s the
true way in which the redemption of the world is proceeding. Every man
who is trying to live so as to make his life a blessing to the world is
being saved himself in the process, saved by becoming a saviour.
Ordinary observation ought to tell us that untold thousands of our
fellow-beings, even among those who never dream of going to church, are
being saved in this way. This is the true way to look at the matter.
The Christ, the true Christ who was and is Jesus, but who is also the
deeper self of every human being, is saving individuals by filling them
with the unselfish desire to save the race. It is this unselfish
desire to minister to the common good which is the true salvation. I
do not mind what name is given to it so long as it is recognised for
what it really is; there is no stopping-place between sinner and
saviour. This is the way in which men like Robert Blatchford of the
_Clarion_ are being saved while trying to save. Conceive how
differently such a man _might_ have lived his life. He might have
lived it so as to be of no use to anyone, or indeed in such a way as to
be a hindrance rather than a help to poor overburdened humanity. It
matters comparatively little that this man should think he is
destroying supernaturalism and scoffs at the possibility of a future
life. His moral earnestness is a mark of his Christhood and his work a
part of the Atonement. Not another Christ than Jesus, mind! The very
same. Mr. Blatchford may laugh at this and call his moral aspirations
by quite a different name. Well, let him; but I know the thing when I
see it. This is Salvation.

+Conversion.+--But in the history of mankind the change from
selfishness to love, from darkness to light, from death to life, has
often meant something much more pronounced than this. A man may have
been living a bad life, and become suddenly impressed by some appeal to
his better nature made in the name of God. He may have felt humiliated
and distressed by his new-found consciousness of sin. He may have
prayed earnestly for forgiveness, and felt that forgiveness has come
and that the peace of God has entered into and possessed his soul. He
has deliberately and solemnly consecrated his life to Jesus and feels
that henceforth he is, as it were, in a new world. This change is
rightly termed conversion, a turning round and going right. Such a man
may be able to say with St. Paul, "To me to live is Christ," and the
words would b