From our Exchanges

with contributions from Frederic W. Perkins, C. T. Winchester

The primary purpose of Jesus Christ was not to expound a theology, but to upbuild a life. A church has made theological progress when it has come to realize the relatively subordinate position which any theology, however true, must take. Most men have some sort of a theology, but its influence on their lives will depend largely on how they get it. If one gets it primarily by an intellectual process, if it is chiefly a system of ideas about God and man and Christ and destiny, then one may have a flawless theology which has hardly speaking acquaintance with his spiritual life, just as one may know how a church is built without having any desire or purpose to build one. But if a man's theological ideas are primarily the attempt to voice his spiritual experience, to set forth truths involved in right living, if he holds them primarily not so much because they are intellectually true as because they are spiritually necessary, then his theology will profoundly influence his life.

Rev. Frederic W. Perkins.
The Universalist Leader.

It is not easy for men grounded in the metaphysics of a system that reaches back for hundreds of years, and is rooted in all the modes of their thinking, to understand how other men can cast it all away, and think in new terms, to new results. But if one were to observe closely the Christian earnestness of these apparent iconoclasts, and note how much more valuable seems to them the forms of truth they are building in place of those they have abandoned, and who declare that their work is not only no loss to faith but great gain, while the conservative would not believe this he would at least understand and respect the men who do believe it. The Homiletic Review.

He is the health of the world, and all who lift their eyes to Him can be made whole. New Year's day is always and for every one a beginning. No matter what lies behind it of wasted life, of corruption and folly, there is always a future stretching away into the dim distance. The whole process of life is one of redemption, and those who have blasted their careers, stained their names, distorted their souls, and come at last to moral and spiritual bankruptcy, may still find in Him, against whom they have sinned most unpardonably, the peace and help and health which the world cannot give.—The Outlook.

The man leans back upon his oars, satisfied. We may come to that mood in spiritual things as surely as in temporal. Some men practically retire from religion, much as they retire from business, because they think they have accumulated enough to live on. That was not Paul's way.

Prof. C. T. Winchester.
Zion's Herald.

He [Jesus] said to his disciples on the eve of his departure that he had many things to say to them which they could not yet comprehend, but that he would come in the spirit to make these things clear. That is an abiding promise of a new revelation of himself.—The Congregationalist.

Heaven in its essential idea does not imply locality. It is a condition. And that condition is one of complete satisfaction. Wherever one may be or in whatever condition, if there is entire satisfaction, that is heaven for that one.

The Watchman.

Life is a good deal of a puzzle; but if we were more resolute in our determination to enrich it by worthy service than we are in our desire to solve its mysteries, we should be happier. If we put more into it, we should get more out of it.

Epworth Herald.

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