HERALDS OF GOD
human suffering, but also in the context of the world's sin. He will not allow any superficial appearances of complacence to deceive him. For he knows that all history is the record of man's age-long desperate endeavour to answer the dilemma of moral failure and defeat. He knows that God is sending him to people wrestling with the same stubborn predicament. He knows the secret struggles, frustrations and contradictions of his own soul. He dare not on this matter be hesitant or ambiguous. His preaching will never really touch a single heart unless it brings some sure word about sin and its forgiveness.
There have been, indeed, certain classical answers to the dilemma, to which men cling pathetically even to-day. There is the answer of the Jew: over against the guilt and power of sin, the Jew sets the sacrificial system and the efficacy of an elaborate cult. There is the answer of the Greek: it was characteristic of the Greek mind, with its double allegiance to art and philosophy, that it believed man could work out his own salvation aesthetically and intellectually. There is the answer of the Roman: law and order would redeem the race from disintegration, moralism and disciplined conduct would guarantee the soul. These three historic answers to the human dilemma have made their way right down the centuries, resurrecting themselves in every new generation. Multitudes of our fellow-men—and some of those to whom you will preach—have no other creed to-day. Religious observance and the due performance of ritual acts, the
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