Yet how infinitely touching is at times the desire of those who no longer believe Him divine to acknowledge and reverence Him as the head of the whole human family! They still speak of Him as ‘the Great Master,’ ‘the Holy One,’ ‘the Lord,’ nay even as ‘the Saviour.’ It is the glow that flushes the horizon when the sun has already sunk into the waves. Gerald Eversley, in this phase of his belief or unbelief, said to himself, ‘He is nearer to me than he was, now that I think of him as man. Time was when his voice came to my ears, as it were, through long and distant avenues. Now I speak to him face to face. He is my elder brother, like myself, yet oh! how much higher! I grasp his hand. He goes before me on the dark and lonesome road. What need to dream of him as descending from heaven, or emptied of a divine glory? It is enough that one who walked upon the earth, a man among men, living the common life of men, tempted as men are, suffering like men, yet lived so sublime a life as to extort from human souls the vain ascription of divinity. That is my comfort, greater than if he had been the firstborn of Creation, and legions of angels had waited upon his word.’ Gerald Eversley did not long deceive himself with the imagination that the residuary Christ of his speculations was the same Being whom he had known and adored in childhood. It is the idlest of idle superstitions that modern reason or sentiment can rewrite the Gospel. Human thought did not create Christ, as Rousseau’s _Vicaire Savoyard_ knew well. Neither can it re-create Him. And if the re-creation were possible, there would be a new Christ. If the angels of God were not obedient to His summons, His strong forbearance in not calling upon them was a mockery. If He could not have saved Himself from death, then His death is no longer meritorious. If he was, like other men, of the earth earthy, where then is the condescension of His humanity? Such a Christ may be a Friend, an Exemplar, a spiritual Leader; the world’s Saviour and Redeemer He is not. For a while Gerald Eversley flattered himself that this was enough. The miraculous (he said) does not happen. Then there is no Christ. Gerald Eversley manufactured his own Christ and sought to worship Him; but the prayer died away upon his lips.