reign will. He would not lower one whit His
ambition for a man free in his own will. He Himself would do nothing to
mar the divine image in man. For man's sake, and _through_ man's
will--that is ever God's law of dealing.

<u>Fire and Anvil for Leaders.</u>

The great need just now was not simply for men who would be loving and
loyal, but men who would be _leaders_. It has ever been the sorest need.
Men are not so scarce, true-hearted men, willing to endure sacrifice, but
_leaders_ have always been few, and are. Nothing seems to be less
understood than leadership; and nothing so quickly recognized when the
real thing appears. Peter _was_ a leader among these men. He had dash and
push. He was full of impulse. He was always proposing something. He acted
as spokesman. He blurted out whatever came. The others followed his lead.
There were the crude elements of leadership here. But not true leadership
of the finer, higher kind.

The whole purpose of the transfiguration was to get and tie up leaders. It
was an emergency measure, out of the regular run of things. Goodness makes
character. It takes goodness plus ability to make true leadership. The
heart can make a loving follower. It takes a heart, warm and true, plus
_brains_ to make a leader. Character is the essential for life. For true
leadership, there needs to be character plus ability: the ability to keep
the broad sweep of things, and not be lost in details, nor yet to lose
sight of details; to discern motive and drifts; to sift through the
incidentals which may be spectacular and get to the essential which may be
in Quaker garb.

There are two sorts of leadership, of action, and of thought. By
comparison with the other, leaders of action are many, leaders of thought
few. Peter was the leader in action of the disciples, and in the earlier
church days. John became the leader in thought of the later years of the
early church. Paul was both, a very unusual combination. Leaders are born,
it is true. But the finest and truest and highest leaders must be both
born leaders, and then born again as leaders. There needs to be the
original stuff, and then that stuff hammered into shape under hard blows
on the anvil of experience. The fire must burn out the clay and dirt, and
then the hammer shape up the metal. Leaders must have convictions driven
in clear through the flesh and bone, and riveted on the other side.

_Simon_ loved Jesus, but there needed to be more before