Other teachers can tell us what we ought to learn, and to do, yet
they have no power to help us learn, or do what they teach. But Jesus
_has_ this power. Let us take a single illustration from many of the
same kind that occurred while he was on earth. One day he was going
about teaching in the streets of Jerusalem. As he went on, he passed
by the office of a man who was gathering taxes for the Roman
government. The persons who did this were called _publicans_. This
man, sitting in his office, was named Matthew. He was busily engaged
in receiving the taxes of the people. It was a very profitable
business. The men engaged in it generally made a great deal of money.
Jesus stopped before the window or door of this office. He beckoned
to Matthew, and simply spoke these two words:--"_Follow me_."

Now, if any other teacher had spoken these words to Matthew, and had
tried to make him quit his business and engage in something else, he
would have said: "No; I can't leave my office. This is all the means
I have of getting a living. The business pays well, and I am not
willing to give it up." But when Jesus spoke to him, he did, at once,
what he was told to do. We read that "He left all, rose up, and
followed him." Matt. ix: 9; Luke v: 28. He became one of the twelve
apostles and wrote the gospel which bears his name. But it was the
great power which Jesus has over the hearts of men that made Matthew
willing to do, at once, what he was told to do.

And the power which Jesus exercised over Matthew, in this case, he
still has, and still uses. And when he is pleased to use this power
the very worst people feel it, and are made good by it. And Jesus,
"the Great Teacher," uses this power sometimes in connection with
very simple things. Here is an illustration. We may call it: