With so many problems to solve , it would be a great help to select some one problem which might be the key to all the others , and begin there . 
If there is any such key-problem , then it is undoubtedly the problem of the unity of the Gospel . 
There are three views of the Fourth Gospel which have been held . 
Some critics , not many , argue that the Gospel is the product of one mind and one hand . 
For them the problems of the Fourth Gospel exist only in the mind of its detractors . 
The difficulties which are felt by modern critics are due to the book being read and examined as it was never meant to be . 
There is some truth in this contention , and one must always remember that no book of the New Testament was written with the special interests of a modern critic in mind . 
Many of the questions which the searching scrutiny of the textual critic raises were of no interest to the author of the Gospel . 
However , this kind of immaculate conception of John is difficult to maintain in the face of the contrasts with the other Gospels and of the striking unanimity of scholars who have detected dislocations in the text . 
That the Gospel is homogeneous is the orthodox view of the Roman Church . 
Loisy , who could not accept this view , was excommunicated in 1907 after a Biblical commission had answered three questions on the Fourth Gospel , and the Pope made their three answers articles of faith . 
The first article affirmed the authorship of the apostle John . 
The second said that the problems which arise from the comparisons with the Synoptics can be reasonably solved by paying due regard to the time and plan and to the different public for which , or against which , the author wrote . 
The third article excluded any allegorical interpretation of the Gospel . 
There is a whole group of theories which attempt to explain the problems of the Fourth Gospel by explanations based on assumed textual dislocations . 
The present state of the Gospel is the result of an accident-prone history . 
The original was written on a roll , or codex , which fell into disorder or was accidentally damaged . 
An editor , who was not the author , made what he could of the chaos by placing the fragments , or sheets , or pages , in order . 
Most of those who expound a theory of textual dislocation take it for granted that the Gospel was written entirely by one author before the disturbance took place but a few leave it open to suppose that the original book had been revised even before the upheaval . 
The ingenuity of the theories is impressive and is the best argument against them . 
If the history of the Gospel has been as fortuitous as they suppose , rational criticism is impossible . 
The critic hopes to discover order , sequence and purpose . 
The textual dislocators recount tales of disorder , of transposition , and of the wayward impulse of the editor , who at one moment compels admiration for his spiritual insight and at the next is rolling dice . 
Fortunately , the introduction of chance into these schemes makes it possible to test them statistically . 
The result confirms the impression that ingenuity is their only virtue . 
One must not pass over the derangement theories without acknowledgment of the truth which they contain . 
The exponent of such a theory has seen some regularities in the structure of the Gospel . 
The regularities are not simple nor are they continuous . 
The critic then assumes that the underlying order was based on the sheets , or pages , on which the original was written , and that the disorder was due to some rearrangements of those sheets or pages . 
To dismiss the textual-derangement theories out of hand is to discard some acute observation because it is incomplete and has been wrongly developed . 
The third type of theory would account for the difficulties of the Fourth Gospel in terms of its having been , at one time , a shorter book than it now is . 
In the enlargement of this little Gospel some movements of the text took place . 
The Commentator has long been a leading exponent of such a view . 
In his commentary on John , he sets out in detail the case for enlargement . 
A theory of this kind offers considerable advantages . 
It can explain the early substratum undoubtedly present in the Gospel , and yet also account for passages which are not easily reconciled with early and accurate knowledge of the background of Jesus 's life and work . 
It can offer a reason for the textual changes which is neither chance nor accident — two terms which too often cover the absence of any reason . 
The one real weakness of the Commentator 's case is that , in common with all his colleagues , he has not , until now , been able to exhibit exactly how this enlargement was effected nor has he been able to explain the textual movements by showing that such changes are part of a simple and coherent plan . 
To understand how this is possible it is necessary to examine the text of the Gospel . 
Chapter 3 The Text of the Fourth Gospel 
THE Fourth Gospel was almost certainly written in Greek . 
A modern text of the Gospel represents the work of generations of scholars who have compared the many manuscripts of John and worked out the version which is most likely to have been the original wording . 
It is not possible to establish any one text with absolute precision . 
The most convenient one for the authors has been the text of A. Souter . 
In this version of the text the Fourth Gospel is printed as just over 1,000 different nouns , verbs , and other parts of speech occurring 15,695 times in their different grammatical forms . 
There are other texts which could have been used , and ( as shown in Table 1 ) it is not a matter of the greatest importance which text is used . 
At first sight the difference between Souter and the other texts is rather large . 
But the British text includes the paragraph 7.53-8.11 , the Woman taken in Adultery , and this accounts for 178 words out of 279 , which is the difference between the 15,695 words of Souter 's text and the 15,416 of Nestle 's . 
The omission or inclusion of this paragraph is a matter of editorial decision rather than scribal emendation , and it must be included in the Gospel and studied , even if the result of the study were to decide that the paragraph should then be excluded . 
Thus the difference between Souter 's text and Nestle 's is 101 words . 
If the true content of the text of the Gospel is taken as the average of the two figures , then the difference is 101 words in 15,555 , a figure on which the textual critics may be congratulated . 
One can assume that Souter 's version of the Fourth Gospel represents 99 per cent of the original text . 
Of the remainder not much is of consequence , for the variant readings often concern verbal tenses , or word order , or the insertion or omission of qualifying clauses , not many of which affect the content or meaning of the text to any great extent . 
Souter 's text is not identical with the original of John . 
The Gospel would have been written by hand in individual letters ; block capitals are the nearest equivalent today . 
There would be no spaces between words such as we are accustomed to see and punctuation would be kept to a minimum . 
The comma , the full stop , the colon , and the interrogation mark are all modern additions to the text . 
The chapter and verse divisions of both Old and New Testaments date from the Reformation . 
The chapters were marked by Stephen Langton , an Archbishop of Canterbury , and the verses by the Parisian printer Stephanus , who produced the 1546 printed edition of the New Testament in Greek . 
The only punctuation which the originals might have had is paragraphos markings . 
The end of a section of the text was indicated by a little bar drawn under the first two or three letters of the line at which the section finished . 
The bar was the commonest marking , but others were also used . 
Dots sometimes served in place of the bar , and there are cases where spacing is used as it is now used to mark a paragraph ending . 
Frequently paragraphos markings were omitted . 
C. H. Roberts is of the opinion that in the original of the Fourth Gospel some markings would be used , although which , it is impossible to say . 
Professor E. G. Turner is inclined to take the view that the original of the Gospel would be unmarked . 
The original of the Gospel , whether written on a roll or codex , whether paragraphed or not , would be laid out in columns . 
This is the invariable practice of ancient manuscripts . 
A common size of column would hold about one third of a page of Souter 's print . 
The writing instrument was a stylus , a wedge-shaped pen cut from a reed . 
The ink was a mixture of carbon black in water with gum Arabic as a solvent . 
The " paper " would be papyrus or parchment , and the form of the book a roll or codex . 
If , twenty years ago , one had asked a scholar what form the original of the Gospel would have taken , he would have answered , without hesitation , that the book would have been a papyrus roll . 
The reason why he would have been so confident is , simply , that the great majority of surviving classical manuscripts are on papyrus rolls . 
To make a book of this kind , sheets of papyrus were glued edge to edge until a single sheet , often twenty to twenty-five feet wide , had been made . 
The edge of this sheet was attached to a wooden dowel and the sheet wound round this central pin . 
The roll made a simple and serviceable book . 
It was robust — the number which have survived the centuries is ample evidence of this — and it was easily stored . 
It had two disadvantages . 
It was generally a single-sided form of book , and it was not an easy form of book in which to find a reference . 
This last objection might have had some weight in ecclesiastical circles . 
In his Natural History , 13.11-12 , the elder Pliny tells of the use of papyrus in roll-making . 
As Pliny was killed in the eruption of Vesuvius which overwhelmed Herculaneum and Pompeii in A.D. 79 , his information is contemporaneous with the New Testament . 
The other form of book was the codex . 
In this the sheets were bound together down one edge much as they are in modern books . 
Normally the sheets were bound in groups , called quires , and the quires were stitched together to make a book . 
A common size of papyrus codex page is ten inches by eight inches , the size of quarto paper today , and one hundred sheets make a large book . 
There are great variations in the codex form ; some have single-sheet quires , but most have multi-sheet quires . 
Some codices were made up of double sheets folded and stitched through the fold . 
The difference between the codex and the roll is always clear . 
Compared to the roll the codex was more economical ; it was generally written on both sides ; and it was a much easier book in which to find a textual reference . 
Against these advantages the codex was fragile and might be bulky . 
It is sometimes possible to tell whether or not a particular text was written on a roll or a codex . 
Rolls were prepared for writing , but any papyrus left unused at the end could be cut off . 
If the text was longer than the roll , a sheet could easily be glued on . 
The verso of the roll was blank , and one can not think of an author , Mark for example , sending out his Gospel lacking the ending , while one whole side of his roll was unused . 
The codex form was not so accommodating . 
Even in the case of the single-sheet quire , an extra sheet glued on might have to be gummed on over the binding , or the whole codex rebound . 
10 WORSHIP AND PRAISE Architecture 
THE history of Congregational worship and of its habits of praise is a complex study for which many more pages would be required than we have here at our disposal . 
A simple but serviceable way of presenting its development is to invite the reader to consider three images : that of a seventeenth-century meeting-house , that of a nineteenth-century urban church , and that of a church built during the middle decades of the twentieth century . 
Consider , for example , the meeting-house at Old Meeting , Norwich , or Swanland , East Yorkshire , or Tadley , Hants ; or any of those whose appearance is preserved only in faded prints in the vestries of more modern churches ; then consider Union Church , Brighton , or Elgin Place , Glasgow , or Westminster Chapel , London , or Richmond Hill , Bournemouth ; then thirdly , consider the new churches at Banstead , Surrey , Pilgrim Church at Plymouth , or ( on a larger scale ) Southernhay , Exeter , or Eltham , Kent , or Leatherhead , Surrey . 
Whatever particular churches the reader holds in his imagination , the conclusion he will surely draw is that Congregational worship can be expressed in the progression through three phases — Family , Audience and Community . 
In any given place the emphasis may be on any one of these phases : in any given building you may well find a blend of two or all of them , or a kind of halted transition from one to another . 
But very broadly it can be said that the period from the beginning to 1750 is the " family " period : that from 1750 to 1900 , the " audience " period ; and that from 1900 to the present , the "community " period . 
To paraphrase these categories : Congregational worship comformable with the Savoy Declaration and the principles of classic Congregationalism is family prayers : that comformable with the Evangelical Revival and the new conurbations of industrial society is oratory : and that comformable with modern socialism ( I use the word somewhat liberally ) is community . 
Your meeting-house has the aspect of a dwelling-house , and its architecture is domestic in the Georgian style : it has large square windows which are later diversified by that very characteristic design of a rectangle surmounted by a semi-circle which the later meeting-house made into its own kind of ecclesiastical architecture . 
Within , the pulpit and table are usually in the centre of the longer side of the rectangle , and nobody sits far from the minister . 
Within and without the emphasis is on utility and not on ceremony . 
The pews are fairly closely packed , and the best use is made of a fairly restricted space . 
A gallery quite often is added to make use of space vertically as well as horizontally . 
The technique of speech appropriate to such a building does not demand a high pitch of voice ; reasonably careful enunciation and a moderate voice are all that are needed , and the very long discourses which were beloved of classic Dissenters could be delivered , and presumably listened to , in tolerable comfort . 
The contrast between this kind of building and the older of those buildings which are now mostly in use by Congregationalists is enormous . 
Very often , as the faded vestry prints testify , a meeting house was demolished in the nineteenth century to make way for a larger church . 
Now it is always assumed that this larger church was built in order to accommodate a larger congregation , or to minister to a rapidly growing district . 
That is only a part of the truth , because it must be noted that the larger church was never built in imitation of the style of the earlier one . 
In your new church you placed the pulpit centrally , but at the end of the church ; the congregation now faced down the rectangle 's longer dimension , and from an appreciable number of its members the preacher was remote . 
Were practical necessities the only consideration , a larger meeting-house of the same proportions would have met the need . 
It was never in fact constructed so . 
What mattered to the nineteenth-century Congregationalists was that they must needs express the spirit of success and enterprise which the Evangelical Revival , the Missionary movement , and the possibilities of reaching much larger numbers of people locally had kindled in them . 
Therefore their buildings were not only larger but more eloquent : towers or spires suggested aspiration and domination over surrounding buildings ; gothic arches in doors and windows suggested their conviction that a meeting house must " look like a church " . 
And that tradition of large-scale evangelistic preaching which was already well established by 1850 ( which was the first year of a peak-decade in Congregational church building ) made the idea of meeting-house intimacy give way in the minds of the designers to that of weighty and rhetorical preaching , with a certain amount of attendant ceremony . 
Nineteenth-century Congregational churches are in themselves ceremonious buildings . 
The space is still used with puritan thrift , and large congregations can be packed into the pews . 
It is still assumed that the proper postures for a congregation at worship are either standing or sitting ; room need not be left to accommodate the kneeling posture for prayer . 
But from outside the church " looks like a church " , and from within , with its large pulpit or even rostrum in the centre , and its Table dwarfed by the enlarged building and by the enlarged pulpit , it proclaims the primacy of the preached Word . 
The fact that about the middle of the nineteenth century the fashion for large church organs in Britain was just beginning ( the Great Exhibition of 1851 had a good deal to do with that ) brought about the familiar and somewhat aesthetically distressing adornment that is now almost inseparable from buildings of this kind — the pattern of organ-pipes behind the pulpit and directly in the focus of the congregation 's visual attention . 
It has to be said that while this was , to the eye , most offensive , the organ builder usually found that in a Dissenting church his instrument had far better " speaking space " , and was consequently heard to better advantage , than when it was tucked into a transept in some ancient parish church . 
The modern Congregational church differs as widely from that of 1850 as does the middle-period one from the meeting house . 
The reasons are quite simple . 
In modern times the social activities of the church take a more significant share in the church 's and minister 's time than they formerly did , and must therefore be allotted a more significant share of the church 's space . 
In your 1850 church you not infrequently find — especially in the North of England — a dramatic contrast between the sumptuous appointments of the building itself ( and not infrequently , of the minister 's vestry ) , and the inhuman barrack-like living conditions in the " church rooms " . 
These are sometimes actually placed underneath the church building : if not there , they are huddled behind or alongside in an apologetic heap . 
By contrast , your full-scale church " plant " of today makes the Sanctuary only the centre-piece of a systematic group of buildings . 
In consequence of this — and not only because funds are too scarce to permit pretentious architecture — your modern Congregational church is much more modest in its outward deportment than was that of your great-grandfather . 
But along with it are many buildings whose social significance is unmistakable . 
Too seldom is it possible to erect a complete system of buildings : but in such cases it is always urged on the architect that provision must be made for social activities , youth clubs , departmental children 's worship , week-night meetings , and so forth : and when nothing better can be achieved , the new church becomes a dual-purpose building , accommodating the ancillary activities under the same roof , or in extreme cases in the same room , as the public worship . 
One thing , however , all modern " sanctuaries " have in common . 
There is not , as there was in the Victorian church , any attempt to provide seating for a large crowd of worshippers . 
Not only is the building fairly small : its floor-space is not used up to anything like the same extent . 
The restful effect of bare space , especially at the front of the church , has now been recognized and admitted . 
Chairs , symbols of congregational adaptability , have replaced in many places the solid and immovable pews , which are equally symbols of the local rootedness of classic and late-puritan Congregationalism . 
A central aisle often enhances the impression of spaciousness , and the new ceremonious regard for the Communion Table , brought by the contemporary sacramental revival , has usually caused the removal of the pulpit to the side of the church . 
The " long " rather than the " square " shape is still usually preferred , and there is plenty of evidence still of that half-sentimental aping of the Establishment which caused so much confusion in the architecture of the larger churches of the period 1900-30 . 
It is too much to say that now a new sense of beauty has overtaken our congregations : but the positive gain is in a modesty and simplicity of demeanour which deny directly the chief vice of Victorianism , which was not so much ugliness as pretentiousness . 
There are , of course , many existing examples of churches which hardly fall tidily within any of these three categories . 
Carrs Lane , Birmingham , for example , though of massive size and accommodation , retains a fairly " square " ground plan and an austere un-spired exterior . 
St James 's , Newcastle , another famous " down-town " church , combines a fairly square plan with an unusual sense of dignity and ceremony imparted by the use of fairly massive pillars and an imaginative dispersal of the pews radially from the central focus of the pulpit . 
The oval experiment at Wellingborough , though over-large , was clearly an attempt to reproduce on a large scale something of the openness of the meeting house . 
Bromley , Kent , of course , with its seven-sided plan , is the most impressive of all modern attempts to recapture the " meeting house " shape and integrate it with progressive church-thinking ; for there the pulpit stands on a large platform in the middle of one of the " long sides " — which is itself composed of three planes set at wide angles to one another , while the congregation is arranged to move out from the pulpit towards each of the other four sides , again arranged at very wide angles . 
Redland Park , Bristol , though opened only in 1957 , has a fairly traditional appearance , being large , long , centre-aisled and side-pulpited but with no features especially eloquent of new trends . 
The Church of the Peace of God , Oxted ( 1936 ) , built to a cross-shaped pattern , could hardly be less like a meeting-house , and is very ceremonious in its demeanour : and its " community " buildings , such as they are ( pleasant but small ) suggest that the energetic community life of a new area is hardly looked for . 
Indeed , there is usually a difference between the new church built in a new housing estate and the new church built to replace an old one on or near the old site : this is understandable and proper , though imagination has sometimes failed at crucial points either , as at Stowmarket , by interrupting the domestic architecture of a pleasant village street by a somewhat over-eloquent modern elevation , or , as in some extension-experiments , by the inadequate provision of ancillary halls and rooms or the ill-considered siting of the whole plant . 
But the pattern is in general clear enough : and it is but one aspect of a pattern of development that can be seen in the habits of worship of the various ages of Congregationalism . 
Worship 
In its classic days there was enough of the Anabaptist and enough of the Quaker in most Congregationalists to ensure that any kind of fixed liturgy would be entirely unwelcome . 
When " family prayers " was the prevailing ethos , worship-books of any kind were unnecessary , and would have been thought an intrusion . 
The piping-hot devotion of the Brownists needed no such things ; nor did the crisis-outlook of the persecuted Independents . 
This is quite apart from the conviction that worship-books were in general a popish device , and that the Book of Common Prayer was the cause of all their sorrows . 
In the eighteenth century , although Dissent settled down to establish itself and soon became well able to look after its own interests , there was little inclination to revise these convictions . 
3. gain 
The word is used nine times in the book and belongs to the world of commerce , meaning surplus or credit balance . 
Life , says Qoheleth , pays no dividends . 
4. all the toil at which he toils 
The word for toil is also used of sorrow and vexation . 
The emphasis here is not on the physical labour but on the frustrating nature of it when the end purpose is not known . 
This is the problem of communication in the modern industrial world . 
3. under the sun 
The phrase is used some twenty-nine times in this book but not elsewhere in the Old Testament . 
It is parallel to " under heaven " ( cf. Ex. 17.14 ; Deut. 9.14 ) and " upon the earth " ( cf. Gen. 8.17 ) . 
It means simply " alive " . 
5. hastens to the place where it rises 
Qoheleth notes that the progress of the sun is an illusion . 
The end of the hastening is to be back where it started . 
The original for HASTENS means to gasp or pant , and is used of childbirth pangs ( Isa. 42.14 ) and the Psalmist 's longing for the commandments of the Law ( Ps. 119.131 ) . 
The figure of the sun as a participant in a race is familiar , and even before the Exile a passage in 2 Kings 23.11 suggests a knowledge of it . 
The thought fits Qoheleth 's position precisely . 
The finishing line is continually found to be but the prelude to the starting post — the sun gets nowhere ! 6 . 
The wind blows ... the wind returns 
This verse contains the same Hebrew word four times and is translated BLOWS , GOES ROUND , GOES ROUND AND ROUND , RETURNS ON ITS CIRCUITS . 
