If

responsive heart. To know God gives at least the capacity to recognise the things of God. you feel like an outsider in the Courts of the Lord, if in the presence of Jesus you feel that you have no relationship to Him, if at the mention of religious truth you feel that you are among those that are without, who care not for these things, or at least understand not these things, do not ride away from the appeal by a cheap sarcasm. Say not, "Is he not a speaker of parables?" as if that absolved you from further concern about it all. Turn to Christ with a heart-pang that your soul should be so seared and hardened. Bend to Christ humbly, and He will unstop the deaf ears and unseal the blind eyes, and give you a heart to understand; for He will take you into the Holy of Holies, into the very presence-chamber of the King, and reveal the Father to you, homeless, fatherless child of His. Christ is His own evidence. He brings conviction with Him. And when He comes the music of His words will touch chords of infinite harmony in your heart. And unto you it will be given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God no longer in parables.

X

CHRISTIAN CONTROVERSY

Speaking the truth in love.-EPHESIANS iv. 15.

ALTHOUGH this is not a controversial Epistle in the sense in which the Epistle to the Galatians is controversial, there is an underlying fear of division and strife being introduced into the Church through the divisive courses of mischief-makers. This unspoken fear makes St. Paul insist on the unity of the faith, the common elements by virtue of which they are Christians. Amid all the diversity of operations in the Church there is one body, and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. The different gifts possessed by different members of the Church are all designed for the one sole end, for the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ. The whole Church is meant to be carried forward and upward in the unity of the faith to a higher level of Christian living and Christian character. Christ is the beginning, and Christ is the end. He is the source of the unity, and

He is the fulfilment for which it is designed. We are expected to grow up out of all the immaturity and fickleness of childhood to full-grown men, grow up into Him in all things who is the head, even Christ.

One of the stages of the growth, as it is one of the methods by which the growth is attained, is following truth, or "speaking truth, in love." This is the connection of our text in the sublime passage in which St. Paul speaks of the constitution of the Church. It is quite evident that Paul anticipated controversy and strife in the process of this growth to which he looked forward; for the truth-speaking is set against the evil efforts and cunning craftiness of men who seek to subvert the foundations of their faith in Christ. Against such cunning craftiness they must oppose the truth, which means conflict and controversy. The Apostle's anticipation has been amply realised in the history of the Church.

From one aspect that whole history is a record of strife—and strife among brethren, rival factions, rival doctrines, rival systems of government. It is useless to recall the dead and buried controversies of the past centuries, but every student of Church. history knows that not an item of the creed was accepted by the Church without the fiercest quarrels

and the keenest discussions-sometimes even to the drawing of the sword and the shedding of blood. It is not necessary to rake among the embers of burnt-out controversies to establish the truth of Paul's anticipation; for we have among ourselves evidences enough what violent strife and disputation can be caused by religion. Christian Churches are divided on points of doctrine, and points of worship, and points of government; and even within the same Church, as in the Church of England to-day, there are parties arrayed against each other about ritual, and even about the sacrament of the Lord's Supper itself, which is the one thing which ought to unite all Christians. Many of our churches were born in the throes of conflict, and cradled in controversy. Men, following truth, constrained to speak truth, have had to live at variance with brethren, whom they respected, but with whom they could not agree. From one aspect the history of the Church looks like a dreary waste of polemic, and through the Christian centuries we can still hear the jarring discord of endless dissensions. Lord Rosebery in a very beautiful speech at Epsom at the opening of a Church-room referred to a controversy in the English Church at the time, about incense and lights in worship, and said, "Theological discussions are, for some reason

unknown to the layman, conducted with more asperity than any other form of discussion. Why that should be so, why the Gospel that came to preach peace and goodwill in this world should be so often the means of provoking the most violent disputations, is a problem I confess I am unable to solve." It is a problem above us all, but two things may be said, which, though they do not excuse the heat of religious controversy, help to explain it.

One is that there is no subject to religious men so near their heart. It is because the issues are so great, because it is a matter of life and death to them, that they take it so seriously. If they cared less, they could be more dispassioned and cool. It was because Athanasius realised the tremendous import of the creed for which he contended that he was willing to fight on, though it meant Athanasius against the world. It was because religion was everything to Luther and Calvin and John Knox that they dared so much, and suffered so much, and spent their lives in controversy. If they had not had such intense convictions they would not have been so concerned about the purity of religion, and could have let things swing as they hung. There is a fine easy tolerance which many profess, which looks down upon the fever and zeal of others with philo