nts from the life about it in every age; but a tree
without roots is neither sturdy nor alive. A Christianity which
disregards its origin in the Jesus of genuine memory may label anything
"Christian" that it fancies, and end by losing its own identity; and a
Christianity which does not constantly keep learning of the Jesus of the
New Testament, and renewing its convictions, ideals and purposes from
Him, ceases to be vital. We do not think of Christianity as a fixed
quantity or an unchanging essence, but as a life; and life is ever
growing and changing. But with all its growth and change it keeps true
to type, and the type is Jesus Christ. The gospels, which conserve the
impress of that Life upon men of faith, are anchors in the actual amid
windy storms of speculation. We are not constructing a Christ out of our
spiritual experiences, but letting Him who gave life to these early
followers, through their memories of Him, recreate us into His and their
fellowship with God and man.

Their spiritual experiences are the sensitive plate which caught and
kept for all time the image of the historic Jesus; but their experience
is a memory, and there must be a further experience in us upon which
this memory throws and fixes His image before we know Jesus Christ for
ourselves. Unless a man's soul is unimpressionable, he cannot be faced
with the Christ of the New Testament without being deeply affected. "We
needs must love the highest when we see it," and to millions
throughout the earth Jesus is their highest inspiration. For them He
ceases to belong to the past and becomes their most significant
Contemporary. They do not look back to Him; they look up to Him as their
present Comrade and Lord; and in loyalty to Him they find themselves
possessed of a new life.

In a previous chapter, we used the phrase "man's response to his highest
inspirations" as a description of religious experience; and in
responding to the appeal of Jesus, His followers pass into the
characteristically Christian experience of the Divine--an experience
which involves two main elements: communion through Jesus with God, and
communion with Jesus in God.

_Communion through Jesus with God_. His singular religious experience
they find themselves sharing to some degree. They repeat His discoveries
in the unseen and corroborate them. God, the God and Father of Jesus
Christ, becomes their God and Father, with whom they live in the trust
and love and obedience of c