6.-Salvation by Christ.

As Christ means Messias, or Anointed, or set apart, or consecrated, "Salvation by Christ" means the same as does the term Christian-Consecrated to God for the Service of Mankind. All who are so consecrated are being saved. All who are not so consecrated are being lost. In proportion as one is unreservedly consecrated he is saved. In proportion as one is not at all consecrated he is lost. Such is Salvation always and everywhere. And there is no other way. There is none other name given on Earth, or in Heaven, whereby we must be saved but "Christ," that is, Consecration.

7.-Jesus Christ as the Saviour.

Jesus was the first of the Holy Teachers of the World who clearly taught, and personally illustrated, this way of salvation; therefore he, above all, is Saviour. As he was and is the only Saviour who unreservedly consecrated himself to God for the Service of Mankind, therefore is he worthy to be called "The Saviour."

8.-Son of God.

A son of God is one who, having consecrated himself to God for the Service of Mankind, is accepted into that high approval and relationship which belongs to a son. The consecration to God is called being "born" of God, and the acceptance is called "adoption." Strictly speaking, none but those who have consecrated themselves to God for the Service of Mankind are entitled to consider themselves His Sons. And all who are so consecrated, always and everywhere, are "Sons of God."

9.-Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Jesus Christ is "The Son of God," because, having unreservedly consecrated himself to God for the Service of Mankind, he was fully and forever accepted of God, by the Adoption of Sonship, as "the first-born of many brethren "

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through whose leadership and example all men may, in like manner, become Sons of God;-as the Scriptures teach, "Beloved now are we the Sons of God," and "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are Sons of God." *

10.-Jesus Christ the Only Son of God.

Jesus Christ is the "only" or "only-begotten" Son of God in the sense that, inasmuch as he is the only one of men who has unreservedly consecrated himself to God for the Service of Mankind, therefore is he the only one whom God has fully and forever accepted by "the adoption of Sonship" as in the highest sense-His Son. Therefore is he worthy to be called God's only or "only-begotten Son" according to the Scriptures, "He learned obedience by the things that he suffered," and "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee," and "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess Jesus Christ is Master to the glory of God the Father."

11.-Conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.

Jesus Christ was "Conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary" in the sense that all, who on Earth shall attain to perfect Holiness, must be conceived in Holi

*NOTE.

Alexander the Great in the Temple of Ammon was saluted by the HighPriest as Son of God. Alexander respectfully accepted the salutation, but added: "God is by nature the Father of all; it is no wonder then that all best men may, without irreverence, be called His Sons." So (but in an unspeakably higher and holier sense) Jesus Christ as the supreme, the ideal man called himself and is rightly called THE Son of God. Among the Romans, Greeks, and Hebrews, for centuries before the Christian era, the phrases “Sons of God" as applied to all good men, and "The Son of God" (or "a god," or "a god in human form," or logos incarnate," or "word made flesh ") as applied to the best, greatest, or ideal man, were in common use. So Christianity added nothing new when, by its Divine Method of Eclecticism, it adopted and made use of these phrases.

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ness, and born of a pure mother in particular and of a pure ancestry in general. The "Holy Spirit," or Spirit of Holiness, is the quickening power of God in man-pre-natal as well as post-natal.*

12.-The Pre-existence of Jesus.

Jesus was "The Word-or Logos-of God Incarnate” in the philosophical or metaphysical sense of Neo-Platonism, as found in the Proem of the Fourth Gospel. This doctrine is not taught in any other part of the Bible. Neither as a dogma nor as a widely received teaching was it known in the Christian Church of the first two Centuries. Therefore, in the view of Higher Criticism, it may or may not be received. But "The Pre-existence of Jesus" is everywhere

NOTE.

