,transcriber's note3 the plus 77 symbol 
is used in this etext to indicate bolded
 text4      ,,the ,,new ,,theology      
,,by  ,r4 ,j4 ,,campbell1 ,m4,a4        
,,minister ,,of ,,the ,,city ,,temple1  
,,london     ,new ,york  ,,the          
,,macmillan ,,company  #aijg   ,all     
rights reserved     ,,copyright1 #aijg1 
,,by ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company4   ,set
 up and electrotyped4  ,published       
,march1 #aijg4  ,reprinted ,april1      
#aijg4     ,,introduction  ,this book   
has been undertaken at the request of a 
number of my friends who feel that      
recent criticisms of what has come to be
 called the ,new ,theology ought to be  
dealt with in some comprehensive and    
systematic way4  ,with this suggestion  
my own judgment concurs1 but only so far
 as my own pulpit teaching is concerned4
  ,i cannot pretend to speak for anyone 
else1 and therefore this monograph must 
not be understood as an authoritative   
exposition of the views held and        
expounded by other preachers who may be 

in sympathy with the ,new ,theology4    
,from its very nature1 as ,i hope the   
following pages will show1 the ,new     
,theology cannot be a creed1 but its    
adherents have a common standpoint4  ,my
 only reason for calling this book by   
that title is that a considerable       
section of the public at present        
persists in regarding me as in a special
 way the exponent of it2 indeed from the
 correspondence which has been          
proceeding in the press it is evident   
that many people credit me with having  
invented both the name and the thing4   
,it is of little use objecting to the   
name1 for to all appearance it has come 
to stay and is gradually acquiring a    
marked and definite content4  ,so long  
as it is clearly understood that this   
book is but an outline statement of my  
own personal views1 the title will do no
 harm4  ,the controversy which is not   
yet over has been fruitful in           
misunderstandings of all kinds1 and a   
great many of the criticisms passed upon

 my teaching have been wholly due to a  
mistaken notion of what it really is4   
,in so far as any of those criticisms   
have been directed against me           
personally1 ,i have nothing to say2 ,i  
hope ,i can leave my vindication to the 
judgment of whatever public may feel an 
interest in my work4  ,the best         
rejoinder that could be made to the     
various criticisms of the teaching      
itself would be to publish them side by 
side1 for they neutralise one another   
most effectually4  ,but a better and    
more useful thing to do is to let the   
public know just what the teaching is   
and leave it to the test of time4  ,i do
 not greatly object to having it        
described as new4   ,the fundamental    
principle of the ,new ,theology is as   
old as religion1 but ,i am quite willing
 to admit that in its all-round         
application to the conditions of modern 
life it is new4  ,i do not see why a man
 should be ashamed of confessing that he
 does his own thinking instead of       

letting other people do it for him4     
,this book1 then1 is not the author's   
,apologia pro ,vita ,sua4  ,it is       
intended as a concise statement of the  
outlines of the teaching given from the 
,city ,temple pulpit4  ,it is neither a 
reply to separate criticisms nor an ex  
cathedra utterance4  ,i think ,i am     
usually able to say what ,i mean1 and in
 the following pages my object is to say
 what ,i mean in such a way that        
everyone can understand4     ,,contents 
,,chapter      ,i4  ,,the ,,name ,,and  
,,the ,,situation    ,,ii4  ,,god ,,and 
,,the ,,universe   ,,iii4  ,,man ,,in   
,,relation ,,to ,,god    ,,iv4  ,,the   
,,nature ,,of ,,evil    ,,vi4  ,,the    
,,eternal ,,christ   ,,vii4  ,,the      
,,incarnation ,,of ,,the ,,son ,,of     
,,god  ,,viii4  ,,the ,,atonement4--,i4 
,,association ,,of ,,the ,,doctrine     
,,with ,,jesus    ,,ix4  ,,the          
,,atonement4--,,ii4 ,,semitic ,,ideas   
,,of ,,atonement     ,x4  ,,the         
,,atonement4--,,iii4 ,,the ,,doctrine   

,,in ,,christian ,,history              
,,and ,,experience    ,,xi4  ,,the      
,,authority ,,of ,,scripture   ,,xii4   
,,salvation1 ,,judgment1 ,,and ,,the    
,,life ,,to ,,come  ,,xiii4  ,,the      
,,church ,,and ,,the ,,kingdom ,,of     
,,god   ,,xiv4  ,,conclusion     ,,the  
,,new ,,theology   ,,chapter ,i  ,,the  
,,name ,,and ,,the ,,situation          
,religion and ,theology4--,religion is  
one thing and theology another1 but     
religion is never found apart from a    
theology of some kind1 for theology is  
the intellectual articulation of        
religious experience4 ,every man who has
 anything worthy to be called a         
religious experience has also a         
theology2 he cannot help it4  ,no sooner
 does he attempt to understand or       
express his experience of the relations 
of ,god and the soul than he finds      
himself in possession of a theology4    
,the religious experience may be a very 
good one and the theology a very bad    
one1 but still religion and theology are

 necessary to each other1 and it is a   
man's duty to try to make his theology  
as nearly as possible an adequate and   
worthy expression of his religion4  ,he 
will never succeed in doing this in a   
permanent fashion1 for the content of   
religious experience is1 or should be1  
greater than any form of statement4     
,but theology is everyone's business4   
,we cannot afford to leave it to experts
 or refrain from forming our own        
judgment upon the pronouncements of     
experts4  ,to speak of theology as      
though it had an esoteric and an        
exoteric side1 one for the man in the   
study and the other for the man in the  
world1 is a practical heresy of a most  
dangerous kind4  ,neither should        
theology be confounded with             
ecclesiasticism4  ,it is my conviction  
that the battle with ecclesiasticism has
 long since been decided1 and           
civilisation has nothing to fear from   
the official priest4  ,those who spend  
their time in protesting against        

sacerdotal pretensions are only beating 
the air--,we shall never go to ,canossa1
 as ,bismarck said4  ,no1 the real      
danger to spiritual religion1 and       
therefore to the immediate future of    
mankind in every department of thought  
and action1 arises from practical       
materialism on the one hand and an      
antiquated dogmatic theology on the     
other4  ,i hope it will be understood by
 readers of these pages that in any     
references ,i may make to dogmatic      
theology ,i am passing no reflection    
upon the scientific theologian whose    
work is being done in the field of      
historical criticism or archaeology or  
any of the departments of scientific    
research into the subject-matter of     
religion4  ,most of my readers will     
understand quite well what ,i mean4     
,everyone knows that1 broadly speaking1 
certain ways of stating ,christian truth
 are taken for granted both in pulpit   
and pew2 the popular or generally       
accepted theology of all the churches of

 ,christendom1 ,catholic and ,protestant
 alike1 is fundamentally the same1 and  
somehow the modern mind has come to     
distrust it4  ,there is a curious want  
of harmony between our ordinary views of
 life and our conventional religious    
beliefs4  ,we live our lives upon one   
set of assumptions during six days of   
the week and a quite different set on   
,sunday and in church4  ,the average man
 feels this without perhaps quite       
realising what is the matter4  ,all he  
knows is that the propositions he has   
been taught to regard as a full and     
perfect statement of ,christianity have 
little or nothing to do with his        
everyday experience2 they seem to belong
 to a different world4  ,he does not    
know how comparatively modern this      
popular presentation of ,christianity   
is4 ,what is wanted therefore is a      
restatement of the essential truth of   
the ,christian religion in terms of the 
modern mind4  ,the ,new ,theology and   
the ,immanence of ,god4--,where or when 

the name ,new ,theology arose ,i do not 
know1 but it has been in existence for  
at least one generation4  ,it is neither
 of my invention nor of my choice4 ,it  
has long been in use both in this       
country and in ,america to indicate the 
attitude of those who believe that the  
fundamentals of the ,christian faith    
need to be rearticulated in terms of the
 immanence of ,god4  ,those who take    
this view do not hold that there is any 
need for a new religion1 but that the   
forms in which the religion of ,jesus is
 commonly presented are inadequate and  
misleading4  ,what is wanted is         
freshness and simplicity of statement4  
,the ,new ,theology is not new except in
 the sense that it seeks to substitute  
simplicity for complexity and to get    
down to moral values in its use of      
religious terms4  ,our objection is not 
so much to the venerable creeds of      
,christendom as to the ordinary         
interpretations of those creeds4  ,and1 
creeds or no creeds1 we hold that the   

religious experience which came to the  
world in ,jesus of ,nazareth is enough  
for all our needs1 and only requires to 
be freed from limiting statements in    
order to lay firm hold once more upon   
the civilised world4  ,the ,new         
,theology is an untrammelled return to  
the ,christian sources in the light of  
modern thought4  ,its starting point is 
a re-emphasis of the ,christian belief  
in the divine immanence in the universe 
and in mankind4  ,this doctrine is      
certainly not new1 but it requires to be
 placed effectively in the foreground of
 ,christian preaching4  ,in the         
immediate past the doctrine of the      
divine transcendence--that is1 the      
obvious truth that the infinite being of
 ,god must transcend the infinite       
universe--has been presented in such a  
way as to amount to a practical dualism1
 and to lead men to think of ,god as    
above and apart from ,his world instead 
of expressing ,himself through ,his     
world4  ,i repeat that this dualism is  

practical1 not theoretical1 but that it 
exists is plain enough from such        
statements as that of the present-day   
theologian who speaks of ,god's eternal 
eminence1 and ,his descent on a created 
world4  ,this kind of theologising leads
 straight to the conclusion that ,god is
 to all intents and purposes quite      
distinct from ,his creation1 although   
,he possesses a full and accurate       
knowledge of all that goes on in it and 
reserves to ,himself the right to       
interfere4 ,in what sense language like 
this leaves room for the divine         
immanence it is difficult to see4  ,the 
,new ,theology holds that we know       
nothing and can know nothing of the     
,infinite ,cause whence all things      
proceed except as we read ,him in ,his  
universe and in our own souls4  ,it is  
the immanent ,god with whom we have to  
do1 and if this obvious fact is once    
firmly grasped it will simplify all our 
religious conceptions and give us a     
working faith4  ,the decline of         

organised ,christianity4--,for a        
generation or more in every part of     
,christendom there has been a steady    
drift away from organised religion as   
represented by the churches1 and the    
question is being seriously asked       
whether ,christianity can much longer   
hold its own4  ,protestant              
controversialists frequently draw       
attention to the decline of church-going
 in ,latin countries as evidence of the 
decay of sacerdotalism1 particularly in 
the church of ,rome4  ,but outside      
,latin countries it is not one whit more
 noticeable in the church of ,rome than 
in any other church4  ,the masses of the
 people on the one hand and the cultured
 classes on the other are becoming      
increasingly alienated from the religion
 of the churches4  ,a ,london daily     
paper made a religious census some years
 ago and demonstrated that about        
one-fifth of the population of the      
metropolis attended public worship1 and 
this was a generous estimate4  ,women1  

who are more emotional1 more reverent1  
and more amenable to external authority 
than men1 usually form the majority of  
the worshippers at an ordinary service4 
,mr4 ,charles ,booth in his great work  
on the ,life and ,labour of the ,people 
in ,london asserts that the churches are
 practically without influence of any   
kind on the communal life4  ,this ,i    
believe to be an exaggeration1 but it   
will hardly be denied that the average  
working1 business1 or professional man  
looks upon the churches almost with     
indifference4  ,in many cases this      
indifference passes into hostility or   
contempt4  ,intelligent men take little 
notice of preachers and sermons1 and the
 theologically-minded layman is such a  
rarity as to be noteworthy4  ,most      
significant of all1 perhaps1 is the fact
 that much of the moral earnestness of  
the nation and of social redemptive     
effort exists outside the churches      
altogether4  ,i am well aware that there
 is a great deal of snarling criticism  

of the churches which springs from      
selfish materialism1 and ,i gladly      
recognise that in almost any ordinary   
church to-day brave and self-denying    
work is being done for the common good1 
but this does not invalidate my general 
statement4  ,the plain1 bald fact       
remains that the churches as such are   
counting for less and less in           
civilisation in general and our own     
nation in particular4  ,one of the      
ablest of our rising young members of   
,parliament1 a man of strong religious  
convictions and social sympathies1      
recently declared that we were          
witnessing the melancholy spectacle of a
 whole civilisation breaking away from  
the faith out of which it grew4  ,to be 
sure1 the same thing has been said      
before and has proved to be wrong4  ,it 
was said in the eighteenth century when 
men with something of the prophet's fire
 in them preached the gospel of the     
,rights of ,man1 declaring at the same  
time that institutional religion was at 

an end1 utterly discredited1 and        
impossible of acceptance by any         
intelligent being4  ,in ,france during  
the ,revolution the populace turned     
frantically upon the established faith1 
tore it to shreds1 burlesqued it1 and   
set up the worship of the ,goddess of   
,reason1 as they called it1 typified by 
a ,parisian harlot4  ,in ,england a     
devitalised ,deism laid its chilly hand 
not only upon the world of scholars and 
men of letters1 but even upon the       
church4  ,an ,english king is reported  
to have said that half his bishops were 
atheists4  ,and yet1 somehow1 religion  
reasserted itself all over the civilised
 world4  ,napoleon with shrewd insight  
realised that the people could not do   
without it1 and so effected the         
,concordat with ,rome which has now been
 dissolved2 ,wesley began the movement  
in ,england which has since created the 
largest ,protestant denomination in the 
world2 ,germany produced a succession of
 great preachers and scholars the like  

of whom had hardly ever been known in   
,europe before4  ,will religious faith  
regain its power8--,will this happen    
again8  ,for assuredly ,christianity has
 for the moment lost its hold4  ,can it 
recover it8  ,i am sure it can1 if only 
because the moral movements of the age1 
such as the great labour movement1 are  
in reality the expression of the        
,christian spirit1 and only need to     
recognise themselves as such in order to
 become irresistible4  ,the waggon of   
socialism needs to be hitched to the    
star of religious faith4  ,but have the 
churches spiritual energy enough to     
recover their lost position8 ,that      
depends upon themselves4  ,if they      
consent to be bound by dogmatic         
statements inherited from the past1 they
 are doomed4  ,the world is not         
listening to theologians to-day4  ,they 
have no message for it4  ,they are on   
the periphery1 not at the centre of     
things4  ,the great rolling river of    
thought and action is passing them by4  

,scientific scholarship applied to the  
study of ,christian origins is extremely
 valuable1 but the defender of systems  
of belief couched in the language of a  
by-gone age is an anachronism and the   
sooner we shake ourselves free of him   
the better4  ,the greatest of all the   
causes of the drift from the churches is
 the fact that ,christian truth has     
become associated in the popular mind   
with certain forms of statement which   
thoughtful men find it impossible to    
accept not only on intellectual but even
 on moral grounds4  ,certain dogmatic   
beliefs1 for example1 about the ,fall1  
the scriptural basis of revelation1 the 
blood-atonement1 the meaning of         
salvation1 the punishment of sin1 heaven
 and hell1 are not only misleading but  
unethical4  ,what sensible man really   
believes in these notions as popularly  
assumed and presented1 and what have    
they to do with ,christianity8  ,they do
 not square with the facts of life1 much
 less do they interpret life4  ,they go 

straight in the teeth of the scientific 
method1 which1 even where the ,christian
 facts are concerned1 is the only method
 which carries weight with the modern   
mind4  ,the consequence is that religion
 has come to be thought of as something 
apart from ordinary everyday life1 a    
matter of churches1 creeds1 and ,bible  
readings1 instead of what it really     
is1--the cordinating principle of all   
our activities4  ,to put the matter in a
 nutshell1--popular ,christianity 7or   
rather pulpit and theological college   
,christianity7 does not interpret life4 
,consequently the great world of thought
 and action is ceasing to trouble about 
it4  ,theologians and preachers rarely  
realise the situation4--,one would think
 that the men whose business it is to   
teach religious truth would see this and
 ask themselves the reason why4  ,to an 
extent they do see it1 but they never   
seem to think of blaming themselves for 
it except in a perfunctory kind of way4 
,they talk about religious indifference1

 the need for better and more effective 
methods1 and so on4  ,the professional  
theologian rarely does even as much as  
this4  ,he takes himself very seriously2
 sniffs and sneers at any suggestion of 
deviation from the accepted standards2  
mounts some denominational chair or     
other and thunders forth his view of the
 urgent necessity for rehabilitating    
truth in the grave-clothes of           
long-buried formulas4  ,i mean that the 
language he habitually uses implies some
 kind of belief in formulas he no longer
 holds4  ,he hardly dares to disinter   
the formulas themselves1--that would not
 be convenient even for him1--but he    
goes on flapping the shroud as          
energetically as ever1 and the world    
does not even take the trouble to laugh4
  ,wherever and whenever religious      
agencies succeed it is rarely because of
 the driving power of what is preached1 
but because the preacher's gospel is    
glossed over or put in the background4  
,we have popular services by the million

 in which devices are used to attract   
the public which ought not to be        
necessary if their framers had any real 
message to declare4  ,but they have not4
  ,popular pulpit addresses rarely or   
never deal with the fundamental problems
 of life4  ,the last thing one ever     
expects to hear in such addresses is a  
real living representation of the       
beliefs the preacher professes to hold4 
,he makes passing allusions to them1 of 
course1 such as appeals to come to the  
cross1 and such like1 but they generally
 sound unreal1 and the pill has to be   
sweetly sugared4  ,the ordinary way of  
preaching the gospel is to avoid saying 
much about what the preacher believes   
the gospel to be4  ,to be sure there are
 many social activities in connection   
with ,christian churches4  ,if it were  
not for these the churches would have to
 be shut up4  ,they are quite admirable 
in their way1 and often produce         
excellent results1 but they imply       
another gospel than the one supposed to 

be preached from the pulpits4  ,they    
ignore dogmatic beliefs1 and assume the 
salvability of the whole race and the   
possibility of realising the kingdom of 
,god on earth4  ,wherever the churches  
are alive to-day1 and not merely        
struggling to keep their heads above    
water1 it is not their doctrine but     
their non-theological human sympathy    
that is doing it4  ,this1 then1 is the  
situation4  ,the main stream of modern  
life is passing organised religion by4  
,where is the remedy to be found8  ,we  
seek to save religion rather than the   
,churches4--,let me say plainly that ,i 
do not think our object should be to    
find a remedy which will save the       
churches4  ,that would be putting the   
cart before the horse4  ,what is wanted 
is a driving force which will enable the
 churches to fulfil their true mission  
of saving the world1 or1 to put it      
better still1 will serve to bring       
mankind back to real living faith in    
,god and the spiritual meaning of life4 

,hardly anyone would seriously deny that
 the world is waiting for this4  ,men   
are not irreligious4  ,on the contrary  
there is no subject of such general     
interest as religion2 it takes          
precedence of all other subjects just   
because all other subjects are implied  
in it4  ,religion is man's response to  
the call of the universe2 it is the soul
 turning towards its source and goal4   
,how could it fail to be of absorbing   
interest8 ,what is wanted is a message  
charged with spiritual power1 ,where    
there is no vision the people perish4   
,mere dogmatic assertions will not do4  
,the word of ,god is to be known from   
the fact that it illuminates life and   
appeals to the deepest and truest in the
 soul of man4  ,that message is here    
now4  ,it is being preached1 not by one 
man only1 but the wide world over4  ,god
 has spoken1 and woe betide the churches
 if they will not hear4  ,religion is   
necessary to mankind1 but churches are  
not4 ,from every quarter of ,christendom

 a new spirit of hope and confidence is 
rising1 born of a conviction that all   
that is human is the evidence of ,god1  
and that ,jesus held the key to the     
riddle of existence4 ,although this     
comes to us as with the freshness of a  
new revelation1 it is not really new4   
,it is the spirit which has been the    
inspiration of every great religious    
awakening since the world began4  ,in   
this country and in other parts of the  
,english-speaking world that spirit is  
becoming associated with the name the   
,new ,theology4  ,to associate it with  
any one personality is to belittle the  
subject and to obscure its real         
significance4  ,there are many brave and
 good men in the churches and outside   
the churches to-day1 men of true        
prophetic spirit1 who would reject      
utterly the name ,new ,theology1 but who
 are thoroughly imbued with this new-old
 spirit and are leading mankind toward  
the light4  ,in the church of ,rome the 
movement is typified by men like ,father

 ,tyrrell1 whose teaching has led to his
 expulsion from the ,jesuit order1 but  
not1 so far1 from the priesthood4  ,the 
present condition of the church of ,rome
 is not unhopeful to those who believe  
as ,i do that that venerable church has 
been used of ,god to great ends in the  
past and that her spiritual vitality is 
by no means exhausted4  ,father ,tyrrell
 and such as he are nearer in spirit to 
the ,new ,theology men than are the     
latter to those ,protestants who pin    
their faith to external standards of    
belief4  ,it is a curious but           
indisputable fact that the most extreme 
anti-,romanist ,protestants are         
themselves in the same boat with ,rome3 
they insist on the absolute necessity   
for external authority in matters of    
belief and are unwilling to trust the   
individual soul to recognise truth as it
 comes4  ,in all the churches those who 
believe in the religion of the ,spirit  
should recognise one another as         
brothers4  ,in the church of ,england a 

large and increasing band of men are    
looking in this direction and are making
 their influence felt4  ,of these       
perhaps the most outstanding is         
,archdeacon ,wilberforce1 but he is by  
no means alone4  ,a movement has begun  
in the ,lutheran church4  ,it has       
existed for a long time in ,french      
,protestantism as represented by the    
late ,auguste ,sabatier and his friend  
,rville4  ,in the congregational and    
other evangelical churches of ,england  
and ,america the same attitude is being 
taken by many who are not even aware    
that the name ,new ,theology is being   
applied to it4  ,in this country the    
movement in the free churches is        
typified by men like the ,rev4 ,t4      
,rhondda ,williams of ,bradford4  ,there
 are many ,unitarians who are preaching 
it2 indeed1 there are some who would    
assert that the ,new ,theology is only  
,unitarianism under another name4  ,but1
 as ,i shall hope to show1 this is very 
far from being the case4  ,it may or may

 not be professed by exponents of       
,unitarianism1 but it is not a surrender
 to ,unitarianism4  ,the ,new ,theology 
is spiritual socialism4--,the great     
social movement which is now taking     
place in every country of the civilised 
world toward universal peace and        
brotherhood and a better and fairer     
distribution of wealth is really the    
same movement as that which in the more 
distinctively religious sphere is coming
 to be called the ,new ,theology4  ,this
 fact needs to be realised and brought  
out4  ,the ,new ,theology is the gospel 
of the kingdom of ,god4  ,neither       
socialism nor any other economic system 
will permanently save and lift mankind  
without definitely recognised spiritual 
sanctions1 that is1 it must be a        
religion4  ,the ,new ,theology is but   
the religious articulation of the social
 movement4  ,the word theology is almost
 a misnomer2 it is essentially a moral  
and spiritual movement1 the recognition 
that we are at the beginning of a great 

religious and ethical awakening1 the    
ultimate results of which no man can    
completely foresee4  ,and also the      
religion of science4--,again1 the ,new  
,theology is the religion of science4   
,it is the denial that there is1 or ever
 has been1 or ever can be1 any          
dissonance between science and religion2
 it is the recognition that upon the    
foundations laid by modern science a    
vaster and nobler fabric of faith is    
rising than that world has ever before  
known4  ,science is supplying the facts 
which the ,new ,theology is weaving into
 the texture of religious experience4   
,,chapter ,,ii  ,,god ,,and ,,the       
,,universe  ,what religion is4--,all    
religion begins in cosmic emotion4  ,it 
is the recognition of an essential      
relationship between the human soul and 
the great whole of things of which it is
 the outcome and expression4  ,the      
mysterious universe is always calling1  
and1 in some form or other1 we are      
always answering4  ,the artist answers  

by trying to express his feeling of its 
beauty2 the scientist answers by        
recognising its laws and unfolding its  
wonders2 the social reformer answers by 
his self-denying labours for the common 
good4  ,in each and every case there is 
in the background of experience a       
conviction that the unit is the         
instrument of the ,all2 religion is     
implied in these as in all other        
activities in which man aims at a       
higher-than-self4  ,but religion1       
properly so-called1 begins when the soul
 consciously enters upon communion with 
this higher-than-self as with an        
all-comprehending intelligence2 it is   
the soul instinctively turning toward   
its source and goal4  ,religion may     
assume a great many different and even  
repellent forms1 but at bottom this is  
what it always is3 it is the soul       
reaching forth to the great mysterious  
whole of things1 the higher-than-self1  
and seeking for closer and ever closer  
communion therewith4  ,the savage with  

his totem and the ,christian saint      
before the altar have this in common3   
they are reaching through the things    
that are seen to the reality beyond4    
,what the word ,god means4--,but what   
name are we to give to this             
higher-than-self whose presence is so   
unescapable8  ,the name matters         
comparatively little1 but it includes   
all that the ordinary ,christian means  
by ,god4  ,the word ,god stands for many
 things1 but to present-day thought it  
must stand for the un-caused ,cause of  
all existence1 the unitary principle    
implied in all multiplicity4  ,everyone 
of necessity believes in this4  ,it is  
impossible to define the term           
completely1 for to define is necessarily
 to limit1 and we are thinking of the   
illimitable4  ,but we ought to          
understand clearly that to disbelieve in
 ,god is an impossibility2 everyone     
believes in ,god if he believes in his  
own existence4  ,the blankest           
materialist that ever lived1 whoever he 

may have been1 must have affirmed ,god  
even in the act of denying ,him4        
,professor ,haeckel declares his belief 
in ,god on every page of his ,riddle of 
the ,universe1 the famous book in which 
he says that ,god1 ,freedom1 and        
,immortality are the three great        
buttresses of superstition1 which       
science must make it her business to    
destroy4  ,so far science has only      
succeeded in giving us a vaster1 grander
 conception of ,god by giving us a      
vaster1 grander conception of the       
universe in which we live4  ,when ,i say
 ,god1 ,i mean the mysterious ,power    
which is finding expression in the      
universe1 and which is present in every 
tiniest atom of the wondrous whole4  ,i 
find that this ,power is the one reality
 ,i cannot get away from1 for1 whatever 
else it may be1 it is myself4           
,theologians will tell me that ,i have  
taken a prodigious leap in saying this1 
but ,i cannot help it4  ,how can there  
be anything in the universe outside of  

,god8  ,whatever distinctions of being  
there may be within the universe it is  
surely clear that they must all be      
transcended and comprehended within     
infinity4  ,there cannot be two         
infinities1 nor can there be an infinite
 and also a finite beyond it4 ,what     
infinity may be we have no means of     
knowing4  ,here the most devout         
,christian is just as much of an        
agnostic as ,professor ,huxley2 we can  
predicate nothing with confidence       
concerning the all-comprehending unity  
wherein we live and move and have our   
being1 save and except as we see it     
manifested in that part of our universe 
which lies open to us4  ,one would think
 that this were so obvious as to need no
 demonstration4  ,but how do ordinary   
church-going ,christians talk about     
,god8  ,they talk as though ,he were    
7practically7 a finite being stationed  
somewhere above and beyond the universe1
 watching and worrying over other and   
lesser finite beings1 to wit1 ourselves4

 ,according to the received phraseology 
this ,god is greatly bothered and       
thwarted by what men have been doing    
throughout the few millenniums of human 
existence4  ,he takes the whole thing   
very seriously1 and thinks about little 
else than getting wayward humanity into 
line again4  ,to this end ,he has       
adopted various expedients1 the chief of
 which was the sending of ,his only     
begotten ,son to suffer and die in order
 that ,he might be free to forgive the  
trouble we had caused ,him4  ,i hope no 
reader of these words will think ,i am  
making light of a sacred subject2 ,i    
never was more serious in my life4      
,what ,i am trying to show is that1     
reduced to its simplest terms1 the      
accepted theology of the churches to-day
 is pitiably inadequate as an           
explanation of our relationship to this 
great and mysterious universe4  ,there  
is a beautiful spiritual truth          
underneath every venerable article of   
the ,christian faith1 but as popularly  

presented this truth has become so      
distorted as to be falsehood4  ,it      
narrows religion and belittles ,god4    
,it is dishonouring to human nature1 and
 is absolutely ludicrous as an          
interpretation of the cosmic process4   
,of course1 the dogmatic theologian will
 maintain that this is a caricature of  
the way in which the relationship of    
,god to the world is set forth in       
religious treatises and from the        
,christian pulpit4  ,but is it8  ,i     
think ,i can appeal with confidence to  
the thoughtful man who has given up     
going to church as to whether it is or  
not4  ,the ,god of the ordinary         
church-goer1 and of the man who is      
supposed to teach him from study and    
pulpit1 is an antiquated ,theologian who
 made ,his universe so badly that it    
went wrong in spite of ,him and has     
remained wrong ever since4  ,why ,he    
should ever have created it is not      
clear4  ,why ,he should be the injured  
party in all the miseries that have     

ensued is still less clear4  ,the poor  
crippled child who has been maimed by a 
falling rock1 and the white-faced       
match-box maker who works eighteen hours
 out of the twenty-four to keep body and
 soul together have surely some sort of 
a claim upon ,god apart from being      
miserable sinners who must account      
themselves fortunate to be forgiven for 
,christ's sake4  ,faugh6 it is all so   
unreal and so stupid4 ,this kind of ,god
 is no ,god at all4  ,the theologian may
 call ,him infinite1 but in practice ,he
 is finite4  ,he may call ,him a ,god of
 love1 but in practice ,he is spiteful  
and silly4  ,i shall have something to  
say presently about the twin problems of
 pain and evil2 but what so-called      
orthodoxy has to say is not only no     
solution of them1 it is demonstrably    
false to the religion of ,jesus4  ,every
 man believes in ,god4--,for the moment 
what ,i want to make clear is this4  ,no
 man should refuse to assert his belief 
in ,god because he cannot bring himself 

to believe in the ,god of the typical   
theologian4 ,remember that the real ,god
 is the ,god expressed in the universe  
and in yourself4  ,the question is not  
whether you shall believe in ,god1 but  
how much you can believe about ,him4    
,you may think with ,haeckel that the   
universe is the outcome of the          
fortuitous interaction of material      
forces without consciousness and        
definite purpose behind them1 or you may
 believe that the cosmos is the product 
of intelligence and means intensely and 
means good1 but you cannot help         
believing in ,god1 the ,power revealed  
in it4  ,as ,i write these words ,i am  
seated before a window overlooking the  
heaving waste of waters on a rock-bound 
,cornish coast4  ,it is a stormy day4   
,the sky is overcast toward the western 
horizon2 on the east shafts of blue and 
saffron have pierced the pall of        
darkness and flung their radiance over  
the spreading sea4  ,the total effect is
 strangely solemnising4  ,the suggestion

 of titanic forces conveyed in the rush 
of wind and wave upon the unyielding    
cliffs1 conjoined to the majestic march 
of the storm-clouds across the heaven   
from the west1 is somehow elevated and  
composed by the mystic light that       
streams from the east4  ,i have never   
seen anything quite like it before4  ,it
 tells me of a beneficent stillness1 an 
eternal strength1 far above and beyond  
these finite tossings4  ,it whispers the
 word impossible to utter1 the word that
 explains everything1 the deep that     
calleth unto deep4  ,so my ,god calls   
always to my deeper soul1 and tells me  
,i must read ,him by mine own highest   
and best1 and by the highest and best   
that the universe has yet produced4     
,thus the last word about ,god becomes  
the last word about man3 it is ,jesus4  
,materialists may tell me that the      
universe does not know what it is doing1
 that it goes on clanking and banging1  
age after age1 without end or aim1 but  
,i shall continue to feel compelled to  

believe that the ,power which produced  
,jesus must at least be equal to ,jesus4
  ,so ,jesus becomes my gateway to the  
innermost of ,god4  ,when ,i look at    
,him ,i say to myself1 ,god is that1    
and1 if ,i can only get down to the     
truth about myself1 ,i shall find ,i am 
that too4  ,what does the universe      
mean8--,but why is there a universe at  
all8 ,why has the unlimited become      
limited8  ,what was the need for the    
long cosmic struggle1 the ignorance and 
pain1 the apparently prodigal waste of  
life and beauty8  ,why does a perfect   
form appear only to be shattered and    
superseded by another8  ,what can it all
 mean1 if indeed it has a meaning8      
,this is what thinkers have been asking 
themselves since thought began1 and ,i  
have really nothing new to say about it4
 ,what ,i have to say leads back through
 ,hegelianism to the old ,greek         
thinkers1 and beyond them again to the  
wise men who lived and taught in the    
,east ages before ,jesus was born4  ,it 

is that this finite universe of ours is 
one means to the self-realisation of the
 infinite4 ,supposing ,god to be the    
infinite consciousness1 there are still 
possibilities to that consciousness     
which it can only know as it becomes    
limited4  ,any of my readers to whom    
this thought is unfamiliar have only to 
look at their own experience in order to
 see how reasonable it is4  ,you may    
know yourself to be a brave man1 but you
 will know it in a higher way if you are
 a soldier facing the cannon's mouth2   
you will know it in a still different   
way if you have to face the hostility   
and prejudice of a whole community for  
standing by something which you believe 
to be right4  ,perhaps you have a manly 
little son2 he1 like you1 may believe in
 his sterling good qualities4 ,but wait 
till he has gone out to fight his way in
 life2 then you will realise what he is 
worth1 and so will he4  ,it is one thing
 to know that you are a lover of truth2 
it is another thing to realise it when  

your immediate interest and your        
immediate safety would bid you hedge and
 lie4  ,do not these facts of human     
nature and experience tell us something 
about ,god8  ,to all eternity ,god is   
what ,he is and never can be other1 but 
it will take ,him to all eternity to    
live out all that ,he is4  ,in order to 
manifest even to ,himself the           
possibilities of ,his being ,god must   
limit that being4  ,there is no other   
way in which the fullest                
self-realisation can be attained4  ,thus
 we get two modes of ,god1--the         
infinite1 perfect1 unconditioned1       
primordial being2 and the finite1       
imperfect1 conditioned1 and limited     
being of which we are ourselves         
expressions4  ,and yet these two are    
one1 and the former is the guarantee    
that the latter shall not fail in the   
purpose for which it became limited4    
,thus to the question1 ,why a finite    
universe8  ,i should answer1 ,because   
,god wants to express what ,he is4  ,his

 achievement here is only one of an     
infinite number of possibilities4       
,god is the perfect poet   ,who in      
creation acts ,his own conceptions4     
,this is an end worthy alike of ,god and
 man4  ,the act of creation is eternal1 
although the cosmos is changing every   
moment1 for ,god is ceaselessly uttering
 ,himself through higher and ever higher
 forms of existence4  ,we are helping   
,him to do it when we are true to       
ourselves2 or rather1 which is the same 
thing1 ,he is doing it in us3 ,the      
,father abiding in me doeth ,his works4 
,no part of the universe has value in   
and for itself alone2 it has value only 
as it expresses ,god4  ,to see one form 
break up and another take its place is  
no calamity1 however terrible it may    
seem1 for it only means that the life   
contained in that form has gone back to 
the universal life1 and will express    
itself again in some higher and better  
form4  ,to think of ,god in this way is 
an inspiration and a help in the doing  

of the humblest tasks4  ,it redeems life
 from the dominion of the sordid and    
commonplace4  ,it supplies an incentive 
to endeavour1 and fills the heart with  
hope and confidence4 ,to put it in      
homely1 everyday phraseology1 ,god is   
getting at something and we must help   
,him4  ,we must be ,his eyes and hands  
and feet2 we must be labourers together 
with ,him4  ,this fits in with what     
science has to say about the very       
constitution of the universe2 it is all 
of a piece2 there are no gaps anywhere4 
,it is a divine experiment without risk 
of failure1 and we must interpret it in 
terms of our own highest4     ,,chapter 
,,iii  ,,man ,,in ,,relation ,,to ,,god 
,what is man8--,so far we have seen that
 the universe1 including ourselves1 is  
one instrument or vehicle of the        
self-expression of ,god4 ,god is ,all2  
,he is the universe and infinitely more1
 but it is only as we read ,him in the  
universe that we can know anything about
 ,him4  ,we have seen1 too1 that it is  

by means of the universe and ,his       
self-limitation therein that ,he        
expresses ,himself to ,himself4  ,now   
what is our relation to this process8   
,what are we to think about ourselves8  
,who or what are we8  ,a witty          
,frenchman once sardonically remarked1  
,in the beginning ,god created man in   
,his own image1 and man has ever since  
been returning the compliment by        
creating ,god in his4  ,but what else   
can we do8  ,it follows from what has   
already been said that we know nothing  
and can know nothing of ,god except as  
we read ,him in the universe1 and we can
 only interpret the universe in terms of
 our own consciousness4  ,in other      
words1 man is a microcosm of the        
universe4  ,what the universe may be in 
reality we do not know1--though ,i am   
not so sure as some people seem to be   
that appearance and reality do not      
correspond1--we can only know it in so  
far as it produces sense images on our  
brain and enters into our individual    

consciousness4  ,the limits of my       
subject forbid that ,i should enter into
 a discussion of philosophic idealism1  
but ,i think ,i ought to confess at once
 that ,i can only think of existence in 
terms of consciousness3 nothing exists  
except in and for mind4  ,the mind that 
thinks the universe must be immeasurably
 greater than my own1 but in so far as  
,i too am able to think the universe1   
mine is one with it4  ,all thinking     
starts with a paradox1 even the famous  
saying of ,descartes1 ,i think1         
therefore ,i am2 and my paradox seems at
 least as reasonable as any other1 and  
has fewer difficulties to encounter than
 most4  ,i start then with the          
assumption that the universe is ,god's  
thought about ,himself1 and that in so  
far as ,i am able to think it along with
 ,him1 ,i and my ,father 7even          
metaphysically speaking7 are one4  ,it  
cannot be demonstrated beyond dispute   
that any two human beings think the same
 universe4  ,strictly speaking1 it is   

certain that they do not in every       
detail4  ,but the common dominator of   
our experience1 intellectual1 moral1 and
 spiritual1 is the assumption that in   
the main the universe is pretty much the
 same for one man as it is for another4 
,when ,i speak of the rolling sea1 my   
neighbour does not understand me to mean
 the waving trees1 but ,i cannot prove  
that he does not4  ,if he is consistent 
in seeing water as trees and trees as   
water1 his mind must be constituted     
differently from mine and yet ,i may    
never know it4  ,so1 by an almost       
unperceived act of faith1 we have to    
take for granted that our separate      
individualities meet and become one to  
some extent in our common experience of 
this great universe1 which is at that   
same time the expression of ,god4  ,the 
real universe must be infinitely greater
 and more complex than the one which is 
apparent to our physical senses4  ,this 
becomes probable1 even on material      
grounds1 the moment we begin to examine 

into the nature of sense perception4    
,the ear is constituted to hear just so 
many sounds2 beyond that limit at either
 end of the scale we can hear nothing1  
but that does not prove that there are  
no more sounds to hear4  ,similarly the 
eye can distinguish five or seven       
primary colours and their various       
combinations2 beyond that limit we are  
colour-blind4  ,but suppose we were     
endowed to hear and see sounds and      
colours a million times greater in      
number than those of which we have at   
present any cognizance6  ,what kind of a
 universe would it be then8  ,but that  
universe exists now2 it is around and   
within us2 it is ,god's thought about   
,himself1 infinite and eternal4  ,it is 
only finite to a finite mind1 and it is 
more than probable that spiritual beings
 exist with a range of consciousness far
 greater than our own1 to whom the      
universe of which we form a part must   
seem far more beautiful and fuller of   
meaning than it seems to us4 ,imagine a 

man who could only see grey hues and    
could only hear the note ,a on the      
keyboard4  ,his experience would be     
quite as real as ours1 and indeed the   
same up to a point1 but how little he   
would know of the world as we know it4  
,the glory of the sunset sky would be   
hidden from him2 for him the melting    
power of the human voice1 or of a grand 
cathedral organ1 would not exist4  ,so1 
no doubt1 it is in a different degree   
with us all4  ,the so-called material   
world is our consciousness of reality   
exercising itself along a strictly      
limited plane4  ,we can know just as    
much as we are constituted to know1 and 
no more4  ,but it is all a question of  
consciousness4  ,the larger and fuller a
 consciousness becomes1 the more it can 
grasp and hold of the consciousness of  
,god1 the fundamental reality of our    
being as of everything else4  ,the      
subconscious mind4--,of late years the  
comparatively new science of psychology 
has begun to throw an amount of valuable

 light upon the mystery of human        
personality4  ,as the result of numerous
 experiments and investigations into the
 normal and abnormal working of the     
human mind1 psychologists have          
discovered that a great deal of our     
ordinary mental action goes on without  
our being aware of it4  ,this           
unconscious cerebration1 as it is       
called1 can hardly be seriously         
disputed1 for every new addition to our 
psychological knowledge goes to confirm 
it4 ,hence we are hearing a great deal  
about the subconscious mind1 or         
subliminal consciousness as some prefer 
to call it4  ,now that our attention has
 been directed to it1 we are coming to  
see1 as is usual with every new         
discovery1 that after a fashion we knew 
it all along4 ,the subconscious mind    
seems to be the seat of inspiration and 
intuition4  ,genius1 according to the   
late ,f4 ,w4 ,h4 ,myers1 is an up-rush  
of subliminal faculty4  ,we have all    
heard of the distinguished lady novelist

 who declares that when she has chosen  
her theme she is in the habit of        
committing it to her subconscious mind  
and letting it alone for a while4  ,she 
is not aware of any mental process which
 goes on1 but sooner or later she finds 
that the theme is ripe for treatment2   
she knows what she thinks about it1 and 
the work of stating it can profitably   
begin4  ,poets1 preachers1 and musicians
 can bear testimony of a somewhat       
similar kind4  ,the thoughts which are  
most valuable are those which come      
unbidden1 rising to the surface of      
consciousness from unknown depths4  ,the
 best scientific discoveries are made in
 much the same way2 the investigator has
 an intuition and forthwith sets to work
 to justify it4  ,reason1 by which we   
ordinarily mean the conscious exercise  
of the mental faculties1 plods along as 
if on four feet2 intuition soars on     
wings4  ,truly astonishing things are   
frequently done by the subconscious mind
 superseding and controlling the        

conscious mind in exceptional states of 
emotion1 especially in the case of      
people who are not quite normal2 but    
there is no one1 however stolid and     
commonplace1 who does not owe far more  
to his subliminal consciousness than he 
does to what he calls his reason2 indeed
 reason has comparatively little to do  
with the way in which people ordinarily 
conduct themselves1 although we may like
 to think otherwise4  ,now what is this 
subconscious mind whose importance is so
 great and of whose nature we know so   
little8  ,that is a question upon which 
psychology has not yet pronounced1 but  
there are not a few who regard it as the
 real personality4  ,evidently it is not
 only deeper but larger than the surface
 mind which we call reason4  ,our       
discovery of its existence has taught us
 that our ordinary consciousness is but 
a tiny corner of our personality4  ,it  
has been well described as an           
illuminated disc on a vast ocean of     
being2 it is like an island in the      

