ut all of that. And--if--we
fail--Him--let me be saying it very softly so the seriousness of it may
get into the inner cockles of our hearts--if we _fail Him_, just that far
we make _Jesus' dying a failure_ so far as concerns those whom we touch.

Yes, I know that sounds very serious. I'd rather not be saying it. I'm
_sure_, by the Book, it is so. And so, do you see the genius--may I use
that word very reverently of Him who was a man and far more than man--the
genius of His plan? He sent down the same Spirit that swayed Him those
human years to live in us, and control us, that we might have the same
fine passion for men as He, and the same exquisite tact in winning them as
He had.

It must be a _passion_; a fire burning with the steady flame of anthracite
fed by a constant stream of oil. If it be less we will be swept off our
feet by the tides all around, or sucked under by their swift current. And
many a splendid man to-day is being swept off his feet and sucked under by
the tides and currents of life because no such passion as this is mooring
and steadying and driving his whole life.

It must be a passion for _winning_ men; not driving nor dragging,
_drawing_. Not argument nor coercion but warm, winsome wooing. Today the
sun up yonder is drawing up toward itself thousands of tons' weight of
water. Nobody sees it going, except perhaps in very small part. There's no
noise or dust. But the water rises up irresistibly toward the sun because
of the winning power in the sun for the water. It must be something like
that in this higher sphere. A winsomeness in us that will win men to us
and through us to the Master.

"Oh! well," some one says, "if you put the thing that way you'll have to
count me out. I'm not winsome that way." Well, maybe you need not have
bothered to say it. We could easily know that without your saying it. We
are not winsome this way, any of us, of ourselves. But when we allow this
Jesus Spirit to take possession of us He imparts His winsomeness. For the
real secret of a transfigured life is a _transmitted_ life. Somebody else
living in us, with a capital S for that Somebody, looking out of our
eyes, giving His beauty to our faces, and His winningness to our
personality.

"As the Stars."

The language used in the Scriptures for this sort of thing is full of
intense interest. Some time ago I was reading in the old prophecy of
Daniel. I was not thinking of this matter of winning men but simply t