angels who once rebelled. Thus shall we share his glory. Behold him, your Saviour! Behold the Man! Majestic beauty sits enthroned Upon the Saviour's brow; His head with radiant glories crowned, His lips with grace o'erflow. He saw me plunged in deep despair; For me he bore the painful cross To him I owe my lite and breath Since from his bounty I receive WILSIE MANNING MARTIN FIRST CHURCH, BOISE, IDAHO Wilsie M. Martin was born in Johnsville, Canada, November 12, 1876, and moved with his parents to Santa Ana, California. He graduated from the University of California in 1900 with the degree of B.A., having been senior class president and member of four university debating teams. In September, 1900, he entered the California Conference and was stationed at Oak Park, Sacramento in 1900-1901; was assistant pastor First Church, Oakland, 1901-1902; he attended Drew Theological Seminary 1902-1903, and while here served as assistant pastor of Madison Avenue Church, New York City, and in the summer supplied Hanson Place Church, Brooklyn. He served First Church, Chico, California, 1903-1905; First Church, Alameda, 1905-1912, and now is serving his third year as pastor of the First Church, Boise, Idaho, it being the largest in the Idaho Conference. He is also the chaplain of the Second Infantry Idaho National Guard. THE GIFT-BRINGER WILSIE MANNING MARTIN "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."-Isa. 9. 6. WELL might they call the Babe in the manger wonderful. Wonderful because of what he was and what he was to do. We are surprised at the deeds when we know the life, and we demand such a life to explain the deeds. He not only marks the difference; he is the difference. There are plenty of men in the world who know that things are different who have never acknowledged the cause of it. He is the watershed that feeds the rivers that change the deserts into gardens. He is the Gulf Stream that has touched the arctic shores of time and is wooing them into beauty. He is the sun at whose coming the darkness flees, the mists melt, the chill and frost disappear. He has become the Counselor of man, the shaper of government, and his kingdom is a kingdom without frontiers. What has Christ brought that is new? First. The thought that we are all related. In a world seamed with race, class, and religious distinction this was a tremendous gift. Electricity had been always in the world, man had felt its power, described some of its features, but the man who really discovered electricity was the man who harnessed it, made it work. It may be that some nebulous ideas similar to those of Jesus may be found or read into the sayings of ancient men. The point is that Jesus made them work. The practical thing for us to realize is that the world was cut up into little provinces, cities, and counties, each distrustful, suspicious, hostile toward the others; the fact is that life was cut up into great social distinctions that could not be bridged. The fact is when Jesus came there was some race solidarity, but there was nowhere any sense of real brotherhood. Now Jesus made this truth-that we are related-to work. He made it operate in his own first group of disciples. Rich and poor, pharisees and publicans, found in him the center of their life, and through him they became friends and brothers to each other. He made it work when they opened the doors of fellowship to the Gentiles. He made it work when Philemon and Onesimus, owner and slave, could both be members of the same spiritual brotherhood. "In Jesus Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek." It is this truth made vital through Jesus that is breaking down the antagonisms between men and sections. In widening circles the force of it becomes apparent. In many lines we have to realize that we are members one of another. More and more the brotherhood idea and the brotherhood spirit grows upon the world; increasing numbers of men are espousing the idea and assuming the obligations. Trade already knows no color line and no race prejudice. We sell in every market. We have come to see that chemistry, expressing God's law, is no respecter of persons, that there is not one truth for China and another for Canada. We have come far under the drive of the truth of Jesus Christ in recognizing the essential solidarity of the human race. The basis of brotherhood is spiritual. Materialism has no ground for brotherhood. For a thousand years by the short sword and the javelin Rome kept the peace of the world, but it was not brotherhood. It was the domination of brute force. Self-interest may induce us for a time to play fair, but only for a time. The basis of integrity must lie deeper than the dollar. A real gentleman is not the product of calculation, but of the outflowing of a knightly, chivalrous, gentle spirit. Materialism never has and never can bring the race together into a unity. We come from different climes, we are of different races, with different customs and products; we differ in habits. The Korean shakes his own hand, and makes his display in the backyard, and reads up and down and from right to left. We differ in |