,pacific which is really the summit of a
 mountain whose base is miles below the 
surface4  ,summit and base are one1 and 
yet no one realises when standing on the
 little island that he is perched at the
 very top of a mountain peak4  ,so it is
 with our everyday consciousness of     
ourselves2 we find it rather difficult  
to realise that this consciousness is   
not all there is of us4  ,and yet1 when 
we come to examine into the facts1 the  
conclusion seems irresistible1 that of  
our truer1 deeper being we are quite    
unconscious4  ,the higher               
self4--,several important inferences    
follow from this position4  ,the first  
is that our surface consciousness is    
somewhat illusory and does not possess  
the sharpness and definiteness of       
outline which we are accustomed to take 
for granted when thinking of ourselves4 
,to ordinary common sense nothing seems 
more obvious than that we know most that
 is to be known about our friend ,john  
,smith1 with whom we used to go to      

school and who has since developed into 
a stolid ,british man of business with  
few ideas and a tendency toward         
conservatism4  ,john is a stalwart1     
honest1 commonplace kind of person1 of  
whom brilliant things were never        
prophesied and who has never been guilty
 of any4  ,his wife and children go to  
church on ,sundays4  ,john seldom goes  
himself because it bores him1 but he    
likes to know that religion is being    
attended to1 and he does not want to    
hear that his clergyman is attempting   
any daring flights4  ,he has a          
good-natured contempt for clergymen in  
general because he feels somehow that1  
like women1 they have to be treated with
 half-fictitious reverence1 but that    
they do not count for much in the       
ordinary affairs of life2 they are a    
sort of third sex4  ,but1 according to  
the newer psychology1 this              
matter-of-fact ,englishman is not what  
he seems even to himself4  ,his true    
being is vastly greater than he knows1  

and vastly greater than the world will  
ever know4  ,it belongs not to the      
material plane of existence but to the  
plane of eternal reality4  ,this larger 
self is in all probability a perfect and
 eternal spiritual being integral to the
 being of ,god4  ,his surface self1 his 
,philistine self1 is the incarnation of 
some portion of that true eternal self  
which is one with ,god4  ,the dividing  
line between the surface self and the   
other self is not the definite          
demarcation it appears to be4  ,to the  
higher self it does not exist4 ,to us it
 must seem that to all intents and      
purposes the two selves in a man are two
 separate beings1 but that is not so2   
they are one1 although the lower1 owing 
to its limitations1 cannot realise the  
fact4  ,if my readers want to know      
whether ,i think that the higher self is
 conscious of the lower1 ,i can only    
answer1 ,yes1 ,i do1 but ,i cannot prove
 it2 probabilities point that way4      
,what ,i want to insist upon here is    

that we are greater than we seem1 that  
we have a higher self1 and that our     
limited consciousness does not involve a
 separate individuality4    ,our birth  
is but a sleep and a forgetting2   ,the 
soul that rises with us1 our life's     
star1   ,hath had elsewhere its setting1
   ,and cometh from afar4   ,not in     
entire forgetfulness1   ,and not in     
utter nakedness1   ,but trailing clouds 
of glory do we come   ,from ,god who is 
our home4   ,the great poets are the    
best theologians after all1 for they see
 the farthest4  ,the true being is      
consciousness2 the universe1 visible and
 invisible1 is consciousness4  ,the     
higher self of the individual man       
infolds more of the consciousness of    
,god than the lower1 but lower and      
higher are the same thing4  ,this may be
 a difficult thought to grasp1 but the  
time is rapidly approaching when it will
 be more generally accepted than it is  
now4  ,the unity of humanity4--,another 
inference from the theory of the        

subconscious mind is that of the        
fundamental unity of the whole human    
race4  ,indeed all life is fundamentally
 one1 but there is a kinship of man with
 man which precedes that of man with any
 other order of being4 ,here again the  
spiritual truth cuts across what seem to
 be the dictates of common sense4       
,common sense assumes that ,i and ,thou 
are eternally distinct1 and that by no  
possibility can the territories of our  
respective beings ever become one4  ,but
 even now1 and on mere everyday grounds1
 we are finding reason to think         
otherwise4  ,you are about to make an   
observation at table and some member of 
your family makes it before you2 you are
 thinking of a certain tune and someone 
begins to hum it2 you have a certain    
purpose in mind and1 lo1 the same       
thought finds expression in someone     
else1 despite all probabilities4  ,oh1  
you may remark1 ,this is only thought   
transference4  ,precisely1 but what are 
you except your thought8  ,all being1   

remember1 is conscious of being4 ,the   
infinite consciousness sees itself as a 
whole2 the finite consciousness sees the
 same whole in part4  ,ultimately your  
being and mine are one and we shall come
 to know it4  ,individuality only has   
meaning in relation to the whole1 and   
individual consciousness can only be    
fulfilled by expanding until it embraces
 the whole4  ,nothing that exists in    
your consciousness now and constitutes  
your self-knowledge will ever be        
obliterated or ever can be1 but in a    
higher state of existence you will      
realise it to be a part of the universal
 stock4  ,i shall not cease to be ,i1   
nor you to be you2 but there must be a  
region of experience where we shall find
 that you and ,i are one4  ,the ,self is
 ,god4--,a third inference1 already     
hinted at and presumed in all that has  
gone before1 is that the highest of all 
selves1 the ultimate ,self of the       
universe1 is ,god4  ,the ,new ,testament
 speaks of man as body1 soul1 and       

spirit4  ,the body is the thought-form  
through which the individuality finds   
expression on our present limited plane2
 the soul is a man's consciousness of   
himself as apart from all the rest of   
existence and even from ,god--it is the 
bay seeing itself as the bay and not as 
the ocean2 the spirit is the true being 
thus limited and expressed--it is the   
deathless divine within us4  ,the soul  
therefore is what we make it2 the spirit
 we can neither make nor mar1 for it is 
at once our being and ,god's4  ,what we 
are here to do is to grow the soul1 that
 is to manifest the true nature of the  
spirit1 to build up that                
self-realisation which is ,god's        
objective with the universe as a whole  
and with every self-conscious unit in   
particular4  ,where1 then1 someone will 
say1 is the dividing line between our   
being and ,god's8  ,there is no dividing
 line except from our side4  ,the ocean 
of consciousness knows that the bay has 
never been separate from itself1        

although the bay is only conscious of   
the ocean on the outer side of its own  
being4  ,but1 the reader may protest1   
,this is ,pantheism4 ,no1 it is not4    
,pantheism is a technical term in       
philosophic parlance and means something
 quite different from this4  ,it stands 
for a ,fate-,god1 a ,god imprisoned in  
,his universe1 a ,god who cannot help   
,himself and does not even know what ,he
 is about1 a blind force which here     
breaks out into a rock and there into   
,ruskin and is equally indifferent to   
either4  ,but that is not my ,god4  ,my 
,god is my deeper ,self and yours too2  
,he is the ,self of the universe and    
knows all about it4  ,he is never       
baffled and cannot be baffled2 the whole
 cosmic process is one long incarnation 
and uprising of the being of ,god from  
itself to itself4  ,with ,tennyson you  
can call this doctrine the ,higher      
,pantheism if you like1 but it is the   
very antithesis of the ,pantheism which 
has played such a part in the history of

 thought4  ,its relation to free        
will4--,but then1 another will          
remonstrate1 it does away with the      
freedom of the will4  ,well1 here is a  
slippery subject sure enough1 and one   
upon which more nonsense has been talked
 probably than any other within the     
range of philosophical or theological   
discussion4  ,have ,i anything new to   
say about it8  ,probably not1 but ,i    
think ,i can focus the issue and show   
what we must recognise in order to have 
a rational grasp of the subject4        
,thinkers have talked too much in the   
past about the separate faculties of    
human nature as though they could be    
divided into ,reason1 ,feeling1 ,action1
 and so on4 ,but they are beginning to  
talk differently now4  ,they are coming 
to see that a human being cannot be cut 
up like that4  ,the ,reason is the whole
 man thinking1 judging1 comparing4      
,feeling accompanies ,reason and is     
never found apart from it1 for reason   
implies consciousness1 and without      

consciousness nothing that can properly 
be called ,feeling exists4  ,the will is
 simply the whole man acting4  ,now ,i  
will frankly confess that in strict     
logic ,i can find no place for the      
freedom of the will4  ,i will defy      
anyone to do so if he knows much about  
the laws of thought4  ,but1 as the late 
,mr4 ,lecky said in his ,map of ,life1  
and ,mr4 ,mallock has since pointed out 
in ,the ,reconstruction of ,belief1 we  
are compelled to overleap logic when    
considering this matter4  ,no argument  
will convince us that we have not some  
power of individual self-direction and  
self-control4  ,the most thoroughgoing  
determinist that ever lived forgets his 
determinism even while he argues about  
it4  ,it must be amusing even to himself
 to see how he enjoys scoring off his   
opponent1 thus taking for granted in the
 heat of controversy the very freedom he
 sets out to deny4  ,the assumption at  
the bottom of every vigorous argument is
 that the other party might have held   

other views1 and ought to have held     
other views than those assailed4  ,the  
position of the determinist in effect is
 this3 ,you must believe you have no    
freedom to choose anything1 otherwise   
you are to blame for choosing wrongly4  
,of course the consistent determinist   
would evade this reductio ad absurdum by
 saying that he is as much necessitated 
in blaming his opponent for holding     
wrong views as the opponent is for      
refusing to give them up4  ,he might    
also tell me that ,i am arguing for free
 will in an obscurantist fashion by     
admitting at the outset that in strict  
logic ,i can find no place for it4  ,but
 ,i am not arguing for free will at all4
  ,i am simply showing that by the very 
constitution of our minds we cannot     
avoid taking some measure of free will  
for granted4  ,even the determinist who 
scouts this view and calls it absurd is 
by his own action a convincing          
demonstration of its truth4  ,only the  
,infinite has perfect freedom4--,but    

this contention is something more than  
mere logic chopping4  ,it points to a   
truth too high for a finite mind to     
grasp1 namely1 that whatever our moral  
freedom may be1 it must consist with the
 all-directing universal will4  ,there  
is no such thing as perfect freedom in a
 finite being4  ,perfect freedom belongs
 only to infinity2 finiteness implies   
limitations4  ,popular theology usually 
assumes1 or appears to assume1 that     
every individual is a perfectly free    
agent able at all times to distinguish  
and to choose between the higher and the
 lower1 and as liable to choose the one 
as the other4  ,there is another kind of
 theologising1 of course1 which speaks  
of the weakened or corrupted will due to
 our fallen nature1 that ,i must let    
alone for the present4  ,what ,i want to
 point out is that there is not1 and    
never has been1 an act of the will in   
which a man1 without bias in either     
direction1 has deliberately chosen evil 
in the presence of good4  ,under such   

circumstances no being in his sober     
senses would ever choose evil2          
enlightened self-interest alone would   
forbid the possibility of such a choice4
  ,freedom of the will in this sense has
 never existed4  ,the truth is that we  
should not be conscious of the          
possession of a will but for the        
conflict between desire and duty1 or the
 necessity of choosing between one      
impulse and another4  ,after all1 the   
moral choices of life are but few in    
number4 ,the things we go on doing day  
by day are the things that for the most 
part we know we must do1 and we scarcely
 reflect upon the matter4  ,when some   
question emerges which demands a moral  
choice we know it at once by the fact   
that we have to take our limitations    
into account4 ,something has to be      
overcome if the higher is chosen1 and1  
without that overcoming1 there is no    
real assertion of the will4  ,it is no  
heroism in me to avoid getting drunk1   
but it may mean a tremendous assertion  

of the moral reserves in some poor      
fellow who knows the power of the drink 
craving4  ,the same observation holds   
good of all human life4  ,my weak points
 are not my neighbour's1 and his are not
 mine4  ,neither of us is in a position 
to estimate the other's strength of     
will1 but we both know that in our own  
case an absolutely unfettered moral     
choice has never been made4  ,but for   
our limitations and imperfections we    
should know nothing whatever of the     
choice between right and wrong4  ,free  
will1 in the sense of unlimited freedom 
of choice1 does not exist4  ,the only   
freedom we possess is like that of a    
bird in a cage2 we can choose between   
the higher and the lower standing       
ground1 a choice called for by the very 
fact that we are in prison1 but we      
cannot choose where the cage shall go4  
,no doubt these considerations will meet
 with the disapproval of some people who
 think themselves orthodox4  ,they will 
object to being told that every man has 

a higher self than that of which he is  
immediately conscious2 that             
fundamentally the individual is one with
 the whole race and with ,god2 that no  
one possesses absolute free will4  ,to  
them it may seem an absurdity to        
maintain these positions4  ,but if they 
say so1 they will convict themselves of 
absurdity1 for1 with the exception of   
the last1 ,christian doctrine already   
affirms them all of ,jesus4 ,according  
to the received theology1 ,jesus was    
,god1 and yet ,he did not possess the   
all-controlling consciousness of the    
universe4  ,he was also man1 and yet ,he
 was before all ages4  ,all creation    
proceeds from and centres in ,him1 and  
yet ,he was able to limit ,himself in   
such a degree as to be ignorant of much 
that was going on in ,his own universe4 
,if so-called orthodoxy finds it no     
difficulty to assert these things as    
being true of ,jesus1 it will not find  
it easy to show good reason why the same
 should not be true of all humanity4    

,for the moment ,i neither assert nor   
deny the uniqueness of ,jesus4  ,all ,i 
am concerned to show is that if it is   
not intellectually impossible to affirm 
certain things about the consciousness  
of ,jesus and the limitation of ,his    
true being in ,his earthly life1 it is  
not impossible to affirm them of        
mankind4  ,some of my critics have      
contended that this view of the         
relationship of man to ,god hails not   
from ,palestine but from ,oxford and is 
an outcome of the philosophy of ,t4 ,h4 
,green4  ,but ,i think it can be shown  
that its pedigree is considerably longer
 than that4  ,whether it hails from     
,palestine or not1 it is explicitly     
stated in the fourth gospel3 ,he that   
hath seen me hath seen the ,father2 and 
how sayest thou then1 ,shew us the      
,father8  ,believest thou not that ,i am
 in the ,father1 and the ,father in me8 
,the words that ,i speak unto you ,i    
speak not of myself3 but the ,father    
that dwelleth in me1 ,he doeth the      

works4  ,believe me that ,i am in the   
,father1 and the ,father in me4  ,those 
who object to my statement of the       
fundamental identity of ,god and man    
will have to explain away such passages 
as this1 and there are plenty of them4  
,but1 it may be urged1 this is meant to 
apply only to ,jesus4  ,that ,i do not  
believe2 ,i think the exceedingly able  
writer of the fourth gospel knew better2
 but for the moment ,i will not contest 
the point4  ,granted that it does apply 
only to ,jesus1 what then8  ,the very   
things which the critics declare to be  
impossible of personality in general in 
relation to ,god1 they are affirming    
already of at least one personality1    
that of ,jesus4  ,if ,jesus was ,god and
 yet prayed to ,god1 if ,his            
consciousness was finite and yet one    
with the infinite1 it is clear that in  
this one instance the seemingly         
impossible was not impossible4  ,those  
who insist upon the fundamental         
distinction between human personality   

and the being of ,god are thus on the   
horns of a dilemma4  ,present-day       
orthodoxy cannot consistently attack    
this position4  ,the only telling       
criticism that can be directed against  
it is that which proceeds from the side 
of scientific monism4  ,a thoroughgoing 
monist might reasonably contend that up 
to a certain point ,i have been arguing 
for a monistic view of the universe1 in 
company with practically the whole      
scientific world1 and have then given   
the case away by admitting a certain    
amount of individual freedom4  ,i       
confess it looks like it2 ,i have had to
 face the antinomy4  ,i see that there  
is no escape from the assertion of the  
fundamental unity of all existence1 and 
yet by the very constitution of the     
human mind we are compelled to take for 
granted a certain amount of individual  
initiative and self-direction4  ,i think
 of the human will much as ,i do about  
the mariner's compass4  ,it is well     
known that the needle does not always   

point steadily and consistently to the  
pole2 its tiny aberrations have to be   
taken into account4  ,but these are no  
real hindrance to the sailing of the    
ship1 and the compass itself cannot run 
away4  ,again1 some of my friends have  
been pointing out that1 while the ,new  
,theology regards all mankind as ,being 
of one substance with the ,father1 our  
consciousness of that being is our own4 
,i freely admit this while maintaining  
that there is no substance but          
consciousness4 ,what other kind of      
substance can there be8  ,therefore ,i  
hold that when our finite consciousness 
ceases to be finite there will be no    
distinction whatever between ours and   
,god's4  ,the distinction between finite
 and infinite is not eternal4  ,the     
being of ,god is a complex unity1       
containing within itself and harmonising
 every form of self-consciousness that  
can possibly exist4  ,no one need be    
afraid that in believing this he is     
assenting to the final obliteration of  

his own personality2 if such            
obliteration were possible1 our present 
personality could possess no permanent  
value even for ,god4  ,no form of       
self-consciousness can ever perish4  ,it
 completes itself in becoming infinite1 
but it cannot be destroyed4             
,,chapter ,,iv  ,,the ,,nature ,,of     
,,evil  ,the problem not                
insoluble4--,before going on to say more
 about human personality1 especially the
 personality of ,jesus1 it is requisite 
that we should determine our attitude   
toward a great question which in        
manifold forms has beset the human      
intellect ever since the dawn of        
history1 namely1 the problem of evil4   
,it is still the fashion to declare this
 problem insoluble1 but ,i have the     
audacity to believe that it is not so2  
mystery there may be1 but it is not     
chiefly mystery4  ,i will even go so far
 as to assert that the problem had been 
solved in human thought before          
,christianity began4  ,what ,i have to  

say about it now is ancient thinking    
confirmed by present-day experience4    
,evil is a negative1 not a positive     
term4  ,it denotes the absence rather   
than the presence of something4  ,it is 
the perceived privation of good1 the    
shadow where the light ought to be4     
,the devil is a vacuum1 as a friend of  
mine once remarked to the no small      
bewilderment of a group of listeners in 
whose imagination the devil was anything
 but a vacuum4 ,evil is not an intruder 
in an otherwise perfect universe2       
finiteness presumes it4  ,a thing is    
only seen to be evil when the capacity  
for good is present and unsatisfied4    
,evil is not a principle at war with    
good4  ,good is being and evil is       
not-being4  ,when consciousness of being
 seeks further expression and finds     
itself hindered by its limitations1 it  
becomes aware of evil4  ,a little       
reflection ought to convince anyone that
 this is the true way to look at the    
question of evil4  ,instead of asking   

how evil came to be in the universe1 we 
should recognise that nothing finite can
 exist without it4  ,infinity alone can 
know nothing of evil because its        
resources are illimitable and--if ,i may
 be permitted the expression--every need
 is supplied before it can be felt4     
,evil and good are not like two armies  
in deadly conflict with each other for  
the possession of the city of ,god4  ,we
 ought not to say that when one is in   
the other is out1 but rather when one is
 the other is not4  ,the very word good 
implies evil4  ,one is positive and the 
other negative4 ,good only emerges in   
our experience in contrast with evil1   
and the ideal existence must be that in 
which good and evil are both transcended
 in the life eternal1 when struggle and 
conflict are no more4  ,in our present  
state of existence evil is necessary in 
order that we may know that there is    
such a thing as good1 and therefore that
 we may realise the true nature of the  
life eternal4  ,look at that shadow on  

the pavement cast by the row of houses  
between your vision and the rising sun4 
,until the sun made his presence felt1  
you did not even know there was a       
shadow4  ,presently as the light giver  
climbs beyond and above this temporary  
barrier you will watch the shadow shrink
 and disappear4  ,where has it gone8    
,if it were an entity in itself1 it     
would have moved off somewhere else1 but
 you are well aware that it has not done
 so1 for it never had any real          
existence2 real as it seemed1 so real   
that you were able to give it a name1 it
 never did more than show the place that
 needed to be filled with light4  ,when 
the light came the shadow was swallowed 
up4  ,so it is with every kind of evil1 
no matter what4  ,your perception of    
evil is the concomitant of your         
expanding finite consciousness of good4 
,the moment you see a thing to be wrong 
you have affirmed that you know1 however
 vaguely1 what is required to put it    
right4  ,even when evil comes in the    

form of a calamity that lessens and     
diminishes your previous experience of  
good1 as in an earthquake or a          
pestilence1 this statement as to its    
true nature is in no way invalidated4   
,it is not a thing in itself1 it is only
 the perceived privation of what you    
know to be good1 and which you know to  
be good because of the very presence of 
limitation1 hindrance1 and imperfection4
  ,the relation of evil and pain4--,but 
to most minds evil is almost synonymous 
with pain1 at any rate in our experience
 it is associated with pain4  ,when men 
begin questioning the goodness of ,god  
because of the evil of the world1 they  
usually mean the pain of the world4     
,perhaps their thought about sin is to  
some extent an exception2 sin and pain  
are not necessarily immediately         
associated in the theological mind4     
,but what is pain8  ,properly speaking  
it is not in itself evil1 but rather the
 evidence of evil1 and also in a        
different way the evidence of good4     

,pain is life asserting itself against  
death1 the higher struggling with the   
lower1 the true with the false1 the real
 with the unreal4  ,when a baby cries   
for food he does so in unconscious      
obedience to the law of life2 a stone   
does not cry for food4  ,when a strong  
man suffers in the grip of a fell       
disease1 the life within him is fighting
 for expression against something that  
seems to be extinguishing it4  ,the     
suffering is caused by the effort of the
 life to retain its hold on the form1   
and yet if the disease succeeds in      
breaking the form it has only released  
the life to find expression in some     
higher form4  ,when a guilty man suffers
 the tortures of remorse1 it means that 
the truth within him is declaring itself
 against the falsehood1 although it does
 not follow that it will immediately    
conquer4  ,this is what pain is3 it is  
life pressing upon death1 and death     
resisting life4  ,if a traveller falls  
asleep in the snow1 or a sailor is      

nearly drowned1 the process of recovery 
is always painful because the returning 
life has to overcome death4  ,carry the 
same principle through the whole range  
of human experience1 physical1 mental1  
and moral1 and it will indicate the real
 significance of all the pain which has 
ever been endured or ever will be       
endured by mankind4  ,still this would  
not satisfy everyone who feels          
compassion for cosmic suffering4        
,professor ,huxley has told us that     
there is no sadder story than the story 
of sentient life upon this planet1 and  
in so saying he has the testimony of    
modern science behind him4  ,a vast     
amount of attention has been directed to
 this phase of the subject within the   
past fifty years4  ,we seem to be more  
sensitive to the presence of pain as    
well as more sympathetic than our       
fathers were1 and this tendency shows   
itself in a recognition of the          
solidarity of humanity with the lower   
creation4  ,theology has had practically

 nothing to say about the suffering or  
even about the significance of the      
myriad forms of life which exist below  
the human scale4  ,but why ought they to
 be ignored8 ,indeed1 how can they be   
ignored8  ,the theology that has nothing
 to say about my clever and loyal       
four-footed companion1 with his         
magnanimity1 his sensitive spirit1 and  
even his moral qualities1 omits         
something of considerable importance to 
a thorough and consistent world-view4   
,not a sparrow falleth to the ground    
without your ,father1 said one who spake
 as never man spake4  ,i think it was   
,schopenhauer who once remarked1 ,the   
more ,i see of human nature the more ,i 
respect my dog4 ,now the ,new ,theology 
finds no difficulty in recognising the  
importance of the brute creation1 for it
 believes in a practical recognition of 
the solidarity of all existence4  ,there
 is no life that is not of ,god1 and    
therefore no life can ever perish1      
whatever may become of the form4 ,if we 

can explain human suffering1 the same   
explanation covers the suffering of all 
sub-human life4  ,the true extent of the
 problem of pain4--,but the problem is  
not so large as it looks4  ,when we hear
 of a terrible event like the ,jamaica  
disaster1 we are apt to jump to the     
conclusion that the amount of suffering 
in the world is specially and enormously
 greater because of it4  ,but that is   
not so4  ,our standard of measurement is
 a false one4 ,the amount of pain       
endured depends upon the consciousness  
enduring it and upon its capacity for   
looking before and after4  ,besides we  
only suffer individually1 and therefore 
all the pain of the world is comprised  
within the experience of the being who  
suffers most1 whoever that may be4  ,we 
ought to estimate the actual amount of  
cosmic suffering by the intensity of the
 suffering borne by any one individual  
at any one time4  ,we are not           
immediately conscious of all the woe of 
the universe2 we are each of us         

conscious of our own1 even though it may
 be caused by sympathy with others2 and 
the world's woe taken as a whole is not 
greater than the amount borne by him    
whose consciousness of it is greatest4  
,this is what we may call the intensive 
as contrasted with the extensive        
observation of the problem of pain4  ,it
 is a kind of barometrical measurement4 
,we do not gauge the weather by adding  
together the figures of all the         
storm-glasses in the world2 the rise or 
fall of the mercury in any one of them1 
especially the best one among them1     
comprehends the whole4  ,here is the    
problem of pain in a nutshell4  ,the    
whole appalling tale of cosmic suffering
 can be compressed within the limits of 
the individual consciousness which has  
endured the most4  ,the purpose of      
pain4--,nor is there the slightest need 
to be afraid of it4  ,theologians may   
tell us that we should never have known 
anything about it but for man's first   
disobedience1 and humanists may maintain

 that it is impossible to reconcile it  
with belief in the goodness of ,god2 but
 they are both wrong4  ,there are some  
things impossible even to omnipotence1  
and one of them is the realisation of a 
love which has never known pain4  ,if   
creation is the self-expression of ,god1
 pain was inevitable from the first4    
,for what is the nature of ,god8        
,according to the ,christian religion it
 is love4  ,and what is love8  ,here is 
another slippery word which has had some
 contradictory connotations in the      
course of its history4  ,some time ago  
,mr4 ,g4 ,bernard ,shaw delivered a     
lecture at the ,city ,temple on the     
,religion of the ,british ,empire1 in   
the course of which he said that1 if ,i 
knew as much about stage-plays as he    
did1 ,i should distrust the word love1  
for it was bound up with an amount of   
false and gusty sentiment4  ,he himself 
preferred the word life to express what 
,i meant by the word love4 ,but love is 
too good a word to be given over to the 

sentimentalists1 although ,mr4 ,shaw was
 perfectly right as to the way in which 
it has been misused4  ,love is life1 the
 life eternal1 the life of ,god4 ,jesus 
and ,his ,new ,testament followers used 
both terms as expressive of the         
innermost of ,god4  ,the life of ,god is
 such that in the presence of need it   
must give itself just as water will run 
down hill2 this is the law of its being4
  ,where no need exists1 that is1 where 
life is infinite1 love finds no         
expression4  ,to realise itself for what
 it is1 sacrifice1 that is              
self-limitation1 becomes necessary4     
,love is essentially self-giving4  ,it  
is the living of the individual life in 
terms of the whole4  ,in a finite world 
this cannot but mean pain1 but it is    
also self-fulfilment4  ,whosoever shall 
save his life shall lose it1 but        
whosoever will lose his life shall find 
it4  ,this profound saying of ,jesus is 
older even than ,jesus2 it is the law of
 ,god's own being1 the law of love1 the 

means to the realisation of the life    
eternal4  ,it is so plain and simple1   
and withal so sublime1 that we cannot   
but see it to be true1 and can do no    
other than bow before it4 ,the law of   
the universe is the law of sacrifice in 
order to self-manifestation4  ,in this  
age-long process all sentient life has  
its part1 for it is of the infinite1 and
 to the infinite it will return4 ,when1 
therefore1 you feel compassion for the  
rabbit which is being killed by the     
weasel1 or the stag that falls before   
the hounds1 you can remember at the same
 time that this is not meaningless      
cruelty1 but the operation of the same  
law that governs the highest activities 
of your own soul4  ,you are right to    
feel the compassion2 you were meant to  
feel it2 and there is good reason why   
you should1 for the suffering is real   
enough to awaken it4  ,but do not forget
 that the suffering is not quite what it
 appears to you2 it is only yours as it 
enters into your own consciousness and  

you suffer along with the actual victim4
  ,compassion in such a case is the     
initial impulse toward self-offering1   
the desire to take the victim's place4  
,but the suffering of the rabbit or the 
stag is to be measured by the           
consciousness of the rabbit or the stag1
 not by yours4  ,in the slaughter       
nothing perishes but the form1 the life 
returns to the ,soul of the universe4   
,the nature of sin4--,what1 then1 is    
sin8  ,in the light of the foregoing    
considerations that question should not 
be difficult to answer4  ,some of my    
recent critics have been declaring that 
,i deny the existence of sin1 and am    
teaching that as there is no sin there  
is no need for ,atonement4  ,this looks 
like wilful misrepresentation1 for my   
words on the subject have been clear    
enough and ,i have nothing to un-say1   
but perhaps it would be better to allow 
that the critics have made the mistake  
of rushing into print without carefully 
examining the utterances which they     

denounce4  ,let me say1 then1 that sin  
is the opposite of love4  ,all possible 
activities of the soul are between two  
poles1--self on the one hand and the    
common life on the other4 ,everything we
 can think or say or do is in one or    
other of these directions2 we are either
 living for the self at the expense of  
the whole1 or we are fulfilling the self
 by serving the whole4  ,sin is         
therefore selfishness4  ,if the true    
life is the life which is lived in terms
 of the whole1 then the sinful life is  
the life which is lived for self alone4 
,no man1 however depraved1 succeeds in  
living the selfish life all the time2 if
 he did he would sink below the level of
 the brutes4  ,sin makes for death2 love
 makes for life4  ,sin is self-ward2    
love is ,all-ward4  ,sin is always a    
blunder2 in the long run it becomes its 
own punishment1 for it is the soul      
imposing fetters upon itself1 which     
fetters must be broken by the           
reassertion of the universal life4 ,sin 

is actually a quest for life1 but a     
quest which is pursued in the wrong way4
  ,the man who is living a selfish life 
must think1 if he thinks about it at    
all1 that he can gratify himself in that
 way1 that is1 he can get more abundant 
life4  ,but in this he is mistaken2 he  
is trying to cut himself off from the   
source of life4  ,he is like a man      
seated on the branch of a tree and      
sawing it off from the trunk4  ,but when
 theologians talk of the wrath of ,god  
against sin1 and the wrong which sin has
 inflicted upon ,god1 they employ       
figures of speech which are distinctly  
misleading4  ,in fact1 they do not seem 
to have a clear idea as to what sin     
really is4  ,they use vague language    
about it as though it were some kind of 
corporate offence against ,god of which 
the whole race has been guilty without  
being able to help it1 and which no     
individual can escape although he is as 
much to blame as if he could4 ,but sin  
has never injured ,god except through   

man4  ,it is the ,god within who is     
injured by it rather than the ,god      
without4  ,it is time we had done with  
the unreal language about the ,judge on 
the great white throne1 whose justice   
must be satisfied before ,his mercy can 
operate4 ,the figure contains a truth   
which everyone knows well enough1 but it
 is not easy to recognise it under this 
form4  ,the ,fall4--,the theological    
muddle is largely caused by the         
inability of many people to free        
themselves from archaic notions which   
have really nothing to do with          
,christianity1 although they have been  
imported into it4  ,the principal of    
these1 in relation to the question of   
sin1 is the doctrine of the ,fall4      
,this doctrine has played a mischievous 
part in ,christian thought1 more        
especially perhaps since the            
,reformation4  ,in broad outline it is  
as follows3 ,man was created originally 
innocent and pure1--for what reason is  
not quite clear1 but it is said to be   

for the glory of ,god1--but by an act of
 disobedience to a divine command he    
fell from his high estate and in his    
fall dragged down the whole creation and
 blighted posterity4  ,things have been 
wrong ever since1 and ,god has been     
angry not only with the original        
transgressor but with all his           
descendants4  ,god is a ,god of         
righteousness and therefore in a future 
world ,he will torture every human being
 who dies without availing himself of a 
certain plan of salvation designed to   
give him a chance of escape4  ,this is a
 queer sort of righteousness6  ,the plan
 of salvation consists in sending ,his  
own ,son--a ,son who has existed        
eternally1 which the rest of us have    
not--to live a few years on earth and go
 through a certain programme ending with
 a violent death4  ,in consideration of 
this death1 ,god undertakes to forgive  
,his erring children1 who could not help
 being sinners1 and yet are just as much
 to blame as if they could1 but only on 

consideration that they believe in time 
to flee from the wrath to come4  ,if    
they happen to die half a minute too    
late1 repentance will be of no avail4   
,dogmatic theologians must really excuse
 me for paraphrasing their words in this
 way4  ,i know they do not put the case 
with such irritating clearness1 but this
 is what they mean4  ,their forefathers 
used to put it plainly enough4  ,turn up
 ,john ,knox's ,confession of ,faith1   
for instance1 and it will be found that 
my statement of the case is mildness    
itself compared to his2 ,john saw no    
necessity for mincing matters4  ,it may 
be contended that no orthodox theologian
 of any repute now believes in an actual
 historical fall of the race4  ,perhaps 
not1 but theological writers go on using
 language which implies it and so do    
preachers of the gospel4  ,i do not mean
 that they are dishonest1 but they      
cannot get their perspective right4     
,they think that by giving up belief in 
a historical fall of the race they would

 have to give up a great deal more4     
,without the ,fall they do not know what
 to say about sin1 salvation1 the       
,atonement1 etc4  ,they are mistaken in 
this supposition1 as ,i trust ,i have   
already shown to some extent when       
discussing the question of sin1 and as  
,i shall hope to show more clearly still
 when we come to deal with the          
,atonement4  ,what ,i now wish to insist
 upon is that it is absolutely          
impossible for any intelligent man to   
continue to believe in the ,fall as it  
is literally understood and taught4     
,the ,genesis account4--,it is popularly
 supposed that the doctrine is derived  
from the book of ,genesis1 but that is  
hardly the case4  ,no doubt the ,genesis
 myth about ,adam and ,eve in the       
,garden of ,eden forms the background of
 it1 but it is not consonant with the   
doctrine itself4 ,the ,genesis narrative
 says nothing about the ruined creation 
or the curse upon posterity4  ,there is 
no hint of individual immortality1 much 

less of heaven and hell2 no ,christ1 no 
cross1 no future judgment1 no vicarious 
,atonement4  ,it is a composite         
primitive story4  ,a careful examination
 of its constituents will show that more
 than one account of the event has been 
drawn upon to supply materials for the  
narrative as it now stands4  ,the legend
 was in existence as oral tradition ages
 before it became literature4  ,how old 
it may be we have no means of knowing   
with certainty1 but the parallel stories
 in other ,semitic religions are of     
great antiquity and had originally no   
ethical significance whatever4  ,the    
,genesis story of the ,fall exercised no
 influence upon ,old ,testament         
religion2 it is scarcely alluded to in  
the best ,old ,testament writings1 some 
of them earlier probably than the       
,genesis account itself4  ,it was not   
until after the great captivity that it 
showed any tendency toward becoming an  
article of faith4  ,at the time when    
,jesus was born it had passed into the  

popular ,jewish religion4  ,there is a  
psychological reason for the gradual    
transformation of a primitive legend    
into a religious dogma4  ,the ,jewish   
nation has fallen upon evil days4  ,for 
generations after the great captivity   
they had been ground under the heel of a
 succession of foreign masters4  ,under 
the cruel rule of ,antiochus ,epiphanes1
 about the middle of the second century 
,b4,c41 their very religion seemed      
likely to be crushed out by merciless   
persecution4  ,it was no wonder that the
 serious minds of the day became        
inclined to look upon the present as    
being but the ruin of the past1 the     
sorry remainder of what had once been an
 ideal world4  ,this tendency showed    
itself in various ways1 the chief of    
which was a looking back to the great   
days of ,david and ,solomon as the      
period of ,israel's brightest splendour 
and prosperity4  ,of this ,i must say a 
little more presently when we come to   
consider the genesis of the idea of the 

kingdom of ,god4  ,another way in which 
the same tendency showed itself was that
 of taking the legend of the ,fall more 
or less literally4  ,a suffering        
generation could hardly help thinking of
 their woes as being the result of some 
primitive act of transgression4  ,this  
is the way in which the rabbis came to  
speak of the ,fall as being an actual   
fact of religious and ethical           
importance4  ,the doctrine transferred  
to ,christianity4--,a similar set of    
political and social conditions carried 
the doctrine over into ,christianity1   
chiefly through the influence of the    
apostle ,paul who had received a        
rabbinical training4  ,not only ,hebrews
 but ,greeks had begun to feel that the 
world was decaying and perhaps nearing  
the end4  ,they idealised the past and  
contrasted it with the present4  ,all   
civilisation lay under the dominion of  
,rome1 and ,rome herself was subject to 
a military dictator4  ,the heart of the 
world-wide empire was a hotbed of       

corruption where every form of vice took
 root and flourished4  ,the ,greek      
thinkers and scholars despised their    
masters1 but their own heroic days were 
gone and they were helpless to cast off 
the yoke4  ,they had no ,pericles now1  
no ,leonidas1 no ,miltiades4  ,gone were
 the men of ,thermopylae1 ,marathon1 and
 ,salamis4  ,these were lesser1 darker  
days4  ,with a sure instinct men were   
ceasing to feel any confidence in the   
future of this pagan civilisation4  ,it 
had its great elements1 but the signs of
 disruption were already apparent and no
 one could foresee what would take its  
place4  ,the mood of the time is        
reflected in the pages of ,tacitus and  
,juvenal4  ,into this atmosphere came   
,christianity with its doctrine of the  
holy love of ,god and its adoring faith 
in ,jesus4  ,but both ,judaism and      
,hellenism had already the tendency to  
look back toward a better and happier   
time and to think of the present as a   
fall from it4  ,paul felt this like     

everyone else1 and forthwith took some  
kind of a fall for granted when         
unfolding his system of thought4  ,it is
 doubtful whether he took the ,genesis  
story literally or not1 and he certainly
 made ,adam the type of the unideal or  
earthly man who had become estranged    
from ,god4  ,he was too great a man to  
be pinned down to mere literalism in a  
question of this kind1 so in his use of 
the terms supplied by the rabbinical    
version of the legend he glides easily  
into the statement of the obvious truth 
that the ,adam1 or lower man1 or earthly
 principle in every human being1 needs  
to be transformed by the uprising of the
 ,christ or ideal man1 within the soul4 
,for as in ,adam all die1 even so in    
,christ shall all be made alive4  ,the  
first man is of the earth earthy3 the   
second man is the ,lord from heaven4    
,here1 then1 we have the origins of the 
doctrine of the ,fall4  ,right through  
,christian history the tendency has run 
to look upon the world as the ruins of a

 divine plan marred by man's perversity 
and self-will4 ,it is time we got rid of
 it1 for it has had a blighting1        
deadening influence upon hopeful        
endeavour for the good of the race4  ,it
 is not integral to ,christianity1 for  
,jesus never said a word about it and   
did not even allude to it indirectly4   
,it implies a view of the nature and    
dealings of ,god with men which is      
unethical and untrue4  ,surely1 if ,god 
knew beforehand that the world would go 
wrong1 the blame for catastrophe was not
 all man's4  ,if ,he were so baffled and
 horror-stricken by the results as the  
dogmatic theologian makes out1 ,he ought
 to have been more careful about the way
 ,he did ,his work at the beginning2 a  
world which went wrong so early and so  
easily was anything but very good1      
although ,he pronounced it to be so     
according to the ,genesis writer4       
,besides1 why should a trivial act of   
transgression have sent it all wrong8   
,we take leave of our common sense when 

we talk    ,of man's first disobedience 
and the fruit   ,of that forbidden tree4
  ,to be sure ,milton did not believe it
 himself when he wrote that line1 but   
his ,puritan associates and ,catholic   
ancestors did1 and orthodoxy professes  
to do so still1 though it does not know 
quite how to put it without falling into
 absurdity4  ,again1 why should ,god    
feel ,himself so much aggrieved by      
,adam's peccadillo8  ,if it were not for
 the theological atmosphere which       
surrounds the question1 we should see at
 once that it was ridiculous4  ,why     
should the consequences continue through
 countless generations8  ,remember this 
was supposed to be the very start of    
humanity's career4  ,what a dreary1     
hopeless outlook was left to it6  ,the  
notion is incredible1 and most of the   
clear-headed men who hold it would scout
 it without discussion if they heard of 
it now for the first time4  ,as it is1  
however1 they go on talking of the awful
 holiness of ,god1 the offence against  

the divine majesty1 and so on4  ,but    
what is this divine holiness8  ,i can   
well remember that as a child ,i used to
 tremble at the thought of it1 for      
somehow1 like a good many other people1 
,i had been taught to think of the      
divine holiness as synonymous with      
merciless inflexibility4  ,but holiness1
 righteousness1 justice1 mercy1 love1   
are but different expressions of the    
same spiritual reality4  ,one might go  
on multiplying these considerations for 
ever1 but there is no need to do so4    
,sufficient has been said to demonstrate
 the fact that the doctrine of the ,fall
 is an absurdity from the point of view 
both of ethical consistency and common  
sense4  ,science and the ,fall4--,after 
this it is almost superfluous to point  
out that modern science knows nothing of
 it and can find no trace of such a     
cataclysm in human history4  ,on the    
contrary1 it asserts that there has been
 a gradual and unmistakable rise2 the   
law of evolution governs human affairs  

just as it does every other part of the 
cosmic process4  ,this statement is     
quite consistent with the admission that
 there have been periods of             
retrogression as well as of advance1 and
 that the advance itself has not been   
steady and uniform from first to last2  
there have been long stretches of       
history during which humanity has seemed
 to mark time and then a sudden outburst
 of intellectual activity and moral     
achievement4  ,it could hardly be       
maintained1 for instance1 that the      
,athens of ,socrates was not superior to
 the ,france of ,fulk the black of      
,anjou1 or that the ,assyria of         
,asshur-bani-pal was not quite as       
civilised as the ,germany of the ninth  
century ,a4,d4  ,alfred ,russel ,wallace
 has shown in his popular book1 ,the    
,wonderful ,century1 that the latter    
half of the nineteenth century witnessed
 a greater advance in man's power over  
nature than the fifteen hundred years   
preceding it4  ,there are some people   

who maintain that while the material    
advance is unquestionable1 the          
intellectual advance is on the whole    
more doubtful1 and that1 morally        
speaking1 human nature is no different  
from what it ever was4  ,but ,i do not  
think any serious historian would say   
this4  ,intellectually1 the average man 
may still be inferior to ,plato1--though
 even ,plato did not understand the need
 for exact thought as modern            
philosophers do1--but civilisation as a 
whole has produced a higher level of    
intellectual attainment than had been   
reached by ,plato's world4  ,a          
civilisation in which four-fifths of the
 people were helots kept in ignorance in
 order that an aristocratic few might   
enjoy the benefits of culture was not   
equal to ours1 great and glaring as the 
defects of ours may be4  ,again1 while  
it is only too sadly true that modern   
civilisation contains plenty of callous 
selfishness1 gross injustice1 and       
abominable cruelty1 it can hardly be    

denied that these relics of our brute   
ancestry are universally deplored1 and  
that society recognises them to be      
inimical to its well-being and seeks to 
get rid of them4  ,thank ,god1 as       
,anthony ,trollope said1 that bad as men
 are to-day they are not as men were in 
the days of the ,caesars4  ,if the ,new 
,theology controversy had arisen a few  
hundred years ago1 theological          
disputants would not have wasted time in
 writing newspaper articles2 they would 
have met in solemn conclave and         
condemned the heretic to be flayed alive
 or hung over a slow fire or treated in 
some similarly convincing manner4  ,of  
course it is remotely possible that some
 of them would like to do it now1 but   
public opinion would not let them2      
things have changed1 and the change is  
in the direction of a higher general    
morality4  ,if any man feels pessimistic
 about the present1 let him study the   
past and he will feel reassured4  ,those
 who maintain that society is not       

morally better but only more            
sentimental1 beg the question4  ,what   
they call sentimentalism is greater     
sensibility1 greater sympathy1 a keener 
sense of justice4  ,what is the moral   
ideal but love8  ,every advance in the  
direction of universal love and         
brotherhood is a moral advance4  ,the   
sternness of ,stoicism or ,puritanism   
was an imperfect morality4  ,the        
grandeur and impressiveness of it were  
due to the fact that ,stoics and        
,puritans for the most part took their  
ideal seriously2 they aimed at something
 high and dedicated their lives to it4  
,this dedication of the life to         
something higher than self-interest is  
of the very essence of true morality1   
and its highest reach is perfect love4  
,we are a long way from that yet1       
although the ideal was manifested two   
thousand years ago4  ,the average man   
to-day is certainly not nobler than the 
apostle ,paul1 nor does he see more     
deeply into the true meaning of life    

than did ,john the divine1 but the      
general level is higher4  ,slowly1 very 
slowly1 with every now and then a       
depressing set-back1 the race is        
climbing the steep ascent toward the    
ideal of universal brotherhood4  ,it is 
sometimes maintained by thinkers who    
account themselves progressive that the 
law of evolution holds good of mankind  
so far as our physical constitution is  
concerned1 but that a special act of    
creation took place as soon as the      
physical frame was sufficiently         
developed to become the receptacle of a 
higher principle1 and that then1 and not
 till then1 man became a living soul4   
,but it is impossible to square the     
circle in this way1 and to contrive to  
get the doctrine of the ,fall in by the 
back door1 so to speak4  ,the idea in   
the minds of those who hold this view   
appears to be that the tenant of the    
body which had been so long in          
preparation was a simple but intelligent
 and morally innocent personality who   

forthwith proceeded to do all that ,adam
 is credited with and therefore spoiled 
what would otherwise have been a        
harmonious and orderly development2 what
 we now see is not evolution as ,god    
meant it1 but evolution perverted by    
human wrong-headedness4  ,but this      
theory contains more difficulties than  
the older one it aims to replace4  ,it  
makes ,god even more incompetent then   
the traditional view does4  ,for untold 
ages1 apparently1 ,he has been preparing
 the world for the advent of humanity1  
only to find that the moment humanity   
enters it the whole scheme is spoiled4  
,but we need not seriously consider this
 view2 the facts are overwhelmingly     
against it4 ,the history1 even of the   
most recent civilisations1 is1          
comparatively speaking1 only as old as  
yesterday1 whereas the presence of human
 life on this planet is traceable into  
the almost illimitable past4  ,but the  
farther we go back in our investigation 
of human origins the less possible does 

it appear that the primitive man of     
theological tradition has ever existed4 
,the ,adam of the dogmatic theologian is
 like the economic man of the older     
school of writers on political science1 
the man who always wants to buy in the  
cheapest market and sell in the dearest1
 and whose one consistent endeavour is  
to seek pleasure and avoid pain2 he has 
never existed4  ,divine immanence and   
its ,fall4--,besides1 we do not want him
 to exist4 ,the ,fall theory is not only
 impossible in face of the findings of  
modern science2 it is a real hindrance  
to religion4  ,so far from having to    
give it up because science would have   
nothing to say to it1 the difficulty    
would be to retain it and yet have      
anything like a rational view of the    
relation of ,god and the world4  ,it has
 already been stated that the           
starting-point of the ,new ,theology is 
a recognition of the truth that ,god is 
expressing ,himself through ,his world4 
,this truth occupied a place in         

