THE PREACHER'S THEME
stronger even than the instinct of self-preservation. Lead men straight to Calvary, if you would bind them to Christ's allegiance with the unbreakable fetters which alone give perfect freedom. "He died for us that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him."
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But now let me raise a question. What is the most characteristic word of the Christian religion? Suppose you were asked to single out one word to carry and convey the cardinal truth of the Gospel, what word would you choose? I suggest it would have to be the word Resurrection, That is what Christianity essentially is—a religion of Resurrection. Go back and listen to the preachers of the early Church. They never pointed men to the Cross without showing them the Resurrection light breaking behind it. Even when, like Paul, they "determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" what gave their preaching such grip and converting power was the testimony, implicit in every word, that this same Jesus was alive, and present, and at work in the world. That was the tremendous truth that coloured and conditioned all their thinking. It did not merely give a distinctive accent to their preaching: it throbbed through every word they said. How could it be otherwise? Christ risen and alive was for them the one dominating reality of life and the very centre of the universe. Paul might have put things even more strongly than he did to the Corinthians. "If Christ
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