of light
upon Church conditions. Within the Church, when it comes to the matter
of what its real purpose of being is, and what the essentials of faith,
the lines are hopelessly crossed and tangled, even though the surface
shows so much striving toward at least a seeming unity, and so much
aggressiveness in action. The common absence of real spiritual power,
that unmistakable moving, like a breath, of the Spirit of God, is freely
admitted.

It is a painful fact that membership in a Church no longer gives any
clue to a man's vital belief, nor even to his moral conduct. There is
utter confusion about the practical meaning of God's prophetic Word, and
what the actual outcome of the present order will be; that is, where
such things are not quite dismissed from consideration. And, stranger
yet, indifference, or an actual repugnance, to any mention of the Lord's
return is the common thing. It is not surprising that earnest people are
bewildered as to just what should be the attitude of one who would ring
true to the absent Jesus. It hurts to remember that all this is the
freely admitted commonplace, where such things are seriously spoken of.

Indeed it is of intense interest to note that just this sort of thing
has marked the whole interval since these early Church days. Broadly the
same characteristics have marked both world movement and the Church
movement in this long interval. There is a unity characterizing the age
since our Lord ascended. There have been differences, very sharp and
marked, but always they have been differences in degree, now more
intense, now less. The general characteristics have been the same in
kind.

The need of the Church in the end of the first century is its need in
the beginning of the twentieth. Surely the thing of all things needed is
a simple, clear, understandable revelation direct from our Lord Jesus
Himself. It was needed then. Clearly it has been needed in every
generation since then. And one whose pulse is at all sensitive to spirit
conditions to-day feels that surely it is the thing needed now.

And here it is, a revelation of Himself, crowned in the upper world,
keeping in closest touch with things down in this world, telling us what
the outcome is to be, and especially speaking of our attitude toward
Himself in this present in-between interval.

Usually God's method with man is to give him enough of a revelation of
Himself in nature, and in His Word, to start him straight, and gu