d. He woos individual men. He gives
the personal touch. He devotes Himself to one person, now here, now
there. His skill and tact in personal dealing are matchless. But this
is not the chief wooing of these pages. It is _the nation_ He is wooing.
With rarest strategy and boldness and persistence He lays loving siege
to the nation through its leaders. This is central and dominant in all
His movements here. This is the second picture in the gallery of John's
Gospel.

It is a good thing to run through these fourteen pages of John's Gospel
_several times;_ to run through _rapidly_, though not hurriedly; to run
through them as a story until it stands out in your mind as _one simple
connected, story_. And then it will help greatly, if you are so blest as
to have some boy or girl near at hand to whom you can tell it as a story
in simple child (not childish) talk.

Pack the whole into one story of ten minutes, or fifteen: the man of the
story;[11] how He tried to win the people's hearts;[12] how towards the
end He spent a long evening with those who loved Him;[13] how awfully He
was treated by those who hated Him;[14] then how wondrously He surprised
His friends;[15] and then the little bit at the end where He prepares
breakfast and has a walk and talk on the seashore with a little group of
those who loved Him most.[16]

Tell that to a boy or girl as a short story. Use sensible words, but
_not one_ that your little listener wouldn't at once understand. Pretty
sharp discipline for the story-teller, especially if you stop to put in
a simpler word when you've blundered into a big one. The child will be
held by it But you will get the most yourself out of the telling.

Warp-Threads.

Now as you read the second part over, it gradually sifts itself into
several incidents about which the story is woven. These incidents form
the warp-threads of the narrative. Into this warp are woven, sometimes
little connecting links, sometimes quarrelsome discussion, sometimes
exquisite bits of Jesus' teaching, and sometimes John's comments. And as
the story grows it reaches one climax after another, each increasing in
intensity, until the intensest is reached.[17] And these incidents fall
naturally into groups. There are three _chief groups_ that seem to stand
out as giving the bolder points of the outline, and then _smaller
groups_ or _single incidents_ that lie in between.

It is very natural that the story begins with the accounts of