upper world, in His love for all, rich beyond power of
human calculation; so poor in the response of men to the wooing of His
heart. So poor in the glad, intelligent co-operation of those who trust
Him for salvation in the next world, but are content with very little of
it in this. So needy in the lack of those who bring love and life,
intellect and wealth, and lay all at His feet.

This has been God's problem, to respect the rights He has given man, and
yet work through him in carrying out His great plan of love. This is the
warp into which the whole of the Bible fabric is woven--the tragedy of
sin, of sin-hurt, sin-stubborned men, the patience of God in wooing men
back, and His exquisite tact and unlimited patience is always working
_through_ men's consent, and through human channels.

To-day He comes to you and me, pleadingly asking us to help Him in His
passionate plan for His race. Some few have the gift of leadership. Most
of us are moulded to follow. He needs both leader and follower. He needs
the _life_. He needs the _love_. Through these, whether in prominent place
or shadowed, in leadership or in following along some well-beaten path,
through these--the _life_, the _love_, He works in His great simple plan
for overcoming the tragedy of sin. That plan includes the whole race. God
has no favourites among the nations. When the hour is ripe for an advance
step, a man is found ripened for leadership. This is the real final
explanation of certain great leaders. It was not the man himself alone,
but the coming together of the time, the man, and the plan; the time for
an advance step, the man who had yielded to God up to the ripening point,
the plan of God. And the decisive thing was the plan of God.

President Finney used to insist very earnestly that revivals followed a
fixed law of action. When men would with all their hearts fit into the
great laws of grace, there would follow the gracious revival results even
as effect follows cause in nature; and without question he was wholly
right. In addition to this, however, there is a further fact to note, of
which Finney himself was a striking illustration. In God's broader plans
for the race when the time is ripe for an advance step, He has some man in
training for leadership in that hour, and so ripeness of time and of man
and of plan come together. But the chief factor at work is God Himself.

This, and only this, explains fully certain great religious movements and