The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-11-12

household are to give to others their portion of food in due season-the peo- ple's portion of rights, franchises, prof it's, wages, fair conditions of livelihood. If the steward over many things will not do this, if he says in his heart, My Lord delayeth His coming, and begins to beat His fellow servants, and to be drunken, living in ostentatious useless ness, what will happen? What has often happened when the flood came, when suddenly Gods lightning shined out of heaven. The Christ the coming Lord, will cut that man down and ap- point his portion with the hpocrites where shall be the weeping and gnash- ing of teeth. In the war times, when the government was using stern meas ures with northern traitors, a theologi- an once stood up and remarked that if there were no hell one might have to be made somewhere as a military ne- cessity. It might now be said, some- where the place of weeping and gnash- ing of teeth may be an economic neces- sity.
 To this power of good nature, char acteristic of any American crowd, the Christ appeals as no other can. By His genuineness, justice, infinite pity, He masters and leads 1t. Show anything to be really Christian, and the crowd, if it sees it, will own it. The great heart of humanity really loves the real Christ
 might mention likewise, in one char acterization, all the straightforward working forces among men, such as the love of truth, of the square deal, fair play, right relations of all men towards one another-powers always with us, which the Christ, as no other, calls forth; which have issue and victory in His life and glory.
 Further, for the mastery of the peo- pie the Christ shall make more domi- nant use of those forces that are con- fessedly with Him-the radiant ener- gies of His Spirit. But here within the lines of His professed followers may come the rub for our Christianity. Are we to be really mastered by Him? can only indicate some things most needed. One is a personal appreciation of the Christ-a clear personal sense of what His life is, and how His com- manding character stands directly over us.
 Moreover, for the Christian control of democracy there is demanded the left ing up of positive Christian standards in all dealings with our fellow-men The fact cannot be denied that many men, whose hearts may be Christian, whom we at least are not to judge upon whose souls the Lord shall have mercy, nevertheless by their dealings with their fellow-men have not helped forward the Christ's power among the people. Again, Christ's mastery shall cost vastly more money committed in trust to men of good brains for sane and sober Christian uses. All of these qualifications are necessary, believe that there is coming an immensely lar ger use of Christian wealth in getting Gods will done on earth than this old, long suffering world has ever dreamed of. Hi.
 Finally, there is the condition, which the Christ always put first and last humility, the humility of the man who, looking away from himself, sees before him the Higher Power and around him the glory of the Lord. The church was never meant as a museum even for heroic forms or for the statues of the great. And many small men must come down from their little pedestals, if they are to have part and use in the Lord Christ's service and joy among the multitudes.
 You are familiar with the story of Constantine's vision of the cross upon the clouds, and the sign by which he led the Roman legions to victory. But in the latter days of that first Christian emperor they made a statue of him in one of their cities They did not hew it out of one block of marble as Michael Angelo did his David. They took a broken body of an Apollo; they put upon it head refashioned after the emperor's likeness; and within it, at the heart of it, they put piece of the wood of the supposed cross upon which the Lord was crucified. But that com posite image of Constantine never swayed the people. The crowd in the city's market-place cared little for the statue; 1t was borne at the head of no conquering legions. It was the man with the vision of the cross who led and conquered. It will be so now. Only the genuine man can lead the people long. The made-up man, conglomerate, fictitious, having in the heart of him. only a spurious devotion, though he stands for the hour in the midst of the multitude, has no virtue or power for the Lords leadership of the people. Democracy can be mastered only by the sign of the cross.
 LIVE WIRE