in giving
them stones in place of bread, dead form for the spirit of living
truth. In his own words, "let the dead bury their dead." Come out
from among them. Teach as did Jesus, _the living Christ_. Teach as
did Jesus, _the Christ within_. Find this in all its transcendent
beauty and power,--find it as Jesus found it, then you also will be one
who will speak with authority. Then you will be able to lead large
numbers of others to its finding. This is the pearl of great price.

It is the type of preacher whose soul has never as yet even perceived
the _vital spirit_ of the teachings of Jesus, and who as a consequence
instead of giving this to the people, is giving them old forms and
dogmas and speculations, who is emptying our churches. This is the
type whose chief efforts seem to be in getting men ready to die. The
Germans have a saying, Never go to the second thing first. We need men
who will teach us first how to live. Living quite invariably precedes
dying. This also is true, that when we once know how to live, and live
in accordance with what we know, then the dying, as we term it, will in
a wonderfully beautiful manner take care of itself. It is in fact the
only way in which it can be taken care of.

It is on account of this emptying of our churches, for the reason that
the people are tiring of mere husks, that many short-sighted people are
frequently heard to say that religion is dying out. Religion dying
out? How can anything die before it is really born? And so far as the
people are concerned, religion is just being born, or rather they are
just awaking to a vital, every-day religion. We are just beginning to
get beyond the mere letter into its real, vital spirit. Religion dying
out? Impossible even to conceive of. Religion is as much a part of
the human soul as the human soul is a part of God. And as long as God
and the human soul exist, religion will never die.

Much of the dogma, the form, the ceremony, the mere letter that has
stood as religion,--and honestly, many times, let us be fair enough to
say,--this, thank God, is rapidly dying out, and never so rapidly as it
is today. By two methods it is dying. There is, first, a large class
of people tired of or even nauseated with it all, who conscientiously
prefer to have nothing rather than this. They are simply abandoning
it, the same as a tree abandons its leaves when the early winter comes.
There is, second, a large class in whom th