no objective significance; they are shifting and without stability.

The better we know the uniformities of nature, of social interrelations and of all the phases of life, the more profoundly conversant do we become with the constitution of the universe, or in other words, the more we know of truth the farther does our soul extend and the deeper does it fathom the world. Truths are the subjective reflection of the verities that sustain the universe. The more we know of truth, the higher shall we rise in the course of evolution, the better adapted shall we be to the conditions of life, the more powerful shall we become, the higher shall be our dignity and our worth, and the nearer shall we be unto God, for what is God but that systematic unison of all the correlates of truth? God is the oneness of all the verities of existence.

In the same way as uniformities are not mere subjective notions, not mere names, but designate definite conditions in the objective world, the things which we meet with in experience are not mere conglomerations of parts. True things, by which we here mean objects of experience which are rightly conceived as unities are not arbitrarily so named and are not of a purely subjective nature. The unity of the thing in our conception corresponds to a unity of its parts in the objective world. It is true that what we call things are bundles of sensations, and we can analyze things into their constituent parts, but the bond of union is of deep significance. An engine is not the sum total of its parts, but the arrangement of its parts in such an interrelation that it will do work, and so we must grant that combinations, groupings, forms, interrelations produce definite and actual effects.

And what is the test that an aggregate of parts constitutes a true unity, a thing worthy of the name? A true thing must not be a mere addition of its parts, not a mere

summation of its elements, not a mechanical mixture of its ingredients, but a combination into a systematic whole which possesses an individuality of its own; and the test is that a thing which is not a mere quantitative aggregate but constitutes a higher configuration into something new is qualitatively different from its parts.

To look upon formations, the relational factors, or the purely formal aspect of things as nonentities, because they are not material items is a misconception of the paramount significance of form. We not only grant, we even insist most emphatically that there are no "things-in-themselves," no unknown or unknowable metaphysical magnitudes behind the world of experience, but for all that we recognize the objective significance of things, the efficiency of formations, of natural laws, of uniformities, and also the importance of the idea of unity, the highest realizations of which are found in organisms, plants, animals and above all in human personalities.

CONCLUSION.

Truth has been on trial. The very backbone of truth, its consistency, the unison of all truths, has been doubted and even denied. The belief in the stability of truth, in its persistence and eternality has been denounced as a superstition.

So far truth has guided us safely from the beginning of mentality; it has endowed man with reason, it has created the sciences, inspired the inventor's imagination and is still leading mankind onward on the path of progress, but it has grown old-fashioned, and the new generation has become tired of it. The old truth is the living water which nourishes, sustains and quickens every fiber of our mental constitution, but this generation is thirsty for innovations. They are sick of the monotony of a truth that is true to itself; they hanker for a truth that is variegated,

fickle, multi-significant. So they leave this venerable ideal and look upon it as an idol. It no longer fits into the program of the "new thought" movement, and pragmatism. replaces it by a more elastic kind of truth which can change with the fashions and makes it possible that we need no longer trouble about inconsistencies; for what is true to one need no longer be true to others, and the truth of to-day may be the real now, and yet it may become the error of to-morrow. The new conception of truth flatly contradicts the old rigorous and inconvenient notion according to which no two truths can be contradictory. The pluralistic truth is more accommodating, for it lets all contradictions pass and dispenses with the exacting demands of the old ideal of consistency.

This new truth conception is a fad that has its day but will pass by, for truth, the old time-worn and time-honored ideal of truth as being one and eternal, will sooner or later assert itself again. We cannot live without truth, and the new truth is a pseudo-truth that cannot help us. Those who resent truth's sternness and stability prefer to conceive truth as an errant light which points in one direction today and in another to-morrow. This truth is a will-o'-thewisp which does not throw light on the path of progress but entices its followers to wend their way into the quagmire of opinions and opinionated subjectivism.

In the meantime the truth continues to encompass us, for truly all our mental life lives by the grace of truth, and in it every creature that thinks, lives and moves and has its being.

Truth, most wonderful presence in the life of man, thou encompassest our every throb of thought. Thou art God incarnate in our soul. Without thee spirituality would never have risen into being, the light of cognition would not shine, and chaotic darkness would prevail. Without

thee this world would be a congeries of dull matter and a play of blind forces void of meaning and void of purpose.

How ineffably great art thou, O Truth, and yet thou hidest thyself in things small. The senses can not find thee, for thou art not made of matter, nor dost thou consist of force. Thou residest in the meaning of fleeting sensations, and thy significance is a mere relation, a description of the uniformities of nature. And yet thou alone possessest dignity, thou alone art worthy to be called divine, and thou art the son of that All-One whom thou revealest, that One in All who sways motes and stars and moulds the destinies of all the worlds.

Thou needest no shrines and no altars and thou demandest no doxologies. There is no worship that pleaseth thee, except the worship without ritual, a surrender of error, of falsehood, of lies. He is thy true devotee who receives thee in his soul and invites thy presence to bless him.

The ideal of truth may remain neglected or misunderstood for some time, but its light will not be darkened forever. We need not fear for truth, because truth will take care of itself. The cause of truth is God's cause, for truth reflects and reveals the eternal, and the eternal is God.

EDITOR.

THE SILENCE OF JOSEPHUS AND TACITUS.

IN

N the fierce attacks upon Der vorchristliche Jesus1 precipitated by the adoption, accentuation, and popularization of its theses in the epoch-marking writings and lectures of Prof. Arthur Drews, conservative theologians have very properly declined to take part, thereby combining (as Bacon would say) serpentine wisdom with columbine innocence. They have clearly perceived that the movement was not directed against their position, but against the citadel of their century-old foe, who would reduce their Divinity to the ranks of men, and at least one of the very greatest of them (in a letter to the present writer) rejoiced sincerely at beholding the sudden fall of that adversary. No! It is the liberal critic, so long enthroned in the seats of learning, who has been amazed to see his central concept of the purely human Jesus put on trial for its life and more than half-convicted, and who, ingemiscens tamquam reus, has now for nearly a twelve-month plied an unavailing pen in passionate protest against the audacity of this "assault upon the liberal theology."

In the sallies of the besieged much weight has been laid upon profane testimonies, particularly of Josephus and Tacitus. It is Chwolson in St. Petersburg that has bared his arm of might over the Josephine section; it is Von Soden in Berlin that has stressed so strongly the