LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE PEERLESS IDEAL OF YOUTH (Hofmann, Christ and the Rich Young Ruler) .Frontispiece FACING NAZARETH, WHERE JESUS DREAMED THE DREAMS PAGE OF YOUTH. MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS (Hacker, Annunci- YOUTH SEES IN LINCOLN THE GREATNESS OF 21 70 120 ALMA MATER SENDS HER DAUGHTER FORTH INTO LIFE (Alice Freeman Palmer Memorial at Wellesley College, by French).. 153 A KNIGHT ERRANT OF THE GOLDEN RULE (Watts, 177 RUTH, WILLING TOILER IN HARVEST FIELDS AND 240 LOYAL COMRADES OF THE JESUS WAY (Burnand, 250 283 CHAPTER I JESUS THE PEERLESS IDEAL OF YOUTH HAS it ever seemed strange to you that everything dates from the birth of Jesus Christ? This is history's way of confessing that his life was the greatest ever lived. What king or soldier, wise man or statesman has ever influenced the world like Jesus of Nazareth? Yet, in the first century, it took a very clear-sighted seer to foresee this wonderful personal influence of Jesus. Even his Christian friends at Philippi must have been surprised at the enthusiasm of Paul the apostle, when they first read in his letter to them this glowing tribute to the Master: God has highly exalted him. He gave him the name which is above every other; that in Jesus' name every knee should bow, in heaven, on earth and in the under-world; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Master, to the glory of the Father-God.-Philippians 2: 9-11. How Jesus has won the world.-In view of the facts when these words of Paul were written, this was a most astonishing prophecy. He wrote this letter to Philippi in the year 63. He was at Rome, in prison, at the mercy of Nero; a giant at bay, a defeated man with an indomitable spirit. The name "Jesus," which he praised so extravagantly, was hardly known at all at the capital. The few who had ever heard it recalled the strange story of a wandering Galilæan teacher and healer, who had gotten into some trouble with his quarrelsome country |