The sheer monotony of repetition is conveyed more strongly in the use of the same root and expresses admirably the futility that haunts Qoheleth. 7. the sea is not full 
This represents work and activity that can not hope to be completed since the sea will never be too full ! 8. the place where the streams flow 
The references is to " the underworld , which was thought to be the source both of the fresh-water springs and of the salt-water oceans " . 
9. the eye is not satisfied ... nor the ear filled 
There is no lack of sensations for these organs to be occupied with but there is no significance in what they experience . 
The word for SATISFIED is used of hunger and appetite . 
There is food enough but the hunger never grows less . 
10. there is nothing new under the sun 
The complaint is deeper than a demand for novelty . 
It is the lack of an advance in natural phenomena that appals . 
The verse may be compared with Pss . 
8 and 104 to bring out the gulf between viewing the physical world as a soulless process and viewing it sacramentally. 11. there is no remembrance 
The full force of this verse is only to be seen when the significance of the act of remembering in the Hebrew mind is recognized . 
The act means more than the recalling of past events . 
The very personality of a man continues into the present through his being remembered . 
There is an element of present reality in remembering — the past is re-presented . 
To say there is no remembrance would mean spiritual annihilation . 
Hence the frequency of the biblical injunction to look at the past and remember . 
( Cf. Ex. 13.3 ; 20.8 ; Deut. 5.15 ; Isa. 51.1-3 ; also 1 Cor. 11.25 . ) 
THE SEARCH FOR THE SUPREME GOOD 1.12-2.26 
Under the pseudonym of Solomon , Qoheleth outlines a number of quests or even experiments he has made in the search for an ultimate purpose , a supreme good in human life ; but all have led him to the same moral impasse . 
THE QUEST FOR WISDOM 1.12-18 12 . 
I the preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem 
The author clearly intends to be taken as Solomon . 
The use of this literary device was really a means of expressing Qoheleth 's conviction that neither wealth nor wisdom provided the clue to the final meaning of life . 
He uses here Solomon 's reputation for precisely these two features , his renowned wisdom and his ostentatious flaunting of wealth . 
His attitude is not that of an admirer , but rather he pillories these characteristics , and indirectly Solomon himself . 
13 . 
I applied my mind 
Lit. " my heart " . 
The Hebrew word le1b , frequently translated " heart " , is more concerned with thought and the will than with the emotions in Hebrew thinking . 
search out in wisdom 
The original for SEARCH OUT is used as a technical term for consulting the priest or the prophet and is what is meant by " enquiring of the Lord " . 
The root is da1rash and the term Midrash — commentary on Scripture — comes from it . 
With BY WISDOM compare Job 28.12 , where the quest for wisdom is considered beyond man 's capacity . 
See the Introduction , pp. 274 f. , for the need to distinguish between human wisdom and the Divine Wisdom . 
There are two levels of discussion , and the wisdom derived from the practical experience of daily living offers no key to the great ultimate mysteries of the Divine Wisdom . 
14. a striving after wind 
This is a favourite phrase of the writer and it is used some seven times in this book . 
The literal meaning is " a feeding on the wind " . 
The word is used of shepherds feeding their flocks . 
The thought is that for all the satisfaction obtained all his quests for meaning are like trying to make a meal on food that is no more substantial than the wind ! 
Some scholars derive the word from a root meaning " to desire " . 
Then the phrase would mean " to desire the unsubstantial or illusory " . 
The same note of bitterness is apparent in either case . 
All human activity , as far as its final significance is concerned , is like feeding on the wind or desiring the shadowy insubstantial air . 
15 . 
What is crooked 
The root meaning of CROOKED is " to twist or pervert " . 
This is a key for human sin . 
We find our colloquial term " twister " near the mark . 
We note the preoccupation of Wisdom in its profounder aspect with the problem of sin and suffering . 
16 . 
I said to myself 
Lit . 
" I , personally , spoke with my heart . " 
all who were over Jerusalem before me 
This completely gives away the case for Solomonic authorship — there is only one candidate for this , David . 
wisdom and knowledge 
These two terms are frequently found in close association . 
" In the Old Testament , " says Vriezen , " knowledge is living in a close relationship with something or somebody , such a relationship as to cause what may be called communion . " 
That a man has knowledge of God would mean that he had knowledge of God 's revelation of himself . 
17. to know wisdom ... to know madness and folly 
We note again the use of TO KNOW denoting experience within a relationship that is immediate , rather than second-hand " knowing about " from another source . 
Wisdom and folly are moral rather than intellectual categories and are equivalent to good and evil . 
We must applaud Qoheleth on the thoroughness of his research when he includes MADNESS AND FOLLY . 
The verse has also been translated " to know that wisdom and knowledge are madness and folly " . 
The word translated MADNESS means " mad revelry and wickedness " . 
THE QUEST FOR PLEASURE AND MATERIAL SATISFACTION 2.1-11 1 . 
I will make a test of pleasure 
AV , { 1I will prove thee with mirth . 
The connotation of pleasure is wider than that of mirth and is to be preferred . 
The Hebrew word is used of the ordinary pleasures of life , including goodness and joy and the rejoicing associated with religious festivals . 
The word for "TEST " is used of God testing Abraham ( Gen. 22.1 ) and frequently of such trials . 
enjoy yourself 
Lit. " look upon good " . 
This phrase contains the characteristic Hebrew idiom which uses "to see " meaning " to experience , to participate in " . 
It is used of experiences of life and death , happiness and sorrow ( cf. Job 9.25 ; Ps. 16.10 ; Isa. 44.16 ; Luke 2.26 ; John 3.36 ; 8.51 ) . 
The force of the phrase is not so much " Enjoy all that is good " as " Share in the experience of all that is good " and then give a verdict upon it . 
The verb is parallel to TEST and must be taken in this sense of trying and experimenting . 
The typical Hebrew view of life is not a denial of pleasure but the reverse . 
We need to remember the particular quest that Qoheleth had in mind . 
He is seeking for an ultimate goal to the merriment and happiness that life does contain in some of its separate experiences . 
2 . 
It is mad 
The Hebrew participle means " acting like madmen " . 
Cf. 1 Sam . 
21.14 ; Jer. 25.16 ; 46.9 ; 50.38 ; 51.7. 3 . 
To cheer my body with wine 
Lit. " to draw my flesh with wine " . 
The phrase is difficult . 
The word translated CHEER can mean " to draw or drag " , which in later Hebrew has a meaning of " to attract " in a figurative sense , that is , to stimulate and so to refresh. my mind still guiding me with wisdom 
AV , " acquainting my heart with wisdom " . 
The word for GUIDING comes from a root that is used to describe the herding of sheep or the conducting of prisoners . 
Qoheleth is still keeping his mind on his job . 
He is not blindly setting out on debauchery or dissolution as an escapist activity . 
to lay hold on folly 
The word used is a strong one , meaning " to seize " , and it indicates the urgency of Qoheleth 's quest . 
Here is no armchair doctrinaire dilettante. 4 . 
I made great works 
Lit . 
" I made great my works " . 
This is a reference to the large-scale building operations which Solomon included in the construction of his palaces and the palace of Pharaoh 's daughter ( cf. 1 Kings 7.1 ff. ; 9.15 ff. ; 2 Chron. 8.4-6 ) . 
Close to the building projects would be the VINEYARDS ( 1 Kings 4.25 ; S. of Sol . 
8.11 ) . 
5. parks 
The word is a Persian loan-word , pairi-deaza , from which our word paradise is derived . 
Qoheleth has a second paradise at his disposal but he is no happier than Adam was ! 
The word is used in the singular in Neh. 2.8 and S. of Sol . 
4.13. 6. pools from which to water 
A natural transition from gardens and orchards to the vital question of water supply . 
The pools are probably natural springs enlarged to become reservoirs or cisterns in the rock . 
King Mesha of Moab boasts of their construction in lines 9 , 23-25 of the Moabite Stone , which read : " 
And I built Baal-meon and made in it the reservoir ... and I made both the reservoirs for water inside the town . 
And there was no cistern inside the town at Qrchh , so I said to all the people , " Make yourselves each one a cistern in his house . " " 
Cf. also Neh. 2.14 ; 3.15 ; Isa. 1.30 ; 58.11 ; S. of Sol . 
7.4 ; 2 Sam . 
4.12. 7 . 
I bought male and female slaves 
The acquisition of slaves would be the necessary presupposition of the scale of his building operations . 
Behind these practices is the mas or forced labour system which Solomon takes from Egyptian practices ( cf. the use of such labour by the Egyptians in Ex. 1.11-14 ) . 
8. any who had been before me in Jerusalem 
Again the mask slips . 
This rules out Solomonic authorship . 
See Introduction , pp. 257 f. 9. my wisdom remained with me 
Lit. " stood to [ or for ] me " . 
Qoheleth retains his objectivity . 
This reinforces v. 3 . 
His experiencing of folly as well as wisdom still leaves him able to tell the difference . 
10. my eyes desired 
Lit. " asked " . 
We may compare 1 John 2.16 for the " lust " ( desire ) of the eyes , and also 1 Kings 20.6 ; Ps. 145.15 ; Prov. 27.20 fo the eyes as the seat of desire . 
There is no necessary suggestion of evil desire . 
The previous verse suggests that his wisdom safeguards him from this temptation . 
this was my reward 
This is a favourite word with Qoheleth ( cf. 2.21 ; 3.22 ; 5.18 ff. ; 9.6 , 9 ; 11.2 ) . 
It carries the idea of reward or profit . 
Qoheleth is suggesting that there is a gain from human experience . 
He has found a good , but the next verse indicates that it is a relative one and the supreme good is still to be sought . 
As it is written : " The Earth shalt thou make an Altar for God . 
And if thou wilt make an Altar of stone , thou shalt not build it of hewn stone , for if thou lift up thy sword upon it , thou hast polluted it . " 
The Shamir 
And they shall seek the Shamir , to make an Altar . 
According to the legend , Solomon had asked the Prince of the Demons , " Ashmodeus " to bring him the Shamir and Ashmodeus told him that the Shamir had not been placed under his charge , as there is no Shamir in Gehenna ( Hell ) . 
An eagle brought the Shamir to Solomon from Eden , the Paradise , the only place where the Shamir could be found . 
The Talmud describes that the Shamir lives in a sanctuary , and only some rare birds know the existence of it . 
These birds are , the Cherubim and the Seraphim . 
We are also told that the Shamir is the stylus used by Moses , and this stylus is described as a very precious diamond-stone and very adamant . 
The word Shamir was used as a personal name ( Git . 
68a ) . 
The Hebrew word " SHAMIR " means guarded or preserved . 
Therefore , the real man , who regards himself as insignificant , as the prayer says : "What am I ? 
A worm " , he is the Shamir and such a man fulfils the Shmah , loves the Lord God with all his heart , and with all his soul and with all his might and studies the word of God . 
This man is the worm , the creature that cuts and polishes Altar-Stones . 
Such a man is the Shamir that guards himself against all the irrelevant pleasures . 
Such a Shamir possesses the real acid to mould our character , to melt our heart of stone . 
This Shamir helps us earthly creatures to build an Altar for God to come nearer to God . 
The action of the Shamir writes books and their books are readable . 
This Shamir is indeed a rare diamond that incises the hardest rock , the hardest facts . 
And these creatures existed from the beginning . 
It is " the stone , which the builders refused , but it is to become the head-stone of the corner " . 
( Ps. 118 , 22 . ) 
And the stone shall tell ! 
" For the stone shall cry out of the wall " , like Baalam 's ass , " and the purlin of timber shall creak in answer " " if the roof of our security is crushing our soul " ( see Hab. 2 , 10-11 ) . 
And it is through the Shamir : " That the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord , as the waters cover the sea . " 
( Hab. 2 , 14 . ) 
The Shamir 's daily life writes the Decalogue , which is written on two plates , the hard facts of life , and all facts are " one " . 
We have all come across human Shamirs and they leave a deep impression on our feelings and senses . 
They make us the Altar for God to emit the Light which can be read in every language . 
The Shamir is the " seventh " and most important creature , that was created on the eve of the Sabbath , to bring the Sabbath , real peace to the whole world . 
Then the whole earth will be His Altar . 
The Second Lesson of the Shmah Deut. 11 , 13-21 
" And it shall come to pass , if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments , which I command you this day , to love the Lord your God , and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul . " 
This may seem very good , but there is something deficient . 
To love the Lord your God with all your might is lacking ( Deut. 6. 5 . ) . 
It is this lack of vision that may make us fail . 
And without visionary power the people will perish . 
But Nature will at first not interfere . 
" That I will give you the rain of your land in its due season , the first rain and the latter rain , " but the consequence will be " that thou mayest gather in thy corn , and thy wine , and thine oil . " 
Under such conditions without putting your mind together we can not solve the further summons of destiny , to solve the economic problems . 
Hence says Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai ( Tanis 6a ) " if Israel does not fulfil the wish of the Lord , failing to serve the Lord God with all their visionary power , the work will have to be done by each individual " . 
They will not work in union . 
If physical power , spiritual power and visionary power is not united , man will remain in his heart selfish and think only of one 's personal advantage to gratify selfish aims , then each man will gather-in for himself only , instead of all to help to gather your corn , your wine and your oil . 
Freedom from want can not be fulfilled nor freedom from fear , fear of starvation in the midst of plenty . 
Help will not be easily forthcoming for the people in need . 
They will think of the animals first ( which is of course our duty ) . 
Of course the individual will eat and be full but : " Take heed to yourself , that your heart be not deceived , and ye turn aside , and serve other gods , and worship them " , the yourself is thy greatest enemy , the self-seeking self . 
And you serve Mammon and God . 
And you can not serve two masters , and you worship self-interest , isolating yourself , under such conditions the goods are your gods . 
" And then the Lord 's wrath be kindled against you , and he shut up the heavens , that there is no rain , and that the land yield not her fruit and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you . " 
For without the vision to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might the problem of life can not be solved . 
" Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul . " 
The text adds and in your soul , searching your soul . 
And the sequence in the text is different than in the first part of the Shmah , we have first " and to bind them for a sign upon your hand , that they may be as frontlets between your eyes . " 
First to bind them to have the vision and then " And ye shall teach them to your children . " 
And as we have gone through the mill , we need not teach them to the children any more diligently and the children will grasp now what will befall them without visionary power . 
And we will nail the Divine Law on the door posts of the house and upon the gates . 
The Reward 
" That your days may be multiplied and the days of your children in the land , which the Lord swear unto your father to give them , as days of HEAVEN ON EARTH " 
That means the Kingdom of Messianic Righteousness ( Talmud Sanh. 99A ) . 
The Messusah , which is nailed on the doorposts contains those two lessons . 
The third lesson of the Shmah ( Numbers 15 , 37-41 ) is called " the going-out of the land of Egypt " . 
It starts with the story of the fringes the " tsitsits " . 
This lesson used to be read only in the morning . 
And the Talmud tells a story , which is also in the Hagadah that Rabbi Eleasar ben Assarja said , "I am nearly seventy and I had not succeeded that people should read " the going out of Egypt " the passage Numbers 15 , 37-41 , by night " , because the fringes ( tsitsits ) are only used in the day ; till Ben Zoma came and explained the verse ( Deut. 16 , 3 ) " that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life . " 
Ben Zoma said : " The days of thy life means in the day-time ; all the days of thy life means even at night-time . " 
( Berochoth . ) 
And the Rabbis thought it important that when we read the Shmah " to be willing to hear , " we should remember the Great Deliverance : Passover and its connection with the fringes ( the tsitsits ) . 
The Tsitsits and the Hagadah 
And the tsitsits had a message sealed inside the knots just as there is a message sealed in the four emblems which are used on Passover , to depict the " time of our freedom " . 
And they are ( 1 ) Matzo ; ( 2 ) Bitter Herbs ; ( 3 ) Salt-water and Charauses ( a kind of fruit mixture in likeness of the appearance of mortar ) ; and ( 4 ) an attitude to lean back . 
( 1 ) Matzos is deficient bread , ( LECHEM ANJO in Hebrew ) , so are we deficient without spiritual knowledge , and to cure our mental incapacity we should be willing to learn . 
Education is always the most important task . 
Education gives : Freedom of Speech . 
( 2 ) Bitter Herbs symbolises the bitterness that is hurled against us . 
We eat it . 
We accept it , to show we have self-control and that God dwells within us . 
Self-control gives us : Freedom to worship God . 
( 3 ) Salt Water and Charauses : the salt-water at the Seder-Table represents the Covenant of the Torah ( { MELACH BRITH ELOHECHO in Hebrew , Salt is the covenant of thy God , Levit. 2 , 13 . ) 
Salt preserves and we should have this salt in ourselves and have peace with one-another . 
And the sweet Mortar ( the CHARAUSES in Hebrew ) that binds all the " hard-facts " together and explains them , represents the Oral Tradition . 
We dip into both , at the Seder . 
And we want to understand more of the Torah and the Oral Tradition , our inheritance . 
Living the life of the Torah ( " dipping-in " ) makes us meek : " But the meek shall inherit the earth ; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of Peace " ( Psalm 37 , 11 ) . 
That gives us freedom from want . 
( 4 ) We lean back on the Seder-night , that symbolises we are unafraid , for we are Israel , the Overcomer , the Suffering Servant , "who will leaven the whole lump " , chosen from all the nations , and we realise that all mankind are God 's Children . 
That gives us freedom from fear . 
These four emblems are the substance of the Passover and these four symbols are also the four ways of interpreting the Torah . 
( 1 ) Matzo represents Peshat ; ( 2 ) Moraur represents Remez ; ( 3 ) Dipping-in represents Derush ; ( 4 ) Leaning-back represents Saud . 
( This is the PARDUS . ) 
Matzo represents the literal meaning of Pesach which is called : The Feast of Matzos . 
The Bitter-Herbs represent the spiritual principle and this gives us " a wink " ( Remez ) how to live and accept all the bitterness that is hurled against us . 
The Salt-water and the sweet Mortar in which we dip-in represents the richness of the Law and that we should immerse into it . 
Leaning back carries the concealed message . 
And we start the Seder showing the Matzos , that they represent the " Bread of Poverty " which our fore-fathers were eating in Mitzrajim , to show they were willing to learn ; and we invite anybody who wishes to partake in our discussions , saying : 
" Anybody who is hungry , let him come and eat , 
Anybody who is thirsty , let him come and drink . " 
And we want all to eat and drink His Great Philosophy of the four ways of Israel 's redemption . 
Hence "four questions " , which are really interrogations to examine into the principles of the four redemptions are asked at the Seder-evening about these " four symbols " ( the MANISHTANO ) . 
And the person who asks these questions is seeking the opinion of the one who is conducting the Seder . 
And we answer , that the Lord our God gave us " four freedoms " without which Society can not make progress . 
And we drink " four cups " to thank the Lord our God for the " four freedoms " which are Divine . 
There are four ways of redemption : 
( 1 ) I will bring you out from under the burdens of Egypt . 
( 2 ) I will rid you of their bondage . 
( 3 ) I will redeem you . 
( 4 ) I will take you to me for a people . 
( 1 ) I will bring you out from under the burdens of Egypt : How was it that Israel was brought out from under the burdens of Egypt ? 
Because , they kept the Passover and they were eating Matzos in Egypt and the " Feast of Matzos " was known even to Abraham and Lot . 
( Gen. Rashi 19 , 3 . ) 
Hooker , arguing that human reason and common sense were to have their place alongside the Bible and Church authority , poured sanctified oil on troubled waters . 
There were plenty of cross-currents in those waters and clergy who would solemnly have proclaimed their loyalty to that Prayer Book found as many ways of interpreting that loyalty as they do to-day . 
Many such men would find they could conscientiously remain in this comprehensive Church . 
But for some of them the path must end in schism . 
By that time , however , the Anglican Prayer Book , suppressed though it would be , would have become indigenous . 
And would have been the primer of saints — Lancelot Andrewes , George Herbert , Jeremy Taylor , Margaret Godolphin , and so many others . 
The new century opened with James 1 ascending the throne . 
