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November 24, 1909. THE PRESBYTERIAN fines the vision that should inspire the awakening Church of our day. At the same time his vision outlines the conditions on which the Church is to realize her destiny. First, the Church must recognize her relationship to the Divine Lord and be loyal to that relationship. The Church is not man's creation; it is Christ's direct and immediate institution. The Christian Church, in its essential character, is composed of all those who have been created anew in Christ Jesus. The Church is not one of many institutions. If she were, then she would have her little day and pass away. But the Church is unique both in her institution and in the power which resides in her and makes possible her life and work. The power of the Church is not in her scholarship, noble as that is; not in her wealth, potent as that is; nor in her organization, complete as that is; but in her vital touch and relation with the unseen presence and illimitable power of her risen Lord. The Church must plant herself firmly upon the facts of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, of His present existence, and of His immediate relation to the Church as her exalted Head and infallible Guide. There must be no uncertainty or comvromise here. If the Church would challenge the age to the acceptance of her faith she must affirm, with the distinctness and vigor of the apostolic age, the fact of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the fact that He to whom the Father has given all authority and dominion lives and reigns. Second, the Church must have a cleav and confident hold upon Divine Truth and be loyal to that truth, if she would fulfill her mission in the world. The Word of God is the revelation of the great truths which the Church is to proclaim for the saving of the world. These truths have been committed to the Church in trusteeship for the world. The truths are fixed and unchangeable. The faith has been "once for all" delivered to the saints, though the phrasing of this faith may change, and ought to change, with every age, and forms of expression which have come to us from other ages. That insistence is right gives place to the language of the day. Our age insists upon investigating the systems which have come to us from other ages. That insistence is right and rational. It must not be charged that such insistence is evidence of lack of faith or of vicillation. On the contrary such investigation is a phase of faith. It may be faith in battle, but it is not battle for the overthrowing of truth. The undertone of genuine investigation is not relish for doubt, but hunger for truth. The Church must have an evangelical, that is Biblical doctrine, but ift statement of that doctrine must be as modern as the best twentieth century thought can make it. Each generati&n must re state its beliefs and its ideals. This is the only way in ' which we can hrinor Wth the nW for ttio o .vr. ... w.%. ?vi HIV octrvv UI LIIC new. The old and. the new are linked and locked together. The form changes, the substance abides. Third, the Church must know the conditions of the age, adapt herself to those conditions, and meet their demands. The Church of this generation must serve this generation. She must meet its urgent needs and A '- ? * a 4* OF THE SOUTH. 7 solve its actual problems. She must hold forth the great truths and dominant principles that apply to the life of the day. Only thus will the Church be able to point out the broad highway along which the affairs ui men are to move toward tneir inevitable destiny. Fourth, the Church must be controlled by a deep appreciation of the value of life and by a genuine reverence for life. There is much in modern conditions which tend to cheapen life. The tendency of the age is to bulk men and deal with men in the mass. This tendency works for the suppression of the individual. , The man becomes part of a machine. The soul is gripped by the system and takes on its color and shape. Of course there are and ever have b^en exceptional men, men of .pre-eminent personality and power, who rise above any system and stand forth with mountainlike prominence. But the average man, and the great multitude is made up of average men, stands simply as one oi a mass. This massing of men I elittles man and makes life cheap. In the presence of this tendency the Church must put emphasis on the value of life and show interest in man as man. The supreme need of the Church is a clear vision of man as he is?tragic in His ruin, splendid in his possibilities, glorious in his redemption. Fifth, the Church must recognize the fact of sin in man's life and clearly point out the way of redemption. In heathendom a thousand millions of people are sitting in darkness, and in Christian lands multitudes are wretchedly wandering about without light. The light has come unto the Christian Church. She must arise and shine amid the world darkness, piercing the gloom in distant lands and irradiating the shadows which are everywhere about her in Christian lands. The only power that can dissipate the darkness is the light that streams from Calvary. The pierced hands are no myth, the broken heart is no accident, the substitutionary death is no theory, the open tomb is no fancy. The mission of the Church is to set forth the great fact of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the redemption of man. Sixth, the Church must put emphasis upon personal character and labor to create and culture it. There is a well-defined and insistent deftiand today for the play of righteousness in the lives and works of men. Not onlv must the Churrh be ahreaQt r?f the Homand r\f tbe age for honesty and purity and integrity, but must lead the age in these demands and must provide for satisfying them. The only way the Church can do this is by developing in man those forces which make manhood. The world estimates the value of the Church by the character of the people who constitute it. We can not quarrel with the test. We must meet it. The thing that grips men and secures a hearing for faith and a standing for the Church is what the people of it- r*\ 1- - - - me ^nurtri are in tnemseives. i nere must De no gap between the creed of the Church and the character of its members. There must be no deference to conventionalities. The veriest villains mask themselves in these and are patterns of propriety until detection shows the leprosy beneath the robe. The purifying tides of genuine godliness must flow from the deeps of God into all our Churches and sweep away all de