as we should now say, dealing with
consciousness, to the Ideal? The mere knowledge of the Ideal is no more
than a motive. How is the process to be practically accomplished? Who is
to do it? Where, when, how? This is the test question of Christianity.
It is here that all theories of Christianity, all attempts to explain it
on natural principles, all reductions of it to philosophy, inevitably
break down. It is here that all imitations of Christianity perish. It is
here, also, that personal religion finds its most fatal obstacle. Men
are all quite clear about the Ideal. We are all convinced of the duty of
mankind regarding it. But how to secure that willing men shall attain
it--that is the problem of religion. It is the failure to understand the
dynamics of Christianity that has most seriously and most pitifully
hindered its growth both in the individual and in the race.

From the standpoint of biology this practical difficulty vanishes in a
moment. It is probably the very simplicity of the law regarding it that
has made men stumble. For nothing is so invisible to most men as
transparency. The law here is the same biological law that exists in the
natural world. For centuries men have striven to find out ways and means
to conform themselves to this type. Impressive motives have been
pictured, the proper circumstances arranged, the direction of effort
defined, and men have toiled, struggled, and agonized to conform
themselves to the Image of the Son. Can the protoplasm _conform itself_
to its type? Can the embryo _fashion itself_? Is Conformity to Type
produced by the matter _or by the life_, by the protoplasm or by the
Type? Is organization the cause of life or the effect of it? It is the
effect of it. Conformity to Type, therefore, is secured by the type.
Christ makes the Christian.

Men need only reflect on the automatic processes of their natural body
to discover that this is the universal law of Life. What does any man
consciously do, for instance, in the matter of breathing? What part does
he take in circulating the blood, in keeping up the rhythm of his heart?
What control has he over growth? What man by taking thought can add a
cubit to his stature? What part voluntarily does man take in secretion,
in digestion, in the reflex actions? In point of fact is he not after
all the veriest automaton, every organ of his body given him, every
function arranged for him, brain and nerve, thought and sensation, will
and consci