stronger than sentiment, and compelled to obey the social commands of love.

The individual grows from self-care to care for others. The race has passed through the same altruistic develop ment. The nation that lives must have a similar evolution. In the cemetery of the nations we find no monument with this inscription: "This nation died as the result of service to the weak peoples of the earth." We see a long line of graves where nations lie buried because they lived to be served, and not to serve. If a selfish individualism is not to be commended in the unit of society, neither is it in the nation. The world is still waiting for a nation to arise in the family of the nations, "not to be ministered unto, but to minister," and thus achieve national immortality. A strong individual taking advantage of weaker individuals in commerce is contemptible. A strong nation acting selfishly is unworthy of honor among the nations. Our nation began in selfishness, in harmony with the origin of the race and of the individual. Our first war was for ourselves; our second was in reality but a continuation in 1812 of the struggle for independence, begun a generation earlier. We began the civil war for ourselves,-to preserve the union; we ended it for others, -to liberate a foreign race within our borders. Having made a national sacrifice for the black man at home, it was easier a generation later for us to serve the struggling Cubans abroad. In truth it would have been impossible to thrust this nation into Cuba's struggle for the sake of our national aggrandizement. Our great nation said that she must bear the weak nation's burden, and so fulfill the law of love among the nations. There is a growing socialism among the nations. The strong nations are learning to serve the weaker members of the national family.

There has also been a growing socialization of educational interests and opportunities. No longer does the VOL. LIX. No. 234. 4

poor man pay for the education of his children. From the individualism of the rate bill, we have grown to even socializing text-books. The books for all the pupils in our best city systems are purchased from the common school funds. If a poor man presents a child destitute of necessary clothes, the community will clothe him, furnish him books and teachers, that he may have a common-school education. There is a growing intellectual socialism which recognizes a miserliness of mind as well as a miserliness of money; and that he is most a miser who holds the highest possessions selfishly.

The social settlement movement is an expression of the growing socialism in the realm of character. In times of industrial and educational individualism, there was also individualism in character. Then men saved themselves by separation; now they save themselves by sympathy. In individualism he is good who does no bad; in socialism, he is bad who does no good. In the great cities, men and women of the finest head and heart culture have, through the neighborhood guilds, expressed in terms of character the growing soul-socialism. They have learned that the characterful owe much to the characterless. They have socialized soul, going with their all of heart, head, and hand, living rather than saying to the morally and mentally needy, "All you have is yours, and all we have is yours, for you need it." They believe that leaven belongs to the lump, that light should go to darkness, that love owes all to the loveless lives. The wealthy, the wise, and the worthy have become the great debtors, according to the best standards of life. Men socialized their money be

fore they did their minds; they socialized their minds before they did their souls; they must eventually socialize their all of money, mind, and soul in the growing socialism of love.

ARTICLE IV.

JEHOVAH-JESUS-MESSIAH.

THE Conversion of Saul of Tarsus was the most important event which occurred in the history of the early Christian church. It is described three times in Acts, and is given a prominence quite above that of any other incident. mentioned in that book. Moreover, that conversion was a kind of event in the life of a human soul so extraordinary and striking, was such a violent and extreme soulchange, and produced such wide and deep results upon mankind, that it deserves to be studied with all care, to discover, if possible, the secret of the sudden and tremendous transformation which took place in the soul attitude of this wonderful genius. From all the narratives it is evident that the cause of the change was in the noonday vision which appeared to Saul on the way to Damascus. Hence, if we can only find out just what he did see then, and all that he saw, we can penetrate to the innermost secret of that great change which took place in him. The following is offered as an attempt toward that finding out.

I. Saul saw and heard Jesus of Nazareth in the Shechinah in heaven. All three accounts give the same words as spoken from the sky,-"I am Jesus whom thou persecutest"; Paul himself adding "of Nazareth" in his address from the stairs. And Ananias, plainly referring to Jesus, said to Saul at the healing in Damascus, "that thou shouldest... see the Righteous One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth." Moreover, "the glory of that light" was doubtless the same as the Shechinah of the Old

Testament, and as the "bright cloud" which rolled down upon the group on the mountain of transfiguration; and was also the same "glory of God," with Jesus standing in it, which Stephen saw at his martyrdom.

II. Saul also saw Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah whom the prophets of old foretold. This is evident from what he heralded right after in the synagogues of the Jews, as we are told in Acts ix. 20, 22, as follows: "And straightway in the synagogues he heralded Jesus, that he is the Son of God." "And Saul grew strong more and more, confounding the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, demonstrating that this one [Jesus] is the Messiah." The Greek has ho Christos, which the Authorized Version renders, “very Christ." But Saul and the Jews, speaking Hebrew, as they did, must have used the word "Messiah," of which Christos is the Greek equivalent; and only as we use the very word which they used can we get the full historic flavor of their speech. Therefore I say, "the Messiah."

III. But the chief matter is now to be stated. Along with seeing Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah of the Old Testament prophets, Saul also saw him as Jehovah incarnate. As he gazed upon Jesus standing in the midst of that "great light" "above the brightness of the sun," even the Shechinah of God, "the glory of that light' flashed into his deepest soul, as a revelation from God, the conviction that He upon whom he was gazing, and whose voice he heard declaring, "I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutest," was also the human embodiment of the very Jehovah of the Old Testament; and that this was how he was "the Son of God." In that glorious, blinding vision it was disclosed to Saul, that to Him upon whom he was gazing there really belonged the threefold character rightly expressed by the threefold name, Jehovah-JesusMessiah; and at once he realized that he had been persecuting, and was now on his way still further to persecute,

the disciples of that very being whom he and all Israel had worshiped as Jehovah from the beginning of the nation; and whom the prophets had foretold should come as the Messiah. And it was the direct sight of this to him astounding, manifold reality, which completely overwhelmed his soul. Such was the revelation manifested to Saul of Tarsus in the vision which befell him on his way to Damascus. The proof for this view will be urgently and justly demanded; and to present that proof is my further task.

1. This task I begin by remarking that the above is the fundamental view, which is woven into the whole warp and woof of the New Testament. Take one cornerstone fact for evidence. Isaiah xi. 3-5 is quoted or referred to by all four of the Gospels, and applied to Jesus. But the prophet himself explicitly refers to Jehovah. His words are, "A voice crieth, In the wilderness prepare ye the way of Jehovah; make straight in the Arabah a highway for our God." Now what the prophet utters directly concerning "Jehovah, our God," the four Gospels apply with equal directness to Jesus. But, unless Jehovah and Jesus are the same being, such application is, to use a very mild term, a wild delusion. But the application is right, because the two are one and the same, as the use of the passage in the New Testament teaches, this oneness of the two being of the very marrow and substance of the Gospels. A quotation will make this appear with emphasis. Matthew iii. 1-3 reads: "Now in those days cometh John the Baptist, heralding in the wilderness of Judæa, saying, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is near. For this is he that was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, make his paths level." Now all the four Gospels, and John himself, declare that John the Baptist was the Voice; and equally that Jesus was the being before whom the Voice was crying; all thus teaching that