One day Jesus was urging his disciples to be faithful and courageous in proclaiming his whole truth to the world, and thus he encouraged and exhorted them: “And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear him.” Instead of trusting in any wise to self-interest Jesus demands its crucifixion. When he says, “If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me;” when he demands self-renunciation absolute; when he says that no interest possible in this world--whether houses, lands, father, mother, brother, sister, child, or wife--must come between him and his disciples; when he raises a cross by his own upon which selfishness must die, he stands apart from all men. His method is not a man’s. His plans are as different from a man’s as the end he proposed is above a man’s thought and different from it. If no man ever spoke like Jesus no man ever planned like him. In considering further some things in the methods which Jesus adopted for doing the work he proposed to himself we may mention, as different from a man’s method, that Jesus excludes from his plans for discipling the world reliance upon mere argument and force of intellect. Jesus left no room, not the least, for the fanatical superstition that his cause is to be advanced by ignorance. His doctrine furnishes every inspiration for the very highest development of mind; and the best educational work of the world is the outgrowth of Christian institutions. But Jesus does teach his disciples that they must not, in extending his kingdom, depend upon learning, upon mere force of intellect and argument. If they did this they would fail. So he taught them, and history makes it plain to us that his disciples have failed when they have forgotten his teachings. Alas! that it is so easy to pervert great gifts. It seems to be almost as difficult not to trust in great gifts of genius as it is to possess great wealth without loving it. With the end Jesus had in view he could not depend upon mere learning, mental gifts, and force of argument. For the essential trouble is not with men’s intellects, but their hearts. It is not that opinions are so wrong; it is that dispositions are so alienated from God. Man needs not a new opinion, but a new love. The task of Jesus was a far harder one than the correction of errors; it was the winning of hearts. Love is free; men may be convinced against their will, but love consents. CHAPTER XII. JESUS NEITHER THEOLOGIAN NOR ECCLESIASTIC. Jesus did none of the things a man would do who proposed to establish and perpetuate any sort of kingdom, or school of beliefs, even in this world.