rld _in vacuo_, but was as a seed
sown, which grows by drawing into itself the nourishment of soil and
atmosphere. There always must be elements of natural religion interfused
with the Christian religion, for though not evolved out of natural
religion, but rather coming to it as a deliverance, Christianity is the
crown and fulfilment and corroboration of the good and the true in natural
religion. It is not a question of clear separation and abstraction, but of
distinction, emphasis, and proportion. I believe that things not
characteristically Christian have acquired a disproportionate place in our
religion as handed down to us.

I suggest (but will not work it out here) that many of the hymns in use
are evidence of this, and that is why so often they do not ring true. I
also believe that an unhistorical use of the Bible has proved a distorting
influence. From early Christian days Scripture, which is a story of a
process and growth containing many stages and imperfections, has been
treated as something timeless and absolute. In particular, the partial
answers to the problem of suffering to which the Jews in their development
were led, have been made to bear weights heavier than they can sustain.
Some of the Psalms, for instance, over-emphasise the connection between
righteousness and immunity from misfortune. They can be used to justify a
calculating and self-saving religion which is below the level of Christ's
religion. A soldier, recently wounded on the Somme, handed to me at a
dressing-station a small copy of the 91st Psalm as his religious handbook.
Yet by itself the 91st Psalm, though a wonderful expression of trust in
God, promises a security to which our Lord, and others akin to Him in
spirit, have not put their seal. He did not ask--He resisted the
temptation to ask--that no evil should happen unto Him, nor that angels
should bear Him in their hands lest He should hurt His foot against a
stone. He would not have men set their face in the day of battle in the
assurance that, though a thousand should fall beside them and ten thousand
at their right hand, the same lot would not come nigh them.

I think, too, that Christianity fails to make its characteristic appeal
through the Church, owing to two prevalent "isms"--ecclesiasticism and
subjectivism--both of which may be said to be the being primarily occupied
in religion with something other than God. I doubt whether any
Church-party advantage can be scored by any on