My brethren, we must work and pray for a true revival of Christian
doctrine in our age. We must deepen our own hold upon the truths which
Christ has taught us. We must preach them more simply, more
confidently, more reasonably, more earnestly. We must draw from them the
happiness and the help, the comfort and the inspiration, that they have
to give to the souls of men. But most of all, we must keep them in close
and living touch with the problems of daily duty and experience. For no
doctrine, however high, however true, can make men happy until it is
translated into life.

ii. Here is the second if, on which the power of religion to confer
happiness depends: If ye know, happy are ye if ye do these things.

Between the knowing and the doing there is a deep gulf. Into that abyss
the happiness of many a man slips, and is lost. There is no peace, no
real and lasting felicity for a human life until the gulf is closed, and
the continent of conduct meets the continent of creed, edge to edge, lip
to lip, firmly joined forever.

It is not a blessing to know the things that Christ teaches, and then go
on living as if they were false or doubtful. It is a trouble, a torment,
a secret misery. To know that God is our Father, and yet to withhold
our love and service from Him; to know that Christ died for us, and yet
to deny Him and refuse to follow Him; to know that there is an immortal
life, and yet to waste and lose our souls in the pursuit of sensual
pleasure and such small portion of the world as we may hope to
gain,--surely that is the deepest of all unhappiness.

But the right kind of knowing carries in its heart the doing of the