,a ,,wayfarer',s ,,faith3 ,,aspects ,,of
 ,,the ,,common ,,basis ,,of ,,religious
 ,,life          ,by      ,t4 ,edmund   
,harvey    ,london3 ,wells ,gardner1    
,barton and ,co41 ,ltd4  #c  #d1        
,paternoster ,buildings1 ,b4,c4 and #dd1
 ,victoria ,street1 ,s4,w4    #aiac     
,printed ,headley ,brothers1            
,bishopsgate ,e4,c42 and ,ashford1 ,kent
      ,some of these pages were         
originally prepared by the writer for   
the use  of his fellow members in the   
,society of ,friends4 ,he is indebted to
 the  courtesy of the ,editor of _/,the 
,nation_/ for permission to make use of 
two  chapters which have appeared in its
 columns in a slightly different form4  
,,contents    ,,chapter444,,page    ,i4 
,,the ,,common ,,basis ,,of ,,religious 
,,life ,i    ,,ii4 ,,the ,,inner ,,life 
,,of ,,the ,,church #b,o    ,,iii4 ,,the
 ,,prophet ,,in ,,the ,,church #cc      
,,iv4 ,,sacraments ,,of ,,life #eh      
,v4 ,,some ,,of ,,nature',s ,,sacraments
 #he    ,,vi4 ,,institutions ,,and      

,,inspiration #ia    ,,vii4 ,,priests   
,,and ,,pontiffs #ig    ,,viii4 ,,the   
,,answer ,,of ,,faith #aaf    ,,ix4     
,,the ,,house ,,of ,,peace #ace    ,x4  
,,the ,,path ,,to ,,unity #ade          
,,chapter ,i4 ,,the ,,common ,,basis    
,,of ,,religious ,,life4    ,,there is a
 well known story of how a man of       
letters a century ago1 when  questioned 
as to his religious views1 answered that
 all sensible men  were of one religion1
 and to the further query as to what    
that religion  might be1 made the curt  
response3 ,sir1 sensible men never say4 
,the  story is characteristic of its    
age1 and of the attitude towards        
religion  of some of its ablest men4    
,many of the greatest thinkers1 whatever
 the  religious opinions of the circle  
in which they were educated may have    
been1 held themselves aloof from        
controversy on questions of creed and   
church1 looking upon such disputes with 
the kindly contempt of tolerant  beings 
who themselves had reached a larger and 

freer atmosphere than  that which       
surrounded those who struggled amid the 
dust of the plains  beneath their feet4 
,something of this spirit1 which is so  
clearly  manifested in the world of     
politics and letters1 can be seen too in
 many  of the prominent religious       
organisations of the day4 ,men were     
weary of  the hateful bitterness which  
had characterised the theological p4#b  
controversies of the seventeenth        
century1 and the wider outlook which    
came with the age of illumination showed
 itself even as late as the  beginning  
of the nineteenth century1 when in      
,germany ,catholic and  ,protestant     
ecclesiastical authorities united in a  
common religious  celebration at ,fulda 
of the anniversary of the mission of    
,saint  ,boniface4 ,but beneath the     
surface of this toleration1 which seemed
 to be  increasing between ,catholic1   
,protestant and ,jew1 we may perhaps    
feel  that the uniting influence lay not
 so much in a profound sense of the     

underlying verities common to all their 
various forms of faith as in a  certain 
vagueness as to any form of dogmatic    
belief1 a distrust of dogma  in itself1 
if not an indifference to the things    
which that dogma  attempted to          
represent4 ,men were willing to leave   
others free to have  their own religious
 beliefs1 and distrusted the enthusiasm 
of the  fanatic1 of the man who wished  
to convert others to view life as he    
himself did4 ,the profession of a       
recognition of good in all religions    
went hand in hand with the recognition  
of their imperfection1 and a  doubt as  
to how far they were not so much alike  
sharing in truth as  alike mingled with 
error4 ,this attitude is illustrated by 
,lessing's  famous fable of the three   
rings1 which is perhaps the most quoted 
passage in ,nathan the ,wise4 ,none but 
the father can tell the true ring  from 
the counterfeits which he has had made2 
the sons must therefore  each treat the 
others as in the same position as       

himself4 ,no one creed  can claim to    
p4#c itself a pre-eminence over the     
others1 none but ,god  can distinguish  
the true from the false4 ,the lesson of 
tolerance which  ,lessing taught in his 
drama was one of which our age1 as well 
as his  own1 has need1 but if we are    
only to view all forms of faith with    
respect because we are conscious of the 
difficulty of discerning the  true from 
the false1 we have reached a position   
which may indeed promote  friendly      
relationships in the ordinary           
intercourse of life1 but which  cannot  
in the end be satisfactory either to    
ourselves or to others4  ,tolerance     
founded upon doubt can never be an      
inspiring virtue4    ,is it not possible
 for us1 however1 since we realise this1
 to take a  further step8 ,we need to   
feel1 not the imperfections of all the  
varying  creeds1 religions and          
irreligions1 but the inherent strength  
of each1  and from a consciousness of   
this to rise to some dim realization of 

the  golden thread of truth which runs  
through all sincere faiths1 however     
degraded or erroneous they may at first 
sight appear to be4    ,in the          
eighteenth century there swept over     
,europe a wave of new thought1  which   
liberated men's minds from old          
superstitions and the narrowness of     
former dogmatism1 and produced a sort of
 freemasonry of new ideas  between men  
whose national religious and political  
upbringing had been  wholly different4  
,but this wave of liberal thought failed
 to produce a  permanent sense of unity2
 in due time came a counter-movement    
when men  p4#d turned from the          
generalisations and the vague optimism  
of these  syncretist philosophers4 ,the 
attacks which the sceptical critics had 
levelled on the older creeds were too   
negative in character3 content to  find 
out the weakness of their opponents'    
position and to expose it to  contempt  
and ridicule1 they had failed to realise
 the strength which lay  deeper than the

 intellectual interpretations of belief 
which they had  assailed4    ,thus the  
nineteenth century has witnessed in the 
political world an  extraordinary       
revival of national spirit1 especially  
amongst smaller  peoples1 and on the    
other hand a similar revival within the 
different  religious communities4 ,the  
eighteenth century humanists would have 
foreseen the one as little as the other4
 ,to them it seemed that beneath  the   
clear light of reason the old dogmas of 
the sects would each lose  their force1 
just as the ignorant patriotism of their
 day1 which they  saw to be so largely  
built upon mistaken prejudice1 would    
give away to  their wide cosmopolitan   
spirit which felt itself above these    
petty views4    ,the revival of national
 feeling among the little peoples of    
,europe1 with  no wealth of capital or  
military force to give them aid1 which  
we have  witnessed during the last      
century1 is1 however1 hardly less       
remarkable  than the revival of life    

amongst the different ,churches and     
religious  communities of the western   
world4 ,there was surely something      
lacking in  the theory of life of these 
men of broad view of a former day who   
for  p4#e all their breadth could not   
find room for enthusiasm such as this4  
,we are beginning to see that the truer 
cosmopolitan of the future will  not    
cease to be a citizen of his own country
 when he becomes a citizen  of the      
world1 that the wider fellowship will   
lose its content and its  meaning if it 
is to involve a denial of patriotism and
 not rather to  subsume it as a         
necessary element in the true           
international spirit2 and  so in the    
inner life of the soul we must seek to  
harmonize the various  contending       
creeds1 not by destroying any particular
 creed1 or attempting  to replace it by 
some1 vague generalisation1 devoid of   
life or of  attractive and inspiring    
force1 but by attempting to appeal to   
the best  in each1 realising that each  

must have some value of its own1 just as
  the poorest of peoples has its own    
peculiar traits and virtues2 and thus   
gradually draw the sympathies and       
thoughts of men nearer together by      
reason of the common life from which    
must spring all that is good in the     
religion of each one4    ,there is a    
beautiful saying of ,penn's which sets  
forth what many good  men of very       
different creeds must have felt again   
and again before he  gave the thought   
expression3 ,the humble1 meek1 merciful1
 just1 pious1  and devout souls are     
everywhere of one religion2 and when    
death has  taken off the mask they will 
know one another1 though the divers     
liveries they wear here makes them      
strangers4 ,may we not venture to  carry
 further the thought and say1 that this 
religion includes p4#f  every servant of
 truth1 and every man who is recognizing
 in practice in  his own life the need  
of his fellows1 by subordinating his own
 happiness  and interest to theirs8     

,that there is in reality a religion    
which all  good men share we do1 indeed1
 recognise in practice in everyday life2
  how else can we explain the appeal to 
conscience1 to the sense of duty1  to   
the unselfish desire to benefit others1 
which is constantly made to  men of the 
most divergent religious views1 whose   
theories of life would  not be accepted 
by each other for a moment8    ,how is  
it then possible for us to make more    
clear to our eyes and to  others this   
common basis of religion1 and to build  
more securely upon it  the structure of 
our lives8    ,we must not be           
disappointed if it is difficult to give 
intellectual  expression to this basis  
of life2 at best such expression must be
  imperfect1 and we can only hope to    
arrive at it very slowly4 ,perhaps  some
 hint of the way in which one may look  
at the problem may be given  by that    
strange poem of ,w4 ,b4 ,yeats ,the     
,indian upon ,god4 ,the poet  pictures  
the way in which the creatures of earth 

each frame their own  idea of the       
,divine ,creator after their own image2 
some vast ,brocken  spectre1 perhaps1   
some may say1 cast by the reflection of 
imagination  upon the clouds of the     
world without4 ,and yet the poem has    
surely within  it another meaning4 ,to  
each creature comes1 coloured1 it is    
true1 by  different visions1 p4#g some  
dim picture of the ,maker1 some sense of
  sustaining presence in the world and  
in their own lives3    _/,i passed along
 the water's edge1 below the humid      
trees1_/    _/,my spirit rocked in      
evening light1 the rushes round my      
knees1_/    _/,my spirit rocked in sleep
 and sighs2 and saw the moorfowl pace_/ 
_/,all dripping on a grassy slope1 and  
saw them cease to chase_/    _/,each    
other round in circles1 and heard the   
eldest speak3_/    _/,who holds the     
world between ,his bill and made us     
strong and weak1_/    _/,is an undying  
moorfowl1 and ,he lives beyond the      
sky4_/    _/,the rains are from ,his    

dripping wing1 the moonbeams from ,his  
eye4_/    _/,i passed a little further  
on1 and heard a lotus talk3_/    _/,who 
made the world1 and ruleth it1 ,he      
hangeth on a stalk1_/    _/,for ,i am in
 ,his image made1 and all this tinkling 
tide_/    _/,is but a sliding drop of   
rain between ,his petals wide4_/    _/,a
 little way within the gloom a roebuck  
raised his eyes_/    _/,brimful of      
starlight1 and he said1 ,the stamper of 
the skies1_/    _/,he is a gentle       
roebuck2 for how else1 ,i pray1 could   
,he_/    _/,conceive a thing so sad and 
soft1 a gentle thing like me8 _/    _/,i
 passed a little further on and heard a 
peacock say3_/    _/,who made the grass 
and made the worms and made my feathers 
gay1_/    _/,he is a monstrous peacock1 
and ,he waveth all the night_/    _/,his
 languid tail above us1 lit with myriad 
spots of light4_/    ,one can readily   
understand that some readers might be   
shocked by what  would seem to them to  
be idolatrous images4 ,yet does not the 

whole poem  show something more than the
 fact that men worship images of ,god   
after  their own likeness8 ,beneath the 
grossest idolatry there p4#h may be at  
least some sense of contact with the    
,unseen4 ,though man1 like his          
fellow-creatures1 cannot behold unveiled
 the vision of the ,eternal1  somewhere 
under every imperfect picture which our 
dogmas have framed of  ,him does not    
there lie at least some trait of faint  
resemblance8 ,and1  however much we may 
endeavour to remove from our minds all  
anthropomorphic conceptions we needs    
must think as men4 ,our most  abstract  
thoughts are but spiritualised          
metaphors1 the ghosts and  shadows of   
the fully-coloured language of our      
earlier days or of a more  primitive    
people4 ,the moment we think of the     
origin and meaning of  words1 we realise
 that this is so2 when we speak of      
conceiving a  thought1 grasping an idea1
 abandoning an argument1 we are using   
metaphors which were once bold and vivid

 but are now scarcely perceived  as such
 at all4 ,and so in all our formulated  
thoughts of the ,unseen we  may be said 
to be in a sense idolaters4 ,but only   
sinfully so1 if we  wilfully cleave to  
the lower forms when we have had vision 
of a higher4  ,the fact that we express 
our thoughts on religion through the    
medium of  the terms of the material    
world does not mean that the religious  
truths  which they express are dependent
 upon1 and are evolved out of1 the      
physical world1 any more than the       
intellectual processes of conception    
and perception are dependent on or      
derived from the physical processes     
after which they are named4 ,but it does
 surely mean that we must  recognise the
 necessary p4 #i imperfection of our    
efforts to express  the unseen          
realities1 whether in religious creed or
 philosophical dogma4  ,if we are       
convinced that there is a real unity    
underlying the religious  life of every 
sincere man1 whether he call himself    

religious or no1 how  can we best       
promote the growth of this sense of     
unity1 so that in every  form of faith  
the best may be strengthened and drawn  
into a sense of  membership of a wider  
whole8    ,in the first place we must   
endeavour to be faithful to the best    
ideal of  our own party1 of our own     
church or creed1 to insist on the       
positive  side of what it teaches rather
 than its negations4 ,the true          
protestant1  for instance1 should be    
zealous to protest for a living ideal   
which he  feels to correspond to his    
needs1 and not1 as too often has been   
the  case in the past1 merely to protest
 against evils and mistakes connected   
with another ideal4    ,then realizing  
the vastness of truth1 and the          
limitations of our own  powers of       
apprehending it1 we must be willing to  
recognize that there  must be other     
aspects of truth which we1 as           
individuals or as a  religious          
community1 have not yet apprehended1 and

 that the whole truth  must needs be too
 great for any human mind or system to  
express4 ,this  attitude of mind should 
surely be perfectly compatible with an  
enthusiastic loyalty to that vision of  
the truth which has been given to  us or
 our community1 and with a desire to    
share this vision with others4  p4#aj   
,to attempt to surrender our own        
expression of the ,truth as we see it1  
and replace it by an expression drawn   
from the vision of others is to  make in
 the inner life an error like that of   
the school of ,bologna in  painting4    
,the ,caracci and their followers       
deliberately aimed at  acquiring the    
peculiar excellencies of each of the    
great masters who  preceded them1 the   
harmonies of ,raphael1 the colour of    
,titian1 the  vigour and the grandiose  
forms of ,michael ,angelo4 ,they hoped  
to combine  all these and thus achieve a
 higher perfection than their masters1  
but  in so doing they failed to express 
themselves in their own way1 for they   

were always painting things as they     
imagined they ought to see them1 and    
not as they really saw them4    ,the    
great artist1 like ,rembrandt1 will     
honour and admire a ,raphael or a       
,correggio without seeking to imitate   
them or to borrow their technique4  ,and
 so while we recognise the vision of    
truth that comes to men of  different   
views from our own1 we must not abandon 
our own vision1 or our  attempt to      
express it faithfully1 because we know  
that we see a part and  not the whole4  
,every great religious movement has been
 in its origin or at its highest  point 
universal in its aspiration1 claiming to
 make appeal to all  mankind and to     
become at length the religion of the    
whole world4 ,and it  is this very      
universal claim which seems to some     
dispassionate critics  so narrow-       
spirited and fanatical1 which bears     
witness to the force and  reality of    
that deepest religious life p4#aa which 
underlies all  difference of dogma1 and 

finds its expression in all these       
varying  faiths4 ,at the moment of its  
budding forth1 the tiny twig feels      
within  it the expanding life of the    
whole tree4 ,i am the true tree1 and the
  tree that is to be4 it may be imagined
 as saying2 though the great  boughs    
above it do not stir in the wind that   
shakes it to and fro4 ,the  twig may    
have within it the possibility of growth
 to a size exceeding  the stem from     
which it now springs1 or it may remain  
only a twig2 but in  either case it is a
 part of the tree1 and in a sense it is 
the tree2 its  life is the tree's life4 
,so every great religious movement1 when
 at its  best and highest1 looks forward
 to world-wide extension2 it may be that
  the flood of life takes new channels  
and only a tiny sect remains to  bear   
witness to what has been1 but yet1 when 
its members were filled  with their     
first enthusiasm1 and went forth into   
the world to win others  to their views1
 they were strong because somehow or    

other they had come  into touch with the
 eternal2 their creed and organisation  
may have  corresponded only to the need 
of the day1 and of a limited number of  
people1 or it may have been of wider    
application and able to endure for  a   
longer time1 but in spite of these      
limitations1 the creed and  organisation
 represent an inner life through which  
their members came  into touch with the 
source of all life and strength4    ,our
 task then must be to strive to be more 
conscious of this fact in our  own      
lives1 and p4#ab in elaborating our own 
systems1 as well as in  dealing with and
 considering the religious views of     
others4 ,in  discarding the transient   
elements1 the husks of dogma1 we have to
  respect the seed-corn of life within  
them4 ,the recognition of this will     
make us more reverent towards even the  
hoary errors of antiquity1 and  the     
methods of thought and life which to us 
are outworn1 but were once  living1 and 
still may be living to some4    ,this   

surely is the lesson which we may draw  
from that touching story  related by    
,john ,cassian of the monk ,serapion1   
which ,auguste ,sabatier  once told to  
his pupils4 ,in his old age the good    
monk had suddenly been  brought to      
realise1 by the preaching of two        
missioners1 the error which  he had     
committed in thinking of the ,eternal as
 a being like himself1  fashioned in    
human form4 ,his friends gathered round 
him to thank ,god for  his deliverance  
from the grievous anthropomorphic       
heresy1 when1 in the  midst of their    
prayers1 the old man fell in tears to   
the ground with the  pathetic cry3      
,woe's me1 wretched man that ,i am6 they
 have taken away my  ,god and ,i have   
none to hold to or worship or pray to   
now4    ,in our work of thought or of   
practical endeavour we shall need above 
all  to realise the value of humble     
reverence for truth for its own sake1   
and  of the recognition that wherever   
goodness is1 there is that which the    

theist knows as the ,divine1 which      
others my speak of as the enduring      
spiritual p4#ac ideal1 but which1 by    
whatever name we call it is the         
inspiring and illuminating reality which
 shines through every unselfish  deed   
and thought1 and makes our lives of     
worth4    ,we are sensible of this      
uniting force1 however much our ethical 
ideals  may differ4 ,we cannot explain  
the common principles which justify the 
ideal of a ,gordon and that of a        
,tolstoy1 but we must surely feel that  
those ideals are in some way branches   
from the same good tree2 it may  well be
 that just as in the intellectual world 
different bents of genius  each have    
their place and justification1 so too in
 the moral have  different types of the 
ethical ideal4 ,the scientific mind1 the
  practical1 executive talent of the    
businessman1 the speculative powers  of 
the metaphysician and the creative gifts
 of the poet and artist1 each  have     
their place1 and no one human mind can  

combine them all4 ,so1 too1  it may be  
with the moral ideals realised here in  
our human lives4  ,because one is good1 
another is not wholly wrong4 ,there may 
be varieties  of goodness just as there 
are differences of shape and beauty     
between  flower and flower4 ,but while  
we recognise this1 we surely need too to
  realise that there must ultimately be 
some vital connection between  these    
different ideals1 although we ourselves 
may not be able to  perceive the        
unifying influence or principle4 ,is it 
not here that the  ,union of ,ethical   
,societies fails1 in that after         
insisting upon the  supreme importance  
of the knowledge1 love and practice of  
the ,right1  p4#ad their manifesto goes 
on to disclaim the acceptance of any one
  ultimate criterion of right as a      
condition of ethical fellowship8 ,yet   
unless there be some such criterion1 can
 we speak of the ,right at all8  ,the   
capital ,r is an unconscious survival of
 the theistic expression of  thought1 or

 rather the expression of the           
essentially religious spirit of  man1   
which in spite of a creed of            
intellectual agnosticism1 recognises    
the ,divine in life and does obeisance  
to it under another name4 ,the idea  of 
good and the thought of ,god are not    
connected together merely by a          
similarity of sound2 they have but one  
origin4 ,thus1 if where goodness  is1   
there ,god is1 we must be able to find  
evidence1 even where there may  be no   
intellectual knowledge of ,god1 of the  
recognition of a unique  worth in the   
good apart from all attempted           
explanations of its value4  ,and perhaps
 we cannot do better than take an       
example from the writings  of a master  
sceptic1 to show how in spite even of an
 apparent intention  to make mock of the
 failure of the good and unselfish man1 
and of the  utterly impracticable nature
 of his ideal1 a kind of homage is yet  
paid  to the ideal and to its votary1   
and through them to the source of their 

inspiration4    ,readers of ,voltaire's 
,candide will recall the figure of the  
,anabaptist  ,jacques1 the upright and  
unselfish man who perishes in spite of  
all his  trust in overruling good4      
,voltaire in picturing his death would  
appear  to be casting scorn upon p4 #ae 
a complacent view of a universe where   
such a thing might happen again and     
again1 and as far as any practical      
teaching goes he would seem merely to   
point out that righteousness and  faith 
may be not only unavailing to ward off  
calamity1 but may actually  bring it    
upon those who make such a standard     
their sole guide4 ,and yet1  even as you
 read1 you feel how much nobler and     
better it is to perish  like ,jacques1  
with the unswerving faith of a good man1
 than to live on  contentedly digging   
one's garden and enjoying its fruits in 
selfish  peace4 ,and however much we may
 be conscious that in the moment of     
trial1  face to face with mortal peril1 
we ourselves might swerve aside1 might  

hesitate and fail1 we yet know that if  
we could make our choice in a  cool     
hour1 reviewing calmly what we ought to 
do1 and what we would do if  we could be
 true to the best that is in us1 we     
should choose the  honourable failure of
 the good man rather than the success of
 the bad4  ,in itself we know it to be  
better1 apart from all thought of       
consequence4 ,and in practice we know   
how in the presence of the  loveliness  
of an unselfish act all lower thoughts  
of pleasure and of  profit fade away6   
,face to face with the enduring ideal   
that shines forth  from4 the good deed1 
lower ideals shrivel and sink into      
nothingness4  ,even truer is this of    
goodness made real to us in personality1
 and here  it is that those of us who   
call ourselves ,christians may find the 
keystone to the continual               
self-revelation of ,god to man1 in that 
supreme  revelation of the ,divine p4#af
 nature in the unique personality of    
,jesus1 which for the ,church is the    

centre of inspiration and the           
explanation of the light which shines in
 all other lives4    ,if we can unite in
 reverencing the good and unselfish     
spirit1 wherever  it manifests itself in
 human lives1 so too1 we need to        
reverence every-  where the search after
 truth1 and the service of ,truth for   
its own sake4  ,surely one of the most  
helpful signs our age is found in this  
increasing  recognition of spiritual    
kinship between seekers after ,truth of 
most  divergent creed2 not the least of 
the benefits of the ,higher ,criticism  
and the problems with which the minds of
 men have been confronted  through the  
advance of science has been that in the 
readjustment of  thought and life which 
is going on all about us1 men have grown
 aware  that they are not fighting their
 battles alone1 but that far and near   
are kindred spirits going through a like
 struggle1 and even that those  whom    
they had fancied foemen were really     
their allies4 ,this is the  beginning of

 a movement wider and deeper than the   
so-called religious  controversies which
 embitter the surface of our political  
life1 the  prelude to a new and wider   
,catholicism of the spirit1 in which all
 the  servants of ,truth and humanity   
may unite without sacrifice of          
conviction  in a sense of true          
brotherhood4 ,something of this         
underlying unity is  recognised both in 
the supreme moments of our individual   
lives and in  great times of national   
crisis1 such as p4#ag  come in the      
birthpangs  of a new movement or the    
brave endeavour to stem some rising tide
 of  evil4 ,thus it came about that in  
the great uprising of ,german democracy 
of #ahdh1 the colours which symbolised  
the new hopes of the people were  often 
consecrated by a public religious       
ceremony in which all faiths  united1   
and in the little ,bavarian town of     
,furth1 the ,jewish ,rabbi1 as          
representing the smallest denomination  
of the town1 was by common  consent     

chosen to perform the ceremony4 ,but we 
do not need to go so far  back or to    
such a distant place to find instances  
of the way in which  men of varying     
creed have found themselves uniting with
 those who are  opposed to all forms of 
religion in defence of some common      
cause1  inspired by some uniting ideal1 
though but dimly realized4 ,here1       
surely1  is the truest test of that     
which is ,catholic1 the _/quod semper1  
quod  ubique1 quod ab omnibus_/1 which  
the dogmas of theology can but          
imperfectly explain1 but which is       
realized even now by all who seek to    
serve whole-heartedly the truth1 and    
therefore1 too1 their fellowmen4        
,there remains a further practical      
question to be faced4 ,if we recognise  
that the good finds expression in       
various ways1 that men in act and       
thought alike may differ from each      
other1 and yet the inner source of      
their spiritual life may be the same1   
are we to abandon the endeavour to  find

 some intellectual synthesis of their   
divergent ideals8 ,must we  cease to    
attempt to express p4#ah in terms of    
thought that which we  recognize as     
transcending all human thought and much 
more our imperfect  terms8 ,surely this 
would be a mistake4 ,though not only for
 our own lives  but for the whole life  
of humanity upon the earth it should    
prove that  our processes of creed      
building and church making are          
necessarily  imperfect1 we must still   
for ever strive to express in thought   
and in  act the life of the spirit1     
which grows and deepens as it is        
faithfully  expressed4 ,creed and deed  
alike1 we feel1 are but the raiment of  
the  life2 they fade and are outgrown1  
yet they are not to be fiercely torn  to
 pieces or lightly thrown aside4 ,even  
though we may never hope to be  able to 
explain to ourselves or to others the   
common basis of our  ethical ideals and 
of our religious life1 we must never    
cease to try to  find some explanation  

and to give what expression to it we    
can4    ,the vision of truth that we    
have now1 our intellectual expression of
 our  relationship to the world1 and of 
our duty in it1 is we recognise1        
imperfect2 it is no key to the universe1
 to unlock every mystery for us1  still 
less for others2 but it may prove a     
sufficient lamp1 and one whose  rays    
grow ever brighter1 to light our        
footsteps onward or 7to change the      
metaphor7 it may be a clue to the great 
labyrinth about us which may be  of use 
to others besides ourselves1 though some
 may come to the goal by  a very        
different way4 ,certainly the experience
 of all the great mystics  would p4#ai  
seem to show that as we ascend the      
,heavenly mountain1 one  from one side1 
one from another1 our paths draw nearer 
to each other1  and so across the night 
between1 we may listen to our fellow    
pilgrims'  voices1 and realize that some
 day we shall meet face to face4        
,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,the ,,inner ,,life    