He was quite prepared to be tolerant towards Rome though the Gunpowder Plot spoiled that . 
The Puritans had high hopes , for James had grown up in Presbyterian Scotland , but those hopes were dashed . 
True , a new Prayer Book was issued in 1604 but the Puritans derived little comfort from it . 
They objected to the word Absolution . 
So the phrase " or the remission of sins " was added . 
But Absolution remained . 
They objected to the word Confirmation . 
So the phrase " or the laying on of hands upon children baptized and able to render an account of their faith according to the Catechism following " were added . 
But Confirmation remained . 
Other changes in the Book were equally minor except for the new section on the Sacraments added to the Catechism . 
This indicated how ephemeral in the Church had been the mood which produced the Black Rubric , for it says that " the Body and Blood of Christ , which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord 's Supper . " 
It could hardly be more definite . 
It was at this time , too , that King James made himself immortal by becoming associated with a Bible translation — the Authorized Version ( which was never actually authorized ! ) . 
In that year Shakespeare had just turned forty and had written Hamlet two years before . 
Bacon was at work and Milton was just learning to read . 
James was followed by Charles , in whose reign came the Scottish Prayer Book in 1637 . 
Significantly this made a deliberate return to the Book of 1549 and became the foster mother of some of the most important Prayer Books in the Anglican Communion . 
Forever associated with Charles is Archbishop Laud , now so much nobler a figure than former historians led us to believe . 
Laud was enthusiastically hated by Calvinists and Puritans , and the sentiment was mutual . 
But Laud was no Romanizer . 
One of his first public acts was a hard-hitting battle with the Jesuit , Fisher . 
But anyone who was friendly with James and Charles , the Puritans argued , was necessarily a menace . 
All Laud 's statements in favour of a Church both Catholic and Reformed , all the many evidences that Laud fully represented the heart of the English Reformation in his beliefs , meant nothing to those who had drunk deep at Calvinistic springs . 
Laud was called upon to do severe things . 
What else could an archbishop do when he found that clergy had lost interest in their jobs ? 
Or when he found cock-fighting going on in church ? 
Laud made a positive approach . 
He set out to increase a sense of reverence . 
The Prayer Book was to be respected and so was the office of a bishop . 
Altars should be altars and not any broken down , transportable table which was handy for the most improbable uses . 
Laud 's motives were of the highest but his tact did not match them . 
Once convinced he was right , he was willing to go to most lengths to establish the fact . 
And so he became hated . 
And executed . 
And in the same year , 1644 , the Prayer Book was declared illegal — partly on the ground that it had proved " an offence to the Reformed Churches abroad . " 
The Puritan leaders were plotting ( though they did not use colourful things like gunpowder in interesting places like the Houses of Parliament ) . 
Both Church and State were their target . 
The doctrine of the divine right of kings made the bull 's eyes of these targets almost indistinguishable . 
" No bishop , no king , " said James . 
And " No king , no bishop " was the obvious implication . 
Charles went even further and asserted a king could do no wrong . 
In 1629 he dissolved Parliament and announced he would govern by royal prerogative . 
There was no outlet for the expanding gases of criticism and the explosion grew . 
For Scotland the introduction of the Prayer Book had been the signal . 
In England the Puritans ' day came in 1640 and the Long Parliament began . 
English churches suffered yet another despoliation . 
And Evelyn the diarist could record " Another sad day ! 
The church now in caves and dens of the earth . " 
To secure such an end men like Will Dowsing undertook to smash churches at 8s. 6d. a time . 
He was disgusted in one place where he had only 3s. 4d. because there were no more than " ten superstitious pictures and a cross " to be destroyed . 
Finally , in 1649 , Charles was beheaded and a thrill of horror ran though the country . 
A dead king and a ravaged Faith . 
It was these very excesses which sounded the death knell of the Puritans as a ruling force . 
But we can not leave this chapter with a picture of unrelieved gloom . 
These were also the days when Lancelot Andrewes was writing his { Preces Privatae as well as being a great bishop . 
The days , too , of George Herbert , many of whose poems have become much-loved hymns . 
It was now that John Cosin , one day to be a bishop , was growing up and preparing to make a major liturgical contribution as soon as opportunity offered . 
Contemporary with them was Jeremy Taylor whose Holy Living and Holy Dying have helped so many to achieve those titles . 
And it was the time when Nicholas Ferrar was making his fascinating experiments in Christian community living at Little Gidding . 
An interesting age ! 
CHAPTER NINE THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY SIXTIES 
NO Christian can lightly condemn an age and a system of belief which produced Richard Baxter and The Saints ' Everlasting Rest or John Bunyan and Pilgrim 's Progress . 
It was the same age , too , which gave birth to George Fox and the Society of Friends . 
All Christendom has surely been enriched by Fox 's striving for direct access to God and his joy when he felt he had attained it and " the whole earth had a new smell . " 
Political history , too , must surely have been poorer without the particular concept of equality which the Quakers were to propagate . 
Even the brand image of the day , Cromwell , must remain memorable for many things other than his warts . 
Dictator though he inevitably became , Cromwell had no burning desire to prescribe religious conformity . 
True , he would have no truck with bishops or a Prayer Book . 
But he burned for the preaching of a pure Word , yearned for the reform of morals , and " gave England a nearer approach to religious liberty than it had known . " 
" I meddle not with any man 's conscience , " he said . 
But there were times when his actions implied he assumed that Romans and Anglicans had no conscience and hence needed his strong treatment . 
And Irishmen , were , of course , another matter altogether . 
There was still so very far to go . 
English people , for example , did not think much of that degree of liberty which forbade them to observe Christmas Day . " 
England was merry England when 
Old Christmas brought his sports again , " said Sir Walter Scott . 
And men soon tired of those who " hated bear-baiting , not because it gave pain to the bear , but because it gave pleasure to the spectators , " as Macaulay expressed it . 
What 's more , people wanted God 's blessing on their weddings . 
But only civil marriages were allowed . 
The twenty years of the Commonwealth proved a negative , inhibiting experience . 
The Puritans were obsessed with their own theological gloom and snuffed any tiny candle of pleasure which came within their reach . 
They went straight to the Old Testament for a religion designed for doughty desert nomads . 
The Restoration of Church and King in 1660 was as much for basic human reasons as for ideological motives . 
It was not so much because Richard Cromwell had a weak character as because that for which he stood was , in the truest sense of the word , unnatural . 
Christianity is for the fullness of man , not for his suppression . 
And that was why the bells rang out and bonfires blazed as Charles came back . 
The temporary dalliance with Puritanism had shown that salvation , as well as joy , lay elsewhere . 
How much greater the pity , then , that Charles 2 could not prove more worthy on taking up the Crown . 
How unfortunate that his name must remain associated in the popular mind with Nell Gwynn , oranges and low comedy . 
And how sad that Charles should have attempted the same sort of rigorous suppression as had disfigured English history for so long . 
Bunyan and Bedford Gaol were one example . 
And there were the Conventicle Act which forbade meetings for worship where the Prayer Book was not used , the Licensing Act which imposed a rigid Press censorship , the Five-Mile Act which made Nonconformist ministers wanderers in the wilderness , and others which made notorious the name of Clarendon and his code . 
Then there was the Test Act which insisted that all civil or military officers should take the oath of supremacy and allegiance and receive the Holy Communion according to the Church of England rite . 
It was such legalistic ham-fistedness which was to make the life of the Church of England such an artificial observance for so many in the following century . 
And such a situation was imposed by the State , not initiated by the Church . 
There is so much one could condemn about these sixties of three centuries ago . 
But there is so much also which one welcomes , not least the 1662 Prayer Book , born under such strange portents . 
We no longer look starry-eyed and refer to " this incomparable Book . " 
Time has turned its wheel and prescribed revision as now overdue . 
But we must revise only in the full awareness of what this Book has meant . 
First of all , however , we look at its immediate background . 
Before Christmas 1660 five editions of the 1604 Book had been printed . 
Fifteen years without a Prayer Book had certainly not made people forget it or lose interest in it . 
But most people regarded these reprints of the 1604 Book as a stopgap . 
A revision was clearly called for and the object of that revision was clearly expressed by nine bishops who were still alive . 
The nearer the forms " come to the ancient liturgy of the Greek and Latin Churches , the less are they liable to the objections of the common enemy . " 
On October 25 , 1660 , Charles issued a statement calling a conference of all interested parties . 
On August 15 , 1661 , at the Savoy Hospital , that conference met . 
To it came twelve bishops ( including John Cosin of Durham , Robert Sanderson of Lincoln , and Gilbert Sheldon of London ) and twelve Puritan divines ( including Richard Baxter ) . 
The Bishop of London presided . 
As far as the bishops were concerned , it was obvious and natural that the Church 's Prayer Book should be restored . 
The onus of argument was therefore placed on the Puritans who had plenty to say . 
Practically all of them wanted , for example , the surplice , the sign of the Cross in baptism , kneeling to receive the Holy Communion , the season of Lent , and the use of a ring in marriage to be abolished . 
They wanted prayer to be extemporary and unfettered . 
There were actually Puritans who took this principle to such an extreme that they described the Lord 's Prayer as a Popish invention ! 
The Puritans wanted Sunday to become the " Lord 's Day " and Sabbatarian gloom to prevail . 
It is easy to condemn all this but we must never forget their very real zeal for righteousness . 
" Had the objectors concentrated on one or two points of real doctrinal importance , " says Bishop Moorman , " they might have made some impression on their opponents , but their absorption in details of little moment was their undoing . " 
In the first place it is not a great deal of use telling even children , as I have already suggested , not to be silly or to pull themselves together . 
Far better to help them to face whatever it is that is worrying them , to find the original cause and then deal with it ; show it up either for the sham it is — and many fears are based upon completely irrational pre-conceived notions — or to show how we may deal with it so as to remove the power to torment us that it seems to possess . 
Even worse is to laugh . 
Tremendous damage may be done to a child by laughing at what are very real fears . 
As adults , we know that their fears are groundless , indeed to us they appear laughable , but to a child they are very real . 
Not that I am suggesting that children should be molly-coddled — they must be made to face their fears , to see through them and come out on the other side as victors . 
To ridicule them only pushes them farther into themselves , so that they become unable to speak about it to anybody and the seeds of any amount of trouble are sown , the harvest of which may still be being reaped at forty or fifty . 
Far better to agree with a child that a particular situation is frightening , and then to face it together until the child can see how unnecessary its fears were . 
Because situations which may contain all the elements of fear can arise suddenly , it is a good idea to condition a child to some extent against it . 
To keep a child of twelve or thirteen under the impression that nothing nasty ever happens is not merely dishonest , it is unwise . 
As I shall suggest in a later chapter there are some situations which occur less frequently than they did once , or at least do not now arise until a later period of life , but this is no reason for leaving a child in complete ignorance to the extent of even lying to it when it asks questions . 
A little more honesty , even if one refrains from going into too many details , would help many a child to make a proper adjustment to life as it grows up . 
Let us look at Jesus . 
We do not , I think , see there a life without fear . 
There are several instances where he seemed unable to go on . 
In Gethsemane He prayed that the cup should pass from Him . 
Jesus shows us the way to face life . 
To see all the latent frightening possibilities and yet by facing them and knowing God is with us and that , with Him , there is nothing that can finally defeat us . 
More than that , that God has something important to do with our lives and that the nearer we get to Him , the stronger we become . " 
... 
Today 
A wonderful thought 
In the dawn was given ... 
And the thought 
Was this : 
That a secret plan 
Is hid in my hand ; 
That my hand is big 
Big , 
Because of the plan 
That God , 
Who dwells in my hand , 
Knows this secret plan , 
Of the things He will do for the world 
Using my hand . " 
Toyohiko Kagawa . 
PRAYER 
Loving Saviour , who experienced all human emotion , and whose sensitive nature knows better than we do , what it is to be really afraid , help us to know that when we face life boldly , many of the shadows are seen to be allies and not enemies and that , come what may , we are never alone when we are with Thee . 
Amen . 
CHAPTER FIVE TIREDNESS 
MOST people would probably regard tiredness as a purely physical thing . 
The cure for which is sleep . 
This is only partly true . 
Many people wake up tired of a morning and no amount of rest seems to make any difference . 
Sleep , to be effective , must be of that child-like quality which comes from innocence . 
To others , the long hours of the night bring only a disturbed tossing and turning which causes them to wake feeling worse than when they went to bed . 
We may begin to understand this a little better when we realize that tiredness itself is largely in the mind . 
Very few people , under normal conditions , work themselves to a standstill . 
The mind tires first and conveys the impression of tiredness to the body . 
This can be proved by noting the effect of a new stimulus on somebody who feels thoroughly tired . 
Suppose a mother has news late at night that her child is in danger . 
She will undertake a journey which , an hour before , she would have declared impossible . 
Even more simply , test your own reactions to different situations . 
There are some which bring on an almost immediate feeling of tiredness — such as when your wife mentions the washing-up — while others , if they refer to something you like doing , bring a veritable surge of energy . 
Many a girl who is " too tired to help mum " will later jump up with no apparent tiredness at all when her boy friend calls and go for a long walk . 
Nor is she necessarily being deceitful . 
She really did feel tired until the mind got the necessary injection of a fresh — and an attractive — interest ! 
Tiredness has , therefore , as much to do with our mental state as with our physical exhaustion . 
A disturbed mind can bring the healthiest body to a sense of fatigue . 
They wonder why they get no rest at night , even if they do sleep . 
They drag themselves around and can become a burden to their families and their friends . 
Any mental confusion can cause this and the best way is probably to seek advice . 
As we are unable to cure our own bodies if the cause of our pain is too deep seated , so we are unable to cure our own minds , if the trouble is a complicated one involving careful and patient treatment . 
One of the greatest steps forward that has been made this century is the way in which illness of the mind is no longer feared or shunned , and is in fact no differently regarded than physical illness . 
There is , nevertheless , a great deal of tiredness which comes from no major complication but results from an inability to deal with life , especially under the diverse pattern which is the twentieth century . 
In the days when most people were born , lived and died within the boundaries of the village , it was not difficult for anybody to live a day at a time . 
Even those who held a high and responsible office lived in far greater simplicity than their successors . 
When news from the Continent took days , from America weeks , from the Far East , months , even a Prime Minister could go to sleep in blissful ignorance of what might be happening at the other end of England , whereas today , everybody , let alone the Prime Minister , knows of happenings the other side of the world , within minutes of their taking place . 
In other ways , too , life for the ordinary individual has become so complex that it taxes the mind . 
Two hundred years ago , men lived and worked in one place , their lives were of one piece . 
Now a man may live twenty , thirty even sixty miles from his work . 
The only connexion is the pipeline of the railway on which they travel day by day . 
In many cases , their homes know little of their place of work and their associates at the office or works wonder what they are possibly like in the surroundings of their homes . 
It is easy , desperately easy , to lead a " double " life without ever deliberately planning to do so or in fact being conscious of what is going on . 
It is easier to live life in compartments but over the years it builds up , and to do so inevitably builds up tensions which need to be handled correctly . 
Can we then frame some " rules " which may enable us to live life as fully as possible , without having our energy sapped by unnecessary weariness . 
( a ) Order makes for a decrease in tiredness . 
We have a saying " My head will never save my feet " . 
Time after time we forget something and have to go back upstairs or down to the shops . 
If we ever stopped to consider how much energy — and time — we lose this way in the course of a day we would be staggered . 
Some of it is inevitable , and we do not want to become too pernickety . 
Nevertheless , we could all probably be a little more orderly for we so frequently just muddle through . 
The housewife would find life far less tiring if she made a list , followed a routine of work rather than getting from one thing to the next . 
The business man would find that he reached the end of the day with far less strain if he was a little more systematic . 
To drift aimlessly along is more wearying than anything else . 
If we would only sit down and write out all the necessary jobs waiting to be done and then work quietly through them , we would find life considerably less exhausting — and in the end we would do more . 
There may be some who will argue that routine destroys the soul . 
It is so easy , they say , to get into a rut . 
Save us from the school curriculum and even worse the school system whereby for meals everybody knows beforehand exactly what , on any given day of the week , they are going to have . 
If — such a critic may say — you are calling us to adventure , do not strangle us before we start by putting us into a strait-jacket called " order " . 
I am more than conscious of this . 
How anybody can go through the same routine day in and day out for forty years I find difficult to understand . 
A lot of it is inevitable so that industry and commerce may be kept going — though if ever it becomes possible to work out a system of " staggered " hours it may do an immense amount of good over and above relieving the pressure on over-crowded trains . 
As it is , with so much of our life already in a predetermined groove , I would hardly like to add further to the dullness which it engenders . 
But I am not arguing for this . 
I know how much of a drag it can be and I was interested some little while ago to hear of a school who tried a six-day timetable . 
They only worked , of course , a five-day week so that in the first week Monday to Friday were days one to five of the timetable , the following Monday was day six and Tuesday started day one again and so on . 
By this means they avoided each week being the same with a pupil knowing exactly what the subject would be on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m .. 
It was a little complicated to work , of course , and there had to be a big notice in the entrance saying which day of the timetable it was — but it added immensely to the interest and kept everybody on their toes . 
To have order does not mean getting into a dull routine . 
I have great sympathy with the young wife who does not always want to do the washing on a Monday . 
I would not want to either , but if she wants to get through the day without becoming exhausted , she will be well advised to sit down quietly and make a list of everything she has got to do , note the order in which they can most conveniently be done ( or must be done because of other predetermined factors — you must , for example , do your shopping on the morning of the early closing day ) . 
She will , in fact , be surprised at what peace of mind ensues . 
( b ) Concentrate on one thing at a time . 
A list or a plan enables us to put all our energies into the particular matter on hand . 
2 
We turn now to the consideration of an Aggadic passage ; the final portion of tractate Makkoth . 
The opinion of R. Hananiah b . 
Gamaliel is quoted in the Mishnah . 
This teacher holds that one who has incurred the penalty of kareth — the excision of the soul — obtains a remission from this punishment if he is flogged . 
In the opening passage of the Gemara it is stated in the name of R. Johanan that R. Hananiah b . 
Gamaliel 's colleagues disagree with him and that in their view a flogging does not bring remission of the penalty of kareth . 
This is discussed and then ( and we take up our analysis at this stage ) R. Adda is quoted as saying in the name of Rabh that the halakhah , the law , is in accordance with R. Hananiah b . 
Gamaliel . 
Rabh Joseph ( d. 333 ) objects that the term , used by Rabh , halakhah , is not appropriate here for " who has gone up to Heaven and returned to tell us that this is so ? " ( i.e. the term halakhah can only be used about some practical issue where a decision must be reached . 
But the question whether or not a man is guilty of kareth is a matter for God and there is no point in recording the actual ruling — halakhah — for this is known only to God ) . 
To this his disciple Abaye ( c. 280-338/39 ) replies that the term is applicable even here ( i.e. it is permissible for human teachers to state that this is how God will act ) . 
As proof of this Abaye quotes the saying of R. Joshua b . 
Levi ( early 3rd Cent. ) who said that three things were done by a human court here below and the Heavenly Court agreed with their decisions . 
Here , too , the objection can be raised : "Who has gone up to Heaven and returned to tell us that this is so ? " 
But R. Joshua b . 
Levi presumably argues that we arrive at this information by interpreting certain verses , and , consequently , we , too , are justified in interpreting the relevant verses to yield that R. Hananiah b . 
Gamaliel is correct and that God will act , as it were , in the manner stated by him . 
We have here an original saying of Rabh . 
To this Rabh Joseph raises an objection and Abaye replies by referring his master to the saying of R. Joshua b . 
Levi . 
It is probable that all this is a verbatim report of the actual words used by Rabh Joseph and Abaye and that there has been no re-working of the material by the Redactors . 
The only difficulty here is that if Rabh Joseph is prepared to disagree with Rabh there is no reason why he should not disagree with R. Joshua b . 
Levi . 
But the meaning of Abaye 's reply is probably that Rabh 's opinion is no isolated case but a normal method of interpretation and for this the example of R. Joshua b . 
Levi is quoted . 
The Gemara now proceeds to examine the saying of R. Joshua b . 
