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the most exacting demands. He who has truly learned is willing. This willingness proves discipleship. Without it there are no diplomas. Matt.

16:21-28.

Thus we perceive that a disciple is a well rounded Christian personality, is an individual excellently trained in the fundamentals of religion, in the experience of a living God within, in the ethical ideals of Jesus, in the principles which are essential to these ideals, in the practice of those principles in daily life, in the science of kingdom advancement and in the faith, courage, stability, and aggressiveness which are indispensable to heroic Christianity. He is one who has learned something and who manifests his religious and ethical scholarship in his ideas, in his spirit and in his service for humanity. He is an educated Christian. He has passed through the elementary grades and has proven himself capable of meeting successfully any test his teacher imposes upon him. He is capable of teaching and becoming a powerful propagandist in the interests of Christ's Kingdom.

The consideration of the truth regarding this subject may lead many of us to ask, "Who then are disciples?" "Are there any in the world?" "Have there ever been any?" Looking back through Christian history we find many. One of the finest typés of discipleship is disclosed in Paul. He was far more intelligent concerning the significance of discipleship than any of the immediate followers of Jesus and yet none as holy, brave, unflinching, sacrificing and as devoted to the Kingdom ideal of Jesus, as he. (See 2 Cor. 11: 22-31; Phil. 3: 7-16.)

And since that day every generation of Christian

believers has had its quota of men and women who have revealed that they had learned the lessons of discipleship and were absorbed in living them out in daily life. In every church in this world today including many in heathen lands, there are those who beautifully picture the meaning of the word disciple. Men and women of character who, up to their financial strength and mind and soul capabilities, are passionately devoted to Christ and his Kingdom. Hosts of missionaries who have left all and given the life for the people in darkness. There is not a better exposition of the meaning of discipleship than the Student Volunteer movement. Think of it! 5000 young men and women of culture, the very cleanest and strongest of the land, willing and glad at this moment to devote their lives to the redemption of humanity anywhere and everywhere. Dr. John R. Mott is as great and outstanding a religious personality to this age as Paul was to his. Williams, the missionary to Eromanga, said to a chief of one Island, who refused him the privilege of staying, "Very well, we will go to other islands. We may die, but others will follow." He was soon killed and there has been an army to take his place.

What about the fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, who are living holy lives, above reproach, who are noble and true and who are giving their all to help loved ones in the home, to relieve the poor, to right the wrongs about them and to make this world one of love and peace? What about the business men who are devoting time and money even to 20 percent of their income to the cause of Christ in the world? What about many in the laboring masses who are struggling every day for human betterment? Surely

these are disciples of Jesus.

The definition of a disciple which we have set forth, is true, we believe, to the teachings of Jesus. It implies developing individuals to be like Jesus and to become powerful, aggressive personalities in the great cause of his Kingdom. With this fact before us, we understand what we are to do. The greatness of the church's task is evident. To accomplish it, we shall need to bring humanity in touch with the truths of Jesus by the study of the New Testament, we shall need to bring them under the influence of his spirit in prayer, to school them by patient work in teaching, to make the church a place where discipleship is intelligently conceived, and where disciples are truly made. Nothing short of fully trained believers is our goal. Any methods which do not aim at and produce these results, we must taboo. work as churches in making disciples must be fundamental, scientific, thorough, and in every way commensurate with the greatness and dignity of the task given to us. We are to emphasize intelligent, spiritual, and ethical development as necessary to discipleship.

Our

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE CONTAGION OF PERSONALITY

WITH

ITHOUT question the greatest fact of earth is a human being, and the outstanding truth about a human being is that he is a person, (one who has a mind,) and the fact of greatest significance about this person is that he is a personality. We are coming to realize this more and more each day and the emphasis is upon personality because we are discovering the fundamental truth of the universe. There is a growing conviction among all thinking people that personality is not only the key to the meaning of man, but also of nature and God. Man has been studying himself and the universe ever since his reason asserted itself and the scholars tell us that he has come to the conclusion that the whole affair, these movements of material things, this life development about us, this struggling, laboring human nature, is all a drama of personality. Today he is giving himself to the study of this characteristic of humanity with new zeal, conscious that every branch of science, philosophy, art, industry and theology is vitally effected by it. He has not been able to define it perfectly but he is convinced that he faces a fact and that this fact is the great basic one of all creation. So impressed is he with this that he seldom refers to man as soul today, the terms person and personality having taken that place. The latter terms

are stronger, more inclusive and more appropriate in view of religious and scientific investigation. This study is concerned with but one phase of the subject of personality, namely, its power in the development of humanity itself.

Great personalities have been and are the secret of the progress of the world in all realms of human activity. The history of the human race is after all a story of the lives of its heroes and heroines. All mighty movements have centred in some person. Men have drawn the people of communities, of states and of nations to themselves. Froude represents Julius Cæsar drawing men unto him as a magnet draws particles of iron and steel. Another has said that the rude Roman soldiers could no more escape his magnetic presence than they could dodge the gravity of the earth. The historian tells us that the hand grip of Napoleon was like a powerful electric shock. Garibaldi had such power with men that thousands of Italy's noblest were willing to follow him even to a martyr's death. The birth of our own nation in independence, after suffering and hardship, was because of the association of loyal men and women around George Washington. The present is also replete with illustrations of the same truth. Germany as a nation today is rallying to the personality of the Kaiser, England to Sir Edward Grey and Lloyd George, and United States to President Wilson. In fact where does history or human life anywhere in the past or in the present reveal conspicuous progress, momentous movements, without close association with some outstanding personality. Every nation has its King or Czar or President, every army its general, every cause its leader, and every home its head.

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