I WORLD POWER: THE EMPIRE OF CHRIST TEXT:-"And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus that all the world should be taxed." “And it came to pass that the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.”—St. Luke 2:1, 6, 7. PLACED thus in contrast, these two passages reveal a wide difference in spirit, but they uncover the same great ambition springing from the opposite poles of the spiritual world. They are as far apart as the universe in motive and method, but hidden away in each is the same daring ideal of the universal sway over men. Over there in Rome the dream of world power was floating in the mind of Cæsar; over yonder in Bethlehem the dream of world empire was imbedded in the brain of an unconscious child. It was the beginning of a struggle for the mastery of the race. In those two figures-the |