,,of ,,the ,,church    ,,it is difficult
 for us1 and some may even feel that it 
is impossible1 to  make an impartial    
survey of an institution of which we    
ourselves form a  part2 on the other    
hand1 it is equally difficult1 unless   
one can realize  something of its life  
from the inside1 to appreciate the real 
nature of  that life4 ,and thus it must 
ever be peculiarly hard for us to       
understand  the true relationship of the
 ,christian churches to the world in    
which  they work and to the ideal which 
guides them4 ,and yet as we seek to see 
the difficulties others feel1 and to    
enter into sympathy alike with the      
critic without and the workers within1  
we may come near at least to            
understanding some portion of the truth4
 ,it may remain true that all we  have  
power to see is a straight staff bent in
 a pool1 but as we  endeavour to clear  
our minds and hearts of prejudice and to
 use others'  eyes as well as our own1  
the pool grows clearer and the          

reflection  becomes less broken1 and    
more nearly an image of the reality it  
represents4    ,to see the failure of   
the ,church does not mean that we ignore
 its  victories3 but if we are to carry 
p4#ba those victories further1 it  must 
be by noting our shortcomings1 and all  
that we have not achieved4  ,looking out
 upon the life of men to-day1 we cannot 
forget how1 bad as it  is1 society has  
been again and again in large measure   
redeemed and kept  alive through lives  
that have been the light and strength of
 the ,church  as well as of the world1  
but this need not prevent us from seeing
 how  far the ,church as a whole has    
failed to act in the same way4          
,organised ,christianity to-day in      
,england1 as represented in the         
churches1 is very largely a middle class
 institution4 ,not only the very  rich1 
but the great mass of the poorer        
workers1 stand aloof from it4 ,it  has  
not given its strength to prophesy      
against the evils that attack our       

social life2 and to remedy above all    
that utter separation of the lives  of  
rich and poor1 employer and employed1   
which is the terrible  characteristic of
 twentieth-century urban civilisation4  
,there is much religious activity1 of a 
limited kind1 using old and  recognised 
channels of expression1 and an          
earnestness in defence of  particular   
religious views or in attacking         
particular errors of doctrine  or forms 
of worship4 ,but if we can for a moment 
forget our own  individual standpoint   
and endeavour to look from the point of 
view of an  outsider upon such religious
 enthusiasm as shows itself upon        
different  sides in 1 let us say the    
present education controversy4 we shall 
surely  feel that if this represents the
 life of the churches1 they p4#bb are   
far indeed removed from the spirit of   
their ,founder4    ,i love to see these 
,christians fight1 was the remark of one
 able  critic as he left a room where a 
public body had been engaged in         

discussing some phase of the religious  
difficulty in education4 ,it is  true   
that such a charge is no new one2 as far
 back as the middle of the  second      
century the philosopher ,celsus brought 
a like one against the  ,christians of  
his day4 #a ,but since those early days 
too1  there has been continual protest  
within the ,church against this very    
spirit1 and it has been in that series  
of protests that some1 perhaps1  may    
trace the true apostolic succession of  
teachers and guides4 ,age  after age    
these leaders have found new help and   
inspiration as they  turned toward the  
source from which the strength of the   
,church first  sprang1 and it is        
noteworthy that now1 as often in the    
past many of the  men who are estranged 
from the ,church have nothing but       
respect -- nay1  often reverence -- in  
their thought of ,christ and of these   
followers of  ,his4 ,they would have    
very different thoughts of ,christianity
 if all who  profess and call themselves

 ,christians had realised that ideal of 
the  meaning of the name by which they  
are p4#bc  called which ,william ,penn  
once expressed in the words1 ,to be like
 ,christ1 then is to be a ,christian4   
,if only we had all more clearly before 
us that vision1 we could not but  be    
filled not merely with burning shame at 
our own failure1 but with  longing to be
 more helpful to our fellows1 and to    
draw nearer to them1  as we would grow  
nearer to our spirit4 ,and this desire  
within us will  surely be strengthened  
as we turn towards that wonderful       
reflection of  ,his teaching gathered   
together for us in the closing chapters 
of the  ,gospel of ,john4 ,in that      
unique picture of the mind and heart of 
the  ,master there are traits over which
 we some- times pause and wonder2       
sayings which1 when we can free our eyes
 from the scales with which  custom has 
covered them1 seem to shine with a light
 brighter than we can  bear4 ,and in    
that chapter1 in which we listen as     

silent witnesses to the  great charter  
of futurity1 the prayer of the ,founder 
for ,his ,church that  is to be1 there  
are words which are so full of lofty    
purpose that we  hesitate to apply them 
to our lives2 unconsciously1 perhaps1 we
 have  been wont to read them over and  
treat them as metaphor1 meant to inspire
  but not to be realized2 and gradually 
we have lost hold of their true         
significance1 the inner life of thought 
beyond them4 ,how truly can we  say that
 we have realized1 as individuals or as 
a ,church1 this picture  which that     
prayer gives us of the ,master's aim and
 desire for us8 p4#bd    ,and ,i am no  
more in the world1 and these are in the 
world1 and ,i come  to ,thee4 ,holy     
,father1 keep them in ,thy name which   
,thou hast given me1  _/that they may be
 one1 even as we are_/4 4 4 4 ,neither  
for these only do  ,i pray1 but for them
 also that believe on ,me through their 
word2 _/that  they may all be one2 even 
as thou1 ,father1 art in ,me1 and ,i in 

,thee1_/  that they also may be one in  
us3 _/that the_/ _/world may believe    
that ,thou  didst send ,me_/4    ,so    
lofty is the thought that one may wonder
 whether1 if these words had  not come  
down to us as they have done1 and some  
later ,christian mystic  had dared to   
utter this as his ideal1 he would not   
have been treated as  a madman or a     
heretic4 ,it is hard to think of what it
 means3 a unity of  ,christians one with
 another1 even as there is unity between
 the ,divine  ,father and the unique    
,son4    ,in the bygone days of         
scholastic theology men might have gone 
on to  unfold the meaning of this by    
showing how unity of substance did not  
remove the difference of person2 ,but   
these thoughts do not live for us       
to-day as for our forefathers4 ,we must 
seek to find the meaning of  ,christ's  
union with the ,father1 not by the road 
of medieval metaphysics1  but by some   
method which may appeal to our moral    
consciousness4    ,is it not a fact that

 ,christ is most truly revealed to us as
 in unity  with the ,father in his      
identification of himself with suffering
 and  degraded humanity1 as most truly  
,divine when he eats with publicans and 
sinners1 pours out his strength p4#be   
for the sick and suffering1 and  his    
life for those who have rejected him and
 at best have misunderstood him8    ,the
 ,church1 then1 is most likely to attain
 to that inward unity for  which her    
,founder prayed by following the        
guidance of his life4 ,she will  be most
 like him in laying upon herself and    
claiming as her own the  sufferings and 
evils that befall or should befall1 men 
in the world  without2 least like him   
and least likely to attain this ,divine 
unity  when she claims rights and       
privileges for herself1 when she insists
 on  her superiority1 when she turns    
from her the publican and sinner1 or    
leaves them to meet the punishment which
 is their due4    ,the union of         
,christians with each other is to be    

witness to the world of  the ,divine    
mission of ,jesus4 ,men are to believe  
on him because they see  how his life   
and spirit hold together communities    
with differing  organisations and men of
 widely varying personality4 ,the union 
is not to  destroy personality or       
variety of character1 but to underlie   
all  difference4 ,it is no external     
machinery to unite us in a single       
visible  organisation by which          
individuality would be stamped out or   
fettered in  growth4 ,there is little   
trace of any such machinery in the      
earliest  history of the ,church1 and   
the ages and places where it has been   
most  perfect have not been those which 
we think of as nearest in spirit to     
,christ1 nor those men most like ,him   
whose lives have been spent merely  in  
the development of such organisation4   
p4#bf     ,perhaps the only one of the  
first group of disciples who possessed  
powers of organisation was ,judas       
,iscariot2 and some critics may say that

  he at least has had an apostolic      
succession of followers throughout the  
history of the ,church4 ,one remembers  
the terrible saying of ,renan #b  edn#b3
 ,l'histoire de l',eglise sera le plus  
souvent dsormais  l'histoire des        
trahisons que subira l'ide de ,jesus2   
and though no  churches have been       
dedicated to ,,ss4 ,ananias and         
,sapphira1 they have  become in practice
 the patrons of too many ,christian     
lives4 ,but if we  cannot wish for an   
external unity such as that for which   
many good men  plead1 we have1          
nevertheless1 constantly to strive after
 a deeper union  of spirit in the       
service of our fellows1 in the search   
after truth1 in  love to our ,lord4     
,first let us take our need of          
sincerity4 ,perhaps nothing so holds    
many  men of to-day from ,christ as the 
sense of the insincerity of those who   
call themselves ,christians4 ,our       
worship1 our hymns and prayers1 are full
  of unreality2 we persuade ourselves1  

perhaps1 that we still believe in       
dogmas which have ceased to have any    
influence upon our lives4 ,we shut  our 
eyes to new truths because we are really
 afraid to be free1 and what  was the   
chalice of a new truth to our fathers   
becomes a poison-cup to us  and our     
children4 ,if the ,church is to regain  
and to retain the respect  of honest    
thinkers we must welcome fair-minded    
inquiry wherever it be  directed1 and   
not fear to open our eyes to the sun4   
p4#bg    ,and it is not only            
intellectual sincerity in accepting new 
truths that  is needed2 if the old      
truths are to be made real to our day1  
we must be  prepared to translate them  
into language which people can          
understand4 ,it  is worse than useless  
often to attempt to hand them on in the 
garments  of old words by which they    
were clothed in former days1 for as     
truth is  a living thing1 and words fade
 and lose their meaning1 the form in    
which  it is rightly expressed must     

change from age to age4 ,it is not      
enough1  then1 to repeat some passage of
 ,scripture1 some familiar verse of     
religious poetry1 or some words of a man
 of ,god of former days1 to bring  help 
to men to-day1 even though the words are
 full of meaning to us  because we have 
entered into the inward experience which
 they represent4  ,some have heard the  
words so often that they are now almost 
meaningless2  others cannot be touched  
by a mode of thought which was the      
outcome of  another time4 ,they need the
 truths that lie behind the old words   
and the  outworn methods of thinking1   
but they must be re-expressed if they   
are  to reach them4    ,the eternal     
realities of which the ,new ,testament  
writers had hold1 which  filled their   
souls and made them struggle with words 
and metaphors to  express some glimpse  
of what they felt1 could never be       
completely  represented by any language4
 ,yet we have taken the words of the    
,scripture and treated them as though   

they were so many phials of truth  in   
solution4 ,the exquisite flowers of love
 and p4#bh faith have been  crushed and 
bruised in the mortar of the theologians
 to produce the  infallible dogmas of   
our orthodoxy4 ,but the inward life does
 not live  upon the abstractions of the 
theologian any more than our outward    
life  upon the compressed drugs of the  
chemist1 however perfect the process of 
their making may have been4 ,cannot we1 
then1 honestly confess that our  dogmas 
are but imperfect human attempts to     
fathom the deep things of  ,god1 symbols
 that stand for something which         
transcends them as much as  the mother's
 face surpasses the poor drawing which  
her child may make of  it8 ,such a      
drawing can only be understood by the   
eyes of love1 and we  need the same     
spirit to make our dogmas full of       
meaning4    ,it is not only in          
intellectual matters that the ,church   
has been  insincere4 ,many who are no   
thinkers feel that she has not honestly 

attempted to carry out her own          
teachings4 ,blessed are the gentle1     
,blessed are the poor in spirit1 are    
explained in many a commentary1  but    
illustrated by too few lives4 ,yet the  
only adequate commentary on  the        
beatitudes is the life of a real        
follower of ,christ4    ,the fact is    
that many ,christians think that by     
bowing down in worship  before ,christ  
they are ,his followers1 forgetting ,his
 own test for such3  ,why call ye ,me1  
,lord1 ,lord1 and do not the things     
which ,i say8 ,we  write of ,him1 it may
 be1 as ,our ,lord with capital letters1
 when ,he is  not our lord at all1 nor  
the master and controller of our lives4 
p4#bi  ,there is a great deal of false  
reverence about this lip-worship of     
phrase and form that actually keeps us  
from getting as near as we might  to the
 true spirit of followers of ,christ4   
,if we are lovers and followers of the  
truth as ,jesus bids us be1 we must     
recognise our kinship and comradeship   

with all others who sincerely seek  the 
truth1 even though they may attack us   
and fail for the moment to see  all the 
light which may shine in our eyes so    
clearly3 in the mere search  after truth
 their souls are turned towards the     
light and unconsciously  fed and aided  
by the ,source of all truth6 ,nor must  
we think of them our  blind brothers    
merely1 for they may be fighting a far  
greater army of  foes than we1 placed as
 out-posts of the hosts of ,god1        
surrounded by the  enemy and overborne  
themselves for a while1 that afterwards 
the  victorious ranks of their comrades 
may press on over their bodies to       
conquests of which we have not even     
dreamed4    ,and how far have we failed 
in unity with our ,master and each other
  through our not having learnt ,his    
lesson of the way of service1 of our    
true relationship to our fellows8       
,yet here and there across the pages of 
history shines the light of a  good life
 pointing us the true way1 and how by   

losing ourselves we find  ourselves4    
,the bearing of the ,cross which ,jesus 
enjoined upon ,his followers is far     
other than that asceticism which monk   
and nun and ,puritan have wasted  many a
 precious life to attain4 ,we have not  
to give p4#cj up the  pleasant thing    
because it is pleasant1 or because it   
gives only a  mundane and transitory    
joy4 ,joy is good1 and not to be        
avoided1 but  welcomed4 ,we have to give
 up the pleasant thing ourselves1 others
 may  take it in our stead2 or give up a
 large measure of it that they may      
share it with us4 ,we do not lose the   
joy1 or pretend that it is unreal  and  
transitory as the monk may4 ,it is very 
real1 and we feel it in a  sense we     
could not do before1 because our fellows
 share it or have it in  place of us1   
and our life is their life4 ,gladness   
which they feel we  must feel too4      
,this is the difference between the monk
 of the desert and ,francis of  ,assisi1
 the apostle of the joy of ,christ 4    

,the monk battles with himself  to      
maintain his vow of poverty2 he is      
constantly giving up in not  possessing 
things for himself1 or in renouncing    
pleasures which attract  him4 ,st4      
,francis in possessing nothing has all  
things1 for all are ,god's  and his     
fellows'1 and he is theirs4 ,the wide   
world is his cloister1 and  everything  
which he can do to gladden his brother  
gives joy to himself4  ,true            
,christianity like his is full of an    
infectious sense of the joy of  life4   
,whenever such men go there comes to    
others some touch of their  spirit1 as  
crumbs drop from a full table4    ,this 
faith that joy in itself is good does   
not mean that there may not  be needful 
for us all some form of true asceticism1
 training in  withholding from things   
good in themselves and from pleasures we
 desire1  quite apart from the          
surrendering p4#ca of them to others4   
,but needful  as this is1 it is good    
only as training for an end beyond      

itself1 and  not for the mere sake of   
abstinence4 ,we refrain that we may be  
masters  of our wills1 that we may keep 
control of habit1 that our bodies may be
  the instrument of our spirits2 such   
fasting as this only fits us more  fully
 for the joy of service4    ,deeper even
 than the sacrament of joy is that of   
sorrow1 and we may  learn something of  
it from ,john ,woolman1 the ,quaker     
apostle of ,christ's  sufferings4 ,where
 men suffered he suffered too in spirit 
with them4 ,when  he came on his last   
journey to ,england he could not travel 
in the  comfortable cabin because of the
 needless toil of the workmen that had  
gone to adorn it1 but must share with   
the poor sailors the foul air and       
discomfort of the steerage4 ,and when on
 the stormy passage across the          
,atlantic he lay there sick and in pain1
 his heart went up in  thankfulness that
 he was permitted to share the          
experience which so many  of his        
fellow-men had to go through1 and be    

united thus to suffering  humanity4 ,i  
was now desirous1 he tells us1 to       
embrace every  opportunity of being     
inwardly acquainted with the hardships  
and  difficulties of my                 
fellow-creatures1 and to labour in ,his 
love for the  spreading of pure         
righteousness on the earth4 ,then we    
shall remember1  too1 that beautiful    
passage near the close of his journal1  
where he  recalls the vision that came  
to him in time of sickness of that mass 
of  dull1 gloomy colour1 made up of     
p4#cb human beings in as great misery   
as they could be and live1 and how he   
was told that he was mixed with  them   
and henceforth might not consider       
himself a separate being4 ,the  angel's 
song1 ,john ,woolman is dead1 sounded to
 him more pure and  lovely than any he  
had ever heard before1 for in truth his 
old will was  dead1 and in him the      
spirit of ,christ was alive4    ,is it  
not here that the ,church will find the 
way to reconcile the world  of toilers  

and sufferers estranged from her to-day8
 -- in that unity  between her members  
which goes deeper even than membership1 
in a love to  ,christ which shows       
itself1 as ,he calls for it1 towards all
 who have need  of ,him1 which          
identifies the ,christian with his      
brothers1 the doers and  bearers of     
wrong8    ,as we look out upon a        
,christendom divided by sects and creeds
 into a  score of different bodies1 we  
may be saddened by the lament which many
 a  devout lip has uttered over the     
schisms which rend the mystic robe of   
the ,master4 ,but it was only ,his outer
 garments which the soldiers rent       
asunder3 the seamless robe is unsevered 
still4 ,external separation does  not   
touch the spirit of love and true       
communion which beneath countless  outer
 differences unites together the lives  
of all who follow ,him in  deed and in  
truth4 ,and as we each draw nearer to   
,him1 and ,his life flows  into our     
lives1 we must draw nearer to each other

 and to all our fellow-men4             
,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,the ,,prophet ,,in   
,,the ,,church4    ,,for the individual 
and the community alike the deepest     
influences are  expressed in life rather
 than words1 yet it remains true that   
through  the symbols of spoken thought  
life must again and again come to       
expression4 ,in former days this was    
realised in the value set upon          
prophecy1 if we may use the word in its 
broadest and highest sense1 as  the     
forth-telling1 in the language of human 
thought1 of the ,divine will  present   
behind our lives and at work amid the   
world4    ,one of the changes that      
strike one most in organized            
,christianity  to-day1 compared with the
 ,church of earlier times1 is the       
general  absence of prophecy in this    
sense1 in all but very occasional       
crises4  ,the prophetic instinct is not 
dead indeed1 but men find its highest   
manifestations rather outside the       
,church of earlier times4 ,the leaders  

of the ,church have been too often      
content to repeat the messages of the   
prophets of a former day rather than to 
seek for a living voice within  their   
midst4 ,yet those who know anything of  
the life of the ,church from  within1   
judged not merely by this incomplete    
p4#cd expression1 but seen  as it       
affects the daily lives of countless men
 and women1 must surely  agree that in  
spite of all the trammels of convention 
and tradition the  ,church has still a  
life to pass on and a message to deliver
 for the  needs of to-day4 ,those who   
would have it become once more the      
school of  the prophets will surely be  
willing to look for a few moments at the
  picture which has come down to us of  
what place prophecy filled in the       
,church life of the earliest days1 and  
how the prophet was supplanted1  not    
killed1 as some have thought1 by the    
priest1 but rather silenced by  the iron
 grip of organization4    ,in the       
fourteenth chapter of the first epistle 

to the ,corinthians is  preserved for us
 a picture the meetings of an early     
,christian ,church1  full of interest to
 the historian4    ,it is clear from    
this description that an important part 
was usually  taken in these gatherings  
by men who gave to their fellow         
worshippers  what they believed to be   
,god's message or revelation to them4   
,this was  something quite distinct from
 the recitation of a hymn or a passage  
of  ,scripture1 or from the             
interpretation of scripture1 or again   
from the  teaching of doctrine4 ,it is  
regarded by the ,apostle ,paul as the   
highest  spiritual gift1 one earnestly  
to be desired1 although it was not given
  to all1 but only to some4 ,of the     
nature of this ministry we get a        
glimpse in his description of the way in
 which an unbeliever who enters  the    
assembly is convinced by it4 p4#ce ,the 
ministry goes to his inmost  self1      
reading the needs of his heart4    ,if  
all prophesy1 and there come in one that

 believeth not1 or one  unlearned1 he is
 convinced of all1 he is judged of all3 
and thus are the  secrets of his heart  
made manifest2 and so falling down on   
his face he  will worship ,god1 and     
report that ,god is in you of a truth4#c
 edn#c    ,the message of prophecy is   
one1 as it seems1 which reaches the     
subconscious self of the incomer1 who   
suddenly beholds the realities of  his  
own inner life in this flood of light   
that flows in upon him1  piercing       
through the veil that custom and        
convention had wrought about  him4 ,but 
the prophetic word does not merely give 
this fuller knowledge  of his own nature
 to the stranger2 it puts him also into 
touch with a  higher self4 ,he sees in a
 flash of revelation not only the evil  
in his  own life1 but the source of     
power to set it right1 here in the midst
 of  this assembly1 and bowing himself  
before it he confesses the ,divine      
,presence4    ,if we ask how this       
prophetic ministry is conceived as      

coming to those  who exercise it1 it    
would seem from the words of the        
,apostle that it is  not by exercise of 
the intellect that prophecy comes1      
though the  understanding is to be      
cultivated in connection with another   
highly  prized gift1 that of teaching4  
,but the ,corinthians are urged to long 
after the gift of prophecy most of all2 
they p4#cf are to prepare  themselves   
for it1 then1 by prayer1 the door       
through which our life  opens out into  
the ,divine life and is fed from it4    
,the teacher thinks  over what he knows 
of the needs and difficulties of his    
fellows1 ponders  over the truths that  
have been made clear to him in the past1
 searches  amongst the sayings of the   
,lord1 the teachings of the ,apostles1  
the  words of the ,law or the prophets  
of old1 for help for the present4 ,not  
so the prophet4 ,he may1 indeed1 go     
through all this preparation of         
thought1 but the essential preparation  
for his work is prayer2 prayer in  which

 he must be willing to lay aside1 if    
need be1 all these thoughts of  this4   
,the prophetic spirit reaches out to    
realize the condition of those  to whom 
it is to minister1 and upward in search 
of light and strength  from its only    
source4    ,sometimes it is not given to
 the prophet to reach conscious hold of 
,him  by whom we are all upheld1 and    
then all his ministry may be but a cry  
for help1 with a deep sense of need4    
,sometimes he feels the presence  very  
near1 and as he keeps close to the      
,father's hand1 those about him  are    
given to feel it too4    ,or1 perhaps1  
some word of the ,lord1 or some thought 
of other days is  suddenly illumined by 
a fresh light1 and his message is to    
hand on the  fire from the altar1 that  
those about him may light their torches 
too4    ,the prophet is ,god's          
spokesman4 ,he must lose thought of     
himself in his  message4 ,he is p4#cg   
translating for others and to others in 
the  presence of the ,giver of the      

message4 ,he must keep in touch with    
those  to whom he is speaking4 ,he must 
remember too how easy it is for         
interpreters to expand and embroider    
upon the original1 and thus to mar  it4 
,and1 therefore1 the prophet should keep
 very close to the ,giver of  the       
message1 who may have given to others   
its fuller exposition4    ,one danger of
 the prophets of ,corinth was very      
present to ,st4 ,paul's mind4    ,some  
of them seem to have got so wrapt up in 
a sense of the ,divine  communion that  
they did not keep that control of their 
whole nature1  which would lead them to 
find expression in the language of      
intelligence4 ,carried away by their    
feelings they gave utterance to the     
experience of their spirit in words     
broken and unintelligible1 the  channels
 of word and thought over which their   
brains had control seemed  too small for
 the flood of emotion which swept out in
 overmastering  power1 so that their    
tongues moved and they spoke without    

knowing what  they said4 ,paul knew     
better than any of them the hidden      
things of the  ,spirit1 the groanings   
that cannot be uttered1 the thoughts    
that flash  upon us and cannot be caught
 up by our halting reason1 following    
slowly  after1 the striving of the soul 
that no words can compass1 the          
,god-given  intuitions which cannot be  
imprisoned in words4    ,but he knew too
 that language was given us not for the 
joy of expressing  what we feel but as  
p4#ch a means of sharing our experience 
with  others4 ,to speak with an unknown 
tongue1 to abandon oneself to the       
ecstasy of the moment1 may be right for 
our own life1 he writes1 but it  is     
useless for our fellows4 ,we must not be
 content to soar up ourselves  into the 
world of life and light1 we must try to 
bring back into our  world of sense some
 symbols of the truths of the world     
beyond1  imprisoning in words which men 
may understand fragments of the truths  
which can never wholly be expressed in  

words4    ,at times the message burns so
 within the prophet's breast that he    
feels  he must speak1 no matter what is 
happening about him4 ,thus it seems that
  sometimes at ,corinth two or three    
prophets would speak at once1 and mar   
each other's messages4 ,but this was to 
lose sight of their true place1  to     
forget that the message was given them  
that others might receive it4    ,the   
prophet1 he writes1 is still master of  
his own spirit3 he is not to  allow his 
reason to lose its right control4 ,he   
has to use his  intelligence in deciding
 when he is to speak and when he must   
hold  silence4 ,he has not to let his   
conscious self be submerged in the      
sub-conscious1 like an island beneath   
the waves of the surrounding sea2       
rather is he to gather on to its dry    
land the goods the waves have  brought  
him1 before he sends them forth again to
 other shores4 ,in this  way may the    
,divine message not only bring help to  
him but comfort to all  to whom it is   

sent4 p4#ci ,thus the picture of the    
,church of ,corinth and  ,st4 ,paul's   
advice for its needs is one to which men
 may look who are  seeking to-day for   
that true prophetic ministry which      
seemed to the  ,apostle the most        
important of the gifts of the ,spirit to
 the ,christian  ,church4    ,it may    
help us too to consider how far that    
gift has been present  throughout the   
succeeding ages1 and how far it has been
 hindered by the  ,church from finding  
its true exercise4    ,when next we get 
a glimpse of the ,church at ,corinth1   
more than a  generation has passed away1
 and probably few of those who were     
members  when ,st4 ,paul wrote are still
 alive4 ,the majority of the church is  
in  disagreement with its ,elders or    
,bishops1 and has deposed them from     
their  positions2 and the ,bishop of    
,rome1 ,clement writes in the name of   
his  church1 in reply to some letter    
from the ,corinthians1 to urge them to  
be  reconciled1 and give once more the  

honour that is their due to these       
worthy presbyters4 ,the first epistle of
 ,clement is a long and beautiful       
letter1 and enters with tact and deep   
concern into a discussion of the        
dissension that is troubling the peace  
of the ,corinthians1 but it makes  no   
mention whatever of the place of        
prophecy in the ,church4 ,the word      
prophet does occur twice in the epistle1
 but only in reference to the  ,old     
,testament4    ,at the same time it is  
clear that ,clement is very sensible of 
the  importance of the position of p4#dj
 the bishops or presbyters1 though  it  
is not quite clear whether these are    
wholly distinct offices4  ,apparently   
the ,church at ,corinth was trying1 in  
the spirit of ,greek  democracy1 to     
dispense with its church officers4      
,clement tells them #d  how the         
,apostles went about setting up bishops 
and deacons  amongst the first fruits of
 their converts in different cities2    
these  offices had even been foreseen   

ages before1 he notes1 by the prophet   
,isaiah 7,ix4 #ag74 #e edn#e    ,it was 
not right1 he urges1 that men who had   
been appointed by the  apostles and     
afterwards by other men of renown1 with 
the consent and  approval of the whole  
,church1 who had fulfilled their duties 
without  blame1 should now be cast out  
of their offices4    ,if we turn to     
another group of letters1 written some  
twelve years later  by ,ignatius of     
,antioch1 on his way to martyrdom at    
,rome1 we find1 again1  that the only   
references to prophets and prophecy deal
 with old  ,testament days1 but that the
 greatest importance is set by ,ignatius
 upon  the relations of the ,church to  
its ,bishop3 ,do all of you1 he bids the
  ,church of ,smyrna1 #f follow the     
,bishop1 as ,jesus ,christ the  ,father1
 and follow the ,college of ,presbyters 
as the ,apostles1 and give  heed to the 
deacons as ,god's commandment4 ,let no  
man do anything of  those things that   
appertain to the ,church apart from the 

