tion, without any special thought. In point of fact, the image of Christ is more vivid in the world than is that of any other personality whatsoever. He lives and is present, and, within Christendom at least, everybody knows who and what He is. The Bible and the Church have introduced the world to Him, but when one is led into the presence chamber of a king it becomes a matter of comparatively small moment who his introducer has been: the real question is concerning his royalty. Has he or has he not a countenance to command? Is he or is he not every inch a king? Actually the authority of Christ manifests itself in His self-evident divinity. The soul that is to any degree in sympathy with Him, and with God, recognizes Him and submits its life to His guidance.

Having done so, the literature which we call the Scripture becomes intelligible. It ceases to be thought of as a substitute for an absent Christ, and is seen to be, what it actually is, the liturgy which sings the praises of a living Lord. The Church ceases for such an one to be a hard, unlovely political organization which deals in laws and penalties, and comes to be seen as it is, the family whose elder brother is the Master, whose father is the Father in heaven, and the rule of whose household is the law of love.

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XXI.

THE FAULTY MORAL NATURE.

Baving the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their beart."-EPHESIANS iv. 18.

THE words "life of God" in this text may be taken to mean either religious doctrine or religious conduct. That is to say, it may refer to what people believe in the sphere of religion, or to what they do or leave undone from religious motives. Now, it is perfectly evident that there are thousands of people who do not possess any knowledge of God, whichever sense may be attached to the phrase. Practically God is for them either non-existent or is only an idea. The idea is vague, impalpable, does not come actually within the range of their every-day experience. Suppose it should be demonstrated to-morrow, for example, by some new discovery in the physical sciences, or by some new process of logic, that God is non-existent, that humanity up to this point has been deceived in believing in the existence of such a being. Is it not true that there are thousands of human beings in whom

such a discovery would not compel any conscious change of life? The world to them would go on precisely as it does now. They would not feel practically conscious of any loss. They would not weep over the destruction of God. They would not even, like a decadent Greek, cry out in anguish: “Great Pan is dead!" The reason is that God is not a conscious element in their living at all.

Probably not a few would acknowledge this. If they should be asked why it is that so tremendous a fact as God is not practically needed by them, they would say: "We do not think very much about God, or the subject-matter of religion, chiefly on account of the uncertainty and obscurity of its alleged facts. Take, for example," they would say, "such common religious conceptions as those of prayer, providence, immortality, the incarnation of God in Christ. These things may be true, or may be false; we do not deny them, we do not accept them. The truth is our minds are so constituted that they do not take hold of them in any real sense." This explanation may be offered in perfect good faith. They have not the knowledge of God because, to their way of thinking, anything worthy of the name of knowledge concerning God is not attainable.

St. Paul, in the text and elsewhere, assigns, however, an altogether different explanation for this ignorance. He says that men are destitute

of the knowledge of God, not because such knowledge is vague and elusive, not because it is unattainable, and not because it is unimportant. The facts, he says, are not imaginary. They are the most real facts in existence-more real, indeed, than the facts of every-day life. He ventures to say that the things which are seen are temporal, whereas those things which are unseen are abiding. He asserts that the evidence for them, if it be sought in the right quarter, is overwhelming and conclusive-that any man can reach it if he wishes. But he makes the assertion that the reason why men do not see God is because their moral nature is so faulty that they cannot.

you to say that.

Right here men protest, and frequently with a feeling of anger. They reply to one who takes St. Paul's position: "No; we will not permit We are skeptics-yes; we are not ashamed of it. If knowledge were within our reach on these important subjects we would accept it and utilize it. But we will not permit you to say that we are unbelievers or doubters because we are immoral-that will not do. If it comes to a comparison of character between ourselves and those who profess and call themselves Christians, while we do not seek for such a comparison, yet we will not shrink from it. Tried by any reasonable test of morality, our lives are as good as the lives of those who assert more or less loudly that they possess the knowledge of God."

Now, this confession of theirs may be true,very likely it is,-for, indeed, God is not much more than a theoretical admission with any of us. But, however far the Christian may fall short of his profession, St. Paul is right, and the conscience of humanity knows that he is right. It is willful wrongness of life which causes unwillful disbelief. It is the "fool," that is to say, the wicked man, who has said in his heart there is no God. If you turn your thought away for a moment from the consideration of individuals to the consideration of masses of humanity at certain periods, you will see that this is true. Take by way of illustration two well-known periods in modern history; one is the latter half of the eighteenth century in England, and the other is the period of the revolution in France. They were both characterized by widespread religious disbelief. The knowledge of God seemed to the casual observer to have disappeared completely from the purview of humanity. But to the historian who studies carefully either of these periods, it becomes evident that the moral debauchery was not the effect, but the cause, of the religious skepticism. It was because for various reasons men did not wish to retain God in all their thoughts that they fell into all "wretchlessness of evil living." When the faith returned, or began to return, as it did in the first quarter of this present century, it returned as the result of the recovery of moral