Levi itself . 
This is introduced by the formula , gupha , " the main saying " ( i.e. we have referred to this saying in the course of the previous discussion , here we deal with the saying itself ) . 
The three enactments of a human court in which the Heavenly Court concurred are given ( no doubt by R. Joshua b . 
Levi himself ) as : the reading of the Book of Esther on the festival of Purim ; that people should greet each other with the divine Name ; and that the tithe normally given to the Levites should be brought to the Temple . 
For each of these , proof texts are quoted . 
For the reading of the Book of Esther the verse is quoted : " They established it and the Jews took it upon them " . 
This is said to mean : " They ( the Heavenly Court ) established above that which the Jews took upon them ( the reading of the Book of Esther ) down here below . " 
The proof text for greeting by the divine Name is then quoted . 
This is the verse : " And behold , Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers , " The Lord be with you " . " 
A further proof text is then quoted , with the formula generally used for a second proof text , " and it says " . 
This is the verse : " The Lord bless thee , thou mighty man of valour . " 
The question is then asked : " What need is there for " and it is said " ? " ( i.e. why are two verses needed , why does not the first one suffice ? ) . 
To this the reply is given that from the verse dealing with Boaz there is no proof of divine approval , only that Boaz used this form of greeting . 
But in the second verse it is the angel who uses this form of greeting and hence there is evidence of divine approval . 
Finally , the proof text for the bringing of the tithe to the Temple is quoted . 
This is the verse : " Bring ye the whole tithe unto the store house that there may be food in My house , and try Me herewith , saith the Lord of Hosts , if I will not open you the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing , until there shall be more than sufficiency . " 
The Gemara then asks : " What is the meaning of " more than sufficiency " ( Heb. { beli dai ? " 
Rami bar Rabh replies : " Until your lips are worn out in saying : "Sufficient " . " 
The scheme of the sugya is as follows : 
( 1 ) The saying of R. Joshua b . 
Levi . 
( 2 ) First proof text and explanation . 
( 3 ) Second proof text . 
( a ) Boaz 
( b ) Angel 
Question : Why is ( b ) required ? 
Answer : Because Boaz may not have had divine approval . 
( 4 ) Third proof text . 
Question : What is the meaning of { beli dai ? 
Answer : By Rami bar Rabh . 
The first matter to which attention should be drawn is that the proof texts are not necessarily the work of R. Joshua b . 
Levi himself . 
In fact , the probability is that they are a later explanation of his saying , as we shall see . 
This would account for Abaye , in the previous passage , observing that " we expound the verses " not " he expounds " . 
And this would imply that the proof texts were known by Abaye . 
Our suggestion is substantiated by the fact that the comment on the first proof text : " They established above that which the Jews took upon them down here below " is quoted by Samuel in tractate Megillah to prove that the Book of Esther was composed under the inspiration of the divine spirit and Samuel does not quote it in the name of R. Joshua b . 
Levi . 
Even more significant is the fact that the proof texts from Boaz and the angel are quoted , in support of this very thesis that greeting should be given by the divine Name , in an anonymous Mishnah . 
In addition , the same reason for the second text is given by the Gemara in a comment to the Mishnah . 
( Actually , the Mishnah quotes two further proof texts and the Gemara explains why these , too , are necessary , but a careful examination of that passage makes it clear that these are not quoted here because they are not necessary to prove the point made by R. Joshua b . 
Levi . ) 
Finally , we note that the comment of Rami bar Rabh is quoted elsewhere . 
From the above it follows that here , once again , we have a good illustration of how a sugya has been fashioned from material already in the hands of the Redactors . 
The sugya is built around the saying of R. Joshua b . 
Levi . 
The proof text for the reading of the Book of Esther is quoted with the comment given by Samuel . 
( This is probably to be understood as a well-known comment on the verse ; quoted by Samuel in support of his thesis and quoted by the Gemara in support of R. Joshua b . 
Levi 's thesis ! ) 
The proof text of greeting by the divine Name is taken from the Mishnah . 
There is no reference to the Mishnah here because the Mishnah deals with the actual practice of greeting by the divine Name and the Gemara here quotes the texts to support the thesis of R. Joshua b . 
Levi . 
The question and answer with regard to the need for the text of the angel are quoted here in the same words in which they are quoted in the discussion on the Mishnah . 
This can either mean that both sugyas are quoting a well-known question and answer or that our sugya is quoting from the longer sugya which deals with all four texts quoted in the Mishnah . 
Or it is possible that our sugya contains the original question and answer and this is quoted in the other sugya . 
( This can be supported by the use of the expression : " Boaz did it of his own accord but there was no approval of his action in Heaven " in both sugyoth . 
Such an expression appears to have been framed in response to the particular point at issue here , whether the Heavenly Court concurred in the decision of the human court . ) 
The proof text of bringing the tithe to the Temple is then quoted and the interpretation of the latter part of the verse by Rami bar Rabh is added , not because this is at all relevant to the discussion but because it was a familiar interpretation which had become so well known that it was invariably quoted whenever the verse itself was quoted , almost as if it were a part of the verse . 
The Gemara continues with a saying of the Palestinian teacher , R. Eleazar ( 3rd Cent . ) : 
" The Holy Spirit manifested itself in three places : the court of Shem , the court of Samuel of Ramah , and the court of Solomon . " 
The place of this saying here is obvious , it follows naturally on the saying of R. Joshua b . 
Levi which deals with a similar theme . 
This is not , of course , to say that originally the saying of R. Eleazar was in any way connected with that of R. Joshua b . 
Levi , only that the two are placed into juxtaposition by the Gemara . 
A proof text is then quoted for each of the three cases mentioned by R. Eleazar . 
Judah said "it is from me " , admitting that Tamar was with child from him . 
But how could he have known this , perhaps she had consorted with some other man ? 
But the meaning of the verse is that a heavenly voice said : " It is from Me " — in the words of the Gemara , the voice stated , " these secret matters have proceeded from Me " . 
This proves , according to the Gemara , that the Holy Spirit manifested itself in the court of Shem which flourished in the days of Judah . 
Of Samuel it is said that when he asked the people to bear witness that he had not taken anything of theirs the people said that they were witnesses . 
But the verse reads : " And he said : " Witness " " instead of "and they said " . 
The Gemara interprets this to mean that it was a heavenly voice which proclaimed : " Witness . " 
Finally , the famous case of the two harlots is quoted . 
How did Solomon know which was the true mother , perhaps she was acting craftily ? 
But it was a heavenly voice which said : " She is his mother . " 
Raba objects that there is no proof from the texts quoted . 
For Judah may have known that Tamar was with child from him because he counted the days and months from the time he had been with her and found them to coincide with the time of her pregnancy and we do not presume that which we do not see ( i.e. we do not assume that another man may have consorted with her at the same time ) . 
With regard to Samuel the singular form may have been used because the whole people of Israel are referred to in the singular , as they are in another verse . 
As for Solomon he knew that she was the mother because she loved the child sufficiently to give him up rather than see him killed . 
But , says Raba , there is no real proof from the verses and R. Eleazar 's saying is based on a tradition . 
It follows that the application of the one passage to the healing miracles is likely to be as arbitrary and unprecedented as the application of the other to the " messianic secret " . 
In fact the application of Isa. 53.4 to healing miracles is not really appropriate . 
It only becomes possible if the verbs have the meaning "take away " , which is certainly not the meaning of the Hebrew they translate , and contrary to the intention of the original context . 
It does not mean that Jesus cured diseases , but that he bore them himself . 
We have previously decided that the proper Christian understanding of this verse is the atoning efficacy of the Passion . 
But because it is a literal translation of the Hebrew , it is necessary to see a real reference to the diseases of the people who came to Jesus , when the verse is selected for a particular purpose in isolation from the whole context . 
As such , it may have been used to relate Christ 's healing miracles to his total work of redemption . 
It thus widens the scope of the great Passion prophecy from the strict Passion apologetic to the whole of our Lord 's ministry . 
The healings are as much a part of his messianic work as the Passion itself . 
It was prophesied that the Lord 's Servant would bear our diseases , and Jesus both removed men 's diseases by his miracles and himself suffered their pains on the cross . 
These were not the acts of a wonder-worker , but should have been recognized as the proper work of the Christ , even if he was only { Messias incognitus . 
When Matthew incorporates this quotation in its present context , he loses sight of the connection with the cross . 
All that he is interested in is the fact that the work of healing can receive warrant from Scripture . 
The purpose is pictorial rather than apologetic . 
The details of the life of Jesus are already present in the revelation given to the prophets . 
But Matthew scarcely realizes that his use of the verse accords ill with its real meaning . 
Our Lord 's Use of Parables 
The effect of the two quotations which we have so far studied in this section is to prove that when Jesus did acts of healing he was acting as the Messiah . 
This raises the question whether people can be held culpable for failing to recognize this . 
This aspect of the matter appears in a further pair of texts which are concerned with our Lord 's use of parables . 
The analysis will show that the early Church not unnaturally adopted the position that failure to see the messianic character of his work was really caused by the people 's own blindness . 
There was a fundamental refusal to understand and to believe . 
We begin by observing how Matthew precisely repeats with regard to the parables the procedure he had used for healings and exorcisms . 
He takes two virtually equivalent Marcan summaries , abbreviates them to make one point each , and adds what he thinks to be the appropriate testimony in each case . 
The matter is further complicated , however , by the fact that the earlier passage about parables already contains the quotation material ( i.e. Isa. 6.9f. ) in the Marcan original ; and this is a quotation which has wide ramifications throughout the New Testament . 
The first summary is Mark 4.10-12 . 
It is a short paragraph on the reason for parables , largely based on Isa. 6.9f. , which Mark has inserted here to " mark time " between the parable of the sower and its interpretation . 
Matthew does not add a new quotation , but on the other hand abbreviates the Marcan version still further , when he rewrites this in Matt. 13.10-16 . 
His improvements consist in ( a ) the insertion of the proverbial saying about " Whosoever hath , to him shall be given " , etc. , from Mark 4.25 ; and ( b ) the addition of a Q saying about the blessedness of the disciples , which has a closely similar vocabulary to that of the Isaiah allusion . 
These improvements have the sole motive of enhancing the superiority of the disciples , who have the secret knowledge which others fail to perceive . 
The inserted verse properly denotes a warning against taking spiritual privilege for granted . 
It retains this in its Marcan context ( Mark 4.21-5 , otherwise omitted by Matthew ) , and even more clearly in its Q version at the end of the parable of the talents ( Matt. 25.29 = Luke 19.26 ) . 
But here it actually increases the sense of privilege , which directly contradicts our Lord 's intention ! 
The added Q saying on the blessedness of the disciples is really concerned with the blessedness of the present generation , when the kingdom of God is breaking in , by contrast with the unfulfilled hopes of previous generations . 
But Matthew has made it underline the good fortune of the disciples as a privileged e2lite . 
The second summary is Mark 's conclusion to the chapter ( Mark 4.33f . ) . 
In Matt. 13.34 Matthew takes over the first of these two verses , which says that Jesus gave all his teaching in the form of parables . 
But he suppresses the other , which tells how Jesus afterwards interpreted them to the disciples privately . 
Instead he inserts from his own stock the formula-quotation of Ps. 78.2 : " I will open my mouth in parables ; I will utter things hidden from the foundation [ of the world ] . " 
These changes thus cut out any further mention of the privilege of the disciples , which had been specifically developed in the former summary , and place the emphasis solely on the intentional obscurity of Jesus ' public teaching . 
We shall see that in both cases Matthew 's interpretation of the material is the end of a process which reflects changing conditions in the Church . 
As the second is much the simpler one of the two , it will be best to consider it first . 
The keyword for Matthew is { 15wen parabolai21s . 
As the whole of the first line is identical with the Septuagint , it probably represents the final stage of the adaptation of the text . 
This is to make it specifically applicable to the use of parables . 
For earlier stages we have to look at the second line , which is an independent rendering of the Hebrew text . 
This was not necessarily concerned with parables at all . 
The most notable feature of it is the translation kekrumme2na ( =things kept hidden ) for ( =riddles ) . 
This directly contradicts what is said in Ps. 78.3f. , that these things have been handed down from the fathers , and " we will not hide them " from succeeding generations . 
Thus this version disregards the context , presumably intentionally . 
Nevertheless there is evidence that this psalm was used by at any rate one circle in the Church with closer attention to its meaning . 
In John 6.31 our Lord 's opponents quote v. 24 : "He gave them bread out of heaven to eat . " 
The objection is that Jesus ' claim to be the Messiah is invalidated by his failure to repeat the miracle of the manna . 
It is evident that the feeding of the multitude is held by John to be a proper repetition of this miracle . 
But the teaching shows that the miracle is fulfilled more truly at a much deeper level . 
This implies an interpretation of the whole psalm in terms of our Lord 's redeeming work . 
The psalm is a poetical narrative of the acts of God in redemption . 
The elaborate opening verses , speaking darkly of a mystery from the foundation of the world , are intended to show that such acts are always true of God . 
The whole thing is thus an expression of faith , that he who acted in this way can do so again . 
In the same way , those who try to figure out eschatological programmes can expect the same acts to be repeated . 
This was perhaps too naively imagined by some . 
But if the Jews objected that Jesus had failed to perform the repetition of acts of redemption expected in the eschatological programme , the Church could reply that he had indeed fulfilled it , though in a mystery . 
This is an apologetic motive for the feeding miracles . 
And it also shows how Jesus was truly acting as the Messiah in the time before his Crucifixion . 
We have now arrived at an intelligible reason for kekrumme2na as a rendering of . 
These " riddles " are the righteous acts of God in redemption , as the psalm itself implies . 
The works of Jesus — primarily his atoning death , but also , at this stage in the apologetic , the rest of the ministry — are the final expression of these acts of redemption . 
But if it be objected that his works bore little relation to the way in which this was expected , then it invited the apologist to place the emphasis on the hiddenness of God 's ways . 
To say that Jesus ' works were genuinely messianic , but took the form of , so that they could only be perceived as such by the elect , solves the whole problem . 
Such is the application of Ps. 78 considered as a whole . 
The selection of v. 2 as a pesher quotation narrows the application to the teaching of Jesus . 
It is the full and final revelation ( cf. Heb. 1.2a ) . 
In the first line has a roughly equivalent meaning to in the second . 
To apply it to the parabolic method is a further refinement , effected with the aid of the Septuagint rendering . 
Finally Matthew inserts the resultant text into his parables chapter for its " pictorial " value , just as he used Isa. 53.4 at 8.17 . 
These stages of development reflect the Church 's changing outlook . 
To begin with , the Resurrection is held to be the revelation of the mystery of redemption , the open demonstration of God 's saving activity to which all previous sacred history has been leading . 
This idea is commonly met with in the Pauline Epistles , e.g. 1 Cor. 2.7 , where it characteristically refers principally to the cross . 
Secondly the teaching of Jesus is held to be an essential part of the revelation , though its true significance was known only to the " elect " . 
Thus the construction put upon the teaching in the light of the Resurrection faith is read back as if that was its recognized meaning all along . 
This is exactly parallel to the attitude adopted to the healing miracles . 
It was a natural position to take , once the Teacher himself had withdrawn . 
It is similar to the position of the Qumran Covenanters , who preserved a tradition of biblical exegesis , derived from their founder , which they regarded as a secret revealed to the e2lite . 
The third and final stage is the claim that this method was a deliberate policy on the part of Jesus , to prevent the mystery from being revealed to any but the few who are chosen . 
It is probable that this idea of a policy of concealment on the part of our Lord corresponds with an actual impression given by his anxiety to prevent his own radical reinterpretation of the kingdom of God from being confused with popular expectations . 
The special Marcan nuance in connection with this is the impression that even the inner group of disciples were themselves equally mystified by the parabolic method ( Mark 8.17 ) . 
A concomitant of the final stage is the sect-type doctrine of the Church . 
The Church is a privileged e2lite , having access to knowledge denied to those outside its ranks . 
Isaiah 6.9f . 
We now turn to the earlier paragraph on parables , and look first at the material as it stands in Mark 4.10-13 . 
It is clear that we have here an original saying built on Isa. 6.9f. , sandwiched between Marcan editorial matter which considerably alters the sense of it . 
The nucleus consists of vv. 11f. , which is a perfect expression of the doctrine of the e2lite . 
The mystery of the kingdom is given to the disciples , but to outsiders all things are " in parables " . 
The purpose is to sift the people , for ( it is assumed ) the elect perceive the mystery , but the rejected are blind to it . 
If { 15wen parabolai21s represents ( collective ) , as it actually does in the Septuagint of Ps. 78.2 , then the original saying was probably more general in intention , and it is Mark who has narrowed it down to parables in the technical sense . 
Faith can not stand unless it has nothing to stand on . 
Every moment is strain and crisis . 
That may be natural to the reformer in a decadent atmosphere ( if Danish religion was decadent ) , but it has the true Jansenist touch , as defined by Sainte-Beuve in the famous phrase , "It forgot God the father . " 
After all , the world created by God was pronounced good by Him . 
It is corrected but not superseded by the religion of Redemption — the Kingdom of the Son . 
No doubt there are fierce and dangerous factors working under the surface of our souls , but we need not ( indeed we can not ) be always living under the surface . 
We get a clear result of his system when he speaks of children . 
As their life has no strain they can not be real Christians and Kierkegaard has to deal ( rather shame-facedly ) with the Gospel texts on the subject ( Unscientific Postscript , p. 524 ) . 
Kant and the Utilitarians 
Most people would agree that Immanuel Kant was a great thinker and also that he was hard to understand . 
There are many ways of being hard to understand . 
One is due to style . 
Not knowing German , I can hardly assess this . 
It would seem that he can be quite lucid when he wants , and can strike out effective phrases like "Perceptions without conceptions are blind , and conceptions without perceptions are empty , " or " So act that your action may be a general law . " 
On the other hand , he is one of the philosophers whose work has been subjected to Higher Criticism , and the division into earlier and later strata recalls the Q and M and L of New Testament sources . 
This is partly owing to the fact that he was thinking , while he was writing , and did not always trouble to turn and revise page 100 in the light of what he had said on page 200 . 
But we must also take into account a feature of his mind that may be called Dualism . 
He tells us himself that his method of thinking was to take a point of view and work it out to its logical conclusion and then to do the same with the opposite point of view . 
They sometimes lie down side by side , like the lion and the lamb , but not to live in peace together . 
Two famous examples present themselves in the Critique of Pure Reason , where he is analysing the fact of knowledge . 
First of all , the case of the Senses and the Understanding . 
They seem to have no common root . 
The first is passive , the second active . 
The first deals with the outward and the second with the inner world . 
It is said that they are inseparable but it is not clear why ( for example ) my sensation of colour and my thought of Substance should combine into the amalgam we call " seeing a thing " . 
We may say ( without going into technicalities ) that Kant took his account of the Senses from Hume , and his account of the Understanding from Leibniz , and it can hardly be said that he reconciled them . 
It is the same with the distinction between Phenomena ( things as they appear to us ) and Things in themselves ( as they really are ) . 
We are told there is a deep gulf between the two . 
Phenomena fall within my experience . 
Things in themselves are unknowable , but in that case how do I know of their existence ? 
And what of the knowing Self which , in his view , seems to belong to both worlds ? 
We must keep this dualism in mind when we come to consider what Kant says about the relation of Goodness and Happiness . 
Most people know Heine 's brilliant jest about the contrast between two Critiques — that of Pure Reason , in which he deals with thought , and that of the Practical Reason , in which he deals with action . 
In the first he had shown himself a revolutionary . 
" The inhabitants of Koenigsburg set their watches by him when they saw this mild , inoffensive man take his regular walk . " 
Had they known , they would have been more frightened of him than of Robespierre . 
Robespierre only killed a king . 
Kant killed a God — the God of the Deists ( that is , the God whose existence can be proved by reason ) . 
Then he describes Kant looking up from his triumphant dialectic and his eye lights upon his faithful servant , Lampe . 
He must be left with something to live by . 
So in the second Critique Kant reinstates God , Freedom and Immortality as the object , not of proof , but of belief . 