,bishop4 ,let  that ,eucharist be       
accounted valid that is under the       
authority of the  ,bishop or of him to  
whomsoever he himself entrusts it4      
,wheresoever the  ,bishop appeareth     
there let the multitude be1 even as     
wheresoever ,christ  ,jesus is there is 
the ,catholic ,church4 ,it is not lawful
 apart from the  ,bishop either to      
baptise or to hold an ,agape1 but       
whatsoever he approves  that is also    
well pleasing to ,god2 that all that is 
done may be safe and  valid4 7,according
 to present ,catholic doctrine even a   
woman may validly  baptize47    ,we see 
at once that it would not be easy to fit
 into such an ordered  ,church as this  
prophets like those of the earliest     
,church in ,corinth4    ,but while in   
most of the larger towns the churches   
had been developing  along lines like   
these it would seem that at the same    
time there were  out of the way places  
in which a much more primitive tradition
 was  preserved4    ,we can get some    

idea of this from the passages in the   
,didache which  refer to prophets and   
travelling apostles4    ,two whole      
chapters of this ancient book of        
teaching 7xi4 and xiii47 are  devoted to
 this subject1 whereas only the briefest
 mention is made of  bishops and        
deacons1 and in these words1 ,elect then
 for yourselves  bishops and deacons1   
worthy of the ,lord1 men gentle and not 
money  loving1 true and tested1 for they
 too themselves offer to you the        
service of the prophets and teachers2   
p4#db ,despise them not then1 for  these
 are they who are honoured of you along 
with the prophets and  teachers4        
,thus it would seem that the bishops and
 deacons are chosen by the ,church  for 
its work1 perhaps in default of         
sufficiency of prophets and  teachers1  
to do the work which these would do1 and
 they seem at least to  need1 in the    
writer's eyes1 to be supported by an    
appeal which he would  not think of     
making on behalf of the prophet and     

teacher whose messages  carry within    
themselves their authority4 ,that the   
true prophet stands1  in his eyes1 above
 the human ordering of the church1 seems
 clear too1  from the section which     
gives instructions as to the words 7and 
very  beautiful words they are too7 of  
the eucharistic prayer 7ch4 x474 ,at the
  conclusion of this model prayer the   
writer adds3 but allow the prophets  to 
offer thanks as much as they choose4    
,warning of almost naive simplicity is  
given against dangers from false        
prophets4 ,apparently the temptation to 
emotional enthusiasm is not  before the 
writer's mind1 as it was before ,paul's 
in writing to ,corinth4  ,the travelling
 evangelist1 or apostle1 as he is       
called1 is to be  received as the ,lord1
 but if he stay for as long as three    
days he is  to be recognised as a false 
prophet4 ,the readers are warned not to 
judge  the prophet who speaks in the    
spirit1 this being treated as the sin   
against the ,holy ,ghost4    ,but not   

every man who speaks in the spirit p4#dc
 is a prophet1 the  writer goes on1 but 
only if he have the ways of the ,lord1  
thus making  the character of ,christ   
the objective standard by which prophets
 are judged4    ,from their ways then   
shall the false prophet and the prophet 
be known1  and every prophet who        
appoints a feast in the spirit does not 
eat of it1  unless1 indeed1 he be a     
false prophet1 and every prophet who    
teaches the  truth1 if he does not do   
that which he teaches1 is a false       
prophet4 ,the  readers are warned       
against judging the prophet who does    
some strange  symbolic act for the      
edification of the ,church without      
bidding others to  do as he does1 for   
even thus also did the ancient prophets4
 ,but whoso  saith in the spirit ,give  
me money1 or any other things1 to him ye
 shall  not hearken2 but if he speak    
concerning others who are in need1 and  
bids  men give1 let no man judge him    
7ch4 xi474 ,the true prophet who is     

willing to settle amongst them is worthy
 of his keep1 they are told1 and  so is 
the true teacher2 and so1 the writer    
continues1 ye shall take  every first-  
fruit of the produce of your wine-press 
and threshing  floor1 of your oxen and  
of your flocks1 and shall give to the   
prophets1  for they are your high       
priests4    ,but if ye have not a       
prophet give to the poor2 and so        
likewise with  bread1 oil and wine1 with
    money1 clothes and all other things 
7ch4 xiii474    ,here we have1 perhaps1 
the hint of a transitional stage between
 the  early church of ,corinth and the  
churches of ,clement and ,ignatius4 ,the
  prophet p4#dd has the first place of  
honour and next to him the teacher  but 
all churches have not their prophet1 and
 in these bishops and  deacons must act 
in the place of prophets and teachers1  
and be honoured  as such1 while in other
 churches the prophets and teachers were
 treated  as a sort of ,christian       
priest1 and one may see how their work  

came to be  regarded as a regular church
 office and gradually assimilated1 in   
church  after church to the offices     
customary in the larger congregations   
like  ,rome and ,antioch4 ,as time      
passes the place of the prophet is more 
and  more taken by the bishop1 and by   
the end of the second century it would  
seem1 that1 for such a bishop of the    
,church ,catholic as ,apollinaris of    
,hierapolis1 the prophet was a memory of
 the distant past4    ,the ,montanist   
movement in ,phrygia had owed its       
strength to the appeal  which it made to
 the prophetic tradition and the        
prophetic spirit4 ,in  the reign of     
,marcus ,aurelius1 the ,phrygian convert
 ,montanus had gone  into prophetic     
ecstasies which shocked the more orderly
 members of the  church1 and a          
separation ensued1 in which ,montanus   
was joined by two  prophetesses1 ,prisca
 and ,maximilla2 they continued for some
 time1 it  would seem1 to appeal to     
those within the greater church to      

recognise  them1 for a fragment of      
,maximilla which is preserved to us1    
runs thus3    ,i am chased like a wolf  
from the flock2 ,i am wolf1 ,i am       
utterance1  spirit and power4 7,eusebius
 v4 #af74 p4 #de    ,some1 like         
,tertullian1 listened2 but the ,church1 
as a whole1 was  frightened at the      
excesses of their enthusiasm and        
probably1 as a  result1 prophecy became 
more than ever suspect4 ,irenaeus1 it is
 true1  mentions amongst the ,divine    
gifts still given to ,christians in his 
day1  that some have the knowledge of   
things to come1 as also visions and     
prophetic communications 7,eus4 v4  #g71
 but this certainly does not  imply any 
frequent and general gift like that in  
the early church of  ,corinth4    ,his  
contemporary ,alcibiades1 indeed1 writes
 a book to demonstrate the  impropriety 
of a prophet's speaking in ecstasy1     
which ,apollinaris  abridged 7,eus4 v4  
#ag74 ,the good bishop of ,hierapolis   
was very earnest  in his attack against 

the ,montanists3 ,they will never be    
able to show1  he writes1 that any in   
the ,old or ,new ,testament were thus   
violently  agitated and carried away in 
spirit4 ,neither will they be able to   
boast  that ,agabus or ,judas or ,silas 
or the daughters of ,phillip or ,ammia1 
in  ,philadelphia1 or ,quadratus or     
others1 that do not belong to them1 ever
  acted in this way4 ,it is very        
significant that the latest examples of 
eminent prophets in the ,church here    
named1 are ,quadratus and ,ammia4       
,ammia appears to be unknown to         
,eusebius1 who alludes to her in this   
chapter as one ,ammia1 but ,quadratus he
 has mentioned in a previous  book as a 
prophet contemporary with ,ignatius1 in 
these words3 ,of those  that flourished 
in these times ,quadratus is said to    
have been  distinguished for his        
prophetical gifts4 ,there p4#df were    
many others  also noted in these times  
who held the first rank in the apostolic
  succession4 7iii4  #cg72 whether this 

,quadratus is to be identified  with the
 philosopher who wrote an apology for   
,christianity to ,hadrian  7iv4 #c7 is  
uncertain4    ,it seems from the words  
of ,apollinaris1 which ,eusebius goes on
 to quote  7v4  #ag71 that the          
,montanists claimed that their prophets 
and  prophetesses were the successors of
 ,ammia and ,quadratus1 but ,maximilla  
had now been dead for some years1 and   
the bishop challenges his  opponents to 
point to any living prophet who had     
succeeded her3 ,and if  you have no     
succession of prophets then1 he urges1  
you must give up  your claim to         
represent the ,christian ,church4 7,for 
the apostle shows  that the gift of     
prophecy shall be in all the church     
until the coming of  the ,lord74 ,what  
would have been the bishop's answer if  
the ,montanists  had turned on him with 
the demand that he1 too1 should produce 
his  living prophets within the pale of 
the great church8 ,in view of what he   
has told us1 may we not believe that his

 answer would be somewhat on  this wise3
 ,the gift of prophecy has never been   
removed from the church2  though it may 
be dormant as far as such prophecies as 
those of ,quadratus  are concerned1 it  
may be called forth again at any time by
 the ,divine  will1 and will be         
recognised at once by the bishops1 who  
are the  divinely appointed authorities1
 without whose approval no true prophet 
will act4 ,and if there be no such      
prophets p4#dg now1 in any church1  the 
bishop takes their place1 expounding as 
is fit the will of the ,lord  to the    
people1 and guided himself by the ,holy 
,spirit8 ,how are we to  explain this   
remarkable change that we have thus     
witnessed1 and was it  the necessary and
 right development of the ,church which 
led to it8    ,to those who know how1 in
 the seventeenth century1 another       
experiment  was begun1 which after      
nearly nine generations1 is not yet     
ended1 in the  holding together of      
religious communities of which an       

essential feature  has always been the  
freedom of prophesying1 it may1 at first
 sight1 seem  easy to reply that the    
change was no necessary one4    ,one    
would not say that they were wrong1 for 
who can say what might not  have been1  
if men had only been faithful to their  
highest ideals1 and  been willing always
 to take the rough and narrow way that  
leads straight  up to the heavenly city8
 ,but we shall1 perhaps judge more      
fairly if we  think how very much       
greater were the difficulties that beset
 the  ,christian organisms of the first 
and second centuries1 than those1 great 
as they were1 with which ,george ,fox   
had to grapple4 ,he had1 it is true1  to
 deal with companies of men and women1  
amongst whom were enthusiasts  or       
individualistic quietists1 who would    
brook no discipline1 and many of  them  
were poor and very ignorant folk2 but   
how different in many cases  was a      
church of the first century4 ,imagine a 
p4#dh community of varying              

nationalities1 containing a number of   
slaves1 many of them illiterate  people1
 others degraded by their past life to  
the lowest depths2 men and  women       
rescued from lives of terrible evil and 
still under constant  temptation to fall
 back2 a number of ,christian ,jews with
 strange  oriental customs and          
traditions1 half- familiar only with the
 language  and civilisation of their    
adopted town2 a few men1 possibly1 of   
higher  social position and greater     
education1 but the majority only able to
  communicate with each other by a      
lingua franca of bad ,greek1 which was  
the native tongue only of a small       
minority4 ,one can see what a babel of  
confusion might easily arise amongst    
such a community1 especially when  we   
remember that many had but an imperfect 
knowledge of ,christ and ,his  teaching1
 and very few churches possessed all the
 works which we have in  our ,new       
,testament4    ,moreover1 a great change
 had come from the days of ,paul's      

letter to the  ,corinthians4 ,that      
little church was then still living in  
the days when  the ,christians as such  
were tolerated by the law4 ,gallio's    
decision had  removed the church at     
,corinth from any need to observe       
secrecy4    ,but after two generations  
the position had wholly changed1 and to 
be a  ,christian was a penal offence    
which1 if adhered to1 was punishable    
with  death4 ,this necessarily involved 
a need for greater precaution1 for more 
order and wise management in the        
assembling of the ,church4 p4#di ,and in
  the early days when the churches lived
 in constant expectation of the         
immediate end of the age and the outward
 coming of ,christ to set up ,his       
,kingdom1 they would naturally lay      
little stress on church order2 the      
struggle of the church militant was but 
to last a brief time more2 there  was no
 need for much organisation1 or for any 
other connection between  one church and
 another than the friendly ties of love4

 ,one church might  have its prophets   
and teachers1 another only presbyters or
 a bishop and  deacons2 others of larger
 size and needs might have ail these    
officers  together with deaconesses and 
widows4 ,but no one was anxious about   
such  differences4 ,travelling apostles 
and evangelists formed living links of  
love betwixt church and church1 and     
occasionally1 individuals and  churches 
sent letters to each other4 ,no other   
bond was needed4    ,but when it became 
slowly more evident that the ,church    
might yet have to  continue long years  
at work in the world before the         
consummation came1  and when it seemed  
to the leaders that they had to fight a 
life and  death struggle1 on the one    
hand against the vast force of the world
  empire of ,rome1 whenever a           
persecuting edict might be enforced1 and
 on  the other against a growing crowd  
of strange errors1 which seemed to  them
 to be sent by the ,devil to delude the 
hearts of the faithful1 and  draw them  

away from the ,gospel of ,christ2 can we
 wonder that they did  their best to    
draw the scattered communities of p4#ej 
,christians to a  sense of unity under a
 like organization1 adapted for a       
strenuous fight  to preserve the good   
order of the ,church from being         
shattered by  persecutions from without 
or broken up and corrupted by false or  
mistaken brethren from within4 ,and     
often1 too1 especially under the fire   
of persecution1 something of the true   
prophetic spirit showed itself in  the  
bishops themselves1 as they admonished  
their fellow believers to be  faithful  
even unto death1 and beheld1 amidst the 
shadow of death1  visions of the deep   
things of ,god4 ,very true is this of   
,ignatius1 whose  letters breathe forth 
again and again the fiery faith and zeal
 of the  true prophet1 with flashes now 
and then of great and ,christlike       
thoughts  that still shine like gems    
amid the dust of pious exposition and   
mistaken exegesis that even first       

century ,christian literature shares as 
a characteristic with our own4 ,in the  
letter which he wrote to his  friend    
,polycarp1 bishop of ,smyrna1 one sees  
how intensely he felt the  importance of
 a bishop's work for the life of the    
,church1 how great the  need was for    
gifted and holy men to fill such posts  
and what true help  such men were able  
to give to the struggling communities   
for whom they  lived and whom they      
served4 ,ignatius1 for all his          
exaltation of the  bishop's office1 is  
full of humanity1 feeling his own       
unworthiness and  regarding himself as  
the servant of his church4 ,as we hear  
him urging  upon ,polycarp to do his    
best to save all his flock1 to put up   
with them  all1 even as ,christ bears   
with p4#ea him1 to love not just the    
good  disciples but rather more         
especially the worse1 and to conquer    
them by  gentleness1 to stand like a    
rock against false teaching1 to care for
 the  widows and not to overlook the    

slaves1 we feel indeed how high the task
  of such a bishop was2 and with both   
,ignatius and ,polycarp1 as with        
countless of their less illustrious     
fellows1 it was a task crowned by       
martyrdom4    ,but if history shows us  
how valuable was the work done under the
 system  of the catholic hierarchy to   
preserve a living ,christianity across  
the  centuries1 it also bears witness to
 the way in which in succeeding ages    
the prophetic spirit re-asserted itself4
 ,a long series of heresies from  that  
of the ,montanists in the second century
 to that of the ,fraticelli  in the     
fourteenth1 or of the ,lollards and     
,hussites in the fifteenth1 up  to the  
days of the ,reformation and the        
,anabaptist prophets of ,munster1  give 
us evidence of the way in which that    
spirit meets the profound need  of      
humanity and proves the outcome of deep 
stirring of soul4 ,but inside  the      
,church itself we shall find again that 
the spirit of prophecy cannot  be       

banished1 just because there always was 
true life there4 ,yet the  prophetic    
gift does not go along the orthodox     
channels of the hierarchy1  but is      
continually bursting out in new and     
unexpected quarters1 so that  often the 
authorities of the ,church are in a     
strait whether they are  dealing with a 
saint or a heretic4 ,to those outside   
the ,church1 the  canon sometimes seems 
strange enough which p4#eb rules into   
one class  ,st4 ,theresa1 into the other
 ,madame ,guyon1 which1 after burning   
,savonarola was almost on the point of  
canonising him1 which deposed and       
exiled ,john of ,parma1 and then        
beatified him4 ,the prophetic spirit    
surely often found its outlet in the    
early ages amongst the monks of the     
desert1 witness for instance such a     
saint as ,telemachus1 who brought to  an
 end the gladiatorial shows at ,rome2   
and in later times first in the         
,benedictine and the subsequent monastic
 orders1 and then1 very notably1  in the

 ,franciscan brotherhood1 it found freer
 outlets than the church of  the day    
could provide1 while the lives of       
countless saints bear witness  to some  
touches at least of the spirit of the   
prophet re-asserting  itself in spite of
 the trammels of the organization of the
 church4 ,if  the gift of prophecy were 
to be connected with a divinely ordered 
hierarchy we might naturally look for it
 most of all in the popes4 ,yet  in so  
many centuries comparatively few popes  
have been canonised as  saints1 and few 
amongst these are conspicuous as showing
 forth this gift  in the way in which we
 see it in such a simple woman as       
,catherine of  ,siena1 or in plain men  
like ,giles of ,perugia4    ,in our own 
day1 a devout catholic like ,fogazzaro  
has pictured for us the  way in which a 
true prophet may arise within the bosom 
of the ,church1  only to meet with      
obstacles from the authorities1 and     
finally with  persecution ending almost 
in martyrdom4 ,yet that book1 which1 in 

spite  of p4#ec ,papal prohibition1 has 
found such warm support and awakened    
such eager interest in ,catholic ,italy1
 bears witness to the profound  longing 
7which many in ,england surely share7   
that there is within the  orthodox      
,church for a deep spiritual ministry1  
which the recognised  authorities have  
not always supplied1 for a revelation of
 new truth to  meet the needs of our    
day1 for a fresh unfolding of the       
meaning of the  gospel of ,christ1 which
 shall appeal once more with apostolic  
power to  the hearts of men4    ,two    
centuries ago the early ,quakers felt   
that they had known such an  experience 
and tried to hand it on to others4 ,need
 we wonder if it  should appear that the
 ,society of ,friends to-day has        
inherited their  traditions but not     
their spirit8 ,for1 indeed1 the         
prophetic spirit can  never be          
inherited1 or passed on from man to man 
by any mechanical  arrangement4 ,it must
 come anew from generation to           

generation1 often  after the hardest    
travail of soul1 through fresh          
strivings1 as the  result of other      
needs2 but we can1 at least1 see that   
our ordering1  whether of the ,church's 
life or our own1 is such as not to      
hinder its  coming but to prepare us for
 it4    ,and not the least of such a    
heritage has been a form of worship and 
a  view of life which may still give not
 only to a little community but to  a   
wider world a school of the prophets4   
,when we see the weak side of quietism1 
and mistakes of an earlier day of       
mystics 7as now we p4#ed are so apt to  
do71 let us not forget that1  amidst the
 quietist ,quakerism of the eighteenth  
century1 there grew up  and flowered one
 of the most beautiful products not only
 of ,quaker but  of ,christian training2
 to many of us to-day1 ,john ,woolman   
speaks as do  few others with the power 
of a true prophet4 ,yet too often in the
 past  the ,society of ,friends has been
 content with a succession of minor     

prophets1 whose message was only to a   
little congregation4 ,without was a     
multitude who had no priests or         
shepherds1 and nations needing a guide4 
,to-day1 if we cannot make teachers like
 ,woolman1 at least we can prepare  the 
way for their coming4    ,prophecy is   
born of prayer1 supported by it1 not the
 prayer of words1  but that attitude of 
soul1 of will1 of which the most        
beautiful of our  collects are the      
momentary reflections4 ,in this spirit  
then1 feeling our  need and our         
fellows'1 let us long for more light to 
come into our  lives4 ,let us remember  
that we have not just to sit down       
contentedly in  the dark and wait for   
,god's light4    ,if we try to listen to
 the voice of the prophet teachers of   
the past  whose message still comes home
 to us1 and to picture the thoughts of  
some disciple of theirs to-day1 might we
 not frame them thus8    ,if we cannot  
scatter the clouds1 we can at least     
clean our windows and  open our doors4  

,every faculty of our nature is ,god's  
gift and to be used  in ,his service1   
and so we are not to think of prophecy  
p4#ee as coming  with the atrophy of the
 intellect2 with every power of our     
minds we are  called to serve ,god and  
seek truth1 which is ,his revelation4   
,to pray1 '  ,thy will be done ' should 
be1 as ,fogazzaro has told us1 no       
attitude of  passive submission1 but a  
call to our whole nature to strive to   
the  utmost for the cause of ,god4      
,then we must remember that the more    
truly we are at one with ,christ1  the  
more we shall feel ourselves            
fundamentally united with all our       
fellows4 ,we shall feel their wrongs and
 sins as ours1 and their needs  too1 and
 as we come to feel this1 we shall      
realise more and more that in  every act
 and word and thought we are not our    
own4    ,every evil desire overcome is a
 victory for our brothers1 and not      
merely for ourselves4 ,our lives are    
intertwined one with another1 and       

constantly1 unseen and unknown to       
ourselves and each other1 we influence  
one another for evil or for good4 ,the  
prophet is nothing else than a  true    
priest1 not to one or two1 but to a     
multitude4    ,we are all called to be  
priests1 and1 if ,god calls us to be    
prophets1  in learning to be truly      
priests1 we shall unconsciously be      
learning too  in the prophets' school4  
,the priest must have a two-fold vision1
 of the truth above him and of  the     
brother beside him who has need of the  
truth4 ,the more he can see of  either1 
the more he can be brought into         
communication with his fellows1  and    
with the truth1 the more priestly will  
his service be4 p4#ef ,let  us be       
faithful in word and deed to the highest
 that we know1 and higher  things shall 
be revealed unto us4 ,let us be patient 
with the worst and  those who naturally 
repel us4 ,far more repulsive has been  
the evil in  our own thoughts in the    
eyes of the holy angels4 ,let us not be 

uplifted  because others have been      
helped through us2 ,truth is not ours1  
but ,god's4    ,let us not be           
discouraged if our work seem fruitless2 
never despair of  the truth4 ,have faith
 in the truth that has been revealed to 
you1 for  some day others too shall see 
it4    ,have faith in the ,truth that is
 yet unknown2 others perhaps have       
already caught some glimpse of it4      
,blessed is the man in whose heart there
 is built an altar with the  inscription
 written3 ' ,to the unknown ,truth '2 of
 such men are prophets  made4    ,truth 
is beautiful in the mouth of a friend1  
but most divine when it is  seen in the 
heart of an opponent4 ,the devil had    
delight to seek for  faults in ,job2 let
 us seek rather to see1 with ,christ1   
the good in the  heart of the publican4 
,those of us who are striving after this
 ideal should be the greatest of        
sacerdotalists2 our faith and worship   
are built up upon belief in the         
essential priesthood of every human     

soul4 ,let us not forget then1 that  if 
all men have some vision of ,god1 all   
may teach us something of ,him4  ,and   
since heavenly truth comes to no man    
naked1 but clad in changing  robes1 let 
us strive in our p4#eg search for truth1
 alike in speaking  and in listening1 to
 remember that the garment of words     
changes and may  mean one thing to us   
and another to our fellows4 ,let us get 
beneath  words and forms to the         
life-giving spirit1 and as we are to be 
the  greatest sacerdotalists let us be  
the most thorough- going of ritualists  
too1 to whom there are symbols and      
lessons of the ,divine ,life1 not only  
in the beautiful liturgies of the altar1
 but in all the mysteries of  nature and
 the sacraments with which life is full4
    ,for surely there are not merely two
 or seven sacraments1 but seventy  times
 seven1 for him whose heart seeks ever  
fellowship with his brothers  and with  
the ,father above him1 who would be     
loved in them1 and served by  their     

service4 ,the whole world is ,god's and 
full of ,his light2 our lives  are ,his 
and they are our fellows4 ,and since in 
every heart of man is  some well through
 which the ,god-given waters of life may
 flow1 we may go  forth in faith to our 
work2 as we serve our neighbours and    
search for  truth1 in the spirit of     
followers of ,christ ,jesus1 seeking    
that our own  wells may be made wider   
and deeper1 and that their springs may  
be shared  more fully by others1 ,god   
will make priests of all of us1 and1 if 
,he  will it1 prophets too4 p4#eh       
,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,sacraments ,,of       
,,life4    ,,the ,finger of ,god1 wrote 
once ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 hath left an 
inscription upon all ,his works4 ,we    
have little skill to read that  wondrous
 message1 but from the very dawn of     
humanity men have tried to  trace the   
writing1 have sought to spell out the   
words1 and as they came  to perceive    
something of those spiritual forces that
 are at work in the  world1 and to look 

beneath the surface of things to that   
which lies  deeper1 they too have       
endeavoured to embody in outward forms  
for  themselves and for others the      
truths which they would apprehend4      
,the course of the ages changes the     
meaning of even the simplest words      
which we use1 for words1 like men1 are  
mortal2 and so it has come about  that  
the thought which rises in our minds as 
we speak of a sacrament is  not that    
which came to those who used the word   
long ago4    ,in the ancient days a     
sacrament was simply a holy thing1      
something  consecrated and set apart2 in
 very early times it was especially a   
sort  of judicial pledge deposited by   
the parties in a law p4#ei suit2 then   
it came to mean the solemn oath of a    
soldier1 pledging his loyalty to  his   
commander on entering upon his military 
service4 ,it was used by  early         
,christian ,latin writers to render the 
thought of the ,greek  mystery1 _/_/1 a 
word which we have failed to translate  

into  ,english1 as so often we must fail
 in any translation from one tongue to  
another to render thought for thought4  
,we think nowadays of a mystery as being
 something hidden1 but to the  ,greek it
 was rather a revelation2 an unfolding  
through symbol of that  which could not 
be wholly expressed in any words4 ,the  
mystery remained a  secret to him who   
was without1 to the uninitiate2 but the 
initiate  understood its meaning4    ,in
 the most famous mysteries of ,greece1  
those which were celebrated at          
,eleusis1 it would seem that along with 
the idea of revelation of truth  went   
also the sense of upbuilding of the     
inward life1 the purification  of the   
soul and the assimilation of the ,divine
 things imparted beneath  the symbol4   
,for revelation1 the unveiling of truth1
 is no one-sided act2  it involves      
response in the mind that receives2 if  
the truth is  apprehended1 it must in   
part at least1 be also assimilated4 ,and
 so every  mystery is something more    

than the unfolding of a hidden reality2 
it  also implies the imparting of new   
life4#g p4#fj     ,in the earlier       
,christian literature sacraments still  
bear this wide  meaning4 ,tertullian    
often uses the word thus4 ,in one       
passage he speaks  of a woman known to  
him who was accustomed to go into       
ecstasies during  the weekly service of 
the ,church2 she converses with angels1 
sometimes  even with the ,lord1 and both
 sees and hears sacraments #h ,he       
speaks of the sacrament of allegory1#i  
sacraments of  metaphors1 #aj in both   
cases alluding to ,old ,testament       
types1 and again1 he explains the wood  
by which ,moses made the waters of      
,mara sweet 7,exodus xv471 as a         
sacrament symbolizing the cross #aa     
edn#aa    ,according to ,prudentius1 the
 early ,christian poet1 the ,evangelist 
tells  us that ,christ gave these p4#fa 
commands to ,his disciples3 ,seek not   
carefully for words when ye shall have  
to descant of my sacrament1 #ab  my     

