ch a
fact can never be cold.

Power is a Person.

Each of these talks, you have noticed, has led up to the one idea of
surrender. That word surrender stands for one side only of a
transaction--_our_ side. As in all transactions, there is another
side--_His_ side to whom the surrender is made. To-night we want to take
a step in advance and talk about the part which Jesus has in this
surrender-transaction. All truth goes in pairs. The partnership word
with surrender is mastery. Surrender on my part is followed by mastery
on His part. There are two personalities in this transaction. You are
one: an important one, but only one. To-night we shall try to get a
better acquaintance with the other One. The One who assumes control of
the surrendered life, who is to be our personal guide and friend.

Will you recall again the Master's good-bye Olivet message, and notice
just what it means? Listen to the very words: "Ye shall receive power."
Let me ask you--what is power? Will some one give a simple definition of
that word? There are four words, four of the commonest, most familiar in
our language, for which I have not been able to find a definition. If
some one here can help me I will be grateful. They are the words life,
light, love, and power. What do they mean? I can find plenty of
statements _about_ them, descriptions of what each of these is like, but
no definitions.

What is life? Recently I looked into the statement regarding life made
by three of the most famous English scientists of the nineteenth
century, whose names are household words. I read them carefully. The
wisdom and keenness of observation they show are amazing. But when I had
studied and read them repeatedly I found myself asking--what is life?
They have described rarely the functions and characteristics of life,
but have not told what it is. They do not seem to know. Do you?

What is light? Will some one tell me? The corpuscular theory, which the
famous Newton advocated, is long since abandoned. The later wave theory
is pretty generally accepted, and yet they can not all agree upon that.
These people say that light is a part of the kind of energy called
radiant energy. Now, we all know what light is! The sun of course is not
light, only a light-holder and distributer. According to the oldest
record we have of the creation, light existed before these
light-holders, the sun and moon and stars.

What is love? Well, you all _know_, I hope. Pity the poor m