rd is to
judge us by the light we have, how generously He measures every effort
after holiness, and blesses every pang of the spiritual hunger. We may
not be able to grasp the creeds which others recite so fluently; we may
not be able to give easy expression to the affections which thrill
within us; may, perhaps, wonder if we love at all; but at least we can
say this,--we want to be right. But then we are confronted with the
difficulty that what God means is not that we should want to be right,
but that we should be right. He explains and characterises the
spiritual birth by the words of the Apostle, "He that doeth
righteousness is righteous even as Christ is righteous." "He that is
born of God doth not sin." "Every one that is born of Him sinneth
not." It almost seems as if the Apostle of Love had been
remetamorphosed into the Son of Thunder, and were calling down fire
from heaven upon us to devour us. And do not let us say that this is
merely St. John's extravagant way of preaching holiness; for it is the
language in which the teachers of the time generally held and
transmitted the Christian doctrine. Thus Ignatius, writing to the
Ephesians, adopts the three tests of faith and love and righteousness:
"No man professing the faith sinneth; nor does he who professeth love,
hate; the tree is known by its fruits; so, likewise, those who profess
to be Christ's shall be seen from their deeds."

And Polycarp presents the life-criteria in the same manner: "You shall
be built up in the faith which is given to you: before which is love to
God and to Christ and to the neighbour; for he who has love is far from
all sin." And so we might multiply instances.

What shall we then say: Is a new Sinai set up on the square of the New
Jerusalem? or is it a sense of good things not seen as yet that makes
us cry, "Search me, O God; ... and see if there be any lack of faith or
love or righteousness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting"?

XIII

THE ETERNAL IDEA

"See that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed thee in
the Mount."--HEB. viii. 5.

When we speak of a pattern, we generally understand by it some
temporary or partial representation of an idea that is to be or has
been realised--such as the plan of a house, or the mould of a casting,
or, to take a more definite illustration, like the little silver models
of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, or the carved wooden lions which are
sold in the sh