Song by Mrs. Princess C. Long.

      Prayer by W. H. Book.

      Mr. Wilhite, leading devotional exercises: I would just like this afternoon to hear the word of God as it falls from the lips of many disciples in passages dear to our hearts. Scriptures recited.

      The chairman asked the Australian and New Zealand delegates to come to the platform.

      Prayer by A. C. Rankine.

      The chairman introduced Allen Wilson.

      How to save the converts is as much of a problem as how to get them. They are easier to get than to save.

      An Oregon Indian was hearing a phonograph for the first time. He watched the machine carefully, listening intently. When the song was ended, he said, "Ugh! canned white man." You can can the singer's song, but you can't can the singer.

      Making a Christian is like washing a boy's face: it won't stay washed unless he is careful. But a dirty face half an hour later is no proof that it was never washed.

      That converts fall is not proof conclusive that they were never converted--that they "came in through excitement."

      There is some good in every one. No

ALLEN WILSON.

man ever becomes so hardened, no woman so vile, that all good is blotted out. When sin is arraigned before them in all its hideousness, and they see the wreck of manhood and womanhood, and are made to realize that it is their own picture they see; when the Christ-life is presented and they see what God wants them to be, and realize that it was possible for them to have been like that, the good that is in them revolts, and, as naturally as the dormant seed lying in the earth responds to the wooing warmth and moisture of the springtime, the good in them responds to the wooing, quickening love of Christ, and on the impulse to do better, they confess Christ; and he is authority for believing that the angels rejoice.

      They are very weak--weaker than one whose raging fever has just been broken. All they have back of them is the new-born impulse and an infant faith. Temptations come thicker and heavier than ever. If they fall, are we to say, "It was all excitement. They were not converted at all"?

      If one-half the additions in a meeting fall, are we to discredit the evangelist? On the road to Gethsemane, Jesus said, "All of you shall he offended in me this night." Peter replied, "Although all shall be offended, yet will not I. With thee I am ready to go both to prison and death." Did he mean it? All the disciples said the same thing. Were they merely carried away by the excitement of the moment? Was the fall due to the trashy preaching of Jesus, or the clap-trap methods of his work? Before daylight they were scattered and hiding like cowards. And they had been with Jesus three years. Before daylight Peter had denied Jesus three times. He lied and swore to make his hearers believe his lie. But that neither proves that Peter left his boats and nets and his home to follow Jesus through excitement, nor that Jesus' teaching and methods are unworthy. In the hour of discouragement, dejection and weakness, doubt, the most deadly of temptations, assailed him and under pressure he [594] denied Jesus, and, this done, the familiar oaths of his fishing days sprang to his lips and we have the sad spectacle--a fallen disciple.

      His after life proves his heart purpose. Peter might have stayed down. He might have gone back to his old ways. I am willing to give the lost convert the benefit of the doubt; to say that his confession of Jesus was the result of an honest purpose to reform; that his subsequent fall was due to great temptation which overtook him in his weakness, and not due to the evangelist.

      The problem is, How shall these new converts receive the help they need? How shall they be given the strength to "fight the good fight"?

      If, in the press of labor in the meetings, the evangelist is unable to complete his work, can not the pastor take it up where he leaves off and round it out?

      To change the whole course of life, the modes of thought, the desires, the ideals and the manner of life--to round out and make strong for battle the man weakened by sin or atrophied by negligence--is a prodigious task for four weeks. The evangelist's work must necessarily be one of breaking up old habits, old lines of thought, old associations and starting the new convert in a new way. And this must be his work every night. All his work should be toward the formation of Christian character, but because he must be continually dealing with new individuals, endeavoring to get them started right, and because his time with the new converts is so short, he can not finish the work of establishing Christian character.

      It is quite possible to fix the thought of the necessity of such a change of thought and life, and so to put the law of suggestion to work, and the evangelist should keep this before him continually; never sacrificing it to the mere counting of noses. But here is his temptation. The evangelist who can not get numbers is not wanted. He is soon out of a job, and is recommended as "no good." Because of this, many evangelists resort to all kinds of clap-trap to catch numbers. Against such, pastors and periodicals rage and fume. But with persistent inconsistency they continue to use these men and their methods.

      Is there not a line of teaching which may be followed by both evangelist and pastor which will blend their work, and reach and hold the greatest numbers?

      "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." God thinks for all creatures but man.

      Instinct guides animal life, and the laws of nature vegetable life. The sun continues to shine, water seeks its level and the planets whirl on in their orbits because the Eternal thought for them and fixed unalterably the laws to govern them.

      Created in the image of the living God, man, and man alone, is left to think his way through life. His thought determines his character, disposition and action. The amount of thinking and the kind of thought determines his place in society.

      Because the Hottentot has not thought a home out of the forest trees, the clay bank or the stone quarry, he lives in a grass hut. Because he has not thought a system of currency out of the gold and silver in the pockets of his mountains, his money is ivory and brass rods. Because he has not thought a system of medicine out of the plants and herbs around him, he depends on the incantations of the medicine-man to drive away the devil of disease.

      Wrong thought leads astray, degrades, ruins. Wrong thought carves a god out of stone, wood or ivory, or moulds one of clay, iron, brass or gold. Wrong thought falls in fear before it, or sacrifices a human being to appease its wrath. Wrong thought sets man against man in selfish conflict.

      Right thought leads upward, elevates, saves. Right thought sees God in stones and trees and laughing waters. Right thought reads in the star-sown heavens, the bread-burdened earth and the health-laden air the story of a loving Father.

      God has given us an aid to our thought and a guide to our lives. That aid is a model and a teacher of divine things. In him God has expressed his will concerning us. As he is, so would God have us be. With pattern and precept from heaven, and the Godlike faculty of intelligence, we can achieve what God wills. "Let this mind be in [595] you which was also in Christ Jesus," and it is done. "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds." The principles which made Jesus sinless can keep us from being very sinful.

