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fuses to allow the opposite ideas to control. He deliberately makes up his mind that these lower centers of thought energy shall not have a central place in his consciousness. "It makes a great difference," says Professor James, “to a man whether one set of his ideas or another be the center of his energy; and it makes a great difference as regards any set of ideas which he may possess, whether they become central or remain peripheral in him. To say that a man is ‘converted' means, in these terms, that religious ideals previously peripheral [on the outer edge, dim, indistinct] in his consciousness now take a central place, and that religious aims form the habitual center of his energy.'

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This is the psychological process of the formation of the new Christian life. The real thing which has happened is the touch of the soul of a personal God on the sensitive soul of a man in such manner that the very center of his being is changed. Somehow the ideas of God-consciousness move into the central field of life, and by the marvelous power of .the touch of God they are strong enough to hold sway. The battle may not be over, the old ideas may rise up again to find expression, but the real controlling power of the life is the God-consciousness.

A college man I knew, who was a degraded, helpless drunkard, walked into the Jerry McAuley Mission one night to beg money, with which he meant to buy whisky. He heard the simple testimonies of how God had helped other men to break this awful habit. He made up his mind to try it. He gave his life to God that night. Four nights later I heard that man give his simple testimony at the meeting. He said: "I came into this house four nights ago a helpless, hopeless drunkard. I had not been completely sober for many, many months. I gave my life to God, and, men, for four days and nights I have been a sober man, even though before I would have gone through hell to get a drink of whisky." The years have passed, and the testimony is still true.

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From a personality "which was divided, consciously wrong, inferior, and unhappy," he became a personality "which was unified, consciously right, superior, and happy,' because a new God-consciousness had dawned in his life and had taken the central place in his being. Something had really happened.

"Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 196.

STUDY II. WHAT REALLY HAPPENS WHEN A MAN BECOMES A CHRISTIAN.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law." (Gal. v. 22, 23.)

"For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Rom. xiv. 17.)

PART 6. A NEW SPIRIT OF KINDLINESS TOWARD MEN.

THE test of a life is its attitude toward those with whom it is associated. If I claim to be a Christian, and yet continually criticise and find fault with my companions in social life, every man sees the hypocrisy of my profession. If I have no control of my temper, but am constantly flying into a rage with my associates in social life, class room, or athletic field, I am not exhibiting the fruits of Christian experience. The fruit of the Christ friendship is the friendly life. If one does not find himself growing into an increasing friendliness for men, if he is not more sympathetic and kindly in spirit, then he is not giving the Christ life a chance to mold his character.

This new kindliness of spirit is precisely what men do experience when they become followers of Christ. In the responses concerning their religious experience, which Professor Starbuck's questionnaire elicited, I find the following: Case I, "The change made me very affectionate, while before I was very cold to my parents; case 2, “I felt it my duty after that to be polite and sympathetic. My enemies were changed into friends;" case 3, "I spoke at once to a person with whom I had been angry."

A new element has come into human life which makes it more sympathetic, more kindly, more gracious. Montgomery in his poem, "The Watchman," makes the captain of the guard at Christ's tomb say that seeing Christ had transformed his entire being.

I care no more for glory; all desire

For honor and for strife is gone from me,
All eagerness for war. I only care
To help and save bruised beings, and to give
Some comfort to the weak and suffering;
I cannot even hate those Jews; my lips
Speak harshly of them, but within my heart
I only feel compassion; and I love
All creatures to the vilest of the slaves,
Who seem to me as brothers. Claudia,
Scorn me not for this weakness; it will pass-
Surely 'twill pass in time and I shall be
Maximus, strong and valiant once again
Forgetting that slain god. And yet—and yet―
He looked as one who could not be forgot!

STUDY II. WHAT REALLY HAPPENS WHEN A MAN BECOMES A CHRISTIAN.

"For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." (1 Cor. ii. 2.)

"Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ." (Phil. iii. 8.)

PART 7. A NEW CENTER OF LOYALTY.

GROWING Out of these new elements that enter into the new man, and partly at least the basis of these new forces, is the sense of loyalty which arises in the really religious soul. We talk much of religious devotion, but I prefer the word loyalty, because it is more personal. It denotes our connection with a person outside ourselves. It is precisely this personal loyalty that every man needs-something to take him outside himself, something that gathers up his scattered energies, some one in whose cause man can lose himself. Many a man is wasting his life in mere twaddle because he has never found an ideal great enough or a personality attractive enough wholly to command him. The one salvation for hundreds of men will be to find outside themselves a great, absorbing life which will unify their powers and give them a cause large enough to draw out all their latent energies. "If you want to find a way of living," says Professor Royce, "which surmounts doubt and centralizes your powers, it must be some such way as all the loyal in common have trodden since first loyalty was known among men." Professor William James points out that there are in every

1"Philosophy of Loyalty," p. 46.

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man a great many restricting and retarding forces. He calls them inhibitions. These inhibitions are the forces which constantly say "No" when we are about to undertake a hard thing. They account for our moods of vacillation and weakness. The only thing that will break down these obstructions is a great passion. "Given a certain amount of love, indignation, generosity, magnanimity, admiration, loyalty, enthusiasm of self-surrender, the result is always the same. That whole raft of cowardly obstructions which in tame persons and dull moods are sovereign impediments to action, sink away at once.'

992

It is precisely this which happens when one centers his attention on the supreme personality of the universe as he is revealed in Jesus Christ. There comes into his life the motive power of a new affection. In a man like St. Paul this loyalty becomes a consuming passion' which sweeps every lower ideal before it. This kind of loyalty sets for us a worthy life task, gives us strength to live for it, and heartens us as we labor. Labor is transformed in the presence of such a passion, and even pain becomes suffused with something akin to joy if it is incurred in the pathway of loyalty to the central person of the universe.

He who finds himself weak and vacillating, who finds the battles of temptation all too hard, who feels himself lacking in decision and concentration needs to throw his life into the Christian life with complete abandon, for in the wholesouled friendship of Jesus Christ there is power for new life. He who knows that friendship has had something happen within him which makes him a new man.

"Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 266.

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