CHAPTER VI 



IMMORTALITY 



LEAVING the subject of the nature of Christ's experi- 

 ence, we turn for the time being to one of which the 

 immediate -connection with our subject is not at first 

 apparent. 



As in some orchestral symphony heard for the first 

 time new phrases develope and explain what has gone 

 before and foreshadow what is yet to come, until, long 

 before the end is reached, the listener feels he under- 

 stands the Master's thought, yet sits in eager expecta- 

 tion till that thought has found its f ulfilment in sound ; 

 so it is, or so it should be, as we open the ear of mind or 

 heart to the developing harmony of the universe. But 

 again and again, in music, we are conscious of a sudden 

 chill. Our enthusiasm flickers and dies down, and the 

 succession of sounds has no meaning for us. Oftenest, 

 perhaps, the failure is the composer's. We thought him 

 great, and he turns out to be but another little tin god, 

 swollen to apparent power by an artificial pageantry of 

 state; one more puny monarch in a world of opera- 

 bouffe. But often the Master's magic is there; only, 

 our attention is caught by some failure of rendering. 

 Even so small a thing as a lagging 'cello, a drum not in 

 perfect accord with the beat, a flute that misses the key 

 by a fraction of a semitone, or wheezes bronchially, is 

 enough. A very little thing; but we can no longer under- 

 stand the Master's thought, nor even hear the harmony. 



So, too, with our deepest searching into the develop- 

 ing harmony of the universe. Is our search intellectual? 

 There is some flaw in the thought of the philosopher, 



