This indifference of what is merely outward was enforced upon S. Peter in a revelation which remarkably illustrates the promise of Christ: "The Spirit shall guide you into all the truth, for He shall take of Mine and shew it unto you." And S. Paul insists upon the same truth even in what must have seemed to many so very serious a case as that of "meats offered to idols." There was no spiritual harm in such meat itself; nor in the fact that it had been offered to idols; nor in the fact that he who purchased and ate it knew or strongly suspected that it had been so offered. But if the meat were eaten with the desire to participate in heathen licentiousness, or as an acknowledgment of the reality or power or authority of the idol, these desires or beliefs would be what our Lord describes as "going into the heart." Eating meat offered to idols with such intentions or beliefs would, indeed, defile-not from any lack of a perfect process of digestion, but because the eating would be accompanied by evil thoughts which no possible process of physical digestion could in the least degree remove.

When, then, "the fulness of the times" had come, and a Universal Religion had become possible, the protecting envelope of the old revelations was first stretched and then burst and destroyed. After the fall of Jerusalem it became physically impossible to obey the old law, as we find it in the Old Testament Scriptures, which were accepted as of divine authority in the time of our Lord's personal ministry. No one could offer sacrifice in the Temple when the Temple no longer existed; nor through the Aaronic priesthood when not a single descendant of Aaron could be certainly identified. If the new revelation in Christ were

not the fulfilment of the old, then the old religion was forever and fatally arrested, and the mission of Israel had conspicuously failed. But when we speak of the religion of Christ as universal, we do not, of course, mean that it was at once, by a miraculous illumination, made known to every human being; much less that it was accepted by all those to whom it was made known, and habitually used by all of them for the guidance of their lives. It was universal because it was adapted to all, needed by all, capable of redeeming and perfecting all. As a matter of plain history, nothing really valuable has yet been added to it; nor does it contain anything which the world could afford to lose. But it was itself a part of the progressive and slowly-moving operations of the Almighty. As among the people of Israel the protection of institutions, of a cultus, of rites and ceremonies, of appointed ministers and instructors, was necessary to prevent the corruption and dissipation of divine truth, so was a similar protection necessary for that new and perfect truth which was not to be made known to all mankind for many ages-which has not even yet been made known to more than a very small part of the whole human race. The new revelation had to be protected, like the old, partly by written records, which at a comparatively early period were produced, and which still remain for our learning and for the verification of all later teaching and "developments." But, as in the case of the old, the written records were, for immediate practical use, and for the enormous majority of those to whom the Gospel was preached, not less intrinsically valuable, but immeasurably less available than "the ministers of Christ" and "the mysteries of God." By living men

and by permanent and visible institutions, the Gospel of Christ was both propagated and preserved.

The Scriptures contained in the New Testament Canon are of such inestimable value that we can scarcely be surprised that they have sometimes been regarded with an affection that was almost irrationally jealous. They have done so much for us that many persons can with difficulty admit or even believe that they were not the sole agency both for the propagation and preservation of Christianity. They were also, in fact, far more available even for popular instruction than had been the earlier portions of the Sacred Books of the Hebrews; they were far more widely studied and more carefully expounded. They appeared in a literary age, and very speedily produced a literature of their own. Nevertheless, it is quite certain, as an historical fact, that they did not suffice, taken alone, either for the proclamation or protection of the new and perfect revelation which was given to us in the Incarnation of the Eternal Word. We often forget that when we speak of "a literary age" we are thinking not only of a particular period of time, but of a particular nation or cluster of nations, or even of much narrower classes of human beings, who lived during that particular period. We ourselves are living in a literary age; and so also are the natives of Tierra del Fuego, whom Mr. Darwin so graphically describes, and who came wandering about the Beagle in their pitiable filth and squalor. But we do not call these hideous and revolting cannibals literary simply because they are living in the nineteenth century. Nor should we call the negroes of the Southern States literary, nor Irish peasants, nor the ignorant multitudes which swarm in

the alleys and tenement-houses of our large cities. The Scriptures as Scriptures, that is to say as written documents which to be used must be read, are manifestly of no immediate service whatever to those who cannot read. Yet the truths of the Gospel have been made known, and the precepts of the Gospel have been applied for the guidance of life, to countless myriads of human beings who could neither read nor write, both by the personal ministry of the Apostles, and by their successors, and by Christian missionaries in every age and country, and by parish priests and their assistants in our own day and in the very cities in which we are living. Everybody knows, of course, that churches had been founded and organized in all directions before a single book of our New Testament had, in its present form, been committed to writing.

The Eternal Son of God, for the redemption of the world, left the bosom of the Father, "took upon Him our flesh and suffered death upon the Cross," was buried and rose again. His whole work had a direct relation to Almighty God, to the Divine Justice, to the majesty of God's law, and in its full meaning and mysterious necessity is far beyond the reach of the human faculties. But that work had also a direct relation to men; and, on that side, it could produce its effect only by being known and kept in remembrance and applied to the conduct of life. Enough is revealed to us of the relation of Christ's work to the Father to remove the horrible dread of our consciences, the haunting apprehension of hopeless alienation; to assure us that, if we lose ourselves in Christ and come to God in Him, we shall certainly be accepted. But that part of His work which has a direct effect

upon ourselves, which must be known in order to accomplish its purpose, is much more fully explained, because by its very nature it can come within our own experience, and is on the level of our intellectual and moral faculties. Some arrangement, then, had to be made for bringing this divine and blessed truth within the reach of all mankind; and we may surely reverently assume that what Christ really did provide for this purpose was certainly far wiser and better than what He omitted to provide. And nobody will contend that our Lord commanded His Apostles first of all to write a narrative of His life and teaching; and then doctrinal treatises setting forth the primary inferences from that narrative; and next to circulate these writings far and wide, and afterwards go about the world to explain them. That, most unquestionably, was not His commission. It was this: "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." And again: "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." He instituted Sacraments; "during forty days" He kept speaking to His Apostles concerning a "Kingdom of God."

And surely a Kingdom of God is something real, visible, organized; with officers and laws; and (being a Kingdom of God) with a ceremonial of worship. A kingdom in which everybody does what he likes is a contradiction in terms. A kingdom which has no ascertainable laws is a mere word to which no reality corresponds. And there were at least two signs of this Kingdom of God instituted by Christ Himself, viz. Baptism