,sacrament1 being evidently here        
equivalent to the ,gospel4    ,but1 as  
time passed by1 the word sacrament      
became more and more used for  certain  
mysteries of the ,church alone1 although
 far down into the middle  ages even in 
this sense the word had a wider use than
 that of the seven  sacraments of the   
,council of ,trent4    ,thus in #cic    
,a4,d4 the synod of ,hippo made a decree
 as to the use of the  sacrament of salt
 at ,easter by the catechumens1 and in  
later times the  ringing of bells and   
the use of the sign of the cross were   
regarded as  sacraments4 ,by the time of
 ,augustine1 however1 the word sacrament
 was  frequently used in its narrower   
signification1 and already emphasis is  
laid on the saving power of the         
sacrament rather than on its            
significance as a revelation4 ,yet      
,augustine1 though holding that the     
sacrament of baptism was necessary to   
salvation1 once wrote thus3 ,for  what  
else are each of the bodily sacraments1 

but1 so to speak1 certain  visible      
words2 most holy words it is true1 but  
yet mutable and temporal  ones8 #ac     
edn#ac    ,it is this wider sense of the
 word which we must p4#fb be careful not
  to lose1 the use in which a sacrament 
means the unfolding and imparting  of   
the spiritual and eternal through that  
which we see and hear and feel4         
,because in times past the ,church has  
tended to narrow the use of the  word1  
and1 by confining the ,divine operations
 to certain channels1 to  misread the   
great sacrament of life1 so lessening   
the mystery of the  world1 there is all 
the more reason that we should not rest 
content with  seeing how inadequate such
 views have proved4 ,it is true that    
over the  doctrine of sacraments men    
have fought and wrangled1 forgetting the
 name  by which they were called4 ,but  
it is true1 too1 that to countless souls
  it has seemed that through the        
sacraments the ,church has offered them 
help which has come as in no other way  

to their lives4 ,and surely this  has   
not been all delusion4 ,the error of the
 sacramentalist in the past  has often  
rather been that he has confined the    
,divine presence and the  ,divine       
working to certain fixed channels and   
unchanging visible signs4  ,those of us 
who hold that these good men have       
narrowed down the freedom  of the inner 
life need to meet them not by denying   
the ,divine presence  where they see it1
 but by trying to see and to realize    
that presence  ourselves more fully     
throughout all our lives4 ,we are called
 to the  worship and the knowledge of   
the transcendent and immanent ,god1 who 
is  here in the midst of our lives1 in  
the midst of ,his world and ,his works1 
yet is far more than all these4 p4#fc   
,when the stern old ,tertullian  looked 
out upon the pagan world around him and 
noted in its religious  rites strange   
mimicry and rivalry of the ,christian   
mysteries1 he could  perceive no good in
 what he saw4 ,in the worship of        

,mithras he found a  baptism for the    
remission of sins1 and a sign made on   
the forehead of  the soldier in this    
pagan army of salvation2 a crown        
purchased by the  sword1 and the ritual 
offering of bread4 ,but all this1 like  
the ancient  ,roman rites of ,numa1 or  
the mysteries of ,eleusis and of        
,samothrace1  seemed to him but the work
 of the ,evil ,one4 ,it was the devil's 
part1 he  wrote1 to invert the truth and
 make of it his own counterparts1 as he 
seemed to do in much of the ritual of   
the heathen temple4#ad edn#ad    ,in    
like manner1 in more modern times the   
early missionaries in the far  east     
learned with amazement of the way in    
which1 in the mountains of  ,thibet1 the
 devil had made his imitation of the    
ceremonies and offices  of the ,catholic
 ,church1 and wondered as they heard of 
the ,buddhist  monasteries with their   
abbots and hierarchy of clergy1 and the 
celebration there of mysterious offices 
strangely resembling their own  mass1 to

 the sound of bells and amid the smoke  
of incense4    ,in our own day an even  
wider area opens before p4#fd the       
historian's  vision1 and across five    
continents men trace1 under various     
forms1 rites  whose origin seems the    
same4 ,it is not now the devil who is   
credited  with inspiring these myriad   
devices1 but perhaps not a few of the   
students who return with ,dr4 ,frazer   
from the survey of this vast field  are 
inclined to feel that they have reduced 
all alike to one origin1 in  primitive  
savage superstition at work in the      
presence of life1 birth and  death4 ,but
 if ,tertullian and his school lack     
charity in their judgment  on the       
sacraments of the heathen1 there is     
surely danger too that our  modern men  
of science may lead us to believe that  
in tracing a custom to  its primitive   
origin they have found its cause or     
explained its nature4  ,we can under-   
stand a thing best1 not merely by       
knowing its beginning1  but by also     

viewing it in its full development1     
judged not only by what  it is at its   
lowest1 or when it is most degraded1 but
 at its highest and  best4    ,the      
world-wide use points surely to a       
world-wide need1 expressing itself  in  
different ways1 but in essentials the   
same4 ,unconsciously1 indeed1 in  all   
our lives we make use of sacraments     
whenever we apprehend the  invisible and
 the higher through the medium of the   
visible and lower4  ,and1 in our very   
thoughts1 metaphors and symbols are     
nothing else than  sacraments expressing
 truth in pictorial form4 ,even when men
  deliberately attempt to explain all   
life on a basis of atheistic            
materialism they still feel the need of 
what might p4#fe truly be  called a kind
 of sacrament4 ,it is very significant  
from this point of  view to find that   
some ,french secularists have found it  
desirable to  publish a ritual of civil 
ceremonies1 #ae in which model          
liturgies are provided for a secular    

baptism1 a secular confirmation         
service1 as well as secular marriage and
 burial services4 ,a conscious          
recognition of this same need led       
,auguste ,comte and his ,positivist     
followers to devise an elaborate ritual 
which might make their worship  of      
,humanity more real4    ,the ,society of
 ,friends itself1 which is popularly    
supposed to represent  a protest against
 all forms of sacraments1 can illustrate
 in its history  the value of the true  
sacrament1 and the danger there is of   
doing  worship to the form of the       
sacrament1 rather than to the life which
  makes it of worth4    ,no other       
,christian community has proved so      
strikingly the value in  worship of the 
beautiful sacrament of silence1 that    
universal liturgy in  which all nations 
can unite2 where ignorant and learned   
men come  together on a like basis4 ,yet
 the very fact that in speaking of this 
we  need to emphasize the worth of      
,living silence1 shows that too often1  

even here1 men have but honoured a dead 
silence1 making an idol of the          
sacrament which was only a means to an  
end1 not an end in itself4    ,we may   
see even more clearly how easy it is for
 the form to become a  bondage in the   
history of p4#ff another strange ,quaker
 sacrament1 that  of the ,plain dress of
 the middle nineteenth century4 ,there  
is no need  to tell how1 in the case of 
this custom1 the protest against        
changing  fashions became itself the    
most tyrannous of fashions4 ,what is    
especially interesting to us now1 is to 
note that the dress which was an        
outward sign of inward grace became to  
be considered as1 in a sense1  holy     
itself4 ,a young man or woman would wear
 the ordinary dress of the  day1 and    
suddenly some time of decision would    
come1 a crisis in the  inner life1 and  
perfectly naturally the change would be 
marked by the  adoption in the plain    
dress of the older generation4 ,and it  
even became  customary to associate the 

length of the hat brim with the holiness
 of  the wearer's life2 the truer to    
,quaker principles he was1 the longer   
was  the brim4 ,it has been said that   
you may find in a journal written       
seventy years ago such an entry as this3
 ,i think ,i can honestly1 yet in  all  
humility1 say that in the past year     
there has been a growth in  grace1 and  
,i have ventured to add a quarter of an 
inch to the brim of my  hat4 ,we smile2 
yet for some of us at least that ancient
 costume is so  redolent of beautiful   
memories that we can scarce bear to     
laugh at its  vagaries2 we know too well
 the sacramental efficacy of the old    
,friend's  bonnet1 which forever recalls
 the goodness and love of the face      
beneath it4    ,it is strange that in   
the ancient ,church of ,rome men should 
have come to  think in much the same    
p4#fg way of the peculiar habits of the 
religious orders1 regarding the monk's  
dress itself as something sacred1  which
 an unworthy man dishonoured1 and which 

actually helped its wearer  to be holier
 in his life just as the old ,quaker    
dress was felt by many  to help them to 
be more consistent in all their ways    
with the ideal  which they strove to    
realize4 ,so strong was this feeling    
that men who  were not members of an    
,order sometimes obtained as a privilege
 to wear  for a time the cord1 to die in
 the habit1 or even to be buried in it1 
the dress itself being felt to be       
sacramental4    ,if these minor         
sacraments came to be so misunderstood1 
how natural it is  that similar         
misunderstandings should arise as to    
sacraments in common  use throughout the
 whole ,church1 and associated with the 
very deepest  truths of the inner life4 
,yet if we go back to their origin we   
shall see  that the two chief sacraments
 of the ,church were most simple acts   
expressing in visible language the life 
of the spirit1 acts perfectly  natural  
and full of significance to those who   
first took part in them1  but which in  

later days have too often lost their    
meaning because the  mere form was held 
to have some magical efficacy in itself4
    ,to understand these sacraments     
aright do we not need to enter into the 
spirit of the ,teacher in whose name    
they are celebrated1 and who is         
believed to have instituted them8 ,as we
 read the evangelists' record of  the   
life and words of ,jesus1 p4#fh we must 
surely feel that to him all  life was a 
sacrament1 a continual unfolding of the 
,divine through the  visible world and  
through human life4 ,in his eyes the    
sunshine falling  alike upon good and   
evil men is a constant revelation of the
 ,divine  love1 compassing just and     
unjust1 overcoming evil with good4 ,the 
beautiful flowers of the field1 blooming
 for a moment and then  destroyed1 bring
 to him no thoughts of gloom1 as they   
did to the ,greek  poet1 but the        
certainty that the ,power which gives   
such loveliness to  the creatures of an 
hour will provide for ,his higher       

creation too4 ,the  sparrows chirruping 
under the eaves1 humblest of birds1 fill
 him with a  sense of the ,father's care
 for these1 and much more for man4 ,as  
,christ  walks across the fields1 he    
sees messages for men in all the life   
about  him3 the parable of the seed1    
summing up the whole mystery of our     
nature  in its life and growth2 the     
sower at his work1 the fishermen at     
their  task1 all are parables for him4  
,and so it is with the relationships of 
our human life1 which ,christ takes up  
in his teaching and makes  sacramental4 
,because he is in unbroken communion    
with the ,father unseen1  he constantly 
brings all the little things of daily   
life into  relationship with ,him4      
,christ found the religious folk of his 
day intent on fulfilling certain        
duties2 eager to guard the letter of the
 scriptures1 the sacredness of  the     
sabbath1 and to fulfil the various acts 
which the law prescribed4 ,he  did not  
destroy the sacredness of p4#fi the one 

day by his treatment of  the sabbath1   
but he raised the other days to its     
level3 he did not  secularize life by   
his attitude to the law1 but rather     
recognised all  life as holy4 ,religion 
was no longer to be something confined  
to certain  acts and to special offices 
and places1 but rather the attitude of  
the  soul toward ,god and one's fellows1
 a spirit pervading the whole life and  
not concerned merely with the externals 
of duty or with certain special  seasons
 of prayer4    ,was it not natural1 and 
even necessary1 that ,one who looked    
thus upon  the world1 seeing every-     
thing in relation to ,god as the ,author
 and the  end of life1 should make of   
the commonest acts a means to the       
,source of  all strength8 ,the water of 
purification1 without which men could   
not  live a clean and healthy life1 the 
daily bread without which they could    
not live at all1 the wine which stood   
for the inspiring fellowship which      
makes life worth living1 were symbols   

ready to hand and full of  spiritual    
meaning4    ,we have a perfect instance1
 in the account given in the fourth     
,gospel of  the washing of the          
disciples' feet1 of the true nature of  
the sacrament1  and we are able perhaps 
to see it more clearly because the      
actual form  of this sacrament has never
 been in general use in the ,church1 and
 men  have almost ceased to think of it 
as a sacrament at all4 ,except ,i wash  
thee thou hast no part in me1 the       
,master says to ,peter2 so necessary    
was the sacrament4 ,yet the mere form   
meant nothing1 when the thought  p4#gj  
and life beneath it was not entered     
into1 for ,judas too1  submitted to the 
ordinance1 and went out to betray his   
,lord4 ,we are told  how1 when ,christ  
had ended this visible parable1 the     
disciples were  bidden even so to wash  
each other's feet4 ,often possibly in   
after years  one or another may have    
done a like act for his friend1 and     
recalled the  ,master's words in doing  

it4 ,but this sacrament never became    
fixed into a  form1 and so even now we  
can clearly see its meaning4 ,indeed1   
had it  become a custom of the ,church1 
,christians would have needed to have   
been  very simple and humble if the     
ordinance were not to lose its          
significance4 ,in the few instances     
where the rite of feet-washing is  still
 observed1 we see how far removed to-day
 the ceremony may be from  the thought  
which once inspired it4 ,the selected   
poor1 who have first  been carefully    
washed before the ceremony1 are         
marshalled in stately  order1 attendant 
dignitaries are ready at hand with ewers
 of scented  water and basins of        
precious metal2 and so1 yearly1 do ,pope
 and ,emperor  commemorate the scene in 
the upper chamber where in very         
different wise  one whose kingdom was   
not of this world taught his followers  
the way  they should serve him by       
serving one another4    ,the sacrament  
of baptism would seem to be one which   

comes naturally to  the ,eastern        
peoples3 it has been in use for ages    
among the ,hindus of  ,india1 and it was
 apparently in general vogue in         
,palestine in ,christ's  time4 ,it would
 appear p4#ga to have been not so       
familiar to the ,western  world1 for the
 evangelist ,mark has to explain to his 
,gentile reader how  it was the custom  
of the ,pharisees to baptize pots and   
vessels1 and even  beds4 ,apparently1   
even in that day the symbol of          
purification had come  to have a magical
 significance4 ,the washing or          
purification as a symbol  of initiation 
is common to many religions1 and it was 
a natural  pictorial language for the   
prophet ,john the ,baptist to employ1 to
  express the change of life that was to
 follow the repentance which he         
preached4 ,christ's disciples had1 many 
of them1 first been followers of  ,john1
 and would readily continue to use this 
sign in their ministry4 ,but  though    
,baptism was to the early ,church the   

natural expression of  entrance into the
 new life of ,christianity 7as we see in
 the case of  ,philip and the ,ethiopian
 eunuch71 yet it is hard to imagine that
 if it  were held to possess in itself  
the importance which in later time was  
attached to it1 the ,apostle ,paul would
 actually rejoice in the fact that  he  
had hardly baptized any converts at all 
himself4 #af edn#af  ,already1 however1 
the ceremony had a meaning deeper than  
the simple act  of purification severing
 the old life from the new1 which was   
probably  that of the first baptisms of 
the disciples during the lifetime of    
,christ4 ,we gather from ,paul's words  
that in baptism the believer made  real 
to himself1 and to those about him1 his 
p4#gb going down with  ,christ into the 
waters of death and his rising again    
with him into a new  life1 by the power 
of the resurrection4 ,some inherent     
virtue was soon  thought to attach to   
the outward act itself1 or else one can 
scarcely  explain the origin of that    

strange custom of baptism for the dead1 
alluded to in the same epistle4 #ag     
edn#ag    ,this thought of the inherent 
worth of baptism continued to grow until
 by  the beginning of the fifth century 
it became generally held that without   
it salvation was impossible4 ,the       
,christian con- science1 however1       
discovered a way to remove what would   
have been the hardest application  of   
such a belief by what was spoken of as  
the baptism of blood4 ,if an  unbaptized
 convert was martyred for the name of   
,christ 7as often might  happen71 the   
martyr's death was held to be itself a  
baptism1 and this  idea was extended to 
what was called the baptism of desire1  
or the  baptism of faith1 whenever death
 occurred before it was possible for a  
convert to be baptized4 ,the classical  
instance of this1 discussed by ,st4     
,augustine and frequently cited by      
subsequent writers1 is that of the      
penitent thief upon the cross1 #ah ,and 
,tertullian1 who called  baptism the    

seal of faith1 goes so far as to say we 
do not receive  the washing of          
purification p4#gc in order to cease    
from sinning1 since  we had already been
 washed in our hearts4 #ai ,the seal of 
baptism was in his view the legal and   
visible completion of the act1 not  the 
act itself4 ,still1 he holds baptism to 
be the needful vesture of  faith1 as he 
calls it in another passage1 and        
accordingly discusses the  difficulty   
raised by some heretics of his own time1
 that ,paul being the  only baptized    
apostle1 the other apostles could none  
of them be saved2  though he does not   
feel it needful to adopt the explanation
 of certain  orthodox ritualists of his 
day1 who held1 he tells us1 that the    
apostles  were possibly baptized on the 
occasion when the waves beat in upon    
them  in the little ship on the sea of  
,galilee4    ,it was not to be wondered 
at that1 with such a view of baptism    
current  in the ,church1 the ,catholic  
missionaries of the sixteenth and       

seventeenth centuries should have laid  
stress rather on the numbers whom  they 
could baptize than any other result4 ,it
 is indeed at once pathetic  and amusing
 to turn over the leaves of the letters 
from the missions  which the good       
,jesuit fathers wrote two centuries and 
more ago1  describing the progress of   
their work among the ,american ,indians4
 ,you  may read there the words of a    
missionary spending laborious days amid 
all manner of hardships1 baptizing the  
sick and aged when very near to  death  
and therefore removed from the danger of
 possible relapse into  infidelity1 and 
especially p4#gd rejoicing in the number
 of souls won  by the baptism of dying  
infants1 who could not possibly fall    
away from  grace4    ,to such almost    
ludicrous notions do men come through   
materialising the  pictorial language of
 the primitive sacrament1 and imagining 
that its  visible words have magical    
efficacy in themselves4 ,yet the thought
 of  the scene in the upper room on the 

night of the last supper makes us  feel 
how much that visible language might    
mean in its first simplicity4    ,as    
simple and as natural was that other    
sacrament1 when ,christ took the  bread 
from the supper table1 and the cup of   
fellowship1 and gave them to  those     
friends of his as his body and very     
life1 which he was giving for  them and 
for their fellows4 ,what could be more  
fitting than that they  should          
henceforth remember this farewell       
supper1 this supreme gift of  himself1  
when their master was taken from their  
sight1 whenever they  partook again of  
the ,passover1 nay1 whenever they met   
together as  disciples to share in a    
common meal in the name of him they     
loved8 ,the  more fully they lived in   
his spirit the more simply would each   
meal they  took with one another be     
hallowed by the thought of his love and 
his  presence4    ,thus did the         
disciples in the early days take        
together the ,eucharist  meal from house

 to house in ,jerusalem3 and so1 in the 
midst of the  storm1 ,paul took it1     
before wondering fellow-passengers and  
crew1  mingling the prayer of joyful    
thanks-p4#ge;giving with the remembrance
  of the ,lord for whose name he was    
suffering hardship4    ,already in the  
time of ,paul the communion service was 
beginning to lose  its first simple     
spontaneity1 as we may note in his      
directions to the  ,church at ,corinth1 
but for long afterwards the ,eucharist  
was in a much  wider sense sacramental1 
than when its meaning was defined and   
imprisoned in the formulae of           
theologians4 ,how full of beauty must   
the  eucharist have been in those little
 churches of ,asia ,minor1 #bj  for     
which perhaps the ,didache1 ,the        
,teaching of the ,twelve  ,apostles1 was
 written1 towards the beginning of the  
second century4 ,the  eucharist prayer  
of the ,didache is a true prayer of     
thanks3 ,we thank  ,thee1 our ,father1  
for the life and knowledge which ,thou  

didst make known  to us through ,thy    
servant ,jesus2 ,unto ,thee the glory   
evermore 6 ,for as  this broken piece of
 bread was scattered over the mountains 
and brought  together and became one1 so
 may ,thy church be brought together    
from the  ends of the earth into ,thy   
,kingdom1 for ,thine is the glory and   
the power  through ,christ ,jesus       
evermore4    ,thus was the eucharist    
meal to early ,christians a symbol of   
the unity of  the ,church1 and a means  
of drawing them nearer in thought to    
each other4  p4#gf    ,it is sad to     
think that what in those days was a bond
 of union should  have become in later  
times a source of bitter contention and 
misunderstanding2 may we not resolve    
that for our part1 however we may       
differ from each other1 or from the     
majority of ,christians1 in our views   
about this observance1 we will not let  
this hinder us from realizing  that     
others may be helped by means which do  
not aid us1 and that it is  infinitely  

better to draw near to ,god through     
outward forms than to be  without them  
and not to draw near to ,him3 that what 
we need is to  realize and to claim the 
liberty by which a hundred forms may    
become  sacramental1 and not to deny the
 reality of the life which may underlie 
the fixed forms which others use4       
,luther once said that ,god might have  
made a sacrament of a bit of stick1  had
 ,he chosen2 ,pusey repeated the saying 
to a friend with a shudder1  telling him
 that it showed an irreverent mind4 #ba 
,yet surely  ,luther's words convey the 
very key to our comprehending the truth 
of the  ,real ,presence1 which may be   
revealed without outward form1 or under 
innumerable forms1 just because ,god is 
so much nearer than we think1  ever at  
work in ,his world1 still disclosing    
,himself to those who seek  with humble 
heart1 even though they call ,him not by
 ,his name4 ,what we  need above all is 
the spirit which will fill our lives    
with such  sacraments1 revelations of   

