, is not puffed up."
One of the worst enemies that Christians have to contend with is this
spirit of rivalry--this feeling, "Who shall be the greatest?"

Some years ago I read a book that did me a great deal of good. It was
entitled, "The Training of the Twelve." The writer said that Christ
spent most of His time during the three years He was engaged publicly
about His Father's business in training twelve men. The training He
gave them was very different from the training of the schools at the
present day. The world teaches men that they must seek to be great;
Christ taught that His disciples must be little; that in honor they
must prefer one another; that they are not to be puffed up, not to
harbor feelings of envy, but to be full of meekness and gentleness,
and lowliness of heart.

When an eminent painter was requested to paint Alexander the Great so
as to give a perfect likeness of the Macedonian conqueror, he felt a
difficulty. Alexander, in his wars, had been struck by a sword, and
across his forehead was an immense scar. The painter said: "If I
retain the scar, it will be an offense to the admirers of the monarch,
and if I omit it it will fail to be a perfect likeness. What shall I
do?" He hit upon a happy expedient; he represented the Emperor leaning
on his elbow, with his forefinger upon his brow, accidentally, as it
seemed, covering the scar upon his forehead. Might not we represent
each other with the finger of charity upon the scar, instead of
representing the scar deeper and blacker than it really is? Christians
may learn even from heathendom a lesson of charity, of human kindness
and of love.

This spirit of seeking to be the greatest has nearly ruined the Church
of God at different times in its history. If the Church had not been
Divine it would have gone to pieces long ago. There is hardly any
movement of reform to-day that has not been in danger of being
thwarted and destroyed through this miserable spirit of ambition and
self-seeking. May God enable us to get above this, to cast away our
conceit and pride, and take Christ as our teacher, that He may show us
in what spirit His work ought to be done.

One of the saddest things in the life of Christ was the working of
this spirit among His disciples even in the last hours of His
intercourse with them, and just before He was led away to be
crucified. We read in the gospel by Luke: "But, behold, the hand of
him that betrayeth Me is with Me on the table.