18 THE LIGHT OF DAT 



great teacher and prophet, and as the Saviour of men. 

 How ? By virtue of the contract made in the Coun- 

 cil of the Trinity as set forth in the creed of Cal- 

 vinism ? No ; but by his unique and tremendous 

 announcement of the law of love, and the daily 

 illustration of it in his life. Salvation by Jesus is 

 salvation by self-renunciation, and by gentleness, 

 mercy, charity, purity, and by all the divine quali- 

 ties he illustrated. He saves \is when we are like 

 him, — as tender, as charitable, as unworldly, as de- 

 voted to principle, as self-sacrificing. His life and 

 death do inspire in mankind these things ; fill them 

 with this noble ideal. He was a soul impressed, as 

 perhaps no other soul ever had been, with the one- 

 ness of man with God, and that the kingdom of 

 heaven is not a place, but a state of mind. Hence, 

 coming to Jesus is coming to our truer, better selves, 

 and conforming our lives to the highest ideal. Was 

 not Paul a Saviour of mankind also ? Without Paul 

 it is probable that Christianity would have cut but 

 an insignificant figure in this world. He was its 

 thunderbolt ; his words still tingle in our ears. 



I by no means say that this is the only view that 

 can be taken of Jesus as the Saviour of mankind ; 

 I say it is the only view science or reason can take 

 — the only view which is in harmony with the rest 

 of our knowledge of the world. 



What can science, or, if you please, the human 

 reason, in its quest of exact knowledge, make of the 

 cardinal dogmas of the Christian church, — the plan 

 of salvation, justification, the Trinity, or "saving 



