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love, loyalty to service, He incarnated in Himself, therefore He said, "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me."

As thoughtful men and women, we will let loyalty like a passion transform our lives, and all the lesser loyalties of life we will cluster round about Jesus Christ, our Master loyalty.

VI

THE POWER OF A PRINCELY PASSION

"When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren."LUKE 22:32.

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HERE are many avenues of approach to human interest; there are varying expressions of human capacity; but there is only one immortal and invincible secret of eternal conquest. This secret lies nowhere else than in the power of a mighty conviction. The power of conviction grips men's souls, it makes plain men heroes, and old men young; it gives to the grace of womanhood sacrificial devotion, to girlhood the white lily of a holy modesty, to young manhood the baptism of a consecrated ambition that drives the fiery steeds of youth to the achievement of a noble purpose.

Conviction has the passion of eternity, the breath of infinity breathes here. Whether there be prophecies they shall fail, whether there be tongues they shall cease, but love, the molten power of conviction, never faileth. The man who suffers and the woman who sacrifices for the sake of conviction understands that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. Therefore the noble company of the immortals has not hesitated to be true to conviction. Through faith

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they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and in goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. Of whom this world was not worthy.

Men die for the sake of conviction most willingly. They never do that for anything else. Men die for the sake of conviction; ask them and see. Paul, sitting in the midst of your Roman dungeon with only the narrow grating for light and the clanking chains of fellow-prisoners for company, what hast thou done with all the brilliant promise of thy cultured youth? Men used to say that you were the most promising of all the boys who sat at the feet of Gamaliel, that you would some day be the leader of the Sanhedrin, the most renowned rabbi among the learned of Jewry. Now your name is anathema there, none so humble as to do you reverence, and tomorrow the executioner's keen blade shall bring you to an ignominious end. Flaming eyes pierce the prison darkness; comes a voice unwavering, untiring, "I count not myself to have attained, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which were behind. I press on to the mark of the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ-to me to die is gain." John Huss, through the pikes of yonder soldiers that form a picket fence round your jail, you can see the bringing of the fagots for a funeral pyre; the Emperor Sigismond has violated the safe

conduct that was granted you, if you remain true to conscience and to gospel and to scripture, tomorrow your ashes shall mingle with the waters of the Rhone. Come four laymen sent by the Emperor. Speaks honest Chlum, "Master John, we are laymen and cannot advise you. But if you realize that you are guilty concerning any of the charges consider and recant, but if you do not feel guilty do not force your conscience, nor lie before God, but rather stand fast to the death in the truth which you do know." Tears flow down the cheeks of Huss as he replies, "Sir John, know that if I was conscious that I had written or preached ought against the law, gospel, or Mother Church, I would recant, but God is my witness the scriptures will not permit me. If these can convince me by scripture I will recant." They take him to the cathedral. They charge him with things he never said as well as with things he did believe, they give him no chance to argue. He must either recant or perish. He cries to the people, " These bishops here urge me to recant. I fear to do this lest I be a liar in the sight of God, and offend against conscience and God's truth." (Would God we had more such men today.) They lead him to a dais and begin to disrobe him of his churchly vestments. They place a paper crown upon his head ornamented with devils; they lead him to the stake, he sees his books already burning. No spiritual comforter must be allowed him, the priests sing a dirge consigning his soul to the devil. As he is chained to the stake the Count

of the Empire asks him once more if he would recant and save his life. Hear the reply, "As God

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my witness I have never taught nor preached save with the one intention of winning men, if possible, from their sins. In the truth of the gospel I have written, taught, and preached. I will gladly die.” So they heaped the straw and the wood around him and poured pitch upon it. When the flames were lighted he sang twice with a loud voice, "Christ, thou son of the living God, have mercy upon me.' When he began the third clause, "Who was conceived of the virgin Mary," the wind blew the flames in his face and he fell forward. So as he was praying moving his lips and his head, he died in the Lord. The sun which went down on the most disgraceful day of Bohemia's history saw the first rosy streaks of the dawn of a new era of light and freedom. John Huss, mingling with the martyrs and the heroes in heavenly realms, you are glad today that you were counted worthy to suffer for the sake of conviction. Sarpi, child of Italy in the last days of the Renaissance, you gave your life and devotion to the church only to find that conscience and truth bade you to be the stern champion of the state as opposed to the machinations of the papacy, to you more than to any one else is due the overthrow of the temporal power of the Pope. You had to follow a life of arduous warfare even though the English Ambassador wrote concerning you, "He seemeth in countenance as in spirit more like to Philip Melanchthon's gentleness than to

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