The early Christians had ever before their minds the terrible prophetic conceptions of Antichrist, of Babylon. Babylon and Antichrist are power without love; a great victory won by man, and not used for man. Our Antichrist to-day is all force, all splendor, all knowledge and luxury, which, instead of making the world better, corrupts and hardens, separating men from God and from one another. The early Christians looked at the golden Cæsar, and his laurelled, smiling, sensual, pagan world; and they learned in the school of martyrdom the tragic lesson that until human power and pleasure be made subject to Christ and to God, until the crowns be cast with praises before the eternal throne, there is no heavenly life, no fulfilment of the Father's purpose for his children. Shall we not look upon this age of victory and peace in which we live, and ask everywhere whether these gifts which God has given to men, are bringing us nearer to our divine birthright of life given to God? "All things are yours. Yes, but "ye are Christ's": your power has a purpose, your privileges have a purpose; and that purpose is to help you in the Christ-like life. Does all this seem to you vague and theological? Let us try to apply the truth to ourselves. Do you feel in your own life that all power you get over what is below you, makes you more a faithful servant of what is above you? I know that when men are in trouble or disappointment there is a turning of the heart to religion. I know that when men look up to God out of a sense of great weakness and sin, there is a real response, a new life entering the soul. I do not disparage that kind of faith by which a man, out of his very littleness and il success, takes hold of God's infinity. But is there not a more excellent way? What are you doing with the strength of your life? How is it with your successes, your talents, your victories? Do these things, which give you such a sense of your own power, incline you to bow your head in sincere, thankful reverence, and to know that all these things are nothing until they serve your better life and bring you into freer communion with your Father? Do you not see that there are two kinds of success? There is success which so blinds a man with selfapplause that he looks about him like the king in the Bible story, saying, “Is not this great Babylon which I have builded?" Such sense of power as that story describes is always the sign of a little soul. But, also, there is the success, the mastery of power and circumstance, which makes a man more faithful, more modest, more anxious to serve his brother, to see more truth, and to count his success, not as the product of his own petty self-hood, but as the gift and power of God in his life. Such a man knows in his heart that all true success is won by obedience. Such men, and such only, are always growing. They do not rest upon their laurels; they do not imitate their own past; for they feel that far greater than anything they have done, far more important, is the spirit in which the success was won, the fulness of life, the glory of living, out of which the success came. You see this work may lie. difference in whatever sphere a man's The smaller man-orator, preacher, or pleader is satisfied when he has made a fine speech; but the larger man is so filled with the truth, and the situation, of which his words were made that he thinks his fine speech a very little thing,- one strain of music humbly according with the full symphony of life about him. The smaller man, an artist, worships and caresses the work of his own hands. The larger man adores his blessed vision, and passes on from truth to truth, knowing that his highest genius is but a servant of the true, the beautiful, the divinely alive. One man, immersed in practical affairs, counts up his own loss and gain, and flatters himself upon his shrewdness and energy. The larger man, the better man, feels most joy that his success has brought him in wide contact with the strong, clear-sighted men, and the great social forces, which are making his city and his country. To him commerce, finance, invention, progress, social development, national prosperity are such large, such profoundly interesting things, that he takes his personal part in the movements that move the world, with a sincere modesty and a desire to know more truth and render wider service every year he lives. May we not measure a man's success, as we certainly can his spiritual worth, by just this attitude toward the powers and gifts at his command? “All these things are mine," he says. But does he say also, "I, I myself, am Christ's; I belong to what is higher than myself; and I can rule over so many cities only as I prove myself a faithful servant "? Do you not see, friends, that such is the law of every really strong and effective life? It was a fine old saying, a noble expression of what was best in chivalry, that the "fountain of honor is the King." A man gets his honor from what lies. above him, not from what is beneath. The knightly warrior comes home with signs of victory, with all his spoils of war and scars of valor. He has proved himself a knight without reproach, a soldier whom his enemies fear. Then the great question comes, Has he served his king? Not only, What has he done and dared? but, Was he a loyal and faithful knight? Do all his victories and successes advance the banner of his king? And, if so it be, he is straightway recognized and ennobled. Our plain, unpoetical society has no longer such fine titles and stars for those who do the king's service; but it is true now, as always, that a man's honor and worth, the gladness of his life and value of his life, are not alone in what he does and dares, but according as all his fighting and his victory are not for himself, but a part of his service to God, to truth, and to mankind. Surely the inspiration of that old knightly nobleness which made men dedicate their swords, their lands, their noble names "to God and the King," is with us yet. It animates our generation in new forms. But the old truth remains, that your powers, your gifts of mastery, your possessions, are never ennobled, until all are dedicated powers. The true aristocracy, in every generation, is made up of the men who, winning life's battles and possessing the fruits of victory, use all these things in the spirit of service; and at last, out of all their struggle and gain, their own lives are brought closer to God, and show more of the divine life to men. What is the secret of such dedicated strength? It is in that last and highest aspect of the Christian life as St. Paul sees it, "All things are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." He does not separate these aspects. To him it is all one life: the mastery over circumstance, the service for Christ, the life in God,— all these are one. The time may never come when all men will think the same thoughts about God, or use the same words and forms in the attempt to utter the divine name; but let us try to see what is the meaning of this ancient word, that "Christ is God's." The name of Christ stands for our humanity made perfect, for human life filled with love and truth; every human excellence we can strive for, every pure joy and uplifted affection,- that is Christ. But this higher life was possible to Jesus, and is possible to us, only as it is life in God and life from God. I know that some men live long and live usefully without this higher interpretation of life, which only faith and prayer give. A man may go on achieving mastery over circumstances, but never bring that mastery under subjection to the law of Christ. He may "Live at ease, and full Of honor, wealth, good fare, aim not beyond |