ow then is this faith to be sustained? It is to be nourished by a
sense of direct and frank converse with a God and Father. The
Christian is never to have any doubt that the intention of the Father
towards him is absolutely, kind and good. He attempts no explanation
of the existence of sin and pain; he simply endures them; and he looks
forward with serene certainty to the continued existence of the soul.
There is no hint given of the conditions under which the soul is to
continue its further life, of its desires or occupations; the
intention obviously is that a Christian should live life freely and
fully; but love, and interest in human relations are to supersede all
other aims and desires.

It has been often said that if the world were to accept the teaching
of the Sermon on the Mount literally, the social fabric of the world
would be dissolved in a month. It is true; but it is not generally
added that it would be because there would be no need of the social
fabric. The reason why the social fabric would be dissolved is because
there would doubtless be a minority which would not accept these
principles, and would seize upon the things which the world agrees to
consider desirable. The Christian majority would become the slaves of
the unchristian minority, and would be at their mercy. Christianity,
in so far as it is a social system at all, is the purest kind of
socialism, a socialism not of compulsion but of disinterestedness. It
is easy, of course, to scoff at the possibility of so far
disintegrating the vast and complex organisation of society, as to
arrange life on the simpler lines; but the fact remains that the very
few people in the world's history, like St. Francis of Assisi, for
instance, who have ever dared to live literally in the Christian
manner, have had an immeasurable effect upon the hearts and
imaginations of the world. The truth is not that life cannot be so
lived, but that humanity dares not take the plunge; and that is what
Christ meant when He said that few would find the narrow way. The
really amazing thing is that such immense numbers of people have
accepted Christianity in the world, and profess themselves Christians
without the slightest doubt of their sincerity, who never regard the
Christian principles at all. The chief aim, it would seem, of the
Church, has been not to preserve the original revelation, but to
accommodate it to human instincts and desires. It seems to me to
resemble the very q