And now what follows from all this? If we have in the Bible the Book of the Lord, and in Christ the Lord of the Book, we have in Him also The Standard of Interpretation.

Our Lord Himself promised of "the Spirit of Truth", "He shall guide you into all the truth; for he shall not speak of himself, but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak; and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come." And the manner of the Spirit's guiding into all the truth He clearly predicted when He said, "He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." The New Testament writers, who claimed to write "by the revelation of Jesus Christ," all made Him the Standard by Whom the values of life must be determined. They claimed to be the inspired exponents of the Gospel He had "revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." And their standard was in principle, always this: "As the truth is in Jesus." Their identification and appraisal of error was always effected by comparison with the only infallible Standard of truth; as when Paul says: "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him."

When I say that Christ is to be our Standard of Interpretation, I mean that all the elements of human life can find their only true appraisement in His interpretation of life, as He speaks directly and through His inspired apostles.

For instance: There is a man in the city where I live who is a most exemplary character; a good husband and father, a loyal citizen, and in every respect a worthy man. He is, indeed, a returned soldier. He went "over the top," and was wounded. And in that hour he offered his life upon the altar of his country's service as truly as did the heroic men who will never return.

Now I want someone to tell me how I am to estimate that man religiously; for he is not a professor of religion. Does such an excellent as he heed any religion? And if so, what sort of religion? Does he need salvation? Does he need a Saviour? What should my attitude toward him be? You see, I am looking for a satisfactory, because final and authoritative, doctrine of man. For this I must go to the only One Who "needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man."

And I find that just such an admirable character as I have described, except that he lacked my solder-friend's splendid courage, one "came to Jesus by night." And when he had said, "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God," our infallible Authority answered, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And when Nicodemus asked, "How can these thing be?" this infallible Professor of spiritual knowledge answered: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven."

That is equivalent to saying: Nicodemus, human nature is so depraved that only a spiritual birth can make it spiritually capable of seeing, or morally fit to enter, the kingdom of God. And if you have any doubt as to the finality of this pronouncement, I tell you now that I speak what I know, and testify what I have seen. No one else has ever ascended up to heaven. There is no other authority competent to guide you. I only, of all men, have complete knowledge of the other life, and of the conditions of entrance into the kingdom of God. I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me. Therefore, marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again."

We have now, therefore, a trustworthy doctrine of man. He is so ruined by sin that he can be saved only through regeneration by the Holy Ghost. I must, therefore, go on preaching the doctrines of sin and the new birth; for my great Authority tells me they are still true and necessary. Moreover, I know now the religious message my ex-soldier neighbour needs; and I have learned too, that the first essential to "reconstruction" in any life is regeneration. And as a Christian workman, I am no longer in doubt as to my course. I have a platform of certainty on which to stand, and a divinely authorized message to deliver; I can, therefore, address myself to my task as one who has a commission from on high.

What interpretation shall I put upon the Cross of Christ? There it stands, the promise and prophecy of it in the Old Testament, and the history of it in the New. What does it mean to a sinful world?

Shall I proclaim its moral influence? Shall I tell men it is the consummation of a sublime example? That Christ died to show us how to die, as He lived to show us how to live? Yes; there is all that in the Cross. No one can really gaze upon it without being moved to nobler living. But is that the full meaning of the Cross? If He who died thereon was but a man, the Cross can mean no more than that. You will remember that Bethmann-Hollweg, the ex-German Chancellor, offered himself to the Allied Governments as a substitute for the former Kaiser. The receipt of his offer was acknowledged; but the Allied Governments politely intimated that they had a little score to settle with him on his own account, and that he would have quite enough to do to answer for his own crimes. And thus the case stand with all men: "None of them can by any means redeem his brother; nor give to God a ransom for him.": No man did ever have a surplus of merit wherewith to atone for another's offences; and even if he had, "a life for a life" would require a life of infinite value for the life of the world.

But what if Jesus Christ be God? What if He was "made after the power of an indissoluble life? What if He was "made after the power of an indissoluble life?" What if "He only hath immortality," if His life was eternal in its nature and essence? He said of Himself: "No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment, have I received of my Father." And He said also, "The Son of man came, not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."