,god to us and to our fellows4          
,sometimes we  may be helped by an p4#gg
 ancient usage of the ,church1 at others
 by  some new symbol3 what matter the   
shape of the chalice if the wine be     
there8    ,john ,henry ,newman1 in his  
early ,protestant days1 was wont to make
 use of  the sign of the cross and to   
find it helpful4 ,it is a sacrament     
which  loses its meaning the moment one 
thinks of it as having any magical      
effect in itself1 but if it be used to  
remind oneself of that which it  stands 
for1 as the symbol of the perfect deed  
of self-sacrifice1 it may  well help    
many learners in the school of ,christ4 
,in like manner to-day1 the wearing of a
 badge of membership in some  society1  
or adult school 7as twenty years ago a  
piece of blue ribbon71  may doubtless   
prove an effectual sacrament to many    
men1 aiding them to  be faithful to a   
resolution made1 as well as showing     
forth their belief  to others4 ,the sign
 is in itself useless1 yet may mean much

 to the men  who make it their symbol of
 comradeship4    ,the more worth living 
our lives prove1 the fuller they will be
 of true  sacraments1 in little things  
and in great4 ,the immense sacrament of 
nature is ever about us1 and our human  
intercourse is made up1 in all  that    
makes it of worth1 of count- less lesser
 sacraments4 ,what meaning  there may be
 in a simple handshake1 and how much    
help and strength it  may pass on to    
another6 ,the mere physical act is as   
nothing in itself1  yet it may avail to 
alter a whole life4 ,nevertheless1 p4#gh
 we must see  even here how easily mere 
custom may diminish or destroy the use  
of such  a thing4 ,in the studied       
greeting of formal civility the         
sacramental  character disappears4 ,or  
worse still1 that which was intended to 
be a  medium of friendship becomes a    
means of undoing friendship's work4 ,for
  so long as wrong exists in our lives  
we must beware of the sacraments of     
evil by which the ties which bind us to 

each other and to the world  about us   
become the ,devil's bonds instead of    
,god's leading-strings4    ,the act1 or 
the thing which forms the sacrament1 may
 be in itself used  either for good or  
ill4 ,to one man even it may be good1   
while to another  it may be a means of  
harm4 ,the greater need1 therefore1 have
 we neither  to judge our neighbour1 nor
 ourselves to do lightly things which   
may be  a means of good for him1 but for
 us a sacrament of ill4    ,to take a   
single instance3 ,wandering in his      
father's library1 a boy  comes upon a   
book which he begins to read2 and       
suddenly the conviction  comes to him   
that he ought not to go on4 ,the book is
 full of interest2  perhaps in later    
years he may return to it and find its  
thoughts most  helpful4 ,and yet it may 
be that this book1 which at a later time
 might  prove a sacrament of good1 may  
be for him now nothing but a sacrament  
of  evil1 since his mind is not ready to
 understand its teaching4    ,in the    

world without us there are some things  
so constantly associated  with thoughts 
of goodness p4#gi and beauty that they  
seem almost  naturally ,god's           
sacraments4 ,such are the flowers1 which
 constantly call  to our minds thoughts 
of joy and kindness2 the sunlight1 which
 cheers  and invigorates2 and drives    
away the disease that is the symbol of  
wrongdoing2 the light1 whose essence is 
so pure that it has become an  image of 
the ,divine nature4 ,these are among    
nature's sacraments1 and in  the life of
 man we have1 above all1 the sacrament  
of the family1 which  at its best is an 
image of the love of the ,all-highest1  
and a foretaste  of ,his ,kingdom among 
men1 of the city which is to be1 in     
which all are  members of one another1  
living to serve each other4    ,it may  
comfort us to think that the devil's    
sacraments are not so  all-pervading2   
for night1 which we think of as the     
cloak of evil1 may  itself be to the    
devout soul a symbol of the mysterious  

peace of ,god4  ,one thinks of those    
wonderful lines of ,vaughan3    _/,dear 
,night6 the world's defeat2_/    _/,the 
stop to busy fools2 care's check and    
curb2_/    _/,the day of spirits2 my    
soul's calm retreat_/    _/,which none  
disturb6_/    _/,christ's progress1 and 
,his prayer-time2_/    _/,the hours to  
which high ,heaven doth climb4_/        
_/,god's silent1 searching flight2_/    
_/,when my ,lord's head is fill'd with  
dew1 and all_/    _/,his locks are wet  
with the clear drops of night2_/        
_/,his still1 soft call2_/    _/,his    
knocking time2 the soul's dumb watch1_/ 
_/,when spirits their fair kindred      
catch4 p4#hj_/    _/,were all my loud1  
evil days_/    _/,calm and unhaunted1 as
 is thy dark tent1_/    _/,whose peace  
but by some angel's wing or voice_/     
_/,is seldom rent2_/    _/,then ,i in   
,heaven all the long year_/    _/,would 
keep1 and never wander here4_/    _/99  
99 99 99_/    _/,there is in ,god --    
some say --_/    _/,a deep1 but dazzling

 darkness2 as men here_/    _/,say it is
 late and dusky1 because they_/         
_/,see not all clear4_/    _/,o for that
 ,night 6 ,where ,i in ,him_/           
_/,might live invisible and dim6_/    or
 we may remember the ,hymns to ,night of
 ,novalis1 and that experience  known to
 so many saints1 which ,st4 ,john of the
 ,cross speaks of as the  obscure night 
of the soul1 the darkness which we needs
 must traverse  before we come to know  
the greater light beyond4 ,the stern    
angel of pain  seems to many a fiend2   
but some have found him to be a friend  
at the  last1 and certainly there is    
something in the heart of sorrow that no
  other experience brings to us1 unless 
it be great joy1 and as we feel  it1 we 
seem to understand that the spirit of   
joy and the spirit of  sorrow are angels
 near akin4    ,in the world that man   
has made there is one thing above all   
others  through which the influences of 
evil seem to work1 the devil's sacrament
  of money4 ,when one thinks of the     

hatreds and lusts springing to birth    
around it1 and the curse it so often    
seems to bring alike to him that  gives 
and him that takes1 when one sees       
wealth1 p4#ha remorseless in  its pride 
of power1 worshipped and cringed to by  
its recipients and its  courtiers1 it is
 easy to understand how a simple        
,christlike man like ,st4  ,francis     
would have no dealings with money1 and  
shunned to touch it as we  might some   
plague-infected garment4 ,and yet how   
often has this hateful  thing been      
redeemed from its base use to be the    
minister of right4 ,even  money is not  
hopelessly lost for good4 ,the          
sacramental efficacy of the  widow's    
mite has not ceased through all the     
centuries since she cast it1  in her    
humility1 into ,god's treasury4 ,the    
sand hides the gold of  ,pharaoh1 and   
the imperial treasures of ,augustus are 
vanished and  forgotten1 but that poor  
woman's gift still goes on3 she gave to 
,god1 to  the best and highest that she 

knew1 and in giving1 little thought that
  through the word of the ,master of    
,masters1 her tiny coin could become    
for ever a sacrament to humanity4    ,so
 may a little thing and a base thing be 
made a symbol of good2 most of  all then
 should we find a channel of revelation 
in the highest thing we  know2 not only 
in the sacrament of nature1 but in the  
sacrament of man4    ,surely to us the  
most wonderful thing in life is         
personality1 and it is  human           
personality which may be the highest    
sacrament of good1 or the  most terrible
 sacrament of ill4 ,our deeds are often 
at their best poor  clumsy acts that    
stray in the dark2 our thoughts are all 
imperfect1 and  our words fail to       
express them fully4 ,but in spite of all
 p4#hb this  failure1 soul acts upon    
soul1 we know not how1 and the influence
 of one  life upon another goes out     
continually like the myriad rays of a   
lamp4  ,silently men are changed and    
transformed by this influence4 ,and     

there is  no man but is doing his part  
for good or ill in this transforming    
work1  whatever he may be1 wherever he  
may go4 ,is it not thus that ,god's     
self-revelation in ,christ becomes real 
to the ,christian8 ,god speaks to  us in
 ,jesus through human personality4 ,we  
draw near to him as a man1 we  see his  
life and listen to his words1 and as we 
gaze and listen1 we feel  that ,god has 
taken hold of us4    ,we are very near  
now to the greatest of sacraments4 ,did 
not the apostle  speak of the union of  
the ,church with ,christ as  1 _/magnum 
sacramentum_/8 ,the follower must bear1 
in some measure1 in his life1 the       
likeness of his master2 the nearer we   
draw to him1 the more his presence  will
 mould our lives with the impress of his
 character4    ,in the ideal marriage1  
even as we know it realised sometimes   
now1  husband and wife live in such     
close communion1 so share their         
thoughts1  and feelings1 so enter into  
each other's lives1 that each character1

  reacting on the other1 grows ever more
 like to it4 ,may not this thought  help
 us to understand something of what is  
meant by ,christ's union with  his      
,church8 ,the ,church is humanity in its
 ideal form1 humanity as a  whole       
striving after its true goal1 and the   
human race comes to p4#hc  understand   
and realize its aim by union with       
,christ1 thus gradually  growing to be  
more like him and to share his nature4  
,the end and the  means to it are no    
mere rapture of holy emotion1 no selfish
 joy of idle  contemplation4 ,the       
relation- ship is much deeper2 it must  
affect our  whole character4 ,it is not 
a rush of sentiment but a union of will4
    ,after years of discipleship1 and   
when he had gone through many things    
that he might draw nearer to the spirit 
of ,christ1 there came to ,st4  ,francis
 that wonderful crowning vision of the  
,saviour crucified1 and  amidst the joy 
of the vision there was pain4 ,from that
 hour to the day  of his death1 the     

record tells us1 did ,francis bear in   
secret upon his  body the marks of the  
passion4 ,it does not matter how his    
frail frame  came to respond to the     
thoughts that so dominated his mind3 the
  important thing for us is not the     
accidental consequence to the body1  but
 the attitude of mind and spirit1 the   
union of will with a ,christ  suffering 
for humanity1 bearing the sins of the   
world4 ,he who has come  to be made     
thus1 in the humblest way1 the comrade  
of ,christ1 must be the  comrade too of 
all his fellow-men4 ,church and         
individual alike must show  in character
 and life the meaning of this fellowship
 -- fellowship in joy  and in sorrow1   
too1 willingness to learn1 to give and  
to serve4 ,sharing  the burdens of rich 
and poor1 feeling the bonds that bind   
their lives1  accepting ourselves       
responsibility and blame p4#hd for all  
ignorance  and failure and wrongdoing1  
we may realize that the spirit of       
,christ is  still at work in the world1 

that closer than our thoughts is the    
infinite love1 and beneath our weakness 
the infinite strength of the  ,father's 
arms4          ,,chapter ,v3 ,,some ,,of
 ,,nature',s ,,sacraments    ,,the life 
of words is like in some ways to the    
life of men2 the soul  changes within   
them1 though the form remains the same4 
,yet while  language is still living it 
may regain something of its old power   
beneath the poet's healing fingers1 and 
now and again a master of words  will   
recall for us some dying form of speech4
 ,a writer of power is  needed1 surely  
to win us back the older and wiser use  
of the word  sacrament as a spiritual   
symbol1 the revelation of the unseen    
through  the visible1 the unfolding of  
the unknown through the known4 ,the     
image  of the world1 wrote ,bacon1 #bb  
is a message of the ,divine  wisdom and 
power2 to many a mystic it has been more
 even than this1 and  nature has been   
full of sacraments bringing life from   
things not seen4    ,the story is told  

of the old ,calabrian ,abbot1 ,joachim  
da ,fiore1 that as  he was saying       
vespers in some little church among the 
mountains1 the  glory of the setting sun
 caught his eye through the open p4#hf  
door of  the nave4 ,suddenly realizing  
how much more beautiful was the great   
temple of the sunlit sky than the       
painted stone walls of his little       
building made with hands1 he led his    
congregation out into the open air1  and
 with nature's ritual around them they  
went on praying1 gazing upon  the       
picture of that evening landscape and   
the wonder of the sunset  above4 ,though
 he was the adopted father of many      
admirable heretics1 and  for long a     
suspect himself1 ,blessed ,joachim did  
not offend thus more  than once1 as far 
as we know1 against the laws of ritual4 
,but many  another saint must have been 
tempted to do as he did4 ,it is1 indeed1
  easy for us to understand how in the  
old days every high place had its       
altar1 and how again and again in later 

times solitude upon a mountain  has     
seemed to give the most congenial       
atmosphere for prayer4  ,unconsciously1 
and quite apart from our beliefs1 we    
instinctively turn  in physical         
weariness1 and often in other troubles1 
to the calm rest of  nature4 ,however   
much at times we may ponder her sterner 
side1 and search  in vain to explain to 
ourselves the mysteries of death and    
pain with  which she confronts us       
constantly1 it is not these things of   
which she  speaks to man1 when he goes  
to her sad and weary1 like a tired child
 to  his nurse4 ,a feeling of quietness1
 beneath which lies strength1 the dim   
apprehension of law1 inexplicable       
indeed1 but majestic and even           
beautiful1 and above all that           
indefinable sense of peace which comes  
to  us sometimes when we p4#hg are in   
the presence of that which is           
immeasurably greater than ourselves1 all
 this may nature bring to us1  when we  
go to her alone with our troubles4 ,the 

old stoics must have  sometimes felt    
this1 though to the ,roman mind at least
 wild nature did  not usually possess   
the attractive power it has for us4 ,one
 cannot but  feel that when ,marcus     
,aurelius cries to the ,universe that   
which is  harmonious to thee1 is to me  
too1 he is conscious of something of    
this  feeling in which our petty cares  
and troubles sink into nothingness amid 
the waters of the great ocean of        
universal life2 though he arrived at    
the sense of this rather by inward      
meditation than by the contemplation  of
 nature without him4 ,and whatever the  
philosophers may have felt1 one  has no 
doubt of the poets4 ,propertius1 alone  
in the ,umbrian highlands by  the       
sources of the ,tiber1 and ,catullus1   
listening to the ripple of the  waves of
 ,garda1 were able for a moment to rise 
above the pain and fire  of passion into
 a calmer air2 and yet the ,roman poets 
have no such sense  of the overwhelming 
majesty and order of nature as came to  

the ,hebrew  ,psalmists4    ,the ,roman 
had still in dim recesses of his        
consciousness the feelings of  an       
earlier age1 for which every wild wood  
was peopled with mysterious  powers2    
nature was full of unknown agencies     
whose workings man could but  dimly     
perceive1 and the ancient rites of his  
religion were the charms by  which he   
held at bay the strange potencies of    
evil that surrounded him4  ,the p4#hh   
,hebrew poet looked on nature even in   
her sterner aspects with  the eyes of   
faith2 hailstorm and thunder1 and the   
very sea his people  thought of with    
such dread1 brought revelations to him  
of the ,divine  power controlling all2  
and because of this sense of unity1 the 
mystery  and wonder of the starry sky   
seemed to his inward ear vocal with     
harmonies4 ,in some ways there has come 
to us in the last two centuries  fuller 
knowledge of that reign of law which    
formed a part of the  religious         
consciousness of the poets of ancient   

,israel4 ,science speaks  to us of the  
insignificance of man beside the        
illimitable greatness of  the universe  
of which he is ever striving to gain    
some knowledge1 and  trains us to revere
 the majesty of laws which he can only  
imperfectly  apprehend4 ,yet it is well 
known how sadly one great leader of     
modern  science regretted that in his   
old age he was no longer able to know   
the  feeling of the beauty and majesty  
of the ,alpine landscape which had so   
often helped him in the past1 because1  
as it seemed to him1 the habit of       
scientific analysis had taken from him  
that simpler sense of the earlier       
years1 the direct consciousness of a    
beauty he could not explain4 ,so  true  
it is that the child's eyes and the     
childlike spirit only find the  entrance
 into the ,kingdom of ,heaven1 which is 
hid to the wise4 ,one must  not suppose1
 indeed1 that the closing of this one   
door into the unseen  means that others1
 too1 are shut1 or else the lot of the  

city-dweller  would be even worse than  
it is4 ,dr4 ,johnson1 kindliest and best
 p4#hi  of townsmen1 though he said that
 to see one green field was to see all  
green fields1 was yet keenly sensitive  
to many of the lesser sacraments  of    
man's social life2 and those who read   
his prayers and meditations  know that  
the invisible realities were to him no  
mere object of  intellectual belief1 but
 the atmosphere of his inmost thought4  
,yet it is  a thing to be regretted that
 the habit of scientific research and   
the  ordinary course of town life do too
 often so mould our faculties as to     
impede that vision which the            
contemplation of ,nature still brings to
 the  simple heart4 ,the student's loss 
has its compensations1 and may even     
involve in it an element of the noblest 
sacrifice2 but this cannot be  said of  
the man whose whole life is wrapped up  
in the making of money  and in the      
pleasures and concerns of conventional  
urban society4 ,such  men are robbing   

not only themselves and their families  
of the things  which make life worth    
living1 but a far wider circle2 for they
 are  helping to keep in being a        
civilization which deprives thousands of
 city  children of ever knowing what the
 sacraments of nature mean4 ,the        
majority of ,londoners have never seen  
the sun rise1 save over smoking         
chimneys2 they have never been able to  
watch the full moon sailing  across the 
clear blue of a cloudless night2 never  
known a morning filled  with the joyous 
exhilaration of sunlight only dimmed by 
the mist of the  vanishing dew4 ,still  
less do such town-dwellers understand of
 the lonely  silence of the night in the
 p4#ij open country1 in which men may   
feel  themselves back again amid the    
childhood of the race4 ,true1 the amber 
haze of day in ,london and the flicker  
of the gas lamps in the streets at      
night have a beauty of their own2 but it
 is dearly bought if the price  must be1
 at least for the greater part of our   

poorer men and women1 and  for almost   
all the children1 so heavy a one as     
this4 ,the civilization  which shuts out
 from its gaze the vision of the stars  
may well grow  blind to greater         
mysteries2 if men will not listen to the
 music of the  spheres1 how should they 
hear the angel's song8                  
,,chapter ,,vi3 ,,institutions ,,and    
,,inspiration    ,,one of the strangest 
and sometimes perhaps one of the saddest
 things  that the student of history    
comes to realize must surely be that law
  which seems to doom every great ideal 
and every great movement to give  birth 
to organizations which1 while created to
 promote it1 end by  destroying it or   
diverting it to different channels4 ,the
 cynics laugh at  the contrast between  
present-day ,christianity1 as manifested
 in the  dignity of the great historic  
churches and the rude simplicity of the 
,galilean fishers2 in a narrower field  
the most sympathetic of ,french         
historians has traced for us the tragic 

way in which the great spiritual  forces
 that made the early ,franciscan        
movement what it was1 were  trammelled1 
if not extinguished1 by the growth of   
the very society which  they had called 
into being4    ,the mystic laments the  
fall from the unrealized ideal2 the     
statesman  makes rejoinder that the     
change is a needful one1 and a necessary
 means  of progress4 ,so across the     
centuries contend with one another the  
men of  method and of discipline p4#ib  
and the men of vision4 ,iscariot still  
follows in the steps of ,christ1 bearing
 his money bags1 planning his           
arrangements of finance1 ignoring his   
ideal4    ,most of us must sympathize   
with ,iscariot2 we have so often been in
 his  place1 sometimes in spite of      
ourselves1 perhaps4 ,or if we cannot    
sympathize with him1 at least we must   
with ,brother ,elias1 that born  master 
of organization1 the practical man who  
saw the beauty of the  character of ,st4
 ,francis1 recognised the power of his  

attractive nature1  and wished to turn  
all to visible use1 to build up around  
him a great  society which should be a  
guide to kings and prelates1 a divine   
strong-  hold into which the beauty and 
the riches of the world should be       
brought4 ,elias doubtless felt that ,st4
 ,francis was too good for this  world2 
he himself dealt with men as men1       
understanding the worth of  compromise1 
seeing the strength of institutions4    
,the ,elias whom most of  us know well  
enough always tends to think of an ideal
 merely in its  relation to institutions
 actual or possible1 while the ,francis1
 for whom  we look too often in vain1   
thinks of the institution only as at    
best the  imperfect embodiment of1 or   
the means to1 the ideal1 and more often 
as  the hindrance to be overcome on the 
way1 my brother the ass1 who can  only  
be guided with difficulty4    ,it is    
very easy for us to recognise in a far  
off time the failure of  institutions to
 realize the ideal that inspired their  

origin1 and we  readily admit1 in the   
abstract1 the need for the ideal to     
dominate  p4#ic the institution and the 
danger of the institution running away  
with the ideal4 ,it is harder to see in 
our own lives how far we are  allowing  
the machinery to take us from its       
object1 how far that  machinery is out  
of date or out of gear1 since we are in 
the thick of it  all1 our ears dulled by
 the roar of the wheels4 ,assuming that 
we admit  that ,iscariot has his right  
and helpful place1 how are we to find it
 and  keep him there8    ,it may help us
 to understand the danger that follows  
upon organization1  if we make even a   
partial survey of a group of existing   
institutions and  try to trace the      
history of some one of them4    ,how    
great is the failure of our countless   
institutions intended to  promote social
 welfare1 we to some extent realize as  
we take up such a  work as the ,annual  
,charities ,register and ,digest1 of the
 ,charity  ,organization ,society1 and  

turn over those #gjj pages describing   
the  various societies1 with all their  
staffs and offices at work in the city  
which is still the ,london that we know4
 ,life appears almost to become at      
times to some men one long committee1   
but1 little1 after all1 seems  done4    
,and this failure may be seen1 to some  
extent at least1 even in  recent        
movements which were originally a       
protest against the narrowness  and     
superficiality of earlier methods of    
dealing with the problems of  modern    
society4 ,the first thought of the men  
who conceived the idea of  the          
university settlement was surely not to 
found a new institution1 so  much as to 
bring life into touch p4#id with life1  
to make centres in  which knowledge and 
experience might be collected1 and from 
which men  and ideas might be put at the
 service of all who had most need of    
them4  ,yet1 in spite of themselves1    
they have almost become institutions2   
indeed1 some settlements have frankly   

made it their aim to be such1 and  as   
one reads reports from across the water 
of all that our ,american  friends are  
doing1 one must admit that they have    
been most successful in  achieving their
 object4 ,if the settlement movement 7as
 it is called7 had  not begun as it did 
twenty odd years ago1 perhaps these     
wonderful  centres of activity would not
 have come into being1 or would have    
been  very different from what they are4
 ,yet would the founders of the first   
settlement have recognised as their     
spiritual descendants these men1        
unselfish as they are1 whose methods are
 so different8 ,did there ever  come    
before their vision the picture of a    
great building raised by some           
millionaire1 maintained by like gifts1  
manned by a staff of salaried  workers1 
and providing at the expense of         
far-seeing or enlightened               
manufacturers1 healthy amusement and    
duly certified religious teaching  and  
secular instruction to the workmen of   

these subscribers1 as well as           
dispensing1 on behalf of ,dives1        
basketfuls of crumbs1 both of plain and 
fancy bread1 to ,lazarus and his fellows
 at the door8    ,this is1 after all1 an
 instance of a world-wide process4 ,we  
are face to  face once again with the   
fact that men are constantly attempting 
to do  their p4#ie duty by deputy2 to   
subscribe to what they see to be a good 
work rather than to set about to do it  
themselves1 to give of their  money     
rather than of their lives4 ,it is the  
danger that has beset the  church from  
almost the earliest days1 that the men  
who should be  inspiring and setting    
others to work have too often simply    
done their  work for them1 or tried to  
do it4 ,doubtless the old robber baron  
returning from some murderous fray felt 
his heart uplifted as1 rounding  a comer
 of the road on the way to his castle on
 the hill1 he came in  sight1 in the    
valley below1 of the monastery he had   
founded1 and thought  of the holy lives 

of the monks1 and of their prayers put  
up daily for  him1 who had such need of 
them4 ,doubtless1 too1 the good monks'  
hearts  warmed towards the old          
freebooter who yet had so much good in  
him as to  be their founder and         
protector4 ,but it was small consolation
 to the men  he robbed and put to death 
to know that some part at least of their
  possessions would go to ,holy ,church 
and to make possible the cloistered     
self-denial of these men of ,god4 ,the  
baron's keep has vanished1 and the      
abbey is in ruins1 but is there not     
evidence that the same process is  going
 on to-day8 ,it is not always pleasant  
to think of the ultimate  source of some
 of the contributions which are to be   
found in the  subscription lists of     
churches and charities4 ,the man who    
realizes this  may well hesitate to     
appeal to the wealthy for money to aid  
his plans1  for he sees the effect of   
such methods in making p4#if religious  
and  social agencies distrusted by many 

among the very classes which they aim   
at helping4 ,he will rather honour the  
spirit in which such a social  worker as
 ,jane ,addams of ,chicago refuses to   
receive gifts of tainted  gold1 as she  
feels the conscience money of some      
unscrupulous men of  business to be4    
,yet here again he may be in danger of  
deceiving himself4  ,he needs1 it is    
true1 to beware of accepting1 still more
 of asking for1  gifts which would      
merely be given to promote the vanity or
 to further  the selfish interests of   
the giver1 but can a man so easily wash 
his  hands of the stain of the mammon of
 unrighteousness8 ,does he not rather   
need to recognise that1 indirectly at   
least1 the fruits of injustice  enter   
into all the money that comes to him1   
since selfishness plays the  part it    
does in our social life1 and since our  
lives are so bound up  with each other  
that no man can set himself apart from  
his fellows8 ,only  let him see that the
 gifts he asks for will quicken in the  

givers the  sense of social             
responsibility and increase the desire  
to do and to give  more themselves4     
,the payment of subscriptions1 if this  
principle be disregarded1 becomes  a    
soul-destroying process1 alike to him   
that gives and him that takes4  ,the    
pious ,henry ,,iii4 turned once at bay1 
after listening to the pleading  of     
,friar ,william of ,abingdon1 one of the
 most eloquent of the early  ,dominican 
preachers1 and cried to him1 ,brother   
,william1 there was a  time when thou   
couldst speak of spiritual things2 now  
all thou canst say  is1 p4#ig ' ,give1  
give1 give 6 ' ,one may compare the     
disgust with which  a modern public     
schoolboy often turns from the familiar 
appeal of the  clergy- man who year by  
year comes to the school to preach on   
behalf of  the school mission1 and to   
carry back with him the usual           
collection1 but  nothing better4 ,for   
the only thing worth giving or asking is
 life2 and  such a missioner too often  

fails to ask for it4 ,here surely we may
 find  a hint of the explanation of all 
successful social work1 which is the    
passing on of life from life1 the result
 of the contact of personality  with    
personality4 ,in so far as organization 
promotes this and makes it  possible    
does it stand justified1 and only by    
this test4    ,one does not wish to     
undervalue the associations1 the        
reflexes of life1  which institutions so
 often pass on1 or the wealth of a great
 past which  they keep in store for us4 
,but death is perhaps as needful and as 
inevitable for the body corporate as for
 the individual2 for both it is  often  
true that whom the gods love die young4 
,it is surely better to  spend and be   
spent in a short life rich in ideas1    
than to carry on a  long existence by   
the aid of a comfortable endowment1     
which may prevent  men from realizing   
how far out of touch they are with the  
actual needs  of those about them4 ,it  
is not known whether any council of     

bishops has  decided if there be humour 
in ,heaven1 but one is inclined to think
 that  the solemn way in which men shake
 their heads and lament the impending   
decease of an outworn institution must  
sometimes be greeted elsewhere by  a    
peal of celestial laughter4             
,,chapter ,,vii3 ,,priests ,,and        
,,pontiffs    ,,some day we may hope to 
see among our great national museums one
 made to  illustrate the religions of   
the world1 from the rudest rites of the 
savage to the highest developments of   
,buddhism1 ,mohammedanism1 ,judaism  and
 ,christianity4 ,this museum of         
comparative religions does already      
exist to some extent in embryo in every 
great collection of antiquities1  and   
the students of ethnology and folklore  
have been long at work in  preparing    
materials for its catalogues4 ,a partial
 glimpse of what it  would contain is   
given in such a world-wide missionary   
exhibition as  that organised in        
connection with the work of the ,london 