religious thought ages before modern    
science was thought of2 science has     
confirmed it1 but has not compelled us  
to think it2 if science had never       
existed1 it would still remain the only 
reasonable ground for an adequate       
explanation of the relation of man to   
the universe4  ,it simplifies all our   
questionings and cordinates all our     
activities4  ,there is not a single one 
in the whole vast range of human        
interests which it does not cover4      
,there is nothing which humanity can do 
or seek to do which is not immediately  
dependent upon it4  ,the grandest task  
and the lowliest are both implied in it4
  ,it declares the common basis of      
religion and morality4  ,religion is the
 response of human nature to the whole  
of things considered as an order2       
morality is the living of the individual
 life in such a way as to be and do the 
most for humanity as a whole2 it is     
making the most of one's self for the   
sake of the whole4  ,morality is not    

self-immolation4  ,to jump off ,london  
,bridge would be self-immolation1 but it
 would not be an act conducive to the   
welfare of the community2 it might      
indeed be a very selfish and cowardly   
act4  ,true morality involves the duty  
of self-formation and the exercise of   
judgment and self-discipline in order   
that the individual life may become as  
great a gift as possible to the common  
life4  ,it will therefore be seen at    
once that there is a vital relation     
between morality and religion2 the one  
implies the other even though the fact  
may not always be recognised1 and both  
are based upon the immanence of ,god4   
,the truth beneath the doctrine of the  
,fall4--,but never yet has a particular 
doctrine or mode of stating truth held  
its own for any length of time in human 
history unless there was some genuine   
truth beneath it1 and the doctrine of   
the ,fall is no exception4  ,it does    
contain a truth1 a truth which can be   
stated in a few words1 and which might  

be inferred from what has already been  
said about the relationship of man and  
,god4  ,the coming of a finite creation 
into being is itself of the nature of a 
fall1 a coming down from perfection to  
imperfection4  ,we have seen the reason 
for that coming down2 it is that the    
universal life may realise its own      
nature by attenuating or limiting its   
perfection4  ,if ,i want to understand  
the composition of the ordinary pure    
white ray1 ,i take a prism and break it 
up into its constituents4  ,this is just
 what ,god has been doing in creation4  
,our present consciousness of ourselves 
and of the world can reasonably be      
accounted a fall1 for we came from the  
infinite and unto the infinite          
perfection we shall in the end return4  
,i do not mean that our present         
consciousness of ourselves is eternal2  
,i only assert that our true being is   
eternally one with the being of ,god and
 that to be separated from a full       
knowledge of that truth is to have      

undergone a fall4  ,but this fall has no
 sinister antecedents2 its purpose is   
good1 and there is nothing to mourn over
 except our own slowness at getting into
 line with the cosmic purpose4  ,another
 way of describing it would be to call  
it the incarnation of ,god in nature and
 man1 a subject about which ,i must say 
more in another chapter4  ,this view of 
the meaning and significance of the     
,fall can be traced in all great        
religious literature4  ,perhaps one of  
the best statements of it that has ever 
been made is the one set forth by ,paul 
of ,tarsus in the eighth chapter of his 
letter to the ,romans3 ,for ,i reckon   
that the sufferings of this present time
 are not worthy to be compared with the 
glory which shall be revealed in us4    
,for the earnest expectation of the     
creature waiteth for the manifestation  
of the sons of ,god4  ,for the creature 
was made subject to vanity1 not         
willingly1 but by the reason of him who 
hath subjected the same in hope1 because

 the creature itself also shall be      
delivered from the bondage of corruption
 into the glorious liberty of the       
children of ,god4  ,for we know that the
 whole creation groaneth and travaileth 
in pain together until now4  ,passages  
like this make it impossible to believe 
that ,paul was ever really tied down to 
the literal rabbinical view of ,adam's  
transgression and its consequences2 and 
these words are a clear statement of the
 truth that the imperfection of the     
finite ,creation is not man's fault but 
,god's will1 and is a means toward a    
great end4     ,,chapter ,v  ,,jesus    
,,the ,,divine ,,man  ,the centrality of
 ,jesus4--,all that has been said       
hitherto is but a preparation for the   
discussion of the greatest subject that 
at present occupies the field of faith  
and morals1 that of the personality of  
,jesus and ,his significance for        
mankind4  ,it has been repeatedly       
pointed out both by friends and foes of 
the ,new ,theology that the ultimate    

question for the ,christian religion is 
that of the place occupied by its       
,founder4  ,who or what was ,jesus8     
,how much can we really know about ,him8
  ,what value does ,he possess for the  
religious consciousness to-day8  ,all   
other questions about the ,christian    
religion are of minor importance        
compared with these1 and if we are      
prepared with an answer to these we have
 by implication answered all the rest4  
,christianity is in a special sense     
immediately dependent upon its ,founder4
  ,no other religion has ever regarded  
its founder as ,christians regard their 
,master4  ,christianity draws its       
sustenance from the belief that ,jesus  
is still alive and impacting ,himself   
upon the world through ,his followers4  
,other great religions trace their      
origin to the teaching and example of   
some exceptional person2 ,christianity  
does the same1 but with the added       
conviction that ,jesus is as much in the
 world as ever and that ,his presence is

 realised in the mystic union between   
,himself and those who know and love    
,him4  ,if this be true1 it is a fact of
 the very highest importance and one    
which can neither be passed over nor    
relegated to a subordinate position4    
,christianity without ,jesus is the     
world without the sun4  ,if1 as ,i      
readily admit1 the great question for   
religion in the immediate future is that
 of the person of ,jesus1 the sooner we 
address ourselves to it the better4     
,before discussing what theology has to 
say of ,him let us note in general terms
 what the civilised world is saying1    
theology or no theology4  ,i suppose the
 most out-and-out materialist would     
admit that in the western world the name
 of ,jesus exercises an influence to    
which no other is even remotely         
comparable4  ,perhaps he would even go  
so far as to admit that there is no name
 anywhere which means so much to those  
who hear it4  ,it is not merely that the
 strongest civilisation on earth        

reverences that name1 but that there is 
no other civilisation which can produce 
a parallel to it4  ,the nearest approach
 to it is that of ,gautama1 and ,i think
 it would be generally admitted that the
 influence even of this mighty and      
beautiful spirit has never possessed the
 immediacy1 intensity1 and personal     
value which distinguish that of ,jesus4 
,it might be maintained with some show  
of reason that the civilisation of      
,christendom1 although it is now being  
copied by non-,christian communities    
such as ,japan1 is not necessarily the  
highest because it happens to be the    
strongest1 and that it is even regarded 
with contempt by the best               
representatives of some more ancient    
faiths4 ,still that is not quite the    
point4  ,the point is that the name of  
,jesus1 which stands for a moral ideal  
which is the very negation of           
materialism1 commands a reverence1 and  
indeed a worship1 the like of which no  
other has ever received in the history  

of mankind4  ,it is no use trying to    
place ,jesus in a row along with other  
religious masters4 ,he is first and the 
rest nowhere2 we have no category for   
,him4  ,i am not trying to prove the    
impossible1 namely1 that ,christianity  
is the only true religion and the rest  
are all false4  ,we shall get on better 
when that kind of nonsense ceases to be 
spoken4  ,all ,i am concerned to        
emphasise is that somehow ,jesus seems  
to sum up and focus the religious ideal 
for mankind4  ,his influence for good is
 greater than that of all the masters of
 men put together1 and still goes on    
increasing4  ,it is a notable fact that 
although churches and creeds are losing 
their hold upon the modern mind1 the    
name of ,jesus is held in greater regard
 than ever4  ,we have heard of a meeting
 of workmen cheering ,jesus and hissing 
the churches4  ,in our day most people  
are agreed that in ,jesus we have the   
most perfect life ever exhibited to     
humanity4  ,it is not only ,christians  

who take this view2 everyone1 or nearly 
everyone1 does so4 ,some years ago a    
book was published which bore on the    
title-page the question1 ,what would    
,jesus do8  ,the book was not very well 
written1 and ,i do not think the writer 
would have claimed that it contained    
anything original1 but it had an        
enormous sale simply because of its     
attempt to answer the question on the   
covers4  ,the most unlikely people      
bought and read it1 people who never    
went to church and would not dream of   
doing so4  ,from indications such as    
these one is justified in asserting that
 our western civilisation has accepted  
as true that1 no matter who ,jesus was1 
,his character represents the highest   
standard for human attainment4  ,in     
seeking moral excellence the individual 
and the race are thus moving toward an  
ideal already manifested in history4    
,the most effective taunt that can be   
levelled at inconsistent ,christians is 
that they are unlike their ,master4     

,criticisms of the character of ,jesus  
are now few in number1 and usually take 
the form of declaring that it is        
impracticable or impossible1 not that it
 is undesirable or imperfect4  ,some1 no
 doubt1 would maintain that perhaps the 
real ,jesus did not answer to the ideal 
which ,christians have formed of ,him1  
but that is another question4  ,here we 
are now face to face with the           
unescapable fact that the greatest moral
 and religious force in the world is    
embodied in the name of ,jesus1 and this
 by general consent4  ,the ,jesus of    
traditional theology4--,but what has    
traditional ,christian theology to say  
about ,jesus8  ,here we enter a region  
in which the ordinary man of the world  
does not live and is never likely to    
live1 but we cannot afford to ignore it4
  ,according to the received theology1  
,jesus was and is ,god and man in a     
sense in which no one else ever has been
 or ever will be4  ,as the shorter      
catechism has it1 following the language

 of the ancient creeds1 ,there are three
 persons in one ,god1 the same in       
substance1 equal in power and glory1 and
 ,jesus is the second of the three4     
,this kind of statement cannot but be   
confusing to the ordinary mind of to-day
 if only because the word person does   
not mean to us quite the same thing that
 it meant to the framers of the ancient 
creeds4  ,strange as it may seem to some
 of my readers1 ,i believe what the     
creeds say about the person of ,jesus1  
but ,i believe it in a way that puts no 
gulf between ,him and the rest of the   
human race4  ,this1 ,i trust1 will      
become clearer as we proceed2 it seems  
to me to be implied in any real belief  
concerning the immanence of ,god4 ,i    
think even the ,athanasian creed is a   
magnificent piece of work if only the   
churches would consent to understand it 
in terms of the oldest theology of all6 
,but1 according to conventional         
theology1 the second person in the      
,trinity1 who was coequal and coeternal 

with ,god the ,father1 laid aside ,his  
glory1 became incarnate for our         
salvation1 was born of a virgin1 lived a
 brief suffering life1 wrought many     
miracles1 died a shameful death1 rose   
again from the tomb on the second       
morning after ,he had been laid in it1  
and ascended into heaven in full view of
 ,his wondering disciples4  ,in         
fulfilment of a promise made by ,him    
shortly before the crucifixion1 and     
repeated before the ascension1 ,he and  
the ,father conjointly sent the third   
person in the ,trinity to endue with    
power from on high the simple men whose 
duty it now became to proclaim the      
gospel of salvation to the world4       
,jesus is now on the throne of ,his     
glory1 but sooner or later ,he will come
 again to wind up the present           
dispensation and to be the ,judge of the
 quick and the dead at a grand assize4  
,there is a sense in which all this is  
true1 but it is commonly expressed in   
such a way that the truth is lost sight 

of4  ,literally understood it is        
incredible4  ,the only way to get at the
 truth in every one of these venerable  
articles of the ,christian faith will be
 to shed the husk1 and that we must do  
without hesitation or compromise4  ,a   
more accurate historic perspective would
 save us from the crudities so often    
preached from the pulpits in the name of
 ,christian truth1 crudities which repel
 so many intelligent men from the       
benefits of public worship4  ,there     
never has been the slightest need for   
any man of thoughtful mind and reverent 
spirit to recoil from the fundamentals  
of the ,christian creed4  ,rightly      
understood they are the fundamentals of 
human nature itself4  ,godhead and      
manhood4--,the first in order of thought
 is that of the ,godhead of ,jesus4  ,as
 regards this tenet ,i think it should  
be easily possible to show that the most
 convinced adherent of the traditional  
theology does not believe and never has 
believed what he professes to hold4     

,the terms with which we have to deal   
are ,deity1 divinity1 and humanity4  ,a 
good deal of confusion exists concerning
 the interrelation of these three4  ,it 
is supposed that humanity and divinity  
are mutually exclusive1 and that        
divinity and ,deity must necessarily    
mean exactly the same thing4  ,but this 
is not so4  ,it follows from the first  
principle of the ,new ,theology that all
 the three are fundamentally and        
essentially one1 but in scope and extent
 they are different4  ,by the ,deity we 
mean--and ,i suppose everyone means--the
 all-controlling consciousness of the   
universe as well as the infinite1       
unfathomable1 and unknowable abyss of   
being beyond4  ,by divinity we mean the 
essence of the nature of the immanent   
,god1 the innermost and all-determining 
quality of that nature2 we have already 
seen that according to the ,christian   
religion the innermost quality of the   
divine nature is perfect love4  ,show us
 perfect love and you have shown us the 

divinest thing the universe can produce1
 whether it knows itself to be          
immediately directed and controlled by  
the infinite consciousness of ,deity or 
whether it does not4  ,it is clear1     
then1 that although ,deity and divinity 
are essentially one1 the latter is the  
lesser term and is dependent for its    
validity upon the former4  ,humanity is 
a lesser term still4  ,it stands for    
that expression of the divine nature    
which we associate with our limited     
human consciousness4  ,strictly         
speaking1 the human and divine are two  
categories which shade into and imply   
each other2 humanity is divinity viewed 
from below1 divinity is humanity viewed 
from above4  ,if any human being could  
succeed in living a life of perfect     
love1 that is a life whose energies were
 directed toward impersonal ends1 and   
which was lived in such a way as to be  
and do the utmost for the whole1 he     
would show himself divine1 for he would 
have revealed the innermost of ,god4    

,now let us apply these definitions to  
the personality of ,jesus4 ,granted that
 the devotion of ,christians has been   
right in recognising in ,him the one    
perfect human life1 that is1 the one    
life which consistently and from first  
to last was lived in terms of the whole1
 what are we to call it except divine8  
,in a sense1 of course1 everything that 
exists is divine1 because the whole     
universe is an expression of the being  
of ,god4  ,but it can hardly be         
seriously contended that a crocodile is 
as much an expression of ,god as        
,general ,booth4  ,it is wise and right1
 therefore1 to restrict the word divine 
to the kind of consciousness which knows
 itself to be1 and rejoices to be1 the  
expression of a love which is a         
consistent self-giving to the universal 
life4  ,god is love2 and he that        
dwelleth in love dwelleth in ,god and   
,god in him4  ,general ,booth is divine 
in so far as this is the governing      
principle of his life4  ,jesus was      

divine simply and solely because ,his   
life was never governed by any other    
principle4  ,we do not need to talk of  
two natures in ,him1 or to think of a   
mysterious dividing line on one side of 
which ,he was human and on the other    
divine4  ,in ,him humanity was divinity 
and divinity1 humanity4  ,does anyone   
think that this brings ,jesus down to   
our level8  ,assuredly it does not2 we  
are far too prone to be ruled by names4 
,to the ordinary ,christian this        
explanation of the divinity of ,jesus   
may seem equivalent to the denial of    
,his uniqueness1 but it is nothing of   
the kind4  ,i have already devoted some 
little space to emphasising the obvious 
fact that it is impossible to deny the  
uniqueness of ,jesus2 history has       
settled that question for us4  ,if all  
the theologians and materialists put    
together were to set to work to-morrow  
to try to show that ,jesus was just like
 other people1 they would not succeed1  
for the civilised world has already made

 up its mind on that point1 and by a    
right instinct recognises ,jesus as the 
unique standard of human excellence4    
,but this is not to say that we shall   
never reach that standard too2 quite the
 contrary4  ,we must reach it in order  
to fulfil our destiny and to crown and  
complete ,his work4  ,to stop short of  
manifesting the perfect love of ,god    
would be to fail of the object for which
 we are here and to render the advent of
 ,jesus useless4  ,christendom already  
knows this perfectly well1 although it  
has not always succeeded in expressing  
it with perfect clearness4  ,beloved1   
now are we sons of ,god1 and it doth not
 yet appear what we shall be1 but we    
know that when ,he 7or rather it7 shall 
appear1 we shall be like ,him4  ,in our 
practical religion we all1 even the most
 reactionary of us1 regard the divinity 
of ,jesus just in this way4  ,it has no 
other value4  ,we talk of imitating     
,him1 conforming to ,his likeness1      
showing ,his spirit1 and so on4  ,when  

we want a model for courage1 fidelity1  
gentleness1 humility1 unselfishness1 we 
promptly turn to ,jesus4  ,even in our  
relations with ,god we try to follow    
,his lead2 instinctively we range       
ourselves with ,him when we address the 
universal ,father2 until we come to     
creed-making we never think of putting  
,him on the ,god side of things and     
ourselves on another4  ,catholic or     
,protestant1 orthodox or unorthodox1    
,unitarian or ,trinitarian1 we all      
accept in practice the identity of the  
divine and human in ,jesus and          
potentially in ourselves4  ,but you make
 ,him only a man6  ,no1 reader1 ,i do   
not4  ,i make ,him the only ,man--and   
there is a difference4  ,we have only   
seen perfect manhood once and that was  
the manhood of ,jesus4  ,the rest of us 
have got to get there4  ,jesus and      
,deity4--,this brings us to the further 
question of the ,deity of ,jesus4  ,as a
 matter of fact1 as ,i have already     
indicated1 this question1 too1 has long 

been settled in practice4  ,if by the   
,deity of ,jesus is meant that ,he      
possessed the all-controlling           
consciousness of the universe1 then     
assuredly ,he was not the ,deity for ,he
 did not possess that consciousness4    
,he prayed to ,his ,father1 sometimes   
with agony and dread2 ,he wondered1     
suffered1 wept1 and grew weary4  ,he    
confessed ,his ignorance of some things 
and declared ,himself to have no concern
 with others2 it is even doubtful how   
far ,he was prepared to receive the     
homage of those about ,him4  ,if there  
be one thing which becomes indisputable 
from the reading of the gospel          
narratives it is that ,jesus possessed a
 true human consciousness1 limited like 
our own1 and1 like our own1 subject to  
the ordinary ills of life4  ,once again 
everybody knows this after a fashion4   
,the most determined of so-called       
orthodox controversialists would hardly 
try to maintain that the consciousness  
of ,jesus was at once limited and       

unlimited4  ,to do so would be an       
impossible feat2 if ,jesus was the      
,deity1 ,he certainly was not the whole 
of the ,deity during ,his residence on  
earth1 whatever ,he may be now4  ,but1  
it may be objected1 in ,his earthly life
 ,he was the ,deity self-limited3 ,he   
emptied ,himself1 taking the form of a  
servant1 etc4  ,quite so1 but see where 
this statement leads4  ,the ,new        
,theology can consistently make it1 but 
it is difficult to see how that newer   
theology which calls itself orthodoxy   
manages to do so4  ,does the            
self-limitation of ,jesus mean that the 
,deity was lessened in any way during   
the incarnation8  ,why1 of course not1  
we should all say2 the ,deity continued 
with infinite fulness unimpaired above  
and beyond the consciousness of ,jesus4 
,then are we to understand that this    
self-limitation of ,jesus meant that the
 eternal ,son1 or second person in the  
,trinity1 the ,word by whom the worlds  
were made1 quitted the throne of ,his   

glory and lived for thirty-three years  
as a ,jewish peasant8  ,i think the     
dogmatic theologian would have some     
hesitation in giving an unqualified     
affirmative to this question1 for the   
difficulties implied in it are          
practically insurmountable4  ,was the   
full consciousness of the eternal ,word 
present in the babe of ,bethlehem1 for  
instance8  ,if not1 where was it8       
,questions like these cannot be answered
 on the lines of the conventional       
,christology4  ,the plain and simple    
answer to all of them is to admit that  
the ,jesus of history did not possess   
the consciousness of ,deity during ,his 
life on earth4  ,his consciousness was  
as purely human as our own4  ,any       
special insight which ,he possessed into
 the true relations of ,god and man was 
due to the moral perfection of ,his     
nature and not to ,his metaphysical     
status4  ,he was ,god manifest in the   
flesh because ,his life was a consistent
 expression of divine love and not      

otherwise4  ,but ,he was not ,god       
manifest in the flesh in any way which  
would cut ,him off from the rest of     
human kind4  ,according to the received 
theology1 ,jesus and ,jesus only1 out of
 all the beings who have ever trodden   
the road which humanity has to travel1  
existed before all ages4  ,we live our  
threescore years and ten and then pass  
on into eternity2 ,he was eternal to    
begin with4  ,he comes to earth with a  
hoary antiquity behind ,him1 a timeless 
life to look back upon2 we have just    
fluttered into existence4 ,surely any   
ordinary intelligence can see that this 
kind of theologising puts an impassable 
gulf at once between ,jesus and every   
other person who has ever been born of  
an earthly mother4  ,certainly it does1 
the theologian may declare1 and rightly 
so1 for that gulf exists2 ,he assumed   
human nature1 but ,he was eternally     
divine before ,he did so1 and we are    
not4  ,i do not need to refute this     
argument2 the trend of modern thought is

 already doing so most effectually4  ,it
 is a gratuitous assumption without a   
shred of evidence to support it4        
,besides1 unfortunately for this kind of
 statement1 the scientific investigation
 of ,christian origins1 and the         
application of the scientific method to 
the history of ,christian doctrine have 
shown us how the dogma of the ,deity of 
,jesus grew up4  ,it was a comparatively
 late development in ,christianity1 and 
its practical implications never have   
been accepted1 although at one time     
there was a danger that the winsome     
figure of ,jesus would be removed       
altogether from the field of human      
interest and regard4  ,the ,jesus of    
,michael ,angelo's ,last ,judgment is a 
terrifying figure without a trace of the
 lowly ,nazarene about ,him1 and yet    
this was the ,jesus of the conventional 
,christianity of the time4  ,it was     
through this dehumanising of ,jesus in  
,christian thought and experience that  
,mariolatry arose in the ,roman church4 

,could anything be more grotesque than  
the suggestion that the mother of ,jesus
 should need to plead with her son to be
 merciful with frail humanity8  ,and yet
 this is what it came to2 the figure of 
,mary was introduced in order to        
preserve a real humanity in our         
relations with the ,godhead4  ,all      
honour to those who have called us back 
to the real ,jesus1 the ,jesus of       
,galilee and ,jerusalem1 the ,jesus with
 the prophet's fire1 the ,jesus who was 
so gentle with little children and      
erring women1 and yet before whom       
canting hypocrites and truculent        
ecclesiastics slunk away abashed4 ,upon 
this recovered ,jesus the world has now 
fixed its adoring gaze1 and it will not 
readily let ,him go again4  ,divine     
manhood and ,unitarianism4--,but then1  
someone will protest1 this is sheer     
,unitarianism after all2 you do not     
believe in the ,jesus who is the object 
of the faith of ,christendom1 but in one
 who was only a man among men2 you do   

not think of ,him as very ,god of very  
,god4  ,not so fast2 we are busy with   
names again4  ,most of us have a        
tendency to think that if we can get a  
doctrine labelled and pigeonholed1 we   
know all about it1 but we are generally 
mistaken4  ,this is not ,unitarianism1  
and ,i do believe that ,jesus was very  
,god1 as ,i have already shown4  ,we    
have to get rid of the dualism which    
will insist on putting humanity and     
,deity into two separate categories4  ,i
 say it is not ,unitarianism1 for       
historic ,unitarianism has been just as 
prone to this dualism as the extremest  
,trinitarianism has ever been4  ,like   
,trinitarianism it has often tended to  
regard humanity as on one side of a gulf
 and ,deity as on the other2 it has     
emphasised too much the transcendence of
 ,god4  ,the sentence quoted above from 
an orthodox ,trinitarian divine about   
,god's eternal eminence and ,his descent
 on a created world might just as well  
have been employed by an out-and-out    

,unitarian4  ,modern ,unitarianism is in
 part the descendant of                 
eighteenth-century ,deism which insisted
 upon the transcendence of ,god almost  
to the exclusion of ,his immanence2 it  
thought of ,god as away somewhere above 
the universe1 watching it but leaving   
the machine pretty much to itself4      
,unitarianism in the course of its      
history from the first century downward 
has passed through a good many phases4  
,present-day ,unitarianism is preaching 
with fervour and clearness the          
foundation truth of the ,new ,theology1 
the fundamental unity of ,god and man4  
,but it does not belong to it           
exclusively1 and ,i decline to be       
labelled ,unitarian because ,i preach it
 too4  ,the ,new ,theology is not a     
victory for ,unitarianism4  ,if ever the
 ,english-speaking communities of the   
world should come to be united under a  
single flag1 would it be just and wise  
to call them all ,americans8  ,no doubt 
some of our ,american cousins would like

 to think so1 but there is enough of    
virility and solid worth on the ,british
 side of the question to make that      
description impossible4  ,the title     
would be a misnomer1 and in fact an     
absurdity4  ,the case in regard to the  
connection of the ,new ,theology with   
,unitarianism is not dissimilar4  ,it is
 only sectarian ,unitarians who would   
try to claim it for their own           
denomination2 the best and most         
outstanding exponents of ,unitarianism  
would not wish to do anything of the    
kind1 for they know well enough that    
historically speaking they have not     
consistently stood for it any more than 
any other denomination4  ,the ,new      
,theology does not belong to any one    
church but to all4  ,for my own part ,i 
would not even take the trouble to try  
to turn a ,roman ,catholic into a       
,protestant4  ,let every man stay in the
 church whose spiritual atmosphere and  
modes of worship best accord with his   
temperament1 but let him recognise the  

deeper unity that lies below the formal 
creeds4  ,the old issue between         
,unitarianism and ,trinitarianism       
vanishes in the ,new ,theology2 the     
bottom is knocked out of the            
controversy4  ,unitarianism used to     
declare that ,jesus was man not ,god2   
,trinitarianism maintained that ,he was 
,god and man2 the oldest ,christian     
thought1 as well as the youngest1       
regards ,him as ,god in man--,god       
manifest in the flesh4  ,but here       
emerges a great point of difference     
between the ,new ,theology on the one   
hand and traditional orthodoxy on the   
other4  ,the latter would restrict the  
description ,god manifest in the flesh  
to ,jesus alone2 the ,new ,theology     
would extend it in a lesser degree to   
all humanity1 and would maintain that in
 the end it will be as true of every    
individual soul as ever it was of       
,jesus4  ,indeed1 it is this belief that
 gives value and significance to the    
earthly mission of ,jesus2 ,he came to  

show us what we potentially are4  ,this 
is a great and important issue1 which   
requires to be treated in a separate    
chapter4     ,,chapter ,,vi  ,,the      
,,eternal ,,christ  ,in the course of   
,christian history a good deal of time  
has been occupied in the discussion of  
the metaphysical question of the complex
 unity of the divine nature2 and the    
result has been the doctrine of the     
,trinity1 a conception which1 it has    
been claimed1 at once satisfies and     
transcends the operations of the human  
intellect4  ,most non-theological modern
 minds are1 however1 somewhat suspicious
 of the doctrine of the ,trinity2 it    
seems rather too speculative and too    
remote from ordinary ways of thinking to
 possess much real value4  ,but this is 
quite a mistake4  ,we cannot dispense   
with the doctrine of the ,trinity1 for  
it1 or something like it1 is implied in 
the very structure of the mind4  ,it    
belongs to philosophy even more than to 
religion1 and to the sphere of ethics   

not less4  ,i daresay even the man in   
the street knows1 quite as certainly as 
the man in the schools1 that a          
metaphysical proposition underlies the  
doing of every moral act1 even though it
 may never be expressed4  ,all thinking 
starts with an assumption of some kind1 
and without an assumption thought is    
impossible4  ,this is just as true of   
the strictest scientific processes as it
 is of deductive reasoning1 and indeed  
it is interesting to watch the way in   
which within recent years idealistic    
philosophy and empirical science have   
joined hands4  ,does physical science1  
then1 imply the doctrine of the         
,trinity8  ,yes1 unquestionably it does1
 after a fashion1 for it starts with an 
assumption which takes it for granted4  
,perhaps this would be news to          
,professor ,ray ,lankester1 and such as 
he1 but ,i think ,i could convince them 
that ,i am right if ,i had them face to 
face4  ,to use the mind at all we have  
to assume this doctrine even though we  

may not actually formulate it4          
,christianity did not invent it2 it     
clarified and defined it1 but in        
principle it is as old as the exercise  
of human reason4  ,the basal assumption 
of thought4--,after making a            
comprehensive assertion of this kind ,i 
suppose ,i am bound to justify it1 and  
,i do not shrink from the task4  ,i say 
that all thinking starts with an        
assumption of some kind1 and exact      
thought requires that that assumption   
shall be the simplest possible1 the     
irreducible minimum beneath which we    
cannot get4  ,now when we start thinking
 about existence as a whole and         
ourselves in particular1 we are         
compelled to assume the infinite1 the   
finite1 and the activity of the former  
within the latter4  ,in other words we  
have to postulate ,god1 the universe1   
and ,god's operation within the         
universe4  ,look at these three         
conceptions for a moment and it will be 
seen that every one of them implies the 

rest2 they are a ,trinity in unity4     
,the primordial being must be infinite1 
for there cannot be a finite without    
something still beyond it4  ,we know1   
too1 that to our experience the universe
 is finite2 we can measure1 weigh1 and  
analyse it--an impossible thing to do   
with an infinite substance4  ,and yet if
 we think of infinite and finite as two 
entirely distinct and unrelated modes of
 existence1 we find ourselves in an     
impossible position1 for the infinite   
must be that outside of which nothing   
exists or can exist2 so of course we are
 compelled to think of the infinite as  
ever active within the finite1 the      
source of change and motion1 the        
exhaustless power which makes possible  
the very idea of development from       
simplicity to complexity4  ,if the      
universe were complete in itself1 change
 would not occur1 and a cosmic process1 
evolutionary or otherwise1 would be     
inconceivable4  ,here1 then1 we have the
 basal factors of any true theology1    

philosophy1 or science4 ,readers of     
,haeckel's ,riddle of the ,universe will
 note that that eminent materialist1 who
 professes to do away with the very idea
 of ,god1 takes these factors for       
granted2 and yet ,i suppose he would    
object to being told that he believes in
 the doctrine of the ,trinity4  ,but he 
does1 for he begins by assuming infinite
 space filled to the farthest with      
matter ponderable and imponderable1 and 
forthwith proceeds to weigh1 measure1   
and divide the latter as though it were 
finite6  ,here are two terms of the     
doctrine of the ,trinity at once4  ,we  
get the third as soon as ,professor     
,haeckel sets to work to explain the    
cosmic process1 for as he does so he is 
all the while taking for granted that   
the infinite is pressing in and up      
through the finite1 evolving beauty and 
order1 light and life4  ,the moral basis
 of the doctrine4--,but it may be       
contended that these bare bones of the  
doctrine of the ,trinity are not the    

doctrine as it enters into spiritual    
experience4  ,i admit the fact while    
asserting strongly that but for this    
framework of intellectual necessity the 
doctrine would be unknown to faith and  
morals4  ,it is sometimes stated that   
the doctrine of the ,trinity was        
formulated in order to account for      
,jesus1 but that is only incidentally   
true4  ,its framers took the materials  
for it over from ,greek thought1 and    
even ,greek thought probably inherited  
it from an older civilisation still1 if 
indeed there were any necessity to      
inherit it4  ,i contend that if we had  
never heard of the doctrine in          
connection with ,jesus1 we should have  
to invent it now in order to account for
 ourselves and the wondrous universe in 
which we live4  ,unquestionably1        
however1 it is from the point of view of
 religion and morals that the doctrine  
has most significance1 and therefore has
 become indissolubly associated with the
 personality of ,jesus2 and it is easy  

to see how this has come about4         
,thinkers have always been compelled to 
construe the universe in terms of the   
highest known to man1 namely1 his own   
moral nature4  ,it was natural1         
therefore1 that while they thought of   
the universe as an expression of ,god1  
they should think of it as the          
expression of that side of ,his being   
which can only be described as the ideal
 or archetypal manhood4  ,the infinite  
being of ,god is utterly                
incomprehensible to a finite mind1 and  
in regard to it the most devout saint is
 as much an agnostic as the most        
convinced materialist4  ,but we are     
justified in holding that whatever else 
,he may be ,god is essentially man1 that
 is1 ,he is the fount of humanity4      
,there must be one side1 so to speak1 of
 the infinitely complex being of ,god in
 which humanity is eternally contained  
and which finds expression in the finite
 universe4  ,humanity is not a vague    
term2 we have already seen something of 

what it is4  ,we ought not to interpret 
it in terms of the primeval savage1 or  
even of average human nature to-day1 but
 in terms of what we have come to feel  
is its highest expression1 and that is  
,jesus4  ,if we think therefore of the  
archetypal eternal divine ,man1 the     
source and sustenance of the universe1  
and yet transcending the universe1 we   
cannot do better than think of ,him in  
terms of ,jesus2 ,jesus is the fullest  
expression of that eternal divine ,man  
on the field of human history4  ,here1  
then1 we have the first and second      
factors in the doctrine of the ,trinity 
morally and spiritually construed4  ,the
 divine ,man4--,the idea of a divine    
,man1 the emanation of the infinite1 the
 soul of the universe1 the source and   
goal of all humanity1 is ages older than
 ,christian theology4  ,it can be traced
 in ,babylonian religious literature1   
for instance1 at a period older even    
than the ,old ,testament4  ,it played a 
not unimportant part in ,greek thought1 

and ,philo of ,alexandria1 a            
contemporary of ,jesus1 works it out in 
some detail in his religio-philosophic  
system1 which aimed to combine the wide 
outlook of ,greek culture with the high 
seriousness of ,hebrew religion4  ,it is
 a true1 indeed an inevitable1          
conception1 if we hold anything like a  
consistent view of the immanence of ,god
 in ,his universe4  ,with what ,god have
 we to do except the ,god who is        
eternally man8  ,this aspect of the     
nature of ,god has been variously       
described in the course of its history4 
,it has been called the ,word1 the ,son1
 and1 as we have seen1 the second person
 in the ,trinity4  ,for various reasons 
,i prefer to call it--or rather         
,him--the eternal ,christ4  ,i do this  
because1 for one thing1 the word ,christ
 is a living word with a clearly marked 
ethical content and a great religious   
value4 ,originally1 of course1 it was   
but the ,greek equivalent of the ,hebrew
 ,messiah1 and meant the anointed one1  

the person chosen for a special divine  
work4  ,but in the ,new ,testament1     
especially the writings of ,st4 ,paul1  
as well as all ,christian history       
through1 it is associated on the one    
hand with the personality of ,jesus1    
and1 on the other1 with the fontal or   
ideal ,man who contains and is expressed
 in all human kind4 ,according to the   
,new ,testament writers1 ,jesus was and 
is the ,christ1 but in ,his earthly life
 ,his consciousness of the fact was     
limited4 ,but1 as we have come forth    
from this fontal manhood1 we too must be
 to some extent expressions of this     
eternal ,christ2 and it is in virtue of 
that fact that we stand related to      
,jesus1 and that the personality of     
,jesus has anything to do with us4      
,here is where the value of our belief  
in the interaction of the higher and the
 lower self comes in4 ,fundamentally our
 being is already one with that of the  
eternal ,christ1 and faith in ,jesus is 
faith in ,him4  ,jesus is not one being 

and the ,christ another2 the two are    
one1 and ,jesus seems to have known it  
during ,his earthly ministry4  ,he lived
 ,his life in such a way as to reveal   
the very essence of the ,christ nature4 
,he is therefore central for us1 and we 
are complete in ,him4  ,here is the goal
 of all moral effort--,christ4  ,here1  
too1 is the highest reach of the        
religious ideal--,christ4  ,for the life
 was manifested1 and we have seen it1   
and bear witness1 and shew unto you that
 eternal life1 which was with the       
,father1 and was manifested unto us4    
,the ,christ of ,st4 ,paul4--,i am      
persuaded that we have here the key to  
the ,christology of that great thinker  
and preacher1 the apostle ,paul4 ,it is 
this ideal or eternal ,christ who is the
 object of his faith and devotion4  ,he 
even goes so far as to warn his readers 
not to dwell too much upon the limited  
earthly ,jesus1 but upon ,his true being
 in the eternal reality3 ,wherefore     
henceforth know we no man after the     

flesh2 yea1 though we have known ,christ
 after the flesh1 yet now henceforth    
know we ,him no more4  ,he does not say1
 ,to me to live is ,jesus1 but1 ,to me  
to live is ,christ4  ,if ever there was 
a ,christian who really loved ,jesus    
with passionate and whole-hearted       
devotion1 it was the apostle ,paul1 but 
he says almost nothing about the earthly
 ministry of his ,lord4  ,he seems to   
have had a vivid impression as to what  
the character of ,jesus was really like1
 and he gave himself up to the worship  
of this with all his heart2 but he does 
not draw for us any of the beautiful    
gospel pictures of the ,jesus in the    
peasant's dress who taught on the       
hillsides of ,galilee1 went about doing 
good1 was a welcome guest in the home at
 ,bethany1 lived a true human life1 and 
died a shameful death4  ,paul always    
thought of ,him1 and truly1 as the ,lord
 who came down from heaven1 but he does 
not draw a sharp line of distinction    
between ,him and the rest of humanity4  

,he calls ,jesus the first-born among   
many brethren4  ,he speaks of the       
summing up of all things in ,christ1 and
 of the final consummation when ,god    
shall be all in all4  ,here is the ,new 
,theology with a vengeance4  ,paul      
requires to be rescued from the         
inadequate and distorting               
interpretations his thought has received
 in the course of its history4  ,he     
brought this conception of the eternal  
,christ into ,christianity from         
pre-,christian thought1 saw it ideally  
revealed in ,jesus1 and then bade       
mankind respond to it and realise it to 
be the true explanation of our own      
being4  ,sometimes he appears to deviate
 from this view1 and to say things      
inconsistent with it1 but that we need  
not mind2 he saw it1 and that is enough4
  ,it forms the foundation of his       
gospel4     ,,chapter ,,vii  ,,the      
,,incarnation ,,of ,,the ,,son ,,of     
,,god  ,jesus all that ,christian       
devotion has believed ,him to be4--,so  

far we have seen that the personality of
 ,jesus is central for ,christian faith4
 ,we deny nothing about ,him that       
,christian devotion has ever affirmed1  
but we affirm the same things of        
humanity as a whole in a differing      
degree4  ,the practical dualism which   
regards ,jesus as coming into humanity  
from something that beforehand was not  
humanity we declare to be misleading4   
,our view of the subject does not       
belittle ,jesus but it exalts human     
nature4  ,let this be clearly understood
 and most of the objections to it will  
vanish4  ,briefly summed up1 the        
position is as follows3 ,jesus was ,god1
 but so are we4  ,he was ,god because   
,his life was the expression of divine  
love2 we too are one with ,god in so far
 as our lives express the same thing4   
,jesus was not ,god in the sense that   
,he possessed an infinite consciousness2
 no more are we4  ,jesus expressed fully
 and completely1 in so far as a finite  
consciousness ever could1 that aspect of

 the nature of ,god which we have called
 the eternal ,son1 or ,christ1 or ideal 
,man who is the ,soul of the universe1  
and the light that lighteth every man   
that cometh into the world2 we are      
expressions of the same primordial      
being4  ,fundamentally we are all one in
 this eternal ,christ4  ,this is the    
most difficult statement of all to make 
clear1 for the average westerner cannot 
grasp it2 it is different from his      
ordinary way of looking at things4  ,the
 best way of demonstrating it1 as ,i    
have already shown1 is to draw attention
 to the fact that ,christian orthodoxy  
has all along been affirming the mystic 
union between ,christ and the soul1 and 
that the limited earthly consciousness  
of ,jesus did not prevent ,him from     
being really and truly ,god4  ,why      
should we not speak in a similar way    
about any other human consciousness8    
,if we could only get men to do so      
habitually and sincerely1 it would be   
the greatest gain to religion that could

 possibly be imagined4  ,in the third   
chapter ,i have pointed out that        
psychological science is doing much to  
help us toward this realisation4 ,we are
 beginning to see1 however hard it may  
be to understand it1 that our limited   
individual consciousness is no barrier  
to the true identification of the lesser
 with the larger self4  ,what ,christian
 doctrine1 therefore1 has been affirming
 of ,jesus for hundreds of years past is
 receiving impressive confirmation from 
modern science and is being seen to be  
true of every human being--that is1 the 
lesser and the larger are one1 however  
little the earthly consciousness may be 
able to grasp the fact4  ,to me this is 
a most helpful and inspiring truth1 one 
of the most important that has ever     
found a place in ,christian thought2 it 
elucidates much that would otherwise be 
obscure4  ,it enables us to see how the 
human and divine were blended in ,jesus 
without making ,him essentially         
different from the rest of the human    

race2 it enables us to realise our own  
true origin and to believe in the       
salvability of every soul that has ever 
come to moral consciousness4  ,if this  
truth will not lift a man toward the    
higher life1 ,i do not know one that    
will4  ,it is the truth implied in all  
redemptive effort that has ever been    
made1 and in every message that has ever
 gripped conscience and heart2 it is1 as
 the ,nicene creed has it1 the taking of
 the manhood into ,god4  ,the preminence
 of ,jesus4--,lest anyone should think  
that this position involves in the      
slightest degree the diminution of the  
religious value and the moral preminence
 of ,jesus1 let me say that it does the 
very opposite4  ,nothing can be higher  
than the highest1 and the life of ,jesus
 was the undimmed revelation of the     
highest4  ,faith to be effective must   
centre on a living person1 and the      
highest objective it has ever found is  
,jesus4  ,he is no abstraction but a    
spiritual reality1 an ever-present      

friend and guide1 our brother and our   
,lord4 ,no one will ever compete with   
,jesus for this position in human       
hearts4 ,when ,i speak of the eternal   
,christ1 ,i do not mean someone         
different from ,jesus1 although ,i      
certainly do mean the basal principle of
 all human goodness2 ,jesus was and is  
that ,christ1 and we can only understand
 what the ,christ is because we have    
seen ,him4  ,whole-hearted faith in ,him
 has proved itself to be the most       
effective means to the manifestation of 
our own ,christhood4  ,jesus and the    
incarnation4--,this thought at once     
opens up another great question to which
 we have already alluded1 that of the   
incarnation of this eternal ,christ or  
,son of ,god in the finite universe4    
,according to the received theology the 
incarnation of ,god in human life was   
limited to the life of ,jesus only1 and 
through ,him to mankind4  ,i purposely  
say popular theology because the best   
,christian thought has always known     

better4  ,popular theology has it that  
,jesus1 the only-begotten eternal ,son  
of ,god1 took human flesh and a human   
nature1 was conceived by the ,holy      
,ghost in the womb of a virgin1 and was 
born into the world in a wholly         
miraculous way--a way which stamps ,him 
as different from all that were ever    
born of woman before or since4 ,it seems
 strange that belief in the virgin birth
 of ,jesus should ever have been held to
 be a cardinal article of the ,christian
 faith1 but it is so even to-day4       
,there is not much need to combat it1   
for most reputable theologians have now 
given it up1 but it is still a          
stumbling-block to many minds4          
,perhaps1 therefore1 a brief examination
 of the subject may not be altogether   
out of place4  ,the virgin birth not    
demonstrable from ,scripture4--,the     
virgin birth of ,jesus was apparently   
unknown to the primitive church1 for the
 earliest ,new ,testament writings make 
no mention of it4  ,paul's letters do   

not allude to it1 neither does the      
gospel of ,st4 ,mark4  ,in the fulness  
of time1 says the great apostle1 ,god   
sent forth ,his ,son born of a woman4   
,he was of the seed of ,david according 
to the flesh1 but nowhere does ,paul    
give us so much as a hint of anything   
supernatural attending the mode of ,his 
entry into the world4  ,mark does not   
even tell us anything about the         
childhood of the ,master2 his account   
begins with the baptism of ,jesus in    
,jordan4  ,the fourth gospel1 although  
written much later1 ignores the belief  
in the virgin birth1 and even seems to  
do so of set purpose as belittling and  
materialising the truth4  ,the supposed 
,old ,testament prophecies of the event 
have nothing whatever to do with it4    
,the famous passage1 ,behold a virgin   
shall conceive and bear a son1 and shall
 call ,his name ,immanuel1 is a         
reference to contemporary events1 and   
the word translated virgin simply means 
a young woman4  ,it is a prophecy of the

 birth of a prince whose work it should 
be to put right for ,judah what the     
reigning king ,ahaz had been putting    
wrong4  ,the story in the seventh of    
,isaiah is as follows3 ,ahaz1 a rather  
weak ruler1 was greatly concerned by the
 news that ,rezin1 king of ,syria and   
,pekah1 king of northern ,israel1 had   
formed an alliance against him and were 
marching on ,jerusalem4  ,in his        
extremity this monarch of a petty state 
turned toward the mighty ruler of       
,assyria1 the greatest military power in
 the world1 and asked his help against  
the combination4  ,isaiah1 statesman as 
well as prophet1 saw that this was a    
wrong move4  ,assyria was aspiring to   
universal dominion1 and to form an      
alliance with the military master of    
that mighty state would be to supply him
 with an excuse for further             
interference4  ,the policy of ,ahaz was 
therefore as suicidal as that of ,john  
,balliol when he called in ,edward the  
,first to adjudicate on his claim to the

 crown of ,scotland1 or the policy of   
,spain when she called in ,napoleon4    
,sargon1 king of ,assyria1 was          
overturning thrones in all directions1  
profiting by the divisions and          
jealousies of his foes4  ,the great     
empires of ,egypt and ,babylonia went   
down before him as well as the smaller  
states4  ,the condition of things in    
this ancient world was just like that of
 ,europe at the beginning of the        
nineteenth century when the star of     
,napoleon was in the ascendant4  ,for   
,ahaz to turn for help to ,sargon was to
 court disaster in the end4  ,isaiah saw
 this and went out to meet ,ahaz one day
 at the end of the conduit of the upper 
pool in the highway of the fuller's     
field--a vivid descriptive touch4 ,the  
king was apparently preparing to stand a
 siege in his capital and was making    
sure of the water supply4  ,isaiah's    
remonstrance was in substance3 ,you need
 not take so much trouble with your     
preparations2 ,syria and ,israel will   

have more than enough to do presently to
 defend their own borders from ,sargon4 
,besides1 men like ,rezin and ,pekah are
 not men to be afraid of in any case2   
they have neither strength nor skill4   
,but do not for heaven's sake call in   
,sargon2 if you do you will supply him  
with an excuse for meddling and we shall
 never get rid of him4  ,this was good  
counsel1 but ,ahaz was too short-sighted
 and panic-stricken to take much notice 
of it1 so in oriental fashion ,isaiah   
goes on to paint a picture of future    
disaster4  ,the land1 he says1 will soon
 be laid waste1 and future generations  
will rue the policy now being determined
 upon4  ,in the end1 of course1 things  
will come all right1 for ,god will not  
abandon ,his people4  ,a better and     
wiser prince shall arise who shall      
restore prosperity to ,judah4  ,that    
prince is not yet born1 but when he is1 
his name shall be called                
,immanuel1--,god with us4  ,in another  
place he describes him as ,wonderful    

