n
a separation of Christianity from life. The predominating motive has
been the saving of the soul. It has resulted too often in a selfish,
negative, repressive, ineffective religion. As Jesus said: "And why call
ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"

We are just beginning to realise at all adequately that it was _the
salvation of the life_ that he taught. When the life is redeemed to
righteousness through the power of the indwelling God and moves out in
love and in service for one's fellow-men, the soul is then saved.

A man may be a believer in Jesus for a million years and still be an
outcast from the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. But a man can't
believe Jesus, which means following his teachings, without coming at
once into the Kingdom and enjoying its matchless blessings both here and
hereafter. And if there is one clear-cut teaching of the Master, it is
that the life here determines and with absolute precision the life to
come.

One need not then concern himself with this or that doctrine, whether it
be true or false. Later speculations and theories are not for him.
Jesus' own saying applies here: "If any man will do his will he shall
know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." He enters into the Kingdom,
the Kingdom of Heaven here and now; and when the time comes for him to
pass out of this life, he goes as a joyous pilgrim, full of anticipation
for the Kingdom that awaits him, and the Master's words go with him: "In
my Father's house are many mansions."

By thus becoming a follower of Jesus rather than merely a believer in
Jesus, he gradually comes into possession of insights and powers that
the Master taught would follow in the lives of those who became his
followers. The Holy Spirit, the Divine Comforter, of which Jesus spoke,
the Spirit of Truth, that awaits our bidding, will lead continually to
the highest truth and wisdom and insight and power. Kant's statement,
"The other world is not another locality, but only another way of seeing
things," is closely allied to the Master's statement: "The Kingdom of
God is within you." And closely allied to both is this statement of a
modern prophet: "The principle of Christianity and of every true
religion is within the soul--the realisation of the incarnation of God
in every human being."

When we turn to Jesus' own teachings we find that his insistence was not
primarily upon the saving of the soul, but upon the saving of the life
for us