Page:The stuff of manhood (1917).djvu/28

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and duty in deciding the question whether each thing is really right for us and for the whole world. If we are to be men and women to whom people will come for comfort and strength and guidance, to whom our own children can come with assurance that they will get the truth, we must be men and women who now place ourselves beneath the firm discipline of God.

We see all this put simply in two great things. We see it in our Lord's constant appeal, while here in the world, for men and women of fiber and discipline. One came to Him and said: "Lord, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him and said: "I would not think of counselling anything hard. You must not sacrifice anything. It is all very easy. The Father above is a Father of great tenderness and compassion. He would not lay a straw's weight upon any child of His. Go; live according to your desires and by the natural impulses of your heart, and for that you shall have treasure in heaven." Oh, no; He did not say that. He said: "Go, sell all that thou hast, and come and follow me. Except ye love less than duty your father and mother and brother and sister, yea, and your own life also, ye cannot enter the kingdom of God."

We see it, too, in God's way with men as He laid down His great laws at the beginning, when His people were but as a race of little children.