"

In other respects Jesus may have been born by natural agencies, as have been all other men. His birth was supernatural in the above sense. But in that sense only, so far as Historic Confirmations are concerned-that is, his own claims, the claims of his parents, the testimony of his Disciples, the writings of his Chief Apostle St. Paul, or of others who ought to have known; and who, had they known or believed it, would most certainly have proclaimed it widely as the first and chief Supernatural Sanction of Christianity. Of all this nothing reliable or sufficiently confirmed is found in the Bible. The claim of Prophetic Announcement (as that of Isaiah) is fanciful and unfounded. The beautiful accounts of The Annunciation and The Birth, are the Poetry of Admiring Reverence, which must be interpreted and believed simply as Poetry. For a hundred years after The Annunciatian and The Birth not a word is heard of them, not a hint is found, except in the Apocryphal Marvels, which ignorant men wrote and ignorant people believed. One of these Apocryphal Marvels" happened to be retained in (or, more probably, added to) the opening Chapter of Matthew's Gospel as an Addendum of the largely Apocryphal Genealogy of Jesus. Except here, and in a single interrogation found in the first Chapter of St. Luke's Gospel thirty-fourth verse, not a reference to or hint of any such a Supernatural Conception or Birth as is popularly claimed is found in the entire New Testament. Without its recognition the Christian Church was founded, organized, and (for two of its most important and holy Centuries) flourished. If it could be dispensed with then, certainly it can be now. It is not incredible, and whoever must, may believe it. But it is certainly not historically verified; and all who have given up the dogma of the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, must also reject the dogma of the Supernatural Conception and Birth of Jesus (in the sense of popular "Orthodoxy ") as binding upon the Faith and Consciences of intelligent Christians.

taught in the New Testament, and was everywhere held in the Early Christian Church. So also is the Pre-existence of all Human Souls everywhere taught, or implied, or taken for granted, in the whole Bible; as it was also an almost Universal Belief of the Early Christian Centuries.

13.-Before all Worlds;-By Whom all Things were made. The above explained teachings of the Bible render it comprehensible and reasonable to believe that Jesus the Christ was "begotten of his Father before all worlds"; and that he was the logos, or word, “by whom all things were made."

14.—God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God: begotten, not made.

In a general sense every man whom "God created in His own image and after His own likeness"; in a special sense every "new born" or spiritually re-created man; but, in an unspeakably higher sense, Jesus the Christ is "God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God: begotten, not made." In this Bible sense, as well as philosophically and rationally, Jesus the Christ is God; and it is proper to obey and adore him as such.

15.-One Catholic and Apostolic Church.

There is "one Catholic and Apostolic Church" in the sense of the Scriptures, which teach that "God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him," and "Whosoever doeth the will of my Father who is in Heaven the same is my brother, and my sister, and my mother"which teaching is beautifully expressed in the Communion Office of the Book of Common Prayer of the English-or Episcopal Church in the words "The blessed company of all faithful people."

16.- The Bible is the Word of God.

The Christian Bible is "The Word of God" in the sense that it has thus far proved itself to be chief and supreme

among those manifold Divine Revelations concerning which itself teaches "The invisible things of Him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen, being understood from the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead"; and " God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past unto the fathers through Prophets hath, in these last days, spoken unto us through a Son."

17.-The Holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

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Baptism by the use of water is a "Sacrament" in the sense of an "outward sign of inward Grace" proffered, accepted, and diligently retained "till life's end." The Lord's Supper is also a "Sacrament" in the sense of a remembrance that Christ died for us, feeding on him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving." According to all the teachings of the New Testament Scriptures, and of the Church of the Early Centuries, these two, and these only, are " The Holy Sacraments" of The Christian Religion.

18. The Holy Ghost.

"The Holy Ghost" is The Spirit of God, or The Spirit of Truth, or The Spirit of Holiness, which-forever and everywhere-seeks to enlighten, inspire, guide, comfort, and save the souls of men; with the one and only condition that they will devoutly proffer acceptance, welcome, and eager cooperation.

19.-Receiving the Holy Ghost.

Such hearty and entire acceptance and welcome of The Spirit of God, or The Spirit of Truth, or The Spirit of Holiness, and such ceaseless co-operation as to result in God's enthronement in the soul, is "receiving the Holy Ghost." Whosoever has not thus enthroned God in his Soul, has not been "born of the Spirit. And "whosoever is not born of the Spirit, cannot enter into the Kingdom of God."