,counsellor1 ,divine ,hero1 ,father     
,everlasting1 ,prince of ,peace4        
,butter and honey shall he eat1 because 
there will be nothing else left after   
,assyria has swept over the country1 but
 the discipline may have good results in
 the end1 and will serve to bring ,judah
 to her senses4  ,there is something    
strikingly modern about all this1 and it
 is a good example of the way in which  
the same conditions arise over and over 
again in the course of human history4   
,it is plain to be seen that the        
prophecy here indicated was only the    
shrewd common sense of a wise and       
patriotic man who loved his country and 
believed in ,god4  ,but what on earth   
have his words to do with the birth of  
,jesus8  ,it is only by a very long     
stretch of the pious imagination that   
they can be held to apply to            
,christianity at all4  ,they have an    
interest of their own1 and a very       
considerable interest1 too1 even from   
the point of view of religion2 but      

,isaiah would have been considerably    
astonished to be told that they would   
have to wait seven hundred years for    
fulfilment4  ,to a certain extent they  
were fulfilled soon afterward in the    
advent of the well-meaning but not very 
brilliant king ,hezekiah4  ,i have dwelt
 upon this passage at some length       
because it is a fair example of the way 
in which ,old ,testament literature has 
been pressed into the service of        
,christian dogma4  ,what ,i am now      
saying1 as ,i need hardly point out1 is 
not my ipse dixit2 expert biblical      
scholarship has been saying it for a    
long time1 but somehow or other its     
bearing upon generally accepted dogmas  
is not popularly realised4  ,it can     
hardly be maintained that ,christian    
preachers who know the truth about these
 matters and refrain from stating it    
plainly are doing their duty to their   
congregations4 ,no ,old ,testament      
passage whatever is directly or         
indirectly a prophecy of the virgin     

birth of ,jesus4  ,to insist upon this  
may seem to many like beating a man of  
straw1 but if so the man of straw still 
retains a good deal of vitality4  ,the  
virgin birth in the gospels4--,the only 
two gospels in which the virgin birth is
 alluded to are ,matthew and ,luke1 and 
the nativity stories contained in these 
are very beautiful1 especially those    
peculiar to ,luke4  ,but the two gospels
 are mutually contradictory in their    
account of the circumstances attending  
the miraculous birth4 ,each contains a  
genealogy which professes to be that of 
,joseph1 not of ,mary1 and these are    
inconsistent with each other4  ,what has
 the genealogy of ,joseph got to do with
 the birth of ,jesus if ,jesus were not 
his own son8  ,the conclusion seems     
probable that in the earlier versions of
 these gospels the miraculous conception
 did not find a place1 or else that two 
inconsistent sources have been drawn    
upon without sufficient care being taken
 to reconcile them4  ,but this is not   

the only discrepancy4  ,matthew gives   
,bethlehem as the native place of       
,joseph and ,mary1 ,luke says ,nazareth4
  ,matthew says not a word about the    
census of ,cyrenius as the motive for   
the journey to ,bethlehem1 but leads us 
to suppose that the holy family were    
already in residence there4  ,then again
 he tells us of the coming of the wise  
men from the ,east1 their public inquiry
 as to the whereabouts of the holy      
child1 the jealousy of ,herod1 the      
massacre of the innocents1 and the      
flight into ,egypt4  ,luke says nothing 
about these things1 but gives us an     
entirely different set of wonders1      
including the attendance of an angelic  
host and the annunciation to the        
shepherds4  ,so far from recording any  
massacre1 or any hasty flight1 he tells 
us that some time after ,his birth the  
babe was taken to the ,temple at        
,jerusalem to be presented to the ,lord1
 and that afterwards ,he and ,his       
parents returned into ,galilee to their 

own city ,nazareth4  ,according to      
,matthew ,nazareth was an afterthought  
and only became the residence of the    
holy family after the return from       
,egypt4  ,these accounts do not tally1  
and no ingenuity can reconcile them4    
,the nativity stories belong to the     
poetry of religion1 not to history4  ,to
 regard them as narrations of actual    
fact is to misunderstand them4  ,they   
are better than that2 they take us into 
the region of exalted feeling and give  
us a vision of truth too great for      
prosaic statement4  ,christianity would 
be poorer by the loss of them1 but they 
are not indigenous to ,christianity4    
,they have their parallels in other     
religions1 some of them much older than 
the advent of ,jesus4 ,the beautiful    
legends surrounding the infancy of      
,gautama1 for example1 are startlingly  
similar to those contained in the first 
and third gospels4  ,like ,jesus1 the   
,buddhist messiah is stated to have been
 of royal descent and was born of a     

virgin mother4  ,at his birth a         
supernatural radiance illuminated the   
whole district1 and a troop of heavenly 
beings sang the praises of the holy     
child4  ,later on a wise man1 guided by 
special portents1 recognised him as the 
long-expected and divinely appointed    
light-bringer and life-giver of mankind4
  ,when but a youth he was lost for a   
time and was found by his father in the 
midst of a circle of holy men1 sunk in  
rapt contemplation of the great mystery 
of existence4  ,the parallel between    
these legends and the ,christian version
 of the marvels attending the birth of  
,jesus is so close as to preclude the   
possibility of its being altogether     
accidental4  ,there must have been a    
connection somewhere1 and indeed there  
is no need to think otherwise1 for      
nothing is to be gained or lost by      
admitting it4  ,christianity not        
dependent on a virgin birth4--,but why  
hesitate about the question8  ,the      
greatness of ,jesus and the value of    

,his revelation to mankind are in no way
 either assisted or diminished by the   
manner of ,his entry into the world4    
,every birth is just as wonderful as a  
virgin birth could possibly be1 and just
 as much a direct act of ,god4  ,a      
supernatural conception bears no        
relation whatever to the moral and      
spiritual worth of the person who is    
supposed to enter the world in this     
abnormal way4  ,the credibility and     
significance of ,christianity are in no 
way affected by the doctrine of the     
virgin birth otherwise than that the    
belief tends to put a barrier between   
,jesus and the race and to make ,him    
something which cannot properly be      
called human4  ,those who insist on the 
doctrine will find themselves in danger 
of proving too much1 for1 pressed to its
 logical conclusion1 it removes ,jesus  
altogether from the category of humanity
 in any real sense4  ,like many others1 
,i used to take the position that       
acceptance or non-acceptance of the     

doctrine of the virgin birth was        
immaterial because ,christianity was    
quite independent of it1 but later      
reflection has convinced me that in     
point of fact it operates as a hindrance
 to spiritual religion and a real living
 faith in ,jesus4  ,the simple and      
natural conclusion is that ,jesus was   
the child of ,joseph and ,mary and had  
an uneventful childhood4  ,the truth in 
the doctrine of the virgin birth4--,and 
yet1 as with every tenet which has held 
a place in human thought for any        
considerable length of time1 there is a 
great truth contained in the idea of a  
virgin birth4  ,it is the truth that the
 emergence of anything great and        
beautiful in human character and        
achievement is the work of the divine   
spirit operating within human           
limitations4  ,this idea is very        
ancient1 and there is no great religion 
which does not contain it in some form  
or other4  ,one form of it1 for example1
 can be discerned in the ,babylonian    

creation myth with its parallel in the  
book of ,genesis4  ,the home of the     
primitive ,chaldeans1 the stock whence  
,israelites1 ,babylonians1 ,assyrians1  
and other ,semitic communities sprang1  
was in the low-lying territory          
surrounding the ,persian gulf4 ,during  
the rainy seasons these lands were      
flooded by the overflow of the great    
rivers4  ,the sun of springtime1 rising 
upon this mass of waters which stretched
 in every direction as far as the eye   
could see1 drew forth from their bosom  
the life and beauty of summer flowers   
and fruit4  ,from observation of this   
regularly recurring phenomenon the      
primitive ,semites constructed their    
creation myth1 one version of which     
appeared in the first chapter of the    
book of ,genesis1 a version much later  
than the ,babylonian1 but an outgrowth  
of the same idea4  ,they thought of a   
primeval waste of water covering        
everything4  ,as the writer of the      
,genesis account has it3 ,the earth was 

without form and void1 and darkness was 
upon the face of the deep4  ,in the     
,babylonian version this primeval water 
was personified as a woman--,tiamat4    
,they thought of the sun of heaven as   
impregnating this virgin matrix with the
 seeds of cosmic life--quite an accurate
 conception from the modern point of    
view4  ,later on this idea became       
spiritualised in a much higher degree4  
,the religious mind came to regard the  
physical1 mundane1 or distinctively     
human principle as the matrix upon which
 the spirit of ,god brooded1 bringing to
 the birth a divine idea4  ,and this is 
perfectly true too1 as anyone can see4  
,nothing great and noble in human       
experience can be accounted for merely  
in terms of atoms and molecules4  ,that 
is where materialism always comes to    
grief1 for on its own premises it cannot
 account for the emergence of           
intelligence and all the higher         
qualities of human nature4  ,a divine   
element1 a spiritual quickening1 is     

required for the evolution of anything  
,godlike in our mundane sphere2 it is a 
virgin birth4  ,lower acting upon lower 
can never produce a higher4  ,it is the 
downpouring and incoming of the higher  
to the lower which produces through the 
lower the divine manhood which leaves   
the brute behind4  ,this is the sense in
 which it is true that ,jesus was of    
divine as well as human parentage4  ,we 
do not account for ,him merely by saying
 that ,he was the son of ,joseph and    
,mary and the descendant of a long line 
of prophets1 priests1 and kings2 we have
 to recognise that ,his true greatness  
came from above4  ,true of all higher   
human experience4--,the same thing holds
 good in a lesser degree of everything  
worthy of ,jesus in human experience4   
,we do not account for any man's        
goodness or greatness by pointing to his
 ancestry4  ,heredity may account for a 
great deal1 but it is inadequate as an  
explanation of genius or high moral     
achievement4  ,if we go back far enough1

 we shall find that our ancestry was    
barbarous1 and1 judging from its        
tendencies1 not at all likely to produce
 the ,christ-man of future ages4        
,wherever the ,christ-man appears1 we   
have to acknowledge that the principal  
factor in his evolution is the incoming 
of the divine spirit4  ,it is only      
another way of stating what has already 
been stated above1 that the true man or 
higher self is divine and eternal1      
integral to the being of ,god1 and that 
this divine manhood is gradually but    
surely manifesting on the physical      
plane4  ,the lower cannot produce the   
higher1 but the higher is shaping and   
transforming the lower2 every moral and 
spiritual advance is therefore of the   
nature of a virgin birth--a quickening  
from above4  ,the spiritual birth       
described in the conversation between   
our ,lord and ,nicodemus as given in the
 third of ,john is1 properly speaking1 a
 virgin birth4  ,that which is born of  
the flesh is flesh and that which is    

born of the spirit is spirit4  ,ye must 
be born anew1 or1 literally1 quickened  
from above4  ,every man who deliberately
 faces towards the highest1 and feels   
himself renforced by the ,spirit of ,god
 in so doing1 is quickened from above2  
the divinely human ,christ is born in   
him1 the ,word has become flesh and is  
manifested to the world4  ,human history
 one long incarnation4--,if now we can  
turn our thoughts away for a moment from
 the individual to the race and think of
 humanity as one being1 or the          
expression of one being1 we shall read  
this truth on a larger scale4  ,all     
human history represents the incarnation
 or manifesting of the eternal ,son or  
,christ of ,god4  ,the incarnation      
cannot be limited to one life only1     
however great that life may be4  ,it is 
quite a false idea to think of ,jesus   
and no one else as the ,son of ,god     
incarnate4  ,it is easy to understand   
the loving reverence for ,jesus which   
would lead men to regard ,him as being  

and expressing something to which none  
of the rest of us can ever attain1 but  
in affirming this we actually rob ,him  
of a glory ,he ought to receive4  ,we   
make ,him unreal1 reduce ,his earthly   
life to a sort of drama1 and effect a   
drastic distinction in kind between ,him
 and ourselves4  ,if ,he came from the  
farther side of the gulf and we only    
from the hither2 if we are humanity     
without divinity1 and ,he divinity that 
has only assumed humanity1--perfect     
fellowship between ,him and ourselves is
 impossible4 ,but it is untrue to say   
that any such distinction exists4  ,let 
us go on thinking of ,jesus as ,christ1 
the very ,christ of glory1 but let us   
realise that that same ,christ is       
seeking expression through every human  
soul4  ,he is incarnate in the race in  
order that by means of limitation ,he   
may manifest the innermost of ,god1 the 
life and love eternal4  ,to say this    
does not dethrone ,jesus2 it lends      
significance to ,his life and work4  ,he

 is on the throne and the sceptre is in 
,his hand4  ,we can rise toward ,him by 
trusting1 loving1 and serving ,him2 and 
by so doing we shall demonstrate that we
 too are ,christ the eternal ,son4  ,to 
think of all human life as a            
manifestation of the eternal ,son1      
renders it sacred4  ,our very struggles 
and sufferings become full of meaning4  
,sin is but the failure to realise it2  
it is being false to ourselves and our  
divine origin2 it is the centrifugal    
tendency in human nature just as love is
 the centripetal4  ,there is no life1   
however depraved1 which does not        
occasionally emit some sign of its      
kinship to ,jesus and its eternal       
sonship to ,god4  ,wherever you see     
self-sacrifice at work you see the very 
spirit of ,jesus1 the spirit of the     
,christ incarnate4  ,i find it          
everywhere1 and it interprets life for  
me as nothing else can4  ,take up any   
work of fiction1 no matter what1 and you
 will find the author instinctively     

preaching this truth4  ,look into any   
commonplace1 everyday life1 no matter   
whose1 and you will find it exemplified4
  ,many a selfish bad man has one tender
 spot in his nature1 his affection for  
his child1 and for the sake of that     
child he will deny himself as he has    
never dreamed of doing for anything     
else2 so far as that one influence is   
concerned he actually reverses the      
principle which governs the rest of his 
life4  ,i have read of an ,african      
negress who on one occasion was beaten  
nearly to death by the brute to whom she
 was slave and paramour4  ,her murderer1
 for such he was1 was arrested and      
placed on trial for his misdemeanour1 in
 accordance with the rough justice of   
the white man in his dealings with the  
native4  ,in the night the poor dying   
woman crawled painfully to the tree     
against which the ruffian lay bound1 cut
 his cords1 and set him free4  ,it was  
her last act in this life2 in the       
morning she was found lying dead on the 

spot whence the prisoner had fled4      
,this particular story may or may not be
 true1 but the same kind of thing has   
been true a million times in human      
history4  ,what was the spirit in this  
benighted woman of the ,african wilds   
but the ,christ spirit1 the self-giving 
spirit seen with such unique sublimity  
in the life of ,jesus8  ,look abroad all
 through the world1 look back upon the  
slow1 upward progress of humanity to its
 home in ,god1 and you will read the    
story of the incarnation of the eternal 
,son4  ,never has there been an hour so 
dark but that some gleams of this       
eternal light have pierced the murky    
pall of human ignorance and sin2 never  
have bitter hate and fiendish cruelty   
gone altogether unrelieved by the human 
tenderness and self-devotion that       
testify of ,god4  ,indeed without the   
limitation1 the struggle1 and the pain1 
how would this ,christ spirit ever have 
known itself8  ,granted that            
self-surrender had never been called for

 by the conditions of life1 granted that
 our resources had always known         
themselves infinite1 and that which is  
worthiest and sublimest in the nature of
 ,god and man alike could never have    
been revealed4  ,this is why the eternal
 ,son has become incarnate2 this is what
 we are here to do1 and upon the        
faithful doing of it depends our        
experience of the joy that the world can
 neither give nor take away4  ,the life 
and death of ,jesus are the central     
expression and ideal embodiment of this 
age-long process1 a process the         
consummation of which will be the       
glorious return and triumphant          
ingathering of a redeemed and perfectly 
unified humanity to ,god4  ,and when all
 things shall be subdued unto him1 then 
shall the ,son also himself be subject  
unto him that put all things under him1 
that ,god may be all in all4            
,,chapter ,,viii  ,,the ,,atonement     
,i4  ,association of the ,doctrine with 
,jesus  ,importance of the              

subject4--,this brings us to a subject1 
which1 more than any other1 with the    
exception of that of the person of      
,jesus1 has come under discussion at the
 present time4  ,in the course of       
,christian history it has created a more
 extensive literature than probably any 
other doctrine4  ,i mean the subject    
variously known as ,salvation1          
,redemption1 ,atonement1 and with which 
the terms ,forgiveness1 ,expiation1     
,reconciliation1 ,ransom1               
,justification1 ,propitiation1          
,satisfaction1 ,sanctification1 and such
 like have been commonly associated4    
,the ,christian doctrine of ,atonement1 
as we may call it for convenience1 bulks
 so large in ,christian thought that all
 others may be held to be dependent upon
 it1 even that of the person of ,jesus2 
for1 according to the received theology1
 ,jesus became incarnate for our        
redemption1 and that redemption can only
 be accomplished by one who is very     
,god4  ,the need for an adequate        

explanation4--,but there is no subject  
upon which modern ,christian thought is 
less coherent than this4  ,we are       
constantly hearing the statement that a 
rational theory of the ,atonement is    
badly wanted1 or that it is our duty to 
preach the fact without a theory1 or    
that the ,atonement is such a mystery   
that no theory is possible and we must  
just accept it on faith4  ,this         
confession of helplessness shows that   
there is something seriously wrong with 
the conventional presentation of the    
doctrine4  ,but ,i do not think the     
,atonement is such a very great mystery 
after all1 and it ought to be possible  
to get at the heart of it without       
stultifying the intellect4  ,anyhow1 let
 us try4  ,the usual theological method 
of expounding it4--,as a rule treatises 
on the ,atonement begin with an         
examination of the ,scripture passages  
which are supposed to have a bearing    
upon it4  ,then follows a careful       
examination and criticism of the various

 theories of it which have successively 
held the field during its history2 the  
author concludes by giving us his own4  
,i do not propose to follow that method1
 for it does not possess a living       
interest for the mind of to-day2 the    
psychological should take precedence of 
the historical4  ,i do not feel called  
upon to take the doctrine of ,atonement 
for granted and then proceed to try to  
find a place for it in ,christian       
experience4  ,on the contrary1 ,i prefer
 to take human nature for granted and   
inquire whether it needs anything like a
 doctrine of ,atonement4  ,if it does   
not1 let the doctrine go2 if it does1   
let us see that the doctrine is         
presented in a reasonable fashion4  ,if 
it cannot be presented reasonably1 it is
 not wanted4  ,but ,i think it is       
wanted1 and more than wanted2 it is     
already taken for granted by everyone   
who thinks seriously about life1 whether
 it is called by its theological name or
 not4  ,outline of present-day accepted 

belief in regard to it4--,before ,i     
proceed to attempt to justify these     
statements let me ask my readers to call
 to mind the outline of what they have  
been taught in reference to this great  
fundamental of the ,christian faith4    
,part of it has already been indicated1 
for it was hardly possible to avoid it  
when considering such a subject as that 
of the nature of evil or the divinity of
 ,jesus4 ,roughly stated it is as       
follows3 ,our fallen humanity is        
separated from and under the displeasure
 of ,god4  ,god longs to save us from   
our sin1 but justice demands that ,he   
must punish us4  ,the world is already  
an unhappy place because of sin1 but    
what we endure here is nothing to what  
we shall have to endure presently when  
we cross the river of death2 we shall   
all go to hell1 a place of never-ending 
torment1 unless some means can be found 
of justifying us before ,god ere we pass
 over4 ,this means has been found in the
 self-devotion of the second person in  

the ,trinity4  ,the sinless ,son of ,god
 took upon ,himself the likeness of     
sinful humanity1 was born into this     
world1 lived here for a few years1      
suffered a violent death1 and then      
reascended to ,his ,father to make      
unceasing intercession for mankind4  ,it
 was the dying of the death that was the
 all-important thing4  ,it was in       
consideration of this death that ,god   
agreed to pardon sin4  ,jesus was put to
 death because ,god had arranged that   
,he should be put to death1 and because 
,jesus was willing to be put to death1  
in order that a satisfactory offering   
might be made to divine justice for the 
sins of the world4  ,god had to punish  
someone before he could be free to      
forgive ,his erring children1 and       
therefore with the consent of ,jesus ,he
 punished ,him4  ,the whole scheme was  
prearranged in heaven1 cross and all1   
and therefore ,jesus was not taken by   
surprise when the end came2 ,he was1 in 
fact1 a party to it1 and ,his murderers 

were in a sense only the instruments of 
a beneficent1 foreordained plan4  ,god  
accepts this sacrifice as a full and    
complete equivalent for all that        
humanity deserves1 but we must          
individually appropriate it by faith or 
it will not avail for us2 we shall go to
 hell all the same4  ,if on the other   
hand we do claim the benefit of this    
finished work1 the merits of the        
,redeemer are imputed to us2 we are held
 to be justified before ,god1 and are   
gradually sanctified by the ,holy       
,spirit operating within our souls and  
fashioning us into the moral likeness of
 our ,lord4  ,conventional view both    
true and false4--,to say that these     
statements are wholly untrue is         
impossible1 for they everyone contain a 
truth of considerable value1 but as     
popularly stated they are misleading4   
,this view of the ,atonement is         
unethical1 and1 in my judgment and that 
of many others1 has wrought a good deal 
of mischief in the past and bewilderment

 in the present4  ,some readers of these
 pages will no doubt find fault with me 
for stating it so baldly1 and will      
maintain that no front-rank theologian  
or preacher would enunciate it in these 
terms to-day4  ,once again ,i can only  
repeat that they use language which     
implies it1 and it seems impossible to  
resist the conclusion that they are     
driven to use the vaguer language       
because of their own feeling that the   
balder statement1 which their           
predecessors made without hesitation1 is
 intellectually and morally impossible1 
and yet they do not know what to put in 
its place4  ,they are reluctant to give 
up the belief that in some way or other 
the death of ,jesus on ,calvary actually
 effected something in the unseen by    
making ,god propitious toward us and    
removing the barrier which prevented    
,him from freely forgiving human sin4   
,of course they add other and valuable  
elements in their discussion of the     
theme1 but this is their central idea   

and they seldom get away from it4 ,the  
typical theologian never seems to think 
of looking at the death of ,jesus from  
the purely human point of view1 and yet 
surely this is the only legitimate thing
 to do when trying to get at the heart  
of the subject4  ,it is what we should  
do in any other case of a like kind2 we 
should never dream of doing anything    
else4  ,we have no business to begin    
speculating upon transcendental         
questions until we have examined the    
purely human causes of such an event as 
the crucifixion of ,jesus4 ,when an     
adherent of the so-called orthodox view 
of the doctrine of the ,atonement is    
pressed to say just what he supposes the
 death of ,jesus to have effected in the
 mind of ,god so as to free humanity    
from its curse1 he usually takes refuge 
in phrases about the mystery of the     
cross1 and so on4  ,he does not say in  
plain language exactly what he means1   
for the truth is he does not know2 he   
only believes what he has been told1 and

 has persuaded himself that it is of the
 utmost value to ,christian experience1 
which it is not and never was4  ,the    
doctrine as popularly held is not only  
not true but it ought not to be true2 it
 is a serious hindrance to spiritual    
religion4  ,why in the world should ,god
 require such a sacrifice before feeling
 ,himself free to forgive ,his erring   
children8  ,and why should it be        
regarded as in any real sense a         
substitute for what is due from us or   
any equivalent for what we should       
otherwise have to bear8  ,once more1    
perhaps1 the dogmatic theologian will   
pull me up sharply and say that ,i am   
misrepresenting him1 but ,i think ,i am 
on fairly safe ground in declaring that 
this is what the ordinary man in the pew
 as well as the man in the street       
understands by the saving work of       
,jesus1 and he does so because of the   
language of the pulpit backed by the    
theological college preceptor4  ,if this
 is the ,atonement1 there is little     

wonder that thoughtful minds will have  
nothing to say to it and that so many   
good people are puzzled to know what to 
think about it4  ,the human causes of   
the crucifixion of ,jesus4--,if the     
death of ,jesus took place under similar
 circumstances to-day1 we should be in  
no doubt as to what to call it4  ,it was
 a barbarous and wicked murder          
instigated by base and unscrupulous men 
who wanted to get rid of a dangerous    
teacher4  ,we do not need to search far 
in order to find reasons for the        
tragedy4  ,there were reasons enough in 
the antagonism which had long existed   
between ,jesus and the ecclesiastical   
rulers of ,judea4  ,jesus held and      
taught a certain ideal concerning human 
life and its relation to ,god4  ,at the 
beginning of ,his brief public ministry 
,he seems to have thought that ,his     
invitation to men to realise their      
divine sonship would meet with a ready  
response1 and that therefore the kingdom
 of ,god would without great difficulty 

be established upon earth through the   
working of the spirit of love in human  
hearts4  ,at first ,he gained an        
extensive hearing because the ,jewish   
people were willing and ready to listen 
to any teacher who would hold out to    
them some hope of a better and happier  
day4  ,consequently ,he was for a time  
extremely popular1 and even the         
,pharisees deliberated as to whether ,he
 might prove to be the long-expected    
leader who should restore the kingdom to
 ,israel4  ,but this attitude soon      
changed4  ,people and rulers alike      
became disappointed with ,jesus4  ,they 
were looking for a kingdom which should 
come by force1 and ,jesus for one which 
should come by love4  ,they wanted      
material benefits forthwith1 while to   
,jesus these were altogether a secondary
 matter4  ,then1 too1 ,he became an     
inconvenience4 ,his standard of         
rectitude was exacting4  ,he saw through
 the hypocrisies and villanies of many  
of those who posed as the guides and    

directors of the nation1 and ,he was not
 silent about them4  ,he spoke out      
without fear or hesitation4  ,what other
 people had been thinking and dared not 
say ,he said without pausing to consider
 what the consequences might be4 ,no    
wonder the ecclesiastics came to feel   
that ,he must be silenced at any cost4  
,it can hardly be supposed that people  
in general were offended by ,his plain  
language concerning those in high       
places1 but then they wanted ,him to do 
something besides talk4  ,they wanted to
 see ,him drive out the ,roman without  
delay and inaugurate the era of power   
and plenty4  ,jesus saw well enough what
 the end of all this must be4 ,he must  
either temporise a little1 or go away   
and hide1 or go straight on doing ,his  
work until the night came and ,he could 
work no more4  ,he decided for the      
last-named course1 leaving the results  
to ,god4  ,it was in the line of ,his   
duty to go up to ,jerusalem for the     
feast of the ,passover1 so to ,jerusalem

 ,he went4  ,he could hardly have been  
under any delusion as to what awaited   
,him there4  ,the crowds in the capital 
were very excited about ,him2 ,his name 
was on every lip1 and there were many   
who would have declared for ,him at once
 if ,he had only offered ,himself as the
 national champion against the          
foreigner4  ,but by this time priests1  
,pharisees1 and scribes understood that1
 in their sense of the word1 a national 
champion ,he would never be4  ,the      
crisis was reached at the cleansing of  
the ,temple4  ,the moral greatness1 the 
tremendous impressiveness1 of the       
personality of ,jesus were never more   
clearly demonstrated than on this       
occasion4  ,there was no earthly reason 
why dove-sellers1 money-changers1       
priests1 and ,temple officials should be
 driven pell-mell out of precincts they 
had come to look upon as their own1     
except that they were overawed by the   
stern majesty of this wonderful         
,galilean4  ,for a brief hour ,jesus was

 master of the situation2 the next day  
,he was arrested4  ,the thing had to be 
done secretly and quickly1 but those who
 planned it calculated rightly4  ,no    
sooner was ,jesus made a prisoner than  
the populace turned against ,him and    
clamoured for ,his destruction4  ,those 
who know something of mob psychology    
will readily understand this4  ,human   
passion easily swings from adoration to 
hate1 as history has shown over and over
 again4  ,if a strong man fails in a    
conflict of forces in a time of great   
public excitement1 he is rarely allowed 
to sink quietly into oblivion2 the mob  
turns upon him with the savagery of a   
wild beast4  ,napoleon was one day      
driving through the streets of ,paris   
amid cheering crowds4  ,one of his suite
 remarked to him that it must be        
gratifying to see how his subjects loved
 him4  ,bah6 said the ,emperor1 ,the    
same rabble would cheer just as madly if
 ,i were going to the guillotine4  ,he  
was right4 ,it was just the same with   

this ,jerusalem crowd4  ,the populace   
thought that the ,jesus who had seemed  
so strong was not so strong after all1  
and therefore their base fury vented    
itself upon ,him just as priests and    
,pharisees had foreseen4  ,these were   
the immediate causes of the death of    
,jesus4  ,his execution was a judicial  
murder done to gratify sacerdotal spite 
and popular passion1 and the men who    
took part in it were guilty of what has 
proved to be the blackest deed in       
history4  ,the same type of man exists  
to-day1 as he has existed in every age1 
and if ,jesus came again without saying 
who ,he was1 history would repeat       
itself4  ,i do not suppose ,his enemies 
would nail ,him on a wooden             
cross1--public opinion would forbid that
 now1 thanks to nineteen centuries of   
,his gospel1--but they would find some  
means of making ,him suffer1 and they   
would invoke ,his own name to justify   
them in doing it4  ,the reason why there
 was no supernatural interference4--,but

 is this all that can be said about the 
matter8  ,where does ,god come in8  ,why
 was a crime of this sort ever          
permitted8  ,why has the memory of it   
actually become a religious dogma8      
,other people have been put to death    
quite as unjustly1 and the results1     
though great1 are not to be compared    
with those which have followed from the 
death of ,jesus4  ,why is this8  ,as we 
have already seen1 the popular view of  
the doctrine of ,atonement presumes that
 this foul deed was in some way1 as the 
scripture has it1 by the determinate    
counsel and foreknowledge of ,god4  ,was
 it really so8  ,was the whole dreadful 
drama merely a programme to be gone     
through in all its appointed stages1    
ending with the cry of the victim1 ,it  
is finished8  ,there is one sense1 and  
only one1 in which such a deed can be   
said to have been by the determinate    
counsel and foreknowledge of ,god1 and  
that is that ,god did not interfere to  
save ,jesus from the last dread ordeal4 

,he allowed wickedness to do its worst1 
and thereby made the disinterested      
nobleness of the character of ,jesus all
 the clearer4  ,in such a time as that  
in which ,jesus lived such a life as    
,his was sure to end on a ,calvary of   
some kind1 unless ,he ran away from it1 
or ,god supernaturally intervened to    
save ,him4  ,neither event happened4    
,if ,jesus had shrunk from the full     
consequences of ,his actions2 if ,he had
 temporised1 concealed ,himself1 tried  
to gain time1 or adopted any other      
subterfuge or expedient in order to save
 ,his life--that life would not have the
 moral power it possesses or shine with 
such glorious lustre in the world       
to-day4  ,supernatural interference     
would have dimmed the moral beauty of   
the faith1 courage1 and perfect         
self-devotion of ,jesus4 ,the moral     
worth of any act of self-sacrifice1 no  
matter on what scale it is performed1 is
 dependent upon the fact that it is done
 without regard to consequences4  ,if we

 could see with absolute clearness the  
sure and certain result of any action1  
if we could know1 as unquestionably as  
that two and two make four1 that it     
would always pay to do the right thing1 
the very soul of goodness would have    
gone out of it4  ,it is just because we 
do not know1 save with the deeper       
knowledge that contradicts              
appearances1--the knowledge that is     
rightly termed faith1--that an unselfish
 action is in accord with the general   
rightness of the universe1 and therefore
 must prevail in the end1 that there is 
anything praiseworthy in it4  ,the      
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
 ,god were that this should be fully    
demonstrated in the experience of       
,jesus1 as it has been in the experience
 of many a one of ,his followers since4 
,once more therefore we come to the last
 word of the cosmos1 manifestation by   
sacrifice2 and the experience of ,jesus 
is the sum and centre of it all4  ,the  
reason why the name of ,jesus has such  

power in the world to-day is because a  
perfectly noble and unselfish life was  
crowned by a perfectly sacrificial      
death4  ,both were needed2 either       
without the other would have been       
incomplete4  ,many a ,british soldier   
has died as brave a death as ,jesus1 but
 none have ever lived the life of       
,jesus4  ,the life and death together   
were a perfect self-offering1 the       
offering of the unit to the whole1 the  
individual to the race1 the ,son to the 
,father1 and therefore the greatest     
manifestation of the innermost of ,god  
that has ever been made to the world4   
,it makes the sacrifice unreal to speak 
of it as though ,jesus knew the end from
 the beginning and foresaw every stage  
in the programme before ,he came to it4 
,he did not2 ,he shrank from the        
shameful end just as we should have     
done1 and prayed to ,god to save ,him   
from it4  ,an immense amount of pious   
nonsense has been spoken and written    
about our ,lord's agony in ,gethsemane4 

,we have been told that in this dreadful
 hour the sorrow of ,jesus bore no      
relation to his physical death1 but was 
caused by ,his mysterious               
self-identification with all the sins of
 mankind1 past1 present1 and to come4   
,to add to the horror ,god the ,father  
turned ,his face away from ,him1        
treating ,him as though ,he were indeed 
the embodiment of all the guilt of      
mankind1 the scapegoat driven into the  
wilderness4  ,i have never been able to 
read this kind of thing without an inner
 protest against the unreality of it2 it
 precludes the possibility of           
understanding ,jesus or entering        
sympathetically into an experience in   
which to a greater or less degree every 
noble soul has sooner or later to share 
with ,him4  ,the only way to explain    
,gethsemane is to approach it from the  
purely human point of view1 as we have  
already done with the causes which led  
up to the crucifixion4  ,let us try to  
put ourselves in the sufferer's place1 a

 perfectly legitimate and right thing to
 do4  ,how would any of us have felt in 
the circumstances of ,jesus8  ,suppose  
that you had laboured consistently and  
whole-heartedly1 in season and out of   
season1 to get men to realise their     
divine sonship and live the life that is
 life indeed4  ,suppose you had seen    
your hopes perish one by one1 and that  
materialism1 selfishness1 and hypocrisy 
seemed to have become all the stronger  
for your protest4  ,suppose you saw evil
 gathering head against you1 that you   
found yourself left utterly alone1 and  
that even ,god seemed to be silent in   
this hour of tragic failure4  ,here are 
your enemies triumphant at the gate1    
thirsting for your blood4  ,beyond that 
gate1 betrayal1 torture1 and public     
shame are waiting for you4  ,in the     
background of all stands the cruel      
gibbet to which your own countrymen1 the
 people you have loved with an          
all-absorbing love1 shall presently     
commit you4  ,tell me what you would    

pray in like circumstances4  ,your agony
 would be just as great as that of      
,jesus1 though perhaps your prayer would
 lack ,his magnificent faith and        
ungrudging self-surrender4 ,jesus went  
to ,his death having nothing to rely    
upon except ,his inner conviction that  
,god and the cause of truth were one1   
and that somehow or other in the end    
that would be made plain to ,himself and
 all the world4  ,it would have been the
 same no matter what had been the       
particular death that ,jesus died4  ,his
 murderers might have taken ,his life in
 any one of a thousand ways and the     
ultimate result would have been just as 
we see it now4  ,they might have hanged1
 drowned1 or burnt ,him1 in which case  
the stake or the hangman's rope would   
have become the symbol of the world's   
redemption1 but1 after the fashion of   
their time1 they crucified ,him2 it was 
the worst they could do1 and they wanted
 to do the worst4  ,at ,calvary perfect 
love joined issue with perfect hate1    

perfect goodness with perfect           
wickedness1 and became victorious by    
enduring the worst and remaining pure   
and unchanged to the last4  ,the moral  
outcome4--,but it was not the last after
 all2 the world had still to reckon with
 ,god4  ,that life and death have become
 a moral force1 a spiritual dynamic     
greater than any before or since1 just  
because of the completeness of the      
self-offering that culminated on        
,calvary's cross4  ,i must not          
anticipate what ,i have to say about the
 resurrection further than to remark    
that more came out of the tomb of ,jesus
 than ever went into it4  ,when all     
seemed lost this buried life arose in   
power in other lives that up till then  
had never fully known its divine        
greatness and spiritual beauty4  ,this  
is the truth about the death of ,jesus1 
and nothing needs to be added to show   
how great an event in the dealings of   
,god with men it must have been4  ,it   
was both simple and sublime4            

,theological word-spinning only serves  
to obscure its true significance4  ,show
 to the world the real ,jesus2 tell men 
how it came about that ,he had to die1  
and they cannot help but love ,him4     
,,chapter ,,ix  ,,the ,,atonement  ,,ii4
 ,semitic ,ideas of ,atonement          
,atonement in history4--,what1 then1 has
 this death to do with the ,atonement8  
,a great deal2 but the best way to      
answer the question will be to obtain a 
clear idea as to what the ,atonement    
really means and always has meant to    
,christian experience1 notwithstanding  
the tortuous ways in which the doctrine 
has been articulated4  ,i am convinced  
that underneath every genuine attempt to
 explain the ,atonement which has ever  
held the field for any length of time in
 ,christian history the same truth is   
always to be found4  ,it is so even with
 the statement of it which is supposed  
to be orthodox to-day1 but which is     
quite modern after all1 and is          
practically discredited by all          

thoughtful minds4  ,the mental dialect  
changes from one generation to another1 
but truth does not4  ,as a matter of    
fact1 statements of truth are but       
conventional symbols at the best1 and   
possess only the ethical and emotional  
value associated with them in our minds4
  ,this is why venerable propositions   
which seem obscurantist to us originally
 possessed vital significance to their  
framers2 the ethical and emotional      
content were greater than the form of   
statement1 as they always must be4      
,every one of my readers is no doubt    
aware of the power possessed by some    
particular landscape or piece of music  
to awaken certain emotions in the heart 
or bring back the memory of certain     
events to the mind4  ,the same scene or 
song might not do this for anyone else  
because the associations are different4 
,it is much the same with the forms in  
which religious truth is stated from age
 to age4  ,the form is no more the truth
 than the landscape is the emotion or   

recollection it excites2 it is only a   
symbol for the truth4 ,to grasp this    
clearly should not only make us more    
tolerant of archaic confessions of      
faith1 but should help us to realise    
that truth is one even under apparently 
contradictory forms of statement4  ,it  
is our duty in religion as in everything
 else to endeavour to express the       
content of spiritual experience in the  
forms which best accord with the mental 
dialect of our own day4  ,i repeat1     
therefore1 that underneath every one of 
the principal forms of statement in     
which the doctrine of ,atonement has    
been presented in the past the same     
truth is to be found4  ,it is an        
interesting historical and psychological
 study to try to find out what it is4   
,atonement in the ,old ,testament4--,as 
,i have already said above1 it is usual 
for writers on the ,atonement to begin  
by taking scripture for granted and     
presenting an examination of the        
principal passages in which the         

