Page:What Religion Is (1920).djvu/22

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RELIGION
7

lies. “Where your treasure is” — it is a true saying.

But the special and intensest mean- ing of the words “salvation,” “the peace of God,” “religion,” indicates, as we saw, something unqualified and complete, something which involves that the root of our certainty is very thoroughly present, if not before our minds as a doctrine, then at least in them as an attitude. What is the nature of the fact which we have been describing, when stated at its simplest and strongest, and recognised, or felt, as the centre of our life and being?

There is a traditional phrase intended to sum up the whole point and meaning of religion; and it utters all those characteristics we have insisted on quite simply and plainly. It is the old expression “Justification by Faith.” And whatever practice or doctrine enables us to realise this in our life is