th he given the Son to have
life in himself;" "Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may
glorify thee; as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he
might give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him: and
this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." In other words, the
mission of Christ was to awaken in men the experience of immortal
life; and that would be produced by imparting to them reproducing
in them the experience of his own soul. Let us notice what steps
he took to secure this end.

He begins by demanding the unreserved credence of men to what he
says, claiming to say it with express authority from God, and
giving miraculous credentials. "Whatsoever I speak, therefore, as
the Father said to me, so I speak." This claim to inspired
knowledge he advances so emphatically that it cannot be
overlooked. He then announces, as an unquestionable truth, the
supreme claim of man's spiritual interests upon his attention and
labor, alike from their inherent superiority and their enduring
subsistence. "For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole
world and lose his own soul?" "Thou fool, this night thy soul
shall be required of thee: then whose shall be those things thou
hast gathered?" "Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for
that meat which endureth unto everlasting life."

The inspiration which dictated these instructions evidently
based them upon the profoundest spiritual philosophy, upon the
truth that man lives at once in a sphere of material objects which
is comparatively unimportant because he will soon leave it, and in
a sphere of moral realities which is all important because he will
live in it forever. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." The body,
existing in the sphere of material relations, is supported by
material bread; but the soul, existing in the sphere of spiritual
relations, is supported by truth, the nourishing breath of God's
love. We are in the eternal world, then, at present. Its laws and
influences penetrate and rule us; its ethereal tides lave and bear
us on; our experience and destiny in it are decided every moment
by our characters. If we are pure in heart, have vital faith and
force, we shall see God and have new revelations made to us. Such
are among the fundamental principles of Christianity.

There is another class of texts, based upon