m the
very pettiest tyranny of all, the service of self, only as he finds
and enlists under the king. Serve self and it will plunge you in,
and drag you through, the ditch, till your own clothes abhor you.
You are free to choose your teacher and guide and example. But
choose you will and must. I am not propounding theories; I am
telling you facts. Whether for better or worse man always does and
will choose because he must. Look about you, look into yourselves.
Have you no hero whom you admire and strive to resemble? no teacher
to whom you listen? You must and do have your example and teacher.
Is he teaching you to conform to environment, or leading you to be
ground in pieces by its forces all arrayed against you?

The Carpenter of Nazareth stood before Pilate. "And Pilate said
unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I
am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into
the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that
is of the truth heareth my voice." And Pilate would not wait for the
answer to his question, What is truth? and the Jews chose Barabbas.
Would you and I have acted differently? The answer of our Lord to
Pilate contains the essence of Christianity. "You a king," says
Pilate in astonishment; "where is your power to enforce your
authority?" And our Lord's answer seems to me to mean substantially
this: Roman legions shall suffer defeat, rout, and extermination;
and Roman power shall cease to terrify. All its might must decay.
But "everyone that is of the truth" shall attach himself to me with
a love which will brave rack and stake. All your power cannot give a
grain of new life. I can and will infuse my own divine life, my own
divine _self_, into men. And this new life is invincible, immortal,
all-conquering. I have infused myself into a few fishermen, and they
will infuse _me_ into a host of other men. Thus I will transfigure
into my own character every man in the world, who is of the truth,
and therefore will hear my voice. All the power of Rome cannot
prevent it, and whatever opposes it must go down before it.

Christianity is the contagion of a divine life. Society is the
medium through which it could and was to work. Greece had prepared
the language necessary for its spread. Roman power had built its
highways and levelled all obstructions.

"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." "Not by might, nor by
power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord