Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/58

 rests, and the paramount necessity there is for accepting it in its pristine purity and beauty, if we would be wise. To grasp it thoroughly, we must view it, not as it now seems to look to us through the darkening shadows of sectarianism, . The time has come upon us that is spoken of in the New Testament, when "one shall be taken and the other left," and the sorting of the sheep from the goats has already commenced. It can be said with truth that most of our Churches, as they now exist, are diametrically opposed to the actual teachings of their Divine Founder. It can be proved that in our daily lives we live exactly in the manner which Christ Himself would have most sternly condemned. And when all the proofs are put before you plainly, and without disguise or hyperbole, in the simplest and straightest language possible, I shall again ask you, "" If you do believe, declare it openly and live accordingly; if you do not believe, in God's name leave off lying!

The Symbolism of the Christian Faith has been, and is still, very much lost sight of, owing to the manner in which the unimaginative and unthinking majority of people will persist in looking at things from a directly physical, materialistic and worldly point of view. But if we take the life and character of Christ as a Symbolic representation of that Perfect Manhood which alone can be pleasing to God,—which alone can be worthy to call the Divine Source of Creation "Father!"—some of our difficulties may possibly be removed. Christ's Gospel was first proclaimed in the East,—and the Eastern