Put less picturesquely , this means that the Critique of Pure Reason hedges in knowledge so strictly that it can deal with things only as they appear to us in sense experience . 
But when we take up the second Critique which deals with Morality , we find that the moral Good is permanent and unchanging in which we have to believe to make sense of duty . 
As Kant says with a regal gesture , " I abolish knowledge to make room for belief . " 
So we have got back to the existence of God , but the God of the moral law . 
Moral Duty ( he argues ) is distinguished from other purposive action by its absolute obligation — what Kant calls the Categorical Imperative . 
All other imperatives are conditional . 
" If you want to be a musician , you must practice so many hours a day " . 
But Conscience does not say , " If you want to be good , you must abstain from committing murder . " 
It says , " Thou shalt do no murder . " 
The moral command is unconditional . 
It is not based on desire which is selfish . 
Duty is not concerned with consequence : Happiness is concerned with nothing else . 
Here we have a sharp dualism . 
The soul of man is free only when it accepts the moral law as good in itself and does not get entangled with selfish desires . 
He does not go quite so far as to say that if I take pleasure in a good action it makes that action bad , but he does say that its goodness has no connection with my feelings . 
Kant finds it rather difficult to answer the question : have I any motive at all when I obey the moral law ? 
I do not desire anything for myself or for others . 
I am not concerned with any consequence that may follow . 
I may say that I " respect " it but I show that respect simply by obeying a law which , because it is always binding on all , must have God for its Giver . 
So far Kant has not got much beyond the Stoic position . 
But after all , he had been brought up under Christian influences , and he goes a step further . 
To do my duty is to will the Supreme Good . 
I can not will what is impossible and therefore there must be a God who is able and willing to bring about the Supreme Good — which includes Happiness . 
A. E. Taylor has said that what distinguishes Religion from Morality is that the former says , " What ought to be , exists . " 
Kant makes a move in that direction . 
There is another point at which he swerves from the strict Stoic creed . 
He accepts a belief in Immortality not so much as a system of rewards and penalties as the possibility of endless moral progress . 
His rather curious argument runs as follows : " What the Law commands must be possible . " 
" I must ; therefore I can . " 
" This proves human freedom . 
But the Law commands that I shall be absolutely good . 
Now goodness is a process of becoming which never ends , and therefore needs an endless period " — in which not to attain its goal ! 
But will this process go on after death as it does here on earth , where the just are never perfectly happy and where evils are constantly clouding and obstructing the Good Will , which Kant calls " the brightest jewel of the Soul " ? 
I suppose he might have answered , Yes , survival after death and unending improvement need not mean perfect happiness there any more than here . 
But after seventeen centuries of Christian teaching about Heaven it was difficult to contemplate so bleak a prospect . 
So now he introduces a new moral intuition . 
" That Goodness and Happiness ought to go together , and the existence of God proves that they shall . " 
So he seems to have overcome the dualism of Happiness and Duty but at a cost . 
He has been violently attacked for reviving at this point the very desire for rewards , which he had banished so haughtily from his Ethics . 
Professor Webb defends him against this charge by saying that the desire is not selfish but a matter of justice — that all good men should be rewarded ( whether it includes myself or not ) . 
This may or may not be a sufficient answer , but it hardly meets the problem " Does Kant regard Happiness as a good thing or not ? " 
The answer would seem to be that it is a bad thing before death and a good thing after . 
This is not perhaps as absurd as it sounds and might be worked into a theory that life here is a probation , in which we prove ourselves worthy or unworthy of happiness in the next . 
But in this life is it not lawful to seek the happiness of others ? 
On stern Kantian grounds , no . 
Our only desire for others should be that they observe the moral law . 
Thus , the evil of cruelty consists in its effect on the disposition of the doer and not in the sufferings of the victim . 
It is surely the height of pedantry to deny that at least one of the consequences which result from breaking the law of human kindness is the increase of human unhappiness . 
The Utilitarians defended Pleasure against Kant . 
I do not propose to say more than a word about Jeremy Bentham . 
As a reformer of Law and political institutions he was effective , largely because they demand an appeal to the kind of external obedience which can be regulated by external rewards and punishments . 
But , when he tries to open the secrets of the human heart , he appears as the pedant , which for all his good nature he really was . 
He seems to have accepted the syllogism : 
I only do what I desire . 
I only desire what gives me the greater pleasure . 
Therefore , whatever I do , I do because it gives me the greater pleasure . 
It is natural to ask — if everyone does what gives him the greatest pleasure and can not do anything else , what is wrong and why is the moralist needed to tell us what we ought to do ? 
What is the greatest pleasure ? 
On what scale is it measured ? 
Am I the best judge of it ? 
And so on . 
But apart from all that , one is surprised at the poverty of his psychology . 
Bentham would have done well to consider the Romantic movement which he so much despised . 
We only do what we want ! 
Struggles of martyrs , doubts of lovers , fight against temptation , changing moods of the voluptuary , earnest struggling after the true end of life — was all this world of feeling completely closed to him ? 
As though "What do I want ? " were not the question of questions ! 
That world was not wholly closed to John Stuart Mill . 
Brought up in the straitest sect of the Benthamites , he literally collapsed after a diet of " push-pin as good as poetry " and "forty-three motives for obeying the law " . 
He recovered into a brighter world of poetry and music . 
But he still called himself a Utilitarian . 
This was not merely loyalty to his upbringing . 
It was the result of his abiding dislike for any system which relied upon pure intuition . 
Wherever he sensed it , there was the enemy . 
It relied upon an obscure feeling , which was not accountable to reason . 
For Mill , life must be made up of clear-cut ends , and of means leading straight to them . 
The kind of Good preached by Kant and Coleridge seemed to him vague and undefined . 
But everyone knew what Pleasure was . 
Here was a goal with no mystical nonsense about it . 
There are , of course , those who regard the Church as Christ 's body , not metaphorically , but metaphysically and ontologically , and see it as an extension of the Incarnation , and would not think any description of the Church complete in which the phrase " body of Christ " did not occur ; and no doubt the sentence under consideration was framed thus , with biblical language used in this oddly unbiblical way , in order to leave it open to such persons to expound what is said , not of evangelism , whereby Christ calls men out of the world to Himself , but of the Church as supernaturalizing society , or as linking men to Christ through its sacraments , or else of Christ as in some sense continuing His work of redemption by endlessly offering Himself to God in organic union with His members . 
But all these are minority views in the Church of England , of dubious biblical credentials , and scarcely a century old ; they can hardly be said to be rooted in Anglican tradition , and they are certainly not countenanced in any official formulary of the Church of England . 
As such , they have surely no right thus to deflect the wording of the Catechism from the biblical norm of usage . 
( 2 ) The section ( 14-17 ) introduced by the question : " What orders of ministries are there in the Church ? " ought to be dropped . 
In the first place , the question presumably refers to the Church universal on earth , but it is answered by a description of bishops , priests , and deacons , and their work in the Church of England . 
This is odd : is the Church of England , then , to be identified with the Church universal ? 
And furthermore : it is essential for the catechumen to be instructed in the precise functions of bishops , priests , and deacons in the Church of England set-up before he be admitted to the Lord 's Table ? 
Such instruction could only be held essential if this organizational structure were itself essential to the being of the Church , as such , so that where this threefold ministry could not be recognized the Church must be judged non-existent , and the conclusion drawn that there are no valid or efficacious Eucharists there . 
Knowledge about the threefold ministry would then be " saving knowledge " in the strict sense , for valid sacraments are generally necessary to salvation ; but is this the historic Anglican view ? 
Can it be proved by Scripture , which " containeth all things necessary to salvation " ? 
The answer is no in both cases . 
It is true that a vocal minority in the Church of England today holds this opinion in some form , but it does not seem right to give space in the Revised Catechism to a matter whose presence there could only be justified if this minority view were accepted as being Scriptural and normatively Anglican . 
This section leaves the impression that the ministry is the Church for all practical purposes , and this impression is strengthened when , at a later stage , we read that " the Church 's ministry in marriage is to bless the man and the woman in their wedding , so that they may together receive the grace of God ... " ( 53 ) . 
Certainly not ! 
This is Roman doctrine , not the doctrine of the Church of England . 
The Church is the fellowship of the faithful , not just the minister ; and the Church 's ministry in marriage is to pray for and with the marrying couple — a ministry of which the officiant 's pronouncement of blessing is only one small part . 
Here , too , a change of wording is imperative ; unless , indeed , question 53 be deleted altogether , which we ourselves would favour ( see below ) . 
( 3 ) Baptism is defined ( 38 ) as " the sacrament in which , through the action of the Holy Spirit , we are christened or made Christ 's " . 
This definition is not very satisfactory . 
In the first place , it has no clear meaning ( which fact alone makes it unfit to stand in a catechism ) . 
In the second place , it most naturally implies that there is a peculiar grace received in baptism { ex opere operato . 
But it is not historic Anglican teaching ( think of the Gorham judgment ) , nor , we think , is it unanimous present-day Anglican opinion , that the grace exhibited in baptism is always received in the rite itself , and never before or after . 
In the answer to question 42 , however , we are told that " Confirmation is the ministry by which , through prayer with the laying on of hands by the bishop , the Holy Spirit is received to complete what he began in baptism ... " ; which form of words ( based , it seems , on the audacious assertion in the Scottish Prayer Book that " Confirmation is an apostolic and sacramental rite by which the Holy Spirit is given to complete our baptism " ) seems to force us to interpret answer 38 of some sort of baptismal regeneration . 
Yet it is a very odd sort of regeneration , for it is only a partial initiation into Christ and His Church , needing the further grace given in Confirmation ( also { ex opere operato ? ) to perfect it . 
Such a concept has breath-taking implications . 
It implies that every baptized Christian throughout the universal Church whose ecclesiastical system does not make available to him episcopal confirmation misses some grace , forfeits some blessing , foregoes some degree of union with Christ . 
On this view , as Professor G. W. H. Lampe has pointed out , " Christian Baptism would be reduced to the level of the baptism of John , a preparatory cleansing in expectation of a future baptism with Holy Spirit ; Confirmation would become , not merely a sacrament in the fullest sense ( which the Anglican Articles deny ) , but the great sacrament without whose reception no man could call himself a Christian ... " 
( The Seal of the Spirit , 1951 , p. 13 ) . 
Lampe calls these " monstrous conclusions " . 
We agree . 
Are they historic Anglican teaching ? 
Can they be proved by Scripture ? 
Again , the answer in both cases is no . 
We know , certainly , that this view ( the " Mason-Dix line " ) has been argued at various times during the past hundred years by a small band of very able men , that it has a certain following today , and that it has actually been embodied in the proposed new Confirmation rite . 
But most Anglicans , we think , still hold to the historic view expressed in the structure of the 1662 Confirmation service — namely , that Confirmation is simply a domestic institution whereby the Anglican community , acting through the bishop as its appointed representative , welcomes into adult fellowship , on the basis of a personal profession of faith , those who in baptism were originally received , normally as infants , with the status of sponsored members . 
The congregation prays that the Spirit may strengthen the confirmees for the new responsibilities which their increased status in the Church brings . 
But this is not in the least to imply that in the sight of God the blessings of the Spirit which their baptism signified — " union with Christ in his death and resurrection , the forgiveness of sins , and a new birth into God 's family , the Church " ( 40 ) — are necessarily incomplete till Confirmation has taken place . 
Here again , then , we must protest against the intrusion into the new Catechism , which the whole Church , it is hoped , will use , of a minority opinion which most Anglican clergy in their teaching of Confirmation candidates would wish to ignore , or indeed repudiate . 
( 4 ) At this point , however , we would make a more radical criticism . 
The passages dealing with the five " other Ministries of Grace " ( " confirmation , holy order , holy matrimony , the ministry of absolution , and the ministry of healing " ) ought , we suggest , to be dropped entirely . 
For the assumption behind the phrase " other Ministries of Grace " evidently is that in each of these five cases ( though , one would gather , in no other case ) the activity of the officiant confers some special gift of God which would not otherwise be received . 
We saw earlier how clearly this comes out in the tell-tale wording of the statement about matrimony ; and the assumption appears again when absolution is defined as the ministry whereby penitents who have made " free confession " of their sins in the minister 's presence " receive through him ( sic ) the forgiveness of God " . 
( This , of course , as it stands , is simply not historic Anglican teaching , but a well-known party line . 
To express the Anglican view of absolution , as witnessed to by the Prayer Book , the last words would have to read : " receive through him assurance of the forgiveness of God " — rather a different thing . ) 
But the assumption that these five types of ministerial action each convey a special grace { ex opere operato is without warrant in Anglican theology — not to mention the Bible ! 
We might , perhaps , be told that no such assumption is implied , and all that " ministries of grace " means in this context is that God blesses His faithful people through each of these ministerial functions . 
This is an undoubted truth ; but if nothing more than this is intended , we should at once have to ask why , in that case , only these five receive mention ? 
Why is healing specified when the visitation of the sick is not ? 
Why is absolution spoken of while the preaching of the Word is left out ? 
Whichever way we look at it , neither the Articles , nor the Prayer Book , nor the Bible , can justify the selection of just these five activities , and no more , as the Church 's " other ministries of grace " . 
The selection is inherently arbitrary and untheological . 
This idea behind it is presumably that the catechism ought to mention one ministerial action in the Church of England to correspond with each of Rome 's seven sacraments ; but there is no obvious reason why it should . 
The habit of mind which takes its cue from Rome and aims to keep step with Rome wherever possible is found in the Church of England , but it is not authentically Anglican . 
We ask again : can it be held that the knowledge of these five " ministries of grace " is in any way essential to salvation ? 
Can the things that are said , in particular , about Confirmation , and matrimony , and absolution , be proved from Scripture ? 
Can any warrant or sanction for them be found in existing Anglican formularies , or in the main stream of the Anglican theological tradition ? 
If not ( and we think that the answer to all three questions is no ) , then they can have no rightful place in a Catechism for the Church of England . 
So much for the new material . 
But to complete our survey we should also note what has been omitted of the old material . 
Here are the more important deletions . 
( 1 ) The reference to the world , the flesh , and the devil in the first baptismal vow has been replaced by a weak general reference to "wrong " and " evil " ( We gather , however , that the devil , at least , is soon to be restored to his rightful place as an object of specific renunciation . ) 
( 2 ) The assertion of original sin ( " being by nature born in sin , and the children of wrath " ) has been dropped entirely . 
This is disturbing , for the new Catechism now says nothing positive at all about man 's lost condition by nature . 
It is true that the biblical doctrine of original sin ( under its ecclesiastical name of Augustinianism ) is having a raw deal in Anglican liturgical circles these days ; but it is there in the Bible , and it ought to appear in an unexpurgated form in the Catechism . 
For the Catechism exists to teach the Gospel of God 's grace , and you can not understand grace till you have first understood sin . 
( 3 ) The sanction of the second commandment has also gone , so that the new Catechism now contains no mention of God 's penal wrath against sin . 
( 4 ) The description of the Church as God 's "elect people " — the covenant community — has gone . 
The thought of the covenant relationship seems to be completely absent from the wording of the Revised Catechism . 
( 5 ) The conception of a sacrament as a visible word of God , summoning its recipients to " Faith , whereby they stedfastly believe the promises of God made to them in that sacrament " , has vanished too . 
( 6 ) So has the demand that those who come to the Lord 's Supper should first examine themselves . 
BIBLE STUDY — ZECHARIAH F. B. HOLE ( Chapters 7 : 1-11 : 17 ) 
IN the first verse of chapter 7 , we find another date given ; almost two years later than that of the visions just recorded , and the prophecies of Haggai . 
These fresh prophecies were occasioned by the arrival of certain men with questions as to the observance of fasts , and we notice that we pass from the record of visions to a series of plain declarations of God 's message . 
We now find repeated not , " I lifted up mine eyes , " but rather , "The word of the Lord came . " 
The question raised by these men concerned a fast in the fifth month , which had been observed for many years . 
From Jeremiah 52 : 12 , we learn that it was in that month the Babylonian army had burned Solomon 's magnificent temple , and wrecked Jerusalem . 
Now once more the house of the Lord was being built , if not entirely finished , so was it suitable that they should still observe the fast ? 
A very natural question ! 
The answer of God through Zechariah linked with this fast another in the seventh month , which apparently was in memory of the murder of Gedaliah and others , and the flight of the remnant , left in the land , into Egypt , as recorded in 2 Kings 25 : 25 , 26 . 
These tragedies were commemorated with fasting and tears , during the seventy years captivity . 
As far as we can discern , no direct answer was given to the question they raised : instead another question was raised with them . 
Did they have Jehovah before their minds in their observances or only themselves ? 
And when the fast was over , did they return to their eating and drinking just enjoying themselves ? 
Did they really fast , enquired the Lord , " unto Me , even to Me ? " 
Here is deeply important instruction for ourselves . 
We may put it thus : In our observances and service a right motive is everything . 
We may diligently observe the Lord 's Supper on the first day of the week , diligently preach the Gospel , or minister to the saints ; but are we doing it with God Himself , revealed in Christ , before us , or are we just pursuing an agreeable ritual and maintaining our own reputations in it all ? 
A searching question , which the writer had better ask himself as well as the readers ask themselves . 
If the people had kept the Lord before them and observed His words through the former prophets , things would have been far otherwise . 
And what was His word now through Zechariah , but just what it had been through them . 
Take Isaiah 's first chapter as an example . 
He accused the people of moral corruption , whilst maintaining ceremonial exactitude . 
In verses 11-14 , of our chapter the men who enquired are reminded of this , and are plainly challenged as to the present attitude of themselves and the people of their day , as we see in verses 8-10 . 
The moral evils that had wrecked the nation were still working amongst the people that had returned to the land . 
A remnant may return but the inveterate tendency to develop the old evils remains . 
Let us never forget that . 
But having exposed the sinful state of the people , another word from the Lord came in which the purposes of His mercy were revealed , as we see in chapter 8 . 
In this remarkable chapter there are things specially addressed to the remnant then back in the land — verses 9-17 , for instance — yet the main drift of it goes far beyond anything that was realized in their history , between the rebuilding as permitted by Cyrus , and the destruction under the Romans ; so it looks on to the end of the age and the second coming of Christ . 
In that age Jerusalem will indeed have Jehovah dwelling in her midst and be called " a city of truth . " 
Once indeed He who was the " truth " as well as the " way , " and the " life , " was in her midst , only to be rejected and crucified , while Pilate , who sanctioned that act of rejection , asked satirically , " What is truth ? " 
No , Jerusalem has never yet been worthy of that designation ; but she will be in a coming age . 
And then human life will be greatly prolonged , and young life be abundant and free . 
Our modern streets with fast-moving motor traffic are hardly a playground for children . 
Verses 6-8 , also look on to the time of the end . 
What had come to pass in the return of the remnant was indeed wonderful in their eyes , but what is here predicted would be more wonderful still , when God would gather from the west as well as the east , to dwell as His people , so that He would be their God "in truth and righteousness . " 
In Christ truth and righteousness have indeed been revealed and established , but never yet has God dwelt in Jerusalem on that basis . 
The day is coming when He will do so . 
In verses 9-16 , there is a special appeal to the remnant of the people then in the land . 
They are reminded of the words spoken to them earlier , when the foundation of the temple was laid , and how the adversity that had marked their doings had been turned into a time of prosperity . 
God was now bestowing much favour and prosperity upon them , but they are reminded that He called for suitable behaviour on their part . 
Truth , honesty and righteous judgment was what was expected of them . 
Again the stress is on the moral qualities that are according to God , and not on ceremonial observances . 
A further word from the Lord is now given , and in verse 19 four fasts are mentioned . 
Besides the two mentioned in the previous chapter we now have the one in the fourth month , for in that month famine prevailed and Jerusalem was broken up , according to Jeremiah 52 : 6 , and it was in the tenth month that the city was surrounded by Nebuchadnezzar 's army , as verse 4 of that same chapter records . 
It is now revealed that the day would come when these four fasts would be turned into feasts of rejoicing . 
Therefore they were to love truth and peace . 
