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RIGHT EEV. THE BISHOP OF DOWN^ D.D., ON 



truest and best ; and, in periods of spiritual decay, here is found 

 power for regeneration. In our own time, the principle 

 expressed in the words " Back to Christ " has proved the 

 salvation of religion. 



It is surely clear that the literature which presents, us with 

 such a fact as the fact of Christ must differ in some very 

 essential way from all other literature. And we may well 

 demand that, when this literature gives us accounts of events 

 which seem to stand apart from our ordinary experience, these 

 accounts shall be regarded as different from narrations of the 

 marvellous occurring in other histories. Christ is unique in human 

 history. His relation to mankind is, in some way, different in 

 kind from that of other human beings. Therefoie we must 

 expect that, in connection with Him, there will be found 

 circumstances and events which are in kind different from our 

 usual experience. 



■ . The influence of Christ upon the human soul is, for Christian 

 people, the ultimate fact. When that influence is, for a man, 

 the supremely effective power of his life, then all that belongs to 

 Christ is lifted out of the ordinary. 



This argument is not now presented as anything fresh or 

 original. It is nothing of the kind, thank God. Our present 

 purpose is simply to show that the way out of the difficulty 

 created by the criticism of Holy Scripture is to follow Him who 

 says " I am the Light of the w^orld : he that followetli me shall 

 not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." 



(3) We have, thirdly, to consider the difficulties which are due 

 to the character of the modern ethos. Our time is remarkable 

 for its amazing mastery of material forces. The whole material 

 environment of human life has been transformed by the 

 application of scientific discoveries. The resources of man in 

 his struggle with nature have been increased enormously. The 

 globe has been covered with means of communication. The 

 world has gained an economic unity which it never possessed 

 before. The resources of luxury and of human enjoyment in all 

 its forms have been vastly augmented. The result is that 

 men are seeking more universally and also more reasonably 

 than ever before for material satisfactions. The inevitable 

 tendency is to concentrate attention on the visible and tangible, 

 and to forget the unseen and spiritual. Earth has become so 

 attractive that God and Heaven, if not disbelieved, are simply 

 forgotten. 



I think that here we have the explanation of most of the 

 thoughtless unbelief, the carelessness, of the present day. Why is 



