look sets her pulses fluttering with strange excitement and mysterious feeling. Suddenly the contrast stands out. With eyes big with wonder, the beautiful girl rises from her couch, beholds the Christ, calm, collected, majestic, divinely pure; and around her wicked men, leering as they look. And while, like a wounded bird, she looks from those who would compass her destruction to One who would become her Saviour, the mists pass from before her eyes. In that hour the palace becomes a hovel. She tears the wreaths from her hair and grinds them beneath her feet. She flings away those rings of ruby, as though the jewels were red drops of blood. She tears away the silken garment. When another day has come and night has followed, she has exchanged her soft perfumed palace for a garret, and for silken robes has put on coarse black cloth. Weeping, she creeps in the shadow of the night into Simon's house, and stooping, kisses the hem of Christ's garment, while he pities and pardons, and her tears dissolve her woe. These etchings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti tell the Gospel story in art, a story which is reproduced a thousand times every year in all parts of the world. Christ walks into the business house where men are dishonest, and they turn with shame back to the paths of integrity and honor. Christ walks even into the prison and the jail, and multitudes of hitherto hopeless criminals take hope again as they look into the face of him who was bound in their behalf. In his face drunkards have seen some divine remedy that has made them sober. Men like John B. Gough and John G. Woolley have seen there the hope that lifted them from the gutter up to manhood's crown. No depth of the mire and clay is so great that there is not a hopeful sky above it if the sinner but see clearly the face of Jesus Christ.

We ought to find in this a message to encourage us in all our work in the church or in the state, as we endeavor to lift human life and advance civilization. What Christ is offering to do for the individual he is also seeking to do for society and for the world. The man who sees modern society from the merely human standpoint declares that all schemes looking toward the banishment of sin, the shutting out crime at its source, are Utopian and fanciful, and that the people who propose them are only dreamers. But to the man who has caught the spirit of Christ, and who looks upon the world with the eyes of Jesus, everything that is good enough to be true he knows to be possible. All the great advancements which have been made have been pioneered by men and women who held this larger,

better hope of Jesus Christ. Only a little while ago many wise men were saying that slavery would last for ages in the United States, and that it was folly to think of putting it out. But in those days. such men as Beecher and Phillips declared, "Slavery is damned in the heart of God and therefore it is only a question of time until it must die." And in God's own good time how speedily were their words realized. So there are men, wise men and good men, who are saying to-day that the liquor traffic is so intrenched in wealth and in government and in political power that it must last for ages, and that men are fanatics and fools who dream of a nation as large as the United States freed from the curse of the liquor-saloon. It is not that these people do not hate this vile and wicked traffic, but only because they have not caught the hopefulness of Jesus Christ in relation to society. But I am here to say with Lincoln, using his words concerning slavery as applied to our greater curse, "If the liquortraffic is not wrong, then nothing is wrong!" And I am here to say with Wendell Phillips, applying his earlier words to the new crusade, that "Because the liquor traffic is wrong, the saloon is damned in the heart of God, and it is only a question of time when it shall die!" We are living in an anxious time, time of wars and rumors of The whole world is a social caldron heated to the boiling point. No man can forsee just what will happen to-morrow. But of this we may be sure: if we are faithful to God and to Jesus Christ, the better hope of our divine Lord shall prevail in this world, and one after another we shall see the crowns put on his head. Literature shall crown him; art shall crown him; yes, even politics and legislatures and senates shall yet put the crown on the head of Jesus Christ, and "the government shall be upon his shoulder." With our faces toward the future, with open mind and heart to be kindled by the light from the Sun of Righteousness, let us hail the coming of that glorious day!

wars.

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CHRIST'S WAY OF ROUSING A MAN

TO DO HIS BEST

"He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do."-John 14:12.

Christ was surrounded by a little group of friends who had been very close to him for several years. The knowledge that in some mysterious way they were to be separated from him, that he was to go and leave them behind, cruelly oppressed their hearts. Christ was seeking not only to instruct them and reveal their duty to them, but also to inspire and cheer them, so that in the best possible way they would carry on the great mission that he was committing to their hands. Now if some men had had that sort of a company to deal with, they would have spent those last hours telling those men their faults and warning them against the particular weaknesses to which they were liable; the besetting sins of these future apostles of the new religion would have had a good airing. But Jesus knew that that is not the way to rouse the best there is in any man. So, instead of setting before them their faults and their weaknesses, Christ seeks to make clear to them the sources of their power and strength. He tells them to be of good cheer, because he has overcome the world, and he will remain in close touch with them. He assures them that they are to have a great deal more power than they anticipate: they shall have the presence of the Holy Spirit; they shall have communication by prayer with the heart of God; and whatsoever they shall ask in his name he will give it to them. They are to continue in the world as his representatives, and what he has done of wonderful works would seem small compared to the glory which should be revealed in them. And how splendidly all was realized, and within a very short time! The grandest scene in the life of Jesus as a revelation of evangelistic power was insignificant compared to the achievements of the day of Pentecost.

