Tertullian: "We say, and
before all men we say, and torn and bleeding under your tortures we cry
out, 'We worship God through Christ. Count Christ a man, if you please;
by Him and in Him God would be known and adored.'" And our assurance
that we can become like Jesus rests on the fact that this life has been
already lived. A mountain top, however lofty, we can hope to scale, for
it is part of the same earth on which we stand; but a star, however
alluring, we have no confidence of reaching. Jesus' worth as an example
to us lies in our finding in Him "ideal manhood closed in real man."

In fellowship through Jesus with God we discover that His victory is
vicarious; He conquered for Himself _and for us_ the world and sin and
death.

He imparts His faith in the coming of the Divine Order in the world.
His followers share His fearless and masterful attitude towards physical
forces; when they appear opposed to God's purpose of love, the Christian
is confident that they are not inherently antagonistic to it: "to them
that love God all things work together for good." What is called
"nature" is not something fixed, but plastic; something which can be
conformed to the will of the God and Father of Jesus. A pestilential
Panama, for instance, is not natural, but subnatural, and must be
brought up to its divine nature, when it will serve the children of God.
The Rule of God in nature, like the Kingdom in Jesus' parables, must
both be awaited patiently--for it will require advances in men's
consciences and knowledge to control physical forces in the interest of
love--and striven for believingly. And even when bitter circumstances
seem, whether only for the present or permanently, inescapable, when
pain and disaster and death must be borne, the Christian accepts them as
part of the loving and wise will of God, as his Lord acquiesced in His
own suffering: "The cup which the Father hath given Me, shall I not
drink it?" And Jesus confers His confidence in the alterability of the
world of human relations. Christians believe in the superiority of moral
over material forces, in the wisdom and might of love. A life like
Christ's is pronounced in every generation unpractical, until under His
inspiration some follower lives it; and slowly, as in His own case, its
success is acclaimed. His principles, as applied to an economic
institution such as slavery, or to the treatment of the criminal, are
counted visionary, until, constrained by His Spi