The cost of the heroic life.-Heroism is never cheap. Jesus gave his disciples fair warning what it would be likely to cost them to take up their cross and follow him:

Behold, I send you forth like sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore as shrewd as serpents and harmless as doves. But be on your guard against men, for they will arrest you, bring you into courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and before governors and kings you shall be brought, for my sake.-Matthew 10: 16.

The world in the past has not been kind to the followers of Christ. The clash of ideals has brought all sorts of persecution, in this warfare of light with darkness. Evil dies hard, and meanwhile does as much damage as possible. In the slow making of a better world many heroic souls have paid a high price for their privilege of being comrades of Jesus and the martyrs of the light.

The rewards of complete dedication.-True Christian heroism is usually possible without losing friends or property; but it requires complete dedication to Christ of all we have and are, just as any soldier, once enlisted, cannot discuss with his officers what sacrifice he will or will not make. His life is dedicated to his country for the period of his enlistment. The early disciples of Jesus began to see that their soldierly dedication to his cause was costing them a good deal, and one of them one day reminded Jesus of it. His reply is a remarkable promise:

Then Peter said, "Behold, to follow you we have given up everything." And Jesus said to them, "I tell you truly there is no one who has given up his home or his parents or brothers or wife or bairns, for the sake of God's kingdom, who shall not receive

many times as much in this present time, and in the age to come enduring life."-Luke 18: 28-.

Many a heroic life has found comfort in this promise and has proved it to be true. The missionary becomes an exile from home and native land, as he gladly dedicates his all to the great Cause. He even leaves his growing children to be educated in America, while he works on and on, it may be among the Zulus. His sacrifice is as great as his heroism, but he rejoices in the great satisfactions of his work. He is helping to build a new Christian civilization among the responsive and grateful people to whom he has given his life. We cannot pity him. He would smile at our pity. He would even be sorry for many of us in our narrow life of mere money-making in America.

Heroism in twentieth century terms.-The Christian hero to-day is no long-faced saint, but a hard-fisted wrestler with evil, who takes a keen delight sometimes in the hardships of his heroism. He is an idealist who will not compromise with any sort of organized evil, however popular or powerful. If he believes he is obeying God's will, he will attack corruption in politics, or injustice in business as quickly as he fought to the death the saloon system, the public lottery, and police-protected vice.

The modern hero, then, is a fighter for the right and a Knight of the Golden Rule. He is more jealous of other people's rights than his own, and most anxious of all to fulfill his own duty. The cause of social justice always appeals to his heroism, for this is the cause of Christ's brotherly world. There are great battles yet to be fought and won by these modern heroes, battles with corrupt party machines in politics, with grafting police in league with vice, battles with influential newspapers whose

editors have been bribed by powerful interests, battles with predatory industrial leaders who are no better than the robber barons of the feudal age.

Are you getting ready for heroic living?-There is no danger of this war ending before you can get into it, as the World War did! The high-school youth of to-day will soon inherit these battles from their fathers. Have you got the moral fiber in you to meet this challenge of your heroism? If so, you will find plenty of laboratory work to test it. Is your will becoming soft and flabby by yielding to your daily temptations, or are you growing moral muscles like tempered steel, by not yielding? Remember your heroism is in the making now if ever. Dare to face ridicule rather than go with the crowd, when you know the crowd is wrong, dead wrong. Dare to follow your father's faith, your mother's prayers, the ideals of Jesus and your own conscience at any cost, and get ready for the day when the opportunity for manly heroism will surely knock at the door of your life.

"Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes-they were souls that stood alone,

While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone,

Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline

To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine,

By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's supreme design.

"By the light of burning heretics Christ's bleeding feet I track,

Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back,