crites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For, laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other suchlike things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. There is nothing from without a man that can defile a man. That which cometh out of a man, that defileth him. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and defile the man."

Now, notwithstanding the plainness of Christ's teaching during His lifetime, notwithstanding the plainness of the account of that teaching which we find in the evangelists, the religion of Christ has been for the most part misrepresented by those who call themselves, and believe themselves to be, His disciples. Much of what passes current as Christianity in Europe to-day is not Christianity at all, bears no resemblance to Christianity, is indeed, in every respect opposed to Christianity. If Christ were in the world now, He would attack Christian

ity-the commonplace Christianity of Christendom -as violently as He ever attacked Pharisaism. For His religion has been transformed and corrupted past all recognition. Broadly speaking it is scarcely too much to say, that the Christianity of Christendom is not the Christianity of Christ. From being a religion of conduct it has been made into a religion of ceremony and of creed. From being the highest of all religions, it seems in danger of becoming one of the lowest.

This is a strong statement; but you will find it remarkably confirmed in the various attacks which are made upon Christianity from time to time by hostile critics. They do not see that the Christianity of Christ and the Christianity of Christendom are two distinct things, so distinct as to be often antagonistic and contradictory. They fancy that they are attacking the Christianity of Christ, but they are not. They are attacking only a caricature, which Christ Himself would denounce just as strongly. We may admit all that they say as against the Christianity of Christendom, and our faith in the beauty and value of Christ's Christianity may be at the same time confirmed. Look, for example, at Mr Cotter Morison's 'Service of Man.' It is written to prove that Christianity is a failure, that men will be happier, and at the same time more

moral, when we have got rid of it altogether. Mr Morison asserts that Christianity, by its doctrine of justification by faith, by its insisting on repentance for the past rather than good conduct in the present, by its exaggerated emphasis of belief and its comparative disregard of morality, tends to foster immorality and to make the world more wretched than it need be. Mr Morison, therefore, bids us shake off Christianity. He urges us to substitute for the ceremonial service of God the practical service of man.

Now, if the distinction I have so often insisted. upon between the Christianity of Christ and the Christianity of Christendom were commonly recognised, Mr Morison's book would never have been written. It never occurs to him that the two things are not identical. Yet so different are they, that in attacking the one he does not touch the other; nay, his condemnation of the religion which he regards as Christianity is a tacit but powerful tribute to the real religion of Christ.

Christ never taught the doctrine of justification by faith in the Lutheran sense-that is, in the sense of something different from and opposed to works. "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do." "He that heareth my words and doeth

them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain descended and the floods came, and the wind blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." Christ never taught that repentance would save a man, apart from the conduct to which a sincere repentance leads. "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father." As for putting creed above conduct, Christ did nothing of the kind. No teacher since the world began ever laid so little stress upon creed, and so much upon conduct, as Jesus of Nazareth. He promulgated no dogmas, He insisted on no articles, He enunciated no definitions. His only creed was the golden rule, and that was not so much a doctrine to be believed as a precept to be obeyed.

Christianity is generally attacked as a system of creed or of ceremony, seldom as a system of morals. It is admitted by all that Christ's moral teaching was good, if not the best. But it is assumed by the opponents of the Christian religion that morality is only a detail-something of comparative insignificance in the Christian system. And this is true of Christianity as it has so often been misrepresented in Christendom. But it is not true of

Christianity as understood and unfolded by Christ. He regarded morality as of paramount importance; in fact He identified it with religion. Duty and salvation, according to Him, were synonymous terms; but so strangely has Christianity been transformed, that things which Christ ignored have come to be regarded as its very essence, and what Christ asserted to be the one thing needful has come to be altogether ignored. How many persons do you suppose there are in Christendom to-day who, if they were asked to give in a single sentence the pith and gist and essence of Christianity, would ever dream of mentioning the golden rule? And yet it was in the golden rule that Christ summed up His own religion. How many persons are there, do you suppose, in Christendom to-day who, if they were asked to state in a single word what was necessary for the salvation of the soul, would ever dream of mentioning the word kindness? Yet, according to Christ, it was this characteristic which determined whether a man was to go to heaven or to hell. Come." Why? Because you have been baptised and received the Communion. Because you have thought of the Trinity without dividing the substance or confounding the persons? "Depart." Why? Because you have held yourself aloof from the Churches of Christen