not with flesh and blood.”  Life is more than a game of chess or whist; it is a great battle; every man must, and does, take sides; he must fight or die.  And the real kings of society are, as a rule, on the side of truth, and aid its triumph.  For one essential condition of such leadership is the power to inspire confidence in the love of the king for his willing subject.  A suspicion of selfish aims in the leader breaks this bond.  The hero must be self-forgetful.  This is one reason for man’s hero-worship, and the magnetic, dominant power of the hero.  But evil is essentially selfish and can gain and hold this kingship only as long as it can deceive.  And these kings “live forever.”  Dynasties and empires disappear, but Socrates and Plato, Luther and Huss, Cromwell and Lincoln, rule an ever-widening kingdom of ever more loyal subjects.

And society will have leaders; men may set up whatever form of government they will, they are always searching for a king.  And this is no sign of weakness or credulity.  Man’s desire for leadership is only another proof of the vast future which he knows is before him, and into which he longs to be guided.  The wiser a man is, the more he desires to be taught; the nobler he becomes, the more whole-souled is the homage which he pays to the noblest.  Is it a sign of weakness or ignorance in students, of adult age and ripe manhood, to flock to some great university to hear the wisdom and catch the inspiration of some great master?  When Jackson fell Lee exclaimed, “I have lost my right arm.”  Was Jackson any the less for being the right arm to deal, as only he could, the crushing blows planned by the great strategist?

But is not man to be independent and free?  Certainly.  But he gains freedom from the petty tyranny of robber-baron or boss, and from the very pettiest tyranny of all, the service of self, only as he finds and enlists under the king.  Serve self and it will plunge you in, and drag you through, the ditch, till your own clothes abhor you.  You are free to choose your teacher and guide and example.  But choose you will and must.  I am not propounding theories; I am telling you facts.  Whether for better or worse man always does and will choose because he must.  Look about you, look into yourselves.  Have you no hero whom you admire and strive to resemble? no teacher to whom you listen?  You must and do have your example and teacher.  Is he teaching you to conform to environment, or leading you to be ground in pieces by its forces all arrayed against you?

The Carpenter of Nazareth stood before Pilate.  “And Pilate said unto him, Art thou a king then?  Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king.  To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.  Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.”  And Pilate would not wait for the answer to his question, What is truth? and the Jews chose Barabbas.  Would you and I have acted differently?  The answer of