no reason for it, or think they see reasons against it, are, without complaint, dealing every day with things as mysterious and as impossible to understand. We live, and yet man knows no more about the mystery of life than he knew at the Creation. We love, and yet we are as unable to analyze affection-the one thing that makes life worth living-as those who first yielded themselves to its controlling influence. Everything that we eat has grown to maturity in the vegetable or animal world by processes that are beyond our comprehension. If we refused to eat anything until we could understand the mystery of its growth we should die of starvation-but mystery does not bother us in the dining-room-it bothers us only in church.

If we believe in a God, we must believe that we are a part of His plan. A part of that plan may be learned from nature by the comparatively few scientists who devote themselves to the study of nature-less than one in ten thousand of our population; but a part of God's plan is learned only from revelation. great mass of mankind walk by faith even in ordinary, natural matters,-not by sight. The atheist may think it unreasonable, never having weighed God's side of the case, that sin should have been permitted to enter the world. But

The

one who believes that God made the world for a purpose can easily believe that God had reasons sufficient and, having permitted sin to enter the world, would provide a means whereby one can escape from the penalties of sin. As sin is a crime against God, it can only be forgiven by God Himself. Christ, being one of the Trinity or Godhead, had power on earth to forgive sins and, while on earth, promised to be man's intercessor after His return to the Father. If one believes in a God who is all-loving, as well as all-powerful, the scheme of redemption by substitutionary suffering is not only believable but entirely natural. It is not only logical but simple in its operation and within reach of all.

Those who reject the plan of salvation and depend upon intelligence as an escape from sin ignore the fact that even in this enlightened age but a small percentage of the people have reached that degree of intelligence which the intellectual regard as necessary. And, to make the case more hopeless for the sinner, even the most intellectual are not free from sin. The doctrine of the so-called intellectuals would leave mankind in despair, whereas the salvation of Christ is described as spes unica-the only hope.

God's plan of salvation is not only the hope

of all, but it is more easily understood than any other plan that has ever been suggested, because it is in harmony with the life principle that runs through all creation. Vicarious or substitutionary suffering is not an anomaly, as the modernist would have us believe, but the usual thing. Death is the beginning of life, not only the life beyond but life on earth. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12: 24). So in the animal world; the principal labour of each generation is the care of the succeeding generations. Kipling announces a law of the jungle when he says: "The female of the species is more deadly than the male." Why? Because the guardianship of the young falls primarily upon the female parent.

The law of sacrifice is still more clearly defined among human beings. Each generation lives for the generation that is to follow; it plants trees that others may enjoy the fruit thereof; it shapes society for the benefit of future generations and establishes government for the protection of the unborn. In innumerable cases life is voluntarily surrendered for the benefit of those who are yet to live. Human nature can still perform golden deeds. Transfusion of blood, which is being more and

more employed, shows what friend will suffer for friend.

The battlefield is one vast and continuing illustration of the yielding up of life in behalf of others; in latter years, with a hope of saving the world from future wars.

While we hope and pray for universal and perpetual peace and for the time when all wrongs will be righted without a resort to violence, we cannot overlook the fact that up to this time great abuses have seldom ended until the tragedy of death has focussed attention upon them.

All altruistic work is a reflection of the death of the divine Altruist, an intimation of the infinite love that led Christ not only to devote His life to man but to shed His blood, that the world through His sacrifice might be released from bondage and death of sin.

It is the naturalness of God's plan-upon which some dare to look down with contempt -that has made its appeal irresistible. The entire Bible has been translated into more than a hundred languages, and parts of it into five hundred tongues and dialects; why is it that the learned critics of the Bible find it impossible to spread their interpretations (or their rejections) of the Word of God? Why is it that the life and death of One whom John de

scribes as "unlettered" and whom some ministers of the present day regard as uninformed, should take such a hold upon the human race, while the sophistical dissertations of the egotistical faultfinders go unread? Because God's plan is human, as well as Divine; it finds a response in man's nature because the Heavenly Father fitted the plan to the needs of the child.

God's plan of salvation through the blood of Christ is the only one that fully meets man's needs. Buddha's plan for man's elevation rested on works, and the works had to precede man's escape from sin. According to his plan, one who had sinned to an indefinite extent in an indefinite number of previous existences could turn over a new leaf and, by doing enough good to offset the indefinite number of evil deeds—the good deeds to extend through an indefinite number of future existencesmight finally wipe out the score and begin to accumulate good, with the hope of ultimately arriving at a loss of individual consciousness, the spirit being absorbed in the spirit of the universe. A Japanese student explained the difference between Buddhism and Christianity by saying: "Buddhism looks down; Christianity looks up." Christianity does look up, and it is the only religion that does. It provides a