harmoniously united in Christ.

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of time and place and class and work and temperament are lost in that which embraces them all in a universal manhood.

:

And yet beyond this comprehensive humanity of the Son of man' there lies something which is not of man, a conscious sovereignty over men and nature answering to the voice of unfailing knowledge a vision which sees the truth of things beneath the phenomena of time: a declared separateness from men as well as fellowship with them an abiding sense of the issues of His mission transcending the highest possible estimate of the achievements of human effort.

The ideal was shewn to the world, and with the ideal power was assured to realise it in many parts and many fashions. For we must remember that the Gospel claims to be a power of GOD 'unto salvation' and not simply a declaration of the nature and the will of GOD. The attainment of the ideal has been slow, as we measure time, but endeavour to reach towards it has not been vain. As Præ-Christian history was in its sum a prophecy of the Gospel, so Post-Christian history has been a progressive embodiment of it. As we look back we can see how during eighteen centuries the solid advances of men toward their goal have been due to that which

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New revelations of GOD

is of the essence of the Faith: how the failures of the Faith have been due to the action of forces which are really foreign to it. We can see also how the Faith has not only been able to welcome each fresh access of knowledge which has been given to man through continuous labour, but also to grow in meaning and scope under the ampler light. So it was when the study of the heavens shewed the relative place of the Earth in the Solar System, and a truer conception was gained of our position in space. So it was when the study of the Earth shewed the relation of human life to the records of terrestrial changes, and a truer conception was gained of our position in time. In each case the new revelation-for so indeed the Holy Spirit speaks to us-was met at first with sad fears, and even with wilful resistance, but now we know what we have gained through what seemed to be losses, worthier views of the immeasurable range of the counsels of GOD's providence, calmer trust in the inexhaustible patience of GOD's working. And so it may be even now again. It may be that the study of human life will teach us to recognise unexpected connexions and dependences of being, and that in due time a truer conception of our position in creation, will enable us to realise a little better the unity of all things, as a thought, if we

through the perfections of Christ.

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may presume to use the phrase, in the mind of GOD.

Christianity, in a word, meets and hallows our broadest views of nature and life. It receives the testimony of universal history to the adequacy of its essential teaching to meet the needs of men. It reaches with unfailing completeness to the depths of each individual soul. The Person of Christ includes all that belongs to the perfection of every man. The Spirit of Christ brings the power through which each one can reach his true end. Christianity in a word, to sum up what has been said already, offers us an ideal and offers us strength to attain to it.

It is generally agreed that the type of character presented to us in the Gospels is the highest which we can fashion. The Person of the Lord meets us at every point in our strivings, and discloses something to call out in us loftier endeavour. In Him we discover in the most complete harmony all the excellences which are divided, not unequally, between man and woman. In Him we can recognise the gift which has been entrusted to each one of us severally, used in its true relation to the other endowments of

300 Christ satisfies the aspirations

humanity. He enters into the fulness of life, and makes known the value of each detail of life.

'And what He is for us He is for all men, and 'for all time. There is nothing in the ideal 'which He offers which belongs to any particular 'age, or class, or nation. He stands above all 'and unites all. That which was local or 'transitory in the circumstances under which 'He lived, in the controversies of rival sects, in 'the struggles of patriotism, in the isolation of ' religious pride, leaves no colour in His character. 'All that is abiding, all that is human, is there 'without admixture, in that eternal energy which 'man's heart can recognise in its time of trial.'

6

This being so 'the Person of the Lord satisfies

the requirement of growth which belongs to the 'religious nature of man. Our sense of His per'fections grows with our own moral advance. We see more of His beauty as our power of vision is disciplined and purified. The slow unfolding of 'life enables us to discern new meaning in His 'presence. In His humanity is included whatever 'belongs to the consummation of the individual 'and of the race, not only in one stage, but in all 'stages of progress, not only in regard to some endowments, but in regard to the whole inherit'ance of our nature, enlarged by the most vigorous

use while the world lasts. We, in our weakness

' and littleness, confine our thoughts from genera'tion to generation, now to this fragment of His 'fulness and now to that; but it is, I believe, true 'without exception in every realm of man's activity, 'true in action, true in literature, true in art, that the works which receive the most lasting homage 'of the soul are those which are most Christian, ' and that it is in each the Christian element, the 'element which answers to the fact of the Incar'nation, to the fellowship of GOD with man as an 'accomplished reality of the present order, which 'attracts and holds our reverence1.'

But while we instinctively acknowledge the ideal in Christ as that which interprets perfectly our own aspirations, for no accumulation of failures can destroy the sense of our destiny, we confess, as we look back sadly, that alone, in ourselves, we have no new resource of strength for the future, as we have no ability to undo the past. The loftiest souls apart from Christ recognise that they were made for an end which 'naturally' is unattainable. They do homage (for example) to a purity which they personally dishonour. This need brings into prominence the supreme characteristic of the faith. Christ meets the acknowledgment of individual help

1 Religious Thought in the West, pp. 252 f.