sin which Christianity has brought to the West is not, I
think, to be found elsewhere. It only appears where men feel they have
an assured knowledge of God's will. It is intense only where men are
conscious of God's presence. The vision of the Holiest reveals to Isaiah
that he is a man of unclean lips. Such a conviction of sin seems to me
inexplicable apart from contact with the living God. Two things are
required to bring home to men a true estimate of their moral failure,
first a right standard of judgement, and, second, a conviction of the
reality of God. Is it too much to say that we are not likely to reach
either, apart from Jesus of Nazareth? 'It is through Jesus and not from
Adam that we know sin.' It is through Him that men discover their moral
ideal and learn not simply to believe that there is a God, but to say, O
God, Thou art my God even for ever and ever.

Surely there is something providential in the resolute endeavour of the
last century to get back to Christ. The whole movement has succeeded in
disentangling the authority of Christ from that either of Moses or of
Paul. We are almost where the disciples were when they saw no man save
Jesus only. Some things in the traditions remain obscure and baffling.
But we see enough to measure afresh our distance from Him. And when the
peoples of Europe are thoroughly weary of the work of destruction, it
may be they will turn to Him again for the secret of rest, and find that
He alone can guide their feet into the way of peace.

BOOKS FOR REFERENCE

Sabatier, _L'Orientation religieuse de la France actuelle_. Armand
Colin: Paris.

W.K.L. Clarke, _Facing the Facts; or, an Englishman's Religion_. Nisbet.

E.C. Moore, _Christian Thought since Kant_. Duckworth's Studies in
Theology.

XIV

THE GROWTH OF HUMANITY

The preceding chapter has recalled attention to the need of deeper
elements of unity in civilization than can be afforded by any
commercial, financial or political ties. Plans for a political union of
nations, common tendencies in social reform, even the essential unity of
commerce and science, will be of no avail, unless there is a basis in
common sentiments of a religious kind, in the consciousness that we are
all members one of another and can only advance and realize ourselves by
the help and sympathy of other members of the same body. It is to this
point then that we will address ourselves in the concluding section of
the subject. The mech