Page:The stuff of manhood (1917).djvu/75

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And if some men say that all this is only to put in other words the theory of development, of historic evolution, why, what of it? Of course it is, but what is development except the drawing out of what has been folded in? What is evolution except the letting loose of what the mind of God Himself at the beginning had planted within,—when in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world He poured the blood of Christ into humanity in order that humanity might be reinforced with the adequate energies to enable it to accomplish the thing that was God's first dream for it? Of course it is, and that is precisely the ground of Christ's constant appeal. "Come unto me," He said to men, believing that they could. "Unless you hear My call and follow Me, you cannot be My disciple." What meaning was there to His summons unless the power to respond was there in answer to His call? "I stand at the door of your inner being," said He, "and knock. I am there waiting."

And so to us to-day, just as clearly as in those days, His voice speaks: "Come out of your tomb, out of your chains, out of your narrowness, out of your limitations, out of your despairs, out of your dejections, out of your failures,—come out of them. The power of the endless life is here for you, if only by faith and love you will lay hold of it to-day." Is that not, after all, the great central message and the fundamental prin-