we can pay
nothing to God until we have in earnest set about paying our debts to
men.

Anxious, perhaps, to claim our rights as children of the Father in
heaven, we have forgotten that that title is promised to the
peacemakers. What avail is it to pray, Thy kingdom come, if we block
its advent by cherishing enmity in our hearts? What use is it to carry
hearts torn with malice, souls sunken in selfishness, and spirits torn
with pride and covetousness to the place that belongs to the meek and
lowly?

Many a man is going to church and coming away empty in heart; perhaps
he has given up any hope of finding solace in religion, who would find,
as it were, the windows of heaven opened up if he should give himself
for an hour to making some other helpless lives happy, to righting some
wrong or bringing some joy to lives embittered and oppressed.

The pathway to God is a plain one, strikingly lacking in romance, with
no attendant visible angelic choir. It is the doing of whatever duty
or kindness I owe to those near me, the breaking down of walls of
prejudice--spite fences built in ignorance and hatred--the learning to
love and help, the seeking of peace, good feeling, and harmony with all
men.

This does not mean that all must become professors of sociology; the
study of social theories often is a substitute for the practice of
social duties; but that we must seek out the good in men, we must set
ourselves right with them, we must discharge all our responsibilities
towards men before we can realize God. The kingdom comes as we
recognize the kingliness in all the sons of the kingdom, as we express
our faith in God by friendship for our fellows.

FAITH IN OUR FELLOWS

Poor Peter has never been much of a favourite with the preachers; he
was so thoroughly unstable, unideal. But the people have always had a
tender feeling for him, partly because he was a fisherman, partly
because he was so much like the rest of us. Nothing is more striking
in the life of Jesus than His affection for ordinary men. The cultured
Pharisees, the philosophical Sadducees seem to have much less
attraction to Him than the rude fisherman and the toiler. These men
were often weak, sometimes cowardly, obstinate, dull, mediocre; yet He
committed His kingdom to them; He believed in them. Before they had
faith in Him He had faith in them; and that ultimately made them men.

It sounded much like cruel sarcasm when He told that weak, vacillati