hundred millions of souls are drawn to Protestant Christianity; and these are, as a rule, from the lowest intellectual and social classes. Moreover, we are assured by almost the united voices of all the higher intellectual and social classes of this immense population of Asia (three fifths of the entire population of the earth) that no form of what is known as Orthodox Christianity will ever be accepted or can hope to make any noticeable progress among them. Their own religions, so far from decaying, are reviving. Their magnificent Temples of Worship are being restored and new ones erected. Their priests are becoming more learned, noble, and pure. Their worshippers are growing more intelligent, moral, and devout. They are even beginning to return the compliment of their Christian friends by sending missionaries to Christian lands to proclaim, not that Christianity is a "false" religion and all Christians "heathen" (which no well-bred or intelligent Asiatic would ever think, much less teach), but to show to Christians what is best in their much maligned religions, and to convince them of the verity of their own Scripture "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him": adding, perchance, some needed instructions upon one of their own beautiful Scripture texts, "He who is beloved of God honors every form of Religious Faith." Thus are we not only humiliated as to what our beloved Christianity has actually accomplished in the world, but are brought to a certain conviction also, that it is "no exception " to all other things in the universe, so far as concerns its essential conformity to the three great laws known as Struggle for Existence, Survival of the Fittest, and Tendency to Revert. This last law is the one that has been most disastrously forgotten. Degeneration" has wrought its deadly havoc with the pure, simple, and lofty teachings of Jesus all adown the ages. Heathen fables, traditions, and methods, have always been permitted to intertwine and interweave them selves. From the first century and increasingly down to the present century, the Christian Church has been very largely

Pagan. Christians have, for the most part, worshipped Heathen Deities under Christian names. The prophets have prophesied falsely and the people have loved to have it so! The mild but radical Jesus has been so grievously misconceived, and so untruthfully presented that he would hardly recognize himself in any of the popular creeds, sermons, or even Bibles wherein he has been portrayed for so many centuries; and, more than any other teacher the world has ever known, would have reason to exclaim, "Save me from my friends!" Such already has been Christianity's tendency to revert, and so will it continue-even to a final and entire return to Heathenism-unless it renounces its heathenish errors and retains nothing except the simple truth as it was taught by Jesus. It is high time that this should be done. Certain Bishops of the Church of England not long ago were keenly satirized by a famous essayest of their own church for tragically declaring "It is high time that something should be done for the honor of our Lord's Godhead!" Not this is what is needed—too much, by far, of this already! But what is needed and what, in the twentieth and succeeding centuries, must come—is beginning to come already-is Renascent Christianity.

IX. THE SIMPLE TRUTH AS IT WAS IN JESUS.

“The simple truth as it was in Jesus" is Christianity pure and true. To get hold of this Truth as best we can, and bring it forth, and make it live and flourish again is Renascent Christianity. This, and this alone, is the sacred object, the holy aim of what is now widely known as Higher Criticism of the Bible. Jesus had no system, wrote or dictated no creed, suggested no cult, imposed no dogma, insisted upon no essential doctrine. His "doctrines" were simple teachings which every child might understand-beatitudes, parables, commendations of sincerity and charity, condemnations of hypocrisy and of self-love, ethical maxims, theological axioms, beautiful affirmations of eternal life to the truly righteous, and sad warnings of eternal death to

those who persist in unrighteous deeds or in unholy desires and thoughts. These, together with his foundation teachings, his corner-stone truths, of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, constituted His Gospel-His entire Gospel. "Go ye into all the world and preach this Gospel to every creature; whosoever receiveth it and openly maintains it [is baptized] shall be saved; whosoever rejecteth it shall be condemned.". This was all. And had it remained all, the kingdom of God would have come and His will would have been done on earth, as in heaven, a thousand-yes, fifteen hundred years ago!

