such has undoubtedly been an actual result of preaching that the salvation of the world was fully wrought by Jesus Christ and by him alone. It is not true that anyone has been saved by him alone. It would therefore be a gain, now and then, for the priest to say :

Be assured that if thou failest, none other-not nature, nor man, nor angel, nor Creator-will render the service or bestow the love due from thee. According to thine opportunity thou must be the strength of the weak, the refuge of the sorrowful. Thou must have compassion on those within thy reach who are worn with toil; thou must defend and cherish the young, bless and support the aged; welcome strangers who come thy way; comfort those who are distressed in body or mind; extend thy mercy to the oppressed, and especially to those who suffer injustice or are persecuted for righteousness' sake. By strength of character thou art to help in saving the vicious. And by the sweet mystery of love it will be thy privilege to soothe into peace the spirit of the dying. All this thou must be and do. Thy deficiencies and imperfections offer no ground for exemption, for they will themselves be overcome and dissolved in the redemptive work that waits for thee.

CHAPTER VII

OPENING SENTENCES AND BENEDICTION

IN gatherings of a non-religious nature, like those of political parties, scientific societies, or shareholders in a company, it is customary for someone to open the proceedings by declaring the object of the meeting. For the same reasons such a custom is equally appropriate in a church service, and has been in vogue in the Church of England since the Reformation. Those present are first reminded of the spirit and supreme purpose of the assembling, lest the careless, distracted and ignorant should lose sight of it and sacrifice it to narrower and pettier aims.

In studying the opening sentences which the Anglican Church has adopted, one is struck by their purely ethical character. This is the more astonishing when one remembers how doctrinal the Church was at the time they were introduced. Here is further evidence that the Church of England is in reality an ethical society; for the keynote of Morning and Evening Prayer struck in these sentences is ethical, not metaphysical.

The first in the sequence of sentences, from which the minister is to choose one or more, is :—

When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.-EZEK. Xviii. 27.

And the second :

I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.-Ps. li. 3.

Then follow :

Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.-Ps. li. 9.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.-Ps. li. 17.

Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.-JOEL ii. 13.

To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him: neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws which he set before us.-DAN. ix. 9-10.

O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. -JER. X. 24, Ps. vi. I.

Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.MATT. iii. 2.

I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.-LUKE XV. 18-19.

Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.-Ps. cxliii. 2.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.-I JOHN i. 8-9.

Upon a humanistic interpretation of the word "God," all of these opening sentences become appropriate in a naturalistic church service, and might therefore remain unchanged. But they are far from adequate. They consist of nothing but a personal confession of moral obliquity and of faith in God, without indicating what factor in human experience the word God covers. There is no expression among them of the sense of personal moral responsibility, of the innate desire to fulfil one's duty, or of the consciousness of the inner power to do what is right. There is no hint of the hope that we human beings can bring about social justice on earth, and obliterate almost all the pain and anguish which detract from the worth of life. There is no indication of the moral solidarity of man, of religion as the idealism of a nation, and of the spiritual joy which floods the heart that has surrendered itself to the service of society. There is also a total omission of the intellectual side of duty. From henceforth the Church must emphasise intellectual honesty, the sinfulness of over-credulity, and the duty of thinking for oneself. When trust is turned from supernatural agents to the power of human forethought and insight, the new direction must be indicated. Religion to-day-both its inspiration and aspiration-is by no means exhausted by a confession of personal sin and personal dependence upon a power outside of the individual's own character. A great part of it is the message to every man that he has within himself far more power to stand erect and act aright than he imagines, and than the religions of the past have declared. Some of the opening sentences of the service ought to reflect these main lines of the idealistic ends, hopes and tendencies of humanity.

One such trend of development has for centuries been,

and will perhaps be for centuries more, a piercing through the symbols of religion to the ideals they signify. In order to express and thereby to strengthen this beneficent tendency, it would be well if the priest were permitted, when he saw fit, to open Morning and Evening Prayer with these words from Emerson :

Attach thyself not to the Christian symbol, but to the moral sentiment, which carries innumerable Christianities, humanities and divinities in its bosom.

Or these words from Constance Naden :

He who, losing one ideal, refuses to give his heart and soul to another and a nobler, is like a man who declines to build a house on the rock, because the wind and rain have ruined his house on the sand.

Inherent in the daring spirit which will discard symbol for inner sentiment and dead tradition for living vision is a readiness to stand alone, a loyalty to conviction, which could be communicated to a congregation by these words from Professor Clifford :

Infidelity does not consist in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe.

Or in this perfectly poised utterance of Emerson :—

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after one's own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Other sentences should magnify and glorify Duty as the supreme deity of the human will:

Be they men or gods, Because of its presence here to-day. Because

There is a shrine at which all who love the light rather than the darkness must ever bow. they must revere the Moral Ideal. in and among us we have gathered of its claim upon us we would cast out everything that offends.