anity. The human body was itself pagan too, but the
Eternal Christ, God's Holy Wisdom, entered it and filled it with a new
spirit, and it ceased to be pagan. We in the East sometimes use for our
sacerdotal vestments Chinese silk made by pagan hands in China, or
chalices and spoons and little bells and chains made by the Moslems, or
precious stones gathered and scents prepared by the fire or
stone-worshippers of Africa, and no one of us should be afraid to use
them when worshipping Christ, as Christ Himself was not afraid to touch
the most wretched human bodies or souls with His pure hands.
Christianity cannot be defiled, using for its worship the works of pagan
hands, but pagan people are hereby taking a share in Christian worship,
physically and unconsciously, waiting for the moment when they will
share in it spiritually and consciously as well. Every piece of Chinese
silk in our vestments is a prophecy of the great Christian China. But
this belongs to the following paragraph.

THE INCLUSIVE WISDOM IN THE CHURCH'S DESTINATION

Judaism was destined for the people of Israel only. The Christian Church
was destined for the people of Israel too, but not for them only. She
included Greeks as well.

The Greek polytheism of Olympus was destined for the Hellenic race only.
The Christian Church was destined for the Hellenic race too, but not for
it only. She included Indians as well.

Buddha's wisdom was offered to the monks and vegetarians. Monks and
vegetarians the Christian Church included in her lap, but also married
and social people too.

Pythagoras founded a religious society of intellectual aristocrats. The
Christian Church from the beginning included intellectual aristocrats
side by side with the ignorant and unlettered.

The Persian prophet, Zoroaster, recruited soldiers of the god of light
among the best men to fight against the god of darkness. His religious
institution was like a military barracks. The Christian Church included
both the best and the worst, the righteous and the sinners, the healthy
and the sick. It was a barracks and a hospital at the same time. It was
an institution both for spiritual fighting and spiritual healing.

The Chinese sage, Confucius, preached a wonderful ethical pragmatism,
and the profound thinker, Lao-Tse, preached an all-embracing
spiritualism. Christian wisdom included both of them, opening Heaven for
the first and showing the dramatic importance of the phys