But hardly had the Divine Voice of Jesus ceased to be audibly heard before "degeneration" set in. The same voice continued to speak in the unceasing whispers of the Spirit of Truth-the Holy Spirit—which had been promised. The holiest of the Apostles and first disciples listened to it and, for the most part, followed its dictates. They too constructed no system, composed no creed, organized no cultbeyond such simple offices, methods, and symbols as Jesus himself had suggested-compounded no dogma, imposed no essential doctrines, wrote no sacred book, but simply "preached the Gospel to every creature," as Jesus had preached it to them. "Repent, accept this Gospel of Jesus, openly practise and promulgate it, and thus work out your own salvation and the salvation of mankind." This was all we hear of in the Apostolic Church of the first quarter-century after the visible departure of Jesus. Had it remained all, we repeat, the kingdom of God would have come and His will would have been done on earth as in heaven, a thousand-yes, fifteen hundred years ago! But poor human nature, alas! Its tendency to revert is even stronger and more persistent in religion than in any other thing. As the half-domesticated flower or plant tends strongly to become the wild flower or plant of the prairie or field again; as the halftamed bird or colt tends strongly to become free and ferocious again; as the half-civilized African or Indian tends strongly to become a drivelling and roving savage again; as the half-illumined mind and the half-elevated character tends

strongly to revert to intellectual stupidity and to moral stagnation again-so the half-domesticated, half-tamed, halfcivilized, half-illumined, half-elevated soul tends strongly to revert to the sensuous and senseless superstitions of its original Heathenism. Like Milton's lion half-embedded in slime and pawing to be free-whenever it ceases to paw for its freedom, it sinks downward and is lost again. So it has come to pass in every one of the many religions of the world. Every one of them started as pure, simple, and reasonable reforms. The leader of every one of them was, in some sense or degree, a Christ of God-an "anointed," a divinely accepted and sanctioned redeemer and saviour of mankind. While the Divine Leader or Master remained visible among his little band of followers all went well. When he was seen no more, and the Spirit of Truth which had spoken audibly through him began to speak only in inward whispers "to teach and to guide" those who would listen "into all truth," only a few souls of men were found pure enough and lofty enough to listen, and to be taught and guided by its holy dictates. When these "few " passed away degeneration always began, and from century to century increased; so that every religion of the world has again and again reverted to Heathenism, needing unceasing reformers and unending reforms in order to rescue it from hopeless decay. To all this, again we say, Christianity has been, is no exception. The "degenerates," in Christianity as in every one of the other great religions of the world, plead super-naturalism. "Ours is a super-natural religion, the true, the one and only true religion. God incarnated Himself as a man in order to reveal and establish it, and so it, cannot decay. He appointed infallible guardians, authoritative keepers, an inerrant book, holy sacraments, heavenly ceremonials, saving mysteries, divine agencies, and directions of every sort, so that all is exactly as He desires it to be in our religion." So affirms the "degenerate" of every form of religion the world has ever known. In one phrase or another he defies the reformer with the assertion-my religion is founded on a rock and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it! He

listens not to the primal cautions and warnings which the Divine Founders of all the religions have joined to give to their followers. "Take heed that ye do not as the heathen do. . . Watch; what I say unto one I say unto all, watch." Neither will he hearken unto what "the spirit saith unto the churches"-alike to the churches of every religion the world has ever known. Such is the insistent hardness of heart and blindness of mind-" Their eyes have they closed and their ears have they stopped, lest they should see and hear and be converted and I should heal them "-of the leaders and supporters of degenerate religion the world over. And Christianity is no exception.

X.-BACK TO FIRST PRINCIPLES.

"Back to first principles; back to the original sources; back to the simple truth as it was in the Divine Founder!" This must be the loud and the unceasing cry of every true religious reformer. And the Reformer of Christianity can not be an exception.

XI. THE ORIGINAL SOURCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

Christianity is a Religion, the Religion of Eclecticism. Its founder was the great Religious Eclectic of the World. He taught nothing new, but culled from every field. His epoch was at the meeting and parting of all the ways. The land in which he lived was overrun with representatives of every religious faith. The writings or verbal teachings of all the Divine Masters of all the Divine Religions of the earth were before his eyes or sounding in his ears. Not an accent of the Holy Ghost was he heedless of. All fell as so much good seed into the fruitful soil of his lofty mind and heart, and forthwith sprang up unto a Hundred-fold Harvest. He utterly disclaimed the teaching of any new Truth. "To this end was I born, and for this came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the Truth.. The words that I

speak unto you I speak not of myself.

It is written.