,atonement is thought to be presumed or 
declared4  ,but if what ,i have just    
said be true1 we have to get behind even
 the language of scripture and ask how  
the writers of the ,old and ,new        
,testaments came to use these particular
 symbols and what they originally meant4
  ,the word atonement is not an exact   
translation of any one ,old ,testament  
term1 but connotes a group of related   
religious ideas4  ,in its ,christian use
 other elements enter into it from      
,greek thought which are not to be found
 in the ,old ,testament4  ,but the ,old 
,testament source of the ideas as well  
as the term is much older than the      
,greek1 and therefore we are right in   
looking to the ,old ,testament for the  
origin of the doctrine which has taken  
such an important place in              
,christianity4  ,but here again modern  
research has opened up an enormous field
 of investigation4 ,israel was a member 
of a vast family of nations all of which
 had sprung from one stock1 and of which

 the ,babylonians and ,assyrians were   
the most powerful representatives4  ,the
 ,israelites were1 politically speaking1
 a comparatively insignificant folk     
surrounded by mighty empires which had  
attained a high degree of civilisation4 
,the excavations which are now          
proceeding in oriental lands1 especially
 the territories occupied by ancient    
,assyria1 ,babylonia1 and ,egypt1 are   
bringing much valuable and interesting  
matter to light4  ,we find that the     
civilisation of these peoples was much  
older than up to now scholars have      
believed4  ,the communities inhabiting  
the land of ,canaan1 for example1 had   
developed a complex political and       
commercial organisation long before the 
,israelitish invasion2 ,canaan was in   
fact the highway along which passed the 
commerce of ,egypt with the mighty      
nations to the north4  ,the painstaking 
efforts of expert explorers are bringing
 vast forgotten literatures to light and
 reconstituting for us the religious    

ideas and modes of life of these people 
of the ancient world4  ,one result of   
these researches has been to prove that 
,hebrew religious ideas were closely    
allied to those of other ,semitic       
peoples1 and even the way in which they 
were expressed owed not a little to     
older civilisations4  ,in nothing was   
this more clearly the case than with the
 ideas included afterward in the        
doctrine of ,atonement4  ,the word      
translated ,atonement in our version of 
the ,old ,testament scriptures played an
 important part in the ,old ,testament  
sacrificial system1 and this again was  
closely connected with ,semitic modes of
 worship in general4  ,the ,day of      
,atonement4--,there was one great day in
 the ,jewish religious year called the  
,day of ,atonement1 when a special      
ritual was gone through and special     
offerings made to ,god on account of the
 sins of the people as a whole4  ,the   
ceremonial was very elaborate and the   
occasion was observed with great        

solemnity by the whole nation4  ,as     
described in the ,old ,testament the    
prescriptions for this ,day of          
,atonement1 the ,good ,friday of the    
,levitical system as it has been called1
 probably owe a good deal to ,babylonian
 influences4  ,it should be remembered  
that the outstanding event in later     
,jewish history was the carrying away of
 the flower of the nation by            
,nebuchadnezzar into ,babylon1 where    
they remained for more than two         
generations4  ,it is quite likely that1 
in spite of their exclusiveness and     
their hatred of their conquerors1 the   
,jews may have borrowed some of their   
religious ritual from the ,babylonians1 
but1 whether they did or not1 the ideas 
underlying their respective modes of    
worship were much the same4 ,primitive  
religious sacrifice among ,semitic      
peoples appears to have been mainly of a
 joyous character2 worship and sacrifice
 went hand in hand4  ,the worshippers   
were accustomed to offer to their gods  

sacrifices of everything which the      
votaries themselves valued1--the fruits 
of the earth1 their material            
possessions1 their flocks and herds1 the
 prisoners they had taken in war1 and   
occasionally even the children of their 
own body4  ,it was only on great and    
solemn occasions1 such as the necessity 
for staying a pestilence1 or averting   
defeat in war1 that the offering of the 
more terrible kinds of sacrifice was    
made4  ,it would be instructive1        
therefore1 for us to inquire what were  
the underlying ideas assumed in ,semitic
 religious sacrifice4  ,underlying ideas
 in ,semitic sacrifice4  #a4 ,the       
solidarity of man with ,god4--,in the   
first place there was the idea of       
community of life between the worshipper
 and his god4  ,it is doubtful how far  
this can be pressed1 but it is clear    
that in the ,semitic mind there was     
always a conviction that the deity of   
the clan or tribe was the giver as well 
as the sustainer of its life4  ,this did

 not apply to the minor divinities1 the 
demons of wood and stream1 but to the   
tribal deities1 the ,chemosh of ,moab1  
the ,dagon of the ,philistines1 the     
,jehovah of ,israel4  ,probably the     
,philistines were not ,semites1 but no  
doubt ancient worship in general took   
for granted this community of life      
between any particular people and their 
deity4  ,in the offering of the best of 
their possessions to the god the        
worshippers thought they were rendering 
to him of his own4  ,as he was at once  
the giver and the guardian of life1 they
 felt bound to render him the best of   
the fruits of life4  ,this was a true   
thought1 a principle essential to all   
true spiritual life1 and implied in all 
spiritual aspiration4  ,the reader will 
have already seen that it is fundamental
 to the ,new ,theology4  ,however crude 
and even repellent some of its          
expressions may have been in ancient    
modes of worship1 it is the same truth  
all ages through--the truth that ,god   

and man are essentially one4  #b4 ,the  
solidarity of the individual with the   
community4--,a further idea underlying  
primitive sacrifice was that of the     
solidarity of the individual with the   
community as a whole4  ,in the ,chaldean
 tribes out of which ,israel arose      
personality as we know it had not even  
emerged4 ,readers of the ,old ,testament
 will not need to be reminded that in   
the earlier stages of ,israel's         
existence as a people the whole nation  
was repeatedly said to be punished for  
the behaviour of individuals1 and       
families perished for the transgression 
of a father1 as in the case of ,achan4  
,no particular attention was ever paid  
to the individual as such4  ,a man had  
no life of his own1 and no value1 apart 
from the life of the community4  ,he    
belonged to it1 not to himself4  ,hence1
 when any communal act of worship was   
performed1 when any tribal sacrifice was
 made to the deity1 the organic unity of
 the individual with the whole was      

specially emphasised4  ,physically and  
spiritually the unit was held to belong 
to the whole1 and to exist for the sake 
of the whole4  ,here again we have a    
great truth1 the foundation truth of all
 morality1 and a truth which reaches its
 highest in the life of ,jesus4  ,the   
deepening of individual                 
self-consciousness1 and the increased   
perception of individual value1 have    
neither weakened nor destroyed it1 for  
it is written in the very constitution  
of the universe4  ,mankind is           
fundamentally one2 here is morality4    
,we are individually fulfilled in ,god2 
here is religion4  ,these are the       
cognate ideas underlying all modes of   
sacrificial worship1 ancient or modern4 
,these are the ideas which find         
elaborate ceremonial expression in the  
,israelitish ,day of ,atonement as      
described in the ,old ,testament4  ,the 
main purpose of these observances was   
the desire to assert as solemnly and    
emphatically as possible the essential  

oneness of the community with ,god1 and 
of every individual with all the rest4  
,everything which tended to separate    
between ,israel and her ,god was        
ceremonially put away on this great     
occasion4  ,from the religious point of 
view it was the beginning of a new year4
  ,the ,babylonian new year began about 
the same time4  ,it was supposed that a 
man's good or evil fortune was appointed
 on new year's day and settled past all 
possibility of revision on the tenth day
 after4  ,the intervening nine days were
 therefore kept as a sort of ,lenten    
season2 the tenth day was the grand     
occasion for the making sure of the     
harmonious relations of the community   
with the deity4  ,it will be seen1      
therefore1 that psychologically the idea
 of ,atonement takes precedence of the  
idea of sin4  ,most westerners are      
accustomed to think exactly the reverse1
 and that is why the various theories of
 ,atonement which have appeared and     
disappeared in the course of ,christian 

history have so generally obscured the  
truth4  ,the root principle of          
,atonement is not that of escaping      
punishment for transgression1 but the   
assertion of the fundamental oneness of 
,god and man4  ,this may or may not be  
accompanied by feelings of guilt and    
contrition1 but it is the very marrow of
 religion4  ,atonement implies the      
acting-together of ,god and man1 the    
subordination of the individual will to 
the universal will1 the fulfilment of   
the unit in the whole4  ,sense of sin   
not originally essential to             
atonement4--,it ought to be recognised  
that in ,semitic modes of worship the   
idea of sin did not originally hold the 
place it has since come to hold in the  
,christian consciousness4  ,the         
,babylonian and the early ,israelite    
were greatly afraid of offending ,god1  
but they do not seem to have thought of 
such a transgression as being morally   
culpable4  ,the profound sense of sin   
which characterises so many of the      

psalms and prophetic writings of the    
,old ,testament was a comparatively late
 development4  ,the primitive ,semites  
had a markedly anthropomorphic idea of  
their deities4  ,they thought of any    
divine being as more or less like an    
ordinary man and liable to take umbrage 
at little things4  ,it was even possible
 to offend him without knowing it1 and  
therefore to be left without protection 
against the ills of life4  ,it was to   
make sure of smoothing away all possible
 misunderstandings that covering        
sacrifices were offered from time to    
time2 but the offering of these         
sacrifices did not necessarily mean that
 the worshipper thought he had done     
anything to be ashamed of and which     
required to be put right4  ,he was      
simply treating his god as he would have
 treated a powerful earthly patron or   
potentate1 that is1 he was apologising  
for anything he might have done to      
alienate his favour4  ,this notion of   
the necessity for placating ,god is to  

be found in close association with the  
worthier spiritual instincts to which ,i
 have already referred1 and it has not  
even yet disappeared from our thinking4 
,unbiassed readers of the ,old          
,testament will find abundant           
justification for this statement4  ,we  
are told repeatedly therein that the    
anger of the ,lord was kindled against  
,israel or against this or that         
individual1 and that the whole community
 had in consequence to humble itself    
before ,him in order to avert plague1 or
 pestilence1 or some other form of      
general calamity4  ,not only was        
,jehovah thought of as a kind of larger 
man who was at once protector and tyrant
 to his people1 he was but the ,god of  
,israel in contradistinction to the gods
 of other nations1 one ,god out of many4
 ,it was only gradually1 and after the  
lapse of ages1 that ,israelites came to 
think of their ,god as the ,god of the  
whole earth and a being who must be     
worshipped in righteousness4  ,israel   

was fortunate in possessing what other  
nations had not in the same degree1 a   
succession of specially inspired men1   
teachers of moral and spiritual truth   
called prophets4  ,the best of          
these--for no doubt the generality of   
them spoke only the language of their   
time--earnestly protested against       
material ideas of sacrifice and         
inadequate notions about ,god4  ,they   
declared that ,god and the moral ideal  
were one and that the best way to serve 
the former was to be true to the latter4
  ,true sacrifice1 they maintained1 was 
of a spiritual kind and ought never to  
be thought about in any other sense4    
,thus in the fifty-first psalm the      
writer1 one of the prophetic school1    
thus contrasts mere ceremonialism with  
spiritual worship3   ,thou desirest not 
sacrifice1 else would ,i give it2 ,thou 
delightest not in burnt offering4  ,the 
sacrifices of ,god are a broken spirit4 
,a broken and a contrite heart1 ,o ,god1
 ,thou wilt not despise4   ,or take the 

prophet ,micah1 chapter vi41 verse #f4  
,here is a reference to human sacrifice1
 to which the ,israelites were prone    
from time to time1 following the example
 of their neighbours3   ,wherewith shall
 ,i come before the ,lord1 and bow      
myself before the ,most ,high ,god8     
shall ,i come before ,him with burnt    
offerings1 with calves of a year old8   
,will the ,lord be pleased with         
thousands of rams1 or with ten thousands
 of rivers of oil8 shall ,i give my     
firstborn for my transgression1 the     
fruit of my body for the sin of my soul8
   ,and the answer of the prophet is3   
,he hath showed thee1 ,o man1 what is   
good2 and what doth the ,lord require of
 thee1 but to do justly1 and to love    
mercy1 and to walk humbly with thy ,god8
   ,here we have a declaration in       
unmistakable terms that the moral ideal 
and the religious ideal are one1 and    
that to worship ,god properly the       
worshipper must treat his fellow-men    
properly4  ,we now get the idea that sin

 against ,god is not something into     
which a man may fall without knowing it1
 but the living of a selfish life4      
,atonement never an equivalent for      
penalty4--,we ought to recognise too    
that the sacrifices of the ,day of      
,atonement were never held to secure a  
complete amnesty for all kinds of sin4  
,if a man committed theft or murder1 he 
had to bear the appropriate penalty of  
his misdemeanour because he had been    
guilty of an action directed against the
 well-being of the community and the    
community had to take measures to       
protect itself2 the ,day of ,atonement  
availed nothing in such a case4  ,here  
is where many who see in the ,old       
,testament sacrificial system a type and
 anticipation of the one perfect        
sacrifice of ,jesus frequently go wide  
of the facts4  ,the ,day of ,atonement  
was a ceremonial and symbolical         
assertion of the willingness of the     
individual and the nation to fulfil     
their true destiny by being at one with 

,god4  ,if some particular man had been 
so living as to cut himself off from the
 communal well-being1 he had to suffer4 
,the significance of the blood4--,many  
people seem to think that some actual   
saving efficacy was supposed to attach  
to the shedding of the blood of the     
victims offered on the altar of         
sacrifice1 but that never was so4  ,no  
doubt in the ignorant popular mind      
material sacrifices came to be looked   
upon as possessing some virtue in       
themselves1 but the intelligence of the 
nation never regarded them in this way4 
,in the offering of a victim the        
worshipper symbolically offered himself4
  ,the ,semites thought that the life of
 any organism was in the blood4  ,thus  
in ,numbers we read1 ,the life of the   
flesh is in the blood1 and ,i have given
 it to you upon the altar to make       
atonement for your souls1 for it is the 
blood that maketh atonement by reason of
 the soul 7or life74 ,when1 therefore1 a
 man offered the blood of a victim upon 

the altar1 he was symbolically declaring
 his recognition of the truth that the  
individual life belongs to the whole and
 must give or pour itself out to the    
common life and to ,god the source of   
all4  ,only in this way could           
individuality realise itself2 apart from
 the whole it was meaningless and       
valueless4  ,the truth beneath all      
sacrifice1 however barbarous4--,this    
helps us to see how1 even underneath the
 most horrible and repellent modes of   
ancient religious sacrifice1 there was  
something essentially great and noble4  
,when a heathen mother passed her child 
through the fire to ,moloch1 did the    
sacrifice cost her nothing8  ,to be sure
 it did4  ,it must have been much harder
 to give her baby than to give herself4 
,she did it because she had been taught 
to believe that to give one's best and  
dearest possession for the life of the  
whole was an action acceptable to ,god  
and worthy of our relationship to ,him4 
,we have deepened and purified that     

ideal1 but we have not lost it2 we never
 can4  ,as time went on men came to see 
that there was a higher way of giving   
the self to the whole than that of      
immolating a physical life1 and a better
 way of symbolising that offering than  
by shedding the blood of bulls and      
goats2 but the essential truth beneath  
all the intricate sacrificial systems of
 ancient ,israel and her neighbours is  
one that can never perish4  ,to sum up4 
,atonement is the assertion of the      
fundamental unity of all existence1 the 
unity of the individual with the race   
and the race with ,god4  ,the individual
 can only realise that unity by         
sacrificing himself to it4  ,to fulfil  
the self we must give the self to the   
,all4  ,this is the truth presumed in   
all ancient ideas of ,atonement4  ,the  
idea of placating a manlike ,god for    
offences committed against his dignity  
has been a concomitant of this          
perception1 even a hindrance to it1 but 
it has never wholly obscured the truth  

itself4  ,that truth is constant and    
essential to all religion and morality1 
and is the cordinating principle to all 
between them4     ,,chapter ,x  ,,the   
,,atonement  ,,iii4 ,the ,doctrine in   
,christian ,history and ,experience     
,antiquity of the essential             
truth4--,from what has now been said it 
will1 ,i hope1 be clear that the roots  
of the ,christian doctrine of ,atonement
 lie far back in history1 especially    
,semitic history mediated through the   
,old ,testament1 and that its           
fundamental truth is one with which the 
world can never dispense2 it is both    
simple and sublime4 ,nothing worth doing
 in human history has ever been done    
apart from it or ever will be4  ,it is  
no paradox to say that even a morally   
earnest agnostic believes in the        
,atonement2 at any rate he believes in  
the all-essential truth without which   
there would never have been such a thing
 as a doctrine of ,atonement4  ,no      
consistent theory in the ,new           

,testament4--,but now we come to the    
consideration of this truth as it has   
passed over into ,christianity4  ,i do  
not propose to give an accurate and     
exhaustive analysis of the principal    
things that have been said about it1    
from the writings of ,st4 ,paul         
downwards2 that would only be wearisome 
to my readers and lead to no particular 
result4  ,but if ,i have succeeded in   
making clear the psychological necessity
 for the existence of the idea of       
,atonement1 it will serve us as a       
guiding principle when we come to       
consider it in relation to the sacrifice
 of ,jesus4  ,many exegetes have        
undertaken to show that the various ,new
 ,testament writers held one and the    
same theory of the relation of the death
 of ,jesus to the forgiveness of sins2  
never was a task more hopeless4  ,the   
,pauline1 ,petrine1 and ,johannine      
theories1 and that of the writer of the 
epistle to the ,hebrews1 are not        
mutually consistent1 and ,paul is not   

always consistent with himself4  ,the   
principal thing they have in common is  
their belief that the death of ,jesus   
was of vital efficacy in the doing away 
of sin4 ,the symbolism in which they set
 forth this truth is borrowed mainly    
from the ,old ,testament1 and we have   
already seen what underlay that         
symbolism even in its earliest use4     
,old ,testament language about sacrifice
 supplies the mental dialect of the     
,new1 and now that we have the key to it
 we need neither be puzzled nor misled  
by it4  ,beneath all that the ,new      
,testament writers have to say about the
 death of ,jesus there is the same grand
 old spiritual truth of ,atonement which
 makes religion possible4  ,before we   
resume our examination of the connection
 between the death of ,jesus and the    
doing away of sin1 let us look for a    
moment at what post-apostolic thought   
has had to say about it4  ,the          
,fathers4--,from the beginning of the   
second century onwards the ,fathers of  

the church and their theological        
successors attempted a variety of       
explanations of the way in which the    
death of ,jesus achieved potentially the
 redemption of mankind4  ,it is not easy
 to say just when one period of         
,christian thought closes and another   
begins2 but1 broadly speaking1 we can   
for convenience classify them into the  
period of the ,fathers1 the mediaeval   
period1 the ,reformation and afterwards 
up to the eighteenth century1 and the   
period of modern thought4  ,the ,fathers
 may be divided into two groups1 the    
ante-,nicene and the post-,nicene       
writers1 and also into the ,greek and   
,latin ,fathers4  ,but as ,i am not     
writing for theological students1 ,i    
will not attempt any further analysis of
 the various patristic schools4  ,those 
who wrote previous to #cbe ,a4,d4 belong
 to the ante-,nicene group2 those who   
wrote after that date1 to the           
post-,nicene group4  ,the ante-,nicene  
writers1 generally speaking1 avoid      

giving any theory of the atonement at   
all2 but two of their greatest thinkers1
 ,origen and ,irenaeus1 held that       
mankind had fallen under the dominion of
 ,satan1 and that ,jesus by ,his        
sufferings paid a ransom to ,satan in   
order that we might be freed from his   
power4 ,post-,nicene ,fathers for the   
most part adopted this view without     
attempting to justify it4  ,amongst     
their statements we find the ideas that 
the ,atonement was a ransom to ,satan   
and also a sacrifice to ,god1 but they  
offer no explanation of the necessity of
 either4  ,later on ,augustine          
anticipated subsequent ,christian       
thought by maintaining that the atoning 
work of ,jesus was part of an eternal   
purpose4  ,anselm and after4--,the      
scholasticism of the ,middle ,ages finds
 its first important expression in the  
illustrious ,anselm1 an acute thinker   
and a beautiful soul4  ,anselm rejected 
the idea of a ransom to ,satan1         
declaring that ,satan had no rights over

 humanity2 in place of this notion he   
put forward the theory that ,jesus made 
to ,god an infinite satisfaction for an 
infinite debt4  ,according to this      
theory the majesty of ,god had suffered 
indignity because of human sin1 and yet 
man was unable by himself to offer an   
adequate satisfaction for the offence4  
,hence the eternal ,son of ,god became  
man in order that ,he might offer the   
only satisfaction that could be         
considered adequate4 ,this theory did   
not go unchallenged4  ,abelard1 for     
example1 asked the very reasonable      
question how the guilt of mankind could 
be atoned for by the greater guilt of   
those who put ,jesus to death4          
,abelard's famous opponent1 ,bernard of 
,clairvaux1 also repudiated ,anselm's   
main contention and fell back upon the  
theory of a satisfaction to ,satan4     
,reformation theories4--,at the time of 
the ,reformation the question of the    
,atonement formed the subject of        
considerable controversy1 and1 on the   

whole1 the ,reformers were less         
reasonable than the ,catholics1 as is   
the case to some extent even to-day4    
,the ,roman ,catholic doctrine of       
,atonement is much nearer to the truth  
than conventional ,protestant statements
 about the finished work and so on4     
,one considerable section of            
sixteenth-century ,protestantism held   
and taught the doctrine of the total    
depravity of human nature1 and insisted 
on the idea that ,jesus bore the actual 
penal sufferings of sinners4            
,calvinists held that these sufferings  
had value for the elect only4  ,against 
these views ,socinianism arose as a     
protest1 but tended to reduce the       
,passion of ,jesus to a sort of drama   
enacted by ,god in the presence of      
humanity in order to excite men's       
contrition and win their love4  ,the    
modern lack of a theory4--,modern       
evangelical thought has done very little
 with all these theories except to make 
them impossible2 it has no consistent   

and reasonable explanation to put in    
their place4 ,the popular kind of       
evangelical phraseology is that which   
continues to represent ,jesus as having 
borne the punishment due to human sin2  
salvation is spoken of as though it     
meant deliverance from the post-mortem  
consequences of misdoing4  ,more about  
sin4--,in all these theories it is      
evident that the death of ,jesus is     
closely connected with the forgiveness  
of sin and that the forgiveness of sin  
is the vital element in the ,atonement4 
,in order to understand the truth about 
this let us return to what has already  
been said on the subject of sin and     
pursue it a little farther4  ,i have    
already pointed out that sin is         
selfishness pure and simple1 and that   
that definition will cover all its      
manifestations4  ,there is no sin that  
is not selfishness1 there is no         
selfishness that is not sin4  ,all      
possible activities of the soul are     
between selfishness on the one hand and 

love on the other4  ,if people would    
only accept this simple explanation of a
 great subject1 it would get rid of most
 of the confusion of thought that exists
 in regard to it4  ,the life of love is 
the life lived for impersonal ends2 the 
sinful life is the life lived for self  
alone4  ,the life of love is the life   
which does the best with the self for   
the sake of the whole2 the sinful life  
is the life which is lived for the self 
at the expense of the whole4  ,the      
desire for gratification at some one    
else's cost1 or at the cost of the      
common life1 is the root principle of   
sin4  ,sin against ,god is simply an    
offence against the common life2 it is  
attempting to draw away from instead of 
ministering to the common good4  ,the   
sinful man thinks it will pay him to be 
selfish2 his impulse is to suppose that 
he can gain more happiness1 can drink   
more deeply of the cup of life1 by doing
 it at the expense of other people4  ,we
 all do it more or less1 and yet the    

world might have learned by this time   
that selfishness does not pay2 the      
thoroughly selfish man is an unhappy    
man1 for he has not drawn upon the      
source of abiding joy4  ,like love1     
selfishness is a guest for life1 but    
whereas love obtains more abundant life 
by freely giving itself1 sin loses hold 
on life by trying to grab and keep it4  
,every man is seeking life and seeking  
it in one or other of these opposite    
ways2 he is either fulfilling the self  
by serving the whole1 or he is trying to
 feed the self by robbing the whole4    
,but life is ,god1 and there is no life 
which is not ,god4  ,god is the life    
all-abundant1 the life infinite and     
eternal1 the life that never grows old1 
the life that is joy4 ,every man1       
consciously or subconsciously1 wants    
that life2 he is wanting it all the     
time4  ,why does the man of business    
spend so many hours in his office in the
 effort to make money8  ,it is because  
money represents power1 power that can  

purchase more life and fuller4 ,probably
 he does not want it all for himself2 he
 works for love of his family or love of
 the community1 and his desire to serve 
them makes his work gladder1 so that    
already he has more abundant life than  
he would otherwise possess4  ,analyse   
human action1 no matter what1 and it    
will be seen to point in one or other of
 these two directions1 self-ward or     
all-ward4  ,if the former1 it will      
shrivel the soul1 it makes for death2 if
 the latter1 it will expand the soul1 it
 makes for life4  ,this is a spiritual  
law which knows no exception2 in the    
long run the loving deed brings larger  
life and joy1 the selfish deed brings   
pain and darkness4 ,be not deceived1    
,god is not mocked2 whatsoever a man    
soweth that shall he also reap4  ,he    
that soweth to the flesh shall of the   
flesh reap corruption1 but he that      
soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit
 reap eternal life4  ,it is evident from
 the foregoing that even the sinful life

 is a quest for ,god1 although it does  
not know itself to be such1 for in      
seeking life saint and sinner alike are 
seeking ,god1 the all-embracing life4   
,and the sinner must learn that to seek 
life selfishly is to lose it2 to seek it
 unselfishly is both to gain and to give
 it4  ,the good man and the bad man are 
seeking the same thing in opposite ways4
  ,during the recent ,new ,theology     
controversy the editor of the ,british  
,weekly1 in the course of an attack upon
 my teaching1 printed a number of       
extracts from my sermons in order to    
convince his readers that that teaching 
was objectionable and false4  ,in every 
case the extract was carefully removed  
from its context and therefore conveyed 
quite a misleading impression to the    
mind of the reader4  ,one of these      
extracts was from a sermon on ,more     
,abundant ,life1 preached in the ,city  
,temple on ,sunday morning1 ,march #ah1 
#aijf4  ,as this extract has been widely
 circulated1 perhaps ,i may be pardoned 

for giving it here along with the       
context4  ,all that the editor chose to 
print was a part of the paragraph in    
which sin was described as a quest for  
,god1 and yet he must have known        
perfectly well that to take that        
paragraph out of its setting was to do  
an injustice both to the preacher and to
 the subject4   ,observe the sharp      
antithesis between the thief or the     
robber on the one hand1 and the ,good   
,shepherd on the other4  ,these two     
stand for two opposing tendencies that  
have run through all nature and all     
human life4  ,all nature through1 all   
history through1 two conflicting        
tendencies have been discernible4       
,these are ever at war1 and they ever   
will be until the whole world has been  
subdued to ,christ1 and is filled with  
the fulness of the life of ,god4  ,these
 two tendencies we may describe as the  
deathward and the lifeward respectively4
  ,the words are not very satisfactory  
because the deathward tendency          

masquerades as the lifeward tendency1   
and the lifeward tendency1 before       
fruition1 looks like the deathward one4 
,in nature1 as ,romans viii4 tells us1  
,we know that the whole creation        
groaneth and travaileth in pain together
 until now4  ,nature is cruel1 red in   
tooth and claw4  ,the deathward tendency
 is what ,i may call the self-ward      
tendency in the upward struggle of all  
organic forms1 that is1 one organism    
only exists at the expense of other     
organisms4  ,yet at a certain stage in  
evolution this principle of the survival
 of the fittest at the expense of the   
rest gives way to a counter principle1  
that of the fitting of as many as       
possible to survive4  ,the thief        
tendency gives way to the shepherd      
tendency1 self-love to mother-love1 the 
struggle to survive to the struggle for 
the life of others4  ,i do not pause at 
the moment to account for these two     
antithetic tendencies1 there they are2  
all through the history of this sad old 

world of ours these two tendencies have 
been in sharp conflict4  ,both are      
cosmic1 both probably resolvable in that
 higher unity which is too mysterious   
for us to penetrate1 but to our minds   
they are in flagrant opposition to each 
other4  ,the thief cometh to steal and  
to kill and to destroy2 mother-love1    
,christ-love1 that it may give life1 and
 that more abundantly4  ,in human       
history the antithesis is even more     
plainly marked4  ,from one point of     
view1 history is little else than the   
story of the crimes and follies of      
mankind4  ,if it were entirely that1 the
 study would be too saddening to enter  
upon2 but it is not all of that         
character1 and yet it is sufficiently so
 to cast a shadow over the optimism of  
any man who investigates human evolution
 as told in song and story4  ,the       
principle that they should take who have
 the power1 and they should keep who can
 has ruled in human concerns from the   
dawn of history until to-day4 ,it is    

strong enough in our midst even now4    
,out industrial system is founded upon  
it1 and is essentially unchristian4     
,commercialism is saturated with it2 all
 men suffer from it1 but often they know
 not how to get free from it4  ,ruskin  
has a grimly amusing paragraph on the   
parallel between an earlier civilisation
 and that of to-day1 and the identity in
 principle of the self-ward tendency in 
both4  ,in mediaeval times1 as he would 
say1 the robber baron was wont to       
possess himself of a mountain fortress1 
whence he swooped down upon hapless     
passers-by to rob them of their         
possessions and their lives4  ,to-day   
the successful financial magnate does   
the same by effecting corners in corn   
and such like4  ,the great writer adds1 
with characteristic irony1 ,i prefer the
 crag baron to the bag baron4  ,yet with
 all this we see at work in history     
another tendency which we can recognise 
as plainly as the former1 but which     
fills us with great hope for the future 

of humanity1--it is that which is summed
 up in the one word ,christ4 ,that word 
stands all the world over for the things
 that make for more abundant life4      
,just as in the text the word thief     
stands for everything that makes for    
separateness1 selfhood1 cruelty1 so the 
word ,christ stands for everything that 
makes for union1 mutual helpfulness1    
brotherly kindness4  ,the thief stands  
for the tendency to grasp and draw      
inward1 and the ,christ stands for the  
tendency to give1 and live outward4     
,the former tendency is what ,i call the
 deathward--deathward for all else but  
itself2 and the ,christ is the lifeward1
 life for all else but itself4          
,yet--curious inversion of earlier      
experience--the deathward tendency      
results in death to itself in the       
spiritual region1 and the lifeward      
tendency results in life to him who     
gives life4  ,i have power to lay it    
down1 and ,i have power to take it      
again4  ,i want you to realise here1    

then1 that the ,christ in humanity is   
the life-giver of the soul4  ,they who  
are possessed of the ,christ spirit are 
they who have and can give the more     
abundant life4  ,we have briefly        
examined the two tendencies of which ,i 
have spoken2 have you realised that in  
the things of the spirit the deathward  
tendency is what we call sin8  ,sin is  
selfishness2 it is the attempt to misuse
 the energies of ,god2 it is the        
expansion of individuality at the       
expense of the race4  ,i do not know    
that you can arrive at a much more      
thorough explanation of the nature of   
sin than that4  ,men blunderingly       
attempt to classify virtues1 and think  
of sin as simply the failure to attain  
them4  ,it is not that1 it is something 
deeper2 sin is the attempt to minister  
to self at the expense of that which is 
outside self4  ,it lives by death to    
others1 or seeks to do so4  ,when ,i was
 away a few weeks ago ,i paid a visit to
 ,monte ,carlo to see what it was like1 

and went into the famous gambling       
saloon1 and stood for a while looking at
 the faces of the players4  ,i could not
 see anything very different from what  
,i see now2 the people who were engaged 
in that all-engrossing pursuit might    
have been in church1 they were so quiet1
 so orderly1 and so apparently          
passionless4  ,yet ,i felt--it may have 
been a preacher's prejudice--that the   
moral atmosphere of that place was one  
in which ,i did not want to remain2     
there was something bad there1 and ,i   
think ,i could discern what it was4 ,the
 gambler is essentially a man who is    
trying to get something for nothing2 he 
is drawing to himself that which he     
supposes will give him more satisfying  
and abundant life4  ,let who will       
suffer2 it is not his concern4  ,what is
 lifeward for him may be deathward for  
them2 he is willing that it should be   
so--that is the sin4  ,sin is always a  
mistake1--a soul's mistake2 it is the   
carrying up into the spiritual region of

 that stern and terrible law of the     
physical world1 the survival of an      
organism at the expense of its fellow4  
,that law is reversed in the spiritual  
world2 it is replaced by something else4
  ,if a soul is to gain more abundant   
life1 it must rise above the desire to  
grasp and hold4  ,the gambler is selling
 that beautiful thing which came fresh  
from the hand of ,god1 and is at once   
,god's life and his2 he is destroying   
the present possibility of attaining to 
that higher life which is the destiny of
 the soul4  ,the ,christ in him can find
 no expression4  ,and yet1 my friends1  
realise this1 however startling it may  
seem1 sin itself is a quest for ,god--a 
blundering quest1 but a quest for all   
that4  ,the man who got dead drunk last 
night did so because of the impulse     
within him to break through the barriers
 of his limitations1 to express himself1
 and to realise more abundant life4 ,his
 self-indulgence just came to that2 he  
wanted if only for a brief hour to live 

the larger life1 to expand the soul1 to 
enter untrodden regions1 and gather to  
himself new experience4  ,that drunken  
debauch was a quest for life1 a quest   
for ,god4  ,men in their sinful follies 
to-day1 and their blank atheism1 and    
their foul blasphemies1 their trampling 
upon things that are beautiful and good1
 are engaged in this dim1 blundering    
quest for ,god1 whom to know is life    
eternal4  ,the rou you saw in           
,piccadilly last night1 who went out to 
corrupt innocence and to wallow in      
filthiness of the flesh1 was engaged in 
his blundering quest for ,god4  ,he is  
looking for ,him along the line of the  
wrong tendency2 he has been gathering to
 himself what he took to be more        
abundant life1 but sin1 when it hath    
conceived bringeth forth death--death to
 the sinner as well as to his victim1   
death of what is deepest and truest in  
the soul4  ,yet--,i repeat it--all men  
are seeking life1 life more abundant1   
even in their selfishness and           

wrong-doing1 seeking life by the        
deathward road4    ,whatever crazy      
sorrow saith1   ,no life that breathes  
with human breath   ,has ever truly     
longed for death4   ',tis life1 whereof 
our nerves are scant1   ,o life1 not    
death1 for which we pant1   ,more life  
and fuller than ,i want4   ,on the      
following ,sunday ,i preached a sermon  
entitled the ,nature of ,sin1 in which  
the same point was remphasised with even
 greater distinctness1 as the following 
extract will show3--   ,i think ,i      
startled some of you last ,sunday       
morning when ,i happened to remark that 
sin was1 after all1 a quest for ,god--a 
mistaken quest1 but none the less a     
quest for ,god1 for all that4  ,i want  
to explain to you to-night somewhat more
 in detail what ,i mean by this1 because
 the more clearly we can see the truth  
the more clearly we can perceive sin to 
be a soul's blunder4  ,there are two    
tendencies discernible throughout nature
 and in human history4  ,these two      

tendencies are essentially opposed1 are 
ever in conflict1 and ever will be until
 the whole world is subdued to ,christ1 
and ,god is all in all4  ,i called them 
last ,sunday morning from the pulpit the
 deathward and the lifeward             
respectively4 ,the terms are not very   
satisfactory1 because the deathward     
tendency usually masquerades as the     
lifeward1 and the lifeward often looks  
like the deathward4  ,that is why sin is
 ever possible4  ,a man thinks to get   
something by it1 and though he finds out
 his mistake afterward1 yet he supposes 
it to be for him the lifeward road4  ,on
 the other hand1 the utterly unselfish  
deed often looks as though it were a    
deed that would bring destruction upon  
the doer4  ,not so4  ,jesus ,christ saw 
right to the heart of things when ,he   
said1 ,he that loveth his life shall    
lose it1 and he that loseth his life for
 ,my sake the same shall find it4 ,if   
you substitute for the words for ,my    
sake1 for truth's sake1 or for life's   

sake1 you will get just the same        
meaning1--he that keeps back his life   
shall lose it1 and he that gives forth  
his life shall find it4  ,here1 then1   
are two tendencies sharply contrasted4  
,now observe their operation in nature  
and in human experience4  ,you are all  
aware of1 and frequently have been      
saddened1 no doubt1 by what you regard  
as the cruelty of nature4  ,there is a  
tragedy under every rose leaf1 there is 
unceasing conflict to the death going on
 in every hedgerow4  ,nature is indeed  
cruel4  ,i have often watched1 during   
this winter which is now drawing to a   
close1 the little birds feeding outside 
the window of my breakfast room in the  
morning4  ,like many of you1 we put out 
a few crumbs for these feathered friends
 who share the same garden with         
ourselves1 and ,i have always noticed   
that there is a battle royal fought     
round those crumbs4  ,there is enough   
for everyone1 and yet the instinct of   
these little creatures is to try and    

grab and keep all1 each one for itself4 
,the instinct of the lower creation     
appears to be that a form can only      
preserve itself1 and only expand and    
express itself1 at the expense of other 
forms4  ,it is a stern and terrible law1
 as you well know4  ,forms1 by a slow1  
upward progress in the unfolding of the 
purpose to which nature exists1 have    
become what they are at the expense of  
earlier and weaker forms4  ,there is a  
tendency to grasp and hold1 a tendency  
to kill and to destroy1 and this1 to    
some minds1 appears to be the strongest 
tendency in nature or in man4  ,i       
question it1--in fact1 ,i deny it1--and 
,i want that you and ,i should arrive at
 the same conclusion respecting it4     
,for there is another tendency          
observable working from the very        
earliest throughout the processes of    
nature1 too4  ,it is that which ,henry  
,drummond describes as the struggle for 
the life of others4  ,if you like1 we   
will call it mother-love4  ,i saw it    

illustrated only yesterday4  ,a mother  
sheep1 standing in her place amongst the
 flock1 was surprised with the rest at  
the incursion of a mongrel dog4  ,the   
flock fled instantly1 but the ordinarily
 timid mother stood her ground4  ,the   
reason was not far to seek4  ,there was 
a little lamb cowering behind her1 and  
she1 overcoming her natural instinct of 
self-preservation1 turned her face to   
the dog to draw his attention1 if       
possible1 to herself and deflect it from
 her young one4 ,now1 that instinct     
represents the tendency of which ,i     
speak1 the antithetic tendency to the   
other already described4  ,it is the    
stronger of the two4  ,it indicates the 
goal toward which nature herself is     
moving4  ,the whole creation groaneth   
and travaileth in pain together until   
now1 but mother-love is a prophecy of a 
higher yet to be4  ,it is the           
forth-going instinct1 the all-ward1     
lifeward tendency4  ,now turn to        
humanity4  ,i think you will agree with 

me that right through human history the 
same two tendencies are observable4     
,the farther back we go1 the stronger   
seems the self-ward tendency4  ,the     
natural state of uncivilised man is a   
state of war4  ,man in primitive        
communities only exists and flourishes  
by destroying other communities4 ,a most
 curious thing it is1 too1 that         
apparently our domestic and civic       
virtues have grown out of this state of 
war4  ,a man used to carry his wife off 
by main force4  ,she become his         
property4  ,he exerted his brute force1 
he magnified his own personality1 as it 
were1 in crushing other personalities4  
,his children were in his hands for life
 and death4  ,if he afterwards learned  
to love them1 it was in                 
contradistinction to the children that  
were not his4  ,that which was his1 so  
to speak1 gratified his egotism2 and1   
although a more beautiful relationship  
grew out of it1 such was the unpromising
 beginning4  ,to-day when you hear a man

 speaking loudly about my country1 or my
 family1 or my society1 as the case may 
be1 you may be perfectly sure that he is
 projecting himself into his patriotism1
 or into his loyalty to family or       
society2 and indeed this was the lowly  
beginning of what has come to be an     
excellent virtue4  ,we have had to learn
 benevolence by concentrating unselfish 
attention upon the few rather than the  
many4 ,the farther back you go in       
history1 the sterner does the operation 
of that law appear1 and the less        
promising the future of mankind4  ,if   
people tell me the world is not getting 
better1 ,i suggest that it might be     
worth their while to read a chapter of  
mediaeval or primitive history4  ,in the
 ,odyssey1 for instance1 ,homer sketches
 for us the career of a strong and      
remarkable man4  ,his hero1 supposed to 
be a paragon of virtue1 is capable of   
things you would call scoundrelism      
to-day4  ,he and his band of            
storm-tossed companions land upon an    

island of the ,grecian ,archipelago and 
find a city there4  ,they promptly sack 
it and kill all the inhabitants--men1   
women1 and children4  ,it seemed to be  
the proper thing to do1 and found its   
way into verse1 and they boasted about  
such heroic exploits4  ,it was brutal   
murder1 and the men who were capable of 
it were nothing more or less than       
pirates4  ,yet that stern1 terrible     
tendency thus illustrated is just one   
with that inscrutable law under which   
nature herself has come to be what she  
is4 ,it is what ,i call the self-ward   
tendency1 the desire to grasp and keep  
at the expense of other individualities 
other societies than our own4  ,but in  
history1 and from those very earliest   
times down to our own1 another tendency 
has shown itself at work1 a counter     
tendency4  ,the two have been so        
intertwined frequently--as ,i have      
indicated in showing where patriotism   
comes from--that it has been difficult  
to dissociate them2 but they are quite  

distinct4  ,take1 for instance1 the     
magnificent devotion of ,arnold von     
,winkelried on the field of ,sempach4   
,switzerland has not existed as a       
political unit for many centuries1 but  
during that time her roll of heroes has 
been large4  ,in the formative hour of  
,swiss independence1 when that tiny folk
 were struggling for their liberty      
against the overweening power of        
,austria1 it must have seemed a hopeless
 undertaking--this group of mountaineers
 against the chivalry of an empire4     
,the great battle of ,sempach was       
fought4  ,the ,swiss1 armed with nothing
 but their battle-axes1 hurled          
themselves in vain all day long against 
the serried ranks of ,austrian mail-clad
 warriors1 armed with spears1 through   
which the shepherd men could make no    
way4 ,they fell before them1 but could  
not pass through them1 till ,winkelried 
called to his countrymen1 ,provide for  
my wife and children and ,i will make a 
way1 and1 rushing unarmed upon the      

spearmen of ,austria1 clasped in his    
embrace as many of them as he could and 
bore them to the earth4 ,a dozen spears 
passed through his body1 but through the
 gap his devotion had made1 his         
countrymen leaped to victory4  ,that one
 act made possible1 humanly speaking1   
the ,swiss independence1 which is an    
object-lesson for us to-day4  ,such acts
 as these form part of the cherished    
lore of nations4  ,we feel they are the 
light-centres of the world4  ,something 
tells us that an act like that1 the     
giving of a life for the sake of an     
ideal1 a cause1 a country1 was a great  
thing4  ,it represented the counter     
tendency to what was going on at that   
moment4 ,in that very battle ,austria   
was trying to grasp and hold1           
,switzerland was trying to get free and 
live her own life1 and here was a man   
who1 for the sake of his country's      
ideal1 gave all that he had--his life4  
,will you tell me where to look for the 
focus and centre of that ideal8 ,i know 

what your answer would be4  ,it was at  
,calvary4  ,the one thing which1        
consciously or subconsciously1 men have 
recognised in ,jesus that has given ,him
 ,his supreme attraction for the world1 
is this--,he was absolutely             
disinterested4  ,it is the              
disinterestedness of ,jesus1 ,his utter 
nobleness1 ,his power of projecting     
,himself into the experience of others1 
and trying to lift humanity as a whole  
to ,his experience of ,god1 that gave   
,him ,his power with mankind4  ,jesus   
not only proclaimed1 but lived1 the     
counter tendency to the law of sin and  
death4  ,now1 when we have brought the  
two together1 you see the essential     
distinction between working for self and
 its deathward look1 and working for all
 with its lifeward gaze4  ,these two are
 antithetic1 and must be in opposition  
until the latter absorbs the former1 and
 ,god is all in all1 and love reigneth  
world without end4  ,we are now able to 
see what sin is more plainly than       

before4  ,sin is the tendency to grasp  
and draw inward1 and everything that    
feeds that tendency makes for death4    
,sin is the expansion of the            
individuality at the expense of the     
race2 sin is acting on the belief that  
the soul can increase at another's cost1
 can increase by destroying what is     
another's good4  ,apply that explanation
 or definition of sin to what you know  
about life1 and you will soon see when a
 man is facing the deathward road1 and  
how differently he acts when he is      
choosing the lifeward road4  ,there are 
men in this congregation who do not     
realise1 as they should1 that           
lifewardness is ,god-wardness2 but so it
 is4  ,the soul and the source of all   
things is ,god1 and1 consciously or     
unconsciously1 all men are seeking ,god 
in that they are seeking                
self-expression1 seeking life4  ,the    
man1 for instance1 who is trying to     
become rich is a man who is seeking to  
express himself1 seeking power1 seeking 

life1 seeking to thrust through the     
barriers that surround the soul4  ,they 
are all doing it2 the veriest           
materialist among you is seeking by his 
daily activities more abundant life4    
,the young man here who feels a burning 
ambition within his heart1 a desire to  
exploit the world and make a name for   
himself1 to occupy a high station1 is   
not conscious of anything essentially   
unworthy4  ,it all depends on what he   
does with the impulse4  ,what you are   
seeking1 young man1 is more abundant    
life1 and that is equivalent to seeking 
,god4  ,life is ,god4 ,every good and   
every perfect gift is from above1 and   
cometh down from the ,father of lights4 
,and when the tendency goes round and   
works havoc and ruin in the world1 it   
still remains a quest for ,god1 although
 a blundering one4  ,it is a misuse of  
divine energy4  ,the man who got drunk  
last night and gratified his lower      
nature in that delirious hour would be  
surprised if you were to tell him when  

you see the result that he was really   
seeking ,god1 but so it is4  ,he wants  
life1 and thinks he can get it this way4
  ,this is the reason why morbid        
excitement and the craving for amusement
 have such power in human lives to-day4 
,your rou in ,piccadilly who went out to
 destroy innocence was seeking life     
while spreading death4  ,it seems almost
 blasphemy to say it1 but he was seeking
 ,god and thinking--,o woful            
blunder6--that he would find ,him by    
destroying something that ,god has made 
beautiful and fair4  ,so with all acts  
of selfish gratification of which men   
are capable--they are the turning of the
 current of divine energy the wrong way1
 and seeking self-gratification at the  
expense of something else that ,god has 
made4 ,it is a failure to see that we   
only obtain life by giving life4  ,when 
an engine goes off the line there is a  
smash1 as a rule1 and the greater the   
power that was driving the engine1 the  
worse is the wreck when it leaves the   

line4  ,the lightning directed rightly  
becomes the luminant by which we look on
 each other's faces to-night4  ,that    
same power might have brought havoc and 
destruction if it had not been harnessed
 in the service of man4  ,and so with   
the power that ,god has given you2 all  
desire for self-expression1 all seeking 
of which you are conscious for larger   
and better and richer life1 is          
,god-given2 but it may mean ruin and    
destruction unless you see that it is   
yours1 not that you may draw inward1 but
 that you may give outward1 yours not to
 keep and hold1 but yours wherewith to  
bless mankind4  ,sin is the tendency to 
keep for self that which was meant for  
the world4  ,the wages of sin is death1 
the death of soul4  ,he who is guilty of
 sin is guilty of soul murder4  ,all    
they that hate ,me love death1 and he   
that spreads pain and ruin over other   
lives in the gratification of his own   
lower instincts is using something which
 is ,god-given--yea1 which is           

essentially ,god's own life--in the     
wrong way4  ,the only hope for him is to
 realise that no act of sin was ever yet
 worth while1 that it does punish       
itself1 must punish itself1 for it      
shrivels and fetters the soul4  ,no     
eleventh-hour repentance will ever save 
you1 and no cowardly cry for relief will
 ever bring ,god's forgiveness into your
 soul1 until you have realised that sin 
and selfishness are one1 and that what  
you have failed to give forth of love   
and service represents the measure of   
your soul poverty4   ,even at the risk  
of prolixity and repetition ,i have     
thought it right to insert these lengthy
 extracts from sermons which have been  
animadverted upon4  ,my readers will be 
able to judge of the fairness of the    
criticism which1 by abstracting a few   
lines1 strove to make it appear that my 
teaching denied the reality of sin4     
,here are the actual words seen in their
 proper setting4  ,if one were on the   
lookout for a good illustration of the  

sinfulness of sin1 perhaps the          
controversial methods of the editor of  
the ,british ,weekly might furnish it4  
,this kind of criticism is on a par with
 that of the gentleman who once startled
 an audience by declaring1 ,the ,bible  
says there is no ,god4 ,he was right1 of
 course1 if it be legitimate to suppress
 the former part of the passage1 ,the   
fool hath said in his heart there is no 
,god4  ,it is time we had done with     
unreal talk about sin4  ,sin is the     
murder spirit in human experience4      
,whosoever hateth his brother is a      
murderer4  ,if a man say1 ,i love ,god1 
and hateth his brother1 he is a liar3   
for he that loveth not his brother whom 
he hath seen1 how can he love ,god whom 
he hath not seen8  ,strong language1 but
 ,i suppose the man who first used it   
must have known what he was talking     
about4 ,pomposity is sin1 because it is 
egoism2 self-complacency and            
contemptuousness are sin for the same   
reason4  ,cupidity is sin whether in a  

