[1 Cor. 2:16]---'But we have the mind of Christ.'

What is the Mind of Christ?---From the vision of the holiness of beauty came His clear conviction of the hope of all lost things, and His joy in reclaiming them, at any cost, to the beauty of holiness. He believed that man, in spite of all that He saw in him of failure and ugliness and depravity and ruin, was capable of being redeemed. Christ's conception of man was that, however low he had sunk, however untrue he had been to the light, however saturated he was with the poison of vice, he was yet worth dying for. The Cross of Jesus Christ, from that standpoint if from no other, for evermore flings the lght of hope across all human darkness.

Whatever else may grow dim, whatever may be broken or lost, the vision of God in Christ remains the everlasting treasure of humanity---its test of truth, its standard of values, its ideal of judgement. It rebukes pessimism. It evokes adoration. It lights up the universe like a sunrise, showing us the meaing and the worth of the life of man. Wherever it is trusted and followed, it has proved itself the fountain of light and hope and beauty of character, making our fleeting mortal day ' a many splendored thing,' and death a light fringed mystery.

What did St. Paul mean when he said that we have the Mind of Christ?---He must have meant not only that we possess it as a treasure, but that we are able to share it, although not one of us, or all of us together, can contain it. Our chalice soon overflows, and the sea is still full.

Here lie the secret of Christian unity and the seat of authority in faith. Not what the dogmatists argue, but what the humblest soul learns of the mind of Christ, is what matters most. Our real unity is not an argument, but a felowship in which the resources of the higher mind are revealed and the deep things of God are disclosed. Let the Church seek to know the mind of Christ, and to be guided by it, and its discords will be healed, and its unity in variety unveiled in the beauty of holiness. There are thousands of saints in every communion, and some outside the border of all our systems---faithful souls, humble and unknown to fame---who show in their lives the distinguishing features of gospel books. They are the proof of faith and the salt of the earth. By as much as we live and think in the mind of Christ, by so much we find the center where all strands of truth are woven into one seamless robe of light.

How can we make the Mind of Christ our own? If we are to have the mind of Christ we must live with Him, love Him, obey Him, must study His words, brood over His life, that we may come to think of God, of man, of life, as He did---trusting God with His trust, loving our fellow-men with His love, and looking upon life with His still, clear vision. So St. Paul lived, making it the mark of the prize of his high endeavor, until at last he could say : 'It is no longer I that live, but Christ who liveth in me.'

Today, as in the past, the promise stands true, 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' The capacity for religion is a native endowment of man, but its culture, its high truths, are realized only in fellowship. Every great, creative movement in Christian history began first in the fellowship of a little group, and then spread to the multitude. In the fellowship of faith, prayer, and service they sought together what none may know alone, and released in their times a new and haunting power, both for individual redemption and for social regeneration. If we really want to know the mind of Christ for the issues of our age---want it, that is, in order to obey it---we must take time for fellowship, time to weave or repair the ties of spiritual brotherhood, time to listen until we are stilled by the awe of His presence and He reveals to us His way and His will.

In Christ, timothy.

Maranatha