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best idea. He who rushes forward with an untried new idea may be more
dangerous than he who still clings, in the Name of Christ, to an old
idea which is false. We must be quite certain of our ground before we
advance with boldness, and our boldness must be spiritual, not muscular.

Modernism has fought and won the battle of verbal inspiration. No man
whose opinion counts in the least degree now holds that the Bible was
verbally inspired by God. It is respected, honoured, loved; but it is no
longer a fetish. In ceasing to be a superstition, and in coming to be a
number of genuine books full of light for the student of history, the
Bible is exercising at the present time an extraordinary influence in
the world, a greater influence perhaps on thoughtful minds than it ever
before exercised.

The battle which modernism is now fighting over this collection of books
concerns the Person of Jesus and the relative value of the gospels which
narrate His life, and in the case of the Fourth, endeavour to expound
His teaching. This great battle is not over, but it looks as if victory
will lie with the more moderate school of modernists. Outside very
extreme circles, the old rigid notions concerning the Person of Jesus
are no longer held with the passion which gave them a certain noble
force in the days before Darwin. There is now a notable tell-tale
petulance about orthodoxy which is sometimes insolent but never
effective.

Ahead of this battle, which the present generation may live to see
fought out to a conclusion, lies a third struggle likely to be of a more
desperate character than its two forerunners--the battle over
Sacramental Christianity. Already in France and Germany the question is
asked, Did Jesus institute any sacraments at all? But even in these two
countries the battle has not yet begun in real earnest, while over here
only readers of Lake and Kennedy are dimly aware of a coming storm. That
storm will concern rites which few orthodox Christians have ever
regarded as heathen in their spirit, though some have come to know they
are pagan in origin.

It is not wise to ignore this future struggle, but our main
responsibility is to bear a manful part in the struggle which is now
upon us.

There are three types of modernists. There is, first of all, the
Liberal, who regards Christianity as a form of Platonism resting on the
idea of absolute values. This is dangerous ground: something more is
required. Then there is t