eed not do that. We may serve and obey a man honestly and honourably,
in order to get him to do what he ought to do. I will tell you what I
mean.

Suppose when we have dealings with any man, we begin with him, as I was
saying we ought to begin with earthly things--with a field for
instance--we should say, before I begin to make this field bear the crop
I want I must look it through and understand it. I must see what state
it is in--what its soil is--what has been taken off it already--what the
weather is--what state of drainage it is in, and so forth; and I must
obey the rules of all these things, or my crop will come to nothing. So
with this man. First of all, before I get anything out of the man, I
must understand the man. I must find out what sort of temper and
character he has, what his opinions are, how he has been brought up, how
he has been accustomed to look at things--so as to be able to make
allowance for all, else I shall never be able to understand how he looks
at this one matter, or to make him understand _my_ way of looking at it.
And to do that--to understand the man, or make him understand me, I must
begin by making a _friend_ of him.

There, my friends--there is one of the blessed laws of the kingdom of
Heaven, that in a free country (as this, thank God, is) the only sure way
to get power and influence over people, is by making _friends_ of them,
by behaving like Christians to them, making them trust you and love you,
by pleasing them, giving way to them, making yourself of service to them,
doing what they like whenever you can, in order that they may do to you,
as you have done to them, and measure back to you (as the Lord Jesus
promises they will), with the same measure with which you have measured
to them. In short, serving men, that you may rule them, and stooping
before them that you may conquer them.

And if any of you are too proud to try this plan, and think it fairer to
drive men than to lead them, I can tell you of two persons who were not
as proud as you are, and were not ashamed to do what you are ashamed to
do--and yet they are two persons, before the least of whom you would hang
your head, and feel, as I am sure I should, a very small, and mean, and
pitiful person if I met them in the road.

For the first, and by far the least of the two, is St. Paul. Now St.
Paul says this was the very plan by which he got influence over men, and
persuaded and converted them, and brought them h