isible?"
Christ is invisible, but for all that, he is not unknown. We all of us
know Him. But we do not give ourselves time or opportunity to
know Him sufficiently well. What hours, months, years, we devote
to making and knowing our friends; yet a few moments a day are
more than enough for most of us to spend in becoming more
intimate with the only Friend whom it is worth our while to make.

"But life is so busy I have no time," you say. What of those hours
spent in the train, those moments spent waiting for an appointment,
that half-hour taken for a rest, but which is not a rest because of the
rushing inharmonious turmoil of your thoughts? No one is so restful
to think of as Jesus. Every single quality that we most admire, trust,
and love is to be found in Jesus Christ. The only reason of our
failure to love Him more ardently than any human being we know is
that we do not think enough about Him.

How much offended we should be if anyone dared to say to us,
"You are not a Christian." We all consider ourselves Christians as a
matter of course; but why this certainty, what reason can we give?
Many would say, "I keep the Commandments, and I am baptised in
Christ's name." But Christianity is not an act done by hands, it is a
life, and the Jews keep the Commandments even more strictly than
we and are not Christians. The mere fact of believing that Christ
once lived and was crucified is not enough. The Jews and also the
Mahommedans believe that He lived and was crucified.

What is then necessary? That we believe that He is indeed the Son
of God, the Messiah, the Saviour; for if He was no more than a holy
man, by what means has He power to save us more than Moses has
power to save us?

The true inward knowledge that Christ is God comes not by nature
to any man, but by gift of God--which gift must be earnestly sought,
striven, prayed for, and desired: this faith is the very coming to God
by which we are saved. If we are not yet in this faith that Jesus
Christ is the Messiah, then we are neither Jew, Mahommedan, nor
Christian, but wanderers without a fold, and without a Shepherd;
longing, and not yet comforted.

How do we come by this joy of the personal loving of God, this
Romance of the Soul brought to sensible fruition whilst still in the
flesh?

Is it a gift? Yes. Is it a gift because of some merit of goodness on our
part beyond the goodness of other persons who are without it,
though striving? No. Is it because of