Our Master | Page 5

empires like Germany and Austria, the
same leading facts appear. Power goes into the hands of one or two
who, whether as ministers, or presidents, or monarchs, are the real
rulers of the nation.
Perfect laws, liberal institutions, patriotic sentiments, though they may
elevate, can never rule a people. A crowd of legislators, no matter how
devoted to a nation, can never permanently control, though they may
influence it. Out of the crowd will come forth one or two; generally one
commanding personality, strong enough to stand alone, though wise
enough not to attempt it. In him will be focussed the ideas and
ambitions of the nation, to him the people's hearts will go out, and from
him they will take the word of command as their virtual ruler. It has
ever been so. It is so to-day. It will always be so.
And as with nations so with individuals. Every man must have a king.
Call him what we will, recognise him or not, every man is the subject
of some ruler. And this will, if possible, be more manifest in the future
than in the past. Men will not be satisfied to serve ideas, to live for the
passing ambitions of their day, they will cry out for a king.
Am I wrong when I say that JESUS IS THE COMING KING? In Him
are assembled in the highest perfection all the great qualities which go
to make the KING OF MEN. And so the new Century will need Him,
must have Him; nay, it cannot prosper without Him, the Divine Man,
for He is the rightful Sovereign of every human soul.

VII.
A New Force.
The new Century will demand great moral forces as well as high ideals.
Nothing is more evident than that the forms and ceremonies of religion
are rapidly losing--even in nominally Christian countries--all real
influence over the lives of men. The form of godliness without the
power is not only the greatest of all shams, but it is the most easily
detected. Hence it is that a large part of mankind is either disgusted to
hostility or utterly estranged from real religion by theories and
ceremonials which, though they may continue to exist in shadow, have
lost their life and soul.
For example, the old lie, that money paid to a Church can buy
"indulgences" which will release men in the next world from the
penalty of sin committed in this, and the miserable theory which made
God the direct author of eternal damnation to those who are lost, are
among the theories which, though they are still taught and professed
here and there, have long ago ceased to have real influence over men's
hearts or actions. In the same way, there are multitudes who still
conform to the outward ceremony of Confirmation, upon whose
salvation from sin or separation from the world that ceremony has
absolutely no influence whatever, although, for custom's sake, they
submit to it.
But a greater danger than this lies in the fact that _it is possible to hold
and believe the truth, and yet to be totally ignorant of its power_.
Sound doctrine will of itself never save a soul. A man may believe
every word of the faith of a Churchman or a Salvationist, and yet be as
ignorant of any real experience of religion as an infidel or an idolater.
And it is this merely intellectual or sentimental holding of the truth
about God and Christ, about Holiness and Heaven, which makes the
ungodly mass look upon Christianity as nothing more than an opinion
or a trade; a something with which they have no concern.
The new Century will demand something more than this. Men will
require something beyond creeds, be they ever so correct; and traditions,

be they ever so venerable; and sacraments, be they ever so sacred. They
will ask for an endowment of power to grapple with what they feel to
be base in human nature, and to master what they know is selfish and
sinful in their own hearts.
And right here The Man for the Century comes forward. The doctrine
of Jesus is the spirit of a new life. It is a transforming power. A man
may believe that the American Republic is the purest and noblest form
of government on the earth, and may give himself up to live, and fight,
and die for it, and yet be the same man in every respect as he was
before; but if he believes with his heart that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God, and gives himself up to live, and fight, and die for Him, he will
become a new man, he will be a new creature. The acceptance of the
truth, and acting upon it, in the one case,