achieved by the Christian spirit, and no one who reads history aright will minimize these great achievements. It is impossible here to describe these Gesta Christi in detail; but four aspects of these achievements may be briefly noted.

I. THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY

1. The Christian spirit dwelling in men has created the finest and highest type of personal morality and saintly life. Christianity arose in an age of the world that was noted for the lowness of its moral ideal and for the demoralization of society. These things are clearly reflected in the lurid pages of the historian and the bitter satires of the poets. It was an epoch in which the horror and degradation have rarely been equalled and perhaps never exceeded in the annals of mankind.' But in that dismal time the Spirit of Christ, like a new creative spirit, brooded over the abyss of degradation, and lo, a new type of manhood stood erect with face upturned to heaven and seeking after the highest perfection. Before long the Christians were noted for their pure lives and their loving service, and even their enemies were compelled to mark and admire. In the progress of the centuries this ideal of human life has developed and unfolded, and new aspects of the Great Ideal have been seen and loved. To-day the ideal of Christianity in its personal aspects at least is well known and widely honoured. Without fear Christianity can point to the lives of men and women as illustrations of its power to transform lives and to create a distinctive type of Christian character.

In saying this we do not mean that the Spirit of 1 Farrar, "The Early Days of Christianity," Chapter I.

Christ has produced its full results or that this new type of character has been fully realized. As a matter of fact the Christian life is set on an ascending scale and man is always going on from less to more and from lower to higher. In men, in Christian men, in the best of men, there are always some things to be cast off, some advances to be made, some new attainments to be desired. At best the Christian life is an approximation, and the Christian is one who is becoming perfect. In an old Bible that belonged to Oliver Cromwell has been found this inscription: O. C. 1644—Qui cessat esse melior cessat esse bonus-He who ceases to be better ceases to be good. In harmony with this was Martin Luther's maxim-He who is a Christian is no Christian.

And in saying this we do not mean that the Christian type of character is so unique that nothing like it has ever appeared outside the range of conscious Christian influences. As a matter of fact among all peoples and in other religions there have been men and women whose lives shine with a divine beauty and bear comparison with the finest Christian saints. The Shu king of China, Buddha and Zoroaster, Epictetus and Confucius, are the pride of the human race, and show the upward possibilities of mankind. And yet when all is said it remains true that there is a type of character unique and distinctive that may fittingly be called Christian.

2. The Christian spirit dwelling in men has created the Christian family. As every one knows Christianity arose at a time when the marriage bond was lightly esteemed and society seemed to be dissolving. But in that time of social corruption Christianity began

its changeful and yet triumphant career, and soon its effects are noticed in the home. The home life of the Christians was remarkable for its purity and stability, and the decay in society was arrested where it was not cured. In course of time a type of family life came into existence that in the truest sense may be called Christian. To-day there is a type of family life known the world over as the Christian type. This is the second great achievement of the Christian spirit; and the Christian family gives men new hope for the world.

Here again in speaking of the Christian family we do not mean to imply that it is only in Christian lands that we find a high and beautiful type of family life. In all times, among all peoples, the one man has loved the one woman and the one woman has loved the one man; parents have loved their children and have lived for their welfare; children have honoured and obeyed their parents, and brothers and sisters have dwelt together in joy and peace and have made home a true fellowship of brotherhood and love. But when all this is said and all such cases are taken into account, it yet remains true that there is a type of family life that is distinctively Christian.

3. The Christian spirit has created that fellowship of the Spirit known as the Christian Church. This Church has been a continual witness for God and for the things eternal; it has come to men with a message of love and forgiveness; and it has wrought wonders in human life and for human society. This Church has been as an ark of safety in which the hopes of men have been borne across the troubled seas of life; it has been the body of Christ serving the life

of man in manifold ways and seeking to bless and uplift the life of the world; it has gathered together the men of faith and has mobilized them into an army for the King. The Church is one of the great achievements of the Christian spirit and its service of the world has done much to advance the kingdom of God.

This does not mean that it is only in Christian lands that we find men joining in a worshipping community and seeking to know the will of heaven. All history justifies the statement that man is by nature a religious being; the man without a religion is an exception and an anomaly. In all times under all forms of religion men have joined in the worship of God and have united to do His will. In all lands among all peoples men have lifted hands in prayer not for themselves alone but for all; and then they have gone forth to do the will of God as they understood it. Thus Herodotus records the custom of the Persians: "He that sacrifices is not permitted to pray for blessings for himself alone; but he is obliged to offer prayers for the prosperity of all the Persians, and the king, for he is himself included in all the Persians." And this does not mean that the churches bearing the name of Christ have been fully Christian. It must be admitted that the Church as it has appeared in history has fallen far below the ideal of Christ and has done but a fraction of His work. There have been times when the churches have been cold and unspiritual and have hardly lisped the first syllable of the Christian Gospel. There have been times when the churches have approximated the society around them and have 1 Book I, Sec. 131.

been hardly a whit better than the world of paganism. There have been times when the leaders of the churches have been so selfish and corrupt as to bring upon themselves the scorn and contempt of all right-thinking men. There have been times when the churches have been so narrow and unspiritual that the men who would be Christians have been compelled to go outside their fellowship. And to-day in the churches as we find them, in the very best churches of Christendom, there are many things that are unworthy of Christ and bring sad reproach upon His name. In the churches of to-day, in the very best of them, there are men and women at all stages of immaturity and growth, and the line between the Church and the world is at best an invisible one. The best that we can say is this, that the Church is becoming Christian and it is hence to be judged not so much by what it is as by what it is coming to be. And yet with it all the Church is here as the body of Christ, and it is doing the work of the kingdom as no other institution pretends to do it.

4. The Christian spirit has also created the worldwide missionary enterprise, one of the finest achievements of the Christian principle. In obedience to the commands of the Master men and women have sundered the ties of home and have gone forth to the ends of the earth to bear the tidings of salvation to the lost. In good report and in ill report, enduring great hardships and taking their lives in their hands, they have penetrated the frozen north and have crossed burning deserts under the equator; with a patience that never fails and with a love that never falters they have sought the lost peoples and have loved them into the kingdom. The missionary enterprise is the truest internationalism and