resourceful
men, had had them. Letting one's self be threatened with the cross a
thousand times is quite as brave as dying on one once. The spirit, or at
least the shadow, of a cross must always fall daily on any life that is
stretching the world, that is freeing the lives of other men against
their wills. The whole issue of whether there will be a cross or the
threat of a cross turns on a man's insight into human nature and his
quiet and practical imagination concentrated upon his work.

Not dying on a cross is a matter of technique. One sees how not to, and
one does not. It might be said that the world has two kinds of
redeemers, its cross-redeemers and its success-redeemers. The very best
are on crosses, many of them. Perhaps in the development of the truth
the cross-redeemers come first; they are the pioneers. Then come the
success-redeemers, then everybody!

CHAPTER XIV

IS IT SECOND RATE FOR GOOD PEOPLE TO BE SUCCESSFUL?

Of course the most stupendous success that has ever been made--the
world's most successful undertaking from a technical point of view as an
adaptation of means to ends was the attempt that was made by a man in
Galilee years and years ago to get not only the attention of a whole
world, but to get the attention of a whole world for two thousand years.

This purpose of arresting the attention of a world and of holding it for
two thousand years was accomplished by the use of success and of failure
alternately.

Christ tried success or failure according to which method (time and
place considered) would seem to work best.

His first success was with the doctors.

His next success was based on His instinct for psychology, His power of
divining people's minds, which made possible to Him those extraordinary
feats in the way of telling short stories that would arrest and hold the
attention of crowds so that they would think and live with them for
weeks to come.

His next success was a success based on the power of His personality,
and His knowledge of the human spirit and his victory over His own
spirit--his success in curing people's diseases and His extraordinary
roll of miracles.

He finally tried failure at the end, or what looked like failure,
because the Cross completed what he had had to say.

It made His success seem greater.

The world had put to death the man who had had such great successes.

People thought of His successes when they thought of Him on the Cross,
and they