taincy, etc., and wanted to ask his forgiveness. This man was affected with a deep emotion; but another man with a different temperament might have committed the same sin, asked the same forgiveness with equal sincerity and genuineness, but with less or almost no emotion.

The final test is not how we feel but what we think of our wrong, and what we will do about it. The recognition that we are wrong, the deliberate turning away from the wrong because our hearts despise it, and the determination to do right-that is the real condition of receiving God's forgiveness. It is technically called repentance.

Well, let me sin, but not with my consenting;
Well, let me die, but willing to be whole;
Never, O, Christ-so stay me from relenting,
There shall be truce betwixt my flesh and soul.

-Myers's "St. Paul."

STUDY I. ENTRANCE INTO CHRISTIAN LIFE.

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee." (Isa. xxvi. 3.)

"And the centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. . . . And when Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. (Matt. viii. 8, 10.)

"Jesus said therefore unto the twelve, Would ye also go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed and know that thou art the Holy One of God." (John vi. 67-69.)

PART 4. STEPS IN ENTERING THIS FRIENDSHIP

(Continued).
(c) Faith.

If two people wish to be friends, they must freely and fully yield themselves to each other. Trust is the foundation stone of friendship. Two people cannot be friends who constantly suspect each other. Just as rapidly as their knowledge of each other justifies, they must increasingly trust each the other. A college president has said that the man who goes through college and in his four years has not found one person into the deep of whose soul he can look and say, "O soul, I am thine," and hear the answer back, "Yea, soul, and I am thine," has missed the purpose of his college career. That finest intercourse of soul with soul which kindles character is based on trust, confidence, faith.

God has endeavored through all the ages so to reveal himself to us that we will trust him. The beauty and strength of character revealed in Jesus Christ must of necessity draw out from every attentive soul a growing trust.

Faith, then, is the deliberate trust in and the active surrender of one's self to a person whose character is such as to command the soul. It is by the kindling power of this trustful relationship that a man grows into likeness with the character in whom he puts his trust. To be a Christian one must increasingly surrender himself to the Father God as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ.

Personal Thought: Have you ever found yourself wondering whether Christian life robs you of the larger things? Can God be trusted to deal fairly with us? If so, does it help our friendship with him to doubt him continually?

STUDY I. ENTRANCE INTO CHRISTIAN LIFE.

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. xviii. 20.)

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him. . . Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." (John xiv. 21, 23.)

PART 5. STEPS IN ENTERING THIS FRIENDSHIP

(Continued).

(d) Association.

FRIENDSHIP is a communion of two souls, based on a harmony in the fundamental ideals of life. Without this harmony of ideals there can be no real friendship. If you are honest and I am a thief, we cannot be real friends. There is no harmony of ideals.

How, then, can you and I grow into a friendship if our ideals are different? We will drop in to see each other day by day. In an open-minded, kindly spirit we will talk over -sometimes casually, sometimes more seriously-the things in which we are interested. We will talk about football, fraternities, social life, culture, religion. Little by little I come to see what your attitude toward these things, is, and you come to see mine. With both of us in a kindly and fairminded attitude, the better things of your life will appeal to me and the better things of my life will appeal to you. Little by little the meaner things in each life will drop away, and we will come together into a real harmony of fundamental ideals. This is the inevitable result of a kindly and open

minded association. It cannot possibly be otherwise. To put one's self into the presence of another does not necessarily mean physical proximity. One may put himself into the presence of another through letters, through the study of his writings, or through the reports of experience which others have had with this person.

If we want to be friends of Jesus Christ, we will go to him day by day in the kindly and open-minded spirit. We will sit down in his presence and find what he thinks of men, what he thinks of God, of sin, of joy, of sorrow. Happily we can find what Christ's attitude is toward these fundamental facts of life by reading his words in the Bible. This is what gives such tremendous importance to daily Bible study. It is our best way of keeping ourselves continually in the presence of Christ's attitude toward life.

Now, if we are open-minded as we put ourselves in the presence of these fundamental ideals of Christ's life, we will little by little be drawn up into these same ideals. “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." This is the natural and inevitable process. We do not do it; it does itself.

I cannot grow in your friendship if I go off to China, never write to you, never hear from you, never think of you. The law of a growing friendship is association; not physical proximity, but living in the presence of the spirit of your life, the interchange of thought and ideals. If I am to grow in the friendship of God and Christ, it will be necessary for me to put myself constantly into their presence, and day by day I will be transformed into the same image.

"Speak to him thou, for he hears, and spirit with spirit can meet— Closer is he than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet."