racter_

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"Written in the East, these characters live forever in the West;
written in one province, they pervade the world; penned in rude times,
they are prized more and more as civilization advances; product of
antiquity, they come home to the bosoms of the folk of modern days."

--_Robert Louis Stevenson_.

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CHARACTER AND LIVING

MAKE THE BIBLE HEROES YOUR FRIENDS

We ever demand a person for an ideal instead of a principle. By living
a year with a masterful character one would gain more than from a
dozen years of moral precept. President King of Oberlin College says,
"Character is not taught, but caught."

Since character is contagious, mere teaching of the bare and unadorned
moral principle is almost always vain. But a hero personifies virtue,
commands admiration, becomes an ideal.

This explains the power of stories in creating character. The heroes
of the Bible fire us with enthusiasm we could never feel for
impersonal virtue. To make them our friends is to be influenced by the
noblest associates.

When Jesus wished to build up character in His disciples He told them
a story, or parable, to supply their lack.

The method meets the need of mankind to-day as well as in Jesus' time.
The Bible has a wonderful story for forming every single trait of
character. Its heroes illuminate virtue by their heroic deeds. We see
the man, admire his deeds, then his motives, and then his character.
Unconsciously, but none the less surely, we catch his spirit and share
the quality of his soul.

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JESUS' CHARACTER-BUILDING STORIES

Do you know which parable teaches:--

True neighborliness? 88 L.J.

Spreading of truth? 106 L.J.

Consistent and false profession? 117 L.J.

Hearers divided into classes? 133 L.J.

The spread of Christianity? 134 L.J.

The law of growth in religion? 134 L.J.

Gratitude for pardon? 170 L.J.

The duty of forgiveness? 186 L.J.

Joy over penitence? 202 L.J.

Fatherly love? 203 L.J.

Faithfulness to trust? 204 L.J.

That the Divine call is universal? 207 L.J.

Concerning worldly