burglar or a ,doctor of ,divinity4  ,a  
bitter1 grasping1 cruel1 unsympathetic  
spirit is sin1 no matter who shows it4  
,the scribe and the ,pharisee are too   
much with us1 and the religious ideal   
needs to be rescued from their blighting
 grasp to-day as much as ever it did4   
,of all forms of sin an arrogant1       
malignant1 self-satisfied assumption of 
righteousness is the worst and the      
hardest to eradicate1 as ,jesus found to
 ,his cost4  ,the terrible damning lie  
which is stifling religion to-day is the
 lie which crucified ,jesus1 the lie    
that spiritual pride can ever interpret 
,god to a needy world4  ,there is       
something grimly amusing in the         
suggestion that prosperous people should
 pay for sending gospel missions to the 
poor4  ,if sin is selfishness1 the poor 
had better missionise the rich4         
,imagine how it would be if things were 
reversed in this way1 and a mission band
 of earnest slum dwellers took their    
stand in ,belgravia and began a         

house-to-house visitation1 with all the 
theological terms carefully eliminated  
from the mission leaflets they thrust   
under the doors or handed to the        
powdered footmen4 ,instead of1 ,flee    
from the wrath to come1 etc41 they might
 have3 ,don't be selfish6 it is hurting 
you and your neighbours and making you  
unhappy4  ,don't pretend6  ,it is poor  
business in the end4  ,try to do as much
 as you can for other people and you    
will know what ,god is4  ,the attempt   
would be startling and unwelcome1 but it
 would be far less impudent than the    
religious exhortations of the prosperous
 to the poor commonly are4  ,for the    
truth is that if sin is                 
selfishness1--and it is nothing         
else1--the degraded habits of people at 
the lower end of the social scale are no
 more sinful than the ordinary behaviour
 of most of their preceptors at the     
other end4  ,most of the talk about sin 
is unreal2 that is the trouble2 so      
verily the publicans and harlots go into

 the kingdom of heaven before us4  ,in  
church a man will profess himself to be 
a miserable sinner1 but if we were to   
address him in the same way out of      
church he would sue us for libel--if he 
thought we meant it4  ,for heaven's sake
 let us have done with the sham of it   
all and face the truth4  ,what mankind  
is suffering from is selfishness4 ,get  
rid of that and there would be little   
left to trouble about4  ,atonement and  
sin4--,it should now be plain why the   
doctrine of ,atonement has been so      
closely associated with the doing away  
of sin2 it is because1 as we have seen1 
the root idea of ,atonement is the      
assertion of the fundamental oneness of 
man with man and all with ,god4 ,sin is 
the divisive separating thing in our    
relations with one another1 and with    
,god the source of all1 so the assertion
 of our oneness involves getting rid of 
sin4  ,if we ask how this is to be done1
 the answer is simple enough3 the only  
way to get rid of selfishness is by the 

ministry of love4  ,what is it that is  
slowly winning the world from its       
selfishness to-day and lifting it       
gradually into the higher1 purer        
atmosphere of universal love8  ,there is
 but one thing that is doing it1 and    
that is the spirit of self-sacrifice4   
,wherever you see that1 you see the true
 ,atonement at work4  ,there can be no  
doubt about the final issue1 for behind 
the spirit of love is infinity1 whereas 
the spirit of selfishness is essentially
 finite4  ,on the field of human history
 the death of ,jesus is the focus and   
concentrated essence of this age-long   
atoning process1 whereby selfishness is 
being overcome and the whole race lifted
 up to its home in ,god4  ,until ,jesus 
came no self-offering had been so       
consistent and so complete4  ,no selfish
 desire could find lodgment in ,his pure
 soul4  ,he showed men the ideal life by
 living it ,himself1 the life which was 
perfectly at one with ,god and man4  ,in
 a selfish world that life was sure to  

end on a ,calvary of some kind1 but the 
very fact that it did so demonstrated   
the completeness of its victory over all
 considerations of self-interest4       
,selfishness lost the battle by seeming 
to gain it4  ,god was behind the life of
 ,jesus just because it was the life of 
perfect love1 the life which was a      
perfect gift to the whole1 therefore    
that life immediately arose in power in 
other lives and has gone increasing its 
benevolent sway over human hearts ever  
since4  ,this is the ,atonement and it  
is rightly associated with the cross of 
,jesus in the minds of men1 for the     
cross is the sum and centre of it all4  
,the increasing ,atonement4--,but the   
,atonement to be effective has to be    
repeated on the altar of human hearts1  
and so it is1 to a far greater extent   
than most people stop to think4  ,the   
same spirit that was in ,jesus and      
governed ,his whole career was the      
spirit of the true humanity1 ,the light 
that lighteth every man that cometh into

 the world4  ,the spirit of ,jesus was  
the spirit of ,christ1 the ideal or     
divine manhood as it exists eternally in
 ,god4  ,but that ideal or divine       
manhood1 that ,christ nature1 is also   
potentially present in every human      
being4  ,what needs to be done is to get
 it manifested or brought forth into    
conscious activity4  ,the immediate     
effect of the life and death of ,jesus  
upon ,his followers was to make them    
more or less like ,him1 and to fill them
 with a similar desire to get men to    
live the life of love which is the life 
of ,god4  ,they felt themselves inspired
 by the same spirit1 the ,holy ,spirit  
of truth and love1 and exalted above all
 fear for their own safety and all      
desire to live for themselves alone4    
,they loved their ,lord so much that    
their lives became one with ,his in the 
work of saving the world4  ,they could  
see no difference between serving their 
,master and serving mankind4  ,this love
 force of theirs1 this intense loyalty  

to ,jesus1 was1 and still is1 the       
redeeming thing in the life of mankind4 
,there is not and never has been any    
other ,atonement4 ,the divine power that
 is breaking down selfishness1 and      
transforming human desires in accordance
 with the eternal truth of things1 is   
the spirit of self-sacrificing love4    
,it is but a step from sinner to        
saviour4  ,to cease to be a sinner is   
perforce to be a saviour4  ,to escape   
from the dominion of selfishness is     
forthwith to become a power in the hand 
of ,god for the uplifting and           
ingathering of mankind to ,himself2 this
 is the ,atonement4  ,ask yourself      
whether this is not so4  ,what other    
force for good is there in the world    
to-day than the spirit which governed   
the whole life of ,jesus and rendered   
,him willing to brave the worst that    
evil could do in ,his desire to get men 
to realise the true life8  ,there is no 
other4 ,if you want to see the          
,atonement at work1 go wherever love is 

ministering to human necessity and you  
see the very same spirit which was in   
,jesus1 the spirit which heals and      
saves4  ,dogma is doing nothing to save 
the world2 the gospel of self-sacrifice 
is doing everything4 ,show me a         
,christlike life and ,i will show you a 
part of the ,atonement of ,christ4      
,show me a noble deed and ,i will show  
you something worthy of ,jesus4  ,his   
self-offering1 and the love and devotion
 it awoke in human hearts1 are a        
perpetual sacrifice1 a cumulative       
assertion that in the presence of need  
love can never do anything other than   
give itself until the need is supplied  
and love is all in all4  ,there is even 
a possibility of substitution here4     
,vicarious suffering willingly accepted 
becomes irresistible in the long run as 
a means of lifting a transgressor out of
 the mire of selfishness4  ,many a noble
 wife has saved her husband by remaining
 at his side and patiently accepting the
 disabilities caused by his wrong-doing4

  ,it is even possible in such a case   
for the saviour to bear more than the   
sinner1 and for the sinner to be        
relieved of some of the consequences of 
his sin2 he would have to suffer more if
 there were no loving helper to stand by
 him4  ,but to speak of one as bearing  
another's punishment is untrue2 such a  
thing cannot be4  ,all that love can do 
is to share to the uttermost in the     
painful consequences of sin and by so   
doing break their power  ,what other    
,atonement is needed than this8  ,it    
requires no defence1 and a child could  
understand it4  ,everyone already       
believes in it1 whether he stops to     
think about it or not4  ,while ,i am    
writing these words a fierce storm is   
raging outside4  ,this is the second day
 we have had of it1 and there seems     
likely to be some loss of life on the   
dangerous rocks outside the bar which   
forms the entrance to the bay below4  ,a
 visitor has just been telling me of a  
wilder storm in this same bay some years

 ago1 and of which he says to-day's gale
 reminds him4  ,on that previous        
occasion three ships were wrecked       
together within a few yards of this     
house4  ,it must have been a dreadful1  
awe-inspiring scene4  ,no boat could    
live on the surf1 so every survivor had 
to be dragged ashore with ropes fastened
 to the cliffs and hauled by willing    
hands4  ,hundreds of townspeople and    
fisher folk came pouring over from ,st4 
,ives and all the hamlets round about in
 order to take part in the work of      
rescue4  ,according to my informant the 
scene was enough to stir any heart1 and 
even grown men were crying with         
excitement and compassion as some of the
 poor fellows in the rigging of the     
doomed vessels were washed away before  
they could be got ashore4  ,the few who 
were actually snatched from the jaws of 
death found no lack of willing helpers  
as one by one they were passed          
insensible into the kind keeping of the 
many who stood waiting for an           

opportunity to be of service4  ,no one  
grudged anything2 every home and every  
bed would have been cheerfully placed at
 the disposal of the shipwrecked        
mariners if they had been wanted4       
,brave women1 the wives and daughters of
 men who were risking their lives on the
 sea every day1 willingly encouraged    
their husbands and sons in battling     
against the tempest in the endeavour to 
save other husbands and sons whom they  
had never seen or heard of until that   
hour of distress and need4  ,and what a 
fight it was to be sure6 ,never was a   
braver4  ,again and again these humble  
,cornish heroes dashed into the raging  
billows to grasp and guide the ropes    
that bore a flickering human life1 and  
every time they returned with their     
helpless burden a cheer went up from the
 watchers that drowned for a moment the 
violence of the blast4  ,no one thought 
of enquiring into the theology of       
saviours or survivors4  ,no doubt there 
were some among the former who were     

oftener to be found at the public-house 
bar than at church1 but no one could    
have distinguished them from the        
orthodox ,christians who fought the     
waves shoulder to shoulder beside them2 
they were there to save life1 and in    
doing so their deeper manhood shone out 
with divine splendour4  ,but the most of
 the rescuers were good sound1 earnest  
,methodists who perhaps believed1 or    
thought they believed1 in the eternal   
damnation of the unregenerate4  ,but    
what became of their doctrine in the    
face of an urgent human need and the    
call for self-sacrifice to supply that  
need8  ,it was utterly forgotten4       
,there is both humour and pathos in the 
fact that these convinced believers     
tugged and tore at the ropes1 and freely
 jeopardised their own lives in a       
magnificent endeavour to save perishing 
bodies from temporal water4 ,there is   
the truth for you1 the real ,atonement4 
,the heart creed is usually better than 
the head creed1 and in great moments    

buries the latter out of sight4  ,here  
was the spirit of ,christ1 the true and 
eternal manhood1 the spirit that seeks  
to save at its own cost4  ,here was the 
instinctive perception of the           
fundamental oneness of all life and the 
recognition that the godlike thing is to
 seek to deliver life from the clutch of
 death4  ,all men instinctively believe 
in the ,atonement4--,this is the deepest
 and truest impulse of the human heart1 
as all men already know if they would   
only trust their better nature to tell  
them what ,god wants from his children4 
,here is an explosion in a coal-mine1   
and forthwith every mother's son above  
ground volunteers to go down into the   
choke-damp to snatch his buried comrades
 from the sleep of death4  ,a few months
 ago one such disaster took place in a  
,durham colliery4  ,most of my readers  
will remember that in the newspaper     
reports of the incidents that took place
 at the pit mouth were the following3 ,a
 father who was brought to the surface  

was asked whether he lost hope during   
the long hours of his imprisonment below
 without food or light4  ,no1 was the   
reply1 for ,i knew my boy would be in   
the rescue party1 and that nothing would
 turn him back until he found his       
father1 dead or alive4  ,the suffragan  
bishop of the diocese1 along with a     
number of other clergymen and           
nonconformist ministers1 remained all   
night amid the scene of sorrow at the   
pit mouth1 doing his best to comfort the
 mourners as their loved ones were      
brought up dead4  ,as morning broke he  
mounted a heap of cinders and1 without  
making any attempt to conceal his       
emotion1 spoke a few manly words of     
brotherly exhortation and ,christian    
love to his deeply moved congregation of
 toilers and sufferers4  ,one poor      
woman1 with unconscious irony1 exclaimed
 to the bystanders3 ,he doesn't seem    
like a bishop6  ,he is just like one of 
ourselves4  ,that servant of ,god has   
never preached the ,atonement more      

effectually in all his life--by getting 
together of man and man1 and man and    
,god1 through the spirit of             
self-sacrifice4  ,he stands in the true 
apostolic succession1 the succession of 
men like ,saul of ,tarsus1 the erstwhile
 persecutor1 who1 under the inspiration 
of the love of ,jesus1 lived to say1    
,who is weak and ,i am not weak8  ,who  
is offended and ,i burn not8  ,go into  
any home where the spirit of            
self-sacrificing love is trying to do   
anything to supply a need or save a     
transgressor1 and you see the           
,atonement4  ,follow that ,salvation    
lassie to the slums1 and listen to her  
as she tries to persuade a drunken      
husband and father to give up the       
soul-destroying habit which is such a   
curse to wife and child1 and you see the
 ,atonement4  ,go with ,j4 ,keir ,hardie
 to the ,house of ,commons and listen to
 his pleading for justice to his order  
and you see the ,atonement4  ,hear the  
prayer of mother-love for the erring1   

wandering son1 and you have the         
,atonement4  ,see that grey-haired      
father patiently pleading with selfish1 
hot-headed youth1 or yielding up his own
 hard-won possessions to pay the        
gambler's debts and save the family     
name1 and you have the ,atonement4      
,nothing can stir the human heart so    
much4  ,all the great deeds of history  
derived their inspiration from it2 all  
the little heroisms of our common       
everyday life are the declaration of it4
  ,there is not a single one of all our 
thoughts and activities but has some    
relation to it2 we are either living for
 ourselves individually and separately  
or we are living for the whole4 ,if the 
former1 we are the servants of sin2 if  
the latter1 our lives are already part  
of the ,atonement4  ,jesus and the      
,atonement4--,it is easy to see how much
 the world owes to ,jesus in this       
regard4  ,i cannot tell what the world  
might have been if there had never been 
a ,jesus1 but certain it is that the    

sacrificial life and death of ,jesus    
have meant the inpouring of a spirit    
into human affairs such as had never    
been known in the same degree before4   
,here for the first time men saw a      
perfect manifestation of the life that  
is life indeed1 the life that pleased   
not itself1 the life that entered into  
and shared human disabilities as though 
they were its very own1 the life that in
 the presence of selfishness must       
inevitably become sacrifice1 the life of
 ,atonement4  ,in a sinful world that   
life had to come to a ,calvary1 but in  
so doing in refusing to shield and save 
itself it became the greatest moral     
power and the greatest revelation of    
,god that the world has ever known4     
,what we succeed in doing some of the   
time1 ,jesus did all the time2 when all 
men are able to do it all the time the  
,atonement will have become complete and
 love divine shall be all in all4  ,thou
 hast conquered1 ,o ,galilean6 cried    
,julian the apostate2 and ,christian    

faith can reverently add--    ,jesus is 
worthy to receive   ,honour and power   
divine2   ,and blessings more than we   
can give   ,be1 ,lord1 forever thine4   
,faith in ,jesus is faith in the        
,atonement and faith in our own         
,christhood4  ,it means the upraising of
 the true life1 the eternal life1 within
 our own souls4  ,until ,his spirit     
becomes our spirit1 ,his ,atonement has 
done nothing for us1 and when it does   
we1 like ,him1 become saviours of the   
race4  ,it must be so1 for the spirit of
 love is the same both in ,god and man2 
in the presence of need1 no matter what 
the need may be1 that spirit must       
continue to give itself without stint   
until the need is supplied and all that 
would tend to separate between the      
individual soul and the eternal perfect 
whole is done away4  ,but then1 someone 
will say1 what has the death of ,jesus  
effected in the unseen so as to make it 
possible for ,god to forgive us8        
,nothing whatever1 and nothing was ever 

needed4  ,god is not a fiend but a      
,father1 the source and sustenance of   
our being and the goal of all our       
aspirations4  ,why should we require to 
be saved from ,him8  ,divine            
satisfaction in ,atonement4--,but in    
what sense is the death of ,jesus a     
satisfaction to the ,father8  ,in no    
sense at all1 except that the sacrifice 
of ,jesus is the highest expression of  
the innermost of ,god that has ever been
 made4  ,if it affords an artist        
satisfaction to express himself in a    
beautiful picture1 or a great thinker to
 express his noble thought in a book1   
surely the highest satisfaction that    
,god can know must be his               
self-expression in the self-sacrifice of
 his children4  ,at its best1 the       
intensest joy that can be known is the  
joy of giving one's self for the good of
 the whole4  ,in everything grand and   
good in human thought and achievement   
,god is doing just this4  ,it is the    
satisfaction he receives from the       

,atonement and the only one4            
,,chapter ,,xi  ,,the ,,authority ,,of  
,,scripture  ,atonement and ,new        
,testament language4--,it will have been
 observed that in my examination of the 
subject of the ,atonement ,i have said  
almost nothing about the ,new ,testament
 evidence for the doctrine4 ,this1 ,i   
admit1 is an entire departure from the  
method usually followed by those who    
write upon it1 and may be thought by    
some to vitiate my whole argument4  ,but
 the omission is of set purpose1 for ,i 
am convinced that ,new ,testament       
language about the ,atonement1          
especially the language of ,st4 ,paul1  
has been1 and still is1 the prolific    
source of most of the mischievous       
misinterpretations of it which exist in 
the religious mind4  ,to an extent this 
is the same with the ,old ,testament1   
but to a far less degree1 for the       
language of the ,old ,testament is only 
liable to misapprehension when          
interpreted by the ,new4  ,in a previous

 chapter ,i have endeavoured to show the
 imperishable truths which underlie ,old
 ,testament symbolism in regard to the  
,atonement1 and ,i trust ,i have shown  
that these truths are as fresh and      
indispensable to-day1 and play as great 
a part in human affairs as they ever    
did4 ,but before ,i proceed to say      
anything about the ,new ,testament      
symbolism1 which has been largely       
derived from the ,old1 let us consider  
the question of the authority of        
scripture as a whole4  ,tendency to bow 
to external authority4--,there is always
 a tendency in the ordinary mind to rely
 upon some form of external authority in
 religious as in other matters4  ,with  
one man it is the authority of an       
infallible church2 with another the     
authority of an infallible book2 with   
another the authority of some infallible
 statement of belief which ought to hold
 good for all time1 but never does4  ,at
 the best1 external authority is only a 
crutch1 and at the worst it may become a

 rigid fetter upon the expanding soul4  
,the true seat of authority is within1  
not without1 the human soul4  ,we are so
 constituted as to be able to recognise1
 little by little1 the truth of ,god as 
it comes to us4  ,it may come from any  
one of a thousand different quarters1   
but to be recognised and felt as truth  
it must awaken an echo within the       
individual soul4  ,if it does not awaken
 such a response1 it is of no effect so 
far as the growth of the soul is        
concerned4  ,what is true in this book  
will not be received as true by the     
readers merely because ,i say it1 but   
because they feel it to be true and     
cannot get away from it4  ,why should we
 be afraid of trusting the human soul to
 recognise and respond to its own truth8
  ,all truth is one1 and all earnest    
truth-seekers are converging upon one   
goal4  ,it is the divine self within    
everyone of us which enables us to      
discern the truth best fitted to our    
needs1 and this divine self is1 as has  

already been pointed out1 fundamentally 
one with the source of all truth1 which 
is ,god4  ,if men could only come to see
 this more clearly and to trust their   
own divine nature to enable them to     
follow and express the truth as well as 
to receive it1 they would not suffer    
themselves to be hampered by formal and 
literal statements of belief whether in 
the church1 the ,bible1 or anywhere     
else4  ,but this is what they seldom do4
  ,your devout ,anglican or ,roman      
,catholic will tell you that the church 
teaches this or the church teaches that3
 as though that fact ever permanently   
settled anything4  ,one cannot really   
begin to appreciate the value of united 
continuous church testimony until one is
 able to stand apart from it1 so to     
speak1 and ask whether it rings true to 
the reason and the moral sense4         
,suppose the ,christian church enjoined 
or permitted rape and murder1 would the 
devout ,catholic believe and obey8  ,but
 it is inconceivable that the church    

could ever do that1 he might answer4    
,yes1 but suppose it did1 would he obey8
  ,if not1 why not8  ,he would not obey 
because he would know quite well that   
the higher law within his heart would   
forbid and render impossible any such   
obedience4  ,that is all the answer ,i  
want4  ,why should we not apply it all  
the way round8 ,the real test of truth  
is to be found in the response it       
awakens within the soul4  ,the supposed 
authority of the letter a great         
hindrance to truth4--,now one of the    
greatest stumbling-blocks in the way of 
many devout and intelligent minds to-day
 is that of the supposed binding        
authority of the letter of scripture4   
,when a good man hears some inspiring or
 common-sense statement of truth1--for  
instance1 that of universal             
salvation1--he often replies in some    
such way as the following3 ,yes1 ,i know
 it seems very plausible1 and my heart  
desires to believe it2 but then1 you    
know1 it says in the scripture1 ',these 

shall go away into everlasting          
punishment1 but the righteousness into  
life eternal4'  ,i cannot get behind    
that4  ,he will go on stringing         
together1 passage after passage1 often  
without the slightest suspicion that the
 original meaning had nothing whatever  
to do with the subject under discussion2
 as1 for example1 that well-known       
sentence in ,ezekiel1 ,the soul that    
sinneth1 it shall die4  ,whatever       
,ezekiel originally meant by that       
saying1--and it is well worth           
examination1--he was not thinking of a  
modern revival meeting4  ,the plain1    
average1 level-headed business man of   
religious temperament will sometimes    
bother himself in this way until he     
thinks of giving up religion altogether4
  ,the letter of scripture often seems  
to say one thing and the ,christlike    
human heart another4  ,take1 as one     
example out of many1 that pungent       
passage in ,psalm cxxxvii1 ,happy shall 
he be that taketh and dasheth thy little

 ones against the stones4  ,that passage
 does not breathe the spirit of ,jesus1 
nor is it true to the best in human     
nature2 no follower of ,jesus wants to  
see a little one dashed against a stone4
  ,but even to do justice to a passage  
of this kind we have to get into        
intellectual and moral sympathy with the
 man who wrote it4  ,it was written by  
one of the poor ,jewish prisoners       
carried away captive into ,babylon by   
,nebuchadnezzar six centuries or more   
before ,jesus was born4  ,try and       
picture the scene4  ,across eight       
hundred miles of desert that melancholy 
procession winds its way1 leaving the   
highland home behind and going into     
slavery in the cruel city of the plain4 
,one by one the weakest fall and die2   
and where a baby is left without a      
mother1 or the mother cannot walk with  
the weight of the helpless child1 the   
cruel ,babylonian ruffians riding at the
 side will snatch it from the anguished 
bosom and dash its brains out against   

the rocks4  ,should we be likely to     
forget that if we had ever formed part  
of such a procession of prisoners of    
war8  ,hence when ,psalm cxxxvii came to
 be written by some poor suffering      
father who had lost maybe both wife and 
child1 he gave vent to his feelings in  
one of the most plaintive patriotic     
songs ever sung3--   ,by the rivers of  
,babylon1 there we sat down--yea1 we    
wept when we remembered ,zion4  ,we     
hanged our harps upon the willows in the
 midst thereof1 for there they that     
carried us away captive required of us a
 song2 and they that wasted us required 
of us mirth1 saying1 ,sing us one of the
 songs of ,zion4  ,how shall we sing the
 ,lord's song in a strange land8  ,if ,i
 forget thee1 ,o ,jerusalem1 let my     
right hand forget her cunning4444  ,o   
daughter of ,babylon1 who art to be     
destroyed2 happy shall he be that       
rewardeth thee as thou hast served us4  
,happy shall he be that taketh and      
dasheth thy little ones against the     

stones6   ,one can feel deep sympathy   
with this unknown poet and his suffering
 people without adopting the absurd view
 that this passage represents ,god's    
word to our souls4  ,it is a cry of     
suffering mingled with a desire for     
vengeance1 and that is all4  ,but when a
 preacher declares that he takes his    
stand and bases his gospel on the       
infallible ,book1 he is either a fool   
or--a rhetorician4  ,belief in the      
infallible ,book impossible4--,there are
 many good people who maintain that they
 believe the ,bible from cover to cover1
 and they seem to think that this is    
something to be proud of4  ,but they    
credit themselves with an impossible    
feat2 no one can believe contradictions1
 in the sense of accepting them1 whether
 intellectual or moral4  ,the very same 
people who will read with unction the   
most sanguinary exhortations from       
scripture are usually people who        
themselves would not hurt a fly4  ,the  
,bible is not like a parliamentary blue 

book1 an exact and literal statement of 
facts2 it represents for the most part  
what earnest men belonging to a         
particular nationality in a bygone age  
thought about life in relation to ,god4 
,many good people talk as though the    
,bible were written by the finger of    
,god ,himself and let down from heaven2 
on the other hand there are those who   
think that when they have shown the     
inconsistencies of scripture1 they have 
destroyed its value4 ,but they are both 
mistaken4  ,the ,bible is not one book1 
but a collection of books1 a slow growth
 extending over centuries4  ,it has come
 to be reverenced not because of any    
supernormal attestations of its         
authority1 but because we have found it 
helps us more than any other book4  ,the
 fact that the best part of it was      
written by good and serious men1 men who
 were living for the highest they were  
able to see1 does not necessarily give  
binding authority to the opinions of    
these men4  ,i question whether we      

should ever have heard of the ,old      
,testament if it had not been for       
,jesus1 and the ,new is only a statement
 of what some good men thought about    
,jesus and his gospel at the beginning  
of ,christian history4  ,jesus knew and 
loved the ,old ,testament scriptures1   
but whenever ,he found a statement      
therein that jarred upon ,his moral     
sense1 ,he rejected it in the name of   
the higher truth declared by the ,spirit
 of ,truth within ,his own soul3 ,ye    
have heard that it was said by them of  
old time1 ,thou shalt not kill2 and     
whosoever shall kill shall be in danger 
of the judgment4  ,but ,i say unto you  
that whosoever is angry with his brother
 without a cause--and even without a    
cause seems to have been interpolated in
 later days--shall be in danger of the  
judgment4  ,again ye have heard that it 
hath been said by them of old time1     
,thou shalt not forswear thyself1 but   
shalt perform unto the ,lord thine      
oaths4  ,but ,i say unto you1 ,swear not

 at all1 neither by the heavens1 for it 
is ,god's throne1 nor by the earth1 for 
it is ,his footstool4  ,let your        
communication be ,yea1 yea1 nay1 nay2   
for whatsoever is more than these cometh
 of evil4  ,ye hath heard that it hath  
been said1 ,thou shalt love thine       
neighbour and hate thine enemy3 but ,i  
say unto you1 ,love your enemies1 bless 
them that curse you1 do good to them    
that hate you1 and pray for them that   
despitefully use you and persecute you4 
,jesus knew what ,he was doing4  ,in all
 these instances ,he was quoting from   
the ,old ,testament1 and deliberately   
superseding in the name of truth certain
 prescriptions of the very law which ,he
 said ,he had come to fulfil4  ,everyone
 was taken by surprise at ,his daring to
 do this4  ,matthew vii4 #bh1 #bi1 says1
 ,and it came to pass1 when ,jesus had  
ended these sayings1 that the people    
were astonished at ,his teaching2 for   
,he taught them as one having 7in       
,himself7 authority1 and not as the     

scribes4  ,no doubt some people would   
say to-day that this authority came from
 ,his ,godhead4  ,but the people on the 
hillsides of ,galilee knew nothing about
 the ,godhead of ,jesus4  ,to them ,he  
was a heaven-sent teacher1 a great and  
inspiring master1 whose words carried   
weight4  ,his authority1 therefore1 must
 have been self-evident in              
contradistinction to that of the        
scribes1 who always began their         
discourses by saying1 ,it is written4   
,they never seem to have thought of     
appealing to anything else than the     
authority of the letter4  ,but we see   
that ,jesus1 notwithstanding ,his       
reverence for the scripture1 handled it 
with perfect freedom4  ,his authority   
was that of the ,spirit of ,god speaking
 within ,his own soul1 the only         
authority that has ever mattered in the 
history of religious thought4 ,he did   
not deny the authority of ,scripture1   
but ,he claimed to be able to see when  
it rang true to ,his own inner          

experience and when it did not4  ,the   
true seat of authority4--,if we could   
grasp this principle clearly and        
strongly1 it would give us a new and    
higher sense of freedom and of          
confidence in the word of ,god as       
declared in the ,bible and revealed in  
human hearts4  ,god has never stopped   
speaking to men4  ,he speaks through us 
collectively and individually4  ,the    
word is very nigh unto thee1 in thy     
mouth and in thine heart1 that thou     
mayest do it4  ,if we are only in       
earnest to listen for the divine voice  
and to trust it when we hear it1 we     
shall not listen in vain4  ,to realise  
that ,god is speaking to us just as ,he 
spoke to earnest souls in the days of   
old will send us to the sacred          
scriptures with an even greater         
appreciation and reverence for the men  
of whose experience they are the        
expression4 ,but they will no longer    
bind us2 they can only help and         
encourage us4 ,we shall feel that these 

men of faith of an earlier day and a    
different race were our brothers after  
all1 men who lived a life much like our 
own1 and who were trying to understand  
,god as we are trying to understand     
,him4  ,the ,bible is not infallible for
 the simple reason that the human       
nature1 even of wise and great men1 is  
not infallible4  ,it helps us because   
these men were struggling with the same 
problems as ourselves1 and therefore    
what they have to say about them is     
valuable4 ,but the best of them had     
their limitations and shortcomings4     
,they did not know all the truth that   
was to be known1 but they kept their    
faces to the light4  ,if we allow       
ourselves to be fettered by their actual
 words1 we shall be in danger of losing 
sympathy with them in the spirit which  
animated those words4  ,we are writing a
 ,bible with our own lives to-day1 a    
,bible which may never be read in its   
fulness by human eyes1 but every letter 
of which is known and read in heaven4   

,every noble life is a word of ,god to  
the world2 every brave1 unselfish deed  
is a ray of eternal truth4  ,our        
characters ought to become living       
epistles known and read of all men while
 we strive to express the best that ,god
 has given us to see2 for the same      
eternal ,spirit of ,truth1 the ,spirit  
who has been the teacher of all the     
,elijahs1 ,isaiahs1 and ,pauls of       
history is with us to-day as ,he was    
with them4  ,the unity of truth4--,but1 
someone will remonstrate1 ,what then are
 we to believe8  ,for by speaking in    
this way you erect as many standards of 
truth as there are individuals4  ,what  
the ordinary man wants is to be told    
just what to believe1 so that he can    
settle down and be at rest4 ,it is small
 comfort to tell him that every         
scripture statement may be more or less 
fallible1 and that he must trust to his 
own perception1 or perhaps to his own   
fancies1 as to what is true4  ,i know   
all that kind of argument4  ,it is as   

old as1 or older than1 ,christianity    
itself4  ,it was used in all sincerity  
against ,jesus by some earnest people of
 ,his time4  ,it was used again at the  
,reformation4  ,it is still used by     
sacerdotal controversialists1 and looks 
very plausible on the face of it4  ,a   
devout and earnest ,roman ,catholic will
 tell you that in ,protestantism there  
are a thousand different creeds1 all    
claiming to be authoritative1 and that  
the principle of private judgment can   
only lead to intellectual and moral     
chaos4  ,your ,protestant literalist    
will tell you that the ,romanist        
criticism has a good deal in it1 and    
that you must have a final standard of  
authority1 either the infallible church1
 the infallible ,book1 or the infallible
 ,confession of ,faith4  ,but           
notwithstanding the dogmatists the      
supposed infallible ,confession of      
,faith is almost universally            
discredited1 and common honesty is      
compelling ,protestants to abandon the  

theory of an infallible ,book4 ,the     
supposed infallible church has by no    
means been invariably self-consistent4  
,besides1 the important point is this2  
no man really believes or can believe a 
thing until it becomes1 so to speak1    
part of himself4  ,holding propositions 
is not necessarily believing them1 no   
matter how tenaciously they may be      
adhered to4  ,but all truth is really   
one and the same4  ,i may be unable to  
take exactly my neighbour's point of    
view about some aspects of it1 but if we
 are both in earnest and faithful to    
what we have seen1 we shall arrive in   
the end at the same goal4  ,religious   
thinkers and teachers are never really  
so far apart as seems to be the case4   
,it is in the expression of the truth   
that they differ1 not in the truth      
itself4  ,language is never more than   
approximately convenient expression of  
the reality it is meant to declare4     
,the man of the future will realise this
 better than the man of the present or  

the past4  ,he will replace all external
 authority by the principle of spiritual
 autonomy4  ,he will no longer be afraid
 of trusting the human spirit to        
recognise and respond to truth from     
whatsoever source it may come1 for he   
will know that that spirit is one with  
the universal ,spirit of all ,truth1 and
 needs not to look beyond itself for    
anything stronger or more divine4  ,he  
will know that the ,spirit of ,truth in 
himself is the ,spirit of ,truth in all 
men1 and that therefore in the end all  
men must know1 and be1 and do the       
,truth4  ,the ,new ,testament and the   
,atonement4--,now let us apply this     
principle to the ,new ,testament        
writings about the redeeming work of    
,jesus4  ,the same principle1 of course1
 would apply to anything that the ,new  
,testament has to say about the gospel  
of ,jesus1 but perhaps the failure to   
recognise it has done more mischief in  
connection with the doctrine of         
,atonement than in anything else4  ,at  

present ,paul's opinion on this great   
subject is by many people supposed to be
 decisive3 ,paul says this1 and ,paul   
says that1 and when ,paul has spoken1   
there is no more to be said4  ,but why  
should it be so8  ,paul's opinion is    
simply ,paul's opinion1 and not         
necessarily a complete and adequate     
statement of truth4  ,it is entitled to 
be considered weighty because it is the 
utterance of a great man1 and a great   
seer of truth1 as well as being the     
earliest writing on the subject which we
 possess4  ,any man of the moral and    
intellectual eminence of ,paul is       
entitled to reverence when he speaks1   
whether his views are in the ,bible or  
not4  ,it is one of the ironies of      
history that the words of this ,paul who
 strove so hard against literalism and  
legalism in his day have since come to  
be regarded as a sort of fixed and final
 authority for ,christian thought4 ,he  
would be the first to denounce it4  ,to 
him the ,spirit of ,christ operating    

within the individual soul was the true 
guide in matters of faith4  ,he even    
made a point of the fact that in        
thinking out the truth about ,jesus and 
,his gospel he had conferred not with   
flesh and blood4  ,inconsistency of ,new
 ,testament writers with one            
another4--,again1 it is somehow taken   
for granted that ,paul and all the other
 ,new ,testament writers agree together 
in their theology of the ,atonement4    
,that is quite a mistake1 and the       
curious thing is that people should have
 been so slow in finding it out4  ,it   
may be instructive to some to give a    
brief survey of the main points in      
,paul's theory of the ,atonement1 and   
compare them with some of the others4   
,the fundamental principle of its       
,atonement always the same4--,it would  
simplify our acquaintance with ,paul's  
modes of reasoning if we could recognise
 that the truth of ,atonement which he  
has to declare1 and which he associates 
so closely with the life and death of   

,jesus1 is in principle precisely the   
same as that which the writers of the   
,old ,testament had in mind4  ,what that
 was we have already seen4  ,it was the 
assertion of the fundamental oneness of 
,god and man1 and the means to it was   
the principle of self-sacrifice4  ,this 
is just what ,st4 ,paul set himself to  
proclaim to the world1 and to him the   
whole process centred in ,jesus1 just as
 it does for ,christian experience4     
,but to his presentation of the subject 
,paul almost of necessity had to bring  
the whole apparatus of his rabbinical   
training4  ,this it was which supplied  
him with the most of his figures1       
symbols1 and illustrations2 but his     
gospel was no more dependent upon these 
than--as ,i trust ,i have shown in a    
previous chapter--the ancient spiritual 
truth of ,atonement depended upon       
,semitic ritual sacrifices4  ,paul's    
thought-forms were supplied by the ,old 
,testament and his ,pharisaic education1
 just as the forms in which we          

ordinarily express our thoughts to-day  
belong to the mental atmosphere of our  
time4  ,most of the allusions in a      
,times leading article1 for example1    
would be lost upon an ,english reader   
five hundred years hence unless they    
were carefully explained4  ,to me one of
 the most remarkable things about ,jesus
 is the fact that ,he was able to escape
 so completely the mental environment of
 the time in which1 and the people among
 whom1 ,he lived ,his earthly life4     
,how ,he managed to deliver ,his        
peerless teaching while making so little
 allusion to current ,jewish modes of   
thought and worship is a mystery1 and   
marks ,his greatness as perhaps nothing 
else does4  ,it was utterly different   
with ,paul2 he spoke the language of his
 time1 and never tried to do anything   
else4  ,when1 therefore1 we want to get 
at what he meant about the death of     
,jesus1 we have first of all to get     
behind the symbolism by which he        
illustrates it1 and even when we have   

done this we have to make allowance for 
some limiting ,pharisaic conceptions    
about justice and the punishment of sin4
  ,every now and then he breaks through 
these and rises into a rarer1 purer     
region without troubling about          
consistency4 ,paul never dreamed that he
 was writing theological treatises which
 would be numbered off into chapters and
 verses and lectured upon in class      
rooms1 or perhaps he would have been    
more careful about being exact4  ,how   
many of us could afford to have our     
letters1 written at different times and 
to different readers1 analysed and      
dissected and taken as a full and       
permanent statement of our thought upon 
any particular subject or group of      
subjects8  ,paul's view of the death of 
the ,saviour and the forgiveness of     
sins4--,the first important thing to be 
noted in ,paul's thought about sin and  
salvation is his view that there was a  
vital connection between the death of   
the ,messiah and ,god's forgiveness of  

sins4  ,but we should be mightily       
mistaken if we were to understand this  
view to be the same as that of a modern 
evangelical who talks about the fountain
 filled with blood1 for it was quite    
different4  ,the modern evangelical1 of 
so-called orthodox opinions1 believes   
that ,jesus died to save all men from   
hell2 but this was not what ,paul was   
thinking about at all4 ,according to    
,paul1 the wages of sin were actually   
and literally death4 ,but for sin there 
would have been no death1 and to break  
the power of sin would also be to break 
the power of death4  ,but in this ,paul 
was wrong1 in company with a good many  
of his contemporaries1 and there is no  
reason why we should not frankly say so1
 for1 as we shall presently see1 the    
great apostle did not confine himself to
 the literal statement of this view1 but
 gave it also a mystical form in which  
it becomes indisputably true4  ,in his  
thought the ,messiah of ,jewish national
 expectation was the head and           

representative of the nation in its     
relation to ,god4  ,for ages men had    
been dying because of sin--in ,adam all 
die--and so when the ,sinless ,one came 
into human conditions and in the        
likeness of sinful flesh1 ,he also had  
to pass through death4  ,but there was a
 difference between ,his death and all  
other deaths in that1 being sinless1    
death could not hold ,him1 and so ,he   
rose again from the tomb triumphant over
 it4  ,his triumph then becomes         
potentially the triumph of humanity--in 
,christ shall all be made alive--if only
 we unite ourselves to ,him by faith4   
,god will remit the death penalty to all
 who are in ,christ and justified by    
faith2 that is1 we shall all rise from  
the dead as ,he rose4  ,apparently      
,paul's belief was that no one would    
ever have died but for the sin of ,adam1
 a taint which has affected all ,adam's 
descendants4  ,death in his view was    
synonymous with annihilation4  ,the next
 thing to be noticed is the juridical   

nature of ,paul's conception of the     
relationship of man and ,god4  ,god is a
 lawgiver and man a transgressor1 a     
rebel against his sovereignty4  ,in     
accordance with ,god's law of           
righteousness sin is punishable by the  
death of the whole race4  ,the wrath of 
,god is revealed from heaven against all
 ungodliness and unrighteousness of men4
  ,but when the eternal ,son of ,god1   
the head and representative of the race1
 submits to this penalty and in so doing
 acknowledges the righteousness of ,god1
 justice is satisfied4  ,if one died for
 all1 therefore all died4  ,those who   
claim by faith the benefits of          
,messiah's submission to death on behalf
 of the race are at peace with ,god4    
,henceforth they are not to live to     
themselves1 but unto ,him who died for  
them and rose again4  ,anyone who reads 
,paul's words without dogmatic prejudice
 will see that this is not the          
present-day doctrine of ,atonement4  ,it
 takes for granted certain ideas which  

were current among the ,jews of ,paul's 
day1 but which have since sunk into the 
background of ,christian thought or been
 abandoned altogether4  ,paul's use of  
them in the framing of his theology is  
ingenious but not convincing1 and was   
not essential to his gospel2 in fact the
 juridical and the ethical elements in  
,paul's teaching stand in irreconcilable
 contrast4  ,his theology is saved by   
his mysticism1 for no sooner has he     
enunciated these unbelievable           
propositions about the death penalty of 
sin1 the judicial sovereignty of ,god1  
justification by faith1 the imputed     
merits of the ,redeemer1 and such like1 
than he proceeds to use them as symbols 
to illustrate a subjective change in the
 sinner and a mystical union between the
 soul and ,christ4  ,he does this so    
beautifully that the reader can hardly  
discern where ,paul quits the region of 
literalism and takes us into that of    
mysticism4  ,hence he talks about dying 
with ,christ1 being crucified with      

,christ1 dying to sin1 and so on1       
evidently meaning that the whole        
redeeming process has to take place     
within the soul of the sinner who seeks 
,god4  ,even the conception of the      
resurrection ceases to be literal and   
becomes the uprising of the divine man  
within the human soul by faith in the   
risen ,lord4  ,if any man be in ,christ 
there is a new creation2 old things are 
passed away2 behold all things are      
become new4  ,there is therefore now no 
condemnation to them which are in       
,christ ,jesus1 who walk not after the  
flesh but after the ,spirit4 ,we see    
from these expressions that in practice 
,paul transfers the whole drama of      
redemption from without to within the   
individual soul4  ,what a pity it is    
that his interpreters in ,christian     
history have so seldom thought of doing 
the same6  ,the ,hebrews theory4--,the  
epistle to the ,hebrews belongs to quite
 a different category from the writings 
of ,st4 ,paul4  ,the dominant thought in

 this epistle is that of salvation by   
sacrifice1 a perfectly true and         
spiritual idea1 as we have already seen4
  ,the writer1 like ,paul1 employs ,old 
,testament symbolism1 but in quite a    
different way4 ,probably this is due to 
the fact that he was an ,alexandrian    
,jew whose thinking was shaped under the
 influence of ,philo1 whereas that of   
,paul was governed by the rabbinical    
schools of ,palestinian ,judaism4  ,at  
this time ,alexandria was the greatest  
intellectual centre in the world1 a     
meeting place for ,greek thought and    
,hebrew religion as represented by      
,philo4  ,the influence of ,alexandria  
is plainly to be seen in the epistle to 
the ,hebrews1 which1 possibly1 was      
written by the learned and courtly      
,apollos4  ,like ,paul1 the writer      
thinks of salvation as getting right    
with ,god and living a holy life1 but he
 omits all reference to a judicial      
penalty1 or the necessity for escaping  
annihilation by faith in the            

substitutionary work of a sinless       
,redeemer4  ,in his view ,christ is from
 first to last the priestly             
representative of the race1 making a    
sacrifice to ,god after the ,old        
,testament fashion1 but in a more       
perfect way4  ,he regards the ,old      
,testament sacrificial offerings as     
being but the types and shadows of the  
one perfect and eternal offering which  
humanity through ,christ is making to   
,god4  ,most of my readers will at once 
admit that this is not fanciful1        
although the language in which it is    
expressed is so different from our own2 
it is quite faithful to the spiritual   
meaning of ,old ,testament sacrifice4   
,when1 therefore1 this writer refers to 
the offering of the blood of ,christ1 he
 is thinking not only of ,calvary1 but  
of all that ,calvary symbolises1 the    
perfect spiritual offering of mankind to
 ,god1 the sacramental realisation of   
our oneness with ,him4  ,this view is   
not worked out with the moral intensity 

which characterises ,st4 ,paul's1 but it
 is unassailably true once we get the   
writer's point of view4  ,as a theory it
 is quite different from ,paul's1 unless
 we are content to shed ,paul's         
literalism1 get rid of all thought of an
 angry ,god and a physical death penalty
 for sin1 and betake ourselves instead  
to the inner spiritual region where     
self-sacrifice is realised to be the    
means of saving1 not only the           
individual1 but the whole race1 by      
uniting it to the source of all being4  
,the ,johannine theory4--,there is a    
certain similarity between the view of  
,atonement set forth in the epistle to  
the ,hebrews and that contained in the  
,johannine writings4  ,it is easy to    
understand why this is so when we       
recognise that both are dominated by    
,alexandrian modes of thinking4  ,these 
,johannine writings--the fourth gospel1 
the three epistles ascribed to ,st4     
,john1 and the book of ,revelation--are 
all that have come down to us of what   

was at one time1 no doubt1 a            
considerable literature4  ,how much the 
apostle ,john had to do with it cannot  
be determined with any certainty1 but it
 is clear enough that these writings are
 not all from one hand1 and that they   
are much later than the work of ,st4    
,paul4  ,the all-important conception in
 the ,johannine writings is that        
salvation is secured by the union of the
 individual soul with the eternal       
,christ1 or ,logos1 or ,divine ,man of  
pre-,christian thought and experience4  
,here again we have a perfectly true and
 necessary idea1 an idea implied in all 
spiritual experience worthy of the name2
 but as the root factor in a            
presentation of the doctrine of         
,atonement1 it differs widely from      
,paul's way of putting things4  ,when   
the ,johannine writers speak of the     
blood of ,christ1 they mean the         
outpoured1 forthgiven life of the       
eternal ,son of ,god1 the ideal         
humanity1 perfectly and centrally       

expressed in ,jesus of ,nazareth4 ,there
 is not from beginning to end a hint or 
a suggestion in these writings that a   
sinless being was tortured in order to  
appease the wrath of ,god against guilty
 ones1 or that the penalty of sin in a  
world to come will be remitted to a     
penitent sinner in consideration of his 
faith in such an arrangement4           
,underlying unity4--,this is by no means
 an exhaustive examination of ,new      
,testament teaching on the subject of   
,atonement1 but it should be sufficient 
to show two things3 first1 that the     
theories of the ,new ,testament writers 
concerning the redeeming works of       
,christ are not1 taken literally1       
mutually consistent2 secondly1 the truth
 implied in all the theories is         
precisely that truth of ,atonement which
 we have already seen to be implied in  
all religion4  ,the great thing which   
impressed the primitive ,christian      
consciousness in regard to the life and 
death of ,jesus was that this life and  

death were the most complete and        
consistent self-offering of the         
individual to the whole that had ever   
been made4  ,in this self-offering was  
the one perfect manifestation of the    
eternal ,christ1 the humanity which     
reveals the innermost of ,god1 the      
humanity which is love4  ,to partake of 
the benefits of that ,atonement we have 
to unite ourselves to it2 that is1 to   
employ the mystical language of ,st4    
,paul1 we have to die to self with      
,christ and rise with ,him into the     
experience of larger1 fuller life1 the  
life eternal4  ,it is just the same     
truth under every one of these different
 theories1 but if we persist in         
regarding them literally we shall miss  
it1 for by no kind of ingenuity can we  
square the theory of ,st4 ,paul with    
that of the other writers2 the way of   
putting it is different4  ,but once we  
see what the essential truth of         
,atonement is1 we are no longer bound by
 the intellectual symbolism of ,paul or 