Now if in Jesus Christ, "God was manifest in the flesh," if He was born, "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall can his name, Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us," we must find a deeper and richer significance in His blood than is contained in any theory of its mere moral influence. When I know that "the precious blood of Christ" flowed from the heart of Incarnate Deity, I know that His blood was of greater moral worth than all the rivers of human blood which have flowed on all the battlefields of earth through all human history, since Cain slew his brother Abel. "The life of the flesh is in the blood; and when I know that the life that was in "The precious blood of Christ" was an "indissoluble life," even the very life-tide of Deity, then I can understand the incalculability of its atoning value; for in the crimson stream, I see the wealth of the universe in solution! And I can sing with renewed fervour, and out of an unwavering conviction,

For a spiritual bankrupt race there can be no gospel without a vicarious atonement for its theme; and imputed righteousness for its promise; a throne of grace for it faith; a divine Mediator for its Surety; and a kingdom of grace and glory for its end. And all this we have who believe "that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."

Salvation by grace as the message of the Gospel follows as the natural corollary of all this; salvation as God's free gift, not something men can earn for themselves. How sadly that great word "grace" has been neglected of recent years! It needs to be rediscovered, as Hilkiah the high priest discovered the neglected book of the law in the house of the Lord; and to be restored to its place, as the ark of the covenant was brought back from the land of the Philistines. And they who see that all we know of our need of a Saviour and of a Saviour's work for us, has come to us, as it came to Saul on the Damascus road, by light from heaven, will feel the need of that immeasurable word, grace a word as deep as hell, as high as heaven, as wide as human sin, and as lasting as eternity infinite, indeed, as God Himself.

Once again. If Jesus Christ be Lord of all. He must be recognized and acknowledged as the Head of the Church.

And in that acknowledgment the principle of a regenerate church membership is involved. The church must be a company of witnesses to the grace of Christ: "He gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him which filleth all in all." Surely if a member of the church is to be a member of the body of Christ, it follows he must be spiritually quickened. How can Christ be said to be the Head of a church which receives into its membership persons who have not been "born again?" The need of the world is a witnessing church, a church whose members will witness to the grace of the Incarnate God by being themselves the incarnations of the truth of His Gospel. When the poorest and humblest person is put into the witness box to tell what he personally knows of the case before the court, if he is able, even with limping grammar and stammering lips, to tell what he himself has seen of the matter that is before the court for judgment, he is listened to with greater attention than would the most learned scholar who had no personal knowledge of the case. Hence, the little church of really converted people will be a mightier power for good in any community than a great congregation of people who their own experience have no witness for Christ.

We as Baptists, therefore, must learn to measure the progress of our churches by their increasing conformity to Christ, rather than by the number of their members, their social position, or the amount of their wealth.

Years ago, there was a case at law in which everything turned on the resemblance of two car wheels, which were put in as exhibits. Webster and Choate were the opposing counsel. When all the evidence was in, Choate addressed the jury, and overwhelmed them with an elaborated address on "the fixation of points," whatever that may be. I do not know; and the jury did not know either. They may have admired the advocate's learning; but it gave them no light on the question before them.

Webster followed Choate. He fixed his eyes on the car wheels, then on the jury; again on the car wheels and again on the jury; and then, as he pointed to the wheels, he thundered, "Gentlemen of the jury! There they are. Look at ‘em! And that was all he said. But the jury gave him the verdict. Happy the preacher, who, when he has told what Christ can do for a poor sinner, can point to the members of his own church, and say; "There they are! Look at them! Let their lives certify to the Gospel of grace in the lives of men."

The same great principle of the Lordship of Christ determines out teaching with respect to the ordinances of the church. In the symbolism of baptism and the Lord's supper, divine wisdom has wrapped up all the doctrines of grace. In the symbolic death, and burial, and resurrection of the believer, you have life derived from Christ; and in the bread and wine, life sustained by Christ: and in the bread and wine, life sustained by Christ: He is the Alpha and Omega of both ordinances. And whoever observes them in their primitive New Testament simplicity and order, is not likely to lose sight of the great central truth of the Gospel. "Christ crucified," is "the wisdom," of God; and so are the simple ordinances in which that great truth is enshrined.

