questioning obedience; that they must
follow him as the supreme and only guide of their life, committing all
their present and eternal interests into his hands. In a word, he puts
himself deliberately into the place of God, demanding for himself all
that God demands, and then promising to those who accept him all the
blessings that God promises to his children.

This was the way Jesus sought to save men. As the human revealing of
God, coming down close to humanity, and thus bringing God within their
reach, he said, "Believe on me, love me, trust me, and follow me, and I
will lift you up to eternal blessedness." While the invitation was
universal, the blessings it offered could be given only to those who
would truly receive Christ as the Son of God. If Jesus seemed to
demand hard things of those who would follow him, it was because in no
other way could men be saved. No slight and easy bond would bind them
to him, and only by their attachment to him could they be led into the
kingdom of God. If he sometimes seemed to discourage discipleship, it
was that no one might be deceived as to the meaning of the new life to
which Jesus was inviting men. He would have no followers who did not
first count the cost, and know whether they were ready to go with him.
Men could be lifted up into a heavenly life only by a friendship with
Jesus which would prove stronger than all other ties.

Religion, therefore, is a passion for Christ. "I have only one
passion," said Zinzendorf, "and that is he." Love for Christ is the
power that during these nineteen centuries has been transforming the
world. Law could never have done it, though enforced by the most awful
majesty. The most perfect moral code, though proclaimed with supreme
authority, would never have changed darkness to light, cruelty to
humaneness, rudeness to gentleness. What is it that gives the gospel
its resistless power? It is the Person at the heart of it. Men are
not called to a religion, to a creed, to a code of ethics, to an
ecclesiastical system,--they are called to love and follow a Person.

But what is it in Jesus that so draws men, that wins their allegiance
away from every other master, that makes them ready to leave all for
his sake, and to follow him through peril and sacrifice, even to death?
Is it his wonderful teaching? "No man ever spake like this man." Is
it his power as revealed in his miracles? Is it his sinlessness? The
most malignant scrutin