approach God as a sinner saved by grace, desiring to realise that he is indeed saved. Now for the first time the prayer of faith ascends from a heart that feels its need in language such as, "Lord, I believe, help Thou my unbelief". The mind tries to grasp, tries to realise the state of consciousness desired, a state which every Christian man feels, and knows, on the authority of God, he has a right to possess as a sinner, and because he is a sinner. On every occasion that he repeats in thought or word “Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief,” while his mind is striving to grasp, is striving to realise the state of consciousness desired (that he is indeed saved because he believes), he is gaining strength, and as he repeats the prayer of faith he gradually begins to realise the meaning of such passages as that contained in Rom. iv. 5 as applicable to himself individually; that is to say, "to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness". Once the believer realises the full meaning of this the conquest is won, the prayer of faith is answered; and as a sinner saved by grace he approaches God as a reconciled Father in and through Jesus Christ. His intellect is now satisfied, for he feels and knows; his emotional nature is in full play; the real Christ is transfigured as the Ideal Christ of his soul, adored and loved, as the Mediator between God and man, while God is adored and loved as the Father of Jesus Christ. This is the Great I Am of Creation and Grace, comprehended as that intelligence which is at the heart of every thing. Thus also does the mind of man find rest in the arms of the Almighty, and realising love as the unit of that in

telligence is made conscious of the spiritual presence of God as a something known and felt. In this way the Word of God, in the shape of a revealed religion, which discloses to us a future state of existence and our relation to God in it, is fulfilling its mission to man by supplying food which serves to satisfy that spiritual nature in him, which is the structure that has been evolved, and is now being brought to perfection through the agency of divine influences.

As how to know God as a God of grace was the great concern of the individual when he first felt his need, and offered up the prayer, "Lord, I believe, help Thou my unbelief," so now that has been realised in the state of consciousness expressed in Rom. v. 1-5, according to which, being justified by faith, he now stands in grace, and rejoices "in the hope of the glory of God," his great concern will be, how to serve the object of his love as God in Christ. It is thus that Christianity becomes the strongest power in man; the individual is now in possession of a state of consciousness which is called faith, and which worketh by love. But as he tries to fulfil his mission to God and man by regulating his life in accordance with Christ's teaching, it is then that he feels his weakness and a need of a stronger power. For though his life may have been throughout its whole course all that man could desire, it is with the thought of the heart that the Saviour concerns Himself. Thus He reproves him that is angry with a brother without cause (Matt. v. 22), and points out that impure desire is sin. (Matt. v. 28), For the individual is now building up that structure of consciousness, which is to be his gar

ment in heaven, and in which he is to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, as seen in Matt. xii. 36, 37: "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned". It is when this is realised, that the world and the things of time lose their hold, and purity of heart becomes the great aim of life. The Christian in this alone realises the truth of a doctrine that is applicable to all, and as he goes forward in the strength of the Lord, as a sinner saved by grace, he conquers even when he seems to fail. When old habits and old desires come upon him and seem likely to lead him away, guilty and erring, yet as a sinner saved by grace, as one that Christ is substitute for, and possessing the spirit of a penitent child, he finds rest and strength in God, being saved through that which Christ did for him, and not through what out of gratitude he, the sinner saved by grace, is striving to do in overcoming sin. Here we Christians stand and are strong, here and here alone. As sinners saved by grace, all who are followers of Jesus and spiritual children of God, take their stand on this, and as such, that is, as sinners saved by grace, they will be known as a new development all through eternity, having Christ as the centre.

Christianity, as a religion of belief in which even an evil thought is sin, excludes man from the right to judge his fellow man, for belief being a state of the mind can be known directly only to the individual. In this realm then God alone may judge, the ground being that which is stated in John iii. 16. But to this belief all the human

race are invited, the invitation being given in these words: "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Rev. xxii. 17.) Therefore in a society of Christians, which regards justification by faith as essential to salvation, there is given to every individual member of it the right to be accepted by the society as entitled to the benefit that flows from Christ's death, whatever may be the character of the life of each individual. The justice of all this will be seen when we try to realise the different classes that are included in that general invitation implied in "Whosoever." When we consider the structural differences that exist between an individual born of Christian parents, trained in a family where to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God (Micah vi. 8), is the constant rule, and an individual who is born and brought up in the haunts of vice, where theft is reckoned an honourable profession, and where lust rules supreme; the direct influences of revealed religion when brought to bear on two such minds must be taken into consideration. In seeking to trace the effects of this influence, we must remember that a life of faith is a life of trial, sometimes apparently of failure, whilst the old structure is being burned out, and in its place there is being gradually developed a new structure, the possessor of which slowly rises in the moral and religious scale, going onward and forward in the strength of the Almighty. Thus it may happen that the poor child of vice may be striving and progressing in

* God provided the substitute, the condition being believing and the performance of works for the sake of Jesus, which are laid up as treasures in heaven. (Matt. vi. 20.)

the sight of God, while we in our ignorance seek to cast her off as a worthless thing, forgetting that Jesus Himself took one of that class which we call the worst, and assigned to her a place in the first rank of the saints in glory. (Luke vii. 37-50.) This God alone, Who can weigh and measure the force of human energy, and knows who is striving with greatest effect against sin; it was He alone Who gave the promise expressed in Matt. xxi. 22: "All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive," and He knows who is grasping that promise with the strongest hand, and going forward in the strength of it. For He who taught Peter to be merciful, saying that he was to forgive until seventy times seven, is Himself not less merciful, and will show Himself infinitely merciful, so that we shall find many of the first last, and the last first., But though to show this charity in judging is the duty of each believer when thinking and speaking of a fellow believer, nevertheless the world at large, whether believing in the Bible or not, has no authority to judge individuals in another way than by their fruits.

That is a test which we all must submit to. "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." (Matt. vii. 16, 20.) Here we can be accepted by none as saved and one with Christ, except it be by those who are our fellow-believers; all else must judge us by our lives, and can only accept our profession of Christianity as genuine, in so far as our lives prove it to be so. The world is to judge us, and we are to judge ourselves by the standard Christ has given in