But rich as is the symbolism of the ordinances, our chief reason for our strict observance of them is that Christ is the Head of the Church; and we recognize no higher law for the believer nor for the Church than His will as revealed in His Word. No one may change what He has ordained.

Clearly, therefore, our whole message hinges upon the Lordship of Christ.

Much has been said in recent years about "union" and "cooperation:" and Baptists are not indifferent to these discussions. When, in March 1918, the Allied armies were being pushed back upon the Channel ports, no one proposed that the British should become French, or the French British, or that either should become Americans. But the greatest military genius of all the Allied generals was appointed to the supreme command of the Allied forces, and when every individual soldier in all the armies of the Allies became subject to one supreme will, in that hour Germany's doom was sealed! And the forces of darkness will not be defeated by flags of truce; nor by the surrender of vital principles of revealed truth. The need of the hour is the recognition by every Christian of the Lord Jesus Christ as Generalissimo of all the armies of the Lord. And to that recognition, our message clearly and uncompromisingly calls.

To Baptists there is a world-call to increased effort to bring in the day when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. To maintain the integrity of the British Empire, and to secure the liberties of the world, Canada was prodigal of her blood and treasure. But the claim of the kingdom of Christ is a still higher claim, made by a greater King, and to secure the interests of a nobler citizenship. The cause in which our Lord invested His life's blood is worthy the investment of our all.

I was in Brussels when King Albert, shortly after the signing of the Armistice, made his triumphal entry into his capital after his more than four years of exile. I shall never forget that scene. Hundreds of thousands were assembled to acclaim their returning king. It seemed to them that ages had passed since last they saw him. And during his absence they had been under the heel of the tyrant. Somewhere, without the ring of fire which encircled them, they knew their valiant king and his gallant army were fighting their way back. But it had seemed as though the King would never come again. But as last the happy day had dawned. I was privileged to stand on a balcony on the third story of an office building at the corner of the street around which the king was to turn. I looked down upon the scores of thousands of loyal Belgians and others who lined the great thoroughfares as far as the eye could reach. Thousands of banners were waving; and vast multitudes, delivered out of the hand of the oppressor, waited with loyal impatience to express their devotion to the king. No one could look down upon those many thousands of expectant faces without feeling that they all "loved his appearing."

At last the cry was raised, "The king is coming!" And in a moment he came into view just beneath my point of vantage, riding a white horse, with his queen, similarly mounted at his side. Immediately behind him came his children, also mounted. Then followed one of King George's sons, and with him the generals of the British armies and the general of the French armies. Next in order was a contingent of American troops; then a French unit; then came the British; and at last the Belgian army, thousands strong. And when the king rode by with his hand at the salute, the people tried to acclaim him. But in the main they succeeded but poorly. They saw him through a mist of tears; tears streamed down many face; there was a great lump in all throats; and, surcharged with inexpressible emotions of thankfulness, they "rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory." One Belgian citizen remarked to me that the long agony of the tyrant's rule was swallowed up in the gladness of the king's return.

And as I viewed that never-to-be-forgotten scene, and saw the king ride triumphantly to his throne amid the countless thousands of his happy, welcoming subjects, I though of that rapidly approaching day when the White Horse and his Rider shall come down the skies, when "every eye shall see him," for He, too is a Conqueror: "He must reign till he hath put all enemies under His feet."

I have asked, what is the irreducible minimum of revealed truth which a man must believe, in order worthily to b ear the name of Baptist? And the answer is: JESUS THE INCARNATE GOD! He is at once the Irreducible Minimum, and the Immeasurable Maximum of Spirit-begotten faith. We cannot live with less than Jesus; and Heaven can not give us more; for "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son!" In the certainty of His ultimate triumph, and in anticipation of His coming in glory, the world's great need call us afresh, as a voice from heaven, to dedicate all our ransomed powers of spirit, soul and body, to the world-wide proclamation of this message: Christ is the head of the body, the Church; Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He of the Manger, of the Cross, of the empty grave, of the opened heavens, of the throne of grace and of glory that in all things He may have the pre-eminence.