GOD is pure.

He delighted in friendships both with men and women: but you could not
imagine anything unclean in His friendships. He was not married, but
He looked upon marriage as an utterly pure and holy thing, taught that
a man should leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife so that
they twain should be one flesh, and recognized no possibility of
divorce except--and even this is not quite certain--on the ground of
marital unfaithfulness. He had one and the same standard of purity for
men and women.

He loved children, the birds and the flowers, the life of the open
air: but He was equally at home in the life of the town. He went out
to dinner with anybody who asked Him: He rejoiced in the simple
hilarity of a wedding feast. He was a believer in fellowship, and in
human brotherhood. He was everybody's friend, and looked upon no one
as beyond the pale. He loved sinners and welcomed them, without in the
least condoning what was wrong. He looked upon the open and
acknowledged sinner as a more hopeful person from the religious point
of view than the person who was self-satisfied and smug. He said that
He came to seek and to save those who knew themselves to be lost.

He chose twelve men to be in an especial sense His disciples--learners
in His school. To them He sought to reveal something of His deeper
mind. He tried to make them understand that true royalty consists in
service; that if a man would be spiritually great he should choose for
himself the lowest room, and become the servant of all; that the
privilege of sitting on His right hand and on His left in His Kingdom
was reserved for those for whom it was prepared by His Father; the
important thing was whether a man was prepared to drink His cup of