These predictions of future blessing were to have a present effect upon the people . 
And all that we know of future blessing should have a present effect or good upon ourselves . 
It is worthy of note that truth precedes peace , as cause and effect . 
Error produces strife just as certainly as truth produces peace . 
In the remaining verse of our chapter we find predictions of the happy state of things that will prevail when truth at last prevails in Jerusalem , and peace fills the scene . 
In that coming day the house of the Lord will indeed be , " an house of prayer for all people " ( Isa. 56 : 7 ) . 
There will be many who desire to seek the Lord in prayer , and they will recognize where God is to be found in that day . 
All through the centuries the name , " Jew , " has had a measure of reproach attaching to it . 
It will not be so then , for they will recognize that at last God is with His ancient people . 
It is obvious that this prediction has never yet been fulfilled , and looks on to a future day . 
The word of the Lord that opens chapter 9 is spoken of as a " burden , " since it starts with solemn words of judgment on peoples that surrounded the land of Israel . 
Some of these judgments took place soon after the predictions were uttered ; that upon Tyre , for instance , and upon the cities of the Philistines . 
Darby 's New Translation tells us that an alternate rendering to " bastard , " is one " of a foreign race . " 
But even so there will apparently be a remainder , or a remnant , who will be for God and belong to Him . 
Moreover , however powerful oppressors may appear to be , God will encamp about His house in protecting mercy . 
And how will this be brought to pass ? 
Verses 9 and 10 answer this question , for in these two verses the two advents of the Lord Jesus are brought before us . 
The coming of the King will settle everything , but we can imagine how the reader of Zechariah 's day might pause at this ninth verse in amazement , feeling that in the presence of powerful outside foes , and the inward defection so plainly manifested amongst the Jews , some great and majestic and powerful Deliverer was needful , and the King is announced as lowly in His person and in His approach . 
True , He is to have salvation , but this was not the kind of King that was popularly expected . 
The spirit of God , who inspired this prophecy knew very well that there was a deeper question to be settled before there could be the intervention in power that was so ardently desired . 
First must come the bearing of the full penalty of human sin , and hence the Divinely reached settlement of that dreadful matter , and , that accomplished , there could be emancipation from sin 's power . 
This had been set forth typically in Exodus 12 and 14 . 
First the blood of the lambs in Egypt , and then deliverance by the overthrow of Egypt . 
The latter is more spectacular , but the former a far deeper thing . 
In the Gospels we see how the more spectacular filled the minds of the disciples . 
Even when they acted and played their part in the fulfilment of verse 9 , they did not realize they were doing it . 
This we are plainly told in John 12 : 16 . 
Only when Jesus was glorified and the Holy Spirit was given did they realize the true significance of what they had done . 
Again , in Acts 1 : 6 , we see how the coming of the kingdom in power filled their thoughts before the Spirit was given . 
The coming of the King in lowly grace was but little understood or anticipated by the great majority . 
But the Messiah will come in power and have dominion over all the earth , as verse 10 declares . 
The way His widespread kingship is stated here agrees exactly with the inspired statement through David centuries before , written in Psalm 72 : 8 . 
When David forsaw this by the Spirit , every desire of his heart was satisfied , and he had nothing left to pray for , as the last verse of the psalm tells us . 
What our prophet tells us is that the days of warfare will be over — chariot and battle bow cut off , and peace imposed upon the nations . 
Verse 11 appears to be a word specially addressed to the sons of Israel , for Ephraim is addressed in verse 13 , as well as Judah . 
They have all been like prisoners , entrapped in a waterless pit , waiting and hoping for deliverance . 
When Messiah comes in power deliverance will reach them , but only through " the blood of thy covenant . " 
Here we see an allusion to that new covenant of grace , predicted in Jeremiah 31 : 31 , illuminated for us by the words of the Lord Jesus at the institution of His Supper , when He spoke of , " My blood of the new testament " ( Matt. 26 : 28 ) . 
On that basis only will the deliverance and the blessing be brought in and firmly established . 
When Zechariah wrote these things , Greece , mentioned in verse 13 , was hardly a power to be reckoned with , though not long after , under Alexander the Great , it was destined to overthrow the Persian power . 
We may see therefore in the closing verses of this chapter predictions which had a partial fulfilment not long after the prophecy was given , though in their fulness they look on to the end of the age . 
The same thing may be said of the predictions that fill chapter 10 , though it opens with solemn words concerning the evils that still were practiced among the people . 
The " rain " of blessing would descend from God , and not proceed from the " idols , " or " teraphim , " little images by which men sought to probe into future events . 
All that came from this source was but vanity , and the " shepherds " of the people , who dealt with such things would have the anger of God against them , for God was going to take up the house of Judah and use them in the execution of judgment in some directions . 
Had the passing away of one generation in death been normal , could it at the same time have been listed with " Vanity of Vanities " ? 
When Adam by his disobedience let sin into the world and death by sin , man made in the image of God became " subject to vanity " ( Rom. 8:20 ) , not willingly certainly , and in hope most blessedly , but subject to vanity nevertheless . 
The doom pronounced in Genesis 3:19 " Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return " is seen by Ecclesiastes as something that reduced man to the level of the beast of the field . 
He comments "as the one dieth , so dieth the other " ( 3:19 ) . 
If the coming of death has necessitated the successive passing and coming of the generations of men , then the question arises , what would have been the state of things had Adam remained unfallen ? 
Now we readily admit that from one point of view , this argument based upon what might have happened but which did not , is often futile , and we are well advised to face things as they are . 
If , however , we approach such a question with a chastened spirit , admitting all the time that what we say may nevertheless be very wide of the mark , some light upon the vexed state of affairs that now obtain may repay our modest inquiry . 
It is categorically stated that God made man upright , but that men have sought out many inventions ( Eccles. 7:29 ) , so that we can go behind the record of the fall in Eden with this fact in mind . 
The unfallen Adam was commanded by His Creator to " be fruitful , and multiply , and replenish the earth " ( Gen. 1:28 ) , yet it is very evident that , if time went on and the population of the earth continued to increase , nations and rulers would soon be facing a most serious problem of feeding and supporting these teeming millions . 
Only by the sad fact now that " one generation " passes , can the earth continue to support " the generations " that come . 
It appears therefore that had man not fallen and death not intervened , the succeeding generations that would have made up the number of the elect seed would have appeared without break , and that the earth would have provided abundant accommodation for them all . 
There would then have not been necessary the thousands of years which the ages span , and none of the " tares " would have challenged the true seed and occupied so much of their territory . 
It is safe to say , however , that no inheritance set aside for those predestinated by Divine grace , ever has written across it " With VACANT possession . " 
In every case a usurper has to be dispossessed before the true heirs can take possession ; see Deuteronomy two for this in type . 
The multiplication of man after the fall , was not made up entirely by the true seed ; Satan sowed his tares , and those tares outnumbered the true seed so disproportionately that by the time that Noah was grown to manhood " all flesh " with the exception of one family of eight souls ( 1 Pet . 
3:20 ) had so corrupted his way upon the earth , that they were completely destroyed from the earth ( Gen. 6:13 ) , " everything that is in the earth shall die " was the verdict ( Gen. 6:17 ) and " Noah only remained alive , and they that were with him in the Ark " ( Gen. 7:23 ) . 
Again , upon emerging on to dry land , Noah is commanded , as was Adam before him , " Be fruitful , and multiply , and replenish the earth " ( Gen. 9:1 ) . 
This increase in number however was not limited to the true seed , for we read the Midianites and the Amalekites came " as grasshoppers for multitude " ( Judges 6:5,7:12 ) whereas Israel were greatly impoverished . 
The " multitude " of the Canaanites ( Judges 4:7 ) ; of the Syrians ( 1 Kings 20:13 ) ; of the Ethiopians ( 2 Chron. 14:11 ) ; of the children of Moab and of Ammon ( 2 Chron. 20:2 ) ; of the Assyrians ( 2 Chron. 32:7 ) ; of Babylon ( Isa 13:4 ) ; of the nations ( Isa. 29:7 ) ; of Egypt , of Elam , of Meshech and Tubal and of Gog ; and finally the multitudes in the valley of decision ( Joel 3:14 ) , indicate something of the menace to the true seed in the earth that the multiplying of these nations must have been . 
The picture before the mind is a field of wheat , smothered by the growth of charlock and poppy . 
The passages which speak of Israel being a multitude are well known , two passages , namely Genesis 28:3 and 48:4 need to be corrected in the A.V. for the word there translated " multitude " is the Hebrew word gahal meaning " a called out assembly " , or as Stephen says " the church in the wilderness " ( Acts 7:38 ) , and has no connexion with the question of number . 
While the promise was made to Abraham that his seed should be like the stars , the dust and the sand that can not be numbered , we know that the Lord had said of them " Ye were the fewest of all people " ( Deut 7:7 ) although from being " three score and ten persons " they had become by the time Moses wrote " as the stars of heaven for multitude " ( Deut. 10:22 ) . 
At the time of the end of the Millennium the evil seed are so numerous that they are likened in number to " the sand of the sea " , and went up on " the breadth of the earth " ( Rev. 20:8,9 ) . 
At last , however , the nations of the earth will become so decimated by war , famine and self destruction that Zechariah speaks of " every one THAT IS LEFT of all the nations which come against Jerusalem " ( Zech 14:16 ) ! 
It is thus that Israel , as the vehicle of the true seed on earth , come into their own , for then " Israel shall blossom , and bud , and fill the face of the world with fruit " ( Isa. 27:6 ) ; it is then that they " enlarge the place of their tent " and their seed " shall inherit the Gentiles " ( Isa. 54:3 ) even as their fathers in small yet typical measure " inherited " the land held by the Amorite ( Deut. 2:31 ) . 
Coming back from this survey to the time of Adam , and supposing , for the sake of argument , that Adam did not fall , that neither sin nor death were factors in the purpose , and that consequently redemption by the shedding of blood would be unknown and unnecessary , let us think further along this line . 
Hebrews 2:14 makes it clear that the Saviour took part in flesh and blood in order that He might be the Kinsman-Redeemer of all the seed , but John 1:14 reveals that He was made flesh so that of His fulness we all might receive , and that as the Word made flesh revealed to man the Father ( John 1:18 ) . 
Is it something that is impossible of belief that , had there been no sin , even then God would still have been manifest in the flesh ? 
Was the Virgin Birth that took place about 4,000 years after the creation of man , but the postponement of a most glorious and miraculous event , that had it not been for sin , would have taken place in the garden of Eden before any other children were born ? 
Was it this that lies behind the mystery of the Temptation and the Fall , with its close connexion with the two seeds , the immediate reference to childbirth , and the birth of Cain who turned out to be " of the wicked one " ? 
We ask these questions , we may entertain our theories , but questions and theories they must remain . 
Had the coming in of death not made the successive generations follow the death of those that preceded them , the full tale of those chosen either before or since the overthrow of the world would have been early reached , and the translation from Adam to Christ effected and the different spheres of predestinated glory entered . 
As it is , the evil seed jostle the true heirs for room and many times overrun them and keep them down both in number and in possessions . 
The very character of this age turns the true heirs into pilgrims and strangers yet it still stands written " The meek shall inherit the earth " and that not only in the Sermon on the Mount , but in Psalm thirty-seven where the believer is told to fret not because of evil doers ... for yet a little while and the wicked shall not be ( Ps. 37:9,10 ) . 
As a consequence of what actually occurred in Genesis three , Christ , the true Seed , is revealed as the Kinsman-Redeemer , and resurrection now becomes the gate to glory . 
Doubtless all has been overruled by Divine love . 
The rugged pathway that we have been called upon to walk , the attacks and the snares of the evil one , all contribute to that essential experience which arising out of patience , ultimately leads to a hope that maketh not ashamed ( Rom. 5:4,5 ) . 
The scripture speaks more than once of a " Book of Life " , Paul speaks of it saying , " My fellow labourers , whose names are in the book of life " ( Phil . 
4:3 ) , showing that those called during his prison ministry have their names therein . 
In Revelation 3:5 the Divine promise strengthens the overcomer in his fight by assuring him that " I will not blot out his name out of the book of life " and the reader may find his mind turning to Revelation 22:19 where we read in the A.V. " God shall take away his part out of the book of life " whereas the R.V. reads " from the tree of life " with the critical texts . 
Those " whose names are not written in the book of life " will worship the Beast ( Rev. 13:8 ) , even as Revelation 17:8 reveals . 
At the Great White Throne the Book of Life is brought forward , and to keep close to the wording of the inspired original we read " And if any one was not found written in the book of life , he was cast into the lake of fire " ( Rev. 10:15 ) . 
The prominence given to the Book of Life in the Revelation may be because the emergence of the true seed is imminent . 
It refers particularly to the overcomer . 
See Millennial Studies in Vol. 39 . 
The true seed whose names are in that book will never apostatize ; the false seed whose names were never in that book will follow their own course . 
Some of the true seed will miss the glory of the Millennial kingdom and other spheres of blessing , and will not emerge until the Great White Throne is set up , but even there , it is revealed that some will be found written , and pass on into life that is life indeed . 
A prayerful reading of Psalm 139 would be extremely helpful at this point , of which the following is a quotation : 
" My substance was not hid from thee , when I was made in secret , and curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth . 
" Thine eyes did see my substance , yet being unperfect ; and in thy book all my members were written , which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them " ( Ps. 139:15,16 ) . 
The conflict between the two seeds arose out of the disobedience of Man in relation to the knowledge of good and evil ( Gen. 3 ) . 
When writing to the believers at Rome , the Apostle Paul said concerning some that " By good words and fair speeches they deceived the heart of the simple " ( Rom. 16:18 ) . 
He then went on to speak of their " obedience " saying that he would have them wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil . 
Now this word " simple " akeraios occurs in the proverb " Wise as serpents , and harmless as doves " ( Matt. 10:16 ) , where it is evident that the simplicity inculcated by the Apostle is in marked contrast to the subtlety of the serpent . 
These words occur just before the concluding section which deals with the revelation of the mystery which had been kept in silence ( Rom. 16:25-27 ) . 
This mystery we have shown elsewhere refers to the relationship that exists between Adam , his fall and his seed . 
It is therefore no surprise to us to find in Romans 16:20 immediately following these words that remind us of the Fall , a most definite reference to Genesis three . 
CHRIST CHURCH COVENTRY a further article by the Vicar , The Rev. Robin H. Blandford 
ROUGHLY FOUR YEARS AGO I had the privilege of writing for Church and People the story of how our church , which had been destroyed in the war , was rebuilt on a new site here in Coventry , where it was more needed . 
I have been asked to say something about the subsequent life and work of the church since then . 
This is a temptation to any Vicar , but the devil sees to it that we are kept humble , even when full of joy because of the work of God in our midst . 
I outlined in my previous article our Lay Workers Scheme . 
The parish was divided up into groups of fifty houses . 
Every Lay Worker had the oversight of and responsibility for one such group of fifty houses . 
There are two thousand houses in our parish , so that meant forty Lay Workers were needed . 
These were forthcoming from the congregation that had survived the destruction of the church and had worshipped for fourteen years in a small mission church lent us by the Cathedral . 
They were all keen Christian men and women but they consented to take a fourteen-week course after which they were commissioned by the Bishop . 
We covered the new parish , calling on every house , distributing a free magazine and asking particulars of every household for a card index system . 
Later another visit at every house yielded a crop of orders for the magazine resulting in an overall monthly figure now of one thousand two hundred and fifty copies in a parish of two thousand houses ( I have a wonderful magazine Editor ! ) . 
These Lay Workers are like the veins in a human body , they bring life to every part of the parish where they gain access and their regular monthly visit keeps them and the Vicar in touch with all sorts of cases , and with every need as it crops up . 
What of the work of the Church ? 
I think it is only fair to ourselves to say here that , as our parish was formed by areas taken out of two other parishes , most of those people who were likely to attend a place of worship were already doing so , and unless some reason existed for their changing we had only the sub-soil to work on . 
There was also a live Baptist Church within the parish . 
Beginning with the Sunday congregations we worshipped for two years in the new Church Hall while the new Church was being built . 
The hall , seating about 100 ( when set out as a church with choir stalls ) , was generally nearly full , but I rather dreaded the day when that number had to sit in the church , the body of which holds three hundred and thirty . 
That day came after two years and now , after worshipping in it for a further two years , we have a morning congregation of about one hundred and fifty including the " children 's church " which leaves during the service , and an evening congregation of about two hundred . 
This evening congregation contains a high percentage of young people and is a very cheering sight . 
There is hymn-singing for young people after the service to which forty or fifty stay . 
This is carefully planned with some special item every Sunday and organized by two young Day School teachers in turn . 
Sunday School and Bible Classes number about three hundred . 
Every available space in the hall and all ten classrooms are filled and now two primary classes have to use the church as well . 
A Girls ' Bible Class numbers about fifty and divides into four groups . 
The Boys ' Bible Class is not much less and divides into two groups . 
Mid-Week Activities 
Weekday organizations form an important part of the work of every church and we try to meet the needs of every age group and stage of Christian development . 
For women we have a devotional meeting on Wednesday afternoons and a women 's guild on alternate Thursday evenings , and the Young Wives ' Fellowship on alternate Sunday afternoons . 
Men are not numerous yet in our recently formed C.E.M.S. branch but we do have an entirely Christian programme and at the moment are studying the 39 Articles . 
A mixed Bible Study and Discussion Group meets every Tuesday in the vicarage and other men attend this . 
Our uniformed organization for children is Campaigners , which proves very effective and efficient , numbers in all clans exceeding a hundred . 
It is greatly to the credit of the Chiefs that the elder boys and girls go on into the Craftsmen Clans in good numbers . 
Many keen Christians have emerged from this organization . 
Teenagers of both sexes are also provided for by a Young People 's Fellowship with an attendance of about forty in term time and fifty or more in the vacations . 
From the very first we have based this on the principle "Christ first and no apologies " . 
The result has been many conversions and a deep Christian work . 
The admirably run local Youth for Christ has been a great blessing in this too . 
For recreation they have games ( badminton , table tennis , skittles , etc. ) on all available Saturdays . 
These are for members only except that visitors may be invited for three occasions . 
If after that they do not join the Young People 's Fellowship I should have to tell them that it is a condition of coming . 
In two years I may have had to do so once . 
A not overlarge but very much alive Prayer Meeting is held every Friday . 
In the four years we have been here we have had the great joy of seeing two of our young men reach the Ministry , both of them outstanding men . 
A further two are in training now and three more have applied for interviews with C.A.C.T.M. or already attended . 
At least one other is reaching that point . 
At a recent service in a nearby church we had the further joy of having three of our congregation admitted into the order of Lay Readers at the same service . 
These , too , are men of exceptional calibre . 
This brings our available Lay Readers up to five . 
Not all these young men have been the product of our own church but some have come from outside at various stages in their Christian growth and have made this their spiritual home . 
We thank God for this great gift . 
It is also something for which we can praise God that a congregation of strongly evangelical tradition , plus one from the area where we now are , have merged together well with scarcely a note of discord . 
We are indeed privileged to have such wonderful buildings . 
A modern church , the surprise and admiration of all who see it , a beautiful hall ( hardly the word to describe many church halls ! ) with ten classrooms alongside , adjustable to four by moving screens , a caretaker 's house and vicarage , all in one short road . 
We can thankfully say they are the best in the Diocese , if not very much further afield , and a great help in the administration of the work that they house . 
Dowdy buildings do not glorify God nor attract people to come . 
Is all this expensive to run and keep up ? 
Yes , it is . 
We compute that we have got to have a monthly income of £170 . 
We are like a man on a bicycle ; we have to keep moving or we can not keep going : a challenge and incentive to maintain a spiritual church life . 
From the Warden of Mabledon 
Glancing over the past year , one is impressed by the wide range of Christian interests represented by those coming to stay for longer or shorter periods . 
There have been houseparties for the training and building-up of young Christians in the service of Christ : missionary societies have brought their home staffs or council members for fellowship in prayer and for the discussion of mutual problems and opportunities : parishes have allowed themselves to be bereft of clergy and some of the Sunday congregation in order that a quiet parish weekend might be spent away from the usual routine . 
