the New. All that this new Gospel aims at, we, as
Christians, already believe: and we possess a Divine Token, a Sacred
Pledge which is foreign to it: we believe that a higher destiny is in
store for us than even the construction of wonders of mechanical
skill.[20] Stripped of all rhetoric, the conclusion of unbelief in God
and Immortality can only {122} be 'Man is what he eats': the conclusion
of Christianity, 'There is but one object greater than the soul, and
that is its Creator.'

One in a certain place testified, saying, 'What is man, that Thou art
mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him? Thou madest
him a little lower than the angels: Thou crownest him with glory and
honour, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put
all things in subjection under his feet.' For in that He put all in
subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But
now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see JESUS Who was
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honour. We see Him Who is our Brother and our
Forerunner within the veil; and in His Exaltation we behold our
own.[21] No vision of the future can surpass that which the Christian
Church {123} has cherished from the beginning, that we shall all 'come
in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto
a Perfect Man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ
... from Whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by
that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in
the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the
edifying of itself in love.'

[1] _Creed of a Layman_, p. 67.

[2] Shelley, _Prometheus Unbound_.

[3] Thomas Carlyle.

[4] _Man's Destiny_, p. 31,

[5] Aubrey de Vere.

[6] _Creed of a Layman_, p. 76.

[7] Frederic Harrison, _Creed of a Layman_.

[8] _Memories and Thoughts_, p. 14.

[9] _Memories and Thoughts_, p. 15.

[10] Appendix XIV.

[11] _Creed of a Layman_.

[12] Appendix XV.

[13] _Some Urgent Questions in Christian Lights_.

[14] _Heretics_, p. 96.

[15] Appendix XVI.

[16] Appendix XVII.

[17] E. A. Abbott, _Through Nature to Christ_.

[18] Frederick William Robertson, _Sermon on John's Rebuke of Herod_.

[19] Winwood Reade, _The Outcast_.

[20] Appendix XVIII.

[21] Appendix XIX.

{126}

V

THEISM WITHOUT CHRIST

'Ye bel