Jesus' Ideals of Living

"Ideals make life, not fame nor gold;

And love sings low with fragrant breath: 'All else but soul and love grow old; But soul and love bewilder death!'

"Give love to life; give love to man.
Give love to truth's eternal call.
The hasting world may go its span,
But soul and love shall vanquish all!"
-Frederick Houk Law in "A Fugue of Youth."

FOREWORD

THIS is a textbook in the religion of youth, based on Jesus' own experience. It aims to meet the religious and social needs of young folks in the later teens, whose most important business, whether in school or industry, is the forming of permanent ideals. Hosts of these eager boys and girls are anxious to know what it means to be a modern Christian. They want to know what is involved in living the Jesus Way in the twentieth century, in terms of their own life. They try to discover by watching their adult friends, and are often very much puzzled. Sometimes they observe no special difference in personal character between those within and without the church. They are frankly asking: "Is there anything real in religion? What difference does it really make if a person is a Christian?" Perhaps they see more difference in the case of their pious grandmother than in the case of their nominally Christian father; and they wonder if religion is going out of date. Frankly, they are not much interested in a grandmotherly religion; they want a religion of youth or none at all.

The author believes that the young man Christ Jesus lived and taught a religion for youth. It was partly the product of his own youthful struggles, adolescent ideals, and hungers for righteousness and truth. Most of the Bible was written by adults for adults, but in the life and teachings of Jesus we have a youthful religion which will always challenge successfully the loyalty of youth, because of its magnificent ideals. So this book endeavors to contrast clearly the low ideals of the world's common

practice with the noble ideals of Jesus the Christ, so that our young people may more clearly see what it means to live afresh the life of Jesus in the modern setting.

The chief aim of the book, however, is not simply to teach the ideals of Jesus, important though that is. It is to get Jesus' ideals of living actually into our boys' and girls' characters. So the "social project method" is used more frequently than the "knowledge-transfer method," though the appeal to authority, of course, is invariably to Jesus. The "Points for Discussion," at the end of each chapter, introduce many practical problems of modern American youth; and the additional questions "For Further Study and Honor Work" are for the more mature students and any who may be working for highschool credit for this course of study. In connection with each chapter some additional reading is suggested by reference to other books on the topics discussed. The author's thanks are here given the various publishers mentioned in footnotes, for the privilege of quoting copyrighted material.

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