The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-16
TH HE New York World of yesterday \CK states that John D. Rockefeller
 Jr. in his talk to his Bible class

A1A ihtn at iAiC T HUI FaN1iAA1 church. West Fofty-sixth street, Sunday morning. took as his theme the following passage of scripture:
 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew his brother. casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And He said unto them, follow me and l will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed Him.
 And going on from thence He saw two other brethren. James. the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with zebedee, their father. mending their nets; and He called them.
 And they immediately left their ship and their father and followed Him."
 Here is a stenographic report of MT. Rockefellers talk, as given by the World:
 Christ said they should be fishers of men and should follow Him, and 1t is interesting and highly important to note that these men offered to Him implicit obedience and without further ado cheer fully abandoned their nets and prepared to obey the Master and do His ploolns' This matter of cheerful obedience ana perfect willingness to abandon all the ties of their home life is one of the chlet characteristics of the twelve disclples' When they first banded together the twelve had promised to Follow Christ and to help Him in His great work for the redemption of mankind Trustingly they obeyedS Him in all things, and the lesson Inn nPGeS- sity of implicit obedience to the will or God.
 We know little, If anything, of the early lives of these two disciples, Peter ana John. John was probably member or fairly well-to-do family, very likely or the middle class, his father being connecteu with the ruler of the synagogue and man of some standing in the community Peter, however, was of humber origln' and of his life before he decided to obey Christ's injunction and follow Him we know little. But no matter what thelr origin or their ancestors, Christ found III these two humble men the material with which he could establish His kingdom on earth.
 We have seen then, how these two dis ciples prepared themselves for Christ ana accepted Him as their Lord and SaViouI' How shall we prepare ourselves to accept His bidding and carry on His work on earth in the manner outlined to us by His teachings and utterances? Thls' my friends, is the all-important subject, and we must not lose sight of 1t. How small we prepare ourselves to accept Christ! What is necessary for men to do to ac- cept Christ in their minds and hearts! How shall we best prepare ourselves to await His coming? These are some of the questions that perplex us, and it seems to me that some of you present here this morning may be able to offer some sug- gestions that may prove useful to all of .,s and at the same time aid us to solve the problem.
 The first thing to do in order to be ac- ceptable to Christ is for the sinner to put himself in an attitude of humility and 70 fully realize that only Christ can save him. to render strict obedience to the hold will and to rely with assurance upon the promise of Christ as his only Saviour. To a man who is self-confdent, fully able to cope with the burdens of life, thor oughly self-reliant it is equally neces- sary that he should place himself in an attitude of humility if he desires to ac- cept salvation as his less reliant brother.
 A Member of the Class--I think the pest thing to do Is to do exactly as Christ says and to follow His teachings and avioms in all our walks of life.
 r.L1 alQn ourselves in an attitude of receptiveness and be filled with an earnest desire to do Christs bidding. These two disciples or whom we have been talking were immed- lately ready to receive Him and to do His bidding. You will recall that Christ said by the Sea of Galilee that they must give up all and follow Him. You may re- member that one of them said he must first go and bury his father. Christ said: "No; follow me, and let the dead bury their dead" The idea was the work cf Jesus Christ could not wait for any man, and that is a useful thought that we might all carry home with us-the work of Jesus Christ cannot wait.
 A Member of the Class-How do you in- terpret the injunction of Christ to His dis ciples to surrender all and follow Him Does 1t mean that we should give up all our possessions?
 MT. Rockefeller = The thing for us to consider today is how to interpret this and apply 1t to our everyday lives. What does it mean today? We recognize that in this everyday life we cannot follow all the teachings literally. You will recall that Jesus said to young man: If thou wilt be perfect. go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasures in heaven; and come and follow Me-" But when the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
 (The verse following, which reads "Then said Jesus unto his disciples. 'Veri- ly I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven And again I say unto you, it is easier fol camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God" MT. Rockefeller omit ted)
 MT. Rockefeller-No, I do not think we can accept the teachings to give up every thins, in a literal sense. Conditions are diffs~ent Nevertheless. we can conscien. ticusly give up some things. and the ques- ton for each man to answer is, What car we give up In our life? think we might find a solution by giving up those things that may tend to keep our thoughts from Christ and His work.
 A Member of the Class-How about Tol- stoi, who gave up everything in life, MT Rockefeller-all his earthly possessions?
 MT. Rockefeller-Eis was certainly e