But I have chosen this text and theme because it suggests a very practical study to us and one very important in our every-day lives. The suggestion on which I wish to lay the emphasis is that the way to get the best out of our fellow men is not by scolding or complaining, not by the lash of the whip, but by encouragement and

appreciation. If you want to lift a man out of the Slough of Despond, don't abuse him for being there; but show him the highland beyond, and give him the outstretched hand of help and encouragement. If you want a man whose work is faulty to do better work to-morrow, don't so criticise his work as to take all hope out of his heart than he can ever do well; but show appreciation for what he has done and make that a prophecy of better things to come. That is the way God deals with us, and it reveals the great law on which we all ought to act in dealing with one another.

The Bible is full of illustrations which prove our point. Take Jacob for an example. He had cheated his brother out of an inheritance and is driven into exile in consequence. On the first night away from home, while he was sleeping the sleep of the utterly wornout and tired man, resting his head on a stone, God revealed himself to him not in anger, not in contempt, not to make his shame greater, but in encouragement. In his vision he saw a ladder set up. At the foot it came down to where he was sleeping; the top of it rested in heaven, and the angels of God were coming and going on it. And bending over the top of the ladder with brooding tenderness was the Lord, who said, "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and they seed shall be as the dust of earth, and thou shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." Now I do not doubt that all that day's sorrowful journey there had been a deep undercurrent of fear in Jacob's heart that God would not forgive him, and that in going out from his father's house in shame and disgrace he was going away also from the mercy and compassion of God. No doubt it was a very despairing young man who went to sleep with his head on a stone that night, but now God comes and assures him that he will not cast him off but will watch over him and seek his good. And it rouses the very best there is in Jacob. He had gone to bed without prayers, but there is worship in the morning. With the vision fresh in his mind he took the stone that he had used for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it, and called the place Bethel. He had seen God and had been encouraged, and so he made a vow

there, and promised God that if he would guide him and bless him he would give a tenth of all his income for the special support of divine worship. God got the best there was out of Jacob through encouragement and appreciation.

If you want another illustration you may find it in the case of Elijah when the wicked Jezebel pursued him. Elijah had met the prophets of Baal, four hundred to one, on Mount Carmel and defeated them. Ahab the weakling went home to his wife in a pet, and sulked, and told her what terrible things Elijah had been doing among their friends. Jezebel was angry, and sent a quick messenger to Elijah assuring him she would have his head in short meter. Then Elijah did a strange thing for such a man to do-he suddenly turned coward and ran for his life. When he was utterly tired out he dropped down under a juniper tree by the side of the trail and begged God to let him die. He said, "It is enough; now, O Lord! take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers." But as Elijah lay and slept under the juniper tree God sent a messenger to him. What sort of a messenger would you expect to come to a man in a fix like that a man who has done so cowardly a thing and fallen so low from so great a height? You know very well what some great men would do if an ambassador should behave in a like manner. They would say: "I must make a conspicuous example of this case so that no one else will be tempted to give up in the same way." But God never deals with us that way. He never punishes us just to make an example of us; neither is he ever trying to get even with us. Instead, he is always seeking our good. So God sent an angle to Elijah— not an angel with the breath of a simoon, nor an angel with a drawn sword, but an angel with a jug of water and a loaf of bread, to feed a hungry man and to encourage him. And after he had been ministered to, he let him sleep all day, and then awakened him again. (A good nurse was that angel.) And after he had fed him the second time he took him for a six weeks' vacation up into the mountains and rested him up, and then he had a good square talk with him. Even then there were no harsh criticisms, but much encouragement and appreciation. In his sorrow and depression Elijah had supposed he was the only good man left; but the Lord comforts him by telling him he has seven thousand as good as he, and explains to him what great and honorable work he has yet for him to do. And so the Lord sent him back to anoint kings, and call prophets, and do noble and splendid service until the day when, having finished