelt complained^ to a Harvard
Law School class that there was scarcely a great
conspiracy against the public welfare that did
not have Harvard brains behind it..
He need not have gone to Harvard to utter
this terrific indictment against college gradu
ates; he might have gone to Yale or Columbia,
or Princeton, or to any other great university,
or even to smaller colleges.
President Wilson spoke on the same line:
“The geat voice of America does not come
from seats of learning. It comes in a murmur
from the hills and woods, and the farms and fac
tories and the mills, rolling on and gaining
volume until it comes to us from the homes of
common men. Do these murmurs echo in the
corridors of our universities? I have not heard
them.”
Wendell Philips uttered the same complaint
when he said that the people “make history”
while the scholars only “write” it and that, part
truly and part^as colored by their prejudices.
OUR DEBT TO RELIGION
And how is it in religion?
Have we not benefited by a Christian civiliza
tion?
Who will measure the debt we owe to the
Bible, to the Bible’s God and the Bible’s Christ?
, What is salvation worth to the sinner and
what are Christ’s example and moral code worth
to those who would be perfect even as the
Heavenly Father is perfect?
What percentage of the church membership
is really active?
How many of our young men and young wom
en returning from college, offer themselves for
church work and seek on opportunity to prove
by service their gratitude for what Christ has
brought into their lives?
What evils are being attacked in the name of
the Master?
How many Christians are so living that they
can ask the question in which are embodied the
first recorded words of the Saviour, “Wist ye not
that I must be about my Father’s business?”
Space does not permit an enumeration of all
the blessings which we enjojr, but even a short
list ought to include the benefits that come to
us because we live under a government in which
the people rule.
Our liberties constitute a priceless gift,
bought for us by the blood of others. It is be
cause millions of the best and bravest who ever
lived poured out their lives that we are free.
We are the heirs of the ages and debtors to
all who have from time to time protected and
developed popular government. What evidence
do we give of deep appreciation?
OUR DEBT TO OUR COUNTRY
How much time do we give to the study of
the machinery and methods of government and
to the principles and policies which come before
the people for approval or rejection?
How courageous are we in the use of the bal
lot and in the improvement of conditions under
which the people of this generation live?
How much responsibility do we feel for the
remedying of the evils that we may help to
remedy and for the bringing of the good that
we may help to bring?
We have the best country in the world, which
means that we havo the best people in the world.
And yet, how few comparatively contribute, a*
any sacrifice to themselves, to the great reforms
that mark the progress of civilization.
While most citizens vote, the burden of the
fight for government reforms Is borne by a small
precentage of the electors.
Just as the energy which finds Its abode in
falling water needs a machine through which to
act, so the political virtues inherent in the voter
need an organization through which to give ex
pression to its strength, and an organization can
not he carried on without money. What per
centage of those who vote in any of the larger
part es subscribe financially to their party's
funds?
One in ten? Hardly.
HOW MANY HELPED?
We have just won the greatest moral victory
ever won at the polls—how many have contri
buted financially to prohibition? Relatively but
a small npmber.
The W. C. T. U. has been in existence more
than a half a century, during which time it has
patiently and persistently worked for two great
reforms—prohibition and woman suffrage. It
has been the greatest educational influence back
of these two Constitutional amendments, and
yet of the many millions of women who reap the
fruits of'prohibition and suffrage not more than
half a million—not one in ten—have become
members of this organization or contribute rcgu
arly to its work.
The obligations above mentioned are only a
few of the many that all willingly acknowledge
when attention is called to the subject; each
reader can make up a list for himself and place
the emphasis where he desires.
The supreme value of this lesson is that Jt
comes to us from the highest authority and
should, therefore, arouse us to new resolves that
we may avoid the condemnation visited upon the
ungrateful lepers and bring to ourselves the joy
that gladdened the heart of the one leper who
glorified God and, falling upon his face, poured
out his heart in thankfulness to the Master.
CHRIST’S TWO PARABLES ON PRAYER
By WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
BIBLE XKXT—LESSON FOR FEBRUARY 11
(Luke 18:1-14)
And he spake a parable unto them to this end,
that men ought always to pray, and not to faint:
Saying, There was In a city a Judge, which
feared not God, neither regarded man:
And there was a widow in that city; and she
came unto him, saying, Avenge me of nine ad
versary. _ ... , . , .
And he would not for a while: but afterward he
said vithin himself, Though I fear not God, nor
regard man;
Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will
avenge her, lest by her continual coming she
weary me.
And the Lord said. Hear what the unjust Judge
SaAnd shall not God avenge his own elect, which
cry day and night unto him, though he bear long
with them9
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.
Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall
he find faith on the earth?
And he spake this parable unto certain which
trusted in themselves that they were righteous,
and despised others:
Tv.'o men welfl up into the temple to pray; the
one z. Pharisee, and the other a publican
The Pharisee stood and "rayed thus within him
self God, I thank thee, that I am not as other
men are extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
thiSfast twice in the wreek, I give tithes of all that
1 And^the publican, standing afar off, would not^R
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