ver
in other phases of our ascent. Enough for the moment of duration which
we can human life to know that He unlocks the door of our prison-house,
reveals to us the character of our Father which is in Heaven, and the
nature of the universe in which we move and have our being.

If this should appear vague to the dogmatist who finds it impossible
either to love God or to do the will of Christ without going into the
arithmetic of Athanasius, and reciting an unintelligible creed, and
celebrating in Christian forms the rites of those mystery religions
which competed with each other for the superstition of the Greco-Roman
world in the third century, he will find no vagueness at all in Dr.
Jacks's interpretation of the teaching of Jesus. He may perhaps find in
that interpretation a simplicity, a clarity, and a directness which are
not wholly convenient to his idea of a God Who repents, is angry, and
can be mollified.

Whether Jesus was born of a Virgin or not, whether He raised dead bodies
to life or not, whether He Himself rose from the grave with His physical
body or not, certain is it, and beyond all dispute of every conceivable
kind, that He taught men a way of life, that He brought them a message,
that He Himself regarded His message as good news.

How carelessly men may think in this matter is shown to us rather
strikingly in a page of _Some Loose Stones_, a book to which reference
has already been made. After writing about dogma, and endeavouring to
show that the traditionalist is on firmer ground than the modernist,
because he can say, "Here is the Truth," while the modernist can only
say, "We will tell you what the truth is when we have found it,"
suddenly, with scarcely a draw of his breath, Father Knox exclaims:

The real trouble is that they (the modernists) have got hold of the
wrong end of the stick, that they have radically misconceived the
whole nature of the Christian message, which is, to be one for all
minds, for all places, for all times.

Note that word _message_. What confusion of thought!

The message of Christ is one thing; paganised dogma concerning Christ is
another. The message of Christ does indeed remain for all minds, for all
places, for all times, inexhaustible in its meaning, unalterable in its
nature; the dogmas of theology, on the other hand, demand Councils of
the Church for their definition, and an infallible Pope for their
interpretation. They change, have changed