STUDY VII. HOW TO AWAKEN THE INDIFFERENT AND SELF-SATISFIED.

"And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." (Mark ii. 27.)

"Are not five sparrows sold for two pence? and not one of them is forgotten in the sight of God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not: ye are of more value than many sparrows.” (Luke xii. 6, 7.)

PART 3. HELP THE INDIFFERENT MAN TO REALIZE THE VALUE OF HIS OWN PERSONALITY.

JESUS exalted personality above all institutions. Even the Sabbath itself must not be set over in opposition to the ultimate good of a man. Man is the final element in creation, and all else must bend to the making of an environment in which he shall find full development. Jesus represents God as intensely interested in every human personality. Although his power upholds the universe, and all creation is dependent upon the working of that efficient will, still God is not indifferent to the least individual. Men have denied the efficacy of prayer on the basis of man's insignificance, but this is a false assumption. Significance, according to Christ, is not measured in physical terms. If it were, an elephant would be much more significant than a man. Real value is measured in terms of likeness to God, and by this standard man stands absolutely supreme.

One of the things to do for an indifferent man is to get him to face the fact of his real value. If once he comes to understand the real meaning of his life and God's interest in it, the sense of gratitude ought to lead him to religious life. It is easy to show a man the heinousness of sin which destroys a personality made in the very image of God and

capable of companionship with the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.

The most convincing proof of God's interest in men is the life and death of Jesus Christ. Christ came into the world to show us what kind of a God we have; how that God hates sin and loves men. Christ might easily have escaped death if he had not been so deeply interested in men. But his deep desire to call man back to his real place in the universe, his longing to help man see the degrading results of sin and the uplifting power of Godlike love led him so to oppose the dead tradition and the sins of the times that embittered men rose up and crucified him.

The essential meaning of the life and death of Christ is the showing forth of the fact that God loves men and hates sin. Sin is hateful because it destroys the sacred personality of a man. The one way of getting men to turn away from this destroyer is to show how it affects the heart of God.

Put before your indifferent man the fact that Christ believed his life worth saving. Put before him the fact that the one way of saving that personality is for him to be a friend of Jesus Christ. "He that hath the Son hath the life, but he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life.”

STUDY VII. HOW TO AWAKEN THE INDIFFERENT AND SELF-SATISFIED.

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Phil. iv. 8.)

"The art of life consists in paying attention to the right things and neglecting the rest." (Jevons.)

PART 4. CHARACTER DETERMINED BY THE THINGS TO WHICH WE GIVE ATTENTION.

Two great forces enter into the making of a life: heredity and environment. The battle between the respective advocates of these forces has been waged long and bitterly. Evidently heredity is a great power in the life of a man, for he must have something to start with. But it cannot be final, else man is no longer man but a piece of clay molded by those forces which precede his birth, over which forces he has absolutely no control.

Neither is man completely without power to discriminate between forces which surround him. Doubtless all persons and all forces which surround us do have an influence on us, but the real environment of a man's life is that on which he centers his attention. Three students go to college together, and room together while in college. One becomes an athlete, another a social fop, and the third a real student. The same forces surround them, but they center their attention on different portions of that environment. Only that to which one gives deliberate attention vitally affects character.

Make it perfectly clear to the indifferent person that one whole realm of his life is absolutely dying because he is giv

ing no attention to the forces of spiritual life. Make it clear that this is by far the most important side of his life, for it is that which connects him with persons, God and men. Further, make it clear to him that persons are the only permanent and valuable realities in the universe. If he is so busy with things that he cannot cultivate fellowship with persons, sooner or later he will wake up to find himself completely isolated, and all the things which he has gathered will bring him no satisfaction. Even knowledge, the accumulation of facts, is useless unless one has contact with persons. An abstract fact is as useless to a man dissociated from persons as is an electric bulb without an electric current. Life is just the sum of man's contact with various personalities.

The indifferent man is deliberately neglecting to bring into his field of attention the supreme forces (persons) which make character. He who does not cultivate his relationship with God and Jesus Christ cannot possibly build the largest character.

At the University of Missouri a student came to me and said he believed he had committed the unpardonable sin. When questioned as to what it was he was hopelessly confused. When it was pointed out that the complete neglect of one's religious nature until that nature had atrophied was possibly the unpardonable sin, and that life is just the sum of our contact with persons, he immediately said: "That kind of Christianity is worth while." His complete indifference to creeds and formulas was at once set aside when he came to see the importance of associating with persons.

STUDY VII. HOW TO AWAKEN THE INDIFFERENT AND SELF-SATISFIED.

"And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting." (Rom. i. 28.)

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou has forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children." (Hos. iv. 6.)

PART 5. ASK INDIFFERENT MEN TO FACE THE FACTS.

THE indifference of undervaluation is always due to the lack of knowledge. But lack of knowledge on a f:indamental question is a crime. Hosea again and again calls the attention of the people of Israel to the fact that their greatest sin is the lack of knowledge of God. It lies back of all their sin. A man's mind is given to him that he may come to know the fundamental things. The excuse, so flippantly given, that we do not know is perhaps the most ignoble confession of all. Ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law. Neither is ignorance an excuse before God. No man has a right to be ignorant of the facts which are the very foundation of character.

What are the facts? First, that every man has in him a sense of need for God. Does a universal fact such as this have any meaning? If so, has any man the right to pass that meaning by without knowing what it is? The second fact is like unto the first; every man has a sense of sin. He feels himself undone. Is there any reality to this feeling? Does it point anywhere? Why should it be put in the human heart if there is no fundamental reason for it? What right