[Universalist Leader.]

Christendom is face to face today with the problems of the practicality or the workability of the teachings of Jesus. Can his ideas be applied? Can society put his gospel into practice? Are the morality and ethics of Jesus human, earthly, or are they the "counsels of perfection," fit only for a heavenly state? This is the impending crisis of Christendom. The east is reminding the west that it is Christian only in name. A keen-minded Japanese has said that during years of travel in the United States he found only one man who seemed to him to be a Christian after the manner of Jesus. This one man was a carpenter in San Francisco. Multitudes of critics at home are urging that the teachings of Jesus are too fine and spiritual for every-day life.

In the old days the church held aloof from society. It emphasized the chasm between the church and the world. It went away by itself. It encouraged men and women to flee from society to the solitude of desert or monastery. It never undertook to incorporate humanity in its philosophy or theology. Today no such attitude is possible; or if possible, it is at the expense and discredit of the church. The philosophy of Lincoln and Jesus is knocking at the door. A kingdom divided is no kingdom. A world half sinners and half saints cannot be accepted as final. It is all or nothing. It is the kingdoms of this world against the kingdom of God. It is a magnificent challenge. It awakens great thoughts. It brings the open vision of humanity redeemed from sin. It reintroduces and reiterates the ideal of Israel, of Jesus, and of the Bible. It proclaims the true and fundamental philosophy of the gospel. It sets up that idea of redemption which includes all else in the consciousness of Jesus. It fixes our faith where it belongs,—on the salvation of the world.

[Christian Intelligencer.]

The "social uplift" is no doubt a part of Christianity; it is a most valuable and even essential "side product" of it, but it is only a side product, not the chief thing nor the main purpose of Christ's teachings. Jesus Christ came into the world "to save sinners," not primarily to feed or clothe or house or heal or educate them, but to save their true selves—that is, their souls—from their evil nature, their vicious dispositions, their innate and self-perpetuated unrighteousness. And he came to do this because it was the first and most essential thing to do, the most needed though perhaps not the most conspicuous service that he could render to them. Therefore he taught spiritual righteousness, soul reconciliation with God, as the first and most important thing, because he knew, with a knowledge as far surpassing that of the wisest philanthropist as the God nature surpasses human nature, that through this way of spiritual regeneration is the only perfect or permanent escape from the mental or physical miseries which it is the kindly purpose of the well-meaning "social worker" to mitigate or relieve.

[Watchman.]

When our Lord left his post on .earth as the Master of his disciples, he said he would provide another leader who would guide their minds into the whole truth of his revelation and would direct all their activities. The Spirit of God is the real teacher and guide of Christian thought in the present era. It is the men who have been open to the Spirit's enlightenment and have been moved by His power who have brought in the newer and nobler experiences of men. But the natural tendency is for men to settle into their own creeds or try to sustain their own ecclesiastical systems or value their own cherished portions of truth so that they cannot appreciate anything else. There should be confidence in the presence and activity of the Spirit of God in the kingdom of heaven on earth to preserve it and promote it among men. If there were this reliance upon Him, there would be less apprehension of changes and more openness of mind to see what the Spirit of truth and grace is doing.

[Christian Work and Evangelist.]

In industry we face a commercial order that encourages unfeeling competition, that expects a man to work primarily for selfish reward of his labor, and that teaches him that what he controls in property is his own to do with as he pleases provided he does not break the laws of the land. Industry dominated by such ideals is perhaps the greatest producer of selfishness in the whole world. It is the task of the Christian to substitute commercial ideals inspired by the Spirit of Jesus; to insist that cooperation supplant unfraternal competition; that no one shall work primarily for the rewards he receives in wages or profits or fees or power or fame, but for the joy of ministering to the real needs of men; and that no one shall consider that which he personally controls as his own property, but as the possession of the brotherhood which he is charged to administer as their trustee.

[Living Church.]

Nicodemus is interesting as a type of the timid Christian so familiar in modern life. There are many who have a certain relation to the Christian faith—thin, we suspect, because of their timidity. Jesus Christ takes his place in their consciousness as an ideal and beautiful figure; they would know more of him; learn his secret of the mystery that presses close upon them. And so, as it were, they come to him by night—a little afraid of compromising themselves in the broad daylight before family and neighbors; too careful to commit themselves unreservedly to the faith and practice of the church. Jesus has little to give the souls that fear to give him much.

[Advance.]

The vital question today is, What have we to produce Christian experience? Are we getting away from the great beliefs which created it in the past, and if so, are we discovering new truths which will be more effective in giving us the needed experience? We cannot too highly value Christian experience, but for that reason we must all the more emphasize the causes which produce it. Certainly the negative position so common in current theological discussion will not give us positive experience. Nor will too much emphasis on the intellectual aspects of religious problems.

[Christian Register.]

Theology had no part in the simple command, "Feed my sheep." It implied a tender, human relation carried a step higher into the spiritual sphere. It seemed to involve a very intimate companionship between the shepherd and his flock. It must have meant something more than a weekly appearance and the preaching of one sermon, however brilliant. Peter, we may infer, was not a distinguished pulpit orator, nor did he preach over the heads of his congregation; but he understood his people through loving them.

[Christian World.]

The Christianity which is to win in Japan will have to be, through and through, a scientific Christianity. Japan will reject a great deal of our old theologies. It has none of the prejudices which have fostered and protected them in our own minds. Here the east, which has accepted the science of the west, will react upon our own faith in insisting upon a scientific basis for all it is going to believe. Singular interchange! The east, which gave us our religion, will, in accepting, be one of the most effective instruments in its reformation, its purification.