_The Man_.
The new Century will demand men.
But if men, then certainly a _man_. Human nature has, after all, more
influence over human nature than anything else. Abstract laws are of
little moment to us until we see them in actual operation. The law of
gravitation is but a matter of intelligent wonder while we view its
influence in the movements of revolving planets or falling stars; but when
we see a baby fall terror-stricken from its little cradle to the floor,
"the attraction of large bodies for small ones" takes on a new and
heart-felt meaning. The beauty of devotion to truth in the face of
opposition hardly stirs an emotion in many of us, as we regard it from
the safe distance of our own self-satisfied liberty; but when we see the
lonely martyr walk with head erect through the raging mob, and kiss the
stake to which he is soon to be bound; when we watch him burn until the
kindly powder explodes about his neck, and sends him to exchange his shirt
of flame for the robe he has washed in the Blood of the Lamb; then, the
beauty, the sincerity, the greatness, the God-likeness of sacrifice,
especially of sacrifice for the truth, comes home to us, and captures even
the coldest hearts and dullest minds.
The revelation of Jesus in the flesh was a recognition of this principle.
The purpose of His life and death was to manifest God in the flesh, that
He might attract man to God. He took human nature that human nature might
see the best of which it was capable. He became a man that men might know
to what heights of power a man might rise. He became a man that men might
know to what lengths and breadths of love and wisdom a man might attain.
He became a man that men might know to what depths of love and service a
man might reach.
The men we need, then, for the twentieth century will find the pattern Man
ready to their hand. Be the demands of the coming years what they may, God
is able to raise up men to meet them, men after His own likeness--men of
right, men of light, men of might--men who will follow Him in the
desperate fight with the hydra-headed monsters of evil of every kind, and
who will, by His Name, deliver the souls of men from the slavery of sin
and the Hell to which it leads.