which is above every name, there is nothing in them which does not bear
a Christian impress. 'Christianity _minus_ Christ' would seem to be no
unfair definition of their standpoint: and without Christ they could
not have been what they are. The Father Who is set forth as the Object
of worship and of trust is the Father Whom Christ declared, the Father
Who, but for the manifestation of Christ, would never have been known.
Far be it from us to deny that the Father has been found by those who
have sought Him beyond the limits of the Church: this only we affirm
that those by whom He {157} has been found, have, consciously or
unconsciously, drawn near to Him by the way of Christ. Nothing of
value in modern Theism is incompatible with Christianity: nothing of
value which would not be strengthened by faith in Him Who said, 'He
that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.'

IV

The strange objection to faith in Christ is sometimes made that it
interferes with faith in the Father. The notion of mediation is
regarded as derogatory alike to God and to man. There is no need for
any one to come between: no need for God to depute another to bear
witness of Him: no need for us to depute Another to secure His favour,
as from all eternity He is Love. The assumption, the groundless
assumption, underlying this conception is that the Mediator is a
barrier between man and God, a hindrance not a help to fellowship with
the Divine: that one {158} goes to the Mediator because access to God
is debarred. Whatever may occasionally have been the unguarded
statements of representatives of Christianity, it is surely plain that
no such doctrine is taught, that the very opposite of such doctrine is
taught, in the New Testament. 'We do not,' says M. Sabatier, 'address
ourselves to Jesus by way of dispensing ourselves from going to the
Father. Far from this, we go to Christ and abide in Him, precisely
that we may find the Father. We abide in Him that His filial
consciousness may become our own; that the Spirit may become our
spirit, and that God may dwell immediately in us as He dwells in Him.
Nothing in all this carries us outside of the religion of the Spirit:
on the contrary, it is its seal and confirmation.'[13]

The whole object of the work of Christ, as proclaimed by Himself, or as
interpreted {159} by His Apostles, was to show the Father, to bring men
to the Father. 'Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the
Father in Me?