ore
like the early, simple, apostolic Christianity, when the disciples
left all and literally followed the Master. Nothing but a
discipleship of this kind can face the destructive selfishness of
the age with any hope of overcoming it. There is a great quantity of
nominal Christianity today. There is need of more of the real kind.
We need revival of the Christianity of Christ. We have,
unconsciously, lazily, selfishly, formally grown into a discipleship
that Jesus himself would not acknowledge. He would say to many of us
when we cry, 'Lord, Lord,' 'I never knew you!' Are we ready to take
up the cross? Is it possible for this church to sing with exact
truth,

'Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee?'

If we can sing that truly, then we may claim discipleship. But if
our definition of being a Christian is simply to enjoy the
privileges of worship, be generous at no expense to ourselves, have
a good, easy time surrounded by pleasant friends and by comfortable
things, live respectably and at the same time avoid the world's
great stress of sin and trouble because it is too much pain to bear
it--if this is our definition of Christianity, surely we are a long
way from following the steps of Him who trod the way with groans and
tears and sobs of anguish for a lost humanity; who sweat, as it
were, great drops of blood, who cried out on the upreared cross, 'My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'

"Are we ready to make and live a new discipleship? Are we ready to
reconsider our definition of a Christian? What is it to be a
Christian? It is to imitate Jesus. It is to do as He would do. It is
to walk in His steps."

When Henry Maxwell finished his sermon, he paused and looked at the
people with a look they never forgot and, at the moment, did not
understand. Crowded into that fashionable church that day were
hundreds of men and women who had for years lived the easy,
satisfied life of a nominal Christianity. A great silence fell over
the congregation. Through the silence there came to the
consciousness of all the souls there present a knowledge, stranger
to them now for years, of a Divine Power. Every one expected the
preacher to call for volunteers who would do as Jesus would do. But
Maxwell had been led by the Spirit to deliver his message this time
and wait for results to come.

He closed the service with a tender prayer that kept the Divine
Presence lingering very near every hearer, and the p