o minister, and to give
his life a ransom for many.--Matt. 20:20-28.

This passage is fundamental for our subject. It is the clearest
formulation of the social principle involved in leadership. It contrasts
two opposite types of leadership throughout human history. Salome and her
sons thought Jesus was going to Jerusalem to inaugurate his Kingdom. They
asked for an advance pledge assuring them of the chief place. Jesus
replied that that place would not go by favoritism. There is a price to be
paid for leadership in his reign, and God alone will allot the final
honors. He felt in their request a relapse into conceptions that he
detested. In all political organizations he saw the tyrannical use of
power over the people. There must be an end of that in the new social
order. Ambition must seek its satisfaction by distinguished service, and
only extra-hazardous service shall win honor. He himself proposed to be a
leader of that new type, and to give his life as a ransom for the
emancipation of the people.

Our Master here offers each of us the conscious choice between two
principles of action. _Have we made our choice?_

He offers a norm for estimating the real value of men in public life.
_Have we ever tried to apply it?_

Fourth Day: The History of a Governing Class

Hear another parable: There was a man that was a householder, who
planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it, and digged a
winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen,
and went into another country. And when the season of the fruits
drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, to receive his
fruits. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and
killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants
more than the first: and they did unto them in like manner. But
afterward he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence
my son. But the husbandmen, when they saw the son, said among
themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and take his
inheritance. And they took him, and cast him forth out of the
vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the lord of the vineyard
shall come, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto
him, He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will let
out the vineyard unto other husbandmen, who shall render him the
fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never