      What is the mind of Chris? May we analyze the mind of the Master, that we may mould a life like his?

      One chief characteristic in the mind of Christ was his humility. There are three steps in the humility of Jesus. First, he became a man. The next step in the humiliation was servitude. "He emptied himself, taking the form of

W. E. M. HACKLEMAN.

a servant." Jesus built a world, but owned not a shack. He lived on charity during his ministry. They took his life as they might that of the meanest slave. He had not the protection of any law or court. Not one stood forth to defend him. Deeper yet his humiliation goes. "He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." We hate the hangman's rope, the electrocutioner's chair, but it is the death for criminal citizens. The cross was for slaves. It was a painful, shameful, cruel, cursed death, but it was the last measure of Christ's humiliation.

      Another characteristic of the mind of Christ was its purity. In all his teaching there is not a suggestion of impurity. His accusers brought no such charge. In purity, he alone is absolute perfection.

      Crime is the result of a state of mind. High thoughts breed high actions, noble deeds. A pure mind is an antidote to evil. The Master has said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

      Another characteristic of the mind of the Master was absolute trust in God. His trust in God was implicit. He never faltered in any undertaking, knowing that back of him was the eternal God.

      A young man died in Bethany. He was one of Jesus' best friends. The family sent for Jesus, but he did not arrive until four days after the death. With the sisters he went out to the tomb. With the tears rolling down his face, Jesus said, "Take ye away the stone." Wonder was on every face, doubt in every heart, as they obeyed. Hopeless Martha remonstrated. Jesus replied, "Said I not unto thee, that, if thou believedst, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" Turning his face to heaven, Jesus said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me." "Thou hast heard me." No doubt in that prayer, but perfect trust. "Thou hast heard me." He had been praying. He had asked his Father for the life of his young friend. He expected it. "I thank thee that thou hast heard me, and I know that thou hearest me always." A great crowd of scoffers waits to sneer at him if he fails. "Lazarus, come forth!" The voice of love vibrated in the ears of the dead, and, "bound hand and foot with grave-clothes," he obeyed.

      Not many prayers are answered, but the fault is man's. They are prayers of unbelief--from the teeth out, and never go higher than our heads. God answer a prayer that is not borne up on the wings of faith! A prayer shackled with doubt!

      We do not trust God very much. We trust our own contrivances, and think we are trusting God. A horse ran away with an old lady. Her little grand-daughter afterwards asked, "Grandma, how did you feel when the horse was running away?" "Why, darling," was the reply, "I just trusted God till the harness broke, then I gave up all for lost." That is not trusting God. Either she did not trust God or her God was her harness.

      Oh, that men might trust God! That they might cry with Job in his affliction, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." When our strength is spent, our last feeble effort made; when the way is obscure and the light gone; when burdens are heavy and sorrows sore; when friends forsake and foes beset; then, just to put a trembling hand in his and know that "He doeth all things well," and all will be right--that is trust in God. When, like Abraham, we can build an altar and bind our hearts' dearest on it at the command of God, then we trust him. [596]

      Another characteristic of the mind of Christ is love. A lawyer asked, "Teacher, which is the great commandment of the law?" Jesus replied, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind . . . A second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

      Love is the greatest power in the world. Steam and electricity may drag our heavy loads, dynamite rend the rock from its bed, the earthquake shatter a city, the storm devastate a country, levers lift and hammers crush, but no power is equal to love. Force may strengthen powers of evil; love will overthrow them. Love can block the way of the war-god. Love conquers passion, subdues anger. Love advances where bravery retreats, and stands fast where courage falters. "The pen is mightier than the sword," but love is mightier than might. Love alleviates sorrow and stays the hand of the persecutor. It throttles suspicion and slays deceit. It is the seal of Christian character, and "the bond of perfection." "Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not with unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth."

      Every act of Jesus' life was one of love. Time is filled with materials out of which we may build Christian character. Love is the tool with which we shape it.

      Only with the love of Christ in our hearts can we carve out the Christian life.

      Another trait in the mind of Christ is his submission to the will of God. After walking all forenoon, Jesus sat down at the well of Samaria. His followers went to a near-by village to buy bread. When they returned they found him talking with a woman. She had come for water. Jesus was telling her of the water of life. The disciples marveled that he talked with her. Custom forbade any teacher to talk to a woman. When she went to the city to tell others that she had found the Christ, the apostles urged him to eat. But he said, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work."

      To his disciples he said, "I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work."

      In his prayer before leaving the supper room for Gethsemane, he said, "I glorified thee on earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do."

      Under the burden of a world's sin in Gethsemane, with his blood oozing from every pore, he prayed, "My Father, if it

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be possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."

      Hanging on the cross, as his eyes closed on his completed task, he cried, "It is finished."

      Never faltering, he toiled on. Only let him know the will of God and it was his joy to do it. Doing our own will is neither serving God nor being Christlike. Not what we like best, not what is easiest, not what may seem best to us, but what God wills--that is Christlike.

      A conversion is a wonderful victory. To win and save one is better than to win a battle, acquire a fortune, build an empire, conquer a continent, or discover a hemisphere. One workman does not do it all. The directing mind of the evangelist, working in harmony with pastor and people, must generate in the minds of the unsaved the determination to give up sin and follow Jesus, and lead them to action. They are now saved from past sin. But that is only the beginning. The directing mind of the pastor, backed and aided by faithful Christians, must now save them for Jesus, save them to a Christlike life.

      So each to his work, all in harmony, and "having the mind of Christ," souls must and may be won and saved.

      Solo by Frank C. Huston.

      W. J. Lockhart was introduced. [597]

[CCR 594-597]