THOUGHTFUL students of the teachings of Christ Jesus and of the theology which still maintains its official standing in most Christian churches, can but be impressed with the contrast between them in the matter of the place and power which is conceded to materiality. In his portrayal of God as infinite Spirit, and of substance as that which is spiritual and undiscernible to material sense, Jesus' concept of being is diametrically opposed by the great body of theological teaching, which enthrones a creator of matter and its laws, a being who is responsible for the world and its history as reported by physical sense.
One may be able to explain that the departure of the early church from the exalted spiritual concepts which were committed to it by the Master was an inevitable result of the domination of the political organization with which it speedily coalesced, but lie will find it difficult to understand how in this enlightened age the glamour of materiality can still maintain its hold upon cultivated Christian thought and influence it to a degree which has led even so great a nature lover as Tennyson to cry out in protest,—
My God, I would not live
Save that I think this gross, hard-seeming world
Is our misshapen vision of the power
Behind the world.
