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would be willing to lay down his life for the sake of that power of love which he held most dear. That day of real conviction would be the royal birthday of his conversion.

3. The play of the princely passion whose birthday is conversion is manifold. How varied is the sphere through which the hidden electric energy manifests its power. It can thresh wheat, transport it across the continent, grind it into flour, bake it into bread, and light the street and the shop where the bread is sold, and take the orders of those who would eat it. To perform its service electricity must be coöperated with by certain sympathetic surroundings. Some substances are spoken of as being conductors and others as non-conductors of electricity. The play of the princely power called conviction is limitless in its expression, but it, too, like electric energy, is dependent on sympathetic conductor for its work. The play of this power is not selfward, but outward. "When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren." What a clarion call, what a living test is that to all who have felt the master passion of Christ conviction.

It is suggestive of splendid enterprise. A church is more than a mere congregation; it is a living organism. If the church and the individual in it has had that real conversion which is the birthday of conviction there will be instant heeding of the injunction, "Strengthen thy brethren." There will be as much power of initiative and of constancy here as in any other undertaking of practical life.

There are many ways of pushing forward the great enterprise of "strengthening thy brethren." There is the avenue of prayer. Who can tell the measure of resource that comes unsuspectedly to human souls because some devout heart hath borne them aloft on the wings of prayer? Who can know the fulness of those divine messages that are carried through the wireless circles of the spiritual realm? Paul knew that secret, therefore he said, "I make mention of you continually in my prayers." Strengthen thy brethren through prayer at the family altar, in bands of intimate fellowship, in the secret oratory of thy heart. Strengthen thy brethren through sympathetic love, through the unconscious influence of your own strong and modest character.

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Using the master passion of conviction what enterprises of magnitude the church shall undertake! When the challenge is heard how it stirs the ranks to the attainment of better methods in the Sunday School, a pushing forward of all the churches' work through education and evangelism, the sending of churches and schools and hospitals through all the world. There are five particular points where those under the princely passion of Christ may strengthen their brethren. Here is emphasized the necessity of finding out God's way with a boy; the saving of men and women and little children for the heavenly Jerusalem by giving them the wholesomeness of an earthly Jerusalem that is heavenly to live in right here and now through the

championing of the claims of social justice and social service; the making of the Bible, through reading and study, the mightiest force in our civilization as it was in that of England in the last years of Elizabeth and after; through classes of education the intelligent understanding of the problem of Christianizing the nations; by community extension the bringing of the masses to Christ through city and country. What enterprise is more sweeping or inspiring than this?

When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren who fight beneath the banners of liberty and democracy with the might of manhood, indignant at a nation which trails in the dust all principles of Christianity and humanity. Fight victoriously without emulating their hate or their heartlessness.

When the victory is won, strengthen thy brethren by insisting that Christ's principles of justice, brotherhood, democracy, and righteousness, shall take the place of the force, chicanery, lying, and deceit which hitherto have guided the affairs of nations. See to it that President Wilson's bold proclamation of the Christian program shall be steadfastly adhered to by America.

When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren through a divine enthusiasm. To many religion is but a dead and dry adherence to law and statement. But not so to him who had the princely passion. Enthusiasm, en-theos-asm, has a birthright in religion, if it has anywhere. A religion which consists in a mere cold and respectable ob

servance of form is not religion. It is hard to keep a small blaze going, the flame from one little stick soon becomes feeble and flickering and sickly, but pile on the logs criss-cross fashion and how the sparks leap to the heavens, the whole camp is cheered and illuminated. Aristotle said, "There is no great genius without some admixture of madness." The man who arrives in any line of work is the man who gives himself with all the spirit that is in him. How the church's lack of enthusiasm was rebuked by a criminal in England just before his execution! The ministries of religion were being offered to him. The old, old story was related by the chaplain. The man replied, "Sir, if I believed what you say there would be no limit to the power that I would put into its proclamation; I would crawl across England on broken glass on my hands and knees to tell men it was true." The rough, red-hot Luther and not the erudite Erasmus was the bulwark of the Reformation. Joseph Parker, for a long generation the flaming evangel of City Temple, London, said, "So long as the church is one of many institutions she will have her little day, will die, and that will be all, but just as soon as she gets the spirit of Jesus Christ until the world thinks she has gone stark mad, she will be on the right way of capturing this old planet for Christ." He who feels the sway of the princely passion hears the trumpet call of sacrifice. Man was made The fierce joy of

for struggle and not for ease.

the Christian way is that it challenges a man to

"endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." We belong to a comfort-loving, luxuryworshipping generation. We need more of iron in our blood. Christianity has flourished best when Christians had to suffer. The blood of the martyrs has been evermore the seed of the church. The

rough-hewn story of Xavier and Livingstone and Grenfell ought to shame our dilettante Christianity. When thou art converted thou wilt strengthen thy brethren, even at the expense of sacrifice, yea, because of the sacrifice. Our generation which is so dazzled by fame and success evermore calls to the flowery path rather than to the thorny. How splendid then is the hero spirit when we see it lived

out.

The sacrificial demands of this titanic day are proving the salvation of our souls. Men are discovering that "Whosoever loseth his life, findeth it." Multitudes of common men, on the plains of Flanders and of France are showing themselves gentlemen unafraid.

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Beyond the path of the outmost sun, through utter darkness hurled,

Farther than ever comet flared or vagrant stardust swirled, Live such as fought, and sailed, and ruled, and lived and made our world.

"And oft times cometh our wise Lord God, master of every trade,

And tells them tales of his daily toil, of Edens newly made, And they rise to their feet as He passes by, 'gentlemen unafraid!'"

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