evil would vanish from our earth. All antagonism and hatred would be turned to harmony and love, and mankind universally would dwell together in

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the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace," as sons of God and brothers of Christ. Poverty and crime, disease and vice, insanity and sorrow, would be no more. Courts of law, prisons, reformatories and asylums no more needed would be converted into temples of learning and art. Churches needed no longer for the preaching of a saving gospel, since all would "know the Lord from the least unto the greatest," would become consecrated centers of praise and worship in music and song. The armaments and weapons of war would be turned into implements of peaceful industry, and the non-producing hordes of standing armies, navies and police, now held for the protection of the personal and property rights of cities, states and nations, and resting so heavily for support on the scarred necks of the toiling, sweating millions, would be turned into corresponding industrial armies and organized co-operative bands of productive labor, to the complete abolition of oppressive toil, and the making of productive industry a recreation and delight.

25. Then would follow the glad, exultant achievement of developing and utilizing the limitless resources of earth and air for human use and service, and the creation of that universal abundance and common wealth which must characterize the final and perfect civilization. The very earth under the transforming touch and magic skill of the Christ

man's higher wisdom would be redeemed. Every waste place, stagnant pool, desert and wilderness would be turned into fruitful gardens, productive fields and flowering parks of beauty and delight, and the entire earth become an enchanting world of happy homes vastly transcending in loveliness and perfection the symbolic Eden of primeval days. The golden age of millennial glory and blessedness, foreseen and foretold in prophecy of long ago, would be here, and the veritable kingdom of God which Jesus preached, and for which he wrought and gave his martyred life a holy and willing sacrifice, would be enthroned in human life and society throughout the earth. The Lord's prayer, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," would be answered, and his great swelling hope for man fulfilled and realized in the universal experience of a redeemed and glorified humanity. "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

26. To bring in and establish the reign of this millennial blessedness, then, it is only necessary that

each individual become imbued with the spirit of the Master, and enlightened with the same practical wisdom. Is this too stupendous a feat to be readily accomplished? The achievement is indeed stupendous, but is it so very difficult a matter? Let us re-study the revelation and promise of the Christ, and see if we do not find a door therein, divinely opened for the speedy realization of this very result. Enter heartily with us, dear reader, into this examination, and see if it is not clearly shown that this is not a matter of long ages of progressive development as many suppose, but rather an individual awakening and birth into the kingdom of spiritual light, freedom and power, here and now, by a divinely provided process as simple and certain as the birth of a plant from a seed that was planted. Be assured the immediate opening of the spiritual consciousness, which is possible to all, is secured by the quickening, transforming and illuminating touch of the Divine Spirit, in response to a specific co-operative attitude of the individual soul toward the Divine, or planting of the soul in God by an act of choice and volition, in faith.

27. Could those who now call themselves the followers of Christ be so fully awakened to their stupendous privilege and opportunity as to rise at once and enter into their rightful inheritance, they would immediately become endowed with sufficient power of influence to complete the awakening and regeneration of the entire world in a single century. But will they do it? Are they willing to

throw aside their effete and crippling ecclesiasticism for the living, glowing armor of a present inspiration and spiritual power? Are they willing to cast off the absurd and fictitious authority of tradition, and consign to the tomb of the dead past its long outlived creeds and dogmas, for the divine authority and emancipating power of an immediate illumination and Christ anointing from on high?

28. Most certainly under the present ecclesiastical and theological incrustation and spiritual darkness of the Church, the millennium will be held in the womb of the future for twenty centuries longer, without one true step towards its realization, unless, outside her sectarian walls, the real work is begun and the new wine is put into new bottles from which all who thirst may drink, and they who drink shall live. "I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God and he shall be my son."

III.

THE GOSPEL AUTHENTICITY.

29. THE four gospel narratives give us the story of the Christ and all that we know of his life, words and works. The "Acts of the Apostles," which follow, give a sketch of the immediate results of the personal ministry of the Christ in the life and experience of his first Disciples, in their efforts, after his departure, to follow in the Master's footsteps.

30. The remaining books of this unique collection of inspired teaching are fragments, preserved, of the direct teaching of the Apostles themselves in their efforts to interpret and apply to others the life and teaching of their ascended Lord. This, doubtless, is essentially and fairly represented in the Epistles. To properly understand these Apostolic Epistles, however, we must remember that they were written long before the gospel narratives were penned or planned, and for a very different purpose.

31. The Gospels were written with direct reference to the needs of after generations, to put into permanent form and send down to future ages as authoritative history, the story of the life and