exclude error, when we say that God created all things out of nothing ; such a formula teaches only the absolute dependence of nature on God. But it is put positively, or so as to convey the truth in which the world is interested, when we say that all things were created in Christ. St. Paul's con- viction of this truth is based (he believes) on ex- perience : in his consciousness as a Christian man he is assured that in Clirist he has touched the l.ist reality in the universe, the ens i-ealissimum, the truth through which all other truths are to be defined and understood. In other words, a true appi'ehension of the absolute significance of Christ involves a specifically Christian conception of the universe. The Christian religion is not true to Clirist (as St. Paul understood His significance) unless it has the courage to conceive a Christian metaphysic, or, in simpler words, to Christianize all its thoughts of God and the world. Put in this form, Ave can see that in the last resort it is still necessary to share the Apostle's convictions at this point if we mean to j^reach Christ. For if there is any region of reality which does not depend for its meaning and value on its relation to Him, — if the truth with which we come in contact in Him is not the ultimate truth of God, the master light of all our seeing, — then His importance is only relative, and He has no abiding place in religion which requires that He should be preached at all. But in reality He is a Person so great that all nature and history and religion have to be interpreted through Him. All Ave call being, and all Ave call redemption, need Him to explain them. The love revealed in Him is the key to all mysteries. The categories Ave use to make His redemption intelligible are the only categories by Avhich Ave can completely understand anything. Once Christ's absolute significance has become clear to us, — and, as already said, it is involved in every Christian experience,— Ave discover that our task, if Ave Avould understand the system of things in Avhich Ave live, is not to find natural laAV in the spiritual Avorld, but rather to find spiritual laAv — indeed, specifically Christian law — in the natural Avorld. So far as Ave do so Ave are providing scientific attestation for the conception of Christ as a Divine and eternal Person. 10. The Epistle to the HebreAvs and the Fourth Gospel, it need hardly be added, share in this con- ception of Christ. In neither is it allowed to in- fringe on the truth of His human nature Avliile He lived on earth : indeed, of all the NT Avritings, these tAvo in various Avays make most use of Christ's humanity for religious and moral ends. But as the subject of this article is not Christ- ology, it is not necessary to go into details. The prologue to the Fourth Gospel has precisely the same Christian experience behind it as the first chapter of Col., and the same experience, Avhen taken seriously, Avill ahvays inspire the mind to think along the same lines. The conception of the Logos, as has often been remarked, is not carried by the Avriter beyond the prologue : it may in reality affect the EA'angelist's Avay of representing certain things, but it is not formally embodied in the Gospel. It Avas a conception Avidely current in the Avriter's time, Avhatever its sources, and lie used it to introduce Jesus in circles Avhicli natur- ally thought in such terms. It does not follow that to introduce or to explain Christ among men Avho think in other categories, the preacher is still bound to make use of this one. ' There is only one thing,' says Dr. Sanday {Criticism, of the Fourth Gospel, 198) 'that he [the Evangelist] seeks. He AA-ants a formula to express the cosmical signifi- cance of the person of Christ.' That in Avliich Ave must agree A\-ith him if Ave in turn Avould preach Christ, is his conviction of this significance, not the formula in Avhich it suited him at the close of
the first century to express it. That like Paul he had such a conviction, based on experience, there is no doubt. The Son of God Avas not to St. John a lay figure to be draped in the borroAved robes either of Messianic dogmatic or of Alexandrian philosophy. He Avas a Being so great, and had left on the soul of His Avitness an impression so deep, that the latter felt it could be satisfied by nothing but a reconstitution of his universe in Avhich this Avonderful Person Avas put at the heart of every- thing— creation, proA'idence, revelation, and re- demption being all referred to Him. In St. John as in St. Paul the absolute significance of Christ in the relations of God and man, Avhich is the imme- diate certainty of Christian experience, stamps Him as a Divine and eternal Person, by relation to Avliom the Avorld and all that is in it must be described ancAv. We may say if Ave Avill that he uses the Logos as a formula to describe the cos- mical significance of Christ, but that is perhaps less than the truth. He uses it rather to suggest that truth, as truth is in Jesus, is the deepest truth of all, and the most comprehensive, and that under its inspiration and guidance Ave must Christianize .all our conceptions of God, nature, and history. He Avho is not in sympathy Avith this conviction Avill not find it easy to preach Christ in any sense in Avhich the NT Avill sujiport him.