,missionary  ,society at the            
,agricultural ,hall in the early summer 
of #aijh4    ,the survey of such a great
 collection cannot but be stimulating to
 every  thoughtful student4 ,some of its
 visitors may see in the hideous idols  
of  the ,south ,seas and in the pictures
 of the medicine man at work at his     
craft only a further incentive to aid   
the spreading of their own faith1  which
 they feel more strongly than ever to be
 immeasurably p4#ii raised  above the   
rites and thoughts of the savage4       
,others may look with sad  eyes at the  
long series of pictures that is spread  
out before them1 for  they see          
everywhere only the same superstition1  
the primitive fears of  unknown forces1 
developing with the growth of           
civilization into  religions which      
expand with man's own needs and         
conceptions1  intermingling with his    
hopes and aspirations and refined by his
 thought  into the creeds and theologies
 of the higher faiths4 ,through all they

  trace the same instincts1 and feel    
that the savage kneeling before a       
blood-smeared stone explains to them the
 ,nicene ,creed1 that the  hierarchy of 
the ,church has its origin in the       
spirit-doctors and  fetish-men of a     
simpler age4    ,yet to some at least   
there may come far other thoughts than  
these1 as  they ponder over what they   
have seen4 ,everywhere they behold men  
stretching out their hands towards      
something above them1 beyond them1      
struggling with fears1 oppressed by dim 
consciousness of wrong1 hoping  for some
 way of peace4 ,the priest himself is a 
witness to this innate  need of the     
soul1 since his very presence speaks of 
man's dependence on  the higher than    
himself1 while it also shows men's      
interdependence upon  each other4 ,for  
the priest's position is impossible1    
unless he is in  some way regarded as a 
means of communication between man and  
,god1 and a  centre of fellowship among 
men4 ,with this thought in his heart a  

man may  look back1 not without hope1   
upon the melancholy pageant of p4#ajj   
the  centuries1 and watch the strange   
part that the priest has ever played in 
it4 ,the modern sceptic joining in the  
sad cry of the old ,roman poet --  ,so  
many are the ills that superstition has 
had power to urge men to --  has had1   
after all1 like the rest of us1 but an  
imperfect vision of the  confused drama 
of history4 ,he sees priesthood as a    
selfish influence  playing upon human   
ignorance and baseness2 he does not     
perceive the  wider priesthood at work  
of which this is only a perversion1 nor 
realize  that priesthood and prayer     
underlie all that is highest and best in
  human life4 ,for priesthood is the    
highest expression of man's social      
nature1 by which he enters into         
communion with his fellows and with     
,god4  ,it is only because we narrow the
 use of the name of priest that we do   
not honour it aright1 for in its essence
 priesthood is not a profession1  but a 

high duty to which all are called4      
,if we were to try to define this true  
priesthood1 might we not say that  a    
priest is one who1 reaching out after   
the higher and better than  himself1    
helps others onward too1 bringing to    
them something to which  they could not 
of themselves have attained1 who shares 
his good with his  fellows and takes    
upon himself their ill1 making communion
 possible for  them1 because he has     
entered into communion with them        
himself4 ,but it is  not easy thus to   
summarise in a sentence a work which is 
in truth as  wide as human life2        
wherever a man interprets p4#aja in the 
terms of  his own day the unseen and    
enduring realities1 and helps those     
about him  to view things in their true 
relations1 he is performing a priestly  
function2 whenever he takes up their    
disadvantages as his own1 in  fellowship
 with suffering1 and shares with others 
willingly the result  of their own      
wrong-doing1 then is he doing a part of 

the priest's  divinest work4    ,the    
germ of such an ideal of priesthood may 
be seen in far-off days4 ,the  family   
priesthood of the ,hebrew patriarchs1   
and of the early ages of  ,israel1      
contains1 unconsciously at least1 the   
promise of it1 and in a  wider form it  
formed the subject of the noblest       
prophetic appeal3 ,israel  was called to
 be a nation of priests1 revealing to   
other peoples the  message of ,god4#bc  
,it may be said1 too1 that the later    
history of the ,jewish nation has shown 
in practice the value of the  simple    
family priesthood of the parent1 in     
keeping alive a faith which  from the   
destruction of the temple down into the 
late ,middle ,ages was  cherished and   
maintained entirely without the help of 
a professional  ministry4 ,even when    
after the time of ,maimonides1 the      
rabbis began to be  paid for the time   
which they took from other work to      
devote to the  exposition of the ,law   
for the benefit of others1 there was    

still no  arbitrary division between    
clergy and laity4 ,the human centre of  
,jewish  religious life is not the      
rabbinic ministry1 but the lay          
priesthood of  the family4 p4#ajb    ,it
 was natural that the ideal of a        
universal priesthood should find        
expression in the earliest literature of
 the ,christian ,church1 reviving  and  
enlarging beyond the boundaries of race 
the appeal of the earlier  ,hebrew      
prophets3 twice in one writing of the   
,apostolic ,age #bd  are ,christian folk
 spoken of as a holy priesthood or a    
royal  priest- hood1 while in the vision
 of the ,apocalypse the same ideal is   
held up for the ,church that now is and 
for the ,church that is to be1 in  the  
millennial reign upon earth of the      
faithful disciples of ,christ4  #be ,in 
the ,pauline epistles the disciples are 
not actually  called priests1 but both  
the individual ,christians and the      
,church as a  whole are spoken of as    
,temples of the ,holy ,spirit1 and      

appeal is made to  the ,romans that ye  
present your bodies a living sacrifice  
unto ,god1  which is your reasonable    
temple-service4#bf ,moreover1 the  body 
in such a passage does not mean so much 
the flesh and blood1 as the  whole      
visible personality of a man2 in like   
manner in that triumphant  paean which  
seems to have been written by the       
apostle in the conscious-  ness of the  
nearness of impending martyrdom1 the    
thought in the words ,i  am already     
being poured out as a libation #bg is   
that his  whole personality is being    
poured out and offered up as p4#ajc a   
final  priestly act of cheerful giving3 
for the libation was the glad offering  
made not merely by an official clergy1  
but by the head of the household  as its
 family priest1 or by the individual as 
sharing in the universal  priesthood of 
humanity4    ,priesthood was regarded1  
it would seem1 in the earliest days of  
the  ,church as a function to which all 
its members were called1 but even in    

the apostolic age certain officials were
 appointed to fulfil particular  duties 
in the ,church on behalf of their fellow
 members4 ,yet several  generations     
appear to have passed before priest and 
presbyter were  regarded as fully       
equivalent terms4#bh ,as ,church        
organization  developed1 the gifts of   
the ,spirit were conceived less and less
 as  widespread throughout all the parts
 of the body1 and more and more as      
confined to certain classes1 while in   
course of time these classes  became    
more official and professional in       
character4 ,yet if we remember  how     
repeatedly institutions tend to fetter  
and destroy the ideal that  has created 
them1 we shall find cause to wonder not 
in the growth of  clericalism in the    
,christian ,church1 but rather in the   
fact that all  down the ages of her     
continuous life men and women both      
within and  without the ranks of her    
officials have realized1 in part at     
least1 the  higher ideals of true       

priesthood4 p4#ajd    ,it is easy for us
 to see the harm done by the official   
spirit1 and the  hypocrisy which is so  
often its shadow2 still we must not     
forget that  noble army of men who have 
looked with far other eyes upon their   
office1  feeling themselves the         
representatives for the sake of order of
 the  ,church as a whole1 and realizing 
more or less consciously that their     
duty is not to be the delegates and     
deputies of the layman in  discharging  
his priestly functions for him1 but to  
be a means to help  him to realize them 
more fully1 aiding him to think more1 to
 do more and  to pray more for himself4 
,especially true is this of prayer1     
which the  true priest must ever aid in 
others as well as in himself1 whether   
the  prayer find utterance in words1 or 
remain unformed even into the mental    
words of thought4 ,for is not prayer1 in
 this widest sense1 the life  breath of 
the ,church and of the individual alike8
 ,prayer is indeed too  often spoken of 

as though it implied words3 whereas it  
may exist even  without conscious       
thought1 going on whenever the soul's   
hand stretches  out after ,god1 whenever
 man seeks after goodness1 in every act 
of will  by which he is brought into    
touch with that ,spirit from whom all   
right  thoughts1 all holy desires1 all  
good counsels1 and all just works do    
proceed4    ,the aim of conscious       
prayer1 in its highest form1 must be    
communion1 and  a communion of will     
which may continue when the conscious   
prayer itself  ceases1 underlying the   
work and thought of everyday life4 ,to  
this  communion the true priest p4#aje  
will ever direct his fellows1 knowing   
that as he and they come to share in it 
more fully they will be the  better able
 to help those about them towards their 
goal4 ,he knows too1  by experience1    
that there is a law of spiritual        
magnetism1 by which just  as in the     
physical world a weak magnet is         
strengthened by contact with a  strong  

one1 so in the spiritual world the will 
to do the good and to  live aright may  
be strengthened by coming into the      
presence of a  stronger will1 and most  
of all by contact with the ,divine will4
    ,to the ,christian1 ,christ         
expresses in human form what this will  
stands  for1 and so for daily life he is
 still felt to be the ,high ,priest of  
man- kind1 the touch of whose spirit    
polarises and renews our wills1 as  they
 come into contact with his life4 ,the  
one early ,christian writer who  has    
developed for his readers the thought of
 ,christ's priesthood1 the  author of   
the epistle to the ,hebrews1 sees in the
 earlier ,jewish  priesthood with which 
he was familiar only a somewhat         
imperfect type of  his ideal3 with      
thoughts turned upon the pontifical acts
 of ,christ1  which he realizes to be   
the keystone and crown of human history1
 he does  not stay to consider how the  
priestly function may1 in some measure1 
though imperfectly1 be shared by the    

humblest disciple1 too4 ,yet this       
thought of participation in the highest 
priestly work of the ,master  seems to  
have been present with the ,apostle     
,paul when he spoke of  filling up that 
which is lacking of the sufferings of   
,christ1 and the  same ancient p4#ajf   
,catholic view which sees in the good   
deeds of the  saints the continuance of 
,christ's work1 the endless treasure    
flowing  out from his life1 would lead  
us also to see in their sorrows and     
hardships1 where these have been        
willingly borne for the sake of ,god and
  man1 a continuance of the redemptive  
love of the ,cross4 ,the thought of  the
 ,high ,priesthood of ,christ is not    
lowered by the fact that  priesthood1   
even in its highest mediatorial side1 is
 to some extent  shared1 however        
faultily1 by every good human life1 but 
it is rather  made intelligible to us1  
because it ceases to be something wholly
 alien  from us4 ,the life of ,christ is
 not utterly isolated from the rest of  

the  human race1 for it could not be    
this and remain human2 it is rather the 
key for the ,christian to all other     
goodness1 explaining the meaning of     
sacrifice1 and the possibility of sorrow
 and pain being made steps by  which men
 may be raised upwards towards ,god4    
,and just as the supreme  sacrifice of  
,christ cannot rightly be separated from
 the rest of his  ministry1 but rather  
is understood as its consummation1      
concentrating  upon ,calvary the work   
which was the aim of all his life1 so is
 his ,high  ,priesthood not something   
foreign and separate from the life of   
man1 but  the manifestation of a        
principle which is at work wherever good
 men live  and die4 ,yet the more truly 
his followers have become priests       
themselves1 the more have they realized 
how imperfect their priesthood  is1 how 
deep their need to find it constantly   
renewed by contact with  the p4#ajg     
unique and perfect high-priesthood which
 they find in ,christ4    ,the close    

vital connection between the disciples' 
work and that of their  ,master is one  
of the thoughts most prominent in the   
last great discourse  of ,christ to his 
disciples as pictured in the ,fourth    
,gospel1 and it is  emphasized in what  
commentators have called the great      
priestly prayer4  ,the disciples' lives 
are to be in close union with their     
,master's as the  vine branches with the
 parent stem1 and beneath all their     
deeds must  flow his living spirit4     
,they must be in union with each other  
as he is  one with the ,divine ,father1 
so making real to others the continuance
 of  his life4 ,their whole lives are to
 be one great act of priesthood         
realizing itself through fellowship4    
,for without fellowship priesthood      
cannot be1 and ,christianity could not  
exist4 ,the ,church is a society in     
which men are linked to each other and  
to ,god through ,christ2 there is  no   
place in it for the selfishness of      
isolated individualism1 or the  centring

 of thought upon personal salvation     
alone4 ,its members belong to  each     
other in belonging to their head4 ,the  
metaphors used in the  apostolic        
writings to describe the ,church are all
 social2 it is a body1  a building1 a   
city1 a kingdom1 in which every part is 
in relation to  others1 and only thus   
can join to make the whole4 ,the more   
the children  of the ,church realize    
this1 the more truly will they become a 
fellowship  of friends1 and show        
themselves such in daily life2 theirs   
will be  p4#ajh no exclusive friendship1
 but one which overflows to all1 in     
honest sincerity1 because they cannot   
but work for all men's good4    ,when   
,christ went about in ,galilee and told 
men4 that the ,kingdom of  ,heaven was  
at hand1 was he mistaken8 ,or is the    
fellowship which he  founded not itself 
a part of that kingdom1 the seed which  
is already  growing and spreading       
throughout the whole earth8 ,many       
strange fowls1  perhaps1 we may think1  

have lodged in its branches already2 but
 if the  fellowship be strong and true  
they cannot do it great harm1 and under 
its shelter may live not only these but 
a host of singing birds4 ,the  great    
thing that all have to remember is that 
members of the fellowship  must needs   
hand on to others the life that has been
 given to them4 ,that  great title by   
which the ,pope is known as ,vicar of   
,christ upon earth is  not an idle one3 
every good ,christian ,pope has been    
that to some extent1  and so1 too1 has  
every ,christian disciple1 in so far as 
he lives in the  ,master's spirit4 ,for 
language grows old so quickly1 that we  
forget that  the vicar is one who acts  
instead of another1 in his place1 just  
as  vicarious suffering is suffering    
borne by one on behalf and instead of   
another4 ,but we need to explain and    
translate the appellation ,vicar of     
,christ into daily life by means of that
 other noble title which shines  like a 
jewel at the head of every ,papal bull  

and rescript servus  servorum ,dei1     
servant of the servants of ,god4 ,the   
,vicar of ,christ will  show himself    
such by serving his p4#aji fellow-men   
with his whole life1  ungrudgingly and  
gladly1 knowing that every act and      
thought given to  their welfare is given
 to ,god1 and that the ,father would    
have men seek  ,him not afar from human 
life and labour1 but amidst the toil and
 sorrow  of that sinful humanity for    
whom ,christ died4    ,when we seek to  
find how far this ideal is being carried
 out within the  ,christian ,church1 we 
may well be saddened by our own failure1
 and by the  way in which organizations 
intended for the common service have    
come to  be treated as an end in        
themselves4 ,yet we must remember that  
in the  ancient liturgies1 which seem   
sometimes hard for the democratic modern
  mind to under- stand1 the priest does 
not speak or act for himself1 but  as a 
representative of the whole fellowship  
of the ,church2 the cries and  prayers  

and strivings of long generations of    
human lives are joined in  the words of 
the prayers that he uses1 and the       
beautiful ritual of the  altar is       
intended to be a living picture of      
spiritual symbols1 full of  meaning not 
only for himself1 but for all who       
worship with him4    ,this view of      
prayer finds fitting expression in a    
sonnet of ,hartley  ,coleridge on ,the  
,liturgy1 which deserves to be better   
known4    _/,oft as ,i hear the         
,apostolic voice_/    _/,speaking to    
,god1 ,i blame my heart so cold1_/      
_/,that with those words1 so good1 so   
pure and old1_/    _/,cannot repent1 nor
 hope1 far less rejoice4_/ p4#aaj       
_/,yet am ,i glad1 that not the vagrant 
choice1_/    _/,chance child of impulse1
 timid or too bold1_/    _/,the volume  
of my heart may dare unfold_/    _/,with
 figured rhetoric or unmeaning noise_/  
_/,praying for all in those appointed   
phrases1_/    _/,like a vast river1 from
 a thousand fountains_/    _/,swoll'n   

with the waters of the lakes and        
mountains1_/    _/,the pastor bears     
along the prayers and praises_/    _/,of
 many souls in channel well defined1_/  
_/,yet leaves no drop of prayer or      
praise behind4_/    ,we cannot but      
sympathize with the poet3 so powerful   
and attractive are  the ancient words   
that have come to us down the ages      
fraught with the  memories of man's need
 and spiritual striving1 so unworthy    
often do we  feel the language of       
extempore prayer4 ,yet if we have only  
once or twice  experienced what         
unpremeditated prayer may be1 when it is
 offered in the  true priestly spirit1  
in deep sympathy with the needs and     
longings of  those present1 diverse     
though they be1 and in close harmony    
with the  peculiar demands of the time  
and place1 we know how such prayer can1 
as  nothing else1 gather up our hidden  
desires and bring our whole souls  with 
it into the sense of communion with the 
source of the strength and  help that we

 need1 towards which our arms stretch   
out as we listen1 and  are not stretched
 in vain4    ,it is easy for us to see  
how often priesthood in worship has come
 short  of its ideal2 still sadder      
surely has been our failure to make real
 the  priest- hood of daily life4 ,a    
family priesthood of the simplest kind  
has  been for centuries characteristic  
of ,hebrew religious life1 and this     
household priest- p4#aaa hood of the    
father1 or of both father and  mother1  
is a very real thing in ,christendom1   
especially where the  influence of the  
,reformation is strongest4 ,but we need 
not only this  intimate and beautiful   
priesthood1 but one which shall extend  
to the  wider families of the city1 the 
nation and mankind4 ,we have to remember
  that our lives are not our own1 that  
we are each representatives1 and  that  
every act of ours must have pontifical  
significance for others2  more than that
 our very thoughts and desires go out   
far beyond our own  lives and help to   

weave cords which shall pull others     
upwards or drag  them down to our level4
 ,the words of ,christ's prayer in the  
,gospel ,for  their sakes ,i sanctify   
myself are full of significance4 ,if the
 ,master  thus consecrates his life and 
overcomes the evil1 thrusting aside the 
temptation to take the lower and easier 
path and dedicating his whole  will and 
nature to the ,divine will1 in order    
that his disciples may be  helped to    
reach unity with each other and with    
him1 then must the  disciples too       
understand that their own efforts after 
a better and  cleaner and more unselfish
 life are not made for themselves alone4
 ,there  is no man that fights in the   
secret of his own life against evils and
  temptations1 of which others can know 
nothing1 but may feel cheered to        
remember that his is1 after all1 no     
lonely battle4 ,he is an outpost1       
hidden from his fellow combatants       
perhaps1 but his welfare concerns the   
whole company1 his victory is not for   

one life1 but for all4 ,in this  spirit 
surely p4#aab in every act and thought  
of life a man may be made  a priest4    
,how beautiful an idea that was which in
 ancient ,rome made of  bridge-building 
a religious deed1 so that the chief     
bridge-builder1 the  ,pontifex ,maximus1
 was also the chief priest4 ,nor was the
 thought that  bridge-building was a    
sacred act wholly lost with ,paganism1  
for in the  middle ages amongst the many
 religious societies which existed to   
promote human welfare and to lessen by  
sharing them the burdens of life1  was  
the ,order of ,pontiff ,brothers or     
bridge-builders4 ,perhaps such          
societies as this came into being more  
especially to make easier the  perilous 
pilgrims' roads along which men must    
pass to visit the holy  places and      
shrines of the ,saints4 ,sometimes a    
pilgrim who had made the  journey would 
join himself with others who had        
realized its hardships to  make the way 
lighter for those who should follow in  

their steps4  ,sometimes1 it may be1 men
 who had not the time or money and      
perhaps  lacked even the courage to make
 the perilous voyage themselves1 yet    
gladly gave of their labour to help to  
build the bridge4 ,they could  never    
make use of it1 but they hoped that     
others1 better men and more  fortunate  
than they1 would pass over it to behold 
the holy sights which  they themselves  
might never see1 and long after they    
were dead their  work would thus stand  
fast4 ,thus the great bridge of ,avignon
 still rests  on the piers built seven  
hundred years ago by the ,pontiff       
,brothers1 and  the feet of p4#aac the  
little children dance over the arches   
which the  pilgrims used to tread4      
,to many of the early bridges there     
still cling memories which tell of  some
 noble founder1 but there is a peculiar 
beauty in the story of the  building of 
the ,bridge of ,avignon by ,saint       
,benezet4 ,of this ,saint  ,benezet1 or 
,little ,st4 ,benedict1 for the friendly

 pet name can but  imperfectly be       
rendered into ,english1 we know only a  
little2 but across  the mists of        
tradition we catch a glimpse of him1 a  
boy tending the  sheep upon the distant 
hillside and there receiving a strange  
heavenly  call1 bidding him go build a  
bridge where none had yet been1 across  
the  broad river at ,avignon1 where     
hitherto men had crossed the ,rhone     
often  with peril1 and always with toil4
 ,shepherd's staff in hand1 the lad came
  to ,avignon and entered the church2   
there he spoke his message to bishop    
and people1 and pleaded with them to    
help build the bridge4 ,bishop and      
people were incredulous1 and so too was 
the mayor when appeal was made  to him1 
but ,benezet persisted1 and little by   
little men began to help  him4 ,they    
tell of how he was in some way able to  
raise the big stones  and to lift       
weights which others failed to move4    
,the first piers began  to rise2        
,benezet and others joined the ,order of

 ,pontiff ,brothers and  under his      
guidance the work went on4 ,it was the  
labour of years1 and of  immense effort1
 and before the bridge was completed its
 boy builder died  and they buried him  
in a little chapel above one of the     
great piers4 ,but  p4#aad the building  
went on1 the spirit that ,benezet had   
brought to it  did not die with him1 and
 in due time the bridge was built1 where
 men  would have toiled and struggled   
still with the waters1 but for the      
faithfulness of a shepherd boy4    ,in  
the old ,pagan days1 at least in many   
lands1 the priestly act of              
bridge-building had its darker side4    
,here and there a curious tradition     
still survives to show that once the    
making of a bridge was accompanied  by  
the sacrifice of a life4 ,the victim was
 offered to propitiate the  jealous     
powers which otherwise might wreak their
 vengeance upon a larger  number1       
destroying the bridge and the passengers
 upon it by some sudden  storm or       

earthquake4    ,we have ceased to think 
the gloomy thoughts which made men build
 their  bridges thus in the ancient     
ages4 ,but still1 if the bridge of life 
is to  be well and truly laid1 there    
must be sacrifice at its foundations4   
,the  thought of the architect1 the     
beauty of the curving arch1 all may     
crumble and fall in the time of stress  
when the floods are out and the  river  
rushes in boisterous strength against   
the piers1 if the  bridge-builder has   
not done his priestly duty4 ,it is good 
that man's  life should be well ordered1
 clean and happy1 useful to others and  
harmonious in itself1 but deep down in  
it1 if the life is to stand the  strain 
of evil days and to do its full service1
 there must surely be the  strength of  
willing sacrifice4 ,the ideal of such   
,christian sacrifice is  no sullen1     
grudging surrender p4#aae of desire1 no 
mutilation of man's  true nature1 but   
the glad gift of life to life1 which    
mingles vicarious  sorrow with vicarious

 joy4 ,and as this spirit spreads with  
the growth of  that ,kingdom of ,god    
which ,christ proclaimed to men1 the    
human race will  realize more and more  
fully all that is meant by the          
priesthood of humanity4    p4#aaf       
,,chapter ,,viii3 ,,the ,,answer ,,of   
,,faith    ,,centuries ago1 in a far-off
 ,eastern land1 a philosopher poet set  
to  verse the sad music of his heart's  
doubts and longings1 and the cry that   
rings again and again through his poems 
finds an echo in men's hearts  to-day4  
,the mystery of life and death over     
which ,omar ,khayam pondered  has never 
ceased to attract the thoughts of men4  
,returning spring brings  the old hopes 
back to our lives1 sometimes with the   
same sadder echoes  that troubled       
,moschus and ,horace1 and still thinkers
 and poets bow  before the terror and   
the majesty of death which they are     
powerless to  explain4    ,what use then
 is it to trouble ourselves with a      
problem which is as old  as the life of 

man and which the greater intellects    
have failed to  solve8 ,think about it  
we must1 again and again1 unless we     
deliberately  stifle our thoughts when  
they turn to the things which matter    
most to  us4 ,and since we are social   
beings1 born dependent on each other and
  made to help one another1 it is       
natural that we should wish to share our
  thoughts4 p4#aag    ,whence8 and      
whither8 and why8 is a triad of         
questions over which men  have broken   
their hearts2 in a sense they must      
always remain un  answered1 or at least 
incompletely answered2 and yet as long  
as men have  made them1 one response at 
least has brought with it peace4    ,the
 problem of life and death was stated   
long ages before ,omar's day by  another
 ,eastern thinker1 and with a poignancy 
greater at times than his4  ,nowhere in 
,hebrew literature do we get a deeper   
sense of the gloomy  mystery of life    
than in the book of ,ecclesiastes1 where
 again and again  the writer makes      

lament over triumphant injustice1 and   
the end that  comes alike to good and   
bad4 ,there passes before his eyes the  
melancholy  pageant of the children of  
men1 journeying along through the ages  
to the  common goal of endless oblivion4
 ,all things come alike to all1 he      
cries2 there is one event to the        
righteous and to the wicked2 to the     
good and to the clean and to the        
unclean2 to him that sacrificeth and to 
him that sacrificeth not2 as is the     
good1 so is the sinner2 and he that     
sweareth as he that feareth an oath4    
,this is an evil that is done under  the
 sun1 that there is one event unto all2 
yea1 also1 the heart of the  sons of men
 is full of evil1 and madness is in     
their heart while they  live1 and after 
that they go to the dead4 ,and so too1  
he goes on to  speak of death as        
annihilation which puts the noblest of  
dead creatures  below the basest of the 
living4 ,probably most men have known   
some  p4#aah dark hour at least in which

 the tragedy of life comes home to      
them1 and they have wondered whether    
after all the old thinker was not       
right4 ,we take up as our own the       
refrain of ,omar3    _/,i came like     
water1 and like wind ,i go1_/    _/,into
 this ,universe and why not knowing1_/  
_/,nor whence1 like water willy-nilly   
flowing1_/    _/,and out of it as wind  
along the waste1_/    _/,i know not     
whither1 willy-nilly blowing4_/         
,again there echo about us out of the   
past those ancient questions to  which  
the mind of man is ever framing answers1
 ever finding unsatisfying  those which 
others have made4 ,how then can religion
 help1 if even with  its presence those 
answers still remain incomplete8        
,when faith comes into our hearts1 the  
mystics may tell us1 uncertainty  does  
not go out of them4 ,we are still facing
 an unknown future1 and have  no more   
knowledge of the past than have our     
fellows4 ,but a new factor  has come    
into our consciousness4 ,we are able to 

go back and face the old  questions1 and
 lo1 they no longer seem to cut1 as once
 they did1 at the  roots of our being4  
,we have hold of something which goes   
deeper than  doubt can reach1 or fear   
can fall to4 ,and strangely enough1 the 
very  same metaphor which ,omar uses to 
express his despair comes from the lips 
of faith1 but with how different a      
meaning3    ,the wind bloweth where it  
listeth1 and thou nearest the sound     
thereof1  and canst not tell p4#aai     
whence it cometh and whither it goeth4  
,so is  everyone that is born of the    
spirit4    ,beneath the unanswered      
question now1 there is the abiding sense
 of the  reality that endures1 a        
conviction that1 though we do not       
understand its  purpose1 life is not    
purposeless1 and that though we cannot  
lift the  veil of death it is only a    
covering which hides from our eyes a    
wider  and greater world than ours4     
,it may be that some will feel that all 
such talk of faith is meaningless  to   

