as of old,
the victim by whose substitutionary sacrifice the race of men has found
an open door from the bottomless pit of endless woe to a blessed
immortality in Paradise. The modern emphasis is all another way. Christ
is the divine revealer whose spirit alone can transform individuals and
save society. The sort of character he was, the life he lived, the ideas
he promulgated, are the salt that can preserve human life, the light that
can illumine the way to a kingdom of righteousness on earth. He himself
is the leader in the fight for that kingdom, his sacrifice part of the
price it costs, his spirit the quality of life that is indispensable to
its coming, and when we think of him we sing,

"The Son of God goes forth to war. . . .
Who follows in his train?"

So, too, the Church, as presented by typical modern preachers, is no
longer an ark to which, from the flood of wrath divine, the few may flee
for safety. If men tried to preach in that way, the message would stick
in their throats. The Church is primarily an instrument in God's hands
to bring personal and social righteousness upon the earth. When her
massed influence overcomes a public evil or establishes a public good,
men find the justification of her existence and a first-rate weapon of
apologetic argument in her behalf. When wars come, the Church is blamed
because she did not prevent them; when wars are over, she takes counsel
how she may prove the validity of her message by making their recurrence
impossible; and the pitiful dismemberment of the Church by sects and
schisms is hated and deplored, not so much because of economic waste or
theological folly, as because these insane divisions prevent social
effectiveness in bringing the message of Christ to bear influentially on
modern life.

Likewise, hope, deeply affected by modern ideas of earthly progress, is
not primarily post-mortem, as it used to be. Men believe in immortality,
but it seems so naturally the continuance of this present life that their
responsible concern is chiefly centered here. The hopes which waken
immediate enthusiasm and stir spontaneous response are hopes of
righteousness victorious upon the earth. Because men believe in God,
they believe that he has great purposes for humankind. The course of
human history is like a river: sometimes it flows so slowly that one
would hardly know it moved at all; sometimes bends come in its channel so
that one can hardly see in what