Our Master | Page 4

of it,

even upon your own family or household--and see how evil holds men
by one chain or another, and grips them body and soul. This one by
doubt, this by passion, this by envy, this by lust, this by pride, this by
strife, this by fear, this one by love of gold, this one by love of the
world, and this one by hatred of God! _Is it not so_?
What men want, then, is PERSONAL, INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY
FROM SIN. Given that, and a slave may be free. Given that, and the
child in the nursery of iniquity may be free. Given that, and the young
man or maiden held in the charnel-house of lust may be free. Given that,
and the victim of all that is most cruel and most brutal in life may still
be free. Oh! blessed be God, he whom the Son makes free is free
indeed!
This, and this alone, is the liberty for the new Century--the Gospel
liberty from sin for the individual soul and spirit, without respect of
time or circumstance; and here alone is He who can bestow it--Jesus,
the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
This, I say, is The Man for the new Century.

V.
Knowledge.
The new Century will be marked by a universal demand for knowledge.
One of the most remarkable features of the present time is the
extraordinary thirst for knowledge in every quarter of the world. It is
not confined to this continent or that. It is not peculiar to any special
class or age. It is universal. One aspect of it, and a very significant one,
is the desire for knowledge about life and its origin, about the
beginning of things, about the earth and its creation, about the work
which we say God did, which He alone could do.
Oh, how men search and explore! How they read and think! How they
talk and listen! Where one book was read a generation ago, a hundred, I
should think, are read now; and for one newspaper then read, there are

now, probably, a thousand. Every man is an inquiry agent, seeking
news, information, or instruction; seeking to know what will make life
longer for him and his; and, above all, what can make it happier.
And here, again, I say that Jesus is The Man for the new Century. He
has knowledge to give which none other can provide. I do not doubt
that universities, and schools, and governments, and a great press, can,
and will, do much to impart knowledge of all sorts to the world. But
when it comes to knowledge that can serve the great end for which the
very power to acquire knowledge was created--namely, _the true
happiness of man_--then, I say, that JESUS is the source of that
knowledge; that without Him it cannot be found or imparted; and that
with Him it comes in its liberating and enlightening glory.
Oh, be sure you have that! No amount of learning will stand you in its
stead. No matter how you may have stored your mind with the riches of
the past, or tutored it to grapple with the mysteries of the present,
_unless you know Him, it will all amount to nothing_. But if you know
Him who is life, that is life eternal. Knowledge without God is like a
man learned in all the great mysteries of light and heat who has never
seen the sun. He may understand perfectly the laws which govern them,
the results which follow them, the secrets which control their action on
each other--all that is possible, and yet he will be in the dark.
So, too, knowledge, learning, human education and wisdom are all
possible to man; he may even excel in them so as to be a wonder to his
fellows by reason of his vast stores of knowledge, and yet know
nothing of that light within the mind by which he apprehends them.
Nay, more! he may even be a marvellous adept in the theory of religion,
and yet, alas! alas! may never have seen its SUN--may still be in the
blackness of gross darkness, because he knows not Jesus, the Light of
the world, whom to know is life eternal.

VI.
Government.

The new Century will demand governors.
Every thoughtful person who considers the subject must be struck by
the modern tendency towards personal government all over the world.
Whatever may be the form of national government prescribed by the
various constitutions, it tends, when carried into practice, to give power
and authority to individual rulers. Whether in monarchies like England,
where Parliament is really the ruling power; or in republics like France
and the United States, where what are called democratic institutions are
seen in their maturity; or in