any of these
you would not know any difference between them. On all vital matters
they are at one. But there they are in the very name of Christ
negating His purpose and breaking His law. For His purpose is to unite
men together; bring them into the fellowship and unity of love. And
they break up that small community into four fragments--and they do it
from the highest motives and under the sanctions of the name of the
Highest. They act exactly as the Pharisees acted nineteen centuries
ago. They too were moved by the highest motives; they too had a
passion for the Sabbath. The Christians to-day, like the Pharisee of
old, make the gospel vain by their traditions. If He came Himself and
said to them, 'You are wrong: my law is that ye love one another: the
sign of my faithful followers is the love their lives evince,' ... He
wouldn't be listened to. They would not cry 'Crucify.' ... No! They
would only give Him a nickname and declare that He had no right
principles! ... But it isn't in remote villages one beholds that. It
can be seen anywhere. Moderators and bishops and dignitaries have met
for a quarter of a century in Edinburgh to knock at the door of heaven
with petitions asking God to unite them! And they will meet
anywhere--in licensed premises even--except in a church; they will do
anything except have the Communion together.... And they go on
praying! To-day the very bigotry that sent the Lord stumbling to
Calvary under a Cross is glorified by the name of Christ. That to-day
is His crucifixion.

II

That, however, is but half a truth. When we take long views we can
realise that there is no day in the year when we have more right to
cherish the spirit of hope than on this day when the world waits for
the Easter joy bells: Rejoice, Rejoice. The message of a day such as
this is that no cause that has in it the seed of righteousness, however
feeble it may be and however overwhelming its opponents, need give way
to despair. There never was a minority so feeble on the face of the
earth as these Galileans whose Master had been crucified. The cause
was lost. They had not even understood what He had tried to teach
them. While He spoke of a kingdom not of this world they could think
of nothing but pitiful thrones such as Herod's! They left Him in a
minority of one--and that minority was crucified. Nobody in all the
wide world knew or understood why He hung there.... He who was to
smash the Gent