action could not be wholly hid.

So really human was Jesus in the outer circumstance of His life that His
brothers of the home couldn't believe he was essentially different from
themselves. But the attraction of that presence was felt constantly even
through the human hiding of it.

John of the Wilderness instinctively recognized that here was more than
the man he saw, and so obeyed His word. The crowds gathered eagerly in
the Jordan bottoms in even greater numbers than to hear John, drawn by a
power they felt they must yield to, and did yield to gladly.

From the first the crowds gathered thick about Him, Jewish aristocrat,
Samaritan half-breed and sinful outcast jostling elbows in their
eagerness to hear, drawn by a power they could feel, but could not
understand any more than they could withstand it. The children loved his
presence and touch.

The bad in life were as resistlessly drawn up to a new life as the
Greeks were drawn from clear beyond the blue waters of the Hellespont
into His presence. The crowds were irresistibly drawn to follow on that
last eventful journey to Jerusalem even while they felt "afraid."

It was the sight of the glory on the Mount that drew faithful John in
_with_ Jesus, and held him steady that awful night in palace and
courtyard, and that later brought poor blasphemous Peter back for
forgiveness. The two walking to Emmaus found their hearts all aflame,
though they supposed it was only the chance stranger of the roadway they
listened to.

Even those who hated Him were compelled to recognize the wondrous power
of His presence. The Nazareth hands that itched to seize Him were
restrained by His presence as He passed through their midst. Ten times
did the Jerusalem crowds attempt his life, and ten times were they
restrained by a power in Him that they could neither understand nor
withstand.

The men officially empowered to arrest Him return empty-handed,
confessing the overawing power of His words. That last week the leaders
that were hotly plotting His death felt the strange restraint of His
presence while He quietly sat in their very midst, and swayed the
crowds.

In the garden soldiers and priests alike were felled to the ground by
the power of His presence. So it always has been. No one has ever had a
sight of that Face, and gotten used to it, or gotten over it.

A Fresh Vision Needed.

But the thing we are specially needing to-day is a sight of Christ _as
He is now_. It seem