,hebrews or any other authority2 we can 
get beneath the symbol to the thing     
symbolised4  ,the ,pauline principle of 
dying with ,christ1 the ,hebrews idea of
 the eternal sacrifice manifested in    
time1 the ,johannine thought about the  
outpoured life of the eternal ,christ1  
are all one and the same4  ,jesus did   
nothing for us which we are not also    
called upon to do for ourselves and one 
another in our degree4  ,faith in ,his  
atoning work means death to self that we
 may live to ,god2 as selfhood perishes 
on its ,calvary1 the ,christ1 the true  
man1 the divine reality1 in whom we are 
one with all men1 rises in power in our 
hearts and unites us to the source of   
all goodness and joy4  ,institutional1  
forensic1 external1 the ,atonement never
 has been and never will be4  ,but      
vicarious suffering1 willingly accepted1
 is the great redeeming force by which  
the world is gradually being won to its 
true life in ,god1 for vicarious        
suffering is the expression of the law  

that in a finite world the service of   
the whole involves pain1 although it is 
also the deepest joy that the human     
heart can know4  ,the sacrifice of      
,jesus is the central and ideal         
expression of this principle on the     
field of time1 but it only possesses    
meaning and value as it is repeated in  
our lives2 the ,christ has to be offered
 perpetually on the altar of human      
hearts4  ,there is no justification     
except by becoming just1 and no imputed 
righteousness which means availing      
ourselves of merits that are not ours4  
,we are justified by faith1 indeed1 but 
only in the sense that no man can become
 good without believing in goodness1 and
 no man can really believe in the       
,christ revealed in ,jesus without      
gradually becoming like ,him4  ,here is 
,atonement1 ,justification1             
,sanctification1 and all else that is   
needed to unite mankind to the life     
eternal which is to know ,god and ,jesus
 ,christ whom ,he has sent4  ,no ,old   

,testament prophecy of ,atonement of    
,jesus4--,it can hardly be necessary to 
point out that there is therefore no    
direct reference in the ,old ,testament 
to the atoning work of ,jesus4  ,all the
 beautiful passages with which we are so
 familiar1 and which have become the    
language of devotion in reference to    
such sacred seasons as ,christmas ,day  
and ,good ,friday1 can only be          
associated with ,jesus in an ideal      
sense4  ,the noble fifty-third of       
,isaiah1 for example1 and all similar   
passages about the prophetic conception 
of the suffering servant of ,god1 have1 
literally understood1 nothing whatever  
to do with ,jesus4 ,but the striking    
thing about such passages is that the   
men who wrote them were able to realise 
and express the very essence of the     
spiritual ,atonement1 the giving of the 
individual for the race4  ,the pathetic 
and inspiring description1 ,he was      
despised and rejected of men1 a man of  
sorrows and acquainted with grief1 and  

we hid as it were our faces from him1 he
 was despised and we esteemed him not4  
,surely he has borne our griefs1 and    
carried our sorrows3 yet we did esteem  
him stricken1 smitten of ,god1 and      
afflicted4  ,but he was wounded for our 
transgressions1 he was bruised for our  
iniquities3 the chastisement of our     
peace was upon him2 and with his stripes
 we are healed1 is perhaps the grandest 
presentation of the atoning life1 the   
,christ man1 that exists in literature4 
,the ideal fulfilment of it was ,jesus1 
as primitive ,christianity quickly saw2 
but had the original writer no specific 
example in mind belonging to his own day
 when he wrote8  ,to be sure he had2 the
 case of ,jeremiah would furnish it if  
no other4  ,this brave and faithful     
advocate of the moral ideal1 after      
standing alone in his resistance to the 
materialising tendencies of his time1   
was scorned and hated by his            
fellow-countrymen1 flung into prison1   
beaten1 tortured1 and probably murdered 

in the end4  ,he shared the captivity of
 the ,jews under ,nebuchadnezzar1 a     
captivity against which he had warned   
them in vain4  ,despised and rejected of
 men1 he died1 but in later days his    
name came to be reverenced as perhaps   
none had ever been before4  ,for        
centuries afterwards he was referred to 
by the returned exiles as the prophet1  
in contradistinction to all other       
prophets4 ,he had lived the atoning life
 and died a sacrificial death4  ,it was 
not wonderful that the author of the    
fifty-third of ,isaiah should have such 
a noble example in mind when he penned  
his deathless words1 but these words    
were meant to have an impersonal meaning
 too4  ,they stand as a description of  
the ideal manhood1 the true servant of  
,god1 the saviour of the race in any and
 every generation4  ,this kind of       
manhood1 just because it is the true    
manhood1 the eternal or divine manhood1 
must inevitably suffer in a selfish     
world1 but these sufferings are never in

 vain2 they are the ,calvary from which 
the eternal ,christ rises in redeeming  
might over the power of sin and death4  
,let any man ask himself what it is that
 is saving the world to-day1 and        
gradually but surely lifting it out of  
the mire of ignorance and wickedness1   
and he cannot find a better answer than 
the fifty-third of ,isaiah4  ,it tells  
of ,jesus1 but it tells also of all the 
sons of ,god who in the spirit of ,jesus
 have ever given their lives in the     
service of love4  ,when we go to the    
,bible in this common-sense way1        
entering with understanding and sympathy
 into the thoughts and aspirations of   
the men who wrote it1 it becomes a      
living book1 and a real help in our     
endeavour to live our lives in union    
with ,jesus ,christ4  ,but to regard it 
as a sort of official document written  
by the finger of ,god1 of equal         
authority in every part1 and containing 
a full and complete statement of the    
propositions we must accept in order to 

make sure of salvation1 is hampering and
 belittling to the soul4  ,god inspires 
men1 not books2 and ,he will go on      
inspiring men to the end of time1       
whether they write books or not4  ,i do 
not know anything which is such a       
serious hindrance and stumbling-block to
 spiritual religion to-day as this      
supposed authority of the letter of     
scripture4  ,if only the average        
,protestant could emancipate himself    
from this intellectual bondage1 the gain
 to truth would be immeasurable4  ,i do 
not suppose there is a single man who   
reads these words who would make light  
of the religious opinions of a pious    
mother1 but would he allow them to      
fetter him in the exercise of his own   
mature judgment8  ,but surely your own  
mother stands as near to you as men who 
wrote centuries before she was born4    
,if ,god spoke to the hearts of men     
centuries ago1 ,he can and does speak to
 them now4  ,if ,he spoke to ,isaiah1   
,he can and does speak to you4  ,if your

 mother's way of stating truth is not   
necessarily yours1 no more is ,paul's4  
,the deeper unity of the spirit forbids 
this blind obedience to the letter4     
,therefore1 knowing quite well what use 
hostile reviewers will make of this     
sentence1 ,i close by solemnly adding3  
,never mind what the ,bible says if you 
are in search for truth1 but trust the  
voice of ,god within you4  ,the ,bible  
will help you in your quest1 just as any
 good man might be able to help you2 but
 you must judge1 test1 and weigh the    
various statements it contains1 just as 
you would judge1 test1 and weigh the    
opinions of the best friend you ever    
had4  ,nothing can make up for this     
quiet and assured confidence in the     
,spirit of ,truth within your own soul4 
,if ,god is not there1 you will not find
 ,him in the ,bible or anywhere else4   
,,chapter ,,xii  ,,salvation1           
,,judgment1 ,,and ,,the ,,life ,,to     
,,come  ,the inwardness of ,salvation   
and ,judgment4--,we come now to the     

consideration of a group of subjects    
which are usually treated in quite      
separate categories4  ,i mean the       
punishment of sin1 the nature and scope 
of ,salvation1 ,resurrection and        
,ascension1 ,death1 ,judgment1 ,heaven  
and ,hell4  ,the reason why ,i feel that
 these subjects ought not to be treated 
in separate categories is because they  
are all descriptions of states of the   
soul and imply each other2 they are     
inward1 not outward1 experiences4  ,this
 statement will1 ,i trust1 become       
clearer as we proceed4  ,so far we have 
examined pretty thoroughly the nature of
 sin and its effects in the world1 but  
have said very little as to its penal   
consequences1 and yet the consideration 
of these consequences has been the      
determining factor in most of the       
theories of ,atonement1 ancient or      
modern1 which have occupied the field of
 human thought4  ,it is true1 as ,i have
 said1 that the idea of ,atonement is   
not necessarily associated with that of 

sin1 and actually precedes it both      
historically and psychologically1 but it
 cannot be gainsaid that in ,christian  
thought the desirability of finding some
 means of escaping or minimising the    
punishment of sin has tended to         
overshadow everything else in popular   
presentations of the ,atonement4  ,but  
what is the punishment of sin1 and who  
administers it8  ,what is the ,judgment 
and when does it take effect8 ,how does 
,salvation stand related to punishment  
and judgment8  ,what has ,death to do   
with the matter8  ,what are we to       
understand by ,heaven and ,hell1 and    
what is the bearing of either upon      
,salvation and ,judgment8 ,everyone     
knows how popular evangelical theology  
would answer these questions4  ,sin1 we 
are told1 will be punished in a future  
life by the committal of the impenitent 
soul to everlasting torment4  ,salvation
 is primarily a means of escaping this1 
and secondarily being conformed         
gradually to the moral likeness of the  

,saviour4  ,judgment is a grand assize1 
which will take place when the material 
world comes to an end2 ,jesus ,christ   
will be the ,judge1 and will apportion  
everlasting weal or woe1 according as   
the soul has or has not claimed the     
benefit of ,his redeeming work in time  
to profit by it4  ,death is the dividing
 line beyond which the destiny is fixed 
eternally whether we die old or young4  
,heaven is the place into which the     
redeemed enter--whether after death or  
after judgment has never been clearly   
settled--there to praise ,god eternally 
in perfect happiness2 ,hell is the place
 of never ending torment to which       
unbelievers are to be consigned4  ,now  
it does not require a very profound     
intelligence to see that popular        
theology is a mass of contradictions in 
regard to these things4 ,by eternal the 
ordinary ,christian usually means       
everlasting2 why should punishment be   
everlasting8  ,the worst sin that was   
ever sinned does not deserve everlasting

 punishment1 and ,i have never yet met  
the ,christian who would really and     
truly be willing to see a               
fellow-creature undergo it4  ,there is  
no understandable sense in which justice
 could demand such a terrible sentence1 
even if it involved no more than        
everlasting unhappiness2 how much more  
unthinkable it becomes if the punishment
 is to be everlasting1 fiendish torment6
  ,if ,salvation is first and foremost  
deliverance from this punishment1 how is
 it that it does not take effect        
immediately8  ,justice would suggest    
that it ought to do so1 for some sinners
 live a merry life until the eleventh   
hour1 and then give ,god the last snuff 
of the candle as ,father ,taylor put it1
 whereas others repent early but never  
manage1 all through a long life1 to     
escape the suffering caused by their own
 deeds in youth4  ,in some cases1 at any
 rate1 on this side of the grave1       
,salvation does not involve the least   
remission of penalty1 while in others   

apparently no penalty will ever be      
endured either on this side of death or 
on the other4  ,the poor drunkard who   
repents does not find that repentance   
gives him back his wrecked constitution1
 but the selfish1 grasping1             
cruel-hearted wrecker of homes and lives
 may just be in time with his trust in  
the finished work1 and go right home to 
glory while his victims struggle and    
suffer on amid the conditions he has    
made for them on earth4  ,curious       
justice this6  ,christian thought never 
quite consistent about ,death and       
after4--,there is no need to labour the 
point2 popular evangelical views of the 
punishment of sin are incredible when   
looked at in a common-sense way4  ,but  
they are even more chaotic on the       
subject of death and whatever follows   
death4  ,it does not seem to be         
generally recognised that ,christian    
thought has never been really clear     
concerning the ,resurrection1 especially
 in relation to future judgment4 ,one   

view has been that the deceased saint   
lies sleeping in the grave until the    
archangel's trump shall sound and bid   
all mankind awake for the great assize4 
,anyone who reads the ,new ,testament   
without prejudice will see that this was
 ,paul's earlier view1 although later on
 he changed it for another4  ,there is a
 good deal of our current1 everyday     
religious phraseology which presumes it 
still--    ,father1 in thy gracious     
keeping   ,leave we now thy servant     
sleeping4  ,but alongside this view     
another which is a flagrant             
contradiction of it has come down to us1
 namely1 that immediately after death   
the soul goes straight to heaven or     
hell1 as the case may be1 without       
waiting for the archangel's trump and   
the grand assize4  ,on the whole this is
 the dominant theory of the situation in
 ,protestant circles1 and is much less  
reasonable than the ,catholic doctrine  
of purgatory1 however much the latter   
may have been abused4  ,but under this  

view what is the exact significance of  
the ,judgment ,day and the physical     
,resurrection8  ,one would think they   
might be accounted superfluous4  ,what  
is the good of tormenting a soul in hell
 for ages and then whirling it back to  
the body in order to rise again and     
receive a solemn public condemnation8   
,better leave it in the ,inferno and    
save trouble1 especially as the solemn  
trial is meaningless1 seeing that a part
 of the sentence has already been       
undergone1 and that there is no hope    
that any portion of it will ever be     
remitted4  ,truly the tender mercies    
with which theologians have credited the
 ,almighty are cruel indeed6  ,it is    
difficult to speak with patience of the 
solemn1 non-committal way in which many 
present-day theological writers discuss 
everlasting punishment4  ,many of them  
have an open mind on the subject1       
whatever that may be1 and warn the rest 
of us not to dogmatise on the great     
mystery4  ,it does not seem to occur to 

them that the ,christian fundamental of 
the love of ,god renders the dogma of   
everlasting punishment impossible1 for  
it implies that ,god will do the most   
for the being that needs the most1 and  
surely that must be the most unhappy    
sinner4  ,others speak of a larger hope1
 a second opportunity for accepting     
divine grace1 and so on4  ,but these    
theories do not meet the case at all4   
,while sin remains in the universe1 ,god
 is defeated2 everlasting punishment    
involves ,his everlasting failure4  ,how
 often we bear preachers speaking about 
the obdurate human will1 which to all   
eternity may go on resisting good4      
,there are not a few who defend the     
abstract possibility of everlasting     
punishment by insisting that it is      
impossible to coerce the will1 and      
therefore that to endless ages a soul   
may go on choosing evil and rejecting   
good4  ,but this is an entirely new     
argument2 it implies that a sinner might
 choose the good on the other side of   

death1 and that if he does not he       
continues eternally to pass sentence    
upon himself1 ,god being helpless in the
 matter4  ,this is not the way in which 
advocates of everlasting punishment used
 to talk4  ,it is a little more hopeful 
than the conventional dogma1 for it     
makes the sinner to some extent his own 
judge and executioner1 and places stress
 on the undoubted truth that if a man   
keeps on doing wrong things he becomes  
hardened4  ,i have heard this view      
defended in private by a bishop1 who    
apparently never saw that in adopting it
 he had given up entirely the orthodox  
,protestant view that there is no chance
 for a man after death1 and that the    
thing which determines our post-mortem  
destiny is not our conduct1 but our     
belief4  ,repentance at the eleventh    
hour1 however bad the previous life may 
have been1 is1 according to the theology
 of this particular bishop1 enough to   
secure admission to heaven4  ,if1       
therefore1 a power of eternally choosing

 evil remains on the further side of the
 great change1 surely there is some hope
 that that power might not continue to  
be exercised4  ,but if not1 what becomes
 of the whole fabric of popular         
,protestant theology concerning the plan
 of salvation1 the ,judgment ,day1 and  
the atoning merits of the ,redeemer8    
,no1 this kind of incoherent            
theologising will not do4  ,no one      
really believes it1 and the churches    
will have to give up professing to      
believe it4  ,in our ordinary everyday  
concerns we take quite a different view 
for granted all the time1 the view that 
,whatsoever a man soweth that shall he  
also reap4  ,the harvest may be long in 
coming1 but it comes at last4  ,neither 
do we choose our friends on account of  
their chances of heaven or hell4  ,we   
like or dislike a man because he        
deserves to be liked or disliked1 and   
not because he believes something that  
will get him into heaven4  ,neither1    
thank ,god1 do we want to see even the  

wicked left to the consequences of their
 wickedness2 we want to see them helped 
to live differently1 and it is hardly   
probable that this impulse of our better
 humanity will change after death4      
,love cannot be false to itself2 in the 
presence of need it must of necessity   
keep on giving itself until the need is 
satisfied and the victory won4  ,but if 
popular theology concerning the last    
things is untrue1 or at least misleading
 and inadequate1 what is the truth8  ,do
 we want a different set of terms or    
not8  ,i think not1 but we want a       
different perspective4  ,these terms    
ought to be construed as states of the  
soul1 rather than as external           
conditions4  ,let me try to explain what
 ,i mean4  ,the true ,salvation4--,in   
the first place if sin is selfishness1  
salvation must consist in ceasing to be 
selfish1 that is1 it represents the     
victory of love in the human heart4     
,this may be represented as the uprising
 of the deeper self1 the true man1 the  

,christ man in the experience of the    
penitent4  ,we may even go so far as to 
say that this can come about1 and does  
come about1 without any strongly marked 
feelings of contrition or sudden change 
of attitude4  ,wherever you see a man   
trying to do something for the common   
good1 you see the uprising of the spirit
 of ,christ2 what he is doing is a part 
of the ,atonement4 ,in church or out of 
church1 with or without a formal creed1 
this is the true way in which the       
redemption of the world is proceeding4  
,every man who is trying to live so as  
to make his life a blessing to the world
 is being saved himself in the process1 
saved by becoming a saviour4 ,ordinary  
observation ought to tell us that untold
 thousands of our fellow-beings1 even   
among those who never dream of going to 
church1 are being saved in this way4    
,this is the true way to look at the    
matter4 ,the ,christ1 the true ,christ  
who was and is ,jesus1 but who is also  
the deeper self of every human being1 is

 saving individuals by filling them with
 the unselfish desire to save the race4 
,it is this unselfish desire to minister
 to the common good which is the true   
salvation4  ,i do not mind what name is 
given to it so long as it is recognised 
for what it really is2 there is no      
stopping-place between sinner and       
saviour4  ,this is the way in which men 
like ,robert ,blatchford of the ,clarion
 are being saved while trying to save4  
,conceive how differently such a man    
might have lived his life4  ,he might   
have lived it so as to be of no use to  
anyone1 or indeed in such a way as to be
 a hindrance rather than a help to poor 
overburdened humanity4  ,it matters     
comparatively little that this man      
should think he is destroying           
supernaturalism and scoffs at the       
possibility of a future life4  ,his     
moral earnestness is a mark of his      
,christhood and his work a part of the  
,atonement4  ,not another ,christ than  
,jesus1 mind6  ,the very same4  ,mr4    

,blatchford may laugh at this and call  
his moral aspirations by quite a        
different name4  ,well1 let him2 but ,i 
know the thing when ,i see it4  ,this is
 ,salvation4  ,conversion4--,but in the 
history of mankind the change from      
selfishness to love1 from darkness to   
light1 from death to life1 has often    
meant something much more pronounced    
than this4  ,a man may have been living 
a bad life1 and become suddenly         
impressed by some appeal to his better  
nature made in the name of ,god4  ,he   
may have felt humiliated and distressed 
by his new-found consciousness of sin4  
,he may have prayed earnestly for       
forgiveness1 and felt that forgiveness  
has come and that the peace of ,god has 
entered into and possessed his soul4    
,he has deliberately and solemnly       
consecrated his life to ,jesus and feels
 that henceforth he is1 as it were1 in a
 new world4  ,this change is rightly    
termed conversion1 a turning round and  
going right4  ,such a man may be able to

 say with ,st4 ,paul1 ,to me to live is 
,christ1 and the words would be         
literally and grandly true4  ,after this
 he may go on believing all kinds of    
things about verbal inspiration1 the    
precious blood1 the fate of the         
impenitent1 and ,i know not what else1  
but the quality of the new life is      
always the same2 it is dominated by the 
spirit of love instead of the spirit of 
selfishness2 it is harmony with ,god4   
,often this change is very complete and 
beautiful1 but in every case it involves
 a long and slow ascent to the stature  
of the perfect man in ,christ ,jesus4   
,it is no delusion1 either1 that in the 
endeavour to live the new life divine   
help is forthcoming4  ,the ,holy ,spirit
 of truth and love is ever present with 
a child of ,god to guide him to higher  
and ever higher heights of spiritual    
attainment4  ,without this blessed      
religious experience1 the experience of 
those who are called to be saints1 this 
world would be a poor place to live in4 

,i may perhaps be pardoned for adding   
that in my judgment even the earnest    
redemptive endeavours of men like the   
editor of the ,clarion have indirectly  
been made possible by it4  ,take out of 
the world what ,christian saints have   
owed to their fellowship with ,jesus1   
and there would be very little of hope  
and inspiration left4  ,still1 what ,i  
want to emphasise here is the fact that1
 however crude the various theologies   
may have been in which this experience  
has clothed itself1 it is always the    
same2 it represents the victory of love 
in the human heart4  ,salvation and     
penalty4--,but does this kind of        
salvation do away with the penal        
consequences of past sin8  ,if not1 what
 is its relation to them8  ,to answer   
these questions we must look a little   
more closely into the nature of such    
penal consequences4  ,perhaps it would  
help to clear up the subject if ,i were 
to say frankly before going any farther 
that there is no such thing as          

punishment1 no far-off ,judgment ,day1  
no great white throne1 and no ,judge    
external to ourselves4  ,i say there is 
no punishment of sin in the sense in    
which the word punishment is usually    
employed4  ,we are accustomed to think  
of punishment as a sentence imposed by  
some authority from without and         
containing within itself some element of
 vengeance for wrong-doing4  ,but in the
 divine dealings with men such          
punishment has never existed and never  
will4 ,what has already been said in a  
previous chapter on the subject of pain 
should help to make this statement      
plain4  ,we have seen that pain is life 
pressing upon death and death resisting 
life4  ,if there were no life1 there    
would be no pain4  ,we may say therefore
 that pain is life1 or some finite      
expression of the universal life1       
seeking to burst through something that 
fetters and hinders it4  ,apply this to 
the region of morals and let us see how 
it works out4  ,if a man has been living

 for self1 he has been making a mistake 
and preparing for himself a harvest of  
pain1 for sooner or later the divine    
life within him1 the truer1 deeper self1
 will assert itself against the decisive
 efforts of sin4  ,it is just as        
impossible for a man to go on eternally 
living apart from the universal life as 
it is for a sand castle to shut out the 
ocean2 the returning tide would break   
down the puny barriers and destroy      
everything that tends to separate       
between the soul and ,god4 ,for1 after  
all1 what is our life but ,god's8  ,to  
try to keep it for ourselves is like    
trying to catch and imprison a sun ray  
by drawing the blinds4  ,to save the    
self we must serve the ,all4  ,when1    
therefore1 we remember that the spirit  
of man and the spirit of ,god are one1  
we know of a surety that the infinite   
life behind the human spirit will assert
 itself irresistibly against the        
endeavours of sin to enclose that spirit
 within finite conditions4  ,the essence

 of sin is the declaration1 ,mine is not
 thine1 and ,i shall live for mine      
alone4 ,this is trying to live for the  
finite2 it is enclosing the soul within 
barriers2 those barriers must be broken 
if the soul is to be saved1 and broken  
they will be just because the deeper    
self of every man is already one with   
,god4  ,in the stable-yard of my house  
there was at one time a tree1 which was 
cut down and the place where it grew    
covered with flagstones and a wall built
 round it4  ,but the roots of the tree  
were not removed1 and so that buried    
life has reasserted itself1 the         
flagstones have been shattered1 and now 
the wall is coming down4  ,here is a    
figure of our moral experience4  ,a man 
may go on living for self all through a 
long career2 he may bury his better     
nature deep underneath the hard shell of
 materialism and self-indulgence1 but it
 is all in vain2 sooner or later1 on    
this side of death or on the other1 that
 buried life shall rise in power and all

 barriers be swept away4 ,this uprising 
of the ,christ in the individual soul1  
for such it is1 must inevitably mean    
pain to the man whose true life has been
 entombed in selfishness4  ,the pain may
 begin here or on the farther side of   
the change called death1 but it is      
itself not a mark of death1 but of life4
 ,the fact that a soul can suffer proves
 its salvability beyond dispute4 ,an    
everlasting hell is in the nature of    
things a contradiction1 for the finite  
cannot eternally bar the way of the     
infinite reality whose uprising is the  
cause of its pain2 if it could1 it would
 itself be infinite1 which is absurd4   
,sin is essentially the endeavour to    
live for the finite1 the separative1 the
 divisive1 as opposed to the infinite1  
the whole-ward1 the ,all4  ,which will  
win in this encounter8  ,the real       
judge4--,and who1 pray1 is the ,judge8  
,who but yourself8  ,the deeper self is 
the judge1 the self who is eternally one
 with ,god4  ,the pain caused by sin    

arises from the soul1 which is          
potentially infinite and cannot have its
 true nature denied4  ,if you go and    
live over a sewer1 you will be ill4     
,why8  ,because you were never meant to 
live over a sewer4  ,the evil therein   
attacks you1 and the life within you    
fights to overcome it1 and in the       
process you have to suffer4  ,it is just
 the same with your spiritual nature4   
,you cannot continue to live apart from 
the whole1 for the real you is the      
whole1 and1 do what you will1 it will   
overcome everything within you that     
makes for separateness1 and in the      
process you will have to suffer4  ,this 
is what the punishment of sin means4    
,it is life battling with death1 love   
striving against selfishness1 the deeper
 soul with the surface soul4 ,it is our 
own spiritual nature that compels us to 
suffer when we sin1 and there is no     
escaping the sentence2 if we sin we must
 suffer1 for we are so constituted that 
what sin does1 love with toil and pain  

must undo4  ,no eleventh-hour repentance
 can evade this issue2 in fact1 it may  
be the beginning of it4  ,if we have    
been treading a wrong road1 repentance  
is turning round and taking the way     
back4  ,if we have been living a false  
life1 repentance is the beginning of the
 true1 and just in proportion as the    
false has been accepted1 so will the    
true find it difficult to destroy the   
lie4  ,you are the judge2 you in ,god4  
,if you have failed to achieve that for 
which you are here1 you will have to    
achieve it here or elsewhere1 and the   
correction of your failure will         
inevitably mean pain4    ,the tissues of
 the life to be1   ,we weave with       
colours all our own2   ,and in the field
 of destiny   ,we reap as we have sown4 
,there is nothing horrific about this   
law of the spirit4  ,in a true and real 
sense it is our own law2 we make it4    
,being what we are1 we cannot let       
ourselves off4  ,pain is at once the    
consequence of sin and the token of our 

divine lineage4  ,but there is nothing  
individualistic about this sinning and  
suffering4  ,all the love in the        
universe comes to the help of the soul  
that tries to rise4  ,it will even enter
 the prison house along with it and     
accept the cross in the endeavour to    
hasten the emancipation of the sinbound 
soul4  ,in fact1 it must do so1 for as  
long as there is any sin to be done     
away1 love cannot have its perfect work4
  ,this it was which brought ,jesus to  
earth1 and this it is which turns every 
follower of ,jesus into a saviour4      
,love must strive and suffer with sin   
until ,god is all in all4  ,the         
spiritual resurrection4--,it follows    
from this that the true resurrection is 
spiritual1 not material1 and this is the
 sense in which the word is most        
frequently employed in the ,new         
,testament4  ,in the fourth gospel      
,jesus is represented as saying1 ,i am  
the resurrection1 and the life3 he that 
believeth in me1 though he were dead1   

yet shall he live3 and he that liveth   
and believeth in me shall never die4    
,this is a great saying1 and the writer 
of this particular gospel meant every   
word of it in the sense ,i have just    
indicated4  ,he makes the eternal       
,christ the speaking terms of the       
earthly ,jesus and tells us that the    
uprising of this eternal ,christ within 
the soul of the penitent sinner is the  
real resurrection4  ,the resurrection of
 ,jesus4--,but this subject of the      
resurrection demands a further          
examination4  ,we have already seen how 
inconsistent popular ,christian doctrine
 is about the matter1 and yet           
,christianity started with the belief in
 a resurrection of our ,lord1 a belief  
which has continued down to the present 
day4  ,what are we to say about this8   
,we may as well admit at the outset that
 the gospel accounts of the physical    
resurrection of ,jesus are mutually     
inconsistent and that no amount of      
ingenuity can reconcile them4  ,matthew 

speaks of a ,galilean appearance1 and   
says nothing about the ascension4  ,luke
 says a great deal about the ,jerusalem 
appearances1 nothing about ,galilee1 and
 tells us that the ascension took place 
from ,bethany4  ,the end of ,st4 ,mark's
 gospel has been lost1 and the last few 
verses are a summary of the accounts in 
the other gospels concerning the        
post-resurrection appearances of the    
,lord4  ,john's version is1 of course1  
less historical than the synoptists1 and
 puts the last appearance at the sea of 
,tiberias4  ,a minute discussion of the 
problem thus raised would be            
unprofitable for our present purpose1   
but ,i hope we can take for granted the 
broad fact that without a belief in a   
resurrection of some kind ,christianity 
could not have made a start at all4  ,it
 is almost indisputable that in some way
 or other the disciples must have become
 convinced that they had seen ,jesus    
face to face after the world believed   
,him to be dead and buried4  ,the       

earliest apostolic utterance on the     
subject in the ,new ,testament is the   
familiar passage from #a ,cor4 xv3 ,for 
,i delivered unto you first of all that 
which ,i also received1 how that ,christ
 died for our sins according to the     
scriptures2 ,and that he was buried1 and
 that he rose again the third day       
according to the scriptures3 ,and that  
he was seen by ,cephas1 then of the     
twelve3 ,after that he was seen of above
 five hundred brethren at once2 of whom 
the greater part remain unto this       
present1 but some are fallen asleep4    
,after that he was seen of ,james2 then 
of all the apostles4  ,and last of all  
he was seen of me also1 as of one born  
out of due time4  ,this statement is    
clear enough and almost unquestionably  
authentic4  ,it places beyond doubt what
 the apostolic church thought of the    
resurrection of ,jesus4  ,the little    
group of disciples must somehow have    
become convinced that their ,master was 
not really dead1 but alive and reigning 

in the world unseen1 interested as much 
as ever in the work ,his followers were 
doing1 and spiritually present with them
 in the doing of it4  ,this conviction  
had immediate and important spiritual   
results4  ,it gave these simple men a   
new and greater confidence in ,jesus and
 in the power of the life ,he had lived4
  ,they saw that this life was1 after   
all1 the strongest thing in the         
universe4  ,they realised that in the   
end nothing could stand against them2   
evil could do it no real harm1 for ,god 
was behind it4  ,even before the        
crucifixion they had looked upon ,jesus 
as the ,son of ,god in a higher and more
 spiritual sense than that title had    
been used before1 but now henceforth    
they thought of ,him as such in a higher
 way still4 ,according to ,paul ,he was 
declared to be the ,son of ,god with    
power by the resurrection from the dead4
  ,if we try to put ourselves in the    
place of these first ,christians1 we    
shall realise better the effect of the  

resurrection upon their feelings and    
behaviour4  ,let us suppose that we had 
known ,jesus in the flesh1 that we had  
learned to understand a little of the   
moral and spiritual beauty of the ideal 
revealed in ,his life1 and that         
afterward we had seen ,him die in blood 
and shame2 ,i think it would have taken 
a good deal to convince us that evil had
 not gained the day4  ,now suppose after
 this we had absolute proof--,i will not
 say how--that our ,master was still    
alive1 and that ,his spirit was with us 
and helping us1 would it not make a very
 great difference to our outlook upon   
life and our confidence in ,god8  ,we   
could not but feel the littleness of the
 power that had tried to destroy ,jesus1
 and we should not be afraid of it any  
more4  ,this is precisely what appears  
to have happened in the experience of   
these ,galileans4  ,defeat and failure  
were somehow turned into victory and    
success2 they had seen ,jesus again4    
,theories of resurrection4--,but how are

 we to account for this new-found       
confidence of theirs that they had      
really once more looked upon the face of
 ,jesus8  ,the subject has been         
discussed so exhaustively that no       
possible explanation of it has been left
 altogether untouched4 ,such a unique   
event as the raising of a physical body 
from death is one which the average     
western mind of the present day would   
reject as incredible if we had never    
heard it before1 consequently there     
exists a widespread tendency among      
liberal ,christians to try to account   
for primitive ,christian belief in the  
resurrection of our ,lord in some other 
way4  ,thus we have the hallucination   
theory1 the apparition theory1 the swoon
 theory1 and others of a similar        
character4  ,i should suppose that most 
thinkers who take the point of view of  
the ,new ,theology would hold one or    
other of these explanations or some     
modification of them1 but ,i confess ,i 
have never been able to do so4 ,it seems

 to me that no such explanation of the  
universally held ,christian conviction  
that the physical body of ,jesus        
actually rose from the tomb is          
sufficient to account for it4  ,the     
passage already quoted from #a ,cor4 xv 
is alone enough to illustrate this      
statement4  ,it is clear that the       
earliest ,christians were absolutely    
certain that the body of ,jesus after   
the resurrection was the body of ,jesus 
as they had known it before1 although   
apparently it possessed some new and    
mysterious attributes4  ,in my judgment1
 also1 insistence upon the impossibility
 of a physical resurrection presumes an 
essential distinction between matter and
 spirit which ,i cannot admit4  ,the    
philosophy underlying the ,new ,theology
 as ,i understand it is monistic        
idealism1 and monistic idealism         
recognises no fundamental distinction   
between matter and spirit4  ,the        
fundamental reality is consciousness4   
,the so-called material world is the    

product of consciousness exercising     
itself along a certain limited plane2   
the next stage of consciousness above   
this is not an absolute break with it1  
although it is an expansion of          
experience or readjustment of focus4    
,admitting that individual              
self-consciousness persists beyond the  
change called death1 it only means that 
such consciousness is being exercised   
along another plane2 from a             
three-dimensional it has entered a      
four-dimensional world4  ,this new world
 is no less and no more material than   
the present2 it is all a question of the
 range of consciousness4  ,it is this   
view1 the view that matter exists only  
in and for mind1 that leads me to       
believe that less than justice has been 
done by liberal thinkers to the theory  
of the physical resurrection of ,jesus4 
,what is the physical but the common    
denominator between one finite mind and 
another8  ,it is a mode of language1 an 
expression of thought as well as a      

condition of thought4  ,imagine a being 
free of a three-dimensional world trying
 to converse with a being still limited 
to a two-dimensional world1 and we have 
a clew to what ,i think may have        
happened after the crucifixion of       
,jesus4  ,the three-dimensional body    
would behave in a manner altogether     
unaccountable to the two-dimensional    
watcher4  ,the latter1 knowing only     
length and breadth1 and nothing of up or
 down1 would see his three-dimensional  
friend as a line only4  ,the moment the 
three-dimensional solid rose above or   
sank below his line of vision1 it would 
seem to have disappeared like an        
apparition1 although as really present  
as before4  ,to the two-dimensional mind
 it would seem as though the solid were 
a ghost4 ,does this throw any light upon
 the mysterious appearances and         
disappearances of the body of ,jesus8   
,the all-important thing after ,calvary 
was to make the disciples aware1 beyond 
all dispute1 that ,jesus was really     

alive1 more alive than ever1 and that   
,his murderers had been helpless to     
destroy ,him4  ,when we remember that to
 the ordinary ,jewish mind the thought  
of personal immortality was anything but
 clear1 and that to many of them death  
was synonymous with annihilation1 we can
 see how enormous was the change that   
had to be wrought in the mental attitude
 of those who had seen ,jesus die a     
violent and bloody death4 ,to see ,him  
return triumphant was the one thing     
required to counteract their feeling    
that all was lost1 and the best means of
 demonstrating this victory over death  
was to enable them to behold ,him in the
 body with which they were already      
familiar and which they loved so well4  
,for1 after all1 that body was but a    
thought-form1 a kind of language1 a mode
 of communication between mind and mind2
 it was no more and no less a           
thought-form than an apparition would   
have been1 and1 from the point of view  
of monistic idealism1 it is no more     

difficult to believe in the reanimation 
of a physical body than in the use of   
any other thought-form to express a fact
 of consciousness4  ,here1 then1 we have
 a being whose consciousness belongs to 
the fourth-dimensional plane adjusting  
,himself to the capacity of those on a  
three-dimensional plane for the sake of 
proving to them beyond dispute that--   
,life is ever lord of death1   ,and love
 can never love its own4  ,this seems to
 me the most reasonable explanation of  
the post-resurrection appearances of    
,jesus1 and the impression produced by  
them on the minds of ,his disciples4    
,most of my ,new ,theology friends will 
probably reject it at first sight1 but  
at least it is consistent with the      
philosophic position assumed throughout 
this book1 and seems to me to present   
fewer difficulties than any other in    
face of the ,new ,testament accounts4   
,but no theory of the resurrection of   
,jesus is absolutely indispensable or of
 first-rate importance2 the main thing  

to be agreed upon is that ,christianity 
started with the belief that its        
,founder had risen from the dead in     
order to demonstrate that death has no  
power to destroy anything worthy of     
,god4  ,in consonance with this         
idealistic view of the subject the      
ascension becomes understandable2 it    
simply means that when ,jesus had done  
what ,he wanted1 the body was           
dissipated4  ,no doubt primitive        
,christian thought navely regarded      
heaven as a place above the sky to which
 the physical body actually went1 and   
,hades1 or the under-world1 as the place
 from which the spirit of ,jesus        
returned to reanimate it before         
ascending to the abode of the ,father4  
,plainly enough this is what ,paul      
thought about it1 but such a conception 
is now impossible to anyone2 it could   
only exist under a geocentric view of   
the universe which has long since passed
 away4  ,but when ,paul speaks even     
about the resurrection of the saints1   

this is what he means4  ,all the good   
who have died are waiting in the        
under-world1 the shadowy home of the    
departed1 in a state of existence which 
is only a sort of dream or sleep        
compared with that which they have left4
  ,from this under-world ,jesus         
returned1 the first-fruits of them that 
slept4  ,all who believe in ,him will do
 the same sooner or later1 will resume  
their physical bodies1 and1 like ,him1  
ascend to the world above the sky4  ,but
 seeing this geocentric cosmogony has   
been impossible for centuries past1 why 
should we go on trying to squeeze       
,paul's language so as to mean something
 else than what it meant at first8      
,granted that he was right in believing1
 in company with all the rest of the    
primitive church1 that ,jesus showed    
,himself to the disciples after ,his    
crucifixion1 what more do we need8      
,paul's theory as to the resurrection of
 every physical body is just nonsense in
 the light of our larger knowledge of   

the universe and its laws1 and we may as
 well say so4  ,paul's mystical view of 
resurrection4--,but we should do ,paul  
an injustice if we were to limit the    
value of his utterances by his views    
about the resurrection of the human     
body4  ,i have already pointed out that 
,paul employs physical symbols in a     
mystical way1 and in nothing was this   
more so than in his use of the idea of a
 resurrection4  ,with him1 as with the  
writer of the fourth gospel1 the        
spiritual resurrection was the uprising1
 going-forward1 issuing-forth1 of the   
,christ or divine man within the soul4  
,when he speaks in this way he allows   
the thought of a physical resurrection  
to drop out of sight4 ,thus he writes3  
,if we have been planted together in the
 likeness of ,his death1 we shall be    
also in the likeness of ,his            
resurrection4 ,that ,i may know ,him and
 the power of ,his resurrection1 and the
 fellowship of ,his sufferings1 being   
made conformable unto ,his death2 if by 

any means ,i might attain unto the      
resurrection of the dead4  ,if then ye  
be risen with ,christ seek the things   
which are above1 where ,christ sitteth  
on the right hand of ,god4444  ,for ye  
died1 and your life is hid with ,christ 
in ,god4  ,even if this last sentence is
 not ,paul's own it has a distinctly    
,pauline ring4  ,in his maturer thought 
the great apostle seems to have escaped 
the limitations of his early            
,pharisaism4 ,he ceases to speak of the 
sleep or the under-world1 and begins to 
think of death as the gateway to the    
immediate presence of his dearly loved  
,master4  ,for ,i long to depart and to 
be with ,christ which is far better4    
,here1 surely1 we are listening to the  
voice of ,paul the aged4  ,the moment we
 succeed in disentangling ourselves from
 all literal and limiting ,new          
,testament statements about the         
connection between sin and physical     
death1 the physical resurrection1 the   
distant ,judgment ,day1 and such-like1  

we find ourselves in a position to      
appreciate the beautiful spiritual      
experience in which these very terms    
become symbols of inner realities of the
 soul4  ,till we can do this1 ,new      
,testament language is sure to be a     
hindrance to any true apprehension of   
the moral value of the gospel of        
,christ4  ,the only salvation we need   
trouble about is the change from        
selfishness to love1 ,we know that we   
have passed from death unto life because
 we love4  ,this change is equivalent to
 a resurrection1 the uprising of the    
eternal ,christ within us4  ,it is also 
an ascension1 the uplifting and uniting 
of the soul to the eternal ,father4     
,but such a resurrection and ascension  
may be preceded by a great deal of pain 
when the soul is shedding the husk of   
selfishness4  ,there is no dodging the  
consequences of sin2 that is absolutely 
impossible4  ,a saviour may suffer with 
and for the sinner1 but the sinner must 
suffer too4  ,the suffering is not a    

mark of ,god's anger1 but of his love2  
so far from salvation being a means of  
screening us from it1 the pain is a     
means by which the salvation takes      
effect4  ,it is the true self asserting 
its dominion over the false4 ,heaven and
 hell are states of the soul1 and the   
latter implies the former4  ,it is life 
that suffers1 not death4  ,when a guilty
 soul awakens to the truth1 hell begins1
 but it is because heaven wants to break
 through4  ,the aim and object of       
salvation are not the getting of a man  
into heaven1 but the getting of heaven  
into him4  ,there is nothing horrifying 
about the law of retribution1 although  
it is inexorable in its operation4  ,it 
is an evidence of our divine origin1 our
 own true being asserting itself against
 the fetters of evil4  ,but it is the   
,christ that saves us1 not the          
retribution2 the retribution only shows 
that the ,christ is there1 and that from
 the ,calvary caused by sin1 and from   
the tomb in which the true self lies    

buried1 ,he will rise in glorious       
majesty in the soul and unite us in the 
bonds of love to the eternal divine     
humanity which is ,god4  ,physical death
 of minor importance4--,it follows from 
what has now been said that all these   
familiar terms imply each other1 and    
that death1 judgment1 heaven1 and hell  
cannot properly be regarded as the ,last
 ,things4  ,they are all here now1 here 
within the soul1 just as infinity and   
eternity are here now4  ,it is not a    
matter of hither and yonder1 but of     
higher and lower4  ,physical death is   
not the all-important event which       
theologians have usually made it out to 
be2 it is only a bend in the road4  ,my 
own impression is that when we          
individually pass through this crisis1  
we shall find the change to be very     
slight4  ,it will mean the dropping of  
the scales from the eyes1 and that is   
about all4  ,the things we have been    
living for on this side will only profit
 us in so far as they have gone to the  

building up of a ,christlike character4 
,if a man has been living for false and 
unworthy ideals1 he will quickly find it
 out2 the only possession he can take to
 the other side of death is what he is4 
,belief in the atoning merits and the   
finished work of a ,saviour will not    
compensate for wasted opportunities and 
selfish deeds2 these latter will light  
the fires of retribution as the soul    
awakes to its true condition1 and then1 
and not till then perhaps1 will the     
indwelling ,christ obtain ,his          
opportunity4 ,nor will the absence of a 
formal creed shut any good man out of   
heaven2 it is impossible to shut a man  
out from what he is4  ,what we sow we   
reap1 and we do so just because of what 
we fundamentally are4  ,every road to   
evil ends in a cul-de-sac4  ,sooner or  
later every soul will have to learn that
 it is no use kicking against the       
pricks2 we must learn by the            
consequences of our mistakes that1 being
 what we are1 the children of the       

