upon the Supreme sufferer, oblivious of his own agony, going forth to the penitent thief in the great assurance: "Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Let them look again and behold him going forth in the fullness of pity to the brutal men who nail him to the cross: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Let them look still again, and this time let them watch his spirit, still regardless of its own woe, entering the heart of his suffering mother, whom he thus intrusts to the care of the disciple whom he loved: "Woman, behold, thy son! Son, behold, thy mother!" Let them listen with bowed head and in profoundest awe to the final words: "It is finished." "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Here is the process of natural law at its blackest; here is the reign of mechanism as a reign of terror; and yet, in all history, is there any disclosure of the Eternal love and pity so clear, so dear, so great as

this?

When the night of death is past; when the

true light of Christian discipleship is once more shining; when the scattered and appalled apostles are recalled and reassured; when in their lives the promise is fulfilled, "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you"; when in the depth and wonder of their experience and in the might of their service the words unfold their truth: "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world," we see again through the natural order the sovereign soul of the risen Lord. In life and in death the Lord is with us; in life and in death we are the Lord's, and the gospel that we still preach is the old eternal gospel, Immanuel, God in the world and the world in God.

CHAPTER V

AN ETERNAL GOSPEL

I

OUR age has been concerned to an amaz

ing extent with the local and temporal

side of religion. Religion is an historic phenomenon; as such it has expressed itself in institutions, rites, beliefs, literature. This expression of religion may be called its temporal side; its institutions belong among the social forms of human life, its rites are a part of the general custom of the world, its beliefs are a phase of the philosophy of existence and the universe, its books have their place in the literature of the race. To this temporal aspect of religious faith probably more scientific attention has been devoted during the last fifty years than in any similar period in the history of mankind. The scientific scholar has appeared, and his special concern has been with

the literature of religion, its texts, documents, compositions, and with the history of these and the ideas embodied in them. The method of this investigation has been that common to all men of modern education, first-hand ascertainment of fact, and inference in accord with the fact. The presupposition underlying the scholar's work and giving general character to it has been a naturalistic conception of the

cosmos.

What, now, is the justification for the subjection of the temporal side of religion to this new and searching examination? In reply it may be said that there are two justifications, one scientific, and the other religious. The scientific desire to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is of itself a sufficient reason for the investigation. The scholar's work is here seen to be part of the scientific activity of the world; it has behind it the impulse of all true science, love of truth and the quenchless desire to know it. Whether that truth shall be favorable to human interests or not, does not here enter into the question.

What are the facts, and what do they mean in the historic process? For the scientific intellect these are the main questions, and in the attempt to meet them an amazing world of activity has been called into being.

In addition to this scientific consideration there is another. There is the religious belief that things eternal are seen through things temporal, that space and time in all their rich variety, color, and movement are servants of the Highest. This belief leads to the expectation that a correct version of the temporal, in respect to any religion, would prepare the way for a new and a more influential conception of the Eternal. Here is a new fountain of enthusiasm for the devout scholar. In his textual criticism, his analysis and rearrangement of documents, his assignment of books to their proper place in the process of human development, he is preparing the way for a closer vision of the coming of the kingdom of God. It is the hope of serving this ultimate end that turns the detail and drudgery of his work into poetry; that end shines