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Years ago, Harry Emerson Fosdick, then at the height of his influence as minister of the Riverside Church, New York City, was making a tour of Palestine and other countries of the Near and Middle East. He was invited to give an address at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, where the student body comprised citizens of many countries and representatives from sixteen different religions. What could one say that would be relevant or of interest to so mixed and varied a group? This is how Fosdick began: "I do not ask anyone here to change his religion; but I do ask all of you to face up to this question: What is your religion doing to your character?"

This was a call to consider one of the great issues of human belief: religion and life, Christianity and character, word and spirit. Emerson once said, "What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear a word you say." Jesus' discourse in this whole sixth chapter of the Gospel of John had two foci - spirit and life. "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." By this he meant that those who appropriated his spirit, i.e., fed upon him as the bread of life, would find, thereby, a fulfillment and satisfaction no other means could give.

The traditions of the world of his time, of course, had a different emphasis. The Greeks were in search of a formula for life, a slogan by which to perform, but such could never claim the commitment of the human will. The Jews had their Law, demanding obedience to every detail as the requisite to the good life, but St. Paul discovered that a set of rules could never provide salvation nor solve the deadly problem of sin and moral failure. Jesus, however, came with a new key to true life: accept his spirit, surrender to the claim of his will, allow him to enter the stream of everyday living; and, in this commitment, all we say and do will reflect the influence of his life within us.

What does this do for and with those who resolve to do it? How has it worked in the Christian story?

1. The world saw the effect of this new spirit in the early church. When these early followers of Jesus fanned out into the Mediterranean world, they brought with their Christianity something the pagan world lacked and sorely needed. The spirit of hope and expectation, for example, had become snuffed out and a sense of defeat, meaninglessness, and fascination with the bizarre settled down upon their thinkers and philosophers. As J. Robert Seeley wrote, "Philosophy could explain what is right, but only Christianity could help people to do it." Whatever may have been uncouth and unimpressive about these early Christians, it was always forgotten when people saw the radiant light on their faces. And no pagan philosopher had ever seen anything quite like it - a religion so identified with life that it transformed human personalities and filled their lives with direction, meaning, and high expectation. They seemed to be nourished and empowered by something outside and beyond themselves; with this possession, they made a disturbing impact upon the ancient world.

2. The world saw the effect of this new spirit upon human conduct. Ian Macpherson explained this when he wrote: "When Jesus takes possession of the heart, everything else is changed." Someone once said, "Despair has three heads: agnosticism, which makes us lose courage in our search for knowledge; pessimism, which makes us lose courage in our search for progress; and cynicism, which makes us lose courage in our search for virtue." If there is any disease rampant in our common life today it is cynicism. And one of the favorite questions it asks is: "What difference does it make what one believes?" But those who are so ready to ask this question fail to see that it is followed logically and inevitably by another - "Does it make any difference what a person does?" And the answer one gives to this second question determines the answer one should give to the first. For the cynic, everything is relative and, therefore, the idea of love, honesty, and truth being absolute values is sheer fiction. Moreover, the outward conduct of every cynic cannot help being a direct reproduction of his or her belief. But the new spirit which Jesus brought revolutionized life - it cleansed human attitudes, laid restraints on human conduct, and molded into new patterns the careers of human character. In all those who opened their hearts to Jesus, God worked towards the higher benefits and ends of his purpose. The eternal spirit in concert with human life produced a life of satisfaction, which was to stand everlastingly as the proof of God's integrity and power.

3. The world saw how this new spirit provides power to realize whatever it promises. The famous American editor, Horace Greeley, told of receiving a letter from a woman who wrote: "Our church is in dire financial straits. We've tried everything to keep it going: a strawberry festival, an oyster supper, a donkey party, a turkey dinner, and, finally, a box social. Will you please tells us, Dr. Greeley, how to keep a struggling church from disbanding?" Dr. Greeley wrote back to her a message in two words: Try Christianity!

What did he mean by that? Look at it in this way. The ancient world failed to help men and women meet the problem of life, because, although their wise men could teach, they could not supply the power to put it into practice. The Old Testament prophets could explain the Law of Moses, but were unable to provide the power needed to fulfill it. Then, into the midst of the ages, came this man Jesus and, before the wondering eyes of men and women, he declared, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." These people saw truth coming alive in his amazing personality; and, when his enemies finally killed him, his great spirit was liberated to be wherever needy souls cried out for him. In all the ages since, for all those who have received him as the bread of life by committing their lives to him, he has brought power over their every weakness, victory over every failure, and conduct and character that have made the world a better place in which to live.

One of the greatest Christian women of these past one hundred years was Lady Aberdeen who came from a Highland home in Inverness, Scotland. She lived before all the fuss and feathers of feminism and women's liberation; but, when she died in 1939, the record of her achievements read like a scroll of honor. In 1882 she founded an orphanage for Scottish children which was dedicated by Prime Minister Gladstone. In 1893 she founded the "Onward and Upward Association" to help domestics get education and recreation beyond the drudgery of their jobs. In 1897 she founded the Victorian Order of Nurses to help sick folk on the lonely Canadian frontiers. In 1919 she led a delegation to the Peace Conference in Geneva on behalf of the women of the world. Someone asked her what was the strength that undergirded her life and character so that she was able, for sixty years, to give herself to the needs of the world? Just before her death in 1939, she wrote: "I find my one resource is to throw myself in unreservedly on the power of the Holy Spirit ... I make it a practice to stand in a certain place where I can look up at the mountains and say, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.' "

This is the same power that not only makes you and me do great things, but, basically, to be what we are; it gives quality to all we say and do. St. Paul said, "By the grace of God I am what I am." Jesus said, "The words that I have spoken to you, they are spirit and they are life." That same spirit of power is available today to all who will accept it and stand in obedience to God's will.