REVOLUTIONARY CHRISTIANITY 49 



I travelled along the devastated regions of the valley 

 of the Marne, we soon learned to recognise the red- 

 roofed cottages, built by the young men of our Society 

 for the homeless peasants of France, At the call of 

 suffering humanity our young men and maidens went 

 out by hundreds, some never to return ; and there in 

 those red-roofed cottages it was easy to recognise the 

 outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual 

 grace that filled their hearts ♦ 



I often feel the need of some word to mean the exact 

 opposite of Sacrament ; that is to say ** an outward and 

 visible sign of an inward and spiritual disgrace*'* Perhaps 

 the word ** profanement ** might serve the purpose. Look, 

 for example, at our slums ; or look at the children who 

 live in them — children born in the image of God, and 

 now stunted and deformed in mind and body. Truly, 

 outward and visible signs of our inward and spiritual 

 disgrace. Or look again at the ** War to end war,*' and 

 at its appalling consequences, physical, moral and 

 spiritual. Or look again at the '* Peace to end Peace,'* 

 with its consequences, scarcely less appalling. Here 

 again we may see the outward and visible signs of our 

 inward and spiritual disgrace. Surely such things 

 condemn our whole social system as utterly un-Christian 

 and ungodly. 



What a contrast to the way in which God does things. 

 All the beauty of the world as God made it, is sacramental, 

 God never separates Beauty from Utility as we have 

 done. He never separates the Spiritual from the 

 Material, All are blended into one perfect Harmony* 

 Think of the beauty of an apple-orchard in the spring ! 

 Or see it again in the autumn ! Or think again of the 

 loveliness of the wooded stream ; the mountains and the 

 lakes ; the meadows decked with flowers. What are 

 these save the outward and visible signs of the Inward 

 and Spiritual Grace in the heart of God, 