them4 ,religion and faith convey no such
 notions to their minds as  they seem to
 imply to others4 ,what they want is the
 clear demonstration1  which a physicist
 might give us4 ,if life goes on after  
death there must  surely be some proof  
of it4    ,if we try and look at life   
merely from the stand-point of the      
physiologist1 we do indeed perceive that
 we only observe it in  connection with 
certain structures of organic matter1   
and that1 as far  as we are able to see1
 every act of human conscious ness is   
accompanied  by certain processes and   
changes in the grey tissues of the      
brain4 ,when  those tissues are injured1
 the expression of this consciousness is
  interfered with1 and when a certain   
condition of the brain material  comes  
about life ceases1 as far as our        
observation goes4 ,so far as we  can    
observe1 indeed1 every act of life is   
accompanied by and connected  with some 
material condition1 or at least some    
material concomitant4 ,but  this is as  

far as the physi- p4#abj ologist can    
take us4 ,what life is  he is still     
unable to say4 ,to speak of life as     
energy1 and to say that  energy is a    
potential property of matter1 is only to
 hide from ourselves  with words the    
fact that life can only be explained to 
us in terms of  life3 the physicists    
cannot tell us what life is4    ,if we  
admit that we cannot explain what it is 
in its ultimate nature1 we  are yet all 
of us conscious enough of what we mean  
ourselves by life4  ,the word has a real
 significance to us1 although we cannot 
define it or  explain it in any way4    
,can we then find any answer from       
physical science as to whether or no    
our life continues when the bodily      
change which we call death happens8     
,since life is always connected1 as far 
as we are able to observe it1  with     
certain physical conditions of the body1
 can it continue when those  conditions 
are no longer present8    ,there have   
been many thinkers impressed by the     

sense of a universe  governed by        
necessary and unchanging laws1 who have 
felt that they could  only answer that  
since life is in our experience always  
accompanied by  certain material        
conditions1 it must cease to exist when 
those  conditions have been removed4    
,there is one great assumption1 however1
 which consciously or  unconsciously    
underlies this position1 that the only  
universe which  exists is one that is   
intelligible to our thought1 and that   
something  p4#aba which we cannot       
possibly understand1 necessarily cannot 
possibly  exist4    ,but there is yet   
another thought which seems to have     
escaped such a  thinker3 the possibility
 of the co-existence of more than one   
world and  of life passing from one     
world to another4 ,mathematicians have  
already  shown the possibility of this  
by discussing the existence of a fourth 
dimension1 and even working out problems
 involving the assumption of the        
existence of this fourth dimension4 ,the

 suggestion has been made  especially   
easy to grasp in the remarkable         
anonymous romance ,flatland1  published 
some thirty years ago1 which pictures   
the world of two  dimensions1 wherein   
one person gets the notion of the       
existence of a  third dimension1 and the
 extraordinary results that follow his  
heresy1  or madness1 as it seems to his 
less enlightened fellows4    ,if the    
theory of the existence of another1 or  
other dimensions be a  tenable one1 we  
can conceive of the existence of a      
number of worlds  around us1 co-existing
 with our own and including it1 of which
 we are  either wholly unconscious or   
only very dimly conscious1 and that not 
by  the faculties by means of which we  
have knowledge of our own world4    ,now
 if we suppose that somewhere within us1
 at the centre of our lives1  is some   
meeting-point1 some door through which  
we may have contact with  these other   
worlds and pass out into them1 p4#abb we
 can also conceive  of a development    

growing out from this point of contact  
into that larger  life of which we      
should necessarily remain unconscious   
here1 or even if  our whole nature were 
suddenly to be filled by a consciousness
 of how  its life extended beyond this  
universe into those other worlds1 we    
should yet be unable to express in terms
 of our own world this wider  life1 or  
could only express it by symbols4 ,the  
incapacity of our friends  to understand
 our experience would be no proof that  
it was not true1 nor  would our own     
inability to express it in any way      
lessen the reality of  that experience  
to us4 ,if such a hypothesis be correct1
 what may happen  at death may be that  
we pass out of the narrower world of    
three  dimensions into the wider world1 
which includes this and much more4      
,another way of looking at the problem  
has been to conceive of our  various    
senses as channels through which we have
 entered into  communication with the   
world without us4 ,at present we most of

 us are  only conscious of five such    
channels4 ,we may conceive of the       
possibility  of many other channels of  
which we have no experience 7and indeed 
observation of certain living creatures 
has already led to the  hypothesis of a 
sixth sense1 different from any of our  
own71 and we can  also think of the     
channels as being one by one closed4 ,so
 that at death  we may conceive of all  
our existing lines of communication with
 the  outer world being removed1 and    
wholly new channels1 with p4#abc what   
may seem like an entirely different     
world1 being opened up4#bi edn#bi       
,such an explanation of the working of  
our universe is but a hypothesis4  ,yet 
after all1 it may to some extent help us
 to understand phenomena  otherwise very
 difficult to explain4 ,are not the     
mystics and seers1 the  inspired poets  
and prophets1 just those whose lives are
 more in touch  than ours with a world  
we cannot see1 often able only          
imperfectly to  express themselves1 but 

yet conscious of vast realities beyond  
our ken8  ,and may we not to some extent
 look upon faith as such a faculty1 or  
sixth sense1 taking hold of the unseen  
and translating it into our own life8   
,but all have not this faith1 it may be 
urged2 it is strongest often when  the  
intellectual powers are weak enough1 and
 men of the greatest genius  tell us    
they are wholly without it4 ,yet cannot 
we conceive of a  community of people   
almost wholly devoid of one of our own  
five senses1  say that of hearing8 ,how 
difficult it would be for one of them   
whose  ears were suddenly opened to     
explain to his friends the new world    
about  him4 ,imagine these people       
watching a skylark1 and looking on with 
astonishment at the joy of the one man  
who heard it singing4 ,a dull  brown    
bird flying aimlessly up into the air3  
why should he look on it  p4#abd with   
such wonder8 ,they see all that he sees1
 and if he should  try to explain his   
feelings as he listens to its song1 will

 they not one  and all be convinced that
 he is mad1 or that he is at best only  
recounting some subjective illusion8 ,if
 he would convince them1 let him        
translate into terms of sight these     
curious sensations4 ,he cannot do it1   
and they can only pity his condition4   
,this may help us to realize how narrow 
a view that is of life which  conceives 
of this world of our consciousness as   
the only one which  exists4 ,it may even
 help us to frame a physical hypothesis 
of another  life2 but this is not enough
 for our need4 ,if we are to go to the  
centre  of the problem we must turn not 
to physical difficulties1 but to the    
moral and spiritual ones4 ,it is above  
all in its failure to solve the         
problems of our inward life that the    
materialistic explanation of the  world 
breaks down4    ,all the explanations   
thus suggested have been too much akin  
to the  physical one to touch the heart 
of the problem4 ,it is when we realize  
the meaning of faith in our own lives   

here and now1 that we cease to  trouble 
about the future4 ,in the realization of
 the supreme value of  goodness1 and the
 infinite meaning of it1 we begin to    
understand that it  must endure1 in a   
sense far deeper than mere extension in 
time or space4    ,faith is the organ of
 spiritual apprehension1 and comes into 
play  whenever we recognise in practice 
the claim of the ethical ideal as       
opposed p4#abe to the materialistic1    
when the will to do the good  triumphs  
over the desire to get the good for our 
selves4 ,in every act of  the inward    
life by which being is set above having1
 and by which our own  visible happiness
 is subordinated to that of our fellows1
 there comes  into play this activity of
 the soul which we call faith1 by which 
we  come into contact with that which   
underlies our hopes1 and put to test    
the things we do not see4 #cj edn#cj    
,as this faith comes to dominate and    
control our lives we are able to  reach 
a point at which the old doubts cease to

 pain us4 ,we may still  repeat to      
ourselves the riddle of life1 and seek  
for an answer2 but  though we may       
continue to puzzle to find an           
explanation1 we are  conscious that we  
have known something in the presence of 
which the  ancient questionings cease to
 trouble4 ,we feel that somehow we have 
come  into touch with a presence which  
brings with it the solution of the      
greatest of all problems4 ,in the depths
 of our lives we listen to the  answer  
of faith4    ,thus it is that the very  
words which ring with such a sense of   
awful  despair in the poem of ,omar may 
express nothing but peace to one who has
  gone through this experience3 ,he     
knows about it all1 ,he knows1 ,he      
knows4 ,the difference lies in this1    
that to ,omar there is as he writes  no 
sense of contact with the ,unseen1 the  
,omniscient1 in whose power he  lies2   
but to him who p4#abf has heard the     
answer of ,faith that sense of  contact 
has come4 ,he knows that in this deepest

 experience ,god has come  into touch   
with him1 and henceforth life to him    
both came and goes1 out  of ,god's hand 
into ,god's hand4    ,when ,christ was  
confronted by the sceptical ,sadducees  
with the problem  of human life enduring
 beyond the grave1 he pointed to their  
faith that  the heroes of old time1     
,abraham1 ,isaac and ,jacob1 had had    
knowledge of  ,god1 and told them that  
this knowledge of ,god meant life4 ,a   
being that  has come to have communion  
with the ,eternal cannot be conceived of
 as  passing away with the changing husk
 of things1 the accidents of the body   
and the outer world4 ,eternal life does 
not consist in the duration for  ever of
 an accidental process4 ,if we could    
conceive of a jelly-fish  continuing    
thus an indefinite existence1 which     
should involve neither  inward          
development nor the possession of higher
 powers than such a  creature is        
commonly believed to be capable of1 we  
should still surely  be unable to speak 

of such existence as eternal life4 ,for 
what we mean  by this is not the mere   
continuity of existence from a present  
of  transient accidents into a like     
future1 but something which goes beyond 
death because it goes beyond life too1  
as life is ordinarily pictured4    ,but 
can we hope to tread ourselves this way 
of the ,divine life8 ,there  are times  
when1 the spiritual end which is ever   
present in our lives  makes itself      
evident to us1 and now and again p4#abg 
across the  centuries come periods when 
the latent desires of men seem to come  
to  the surface4 ,such was that epoch of
 spiritual unrest and stirring which    
came to ,england in the seventeenth     
century1 in which the ,quaker and       
,quietest movements had their birth1 and
 it may be that we are not far  away    
from the dawn of such another age       
to-day4 ,now1 as then1 men turn  from   
orthodoxy in search of something deeper 
and wider than its mere  creeds can     
give4 ,the works of the old mystics are 

reissued from the  press1 and in the    
by-ways of literature men are seeking   
for paths that  may lead them to inward 
peace4 ,it is still twilight time4 ,no  
prophet's  voice is clearly heard       
calling us towards the full light of the
 day1 but  our eyes turn towards the    
horizon and watch for the signs of dawn4
    ,we share a common life1 and our    
need to-day is the same1 though we may  
express it in different ways4 ,we are   
conscious of something lacking in  our  
lives1 sensible at least at times of the
 evil there4 ,we feel the  darkness     
about us1 and long for light and for a  
power that shall take us  out of our    
lower natures1 upward and onward4 ,at   
such moments we may  earnestly desire to
 come ourselves into communion with     
,god1 that his  life may flow into ours 
and transform it4 ,but how1 after all1  
are we to  attain to some dim           
realization of this knowledge of ,god   
which illumines  the lives of the great 
mystics and brings peace to-day to many 

a life  which otherwise would be full of
 painful failure8 p4#abh ,perhaps       
another saying from the book of         
,ecclesiastes may put us upon the path  
to  find the answer4 ,it is one of those
 words which come sometimes to poet  and
 thinker1 bearing within them fuller    
depth of meaning than was clear  to the 
writer who first framed them1 groping as
 he may have been at the  edge of some  
great truth which he has never          
consciously apprehended4  ,also ,he hath
 set ,eternity in their heart4 #ca ,the 
words  were written in sadness1 but     
there is within them the promise of     
hope4  ,there lies at once the key to   
the mystery of human unrest and the hope
  for some deeper peace than the world  
without can give4 ,somewhere in the     
depths of his own life every man is in  
touch with the ,eternal4 ,sometimes  we 
are conscious of this higher reality    
surrounding us1 as pervading all  about 
us2 on some glorious day alone with     
,nature the wonder of the world  flashes

 upon us1 and all things become radiant 
with a new light which  fills both us   
and them4 ,or silently in the quiet of  
the night1 before  the mystery of the   
starry sky1 a great peace comes over us 
in which our  own tiny life seems to    
take its place amidst the ordered       
harmony of all  the spheres4    ,but we 
come1 too1 to a vision of the ,infinite 
in other ways2 whenever we  see a good  
deed done1 and behold its goodness1 we  
are touching the hem  of the robe of the
 ,eternal4 ,in the inward recognition of
 the supreme  beauty of unselfish love  
we are directly conscious of a flash of 
intuition p4#abi which illumines not the
 intellect alone1 but our whole  nature4
 ,we are brought into touch with ,god at
 the very centre of our  lives4 ,nature 
is indeed the priest of the ,eternal1   
and every high place  has still its     
altar1 where we may worship in spirit   
and in truth4 ,but in  an even deeper   
sense is the priesthood given to man4   
,there is no man but  is called to that 

true temple service wherein every good  
act is filled  with meaning1 not for    
himself only1 but for his fellows4      
,every pure and  unselfish deed is      
sacramental1 bringing the soul of him   
who beholds it  into touch with the ,god
 who inspired the act4 ,and this contact
 with the  ,divine through goodness in  
another may come to us in spite of all  
intellectual barriers4 ,if with our     
whole heart we honour a good deed  done 
our nature does obeisance to the ,god   
who is working within it1 who  makes the
 deed of worth4 ,unknown to ourselves1  
we are drawn nearer to  ,him1 and ,his  
life touches our lives1 and transforms  
them a little nearer  to ,his likeness4 
,for every pure and lovely act that men 
do is not only a  revelation but an     
inspiration and an influence drawing    
others upward4 ,we  have never had trust
 enough in the infectious power of a    
good deed4    ,thus as we are faithful  
to the highest it has been given us to  
see1 our  sight will be strengthened to 

see further3 at the moment of vision we 
are conscious that in the presence of   
the good thought1 the good  personality1
 we are in contact with the source of   
strength that we need4  ,we must keep   
p4#acj close to the same source when the
 darkness is about us4    ,it is surely 
this truth that has helped to make the  
worship of the  ,saints the power for   
good which it has been in the lives of  
devout souls  within the ,catholic      
,church of ,rome and of the ,east4 ,they
 have done  reverence to that in the    
,saints which was of ,god1 and in       
drawing near to  them they have been    
drawn near to ,him also4 ,the worship of
 the ,saints  has done harm1 not only in
 the case of the false reverence of the 
market  place1 but whenever it has led  
men to turn from the source of the      
saint's power to the accidentals of his 
life and character1 and to  imitate the 
man1 rather than to get into touch with 
his spirit4 ,but the  words of the old  
,creed1 ,i believe in the ,holy         

,catholic ,church1 express  a great     
reality4 ,we can get the greatest help  
from this belief in the  dark hours of  
the soul1 and in all times of transition
 to fuller  knowledge of the truth1 if  
by belief in the ,church we mean belief 
in the  whole body of those who have    
come into touch with ,god through       
,christ1  and through his spirit1 and   
who can be recognised as his disciples  
because they bear in their lives his    
likeness4 ,as we believe in the  ,church
 in this sense1 we shall strive to feel 
the inner bond of union  that connects  
together the good and holy of all creeds
 and nations1 and  to bring our lives   
into harmony with the same spirit of    
unity4    ,men who have shown singular  
devotion to some p4#aca hero saint whom 
they love may have erred in the past in 
trying to reproduce his life  under     
altered conditions2 and such imitation  
has sometimes led them all  too far from
 the spirit of the one whom they have   
sought to follow4 ,st4  ,francis of     

,assisi1 and in later days ,john        
,wycliffe1 and ,george ,fox1 have  each 
had followers such as these4 ,but there 
is at least one to whom we  may look for
 this guidance without any of the       
narrowing influence that  other hero    
worship so often brings4 ,we cannot read
 about our heroes1  look up to them and 
think of them1 without coming under the 
influence of  their personality and     
without our character growing           
unconsciously to  bear in it some faint 
trace at least of theirs4 ,let us then  
turn thus in  the dark hour to ,jesus   
,christ4 ,no matter if for the moment we
 cannot  regard him as we have been     
taught the ,church does4 ,let us put    
aside all  theories as to his birth2 the
 miracles which puzzle us1 even the fact
 of  the ,resurrection1 and the         
speculations of theology as to his      
,divine  nature4 ,not because these are 
not important matters1 and not because  
we  may not have to go on thinking about
 them1 and seeking more light about     

them2 but because for the guidance which
 most of all we need we can go  deeper  
than all these doubts and speculations4 
,let us make ,christ our  teacher as his
 earliest disciples did1 who knew       
nothing about his birth1  and only      
followed him at first just because they 
felt he was far better  than they and   
they had need of him and loved him4     
p4#acb ,as we do this1  and simply      
endeavour to keep near to his thoughts1 
to think over the  meaning of his words 
and to act as men who are seeking to    
follow him1 we  shall begin to realize  
that there is in ,christ himself a      
greater miracle  than anything recorded 
of him in the ,gospels1 and that        
whatever the  correct theory of the     
,resurrection may be1 ,he is still a    
living  influence working upon our      
hearts and inspiring us onward to good4 
,when  we doubt of ,god because of the  
world's evil1 we can hear his voice     
speak  of the love which watches even   
over the fall of the sparrow1 and some  

sense of that love comes to us too1 in  
the midst of our darkness4 ,and  when   
the sense of our own wrong-doing is     
heavy upon us1 we may feel  cheered to  
think that our ,teacher never turned    
from the men of the world  and the      
profligate when they sought his help in 
honest sorrow1 but  rather sought them  
first1 and for the disciple who denied  
him had  nothing but a look of love4 ,he
 knew what it was himself to be         
discouraged1 to spend long hours in     
prayer1 to be misunderstood and to      
fail4 ,and sometimes there may come to  
us a glimpse of even deeper depths  into
 which he went for his fellow- men4 ,as 
we feel all this we may not  be able to 
explain it1 but we know ourselves the   
stronger for it1 the  better able to    
face misfortune and temptation and      
suffering1 and to hold  manfully to the 
best that we know1 in the midst of      
doubt4 ,and thus1  little by little1 we 
come to feel we have found one who not  
only makes  us realize what failures    

p4#acc we have been1 but is ever calling
 out  the best that is in us1 drawing us
 on to a higher ground and clearer  air1
 where our vision carries further1 until
 at length there may come to  us some   
glimpse of the ,divine ,love at work in 
the world and within us1  and some sense
 that ,christ has brought to us ,god's  
expression of ,himself  in the terms of 
humanity1 so that we begin to understand
 a little of the  meaning of the words3 
,this is life eternal1 that they may    
know ,thee1  the only true ,god1 and    
,jesus ,christ whom ,thou hast sent4    
,and meanwhile1 let us have faith too   
for those who cannot yet feel this      
attractive power as we1 perhaps1 have   
known it4 ,in the ,fourth ,gospel the   
,master tells his disciples that he has 
other sheep who are not of this  fold2  
we may picture his thought as going out 
to far-off lands where men  were        
striving to do their duty or to find the
 truth without any  knowledge of him1   
without any intellectual knowledge of   

,god perhaps2  some legionary guarding  
the peace of the empire at the gates of 
the  ,north1 some ,roman government     
official upholding the dignity and      
justice  of the law amongst jealous     
robber tribes and unscrupulous traders1 
some  ,greek philosopher seeking to know
 a yet higher law1 and simple men and   
women practising it unknown to          
themselves2 or1 further away in the     
far-off ,east1 the ,buddhist missionary 
teaching the worth of gentleness  and   
mercy1 or the disciple of ,confucius    
learning to reverence the great  moral  
truths he knew1 and to apply them p4#acd
 in all life's relations4  ,some day all
 these should hear his voice2 already   
they were his sheep4  ,and so to-day1   
wherever the lonely thinker spends his  
hours in seeking1  and the servant of   
science unselfishly gives up all thought
 of personal  advancement and delight in
 the pursuit of truth1 wherever in the  
politics of towns or peoples men seek to
 work out a higher form of  public life1

 or in business as in leisure to be     
faithful not merely to  their own       
interests1 but to a wider ideal1 we must
 see the seekers and  servants of good1 
who are ,god's servants too4 ,sooner or 
later for these  too will be fulfilled  
the words3 ,blessed are they that have  
not seen  and yet have believed4        
,,chapter ,,ix43 ,,the ,,house ,,of     
,,peace4    ,,the sense of ancient      
peace1 the quiet beauty of the ruined   
abbeys which  ,turner and many a lesser 
artist loved to paint1 must often have  
come  home to many who visit them1 who  
have no knowledge of architecture and   
little thought for history4 ,but1 even  
with these passers by1 something  of    
their interest in the old ruin is       
perhaps due to the thought of the  life 
which was lived there in the days gone  
by4 ,less worthy traditions  have marred
 the glory of the earlier days1 and     
dimmed the recollection  of the long    
struggle with nature1 the hardships of a
 simple1  self-denying life1 the toil of

 the scholar and the conflicts of the   
saint1 but as we look at the broken     
pillars and the silent aisles and       
arches where once the music of men's    
chanting rose and fell1 we feel  that it
 is not only the thought of the vanished
 greatness that moves us1  but the sense
 that this was a place where prayer was 
wont to be made4 ,we  try to picture to 
our selves sometimes the life of        
mediaeval ,england1  and how these ruins
 were once places living and vibrating  
with thought  and spiritual effort1     
centres p4#acf from which pulsed out    
many a good  influence to uplift the    
lives of men4    ,it is true that the   
monastic ideal was in some respects     
narrow and  one-sided1 that its social  
and religious life was marred and maimed
 by  an artificial celibacy being put in
 the place of the natural family  life2 
but granting all this1 had not the      
monastery at its best a noble  place in 
the nation1 which is too often lacking  
to-day1 or but  imperfectly supplied by 

other things8    ,the rule of ,st4      
,benedict prescribed that seven hours   
daily should be  given by each disciple 
to manual labour2 it was a far-seeing   
provision1  in which there seems to have
 been realized the thought that study   
and  prayer alone without active work   
could not provide a complete and        
healthy life4 ,the ,benedictine and     
,cistercian ,abbeys were1 at their best1
  never self-centred institutions whose 
members pursued their own  spiritual    
welfare without regard to the needs of  
the world outside4  ,their scholars     
copied manuscripts and wrote books for  
the instruction of  men1 they were      
schoolmasters to rich and poor2 their   
lay brothers  laboured in the fields1   
making waste places smooth4 ,their      
intercessions  went up for others than  
themselves4 ,every now and then guests  
from the  great world came to stay      
within the abbey walls for rest and     
refreshment  of soul1 and now and then  
to end their days in an atmosphere of   

prayer  and peace4 ,in some ways1 as we 
know1 the coming of the ,friars marked a
  stage of higher development1 in that  
they p4#acg shared more fully the  life 
of the people1 at least in the          
simplicity and poverty of the early     
days of the ,franciscan movement4 ,yet  
another development again is seen  in   
the communities of ,brethren of the     
common life1 and in the bguinages  of   
the ,low ,countries1 which combined     
something of the possibility of         
individual home life with a common union
 for prayer4    ,it is interesting to be
 able to see at ,ghent and ,bruges      
to-day these  quaint communities1 where 
each inmate has her own house1 with     
perfect  liberty to come and go1 to mix 
with the outer world1 or even to return 
to it altogether2 but with a common     
chapel1 and a common religious bond     
visibly uniting the whole sisterhood4   
,is it not possible1 if the             
,reformation of ,henry ,,viii4 had not  
been so largely political in its        

origin1 that the monastic system might  
have been in some measure adapted  to   
the needs of the world of to-day without
 those acts of spoliation  which gave   
the new ,tudor aristocracy its wealth   
and left us these piles  of ruined      
buildings8    ,a famous ,french novelist
 who had lived and written as a         
materialist1  turned in his closing     
years back to the ancient ,catholic     
,church1 finding  peace and refreshment 
as a lay guest within the walls of a    
monastery4  ,much of his later work may 
seem exaggerated1 and even morbid1 in   
its  mysticism1 but it was sincere      
because based upon his own inward       
experience4 ,in one of these later      
religious novels he speaks of           
cloistered convents p4#ach as being the 
spiritual lightning conductors  of      
,europe4 ,to him the lives of these poor
 women1 shut off in perpetuity  from    
their fellows1 were not wasted1 but     
provided a sacrifice of  spiritual      
struggle on behalf of the erring world  

outside4    ,perhaps ,huysmans was not  
right in thinking that the              
self-inflicted  loneliness of the ,poor 
,clares and ,benedictine nuns stood in  
so high a  relation of service to       
humanity as he pictures2 certainly the  
life of  practical prayer lived out by a
 faithful sister of ,st4 ,vincent de    
,paul  amongst the sick poor whom she   
tends1 seems far higher and more        
,christlike than that of the cloistered 
ascetic2 but still the fact  remains    
that if we are not materialists1 but    
have faith in the effectual  working of 
all true prayer we must hold that the   
intercessions of the  cloister1 in so   
far as they spring from true hearts of  
faith1 are not  wasted1 but1 in some way
 we cannot understand1 flow out for the 
uplifting of the world4    ,as we look  
out at the life of to-day must we not   
feel that in its rush  and hurry1 with  
the thoughtless materialism of its      
outlook1 there is  more than ever need  
for the essential message of the        

monastery1  fellowship in self-surrender
 and self-control1 comradeship in study1
  work and above all in prayer8 ,is it  
not possible for us even now to have  in
 our midst here and there little        
colonies which will do for our age  the 
work which the best monasteries did for 
the ,middle ,ages1 and perhaps  p4#aci  
something more even than this1 in that  
we need no longer have  their           
limitations8    ,what would such a      
monastery be1 if we can picture it in   
its main features8    ,the first monks  
were always anxious to have their cells 
built in some  out of the way spot1 and 
sometimes moved the site of their abbeys
 to  avoid the dangers to their inward  
life which seemed to them to come with  
the invasions of sounds and sights1     
which the approach of the world  brought
 with it4 ,we do not now believe in the 
separation of the life of  the ,church  
from that of men outside it1 and there  
was at times1 perhaps1  some thing      
selfish in the monkish love of quiet    

isolation1 but for  certain high        
purposes of the monastery there was a   
sound instinct in it  too4 ,if the      
community remains in living touch with  
those without1  sending its members out 
from it and receiving guests on visits  
long or  short1 it will1 in many cases1 
do its work best if its situation       
provides it with a natural atmosphere   
and background of peace and quiet1      
corresponding to that inward atmosphere 
which is to play around the life  of its
 members4    ,our monastery then will be
 placed in some little frequented spot1 
if  possible close to one of those      
natural bridges over which we may most  
easily pass into communion with the life
 of nature unmarred by man's            
civilization2 at the edge of some       
rolling heather moorland1 where for     
miles you may walk and see no sign of   
house or road1 under a ridge  p4#adj of 
the limestone fells1 or beneath the     
shadow of a great chalk  down1 where the
 sheep wander freely1 or if mountain and

