The School of the Apostles 257 



it abundantly,&quot; are not, essentially, a part of the 

 definition, they are the amplification of it. 



No greater delusion and lie was ever generated 

 by the father of delusions and lies, than the very 

 common one that a general conformity to the 

 conventions of Christianity is, for the average run 

 of Christians, a sufficient approximation to the 

 demands of the law of the life of Christ. The 

 law being inexorable, its demands cannot be 

 subject to discount. 



The essential principles of the law of Christ s Essential 

 life, follow the essential principles of the law of Frinci P le! 

 all life. For our present purpose, those principles 

 are: 



The principle oj expression. The first principle The Principle 

 of life is, that life must find expression or cease of Ex P re88ion 

 to be life, that is die. The &quot; Mummy Wheat &quot; of 

 the Egyptian tombs, shut up, with darkness and 

 death, for long centuries and retaining still the 

 power of germination, is not an exception sufficient 

 to discredit the principle. It is an example of the 

 surviving power of life in the midst of death, and 

 supports rather than disproves the statement that 

 life, in the conditions of life, must find expression 

 for its vital forces or die. At this point the ampli 

 fying qualification of Christ s definition comes to 

 bear ; our Lord both brings life and guarantees the 

 conditions of life. &quot;That they may have life, and 

 that they may have it abundantly.&quot; Such life is 

 no hidden seed buried in darkness with the dead 

 corpse of a dead past, it is the full power of the 

 risen life which is hid with Christ in God. 



