did not continue, the task was harder than they at first thought, the Kingdom did not come as they expected it would, their enthusiasm being born out of an apocalyptic hope and that hope failing of realization, cooled, and many of the most devoted fell by the way side and gave up the work. But some remained faithful to the end of their lives. These were the ones who were fully won to Christ. To be actually won to Christ in those days implied just this passion, cooperation, consecration and faithfulness in service. We are removed some 1900 years from that day, and the ideal of Jesus is still unrealized. Jesus depends upon his followers today as he did then. His spirit is moving upon men to secure their devotion to his purpose in the world. There is no other way that the Kingdom can come. That spirit is working to win men to the task at hand. The call to Christ is a call for this service. As in those days, only those who were willing to take up this task, were actually won to him, so it is today. As no follower of his who went out then to win, could truthfully declare that he had won another unless the person won gave evidence of devotion to humanity in an endeavor to actualize Jesus' ideal, so none of us can state in truth that he has won another to Jesus unless he feels sure that the life of the person won has been placed at the disposal of the Master to secure the Kingdom of righteousness and love in the world. This imperative should be even more clearly recognized today than then. Converts should only be counted as they manifest the same devotion. They should be made to understand that they have not yielded to Christ until they possess a passion to bring about in humanity the conditions of righteousness and brotherhood. Their life view point is this ideal, their disposition toward others is the love which will secure this ideal, the principles of their own lives are those which operate to realize this ideal, and now the proof of all three of these is the actual life devotion to accomplish this ideal. When the individual has come, in his religious and ethical experience, to this condition, then we may state he has been really won to Christ. And there is no reason why when one first becomes an avowed Christian, even in the tender years of teens, he should not understand that to be won to Jesus signifies just this. Christian lives should be started with correct conceptions of what Jesus expects. Far better have fewer profess to be won, and have them realize more fully what it signifies, than to have multitudes led into superficial Christian careers. No pastor or evangelist can be excused from making the call of Christ so clear that no one who hears shall mistake what it means to be won to Jesus. It will be better for the Kingdom in the future if we of the present deal fairly and frankly with all. There will be more truth also in the reports of our churches if statistics of those won to Jesus chronicle the actual winning of souls and lives to the soul of Jesus and to the life ideal and ministry which he so beautifully personified in his own earthly career and which he so clearly and emphatically stated in his appeals to humanity to follow him. Let us do away entirely with superficial, meaningless records. Shall we not call the membership of our churches to appreciate the significance of "life winning"? Shall we not lead one and all to see that only those who, having the vision and spirit of the Master, devote their time and talents in loving ministry to humanity in order that the Kingdoms of the world may become the Kingdoms of our Lord and Christ (which means that love and right and brotherhood shall be universal), are actually and fully won to Jesus. No doubt, it is impossible to have the conception and experience thus outlined as clear, real and comprehensive at first as it will be in later years, for each year in the life of the sincere follower of Jesus is a record of being won to larger, greater and more Christlike privileges and ministries, but all should be won to this conception and experience up to his capacity at first that the life may have the privilege of developing correctly into those larger visions and activities which it is divinely destined for. We should be sure that no life under our influence is won to less than the genius of Jesus' ideal, at the start and that education and direction are given to it intelligently all the way along. This is evangelism indeed. CHAPTER ELEVEN MAKING DISCIPLES JESUS, just before he left his disciples, took them his counsel and gave them directions concerning the nature of the work which they were to do in the world. As an integral part of a masterful plan, he declared that they were to go forth and make disciples. This was to be considered as a very important and fundamental phase of their service in his name. They were disciples and they were to make disciples. This fact has led the Christian church to maintain that in the broad scheme of the Christian objective, the making of individual disciples has its high place. The Kingdom cannot come without it. No effort to ameliorate human conditions, important as this service is, will ever be substituted for making actual personal disciples of Jesus. They are both essential. As the disciples of early Christianity did, so are we to do. That is, the making of disciples is recognized by this local body of Christians to be an essential part of our task in the community and the world. With this true, a very pertinent inquiry is concerning the nature of the task which is before us. What does it imply to make a disciple of Jesus Christ today? It is exceedingly important for us to have this in our minds before we actually take up the work. If our business is quite largely the bring ing into being of live disciples of Jesus Christ, then we must know what a live disciple is. As the employee in a manufacturing plant, who is making definite articles, must have a clear conception of what he is to make, so we as servants of our Master must have the true idea of what Jesus has asked us to do. We must mentally see a disciple before we try to actualize one. We must know so well what he is that we will recognize him when he is made. We should understand the nature of discipleship and the process of securing it so perfectly that we will be cognizant of the beginning of the process in an individual and be able to recognize progress toward its consummation if it is there. To ascertain and understand the Master's idea of his disciples is our hope in this study, then we can with intelligence obey his command to go forth and make disciples. We are not making mechanics, or financiers, or philosophers, or soldiers, we are told to make disciples of Jesus, therefore to Jesus we go that we may know what a disciple is. We shall not discuss the process, or the field, we are seeking a definition, a description, and an ideal, in order to do the work intelligently. THE DISCIPLE AND JESUS' PLAN Jesus came to do a definite work for humanity according to the will of his Father who had sent him. That work was to establish a Kingdom of righteousness on the earth and to make real within man the life which is eternal. At thirty years of age, he started out to accomplish his holy purpose and of necessity had some well |