e subject of
immortality. In all cases I found that the subject in which they were
more deeply interested than in all other subjects put together.

"I would rather be sure that when a man dies he will live again with
his conscious identity, than to have all the wealth of the United
States, or to occupy any position of honor or power the world could
possibly give," said a man whose name is known to the railroad world
as one of the ablest transportation men in the United States.

"Do you know when I am by myself I think about a lot of strange
things. Is the soul immortal and what is the soul anyhow?" It is a
politician who is talking now, and a ward politician at that, a man
whom few would suspect of thinking upon these subjects at all.

So you see, young man, you who are being measured for the Cloth, that
all manner and conditions of men are thinking about the great problems
of which you are the expounder, and longing for the answer to those
problems which it is your business to give them. That is the condition
of the mind of the millions.

Very well! What is the condition of the mind of the young minister? A
few years ago a certain man, with good opportunities for the
investigation and a probability of sincere answers, asked every young
preacher whom he met during a summer vacation these questions:

"First, Yes or no, do you believe in God, the Father; God a person,
God a definite and tangible intelligence--not a congeries of laws
floating like a fog through the universe; but God a person in whose
image you were made? Don't argue; don't explain; but is your mind in a
condition where you can answer yes or no?"

Not a man answered "Yes." Each man wanted to explain that the Deity
might be a definite intelligence or might not; that the "latest
thought" was much confused upon the matter, and so forth and so on.

"Second, Yes or no, do you believe that Christ was the son of the
living God, sent by Him to save the world? I am not asking whether you
believe that He was inspired in the sense that the great moral
teachers are inspired--nobody has any difficulty about that. But do
you believe that Christ was God's very Son, with a divinely appointed
and definite mission, dying on the cross and raised from the dead--yes
or no?"

Again not a single answer with an unequivocal, earnest "Yes." But
again explanations were offered and in at least half the instances the
sum of most of the answers was that Christ was the most perf