of a selfish life. The pool receives but gives
forth nothing in return and, at last, becomes the center of disease and
death. There is nothing more repulsive than the stagnant pool except a
life built upon that plan. The spring, on the other hand, pours forth
constantly of that which refreshes and invigorates and asks for nothing.
There is nothing more inspiring than a living spring except the life
that it resembles.

And why is the spring a spring? Because _it is connected with a source
that is higher than itself_. Christ brings man into such vital, living
contact with God that the goodness of God flows out to the world through
him. The frailest human being can thus become of inestimable value to
society. It is only spiritual power, received from above, that counts
largely. If we measure man in units of physical power he is not much
above the beasts; if we measure him in units of intellectual power
we soon reach his limitations, but when we measure him in units of
spiritual power his strength may be beyond human calculations. If, as
was the case in Wales, the prayer of a little girl could start a revival
that spread over that country, resulting in the conversion of thousands,
what can a life accomplish if one's heart is full of love to God and
man?

The wisdom of Christ could not have been supplied by others; there were
none to supply it. There was no source but the inexhaustible fountain of
the Almighty from which to draw that which He gave forth "as one having
authority." "Who among His Apostles or proselytes," asks John Stuart
Mill, "was capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus or of
imagining the life and character revealed in the Gospels?"

No person, less than divine, could have carried the message or rendered
the service He did to mankind. How, for instance, could He have
learned from His own experience or from His environment the startling
proposition that He embodied in His interpretation of The Parable of the
Sower? "The care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the
truth," and yet in that short sentence He gave an epitome of all
human history. Reforms come up from the oppressed, not down from the
oppressors--a fact which Christ explains in a word.

He announced the divine order: "Seek ye _first_ the kingdom of God and
his righteousness." Duty to God comes _first_--all other things that are
good for us will come in due time.

His parables stand alone in literature; they have no p