sense of humour saves him from many of the
errors of the various "Christian" brotherhoods. Curious enough, the
people who object to duty, who are unwilling to strike a blow for
righteousness, invariably belong to some of the freak sects and are
devotees of sectarianism in its narrowest meaning.

No doubt "Vicarious Suffering" the root doctrine of many sects in this
country is responsible for the general shirking of duty on the part of
so many men to-day. Men look to the ballot box for their meat in due
season. They want all the privileges of citizenship without the
responsibilities. The sects of to-day in teaching that the historic
Christ took all our sins upon His shoulder have produced a type of
sentimental immoralist who creeps under the shelter of the Cross,
content that Christ should suffer in his place. So long as the Cross
does not offend his eyesight, he is willing to find refuge in its
shadow. Where selfishness reigns there is no vision. The gaze is upon
gain, personal comfort, things entirely earthly. A man who is always
looking at mud thinks in terms of mud. Just as a great naturalist
confesses a loss of the finer sense of music, so there is the loss of
the spiritual vision, for the spiritual sense is just as real as any
other sense, but it can become useless and drop out of our life, if we
do not value it and no longer use it. There are people with an artistic
sense. There are more without it.

The doctrine of the atonement is used to promote the crude idea that to
put our responsibilities upon others is more religious than facing them
oneself. Christ's atonement is no isolated fact in history to make men
cowards, but a sustained attitude of devotion in which every man and
woman is to take a part. Instead of thanking Christ for hanging there
upon the Cross in our place we should strive for the same courage, the
same endurance, the supreme devotion to duty and the vision of Divine
Aid will be ours perhaps in Angel form. To the brave in all ages has
come the vision of higher things.

III

THE SOUL'S BOUNDARY LINE

"I never was religious, but this business is changing me and many
thousands more," so writes a soldier. From another soldier's letter we
get, "War is the most sobering influence I know ... it sobers their
every day. They listen more attentively to the religious services.
Sometimes I wish for the sake of the morals of our army that we were
always at war."

When I was in Northern France