March 21

Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.

ONE man will live after the pattern of the Sermon on the Mount, or the Epistle of St. James. Another finds a deep consolation and meaning in a closer union with Christ; he will "put on Christ," he will hide himself in Christ; he will experience in his own person the truth of those words of the Apostle, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." But if he have the spirit of moderation that there was in St. Paul, he will not stereotype these true, though often passing, feelings in any formula of substitution or satisfaction; still less will he draw out formulas of this sort into remote consequences. Such logical idealism is of another age; it is neither faith nor philosophy in this. . . . Having Christ near as a friend and a brother, and making the Christian life his great aim, he is no longer under the dominion of a conventional theology. He will not be distracted by its phrases from communion with his fellow-men. He can never fall into that confusion of head and heart which elevates matters of opinion into practical principles. Difficulties and doubts diminish with him, as he himself grows more like Christ; not because he forcibly suppresses them, but because they become unimportant in comparison with purity, and holiness, and love. Enough of truth for him seems to radiate from the person of the Saviour. He thinks more and more of the human nature of Christ as the expression of the Divine. He has found the way of life—that way is not an easy way—but neither is it beset by the imaginary perplexities with which a false use of the intellect in religion has often surrounded it.

BENJAMIN JOWETT

AND A PRAYER