ONE of the very evident signs of the times, from the religious standpoint, is the daring with which the most sacred topics are discussed in the light of modern conditions. There is certainly no cause to regret this free consideration of what are rightly regarded as vital questions, if mankind is thereby advanced and higher ideals attained. A prominent preacher recently said, —
"Sensible people all agree that this world is a state of imperfection. . . .The man for whom the future is dark is not sure of God. The man for whom the future is bright believes that God is Love. There is a constant struggle going on in the world, in which it appears that selfishness is the ruler. But is this the real truth? Christ, the acme of love, died for us on the cross at Calvary. Is that the real end of love? Was love, as Christ lived it, weaker or stronger than hate? Was Calvary a defeat or a victory? That is the fundamental question of all religion. What does God think? On which side does He stand?"
Few would deny that the question, "Was Calvary a defeat or a victory?" is indeed a fundamental one, and each individual must answer it in the light of his own experience before he can determine how much of a Christian he is. The preacher quoted points to present human conditions as evidence that the power of Truth and Love, which enabled Jesus to triumph on Calvary, is not yet dominant in the world, and we may well ask why this should be, when so many profess to be his followers. What did Christ Jesus represent, wherein did his teaching differ from generally accepted beliefs and opinions? A careful study of the Gosples reveals the fact that in spite of constant efforts to connect his teaching with some phase of human belief, he steadily refused to be thus entangled, and only dealt with the vexed questions of human rights and wrongs by bringing thereto the demands of divine Principle, — the power which inspired his deathless words and works. He stood for the righteousness which can never be realized by aught less than the clear recognition of God as Spirit and man as spiritual, of God as the only Mind and of good as the only power; and in so doing he challenged no less the opinions of scholastic theology than the blindness of admitted materialism. It was because he boldly claimed to heal the sick and the sinful by "the finger of God" that he was relentlessly pursued by mortal malice until his enemies thought they had crushed out his teaching by the tragedy of Calvary. But the spiritual light which shone upon the deep gloom of that hour could not be quenched, and even in the darkest depths of human misery it has illumined the steep and narrow path which leads from sense to Soul. All through the centuries that light has shone, though faintly at times to human sense. Bowring voices a universal sentiment when he says, —
