It must be admitted that sensible Christians have outgrown this belief. Jehovah the gardener, the potter, the tailor, has been dethroned. The story of creation is believed only by the provincial, the stupid, the truly orthodox. People who have read Darwin and Haeckel and had sense enough to understand these great men, laugh at the legends of the Jews. A few years ago most Christians believed that Christ was the son of God, and not only the son of God, but God himself. This belief is slowly fading from the minds of Christians, from the minds of those who have minds. Many Christians now say that Christ was simply a man--a perfect man. Others say that he was divine, but not actually God--a union of God and man. Some say that while Christ was not God, he was as nearly like God as it is possible for man to be. The old belief that he was actually God--that he sacrificed himself unto himself--that he deserted himself; that he bore the burden of his own wrath; that he made it possible to save a few of his children by shedding his own blood; that he could not forgive the sins of men until they murdered him--this frightful belief is slowly dying day by day. Most ministers are ashamed to preach these cruel and idiotic absurdities. The Christ of our time is not the Christ of the New Testament--not the Christ of the Middle Ages; nor of Luther, Wesley or the Puritan fathers. The Christ who was God--who was his own son and his own father--who was born of a virgin, cast out devils, rose from the dead, and ascended bodily to heaven--is not the Christ of to-day. The Holy Ghost has never been accurately defined or described. He has always been a winged influence--a divine aroma; a disembodied essence; a spiritual climate; an enthusiastic flame; a something sensitive and unforgiving; the real father of Jesus Christ. A few years ago the clergy had a great deal to say about the Holy Ghost, but now the average minister, while he alludes to this shadowy deity to round out a prayer, seems ta have but little confidence in him. This deity is and always has been extremely vague. He has been represented in the form of a dove; but this form is not associated with much intelligence. Formerly it was believed that all men were by nature wicked, and that it would be perfectly just for God to damn the entire human race. In fact, it was thought that God, feeling that he had to damn all his children, invented a scheme by which some could be saved and at the same time justice could be satisfied. God knew that without the shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin. For many centuries he was satisfied with the blood of oxen, lambs and doves. But the sins continued to increase. A greater sacrifice was necessary. So God concluded to make the greatest possible sacrifice--to shed his own blood, that is to say, to have it shed by his chosen people. This was the atonement--the scheme of salvation--a scheme that satisfied justice and partially defeated the Devil.