 moor be too far  away1 within reach of 
some solitary beach where the sea and   
wind sing to  each other2 or with an    
outlook over some wide plain1 with broad
 horizons  giving some sense of openness
 and freedom4    ,thus the companions of
 the ,house of ,peace will have         
constantly near them  the opportunity of
 silent intercourse with nature2 they   
can go out1 wet  or fine1 sometimes     
alone and sometimes in company1 to let  
the fresh  winds and the sunlight and   
the spirit of the great open spaces play
  about them1 making them stronger and  
fitter for joy and labour1 for  study1  
work and prayer4    ,for the ,house of  
,peace will be a dwelling place where   
work is done4 ,it  will have its garden1
 with flowers and fruit trees to be     
tended1 kitchen  herbs to be raised2    
there will be beehives and poultry1 and 
it may be  the cares of a small farm2   
but beast and bird will be treated as   
friendly companions1 objects of the     
,divine care and therefore1 too1 of  the

 good will and reverence of the dwellers
 in the ,house4    ,there will be books3
 especially such as will help most the  
inner life of  man1 the _/,acta         
sanctorum_/1 and all stories of the     
saints of ,god2 the  records of other   
religions than ours1 the works of       
philosophers1 poets  and thinkers2 and  
such a general library as would befit a 
home whose  windows look out on to many 
sides of life4    p4#ada    ,but it will
 not be enough for the ,house to be     
supplied with opportunity  for fruitful 
study1 quiet cells for work and         
meditation1 and with manual  labour in  
garden1 field and orchard for all who   
are fitted for it4 ,side  by side with  
all this1 lest the life of the place    
grow self-centred1  there must be some  
redemptive work going on1 for those who 
would not  themselves have been helped  
by all this storehouse of good things1  
apart  from the mediation and ministry  
of its inmates4    ,this might be found 
in the education of back ward or        

delicate children  from poor homes1     
physically or mentally in need of       
special care and  protection1 or in the 
care of convalescents2 it might be found
 in the  training upon the adjoining    
farm or in the carpenter's workshop1 as 
well  as in special classes held within 
the ,house itself1 of a small group of  
lads from some reformatory1 or juvenile 
offenders to whom our present  prison   
system offers only imperfect means of   
succour4 ,in helping in  their training1
 in joining in their games the          
companions of the ,house of  ,peace     
would find a noble part of their own    
work and joy2 they would hope  too to   
share with these younger brothers not a 
little of the deeper  inspiration of    
common worship4    ,there might be as a 
part of the ,house rooms for married    
companions1  while single men and single
 women could be lodged in separate wings
 or  in hostels of their own4 ,grouped  
near there might be cottages with homes 
linked to the ,house p4#adb by ties more

 or less close1 whose inmates  would    
share in much of the work of the        
community and in the privilege of       
common worship4 ,the centre of all would
 be the place of prayer1 the  hearth    
where each companion would come to      
rekindle his own torch of love  and     
aspiration2 a place always open1 used in
 common at certain times and  by all    
companions who were able to come there1 
used also frequently  throughout the day
 for silent prayer and meditation1      
whether by the  companions and their    
guests1 or the passing stranger who     
might care to  enter in4    ,at least at
 one meal during the day the ancient    
practice would be  maintained of one    
companion reading aloud from some       
helpful book while  the rest kept       
silence4 ,during certain hours of the   
day silence would  also be observed1    
though with no slavish bond4    ,the    
,buddhist monasteries of ,burmah fulfil 
in the life of that people a  place     
which might1 to some small extent1 be   

taken for us by a group of  such ,houses
 of ,rest4 ,it is the duty of every     
,burmese ,buddhist who  desires to      
fulfil the whole ideal of manhood to    
pass some portion of his  life1 it may  
be months or years1 it may even be only 
weeks or days1 as a  monk in a ,buddhist
 monastery1 learning its lessons and    
drinking in its  peace4 ,so1 too1 into  
our ,house of ,rest might come1 at      
different stages  of their lives1 the   
eager seeker after truth1 the strong man
 in the  midst of the battle of his     
work1 the weary1 p4#adc tired and       
disheartened by their failure2 all would
 find a welcome1 a home of  refreshment1
 where in the atmosphere of prayer1 with
 the daily round of  simple work1 of    
study1 of open air life and common      
worship1 they might  find guidance and  
renewal of strength4 ,some might only   
stay for a short  while1 others for     
longer periods2 yet others might find in
 the ,house of  ,rest their central     
home1 returning there at intervals after

 periods of  labour as social ministers 
in the crowded towns1 in which1 perhaps1
 a  number of different branches of work
 might be affiliated in some way to  the
 central ,house of ,rest1 which would be
 a storehouse to supply help to  these  
branches far away4    ,one of the rocks 
upon which the old monastic system made 
shipwreck was  the corporate selfishness
 which came to the monks through their  
possessions4 ,they had renounced        
individual wealth1 but they were too    
zealous to secure for their abbeys the  
property which might enhance  their     
usefulness and assure their future      
growth4 ,believing as we do that        
institutions like men must die to give  
place to new life1 we must not  try to  
secure an earthly immortality for a good
 institution1 any more  than for a good 
individual4 ,it would probably be best  
then that our  ,house of ,rest should   
not be a legal corporation1 able to own 
and receive  property4 ,its companions  
should be tenants on ,god's earth2 their

 ,house  should be lent them in trust1  
but not be owned by them4 ,it might     
still1  however1 be possible for those  
who p4#add desired for a longer period  
to have the privilege of holy poverty1  
to renounce for the time being  their   
own income1 without taking any vow or   
handing over to the  community          
possessions which they might rightly    
resume at a later date1  in trust for   
the world they would serve4    ,paul    
,sabatier has finely said that one of   
the great claims which  distinguishes   
still the ancient ,catholic ,church is  
the unlimited  opportunity for          
self-sacrifice which she holds forth to 
her children4 ,we  cannot get the utmost
 except for the highest4 ,our house of  
prayer and of  work1 where self-denial  
might be found to the full united with  
the joy  of service1 would give this    
opportunity of self-surrender1 of       
self-discipline untainted by false      
asceticism1 of comradeship in  sacrifice
 and in the purest joys and highest     

aspirations of the heart1  which in the 
depths of our soul we need and long for4
 ,may it not even  yet be built1 this   
,house of ,peace and ,prayer8           
,,chapter ,x43 ,,the ,,path ,,to        
,,unity4    ,a ,,great patristic scholar
 who1 though a lover of theology1 is    
also a  lover of his fellow-men1 has    
related how1 journeying across the      
lonely  desert of ,arabia the ,rocky    
towards the holy monastery of ,sinai1 he
 came  upon a band of peasant pilgrims2 
he did not know their language nor they 
his1 but each made the sign of the      
,cross as they drew near one another1   
and as they did so they seemed at once  
to be friends4 ,he was greeted  with    
welcoming smiles1 and the way through   
the wilderness was lightened  by the    
sense of ,christian fellowship4 ,it     
cheered him to feel how that  ancient   
sacred symbol had surmounted the        
barriers of race and speech1  making    
these strangers feel that they were     
comrades and fellow pilgrims  travelling

 to a common goal4 ,and yet he could not
 but recall with a  sense of sorrowful  
irony the thought that1 had he made the 
sign of the  ,cross not in the ,greek1  
but in the ,latin way1 he would have    
been met  with sullen indifference and  
distrust1 if not with anger4 ,these     
simple  ,russian peasants were the      
spiritual descendants of the p4#adf     
brave men  who centuries ago went to    
death at the stake rather than place    
their  fingers and thumb in the         
new-fangled way1 which1 to their mind1  
symbolised some error in the conception 
of the doctrine of the ,trinity1  a     
departure from the one orthodox fashion 
by which the ,church should be  guided  
in making the holy sign4    ,it is      
difficult for us to realise that so     
small a change should make so  great a  
difference to the welcome given to a    
stranger2 and1 yet1 perhaps  some of the
 differences which separate ,western    
,christians to-day may be  almost as    
foolish in the sight of the angels4     

,an ,english parson once sadly told how1
 when travelling in ,france in his      
cassock1 he had been delighted by a     
number of ecclesiastics coming to  call 
upon their foreign confrere1 and how1 to
 his dismay1 they all  incontinently    
fled1 as from contagion of plague1 when 
they realised that  he was only an      
,anglican2 he doubtless felt acutely the
 blindness of the  worthy ,romans who   
failed to recognise the apostolic nature
 of his  orders4 ,as acutely1 perhaps1  
some ,nonconformist minister at home may
  have regretted a similar attitude on  
the part of the good parson to the      
unhallowed ministrations of the         
dissenter4    ,when we look back over   
the long centuries that separate us from
 the  early ,apostolic ,church1 there   
are few things which make us sadder than
  this spirit of distrust and hostility1
 showing itself between men who  alike  
believe themselves to be ,christians4   
p4#adg ,it is no new thing2  what is new
 to-day as a wide spread spirit is the  

desire to transcend  our differences1   
not by despising or ignoring the things 
which separate  us1 nor yet by the      
victory of one church or sect over      
another1 or the  absorption of the      
lesser by the greater community1 but by 
the better  understanding of each other 
and of ourselves1 the closer            
co-operation  where co-operation is     
possible1 and1 it may be1 the gradual   
realisation  of a unity deeper than all 
that keeps us apart4    ,we remember how
 the mocking scorn of ,celsus made sport
 of the divisions  between ,catholic and
 heretic ,christians of his day1 while  
both alike  were a persecuted minority  
struggling against the edicts of pagan  
,rome4  ,montanists and orthodox        
suffered sometimes side by side1 and    
yet1 while  awaiting death in the same  
prisons1 they would hold no communion   
with  each other4    ,this tragic mutual
 intolerance between ,arian and         
,athanasian1 ,iconodule  and            
,iconoclast1 goes on down the ages2 was 

it not1 in part at least1 one  wonders1 
due to the fact that each party         
considered that they alone had  the     
monopoly of truth2 that their own       
doctrine contained the whole truth  and 
nothing but the truth8 ,free trade in   
thought1 if it be right to use  the     
metaphor of commerce for the life-giving
 intercourse of mind with  mind1 is late
 in coming in the world's history1 but  
it has surely come  to stay4 ,as we look
 back over the great divisions of the   
past1 we feel  now that there was some  
right at least on both sides3 in some   
p4#adh  cases we find it hard to        
understand how men could have fought so 
bitterly over what seems now so small4  
,the shape of the tonsure of the        
clergy1 the date of the celebration of  
,easter1 and such grounds of            
difference1 caused almost as much       
bitterness in their day as did  profound
 dissensions on the nature of the       
,godhead or the meaning of the          
,incarnation4 ,even when no theological 

difference separated men1 within  the   
,church itself and within a single      
religious order1 there has been  the    
bitterest disagreement and separation of
 spirit over things we now  hold        
trifling2 such a matter1 for instance1  
as the shape of the hood to  be worn by 
,observant ,franciscans1 at the time of 
the rise of the  ,capuchin ,friars4     
,we have come at length to understand   
that the human spirit expresses  itself 
in various ways in its upward striving1 
that the language of  worship may vary  
for different races1 for different men  
within the same  race1 for the          
individual himself with his changing    
needs1 and that in  differing we need   
not always condemn each other4 ,so1 too1
 it seems that  men are ceasing to feel 
that uniformity in ,church government is
 possible  or even desirable4 ,the work 
of the ,free ,church ,council with all  
its  limitations has enabled the members
 of the larger ,nonconformist bodies  to
 co-operate together and understand each

 other better1 to feel a  common unity  
of membership while retaining their     
loyalty to their own  denomination4     
,this drawing together has been         
realised1 not by discussion  of p4#adi  
denominational differences1 but by      
common work and common  worship1 by     
sharing in the same efforts1 listening  
to the same messages  of guidance1      
following as co-disciples along the same
 road4    ,still more remarkable as an  
expression of the vital forces at work  
in  ,english society is the growth of   
inter-denominational fellowship shown   
in the ,student ,christian movement1 and
 the conferences which it has  promoted1
 characterised by joint study of social 
and missionary  problems1 and by union  
in worship1 in which denominational     
barriers have  not indeed disappeared1  
but have sunk on to a lower level1 for  
many at  least of those who have been   
thus drawn together to behold the vision
 of  the vast work still unaccomplished 
at home and abroad1 with the  knowledge 

that all alike are coming for strength  
to one source1 striving  to serve one   
,master4    ,while a friendlier         
understanding has been helping men to   
cross by  sympathy the ancient chasms   
which have separated church from church 
for  so long1 there has been visible too
 in recent years a marked tendency      
towards greater organic unity between   
religious communities closely  allied to
 each other4 ,locally this has          
occasionally found expression in  the   
springing up of union churches1 whose   
members originally belonged  to         
different ,nonconformist denominations1 
but such union sometimes has  come about
 for convenience rather than from       
conviction1 and has not  always been    
permanent in character4 ,it is different
 with the p4#aej  union of the three    
,methodist ,societies now combined in   
the ,united  ,methodist ,church1 or with
 the great movement which brought about 
the  ,united ,free ,church of ,scotland4
 ,we may look forward in the near future

  to still further developments of this 
spirit1 and already a leader of  ,free  
,church thought1 ,dr4 ,j4 ,h4           
,shakespeare1 the ,secretary of the     
,baptist  ,union1 has outlined proposals
 for the incorporation of the great     
,nonconformist denominations in one     
national communion1 a ,free ,church of  
,england1 which would retain within its 
compass the different rites and  systems
 of ,church government of its various   
constituent churches4 ,this  would still
 leave unsolved the greater problem of  
the separation between  the ,free       
,churches and the ,church of ,england1  
but it would be in itself  an immense   
step forward as a practical recognition 
of common  discipleship1 and as such    
would be welcomed warmly by many of us  
who1  almost certainly1 would be left   
outside the ecclesiastical membership of
  this great ,free ,church4 ,the ,free  
,church ,council has already done       
something to make such a union possible2
 and even if no formal  connection      

between various churches whose members  
are associated with  its work should be 
achieved1 yet1 in point of fact1 a      
common member ship  is being realised by
 them4 ,the great leaders of ,free      
,church thought and  action are         
recognised not merely as belonging to   
one denomination1 but  as prophets and  
teachers for all4 ,the worth of their   
ministry is felt  even by those who     
cannot p4#aea recognise the validity of 
their orders1  because of its           
non-episcopal origin4#cb edn#cb    ,and 
yet all such plans for the promotion of 
visible ecclesiastical  reunion do not  
touch the heart of things4 ,in earlier  
ages men have  sought reunion through   
ecclesiastical organisation and through 
fuller  realisation of doctrinal unity1 
and p4#aeb have failed repeatedly in    
the attempt4 ,can we hope to achieve    
union now by some ingenious scheme  of  
comprehensive ,church ,government or by 
the formulation of a new creed  where   
all the old creeds have failed to unite 

men8    ,would not even the widest      
,church leave outside its membership    
multitudes  now drawing together in     
,adult ,schools and ,brotherhoods and   
kindred  ,societies1 under the          
inspiration of ,christian influence1 but
 without any  formal connection with the
 ,church1 and beyond them an unknown    
number of  men and women whose lives    
turn for their inspiration to the       
,master whose  name they reverence1 but 
do not venture to take8    ,yet such    
men1 whose life-creed is better than    
their thought-creed1 are a  proof that  
discipleship is a vital relationship1   
involving more than a  mere emotional   
surrender or intellectual submission4   
,it will surely be  in the more faithful
 working out of this conception of      
discipleship1  that ,christian folk will
 be able to achieve that spirit of unity
 which  is of more value than external  
,reunion4    ,wherever wrong ideals of  
life exist1 we are coming to feel there 
is a  loss1 not merely to the           

individuals immediately concerned1 but  
to an  ever widening circle about them4 
,we cannot acquiesce in moral failure or
  divest ourselves of responsibility for
 it1 because we ourselves adopt a       
different standpoint4 ,much less can we 
consent to make a truce with what  we   
see is wrong in the ,church to which we 
belong4 p4#aec    ,a sixteenth century  
,cardinal who was engaged in controversy
 with his  ,protestant colleague1 ,odet 
de ,coligny1 found a curious consolation
 for  the practical failure of the      
,church of his day by his exposition of 
a  text in the ,song of ,solomon3 ,i am 
black but comely1 was1 he held1 a       
prophetic saying applied to the ,church1
 black in point of morals1 comely  in   
point of doctrine4    ,to-day1 however  
much we may differ in doctrine1 we are  
coming to feel  that in every failure to
 realise the ,christian ideal of        
character1 the  loss of each religious  
community is the loss of all2 wherever a
 ,church  rises to higher levels of     

sacrifice1 or raises the standard of its
  members' lives1 the benefit is felt   
far beyond its own borders4    ,the     
saints1 whether canonised or uncanonised
 by authority1 are the  common heritage 
of all who are striving to find their   
lives dominated by  the same purpose2   
they are a constant unifying influence  
throughout the  world1 even though their
 messages differ as greatly as they     
often have  done in the past4    ,as the
 different ,christian communities       
frankly face the unconquered  evils in  
the world about them1 as their          
individual members set  themselves to   
wrestle against the selfish instincts in
 their own lives1  and to become more   
effective agents of peace and goodwill  
amongst their  neighbours and worthier  
citizens of the state1 they will find   
themselves  working side by side with   
allies they had not hitherto known2 in  
extending the bounds of p4#aed knowledge
 and the rule of a kindlier  law1       
sharing the same spirit of sacrifice1   

facing the same difficulties1  they will
 be united by more than a common hope1  
they will feel within  them the         
inspiration of the same spirit4    ,if  
then the new spirit making for          
co-operation and truer understanding  of
 each other which is already at work    
amongst the different churches is  to   
have fuller influence1 do we not need to
 set out with a new  enthusiasm upon the
 common task which awaits us at home and
 abroad1 and  to work out together new  
applications of the social teaching of  
the  ,christian ,church8 ,for many1 this
 will come along the lines of political 
and municipal action1 in using what     
powers and duties the law already  gives
 us1 as well as in making better laws or
 claiming extended  facilities for      
communal action4    ,but however much   
the powers and functions of the state   
may be altered  and extended1 there are 
vast regions which must for ever lie    
outside its  domain3 evils which laws   
and bye-laws cannot control1 where the  

mysterious forces of personality have   
play1 and the healing spiritual         
influences may work1 which come with the
 direct contact of goodness and         
unselfishness1 upon the broken and      
bruised failures of humanity4 ,the      
state may punish wrong-doing1 it may    
prevent particular acts of crime1  it   
may confine its hardened criminals      
within the walls of a prison4 ,it       
cannot convert them from themselves1 it 
cannot redeem them4 ,the state  may give
 pensions to old age1 and make p4#aee   
provision for the sick1  the blind and  
the maimed1 the epileptic1 the lunatic1 
the idiot and the  feeble-minded4 ,it   
cannot bring to these darkened lives    
what most they  need1 the sunlight of   
human love and comradeship1 the healing 
influence  of an atmosphere of prayer   
and of unselfish service in which they  
may  come themselves into touch with the
 ,centre and ,source of this pure and   
cleansing stream of good4    ,this must 
be once again the task of the ,church1  

as it was in the best  days of the      
monasteries1 the guilds and             
confraternities of the middle  ages4 ,we
 need to have a fresh ,crusade1 not to  
conquer any far-off enemy1  but against 
our apathy towards the social evils in  
our midst4 ,can we not  hope to see a   
network of new guilds and brotherhoods1 
settlements1  houses of peace and       
healing1 covering the length and breadth
 of the  land1 where men and women will 
sacrifice some portion at least of their
  lives1 giving of their work and       
leisure to this task8 ,some will afford 
a  shelter to the outcasts of society1  
who are driven now from prison to       
casual ward1 and from workhouse to jail1
 for whom the commercial world  has no  
use1 to whom the law offers nothing but 
threats and penalties3  others will     
provide training for boys or girls who  
have been committed  to industrial      
schools1 or will offer a fresh start to 
those who have  fallen into serious     
crime3 there will be some which will try

 to provide  a home and work for the    
weaklings1 or those who are prevented by
 mental  or physical defect from p4#aef 
holding their own in the ordinary       
streams of life4 ,others again will     
offer an asylum to sickness1            
helplessness and old age4 ,centres of   
prayer1 as well as centres of work1     
they will be the schools of saints1     
where men in serving the needy in  many 
different ways1 will all the while be   
brought nearer to the  ultimate reunion 
of ,christendom and of humanity4        
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------    #a  
,the words of ,celsus ring strangely in 
our ears after  these seventeen         
centuries and more3 ,you may hear all   
those who differ  so widely1 and who    
assail each other in their disputes with
 the most  shameless language1 uttering 
the words1 ',the world is crucified unto
 me1  and ,i unto the world' 7,origen1  
,contra ,celsum1 v4  #fd2 and cf4 iii   
#ab74    #b ,les ,apotres1 p4 #ef4    #c

 i ,cor4 xiv4 #bd1 #be    #d xlii4 #d1  
#e4    #e ,greek3 ,i will appoint their 
bishops in righteousness  and their     
deacons in faith    #f ad ,smyrn4 viii4 
i1 #b4    #g ,the earliest ,latin       
versions of the ,bible seem often to    
have used the word sacramentum to       
translate the ,greek 1 thus in  ,st4    
,matthew xiii4 #aa1 in reply to the     
disciples' query ,why speakest  thou    
unto them in parables8 is given the     
response ,to you is given to  know the  
sacraments of the ,kingdom of ,heaven1  
but to them it is not  given 7,cod4     
,bobbiensis74 ,even the ,vulgate retains
 this rendering in a  number of passages
 7,eph4 i4 #i2 iii4 #c2 v4 #cb2         
,revelation i4 #bj71 and one  cannot    
help wishing that our ,english version  
might have retained so  beautiful a     
rendering as the sacrament of ,his will1
 or the reference  to the mystical union
 of ,christ and ,his church as the great
 sacrament4  ,similarly1 it is          
interesting to hear the ,vulgate speak  

of the sacrament  of the seven stars1 in
 the ,apocalypse1 and to read in i ,tim4
 iii4 #af1  great is the sacrament of   
godliness4    #h ,de ,anima1 ix4    #i  
,adv4 ,marcion1 v4 #d4    #aj ,adv4     
,marcion1 v4 i4    #aa _/,hoc enim      
lignum tunc in sacramento erat_/ 7,adv4 
,judaeos1 xii474    #ab _/,nolite verba1
 cum sacramentum meum erit              
canendum1providenter quaerere_/ 4    #ac
 _/,quid enim sunt aliud quaeque        
corporalia sacramenta  nisi quaedam     
quasi verba visibilia sacrosancta       
quidem1 veruntamen  mutabilia at        
temporalia_/ 8 7,contra ,faustum        
,manichaeum41 ,lib4 xix4 ,cap4  #af474  
#ad 7,de ,praescriptione ,haereticorum  
xl47 ,at his best1  however1            
,tertullian1 at least in one of his     
works1 did seem to go  farther than     
this1 and to recognise in the           
instinctive strivings of  natural       
religion the witness of the soul to the 
truths revealed in  ,christ 7,de        
,testimonio ,animae74    #ae ,the ,guide

 des ceremonies civiles 7,par ,lux1     
,paris1 #aijb74    #af ,see i ,cor4 i4  
#ad-ae4 ,for ,christ sent me not to     
baptize but to preach the ,gospel4      
#ag i ,cor4 xv4    #ah ,aug4 de         
,baptismo ,lib4 iv4 ,cyprian had        
instanced this  as a case of baptism of 
blood1 but ,augustine pointed out that  
the  penitent thief suffered not as a   
,christian1 but in punishment for a     
crime4    #ai ,de ,poen1 ,c4 vi42 cf4   
xii4 and xiii4    #bj ,it is more       
generally held at present by scholars   
that  the ,didache was written in       
,egypt2 but would not this prayer rather
 befit  the hilly country of ,phrygia1  
where afterwards ,montanus taught8      
#ba ,rev4 ,w4 ,tuckwell3 ,reminiscences 
of ,oxford4    #bb ,mundi imago divinae 
sapientise et potentiae praeconium4     
#bc ,exodus xix4 #f42 ,isaiah ,ixi4 #f4 
#bd ,i ,peter ii4 #e1 #i4    #be ,rev4  
v4 #aj2 xx4 #f4    #bf ,romans xii4 i4  
#bg ,tim4 iv4 #f4 ,cf4 ,phil4 iii4 #ag3 
,if ,i be poured forth  as a libation   

upon the sacrifice and service          
7,liturgy7 of your faith2    #bh        
,irenaeus is apparently the first to use
 the term   7sacrificing priest7 instead
 of the earlier title of   7elder74     
#bi ,this suggestion1 and several of the
 preceding ones1  are set forth with    
much greater fulness and clearness by   
,mr4 ,st4 ,george  ,stock in the        
,hibbert ,journal for ,january1 #aijf4  
#cj        ou   ,heb #aa3a4    #ca      
,ecclesiastes iii4 #aa4    #cb ,it is   
possible that some day this difficulty  
might be  surmounted by the willingness 
of a small group of such ,free ,church  
leaders to receive conditional episcopal
 consecration at the hands of  some     
friendly ,gregorian or ,nestorian       
,bishops4 ,they could then preach  from 
the pulpit in ,church or ,cathedral at  
the invitation of the  authorities of   
the ,church of ,england1 and1 by        
receiving their episcopal  orders       
conditionally1 they would place no      
stigma on their ,nonconformist          

colleagues4 ,the ,free ,churches would  
then be somewhat in the position of  the
 old ,celtic ,churches before the       
conquest of ,britain by ,latin          
,christianity1 when ,bishops did not    
rule by monarchial methods over fixed   
dioceses1 but exercised a more personal 
influence from their monastic  homes1   
where sometimes several ,bishops resided
 together at once4 ,we  should thus have
 a ,free ,church ,college of ,bishops   
exercising authority  by reason of their
 personal and spiritual qualifications  
and seeking no  other sanction than the 
weight which such an influence would    
give4    ,there may be difficulties in  
the way of such a proposal1 but many    
,nonconformists who could not agree to  
accept the diocesan method of  ,church  
government would have little or no      
objection to such overseers of  the     
,free ,churches1 who1 holding an unpaid 
office1 carrying no legal  privileges1  
would have no right to rule1 but rather 
be recognised as  teaching1 advising or 

pleading1 with the authority of an elder
 brother  in the spiritual family of    
which they would be members4 ,such a    
simple  apostolic episcopate1           
strengthened from time to time by the   
addition of  new members called to      
accept their office by the voice of     
their ,church1  might afford for those  
who have need of it a sign of visible   
communion  between the ,protestant      
,churches and the older episcopal       
churches of ,east  and ,west4