Our Master | Page 2

century will be men. In every department of
the world's life or labour, that is the great want. In religion, in politics,
in science, in commerce, in philanthropy, in government, all other
necessities are unimportant by comparison with this one.
Given men of a certain type, and the religious life of the world will
thrive and throb with the love and will of God, and overcome all
opposition. Given men of the right stamp, and politics will become
another word for benevolence. Provided true men are available, science
will take her place as the handmaid of revelation. If only men of power
and principle are at hand, commerce will prosper as she has never yet
prospered, rooted in the great law which Christ laid down for her: "Do
unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." If the men are
found to guide it, philanthropy will become a golden ladder of
opportunity by which all in misfortune and misery may climb, not only
to sufficiency and happiness here, but to purity and plenty for ever.
And, given the men of heart, head, and hand for the task, the
government of the kingdoms of this world will yet become a fulfilment

of the great prayer of Jesus: "Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in
Heaven."
But all, or nearly all, depends on the men.

II.
The Man.
The new Century will demand men.
But if men, then certainly a man. Human nature has, after all, more
influence over human nature than anything else. Abstract laws are of
little moment to us until we see them in actual operation. The law of
gravitation is but a matter of intelligent wonder while we view its
influence in the movements of revolving planets or falling stars; but
when we see a baby fall terror-stricken from its little cradle to the floor,
"the attraction of large bodies for small ones" takes on a new and
heart-felt meaning. The beauty of devotion to truth in the face of
opposition hardly stirs an emotion in many of us, as we regard it from
the safe distance of our own self-satisfied liberty; but when we see the
lonely martyr walk with head erect through the raging mob, and kiss
the stake to which he is soon to be bound; when we watch him burn
until the kindly powder explodes about his neck, and sends him to
exchange his shirt of flame for the robe he has washed in the Blood of
the Lamb; then, the beauty, the sincerity, the greatness, the
God-likeness of sacrifice, especially of sacrifice for the truth, comes
home to us, and captures even the coldest hearts and dullest minds.
The revelation of Jesus in the flesh was a recognition of this principle.
The purpose of His life and death was to manifest God in the flesh, that
He might attract man to God. He took human nature that human nature
might see the best of which it was capable. He became a man that men
might know to what heights of power a man might rise. He became a
man that men might know to what lengths and breadths of love and
wisdom a man might attain. He became a man that men might know to
what depths of love and service a man might reach.

The men we need, then, for the twentieth century will find the pattern
Man ready to their hand. Be the demands of the coming years what
they may, God is able to raise up men to meet them, men after His own
likeness--men of right, men of light, men of might--men who will
follow Him in the desperate fight with the hydra-headed monsters of
evil of every kind, and who will, by His Name, deliver the souls of men
from the slavery of sin and the Hell to which it leads.

III.
Standards.
The new Century will demand high standards, both of character and
conduct.
Explain it how we may, the fact is evident that religion has greatly
disappointed the world. The wretched distortion of Christ's teaching
which appears in the lives and business of tens of thousands of
professed Christians, the namby-pambyism of the mass of Christian
teachers towards the evil of sin, and the unholy union, in nearly all the
practical proceedings of life, between the world and the bulk of the
Christian churches, no doubt largely account for this, so far as
Christianity is concerned.
Mohammedanism is in a still worse plight, for though, alas! it increases
even faster than Christianity, it is helpless at the heart. The mass of its
devotees know that between its highest teaching and its best practice
there is a great gulf, and they are slowly beginning to look elsewhere
for rules by