features. It sounds plausible. But there never has been, nor never
can be, such equality. Nature and experience alike reveal a pronounced
and insuperable inequality among men. The law of diversity strikes
deep down into the very origin and constitution of mankind. The
equality proclaimed by the French Revolutionists is now regarded as an
idle dream. Not equality of nature but equity before the law, justice
for all, the opportunity for every man to realise himself and make the
most of the life and the gifts which God has given him--that is the
only claim which can be truly made. 'The only idea,' says Eucken,
'which can give to equality any meaning is the conviction that humanity
has spiritual relations, that each individual has a value for himself
and for the whole because he is a part of a larger spiritual world.'
Hence if democracy is truly to come to its own and fulfil its high
vocation, the Pauline figure of the reciprocal influence of the body
and its members must be proclaimed anew as the ideal of the body
politic--a unity fulfilling itself in difference--an organic life in
which the unit finds its {236} place of security-and-service in the
whole, and the whole lives in and acts through the individual parts.

If we are to awaken to the high vocation of the Christian state, to
realise the possibilities of our membership one with another, a new
feeling of manhood and of national brotherhood, a new pride in the
community of life, must take possession of our hearts. We need, as one
has said, a baptism of religious feeling in our corporate
consciousness, a new sense that we are serving God in serving our
fellows, which will hallow and hearten the crusade for health and
social happiness, and give to every citizen a sense of spiritual
service.

III

Unlike the family and State the _Church_ is the creation of Jesus
Christ. It is the witness of His Presence in the world. In its ideal
form it is world-wide. The Redemption for which it stands is a good
for all men. Though in practice many do not acknowledge its blessing,
the Church regards no man beyond its pale of grace. It is set in the
midst of the world as the symbol and pledge of God's universal love.

1. The _Relation of Church and State_ is a difficult question with a
long history, and involving much controversy. Whatever view may be
held as to their legal connection, their interests can never be
regarded as inimical. The Church cannot be indiff