it is around the life of the son of man and son of god that the fiercest controversies of our time are raging. is it not also becoming clearer every day that they will continue to rage more and more fiercely—that there can be no rest or peace possible for mankind—until all things are subdued to him, and brought into harmony with his life?

it is to this work that all churches and sects, that all the leading nations of the world, known collectively as christendom, are pledged: and the time for redeeming that pledge is running out rapidly, as the distress and perplexity, the threatening disruption and anarchy of christendom too clearly show. it is to this work too that you and i, every man and woman of us, are also called; and if we would go about it with any hope and courage, it can only be by keeping the life of christ[58] vividly before us day by day, and turning to it as to a fountain in the desert, as to the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

from behind the shadow the still small voice—more awful than tempest or earthquake—more sure and persistent than day and night—is always sounding, full of hope and strength to the weariest of us all, “be of good cheer, i have overcome the world.”