He may well be baffled by many anomalies of the time, his eye may rest on the meaner horde, his ear be filled with the arrogance of some unworthy successor of Paul; and if he says: "Why permit these things ?" he may be told there are some alive in this generation who will question all such things, and who, however hard it go with them, have no fear for the final victory.
VI Perhaps the conventional Christian and conventional non-Christian may rest a moment to consider the reality.

Between the bitter believer and the exasperated unbeliever, Christianity is being turned from a practice to a polemic, and if we are to recall the old spirit we must recall the old earnestness and simplicity of the early Martyrs.

We do not hear that they called Nero an atheist, but we do hear that they went singing to the arena.

By their example we may recover the spirit of song, and have done with invective.

If we find music and joyousness in the old conception, it is not in the fashion of the time to explain it away in some "new theology," for he to whom it is not a fashion, but a vital thing, keeps his anchor by tradition.