The Christian realist, however, sees the possibilities in the evil and weak of mankind. He recognizes elements of virtue and courage and honor that are waiting to be called out, sets himself to elicit them and bases his conclusions on those very real facts. He is just as practical as the other, but with this difference--he expects more and gets it. When Jesus called the impulsive, eager Simon a rock, the hard-headed must have smiled and later remarked, "I told you so," when Peter broke under his first test; but Jesus' judgment was the truer after all. So with Mary Magdalene and Zacheus, Jesus saw in them what they might be and demonstrated that this is a world where the best has a chance. "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp," is Browning's rebuke to the merely prudent. Have you noted how Jesus drove home His point that the possibilities for good in the world and in men and women were of supreme importance? He was not content to leave it as a general proposition. By parable and precept again and again He made it clear, not merely that the possibilities were here, but that they were God's major interest. By them we are judged. The practical men who knew that the temple bills had to be paid knew that money was money, but Jesus rated the widow's tiny offering above them all. The one wandering sheep was more precious than the ninety-nine. The perfect young man who had kept all the commandments, no doubt the joy of his mother and the pride of his community, and also the substantial pillar of the church who had done everything that was required, were not to be compared with the social outcast who had failed but had the grace to admit it. There was hope for him. Taking the will for the deed, the sincere intention for the achievement, or the yearning of the heart for the practical accomplishment, is subversive of all our standards of conduct. No business could be run on the basis of paying men in accordance with their readiness to work, irrespective of the service rendered, as is the case in the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. But God seems to be able to run the universe on that basis. No wonder the common people heard Jesus gladly. Of course the corollary, or rather the premise, of that is that God has faith in us and loves and forgives. That is why He can use such an extraordinary way of estimating worth. He believes in us, believes that we are better than we know ourselves to be, for our knowledge seldom goes to the roots of our being. He can be patient while we are still stumbling through the shallows of existence. Ye know not what spirit ye are of, was Christ's word to those who had not yet caught God's vision of the world.