,highest1 we cannot permanently rest in 
anything less than the love of ,god4    
,salvation and ,atonement are just as   
operative on the other side of death as 
on this4  ,the blind soul goes on for a 
while in its blundering selfishness1 and
 the ,christ spirit1 the spirit of      
universal love1 goes on seeking to win  
it to the truth4  ,in the end the truth 
must prevail if only because we shall   
have to learn that the lie is not worth 
while4  ,evidence for immortality of the
 soul4--,no doubt there are some readers
 of these pages who profess themselves  
agnostic or indifferent with regard to  
the question of immortality1 and ,i am  
not going to argue with them4  ,it seems
 to me probable that before very long it
 will be impossible to deny it4  ,the   
mass of evidence for the persistence of 
individual self-consciousness after     
death is increasing rapidly and is being
 subjected to the strictest scientific  
investigation4  ,men like ,sir ,william 
,crookes and ,sir ,oliver ,lodge1 men   

whose words are entitled to respect from
 the point of view of modern science1   
have publicly admitted the importance of
 such evidence2 before long the         
scientific world in general will have to
 take it into consideration4  ,but to me
 such evidence does not greatly matter1 
and ,i know very little about it at     
first hand4  ,i build my belief in      
immortality on the conviction that the  
fundamental reality of the universe is  
consciousness1 and that no consciousness
 can ever be extinguished1 for it       
belongs to the whole and must be        
fulfilled in the whole4  ,the one       
unthinkable supposition from this point 
of view is that any kind of being which 
has ever become aware of itself1 that   
is1 has ever contained a ray of the     
eternal consciousness1 can perish4      
,,chapter ,,xiii  ,,the ,,church ,,and  
,,the ,,kingdom ,of ,,god  ,order of the
 subject4--,from the consideration of   
the true significance of such terms as  
,salvation1 ,judgment1 ,heaven1 and     

,hell1 we now turn to one which might be
 thought to occupy a relatively inferior
 position and to precede them in order  
of time4  ,but if we have been right in 
holding that such terms as we have      
already examined represent states of the
 soul beginning here and now1 we have   
considered them in their rightful place1
 for now we have to see how these states
 of the soul find expression in human   
institutions4  ,in a word1 ,i wish to   
devote some space to the consideration  
of the great subjects of the ,church and
 the ,kingdom of ,god in relation to one
 another4  ,what is the ,church8  ,where
 did the idea spring from8  ,what had   
,jesus to do with it originally8  ,what 
is the ,kingdom of ,god1 and how do the 
various ,christian societies which call 
themselves churches stand in regard to  
it to-day8  ,to answer any of these     
questions we must try to place ourselves
 to some extent in the intellectual and 
moral atmosphere of those amongst whom  
the ideas first arose4  ,let us take the

 ,kingdom first4  ,origin of the idea of
 the ,kingdom of ,god4--,at the time    
when ,jesus came every person of ,jewish
 nationality was looking for the        
establishment of what had come to be    
called the ,kingdom of ,god4  ,for many 
generations the ,jews had been a subject
 race4  ,there had been one brief period
 of national splendour and prosperity1  
namely1 the reigns of ,david and        
,solomon4  ,after generations were      
inclined to idealise these two reigns1  
especially the former1 and to look upon 
them as a kind of golden age4  ,david   
they looked upon as an ideal monarch2   
they called him a man after ,god's own  
heart1 and the imagination of poet and  
prophet loved to dwell upon his winsome 
personality4  ,they thought of him as in
 a special way the king chosen by ,god1 
and the ,israel of his time as a true   
kingdom of ,god1 a kingdom of           
righteousness1 peace1 and plenty under  
the favour of the ,most ,high4  ,the    
real ,israel of ,david's day was far    

different from this1 but compared with  
the days that followed it was indeed a  
time of unexampled greatness4  ,a       
similar tendency to idealise the past is
 observable in nearly every nation which
 has entered upon a period of suffering 
or misfortune1 as we can see from the   
legends about ,king ,olaf and ,frederick
 ,barbarossa4  ,but ,israel always      
looked upon herself as in a special way 
a theocratic kingdom1 a chosen of ,god4 
,at its best this idea was a fine one1  
one1 it led to the thought of a special 
spiritual vocation for the sake of the  
other nations of the earth2 at its worst
 it meant the assertion of national     
privilege and contempt for everything   
which was not ,jewish4 ,after the great 
captivity in ,babylon the ,jews were    
never without a foreign master1 and the 
northern kingdom of ,israel disappeared 
from history4  ,but in quite a          
remarkable way ,jewish poets and        
preachers united to keep alive the      
popular belief that ,god would yet      

restore the kingdom to ,israel4  ,hence 
there grew up a firmly held conviction  
that ,god would sometime raise up a     
prince born of ,david's line who with   
supernatural help1 and with a strong    
hand1 would drive out the invader and   
establish a kingdom which should        
outshine even that of ,david himself4   
,this was the root idea of the kingdom  
of ,god1 as we meet it in the ,new      
,testament1 and as it is described in   
some of the most beautiful passages of  
the ,old4  ,the ,messiah of ,jewish     
expectation4--,as time went on this idea
 was deepened and clarified and became  
more and more associated in popular     
expectation with the advent of the      
,messianic deliverer whose work it      
should be to inaugurate it4  ,at the    
time when ,jesus was born this          
expectation had become very keen4       
,everyone was thinking of it1 from      
,pharisees and ,scribes downward4  ,at  
the moment the foreign master was the   
,roman1 whose rule1 though milder than  

that of the ,ptolemies1 was quite severe
 enough2 the people were impoverished   
and unhappy4  ,what they were looking   
for was a ,messiah1 a transcendent but  
quite human personality of royal        
descent1 who should expel the ,roman    
eagles and inaugurate suddenly and      
completely an era of peace and          
prosperity the like of which had never  
been known before1 a true kingdom of    
,god4  ,one extension of this idea was  
that ,israel should replace the ,roman  
empire as the suzerain of all the other 
nations of the earth4  ,arise1 shine2   
for thy light is come1 and the glory of 
the ,lord is risen upon thee4 ,for1     
behold1 the darkness shall cover the    
earth1 and gross darkness the people3   
but the ,lord shall rise upon thee1 and 
his glory shall be seen upon thee4  ,and
 the ,gentiles shall come to thy light1 
and kings to the brightness of thy      
rising4444  ,and the sons of strangers  
shall build up thy walls1 and their     
kings shall minister unto thee3 for in  

my wrath ,i smote thee1 but in my favour
 have ,i had mercy on thee4  ,therefore 
thy gates shall be open continually2    
they shall not be shut day nor night2   
that men may bring unto thee forces of  
the ,gentiles1 and that their kings may 
be brought4  ,for the nation and kingdom
 that will not serve thee shall perish2 
yea1 those nations shall be utterly     
wasted4444  ,the sons also of them that 
afflicted thee shall come bending unto  
thee2 and all they that despised thee   
shall bow themselves down at the soles  
of thy feet2 and they shall call thee1  
,the city of the ,lord1 ,the ,zion of   
the ,holy ,one of ,israel4  ,this fine  
passage shows pretty clearly what was   
the general idea as to the nature of the
 anticipated kingdom of ,god4  ,it meant
 that the ,jewish ,messiah was to take  
the place of ,caesar and reign with     
undisputed sway from his capital of     
,jerusalem4  ,but we should do an       
injustice to the subject if we failed to
 allow for the fact that according to   

the prophetic ideal this kingdom was to 
be a blessing to the world1 and to      
abolish all violence and oppression2 the
 kingdom of ,god was to be a kingdom of 
universal peace and joy1 a kingdom of   
righteousness based on social justice4  
,it was because of this widespread      
expectation that the austere preacher1  
,john the ,baptist1 obtained his hearing
 in the wilderness of ,judea4  ,all     
,john had to preach about was the       
kingdom of ,god1 which he declared to be
 near at hand4  ,he believed that he had
 been sent to herald the coming of the  
,messiah1 and from his words we can     
gather what people thought about the    
,messiah3 ,whose fan is in his hand1 and
 he will thoroughly purge his floor1 and
 gather his wheat into the garner2 but  
he will burn up the chaff with          
unquenchable fire4  ,according to the   
,baptist1 the ,messiah would spare no   
kind of sham or hypocrisy2 he would root
 out and utterly destroy every kind of  
social evil1 no matter what4  ,john     

insisted that it would be of no use for 
,jews to imagine that simply because    
they were descendants of ,abraham they  
would escape this general visitation2   
hence his words to the ,pharisees were  
particularly scathing3 ,o generation of 
vipers1 who hath warned you to flee from
 the wrath to come8  ,it is clear1      
therefore1 that1 in the opinion of the  
man who has now come to be regarded as  
the forerunner of ,jesus1 the kingdom of
 ,god was to be an earthly kingdom1 was 
to come suddenly1 and was to be         
inaugurated by a sort of general        
judgment or clean sweep of all the      
elements that made for oppression1      
cruelty1 foul living1 and               
pretentiousness of every kind4  ,it had 
not the remotest reference to a world to
 come or a ,divine ,redeemer whose      
principal duty it should be to suffer   
and die in order to secure a blessed    
immortality for those who believed in   
,him4  ,jesus' idea of the              
kingdom4--,how far ,jesus shared these  

ideas at the commencement of ,his own   
ministry it is impossible to say1 but it
 seems clear that ,he was attracted by  
the moral earnestness of ,john and      
wished to associate ,himself with those 
who were looking for a kingdom of ,god  
which should mean the establishment and 
realisation of the moral ideal in all   
human relations4  ,but at the baptism a 
purpose long forming in his mind appears
 to have taken definite shape4  ,he felt
 ,himself called to preach the good news
 of a kingdom which could begin at once 
in the heart of any man who was willing 
to become the instrument of divine love 
and the expression of the ideal of human
 brotherhood4  ,he went into the        
wilderness to think this out and then   
came back to teach it4 ,i do not think  
,he imagined that it could be realised  
quickly and easily1 but it seems fairly 
obvious that at first ,he expected that 
men would be so glad to hear about it   
that they would hasten to avail         
themselves of it4  ,all through ,his    

ministry ,he spoke of little else1 and  
it was because of what ,he had to say   
about the nature of the kingdom that    
,his followers were attracted to ,him4  
,hence1 too1 we have the deathless      
teaching preserved for us in the        
synoptical gospels3 ,blessed are the    
poor in spirit1 for theirs is the       
kingdom of heaven4444  ,blessed are the 
pure in heart for they shall see ,god4  
,the meaning of ,jesus is perfectly     
clear and perfectly simple4  ,it is that
 if a kingdom of universal brotherhood  
is ever to be realised on earth1 it can 
only come by the operation of universal 
good will4  ,this has been much too     
simple for most of the theologians1 and 
so they have endeavoured to twist and   
torture it out of all recognition4  ,as 
time went on1 however1 ,jesus came to   
see that it would not be realised as    
quickly as even ,he had thought4  ,men  
could not or would not understand2 they 
were looking for a kingdom which should 
mean plenty to eat and drink1 and       

universal dominion for the sons of      
,abraham4  ,even ,his most immediate    
followers were unable to divest         
themselves of this notion1 and it is    
plain enough that they went on hoping   
even to the end that ,jesus would head a
 revolt and establish a kingdom in which
 they themselves would hold positions of
 dignity and importance3 ,grant that we 
may sit1 the one on thy right hand and  
the other on thy left in thy kingdom4   
,the striking rebuke which ,jesus       
administered to these pretensions1 by   
setting a little child in the midst of  
the jealous men1 will never be forgotten
 while the world lasts4  ,jesus did     
believe in an earthly kingdom of        
righteousness1 peace1 and joy1 but it is
 evident that ,he would have nothing to 
say to violence as a means of realising 
it4  ,he even believed that the kingdom 
had already come in the heart of any man
 who was desirous of being at one with  
,god and man and denied himself in the  
effort to do it3 ,and when he was       

demanded of the ,pharisees1 when the    
kingdom of ,god should come1 he answered
 them and said1 ,the kingdom of ,god    
cometh not with observation3 ,neither   
shall they say1 ,lo here6 or1 lo there6 
for1 behold1 the kingdom of ,god is     
within you4  ,early ,christian idea of  
the kingdom4--,an important fact1 which 
,i do not think is generally recognised1
 is that the first ,christians thought  
almost precisely what the ,jews did     
about the kingdom of ,god4  ,most people
 are accustomed to think of             
,christianity as having been from the   
first a religion which had principally  
to do with getting men ready for the    
next world4  ,we can hardly think about 
it apart from ecclesiastical buildings1 
choirs1 baptisms1 confirmations1 prayers
 for the sick and dying1 and so on4  ,so
 much have we been accustomed to think  
of it in this way that the average man  
reads his ,new ,testament with these    
assumptions in the background of his    
mind4  ,but this is certainly not ,new  

,testament ,christianity4  ,the apostles
 and their followers believed like the  
,jews in the sudden establishment of an 
ideal commonwealth upon earth4  ,this   
was how they understood the ,lord's     
prayer1 ,thy kingdom come1 thy will be  
done on earth as it is in heaven4  ,they
 did not even wish to separate from     
,judaism1 and it is clear from ,paul's  
letters that there was at one time a    
great danger that the new faith might   
become a mere ,jewish sect4  ,the       
,christians differed from the ,jews1 not
 in their ideal concerning the kingdom1 
but in their greater moral intensity and
 enthusiasm1 as well as in their        
profound conviction that the ,lord      
,jesus was ,god's chosen instrument for 
realising this kingdom1 and that ,he    
would presently return to earth and do  
it4  ,any unbiassed reader of the ,new  
,testament can see for himself that the 
primitive ,christians lived in hourly   
expectation that this was what would    
happen4  ,of course they also believed  

in their ,master's continual spiritual  
presence with them1 but the dominant    
thought in their minds was that of a    
dramatic second coming and the          
inauguration of a reign of righteousness
 and universal peace1 the making of a   
beautiful world1 something like the     
,utopia of ,mr4 ,h4 ,g4 ,wells4  ,nor   
was this altogether a delusion4  ,if it 
had been1 ,christianity would soon have 
died4  ,but1 on the contrary1 it lived  
and grew because of the great truth     
behind this belief1 namely1 that the    
,spirit of ,christ working in the hearts
 of men is gradually producing this     
ideal kingdom in our midst4  ,if1 with  
this view of the character of early     
,christianity in our minds1 we go afresh
 to the gospels or to the letters of    
,paul1 we shall find it abundantly      
confirmed4  ,there is no getting away   
from it4  ,all the earnestness and      
enthusiasm of these first ,christians   
were centred upon the belief in the near
 advent of a divine kingdom upon earth  

with ,jesus as its head4  ,this belief  
even affected the practice of these     
early ,christians in regard to the      
disposal of their property4  ,to        
understand this1 let us put ourselves in
 their place and ask what we should do  
if we were possessed by the conviction  
that the whole existing social order    
might come to an end to-morrow morning  
or next week1 and that after that no    
child of ,god would ever want for       
anything4  ,i think we should be sure to
 feel that the holding of personal      
property would not matter much4  ,if1 in
 addition to this1 our hearts were      
filled with a divine enthusiasm1 an     
overmastering love for ,jesus and for   
all our brethren1 we should not want to 
keep anything back that could serve to  
make anyone happier for the short time  
that intervened before the glorious     
coming of the ,lord4 ,this was just how 
the primitive ,christians felt4  ,they  
had no organised economic system2 no one
 was compelled to give anything1 but    

under the pressure of the new spirit    
they willingly gave everything4  ,what  
did it matter8 they thought2 they were  
only like pilgrims within sight of home1
 or watchers waiting for the morning4   
,origin of the idea of the              
church4--,where1 then1 did the idea of  
the church come from8  ,it is as plain  
as anything can be that the primary     
interest of early ,christianity was the 
kingdom of ,god4  ,it took the          
conception over from ,judaism with a    
deeper moral content derived from the   
preaching and the life of ,jesus4  ,its 
first adherents did not even know that  
they had a new religion2 they only      
thought they had found the true         
,messiah1 although the ,jewish nation as
 a whole had rejected ,him4 ,what they  
wanted above everything was to see the  
kingdom come upon earth1 and we now know
 that they were mistaken in imagining   
that it would be established speedily   
and suddenly by the visible second      
coming of ,jesus on the clouds of       

heaven4  ,but seeing that they were     
thinking of it in this way1 how did the 
church arise and why8  ,it is doubtful  
if ,jesus ever used the word church1 for
 the two verses in ,matthew in which ,he
 is credited with it are probably of    
late date and point to a time when the  
ecclesiastical organisation was fairly  
well established4  ,still the word      
itself has an interest and a history of 
its own apart from its ,christian use4  
,the ecclesia1 as most of my readers may
 be aware1 was the assembly of the      
citizens of any ,greek city-state4  ,it 
was the custom for the whole body of the
 members of a ,greek self-governing     
community to be called together from    
time to time for the transaction of     
public business4  ,this assembly was the
 final authority in matters affecting   
the communal welfare1 and even after the
 various ,greek states became absorbed  
in the ,roman empire this custom was    
allowed to continue4  ,it was the policy
 of the ,romans to permit a large       

measure of self-government to their     
subjects of any alien race1 and         
therefore the ecclesia of any particular
 city-state continued to be summoned as 
usual to decide upon matters of local   
importance4  ,there is a reference to   
this in the nineteenth chapter of the   
,acts1 where we read that the preaching 
of ,christianity in ,ephesus caused a   
riot which the town clerk--a thoroughly 
typical town clerk6--succeeded in       
allaying by reminding the demonstrators 
that if they had any real cause for     
complaint1 the matter ought to come     
before the regular ecclesia4 ,this      
properly constituted ecclesia to which  
the level-headed town clerk referred was
 the general assembly of the citizens   
for the transaction of public business4 
,it was quite natural that the primitive
 ,christians should have come to adopt  
this word1 and to an extent this very   
idea1 as a convenient description of the
 new ,christian community4  ,after the  
departure of their ,master the          

,christians held together1 and wherever 
their missionaries went1 new communities
 sprang up1 animated by a spirit of     
loyalty to ,jesus and a desire to       
realise ,his ideal for mankind4  ,it was
 quite natural1 too1 that the apostles  
should recognise all these communities  
as being in reality one community for   
fellowship of faith and love2 it was the
 ecclesia1 or assembly1 or society of   
,jesus1 the beginning of the church of  
,christ1 as it soon came to be called4  
,there was no elaborate organisation2   
nothing could have been simpler4  ,every
 ,christian seems to have thought that  
as it would not be long before the      
,master came again1 the wise and right  
thing to do was for ,his followers to   
hold together and witness ,him to the   
world1 until that great event took      
place4  ,church only exists for the sake
 of the kingdom4--,but how far did      
,jesus foresee and intend this8  ,it is 
difficult to say1 but his choice of     
twelve apostles whom ,he carefully      

trained to continue ,his work is        
evidence that ,he contemplated the      
formation of some kind of society to    
give effect to ,his teaching4  ,the     
number twelve points to the probability 
that ,he thought of this society as a   
kind of new ,israel1 a spiritual        
,israel1 which should do for the world  
what the older ,israel had failed to do1
 that is1 bring about the kingdom of    
,god4  ,i have already pointed out that 
in my judgment ,jesus did not believe1  
as ,his contemporaries did1 that that   
kingdom could be established suddenly   
from without1 but held that it could    
only be achieved by spiritual forces    
working from within4  ,his ecclesia has 
lived and grown4  ,it has survived for  
nineteen centuries1 and is likely to    
survive for many centuries more4  ,it   
has played a leading part in the making 
of modern civilisation4  ,but it is no  
longer a unity1 and many different      
theories exist as to its meaning and    
worth4  ,the sacerdotal                 

theory4--,broadly speaking1 however1    
there are two outstanding views as to   
the scope and function of the ecclesia1 
or church of ,jesus4  ,one is the       
sacerdotal1 and the other is what1 for  
want of a better name1 ,i may term the  
evangelical4  ,in outline the former is 
as follows3 before ,jesus finally       
withdrew ,his bodily presence from ,his 
disciples ,he formally constituted a    
religious society to represent ,him on  
earth4  ,this society was to be the ark 
of salvation1 the sphere of covenanted  
grace4  ,its principal work was to call 
men out of a lost and ruined world and  
secure for them a blessed immortality2  
those who were members of this church1  
and only they1 were certain of heaven4  
,membership therein was clearly defined2
 the gateway was baptism4  ,those who   
were baptized in a proper way1 even     
though they were unconscious infants1   
were members of the church of ,christ   
and all others were outside4  ,within   
this sacred society souls were to be    

trained in rightness of living1 and1 to 
an extent1 made fit for heaven4 ,the    
,holy ,spirit abiding in this society   
would sanctify the individual members   
and guide them into all the truth4  ,it 
is even held that ,jesus definitely     
appointed the way in which this church  
was to be governed4 ,its affairs were to
 be managed by a threefold              
order1--bishops1 priests1 and deacons4  
,but here a division has taken place    
amongst the sacerdotalists themselves   
owing to the necessity of finding some  
final authority1 some living voice1     
within this visible society to which    
appeal in the last resort could be made4
  ,romanists have found this in the     
bishop of ,rome whom they regard as the 
episcopal successor of the apostle      
,peter4  ,devout ,anglicans take their  
stand upon the faith as defined by the  
first four general ,councils1 while in  
administrative matters they regard the  
bishop as independent4  ,the ,greek     
church also insists upon its autonomy4  

,this sacerdotal view has exercised     
enormous influence in ,christian        
history1 and ,i have sufficient of the  
historic imagination to be able to say  
that at certain times it has undoubtedly
 worked on the whole for good4  ,but did
 ,jesus really found a church of this   
kind8  ,i am quite sure ,he never       
thought of such a thing1 and historical 
criticism of ,christian origins does not
 leave the sacerdotalist much to stand  
on4 ,jesus appointed neither bishop nor 
priest1 and never ordained that any     
merely mechanical ceremony should be the
 means of admission to the ,christian   
society or be necessary to the eternal  
welfare of anyone4  ,in the early church
 the bishop or elder was the president  
of the little ,christian society meeting
 in any particular locality4  ,primitive
 ,christian organisation was anything   
but rigid and formal1 and was as far as 
possible from the sacerdotal model4  ,i 
do not say that the sacerdotal mode of  
organisation which gradually grew up was

 wholly mischievous1 nor do ,i say that 
the primitive ,christian organisation   
would be the best under all             
circumstances4  ,all ,i maintain is that
 in founding ,his new society ,jesus did
 not ordain any particular form of      
organisation4  ,the evangelical         
theory4--,the other view of the meaning 
of the word church to which ,i have     
already referred1 is that it is the     
totality of the followers of ,jesus4    
,under this view organisation is a      
secondary matter4  ,there are many      
reasons why ,christian societies should 
organise themselves differently from one
 another4  ,temperament plays a great   
part in the matter4  ,but theories of   
church government have ceased to be the 
burning questions that they once were4  
,most sensible men are now satisfied    
that forms of government matter much    
less than the kind of life which        
flourishes in the society itself4  ,what
 the church exists for to-day4--,but    
what does the church exist for1 using   

the word in its primitive sense8  ,what 
ought it to exist for to-day8  ,what is 
the justification for all the vast      
number of ,christian organisations which
 exist throughout the world8  ,this is a
 subject upon which a clear note needs  
to be sounded1 for a great deal of      
mental confusion exists in regard to it4
  ,two inconsistent views of the work of
 the church1 as well as of the          
constitution of the church1 have come   
down the ages together and exist side by
 side in the world to-day4  ,the first  
is that the chief business of the church
 is to snatch men as brands from the    
burning and get them ready for a future 
heaven4  ,the ,fall theory has had much 
to do with this4  ,the assumption behind
 it is1 as we have seen1 that the world 
is a ,city of ,destruction1 as ,bunyan  
calls it4  ,it is a ruined world1 a     
world which has somehow baffled and     
disappointed ,god1 a failure of a world 
which1 when the cup of its iniquity is  
full1 will be utterly destroyed as a    

general judgment4 ,when that dreadful   
day comes it will be bad for all those  
who are outside the fellowship of       
,christ1 for1 like those who have died  
without availing themselves of the means
 of salvation1 they will be relegated to
 everlasting torment in the world       
unseen4  ,this view of the fate of the  
world as being at enmity with ,god1 and 
of the duty of the church to persuade as
 many as possible to believe something  
or other in order to secure salvation in
 a future and better world1 has been    
held by sacerdotalists and              
non-sacerdotalists1 ,catholics and      
,protestants alike4 ,it is still implied
 in most of our preaching and in the    
hymns we sing4 ,i admit that there is a 
certain truth in it1 the truth that man 
is constituted for immortality and ought
 not to live as if this world were all  
that mattered4  ,but on the whole1 it   
has been thoroughly mischievous1 and    
there is nothing which is acting as a   
greater hindrance to the spirituality   

and usefulness of the churches to-day4  
,it is based on an entirely false idea  
as to the relation of ,god and the      
world4  ,to save the world4--,but       
alongside of this view a far higher and 
nobler one has been present to the minds
 of ,christians in every century1       
namely1 that the work of the church is  
to save the world and to believe that it
 is worth the saving4  ,if what ,i have 
already said be true1 this is the idea  
which was in the mind of ,jesus when ,he
 founded ,his ecclesia4  ,to ,him the   
purpose of the ecclesia was to help to  
realise the kingdom of ,god by preaching
 and living the fellowship of love4     
,ever since ,his day those who have been
 nearest to ,him in spirit have been    
going forth into the dark places of the 
earth trying to win men to the          
realisation of the great ideal of a     
universal fellowship of love based on a 
common relationship to the ,god and     
,father of us all4 ,this is what        
,augustine aimed at in his ,city of     

,god4  ,it was what ,ambrose had in mind
 when he excommunicated the emperor     
,theodosius for having ordered a cruel  
massacre of some of his rebellious      
subjects4  ,it was the ideal of the     
mighty ,hildebrand1 grim and arrogant   
though he was1 when he compelled princes
 to bow their haughty necks and do      
justice to the weak4  ,it was what      
,bernard of ,clairvaux meant to declare 
when he defied the cruel and sensual    
king of ,france to approach the altar of
 ,christ4  ,savonarola realised it for a
 brief moment in ,florence1 ,calvin in  
,geneva1 the ,covenanters in ,scotland1 
the ,puritans in ,england1 the ,pilgrim 
,fathers in ,america4  ,they all failed 
because the world can never be saved by 
the imposition of ideal institutions    
from without and by force2 it can only  
be by the spirit of ,christ working from
 within4  ,but to some extent they all  
succeeded1 too1 for the world is a      
better place to live in because of the  
gradual and cumulative redemptive effort

 of the ,christian ecclesia1 the ,church
 of ,jesus4  ,on the other side of the  
ledger we have to set many things that  
ecclesiasticism has done1--cruel        
persecutions1 infamous tortures1        
burnings and massacres1 devastating     
wars1 and fierce religious hatreds4 ,but
 these things have never belonged to    
,jesus2 they are the very negation of   
,his spirit4  ,the true church of       
,christ in any and every age consists of
 those and those only who are trying    
like their ,master to make the world    
better and gladder and worthier of ,god4
  ,the word church has become so hateful
 to many because of the admixture of    
other ideals with this that ,i sometimes
 wish something could be done either to 
get rid of it or to change it for       
another which shall fully and clearly   
express what ,jesus really came to do4  
,i maintain that the church has nothing 
whatever to do with preparing men for a 
world to come2 the best way to prepare a
 man for the world beyond is to get him 

to live well and truly in this one4     
,the church exists to make the world a  
kingdom of ,god1 and to fill it with    
,his love4  ,no greater mistake could be
 made than to estimate the church of    
,jesus by ecclesiastical squabbles and  
divisions1 or even by ,psalm-singing and
 go-to-meeting talk4  ,look for the     
spirit of ,jesus at work1 and you have  
found the church too4  ,modern          
industrialism and the church4--,judged  
by this standard where are the churches 
to-day8  ,we have seen that the only    
gospel which ,jesus had to preach was   
the gospel of the kingdom of ,god2      
everything ,he ever said can be included
 under that head4  ,his ,church1 or     
,christian society1 or whatever else we 
like to call it1 has no meaning unless  
it exists for the realisation of the    
kingdom of ,god4  ,we cannot state this 
too strongly4  ,the whole of the        
other-worldism of the churches1 the     
elaborate paraphernalia of doctrine and 
observance1 is utterly useless and worse

 than useless unless it ministers to    
this end4  ,unless it can be shown that 
,i am wrong in this supposition--and ,i 
think that will be pretty hard to do--a 
fairly good case could be made out for  
burning down most of the theological    
colleges in the land and sending the    
bright young fellows in them to do some 
serious work for the common good4  ,for 
it must be confessed1 as ,i said at the 
beginning1 that the churches are to a   
large extent a failure4  ,we cannot but 
recognise1 for one thing1 that our      
modern civilisation1 with all its       
boasted advance on the past1 is still   
un-,christian4  ,it puts a premium upon 
selfishness4  ,modern industrialism is  
cruel and unjust and directly incites   
men to self-seeking4  ,the weak and     
unfortunate have to go to the wall2     
little mercy is shown to the man who is 
not strong enough to fight his way and  
keep his footing in the struggle for    
existence4  ,we are all the time making 
war upon one another1--man against man1 

business against business1 class against
 class1 nation against nation4 ,we talk 
of our freedom1 but no man is really    
free1 and the great majority of us are  
slaves to some corporation1 or          
capitalist1 or condition of things1     
which renders the greater part of life a
 continuous anxiety lest health or means
 should fail and we should prove unequal
 to the demands made upon us4  ,if a man
 goes under1 his acquaintances will pity
 him for five minutes and then forget   
all about him4  ,there is no help for   
it2 they cannot do anything else1 they  
have their own living to get4  ,they are
 like soldiers in the heat of battle2   
they must not pause to mourn over a     
fallen comrade or they may soon be      
stretched beside him4  ,i do not mean1  
of course1 to make the foolish statement
 that present-day industrialism is      
unrestrainedly individualistic3 thank   
,god it is not that4  ,but the principle
 of competition still exercises a sway  
so potent as to stamp modern social     

organisation as un-,christian4  ,we may 
just as well recognise that fact and    
state it plainly4  ,the glaringly       
unequal ownership of material wealth is 
anti-social2 it is good neither for the 
rich man nor for the poor1 for it is to 
the interest of every man that the body 
politic should be healthy and happy4    
,that so large a number of our total    
population should have to exist upon the
 very margin of subsistence is a moral  
wrong4  ,we have no business to have any
 slums1 or sweating dens1 or able-bodied
 unemployed1 or paupers4  ,poverty1     
dulness of brain1 and coarseness of     
habit are often found in close          
association4 ,some amount of material   
endowment is required even for the      
development of the intelligence and the 
training of the moral faculties4        
,wealth possesses no value in itself2 it
 only possesses value as a means to more
 abundant life4  ,if there is one thing 
upon which ,christianity insists more   
than another1 it is the duty of caring  

for the weak and sinful1 but at present 
this duty is only recognised to a very  
limited extent4  ,christianity and      
,collectivism4--,in what ,i am now      
saying ,i am well aware that ,i have    
come to a phase of my subject which     
thousands of my countrymen are stating  
so clearly and forcibly as to compel    
attention2 but what ,i want to show is  
that the present unideal condition of   
the civilised world is an indictment of 
the churches and their conventional     
doctrines4  ,we seem to have forgotten  
our origin4  ,i have long felt1 as ,i   
suppose every ,christian minister must  
feel1 the antagonism between the        
,christian standard of conduct and that 
required in ordinary business life4     
,there is no blinking the fact that the 
standard of ,christ and the standard of 
the commercial world are not the same4  
,our work is to make them the same1 and 
to that end we must destroy the social  
system which makes selfishness the rule 
and compels a man to act upon his lower 

motives1 and we must put a better in its
 place4  ,we must establish a social    
order wherein a man can be free to be   
his best1 and to give his best to the   
community without crushing or destroying
 anyone else4  ,in a word we want       
,collectivism in the place of           
competition2 we want the kingdom of     
,god4  ,charity is no remedy for our    
social ills and their moral outcome2 the
 only remedy is a new social            
organisation on a ,christian basis4  ,i 
do not believe that any form of         
,collectivism1 as a mere system         
superposed from without1 can ever really
 make the world happy2 it must be the   
expression of the spirit of brotherhood 
working from within4  ,neither do ,i    
feel much faith in any sudden and       
cataclysmic reformation of society4     
,the history of ,christendom proves that
 no institution can be much in advance  
of human nature and survive4            
,covenanters and ,puritans found that   
out when they tried to make men godly by

 ,act of ,parliament2 ,savonarola found 
it out when the wild passions of the    
,florentines1 restrained for a brief    
hour1 broke their chains and destroyed  
him2 the ,christians of ,new ,testament 
times found it out when their beautiful 
experiment of social brotherhood came to
 an end in the horror and darkness of   
the break-up of ,jewish national life4  
,but at least we can recognise the      
presence of the guiding ,spirit of ,god 
in all our social concerns and work     
along with it for the realisation of the
 ideal of universal brotherhood4  ,we   
can show men what ,jesus really came to 
do1 and1 as ,his servants1 we can help  
,him to do it4  ,we can definitely      
recognise that the movement toward      
social regeneration is really and truly 
a spiritual movement1 and that it must  
never be captured by materialism4  ,i   
deplore the fact that1 for the moment1  
the main current of the great ,labour   
movement which1 perhaps more than any   
other1 represents the social application

 of the ,christian ideal1 should appear 
to be out of touch with organised       
religion4  ,this cannot continue1 for ,i
 observe that the men who lead it are   
men of moral passion1 and often men of  
simple religious faith4  ,it could      
hardly be otherwise4  ,it seems to me in
 the nature of things impossible to     
sustain a belief in the moral ideal     
without some kind of belief in ,god1 and
 assuredly ,god is with these men in the
 work they are doing and have yet to do4
  ,in fact1 the ,labour ,party is itself
 a ,church1 in the sense in which that  
word was originally used1 for it        
represents the getting-together of those
 who want to bring about the kingdom of 
,god4  ,the ,new ,theology and          
,collectivism4--,the ,new ,theology1 as 
,i understand it1 is the theology of    
this movement1 whether the movement     
knows it or not1 for it is essentially  
the gospel of the kingdom of ,god4  ,no 
lesser theology can consistently claim  
to be this2 systems of belief which are 

weighted by dogmatic considerations have
 not and cannot have the same power of  
appeal4  ,this higher1 wider truth1     
which sweeps away the mischievous       
accretions which have made religion     
distasteful to the masses1 is religious 
articulation of the movement toward an  
ideal social order4  ,this fact ought to
 be realised and brought home to the    
consciousness of the earnest men who are
 labouring to redeem ,england and the   
world from the power of all that        
tortures and degrades humanity and      
stifles or destroys its best life4      
,this1 then1 is the mission of the ,new 
,theology4  ,it is to brighten and keep 
burning the flame of the spiritual ideal
 in the midst of the mighty social      
movement which is now in progress4  ,it 
is ours to see ,god in it and help      
mankind to see ,him too4  ,it is ours to
 show what the gospel really is and has 
been from the first4  ,we shall not     
suffer the world any longer to believe  
that ,christianity and dogma mean the   

same thing4  ,our business is to show   
that the religion of ,jesus is primarily
 a gospel for this life and only        
secondarily for the life to come4  ,we  
have to demonstrate that material things
 have spiritual meanings1 and that      
wealth has value only as it ministers to
 soul power4  ,we have to make clear to 
the world that the reason why we want to
 lift any man up and give him a chance  
of a better and happier life here is    
because he has an immortal destiny and  
must make a beginning somewhere if he is
 to reach the stature of the perfect man
 at last4  ,we believe that faith is the
 one indispensable qualification for    
this work1 as for any work that is worth
 the doing1 or ever has been worth the  
doing1 in the history of mankind4  ,it  
is the victory that overcometh the      
world4     ,,chapter ,,xiv  ,,conclusion
  ,a personal word4--,the task which has
 occupied the greater part of my winter 
resting time has now been accomplished1 
as far as opportunity affords4  ,what   

has been said in these pages is no more 
than an outline statement of the        
teaching which has been given from the  
,city ,temple pulpit ever since ,i came 
into it4  ,there is not a single thought
 in this book with which my own people  
are not already quite familiar1 and     
chapter and verse for it can be produced
 from my published sermons which have   
been appearing week by week for years   
past in the ,christian ,commonwealth and
 other periodicals4  ,if space had      
permitted1 ,i should like to have said  
much more1 for necessarily many phases  
of the subject have had to be left      
untouched2 it has only been possible to 
deal with those of fundamental          
importance4  ,for example1 ,i should    
like to have included some examination  
of the great question of ,miracles1 the 
place of ,prayer in ,christian          
experience1 and the value and           
significance of ,biblical ,criticism4   
,but as it has not been possible to do  
this ,i must add a word or two to       

indicate my position in regard to these 
matters4  ,miracle4--,it seems probable 
that before long we shall see a         
rehabilitation of belief in the         
credibility of certain kinds of miracle1
 and that this rehabilitation will      
proceed from the side of psychical      
science4  ,already there are signs that 
this rehabilitation is on the way4  ,the
 power of mind over matter is being     
recognised for therapeutic purposes1 for
 instance1 in a way hitherto undreamed  
of1 and is receiving a large and        
increasing measure of attention from the
 medical profession4  ,this appears to  
me to throw a considerable amount of    
light upon the healing ministry of      
,jesus1 which1 as the late ,professor   
,a4 ,b4 ,bruce has pointed out1 rests   
upon as good historical ground as the   
best-accredited parts of the teaching4  
,given a time and a mental atmosphere in
 which men expected miracles of this    
sort1 and given a personality of such   
wonderful magnetic force as that of     

,jesus1 such miracles would be sure to  
happen4  ,that they did not happen apart
 from such conditions is evident from   
such hints as the statement that1 ,he   
could do no mighty works there because  
of their unbelief4  ,there are other    
kinds of miracle recorded in scripture  
which are not so easily credible1 but ,i
 am not always prepared to brush them   
aside as mere childish fancies4  ,as a  
rule it will be found that they belong  
to the poetry of religious experience1  
and that some valuable truth is         
contained in this particular form of    
statement4  ,to this order belong the   
accounts about the horses and chariots  
of fire on the hillside round about     
,elisha1 the whirlwind in which ,elijah 
ascended to heaven1 and ,jesus walking  
on the sea4  ,these accounts are forms  
in which the oriental imagination is1   
even to-day1 wont to clothe truths too  
great for prosaic statement2 they are   
poetry1 not history1 and the western    
mind ought to make allowance for the    

fact4  ,sometimes we can discern in     
scripture records of an event1 which to 
the stolid western imagination seems    
utterly incredible1 a genuine historical
 truth4  ,such1 for instance1 are the   
passage of the ,red ,sea--a stirring and
 dramatic incident1 thoroughly well     
told--and ,joshua commanding the sun and
 moon to stand still4  ,in the latter   
case we have two lines of poetry from a 
book which has been lost1 and a         
comparison with similar poetry in almost
 any literature gives us a clew to its  
meaning4  ,the poet represents the old  
warrior as declaring in magnificent     
style that the sun of ,israel shall not 
go down1 and that day and night shall be
 alike to him until her enemies are     
discomfited4  ,any reader with a shred  
of sympathetic imagination ought to be  
able to feel the force of the sentiment 
which provoked this utterance without   
either accepting or rejecting it as a   
literal statement of fact2 the best     
things which have been written in the   

books of the world are seldom literal   
and exact statements of fact4  ,it has  
been well pointed out that myth and     
legend are truer than history1 for they 
take us to the inside of things1 whereas
 history only shows us the outside4     
,prayer4--,prayer is a vital necessity  
to religious experience1 and without it 
no religious experience has ever existed
 or ever can4  ,it is not primarily     
petition but communion with ,god4  ,our 
intercourse with our friends does not   
chiefly consist in asking them for      
things6  ,but when communion does become
 petition1 there is a real place for it 
as well as for the answer to such       
prayer4  ,it is not too much to say that
 no true prayer has ever gone without   
its answer4  ,this is quite consistent  
with the assertion that prayer does not 
change ,god2 it only affords ,him       
opportunity4  ,it is impossible to      
improve on what ,god already desires for
 us before we pray1 but upon our prayer 
depends the realisation of that desire4 

,everything that the soul can possibly  
need is present beforehand in the       
eternal reality1 and the prayer of faith
 is like going into a treasure-house and
 bringing forth from what is contained  
therein all that the soul needs day by  
day4  ,prayer1 therefore1 cannot be too 
definite1 but it should be as unselfish 
as the worshipper can make it in order  
that the highest can operate in         
response4  ,the same law holds good in  
this as in all other activities of the  
soul2 selfishness draws away from the   
source of life1 whereas love is         
instantly at one with infinity4  ,i     
question whether many people realise the
 enormous value of definite and         
systematic prayer2 it is the secret of  
all spiritual power4  ,everything that  
we can possibly want is waiting for us  
in the bounty of ,god1 and what we have 
to do is to go and take it4  ,believe   
that ye have received them and ye shall 
have them4  ,the ,bible and the         
young4--,one thing that urgently needs  

to be done for the young people in our  
,sunday-schools and various ,christian  
societies all over the world is to issue
 a series of well-written popular       
manuals presenting in succinct form the 
best results of ,biblical ,criticism4   
,the way the ,bible is taught to young  
people at present is most regrettable1  
for in after years it leads them to     
doubt and distrust the very foundations 
of ,christianity4  ,if the teachers only
 had a little more intelligent          
acquaintance with the sources of the    
scriptures1 this danger would be avoided
 and the ,bible would become a far more 
interesting and helpful book both to    
young and old4  ,at present it is       
interpreted by many people in a way     
which is an insult to the intelligence  
and harmful to the moral sense4  ,will  
anyone seriously maintain that the      
trickeries of ,jacob and the butcheries 
following the ,israelitish invasion of  
,canaan1 not to speak of the obscenities
 which are to be found in so many parts 

of the ,old ,testament1 are healthy     
reading for children or a mark of divine
 inspiration8  ,is it not time we       
adopted the more excellent way of facing
 the truth about the ,bible records and 
presenting what is valuable in such a   
way as to help and not to hinder the    
growth of a true knowledge of the       
relations of ,god and man8  ,in         
conclusion1 let me say emphatically that
 no one but myself is responsible for a 
single word in this book4  ,among the   
many wild and unjust criticisms which   
have been published concerning my views1
 none is wider of the mark than that ,i 
have borrowed from this man or that in  
my statement of them4  ,i am not        
conscious of owing a scintilla of my    
theology to any living man4  ,in so far 
as it coincides with anyone else's views
 ,i am thankful1 for it shows that the  
same eternal ,spirit of ,truth is       
speaking to others than myself4  ,but ,i
 hope ,i may be permitted to say with   
due humility that in thinking out my    

position1 ,i conferred not with flesh   
and blood4  ,perhaps some people will   
maintain that this makes my teaching all
 the worse1 but if so ,i cannot help it4
 ,it can hardly be denied that in its   
main bearing1 to say no more1 it is seen
 to be rising spontaneously in every    
part of the civilised world4 ,again1 no 
thinker can ever succeed in completely  
closing the circle of his system of     
thought1 and ,i cannot claim to be an   
exception4  ,but ,i trust it will be    
seen that what is contained in this book
 is at least a self-consistent whole3   
every arc of the circle implies every   
other4  ,it only remains to reiterate my
 conviction that the movement           
represented by the ,new ,theology is    
only incidentally theological at all2 it
 is primarily a moral and spiritual     
movement4  ,it is one symptom of a great
 religious awakening which in the end   
will re-inspire civilisation with a     
living faith in ,god and the spiritual  
meaning of life4  ,if what ,i am trying 

to do can contribute in any way toward  
this grand result1 ,i shall be humbly   
thankful to the ,giver of all good4