One such group recently brought whole families — father , mother , and children . 
TWO MISSION FIELDS 
" A HOUSE-GOING PARSON makes a church-going people " — so I learned at college , and I believed it was a C.P-A.S. slogan . 
I was convinced it was true , and travelling home from Central Africa eight years ago to work in a Liverpool parish I resolved that house visiting would have priority . 
I was also convinced people were hungry for the Word of God — " Preach the Gospel and you will fill the church " . 
By the Grace of God and His good Hand upon me , for seven and a half years I have acted on these convictions only to find that neither seems to apply in this part of the mission field . 
Nevertheless visiting and the Scripture message will always be my priorities , but let ordinands and young clergy be saved from false optimism ! 
Whilst not regretting acting on a false assumption , I wonder why there is such a small response in this part of Liverpool to the same Gospel which brought Africans flocking to our Mission churches and preaching places , not only to hear but to receive ? 
Some say it is because Africa was pre-Christian , whereas Liverpool is post-Christian . 
" All have sinned and come short of the glory of God " — it was generally unnecessary to persuade Africans of this truth , they were only too conscious of their need . 
In twenty-two years I never heard one claim to be as good as , or better than , his neighbours . 
I hesitate to say my parishioners are not conscious of sin , but generally they are satisfied to be better than their neighbours ( or to think they are ! ) 
They are not conscious of a need for the Saviour , and never flock to church . 
I would readily agree that our African brethren had not such counter-attractions as the week-end caravan , the car , amusements , T.V. , and Sunday work at double pay , but to them the village dances , beer orgies , and cultivation ( by which they lived ) were just as important . 
Some contrasts might enable us to draw a conclusion . 
Revealing Contrasts 
Our African village teachers were primarily evangelists and through their ministry " Enquirers " into the Christian faith were enrolled and instructed . 
Those determined to go forward for Baptism were admitted to the " Catechumenate " . 
A minimum of two years was considered necessary for regular instruction and testing before candidates were accepted into a Baptism Class . 
The pastor had to be satisfied ( as far as he was able ) that each was a born-again Christian . 
Whether the Baptism took place in the river , or in the Church , it truly symbolized the sinner being buried with Christ , and raised with Him to newness of life . 
Every Baptized person knew indeed that the washing of water was the outward sign of the cleansing from sin within . 
It is sad to recollect that probably less than ten per cent of the original Enquirers were Baptized — but the general leakage from the Church was before Baptism . 
When I came to St. Bede 's it was a shock to find the normal request for Baptism was " Mum says will you do the baby next Sunday " . 
My insistence on personal interviews with the parents and their presence at the Baptism frequently meant they just went elsewhere to have their babies " done " . 
I was equally shocked to find the congregation objecting to Baptisms during Morning Prayer . 
It has been a long hard struggle to make this the norm , and for parents and godparents to realize it is such an important event , and that very particular preparation is needed . 
Now , the whole congregation will say together in sincerity "We receive this child into the congregation of Christ 's flock ... " , and usually parents are appreciative of our methods . 
They are visited at least twice before the Baptism and monthly for as long as possible . 
Even so it does not bring them to Church — we still have a long way to go to reach our African Church standard . 
A DEFENCE OF THE TRUE FAITH BY BROTHER ROBERTS 
MR . 
Barnett reproduces the argument of personal identity amid atomic change . 
This is sufficiently answered on page 34 of Twelve Lectures . 
A remark or two , however , is called for here . 
He bases the argument on a fallacy to begin with . 
He says that during the change of a man 's substance from waste and nutrition , " his personality undergoes no corresponding change . " 
This is not true . 
A man of forty feels himself a very different person from what he was at ten . 
An entire change in the nature of his consciousness takes place in the interval . 
It is a matter of universal experience , that as years roll by , the ideas change , the tastes change , the character changes , the voice changes , the personal physique changes — everything changes ; and the nature of these changes depends upon circumstances . 
Why ? 
Because the new material introduced into the system in the process of nutrition , is directed into new shapes and forms , according to the activities by which its absorption is guided and determined . 
If a man goes to sea , his muscles and vital organs , and the bony framework are in continual occupation , and the nutritive elements are consequently more largely made use of , in building up the mechanical parts of his being , than if he stayed at home . 
Send him to college , and you will see a different result . 
Activity of brain is brought into play , to the neglect of the bodily functions ; and the consequence is , the brain monopolises the nutritive supply , and is developed to the detriment of the merely physical powers , the result of which is , that the man is more feeble as a whole than his sea-faring brother , and has his mind very differently constituted from what it would have been had he been brought up at the plough . 
Mr. Barnett 's assumption , therefore , that the personality undergoes no change with the progress of material substitution , is wrong . 
It undergoes many changes , but of course he feels himself the same individual , because the impressions originally constituting his individuality are perpetuated , though modified . 
But let a "stroke " affect the brain throughout , and obliterate original impressions ( of which there have been cases ) , the person 's individuality vanishes . 
He forgets who he was , and what he knew , and begins the formation of a new individuality by means of new impressions , should his power to receive new impressions not have been destroyed by the calamity . 
A case of this sort is within the writer 's experience , where there was a complete lapse of memory , necessitating the re-formation of acquaintance with friends , places , habits and everything . 
After a while , the second education as quickly disappeared as the first , and the old memories returned . 
On Mr. Barnett 's theory , this was inexplicable . 
On the theory that the brain " thinks by virtue of its organization , " it is susceptible of explanation . 
Mr. Barnett denies the transmissibility of qualities . 
He feels himself compelled to do this , to save his argument on continuous identity ; but in yielding to theoretical exigency , he convicts himself of either ignorance or recklessness . 
The very argument he relies upon disproves his denial . 
He says the body " changes throughout several times in a man 's life , and at seventy does not contain a single particle of the matter which composed it at seven . " 
Now , in view of this , how does Mr. Barnett deal with the fact that a person of dark complexion , eating the same food as a person of light complexion , will be dark complexioned till death ? 
Take the colour of the eye and the colour of the hair ; how does he account for the permanence of these organic qualities , except that the original quality is taken up by the succeeding atoms of nutrition ? 
Mr. Barnett 's answer is " they assume similar qualities of their own . " 
Do they pick up nothing from their predecessors ? 
If they do not , how is it that the same flour and mutton eaten at the same table will turn to four different conditions as regards colour and organic quality , in four different persons ? 
Is it not the existing organism that determines the use and quality of the new material introduced ? and how could this be , except on the principle of transmission of quality ? 
Mr. Barnett 's answer to this , finally surrenders the whole case against himself . 
He says "they enter into the same relation to the laws of life as those which the old have quitted . " 
Precisely , and this applied to the brain , explains continuous identity amid atomic change . 
Whatever impressions or qualities result from the original organization of the brain , are inherited by the new material , taken up by them , transmitted to successors and so on { 6ad infinitum . 
But destroy the brain altogether , and you destroy the process as much as you destroy the sight of the eye and the hearing of the ear . 
Mr. Barnett can " detect nothing but unintelligible nonsense " in the proposition that "mind is the product of the living brain , and personal identity the sum of its impressions . " 
His objection to it is that if mind be the product of the brain , it would be subject like the brain to the law of atomic change . 
And so it is , as Mr. Barnett will discover , if he reflects but a moment . 
Is it not a fact , that unless we renew our knowledge , the lapse of time will weaken and in the end destroy it ? 
Is there no such thing as " getting out of use , " and forgetting what one has learnt ? 
The very power of education lies in the fact that Mr. Barnett denies , viz. , that the mind is "subject to the law of atomic change , " and depends for the form of its development upon the forces brought to bear in its guidance . 
Mr. Barnett struggles in vain against the proposition that if the mind be immaterial , its functions ought to be unaffected by the condition of the body . 
He suggests that it is associated with the material elements of his being on the common basis of life , which unites and affinitises all parts . 
Animal and vegetable substances are amalgamated on this basis , and why not a third , argues Mr. Barnett — the immaterial and immortal ? 
The answer is , nothing is impossible ; but if this is the principle on which the mind is developed in the body , obviously the inversion of the principle must be fatal to it . 
If life gives , death must take away . 
When " the principle of life " is withdrawn , the " animal and vegetable " elements of man 's being are destroyed , and any third element depending upon " the principle of life " for its basis , must perish also . 
Mr. Barnett 's argument recoils upon himself . 
To evade the recoil , he dogmatises on " the principle of life . " 
He says life is not the result of organisation , but a principle that operates through organisation . 
Upon this , we have to ask if the life of a dog is not in the same category ? 
Mr. Barnett can not exclude it . 
A dog is as much God 's handiwork as a man . 
It depends upon the same laws of respiration and deglutition as those which govern human existence . 
The Bible says men and beasts are identical in the mode of life and death ( Eccles 3. 19-20 ) . 
What then would Mr. Barnett do with his definition as applied to a dog ? 
" Life is not the result of organization : organization is the medium through which life is manifested . " 
Has the dog an immortal principle of life that was antecedent to its organization , and which only manifests itself through its doggish body ? 
If so , whose principle of life was it before the dog came ? 
Was it the dog 's ? 
If Mr. Barnett will admit that the primitive life-power in all cases is God 's , we might agree with him ; but in admitting this , he must abandon the idea that human lives are separate entities or " souls , " which may be disembodied and live as conscious beings still . 
All human life , and all beast and all insect life , are but inspirations from the eternal universal fountain of life , of which the God revealed to Israel is the focal centre and controller . 
But Mr. Barnett 's Platonism , deeply tinctured with the spirit of Greek mythology , teaching the existence of so many separate independent immortal intelligences , prevents him from seeing this . 
He insists upon three separable compounds as constituting the unity of a human being . 
If he would define them , the argument might be made more serviceable . 
" Body , soul and spirit " are his words , quoting from Paul . 
We submit to Mr. Barnett that these words describe aspects of human existence only while a man is alive . 
This is shown by the fact that they were addressed to and spoken of living men , and that the three aspects expressed are only presented in life . 
Is there a "body " when man is dissolved in the grave ? 
Is there a "soul " to that body when all soul is evaporated ? 
Is there a spirit to it when it no longer exists to be animated by a spirit ? 
It would be curious to know what Mr. Barnett understands by "soul " as distinct from " spirit " and { 6vice versa . 
From a common-sense point of view the matter is plain . 
A man in life presents three aspects cognisant to the understanding . 
There is ( 1 ) the body , which is the basis of ( 2 ) the life , which develops ( 3 ) the spirit , or mind . 
A dead man is a body simply ; an idiot is a body with soul or life ; a living man with full possession of mental faculties presents the combination of " body , soul , and spirit . " 
When death comes , it destroys this combination . 
The body returns to the dust , the life returns to God , and the spirit disappears . 
The resurrection will put all three together again on the glorious basis of incorruptibility . 
MR . 
BARNETT 'S REVIEW OF SCRIPTURE ARGUMENTS ON MORTALITY . 
MR . 
Barnett next attempts to follow the scriptural argument . 
He begins by observing that " it is a waste of words to argue against the received doctrine of man 's immortality , as if that doctrine implied that man is not mortal . " 
He illustrates his meaning by saying that the dead are dead in some respects and alive in others . 
If Mr. Barnett would define his terms , it would be easier to follow him . 
What does he mean by " death ? " 
Has it no inverse reference to " life ? " 
Do we not derive our idea of death from acquaintance with life . 
Life is a positive phenomenon , and ( in relation to us ) has a beginning ; and the word "death " has become current to express the cessation of that phenomenon , with which , unfortunately , we are familiar . 
It is true the word is used with reference to a variety of things , but this only arises from the fact that there is a variety of life . 
Vegetable life gives rise to its use when a plant dies . 
Metaphorical life , as the prosperity of an institution , occasions its use , when prosperity departs and the institution dies . 
To whatever thing it applies , it expresses the opposite of the life pertaining to it , or that may be conceived as pertaining to it . 
On this obvious and universal principle , the death of a human being must have inverse reference to the life of a human being . 
It can not be said that a human being is dead , unless his life as a human being has ceased . 
It is vain , therefore , for Mr. Barnett to get away from the inconsistency of a man being dead and alive at the same time . 
If a human being continues to live after death , he is not dead . 
It would not suit the theory to say that the body is dead , because according to the theory the body is never alive , but only inhabited by the real invisible man , on whose withdrawal the body crumbles . 
Mr. Barnett contends for the " elasticity " of the terms " life " and " death . " 
Unfortunately , he does not define what he means . 
The only elasticity about them is that already indicated , viz. , their applications to different kinds of life and death . 
On this principle , the Scriptures quoted by Mr. Barnett are perfectly intelligible without involving that violation of first principles on the subject which he wishes to found upon them . 
Grace , Mercy and Peace " Grace , mercy and peace , from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord . " 
1 Timothy 1.2 . 
GREETINGS expressed in " words which the Holy Ghost teacheth " come to the reverent reader today with the same warmth and unction as when Timothy held in his hands the precious parchment upon which the message was first written . 
Under the gracious tuition of the Eternal Spirit , the writer framed his prayerful desire for the reader 's spiritual good . 
Wisdom far greater than that of the most devoted Apostle ordained that the encouragement first enjoyed by Timothy should subsequently be shared by the people of God of every race and in every age . 
Grace is the fountain from which every blessing springs . 
It is the free , unmerited favour of God bestowed upon the guilty sinner . 
It is manifested in the perfect provision made for the expiation of the sinner 's guilt by the atoning blood of the Redeemer , the LORD 'S Anointed . 
Mercy is extended to relieve the guilty of the miserable consequences of their guilt before God . 
" According to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost , which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour . " 
By nature afar off , alienated and separated from God , spiritually destitute and dead in trespasses and sins , the redeemed soul is " a debtor to mercy alone " , born of the Spirit , called from nature 's darkness into God 's marvellous light , translated into the Kingdom of His dear Son , and in everything enriched by Him . 
Peace with God could be secured for the guilty only by "God , who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ " . 
No man ever made his own peace with God . 
The divinely appointed Mediator Himself declares that , " No man cometh unto the Father but by ME . " 
He is the Prince of Peace . 
He speaks peace to His people . 
" He is our Peace . " 
Grace is the source , Mercy is the stream , and Peace is the experience of the blessing of the Lord , which maketh rich . 
While we borrow the Apostolic greeting , we also express the earnest desire and prayer of members and friends of the Trinitarian Bible Society that the Scriptures distributed during the year may be the means of revealing to those who read them — " Grace , mercy and peace , from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord . " 
The Authorised Version Still Supreme 
THE cover of this Quarterly Record is designed as a small tribute to the Authorised Version , which has now reached its 350th anniversary and remains peerless among the English translations of the Bible . 
The design draws attention to several important aspects of this enduring and excellent work , including Hampton Court Palace , its birthplace , and Dr. Reynolds , the Puritan minister , who first suggested that a new translation should be undertaken . 
With God 's gracious blessing , the translator in his study , the printer with his press and the preacher in the pulpit have all helped to make the Word of God available to English speaking people throughout the world . 
Incomparable in its faithfulness , majestic in its language , and inexhaustible in its spiritual fruitfulness , this time honoured version continues to reveal to millions the matchless grace of Him Whose Name is the WORD OF GOD , and Who is crowned with glory and honour . 
COMMEMORATION EDITIONS 
The Society is publishing two commemoration editions of the Authorised Version and these should be available in January . 
An appropriate device representing the open book surmounted by a crown and the dates 1611-1961 will be blocked in gold on the front cover . 
The editions will be supplied in excellently designed paper jackets , including the following brief tribute : — 
" In presenting this Commemoration Edition the Society pays tribute to the excellence of this Version which is an inestimable part of our Protestant heritage , has been the means of spiritual enrichment to millions of readers for 350 years and remains peerless among the English translations of the Bible . " 
The commemoration editions will be in Royal Brevier type ( 6 3/48 x 4 3/48 ) at 8s. 6d. and Royal Ruby type ( 5 1/28 x 3 3/48 ) at 6s. each . 
Copies may be ordered by post and particulars of reduced prices for Sunday School and congregational orders will be sent on request . 
Make the Paper Speak 
THIS caption , which appears on the letter-head of one of our correspondents in South India , simply and clearly defines the chief object of the T.B.S. in sending out the Scriptures . 
The following paragraphs from recent letters of application and thanks will indicate that " the paper speaks " in places where the ministry of the spoken word is not always possible . 
IN HOSPITAL IN SOUTH INDIA 
" I am indeed very grateful to you for the lovely copies of the Holy Bible , New Testaments and Gospels posted to me in October , 1960 . 
" I wanted to go to some far off places as Jamshedpur , Calcutta and Rewa and preach the gospel in September , but on the way I had a sudden illness and had to get admitted to the Government Hospital in Cuttack . 
Though my stay was long and painful , the treatment was successful . 
Three Christian surgeons were working in the ward where I stayed , and a big medical college is attached to this hospital . 
Many Hindu surgeons and medical students and some of the officers who were in the hospital as patients each received a copy of the Holy Bible or New Testament . 
" An engineer who received a copy of the Holy Bible , said with a happy smile , " Just this morning I requested a Christian friend of mine to give me a copy of the Holy Bible to read . 
He did not have a copy . 
God gave it through you . " 
Another medical student came and said , "Sir , I want a copy of the New Testament . " 
I asked , " Brother , how do you know I have the copies ? " 
He said he had seen his friends reading in the medical hostel and he was also " tempted " to get a copy from me and read it . 
I gave him a Holy Bible . 
He used to come every day and talk to me for a few minutes . 
" A Hindu patient awaiting an operation received a small booklet and his remark was , "this will keep me " . 
I could not give every medical student a copy of the Holy Bible for there are many students . 
I had to contact them , explain a little and then present the Scriptures . 
My bane was a boon and I learnt to carry my cross cheerfully . 
" May the Master of the Vineyard bless the seed sown for His glory , and may souls be saved and added to the fold . 
May the Lord bless you abundantly as you supply the seeds to farmers in India working in His Vineyard and supply all your need for his glory . 
" Please pray for me , as I am anxious to work in unreached areas . 
My health is weak and resources poor but the Lord used me in 8 provinces of India and about 200 towns and villages during the past 16 years , in my life of faith . 
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me . 
" The Lord bless thee and keep thee . " 
THE CORINTH OF INDIA 
" We thank you for helping us with Bibles and portions . 
All the packets reached us in good condition . 
Really this supply was a very great help in our work here in India . 
From November 1st to 16th we distributed literature in an important Hindu city where many thousands of people gather for pilgrimage . 
The name of that city is Madura and it is known as the Corinth of India . 
Every street in that city is filled with idols . 
The Lord blessed us richly . 
We could distribute several thousands of Scripture Leaflets and Gospels and quite a few Bibles . 
We are praying that there may be fruit unto eternal life . 
Also last month the Lord enabled us to go into some of the villages where the gospel has not been preached so far . 
Many attended and heard the Word of God , and received the Scriptures . 
Prayer is requested for all these efforts so that in due time souls may be brought to the Lord Jesus Christ . 
" Often we remembered the work of the Trinitarian Bible Society in prayer , and certainly we shall continue to do so . 
" Your earnest prayers are solicited for the humble work we do for the Lord in India . " 
PEOPLE ARE HUNGRY 
" The idea of distributing the Scriptures to a considerable extent occurred to me early in January . 
We started the distribution and we found that there were people who were interested , and in a short time we had a band of thirty young men . 
After their work in the various factories and Government Offices at Bangalore they help me with the distribution work . 
Our numbers have since doubled . 
" Christ has wrought a finished , full and perfect salvation for me by his death and resurrection , but most of the people are ignorant of it . 
One of the best ways to get the Gospel message into the minds and hearts of sinners is through religious literature . 
This is a work every Christian can do . 
Its importance can not be over-estimated . 
One need not be an evangelist or a minister or a missionary in order to be able to engage in this work . 
One can do it right where he is . 
Only a small percentage of Christians can be full-time pastors , evangelists or teachers , but every believer can be a faithful distributor of the Gospel . 
" India 's door may soon be closed to foreign missionaries . 
