ded as continuing to exist after death, but
the society of which he is truly a member must be regarded as one
which, if it manifests or begins to manifest itself on this earth,
requires for its realisation--that is, for perfect communion with
God--the postulate that though it manifests itself in this world, it is
realised in the next. This new conception of the real nature of
society and the individual, involving belief in the communion of the
saints, and in the kingdom of Heaven as that {263} which may be in each
individual, and therefore must extend beyond each and include all
whether in this world or the next--this conception is one which
Christianity alone, of all religions, offers to the world.

Religion is the quest of man for God. Man everywhere has been in
search of God, peradventure he might find Him; and the history of
religion is the history of his search. But the moment we regard the
history--the evolution--of religion as a search, we abandon the
mechanical idea of evolution: the cause at work is not material or
mechanical, but final. The cause is no longer a necessary cause which
can only have one result and which, when it operates, must produce that
result. Progress is no longer something which must take place, which
is the inevitable result of antecedent causes. It is something which
may or may not take place and which cannot take place unless effort is
made. In a word, it is dependent in part upon man's will--without the
action of which neither search can be made nor progress in the search.
But though in part dependent upon man's will, progress can only be made
so far as man's will is to do God's will. And that is not always, and
has not been always, {264} man's will. Hence evolution has not always
been progress. Nor is it so now. There have been lapses in
civilisation, dark ages, periods when man's love for man has waned
_pari passu_ with the waning of his love for God. Such lapses there
may be yet again. The fall of man may be greater, in the spiritual
sense, than it ever yet has been, for man's will is free. But God's
love is great, and our faith is in it. If Christianity should cease to
grow where it now grows, and cease to spread where it as yet is not,
there would be the greater fall. And on us would rest some, at least,
of the responsibility. Christianity cannot be stationary: if it
stands, let it beware; it is in danger of falling. Between religions,
as well as other organisatio