word Incarnation.
Great is the mystery of goo in the flesh, sss, God manifest In the history of every religion there have been two opposing ten-doneies. Together they have helped its development though exch by. itself goes astray. The first tendency has been to look for every' spiritual sanction in that which is outside human nature and beyond intelligence." When the Roman augur divided the entrails of birds, whenever the Chinese Taoist burns tapers for the spirits of the air, or even when the Hindu, in the sub-Hest form of all, refers his sins to the all-pervading deity, it is clear that the powers of the spiritual world are dissociated from the human mind. And this principle But we are acquainted with a contrary tendency that would confine all spiritual sanctions to our own nature. This was the ease with the Stoic philosophers who held in such scorn the popular religion with oracles and sacrifices, and said tha: to know ourselves and be ourselves, was the final goal of life. The followers of Confucius in China and Shinto" in Japan have much the same idea, and equally disclaim any_ need of powers that lie outside the dins of human nature. This religious principle if left to itself ends in scepticism.
Everyone knows something of those myths of Northern Europe which Wagner has immortalized in music. The Key to these spiritual dramas is the conflict between scepticism and superstition. Tt was superstition that built Valhalla for he gods, endured Wotan's spear with invincibility and dowered the gods with immortal youth. But the poignancy of these sages arises from the inroads of scepticism which makes earthborn heroes fight, with gods on almost equal terms, snaps in. pieces the spear of Wotan and brings the mists of old age up to very walls of Valhalla, Finally there surges back on scepticism the: dread of supernatural forces that remain even when Valhalla is dissolve ed and reduce the might and right of man to nothing. So great a theme was worthy of magnificent music and inspired it.
These old legends then illustrate the conflict between the belief that spiritual forees are altogether independent of man (which is superstition) and the belief that they are virtually to be identified with man, (which may be called scepticism' If then there were a religion that provided a common ground for both. these principles, so that they need not vex one another any more, it might fairly be called final and perfect. And that is just wh: Christianity, unlike other religions, able to do. That is the mystery of Christ, for in Him we see that the heights to which man can at~ tain are at the same time the depths to which God has stooped. In Him we have at length the solution of the enigma, for in Him the divine ind the human initiative are one and the same. In His own words "I and the Father are one.'
This wonderful truth, that there is a point in human history where God and man are spiritually interchangeable, finds various forms of expression in the New Testament. stories of the Virgin Birth under the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit, In Paul we are gi conception of the pre-existent Christ emptying Himself and going down the steps of humiliation to the very eros. In John we have the announcement of the everlasting Word becoming flesh that He—might tabernacle among His own. But th truth to which all alike bear witness is the mystery of Christ, by. which we can see in the highest achievement of man the very con-the flesh. of it, which T have no space to velop, is, presented in the apostle's words: "Work out your own salva-jon with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and do of His good pleasure.'
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.