It must be a passion; a fire burning with the steady flame of anthracite fed by a constant stream of oil.  If it be less we will be swept off our feet by the tides all around, or sucked under by their swift current.  And many a splendid man to-day is being swept off his feet and sucked under by the tides and currents of life because no such passion as this is mooring and steadying and driving his whole life.

It must be a passion for winning men; not driving nor dragging, drawing.  Not argument nor coercion but warm, winsome wooing.  Today the sun up yonder is drawing up toward itself thousands of tons’ weight of water.  Nobody sees it going, except perhaps in very small part.  There’s no noise or dust.  But the water rises up irresistibly toward the sun because of the winning power in the sun for the water.  It must be something like that in this higher sphere.  A winsomeness in us that will win men to us and through us to the Master.

“Oh! well,” some one says, “if you put the thing that way you’ll have to count me out.  I’m not winsome that way.”  Well, maybe you need not have bothered to say it.  We could easily know that without your saying it.  We are not winsome this way, any of us, of ourselves.  But when we allow this Jesus Spirit to take possession of us He imparts His winsomeness.  For the real secret of a transfigured life is a transmitted life.  Somebody else living in us, with a capital S for that Somebody, looking out of our eyes, giving His beauty to our faces, and His winningness to our personality.

“As the Stars.”

The language used in the Scriptures for this sort of thing is full of intense interest.  Some time ago I was reading in the old prophecy of Daniel.  I was not thinking of this matter of winning men but simply trying to get a fresh grasp of that wonderfully fascinating old bit of prophecy.  And all at once I came across that gem in the last chapter.  I knew it was there.  You know it is there.  Yet it came to me with all the freshness of a new delightful surprise.  “They that are wise shall shine with the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever."[10]

Four times in those last two chapters of Daniel it refers to those that are “wise”; literally, those that are teachers.  Those who have themselves learned the truth and are patiently, faithfully, winsomely telling and teaching others.  The word used for influencing the others is full of practical picturesque meaning.  “They that turn many.”  As if a man were going the wrong way on a dangerous road.  And I know it’s the wrong way.  There’s a sharp precipice ahead.  But he is going steadily on, head down, all absorbed, not noticing where the road leads.

I might go up to him, and strike him sharply on the shoulder to get his attention, and say, “See here, you’re going the wrong way; can’t you see the danger ahead there?  Come this way,” with a vigorous pull.  I have sometimes seen that done, in just that way.  And if the man is an American, or an Englishman, or a German,—­we’re all very much alike,—­he will say coldly, “Excuse me.  I think I can take care of myself.  Thank you.  I’ll look out for this individual.”