The desperate need is to sow millions of Gospel Tracts on India 's soil , now , so that they will in months and years ahead bear a spiritual harvest . 
Our hearts must burn for the need of an abundant supply of the Scriptures . 
God 's seal is on the world-wide distribution of His printed Word . 
Hundreds and thousands have found God through the silent ministry of the printed Gospel . 
" Everywhere people are hungry for the Living and True Bread . 
" The printed page can go anywhere . 
It knows no fear . 
It never tires , and never dies . 
It can travel at little expense . 
It can run up and down like an angel of God , blessing all , giving to all , asking no gift in return . 
It can talk to one as to the multitude ; and to the multitude as well as one . 
It requires no public room to tell its story in , but can speak in the kitchen or the shop , the parlour or the study , in the railway carriage or in the bus , on the broad highway or on the footpath through the fields . 
It is not hindered by scoffs , jeers , or taunts . 
Though it will not always answer questions , it will tell its story twice , or thrice or four times over , if one wishes . 
It is in short the teacher of all classes and the benefactor of all lands . 
" I chanced to come across a few of your Scripture Portions . 
May I kindly request you to send me quite a number and to keep my name in your mailing list and send me packets whenever you can ? 
" We also request you to remember us and our work in your prayers . " 
News from Nepal 
A RECENT report gives the encouraging news that all copies of the first and second editions of the Nepali Gospel have been sold and that the third edition recently printed by the T.B.S. is being rapidly distributed . 
More than 7,750 copies had been sold up to September and most of these had been taken into Nepal . 
The Rev. R. T. Cunningham warmly acknowledges the help given by the Society and trusts that many of the Lord 's people will join in prayer for God 's blessing upon these copies of His Word , that they may be fruitfully used to His Glory . 
Regular consignments of these Gospels have been sent from London and have safely reached their destination . 
The following article in our series entitled " The Force of Truth " is based on a letter from Mrs. R. T. Cunningham , printed in the October issue of the magazine of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Missions . 
"Well , tell me , what is the Pope 's business ? " 
Religion and politics 
It 's no good talking as though religion and politics were two separate things , like sport and music . 
If the captain of the Arsenal starts telling Sir Malcolm Sargent how to conduct an orchestra he 'll be told to mind his own business . 
Sir Malcolm Sargent will be told the same thing if he tries to tell the captain of the Arsenal how to score goals . 
Sport has nothing to do with music . 
So everyone knows where he is . 
What about religion and politics ? 
They are not in two watertight compartments . 
Think of the number of laws that have just as much to do with a man 's soul as with his body . 
If the Government tells you to send your children to a school where they 'll be taught there 's no God — is that religion or politics ? 
If the Government tells you to kill off your mother because she is suffering from an incurable disease — is that religion or politics ? 
If the State decides that it is legal for your wife to run off with another man and leave your children without a mother — is that religion or politics ? 
Do you see the point ? 
There are so many things which are the business of the Church and of the State . 
If they do n't agree on what is right there is bound to be conflict . 
Keep religion out 
There are some things the Government does where religion simply need not enter in . 
The Church has no views on drains , gas-works or brick-laying . 
On the other hand the State has no views on vestments , hymns and prayers . 
So you wo n't find the Church fighting the State over the right size of drain pipes and you wo n't find the State fighting the Church over the right tune for hymns . 
That 's fine . 
But there are more important things in life than drain pipes and hymns . 
It 's all very well to say that if the Church sticks to religion there 's no reason why it should ever fall out with a political party . 
The point is , what is religion ? 
Another point is , what are politics ? 
Politics means the way to rule a country . 
But a country is made up of people . 
And people are both body and soul . 
It seems pretty obvious that it is the job of a Government to look after the needs of the people . 
It should see that there 's work for the unemployed , food for the hungry , houses for families , education for the children , hospitals for the sick . 
It seems to be obvious . 
But really it is n't obvious at all . 
The Government , after all , is really the servant of the people . 
The heart of the matter 
That brings us to the heart of the matter . 
There is something very simple which nearly everyone in modern times has forgotten . 
This is it . 
The most important thing in the world is the family . 
We are always talking about the Church and State . 
But there would n't be any need either for Church or for State if there were no families . 
So priests and politicians before they start to talk about their rights must remember that the most important rights in the world are the rights of families . 
So what seems obvious is n't so obvious after all . 
It 's not for the Government to decide how it 's going to house people and educate children . 
It 's for families to decide what kind of houses they want and what kind of education is best for their children . 
This is what the modern State usually forgets . 
The Catholic Church always remembers . 
Hence all the quarrels between the Church and State . 
Here 's a true story of a man we 'll call John Williamson , because that 's not his name . 
John was a Civil Servant of the old school . 
He had worked hard and passed examinations . 
He was anxious to get on . 
Now Civil Servants , as the name suggests , are supposed to be servants of the public . 
They are supposed to do what they are told . 
It does n't matter to them which party is in power . 
They have to get on with the job without playing politics . 
John had a wife and four children . 
He knew if he wanted to rise to be head of his department the less he had to say the better would be his chances . 
So he never wrote to the papers . 
He never went to political meetings . 
He kept himself to himself . 
His friends used to try to persuade him to join their parties . 
But John always had his answer . 
" It 's all very well for you fellows , " he used to say , " you can have any politics you like . 
You wo n't lose your jobs for speaking out of turn . 
It 's different with me . 
When I say the wrong thing , if I do n't lose my job at least they 'll pass me by when I 'm looking for promotion . 
My motto is — Civil Servants should be seen and not heard . " 
Leave politics alone 
So John 's rule of life was to leave politics alone . 
But politics simply would n't leave John alone . 
Every couple of weeks there would be some new law passed to make life more difficult . 
More and more permits required . 
More and more forms to be filled in . 
But he did n't let this get him down . 
He naturally felt a bit annoyed when he could n't build a chicken-house in his back garden without having to write a dozen letters . 
But he was n't going to break his heart over a few chickens . 
But , of course , when he had a few friends round for a drink he used to have his grouse . 
After all , he was thoroughly English . 
In his view politicians were making life far too difficult . 
In fact , he went so far as to say that if he were n't a Civil Servant he 'd go into politics and tell them a thing or two . 
But one day he changed his mind . 
He had put up with it when they were telling him what to do about house repairs , petrol and chickens . 
But now they started messing about with his children . 
" This " , said John , " is the end . 
I do n't mind them telling me how to feed my chickens . 
But they are not going to tell me how to bring up my children . " 
When you come right down to it , John began to think , politicians are trying to take the place of parents . 
He did n't mind when they interfered with parents who would n't do their job . 
Every Christmas he sent a subscription to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children . 
Some men and women did n't deserve to have children . 
What was getting him down in a big way was being told what to do about his own children . 
And who was telling him anyway ? 
Civil Servants like himself . 
As often as not they were not even married . 
Education 
What brought things to a head ? 
It happened this way . 
Although John was n't a Catholic , his wife and children were . 
Marie , his eldest girl , won a scholarship . 
So , of course , he put her name down for the Convent of the Sacred Heart . 
It 's true that the convent was in the next town , three miles away . 
But Marie was a big , strong girl . 
Half-an-hour 's journey would n't do her any harm . 
But what happened ? 
He had a letter from the Local Education Authority telling him that Marie could not go to the Convent School . 
She would have to go to the Municipal High School . 
He wrote back , thinking there had been some mistake . 
He pointed out that although he was n't a Catholic he 'd promised to bring the children up Catholics . 
So , of course , his girl must go to the convent . 
Back came the reply by return of post . 
High School or nothing . 
If he did n't send her on the first day of term they would prosecute . 
That 's why John started meddling in politics . 
Here 's a simple question for anyone to answer : Who was doing the meddling ? 
Was John meddling in Government affairs or was the Government meddling in his family affairs ? 
If you can answer that question — and it 's not a very hard one — you will be able to answer the question — Why does the Church meddle in politics ? 
The important word is meddle . 
Let's finish the story about John and then you 'll see why . 
The priest meddles 
John could get no satisfaction from the Local Education Authority so he went to see the Catholic priest . 
" You know I 'm not a Catholic , Father , " he said , " but an Englishman 's word is his bond . 
I gave my promise that my children would be brought up Catholics . 
I 've done all I can . 
If I kick up too much fuss , it 's not going to do me any good at the office . 
What are you going to do about it ? " 
You can guess what the priest did about it . 
He did plenty . 
He argued with the Education Officer at the Town Hall and lost . 
Then he organized a big protest meeting and invited the Town Councillors . 
The whole case was argued fairly and above board . 
Even the Councillors who had no particular use for the Catholic religion were impressed . 
The way they looked at it after they had heard all the speeches was that you ca n't kick people around like that . 
If this kid had won a scholarship , the parents had a right to say where she should have her education . 
So Marie is at the Sacred Heart Convent . 
She 's there because the priest meddled in politics . 
What is the Church up to ? 
Now if you can see the sense of that , you can see the sense of a lot of things the Catholic Church is doing in the world to-day . 
It 's not a question of one child going to a Catholic school . 
It 's a question of millions of working men being able to worship God in their own way . 
It 's a question of Governments in many parts of the world kicking around their citizens , forcing them to join parties they do n't agree with , making them do what they are told — or else ..... 
At this moment , throughout the world , there are hundreds of thousands of people ruined because politicians have told them what they have got to think and say and do . 
Most people who complain when the Church makes political pronouncements imagine that religion is something to be kept within the four walls of a church . 
But religion does n't only tell a man how to pray . 
It does something more vital than that . 
It tells a man how to live . 
Jesus Christ was the Founder of the Church . 
They called Him a political priest . 
They put Him to death because they said He was meddling in politics . 
They took Him before the Roman Governor , Pontius Pilate . 
" We have found this man perverting our nation " , they said , " and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar " . 
Christ , of course , did no such thing . 
What had He told them ? 
" Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar 's and to God the things that are God 's . " 
That 's what He had said . 
What He fell out with His enemies about was which are the things of God and which are the things of Caesar . 
Of course , every time a priest fights the State he will be told not to talk politics . 
That 's what he expects . 
If that 's what happened to Christ Himself , the priest is not surprised it should also happen to him . 
The law of God 
One of the duties of religion is to teach men to keep the law of God . 
The law of God has a great deal to say about things which have nothing to do with worship . 
{ 1Thou shalt not steal . 
Thou shalt not kill . 
Thou shalt not commit adultery . 
There are three examples of religious matters which have nothing to do with praying . 
If it is the job of the Church to see that the law of God is kept then it must be the duty of the Church to protest when this law is broken . 
Changing Opinions in South Africa 
IT can hardly be questioned that the most significant recent development in the Church of the Province of South Africa has been its participation in the Conference and Consultation arranged by the World Council of Churches in Johannesburg between December 7 and December 14 . 
This Conference has been deliberately called a " consultation " because it was that as much as a conference in the generally accepted use of that term . 
There is no need to report at this stage what must be the common knowledge of Church people the world over — that vast differences of interpretation of the racial ramifications of the Gospel divide the Dutch Reformed Churches from practically all the other recognised Churches , and certainly the Anglicans . 
Earlier in 1960 the Archbishop of Cape Town openly challenged the Dutch Reformed Church regarding the possibility of Anglicans and the Dutch Reformed Church remaining co-members of the World Council of Churches , so strongly did His Grace feel about their interpretation of " apartheid . " 
However , negotiations proceeded , and early in the past year 1960 Dr. Bilheimer , Associate Secretary General of the World Council of Churches flew from Geneva to prepare the way for a Conference to be held towards the end of 1960 in South Africa . 
The preparations having been made , the Conference nearly met its death with the deportation of Bishop Reeves . 
In fact , speaking at a great United Service in Durban during his official visitation to the Diocese of Natal on the very day on which news of the deportation was announced , the Archbishop stated that it would be impossible for the Conference to be held within the Union of South Africa unless Bishop Reeves were able to be present . 
No permission to return was granted by the Government to Bishop Reeves but by a gracious making of concessions it still became possible for the Conference to meet upon South African soil : had this not been possible , it is questionable whether the main objective of the Conference could have been reached — namely the burning question of relations between the World Council of Churches member Churches within South Africa . 
Twentieth-century miracles still happen : the Conference duly met in Johannesburg : 80 members of the eight member churches in South Africa plus about 10 officials of the World Council of Churches met in solemn and intensive conclave for a whole week , sessions lasting daily from early morning until late at night . 
The Church of the Province delegation included His Grace the Archbishop of Cape Town , The Bishop of Natal , The Archdeacon of Cape Town , Professor Brookes , Dr. Alan Paton , Professor Z. K. Matthews , Miss Mary Wilson . 
Sharp Differences 
Sharp differences of opinion are said to have marked the three branches of the Dutch Reformed Church which consists of two large bodies , The { Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerke of the Cape and of the Transvaal , both more moderately " liberal " than the third and very much smaller branch representing the intransigent viewpoint of Prime Minister Verwoerd and other Ministers of State , the { Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerke of Africa . 
An eighty per cent . 
agreement was necessary before any resolution of the Conference could be passed . 
The following are some of the outstanding Consultation decisions — 
1 . 
The right to own land and to participate in the Government of the country is " part of the dignity of adult man . " 
2 . 
There are no Scriptural grounds for the prohibition of mixed marriages . 
3 . 
There can be no objection in principle to the direct representation of Coloureds in Parliament . 
4 . 
The migrant labour system has " disintegrating effects " on African life . 
5 . 
The wages of the vast majority of non-whites are far too low . 
6 . 
The " same measures of justice " claimed for other racial groups should apply to Asians . 
7 . 
There is " not sufficient consultation and communication " between the various racial groups . 
The real inner significance of each of these decisions can probably only be fully appreciated by those who are closely acquainted with the inner life of South Africa . 
Further points were that " all unjust discrimination " was rejected : there was a call for the " revision of job reservation and for greater security of tenure for non-whites in housing . " 
Non-whites should be allowed freedom of worship in urban areas . 
All racial groups have an equal right to contribute to and share in the life of the country . 
The following " Joint Statement " was issued by the two large branches of the Dutch Reformed Church , namely the { Gereformeerde Kerke of the Cape and of the Transvaal — 
" A policy of differentiation can be defended from the Christian viewpoint that it provides the only realistic solution to the problems of race relations and is , therefore , in the best interests of the various population groups . 
We do not consider the resolutions adopted by the Consultation as in principle incompatible with the above statement . " 
The small , extremist branch of the Dutch Reformed Church , the { Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerke of Africa issued this separate statement — 
" We wish to state quite clearly that it is our conviction that separate development is the only just solution of our racial problem . 
We , therefore , reject integration in any form , as a solution of the problem . 
The agreement that has been reached contains such far-reaching declarations that we can not subscribe to it . 
We can not , therefore , identify ourselves with it . 
We , further , wish to place on record our gratefulness to the Government for all the positive steps it has taken to solve the problems and to promote the welfare of the different groups . " 
Movement of Thought 
For those readers outside South Africa who are sensitive to the widely variant approaches to her complicated problems , it will be appreciated that the statement issued by the two large branches of the Dutch Reformed Church marks a considerable move ahead of the intransigent position of the extremist branch . 
While there is a great distance still to be travelled before complete agreement as to the policy of race relationships as viewed by Christians can be reached , those who know the deep traditions holding the minds of men in South Africa will realise that movement of thought is taking place at encouraging speed , though , of course , this is by no means fast enough . 
The following general statement issued by the Conference throws light on the situation : — 
" The present situation in South Africa is a result of a long historical development and all groups bear responsibility for it . 
The South African scene is " radically affected by the decline of the power of the West , and by the desire for self-determination among the people of the African Continent . " 
"The spiritual unity among all men who are in Christ must find visible expression in acts of common worship and witness and in fellowship and consultation on matters of common concern . " 
The revival of heathen tribal customs is the result of a deep sense of frustration and a loss of faith in Western civilisation . 
" It is widely recognised that the wages received by the vast majority of non-white people oblige them to exist well below the generally accepted minimum . 
Concerted action is required . 
Job reservation must give way to more equitable systems , and there must be the opportunity to live in conformity with human dignity . " 
Much Achieved 
This recent Conference then , has achieved much , although it leaves much still to be solved . 
Rome was not built in a day : nor can strongholds of tradition reinforced with stubborn religious conviction , often biassed and prejudiced , be broken down in a moment . 
Only those who know from inside experience can fully appreciate how much , how very much , the fact that the Conference has been held , the fact that the delegates came together for a week , the fact that untold pitfalls have been avoided and difficulties ironed out , already means in South Africa . 
Those who participated in the discussions say that they were deeply conscious that " much prayer was made of the whole Church " for this Conference which , history may well prove , marked a new phase of respect and co-operation between those who name the Name of Christ in this land . 
Tragic reading though it makes , it was almost a miracle that the Conference took place , and one for which all Christians must be grateful . 
It is only fair to add that the resolutions adopted by the Conference do not become operative within the { Nederduitsch Gereformeerde Kerke of the Cape and of the Transvaal until their respective Synods accept , amend or reject them . 
But it can be reasonably hoped that responsible leaders of those two powerful branches of the Dutch Reformed Church will bring increasing pressure to bear on the Government for apartheid to be given a strong moral basis . 
" Delayed Action " 
Every Churchman who wishes to be informed as to the up to the moment spirit of things within the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa should make himself a possessor of a copy of the book Delayed Action , which is An Ecumenical Witness From The Afrikaans Speaking Church to which the contributors are eleven leading clergy of the Dutch Reformed Church , Professor B. B. Keel , Professor Dr. A. S. Geyser , Professor Dr. Ben Marais , Professor Dr. A. van Selms , Professor Hugo du Plessis , Ds . 
M. Redelinghuys , Dr. G. C. Oosthuizen , Dr. J. A. van Wyk , Ds . 
C. Stutterheim , Ds . 
C. Hattingh , Dr. G. J. Swan . 
I have named each of these eleven Dutch Reformed Church leaders deliberately to make it quite clear that every one of them is fully a member of the Afrikaans section of the white population of South Africa . 
Here are the chapter titles , which are also significant : 
" The Bell has already Tolled " ; " The First Gospel and the Unity of the Church as Witness to Christ " ; " The Church in the Contemporary World " ; "The Communion of the Saints and the Colour Problem " ; " The New Era and Christian calling regarding the Bantu in South Africa " ; " Developing an Indigenous Church in South Africa " ; " Communication and Human Values " ; " The Church and Racial Ideology " ; " Christianity and Nationalism " " The Prophetic Calling of the Church towards the State . " 
The significance of this composite work is that it expresses forcibly the fact that at long last , after " Delayed Action " in fact , the former strongholds of spiritual and practical " apartheid " are being permeated with a new realisation that the Walls of Jericho do weaken under the continued blast of the trumpets of truth . 
E. H. WADE " The Argument is about Power " Valerie Pitt writes on Christian choice in politics 
ANEURIN BEVAN said , " The argument is about Power , " and any serious — and honest — politician will agree . 
The matter of politics is the control and management of power , and power is not an abstraction . 
It is wealth and weapons , the brute force of sheer numbers , and the weight of law . 
It is above all the command of human loyalties . 
There are many theories about the balance of these forces in the perfect society , and many reasons for believing that X 's party , class or nation may be trusted with them where Y's can not . 
But the day to day business of politics , at U.N.O . 
or the parish council meeting , is the struggle with or for the power released by events , or by the convictions and abilities of human beings . 
In old and settled societies like our own the realities of the struggle are obscured because it is not normally expressed in violence . 
Our deepest instinct is to reject the brute force of the Congo riots , or those of St. Pancras as a-political ... since for us politics is { politikos , civilis , that which belongs to the citizen as a citizen , and is , therefore , constitutional , and responsible . 
And indeed the marriage of power and responsibility is the first , the one essential achievement of any civilisation . 
Machiavelli 
But Machiavelli , a much less respectable author than Aristotle , taught us that politics is also policy , the use of power for a purpose , the manipulation of men and events in the service of a cause , a ruler , or a nation . 
The absence of violence does not mean that the power game is played out , only that it is more skilfully , and more quietly conducted .