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He gave the barest hints as to the organization of the movement to which He devoted His life. He staked the whole future of His cause upon the work of twelve men who had been "with Him" until they were saturated with His Spirit and were competent to be "sent forth" to reproduce the main features of His life in the service to which they were called.

He was a "true vine," putting forth branches, projections, continuing utterances of His own nature. He put forth "these twelve," then "other seventy," then three thousand, that His work might bear fruit.

He chose "Twelve" because every Hebrew would see instantly that this meant a new Israel in which all the nations would be blessed, a New Jerusalem into which "the kings of the earth" would bring their glory and their honor. The number "twelve" was like a thought-form to the Hebrew, and the Master pictured the kingdom of God as having twelve sections.

He chose for the most part outdoor men, fishermen, farmers, peasants, and the like, whose main concern had been with things and persons, rather

than with words and abstract ideas. They would have a keener sense of reality. They would be better able to keep their feet on the ground, even when their heads and their hearts were among the stars. They would be more ready to use the language of every-day life, avoiding those huge, fat, heavy terms so dear to the hearts of philosophers and theologians.

The twelve men were strong in their individuality. They show none of that smooth monotony so often apparent where things like clothes-pins, hens' eggs, or bananas are counted off by the dozen. The twelve men followed the same Lord, but each one upon his own two feet, with his own particular gait and style.

The twelve men, as we follow their movements, never give us the impression of a well-drilled, finely uniformed company of angels. They do not suggest for a moment the well-cast colossal statues of themselves found under the dome of St. Peter's at Rome. There is something fresh and almost racy in the accounts we have of their action. They are twelve live men out of whom even the weight of an incomparable training had not pressed the

wrinkles of sharply defined personality. They followed the Master not in a weak, servile, monotonous imitation of the letter-they followed Him in the fine spontaneous freedom of the Spirit.

It was a small group-only a dozen of themyet how clearly they reveal the wide, inclusive hospitality of the kingdom of God on earth. Somewhere within the fellowship and service of the Son of Man, there is ample room for "all sorts and conditions of men." If, by these snap-shots of "Twelve Types" of Christian life, I can bring out that fact more fully for any one who may chance to turn these pages, I shall be content. CHAS. R. BROWN

Yale University,

December, 1925.

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