congrès pénitentiaire international

— 44 -divine image, marred today and oftentimes defaced and often.sive. But do not let us forget that there in the image may liethe most precious jevel and in the profoundest depths the richesttreasure. Though debased, a man may carry in himself thepossibility of Christianity, of heaven or hell, capable of descend- iing to the profoundest depths, capable of rising to the greatest iheights. If you want to know what man may be, look at Jésus ïChrist. He is revealed to us in the image of the invisible God. INo man hath seen God at any time, but Jésus Christ, He who ?is in the bosom of the Father; He has revealed him, and Jésus :Christ is the human side of God turned to us, and we see in sHim the idéal to which may be lifted every créature, createdPin the image of the Invisible. We do not know Christ by seeing fman. We do understand man by knowing Christ, and the better §we know Christ, the more graceful, the stronger, the more ma- hjestic and splendid the possibilities and the assurance of the ;:man. Here are the mighty hopes that make us men ; that in the} :very consciousness of our weakness, in the limitations that fret '•and chafe us and oftentimes rack us, in the darkness and theweakness, in the despair of the soul, here are the hopes ; to the 'lowly and depraved the promise and possibility of this large andgiorious likeness of Jésus Christ. That is what salvation means;that is what the promise means. Not a snatching from the '\fiâmes ; not an escape from the world, but an abundant entranceinto life, life abundant, life giorious, perfect life, increasing ; rthrough ail the eternities. ;Despair is suicide. Hope brings courage and uplifts. It is ljust in such conditions that we rejoice in your ministry. Here ris the gospel for which humanity watches, the gospel of hope, >of enduring promise, of abundant life. It is this that gives the jcheer and the knowledge and assures to you the crown of success. %This "boys' gang". Why, it is the outgoing of an abundant \life, the reaching forth for that thing, the searching of a brother- ihood not yet expressed nor realized, and in this boys' gang >ythere is but the outgoing, the craving for the unknown that may kbe into largeness and richness. Our christianity is often hope- Iless, our Christian faith is often faithless. This discharged pris- |oner meets a faithless and unbelieving christianity that looks p— 45upon him despairingly and in its despair builds in its path theobstacles, often insuperable. This lost woman, carrying in herselfthe burden and the darkness, looks through her despairingeyes upon an unbelieving christianity that fails to be lit withthe hope from the resurrected Christ and is blind to the grâcesand glories that yet may be in the life they call lost, lost becausewe so often hurry it to the darkness and despair; lost to the lightand joy and the cheer that in the promise of Christ carries thepossibility of certain and enduring deliverance. Realize thehumanity of man. See the image of God, and in the boys' gangand in the crowd of the discharged prisoners, in the sad gatheringof the lost give them the assurance that the lost may befound, and to the despairing speak the hope that is resurrectiveand giorious. If we look upon men as machines, simply as humanbodies, a matter of bone and blood and nerve and tissue,they may be lost enduringly, but above the body is the soul andthe man carrying the possibilities of the divine image is nowherethe despair and has always the possibilities of grâce and glory.So we will realize not only the right interprétation of societyand humanity, but of the assured help. As we thus interpretman Ave realize his rédemption is God's work and in his rédemptionyou and I are co-workers with Him. The test of a Systemis in the man it makes. That is a good rule everywhere. Prisonreform puts itself to the task of making a man and it makes aman; to the defeated, bringing the promise of hope; to thedespairing, an added promise ; to the exiled, a return ; and toevery valley of Achor, the prophet's promise of a door of hope.For in such a gospel, co-working with God, we must not forgetthat each has the certain promise. You may not realize it. Youtransfer promises and sacred thoughts to ministers, priests, tochurches, to Sabbaths, to sacred organizations, but everythingin this world is sacred and every day may be made a Sabbathand ail men preachers, priests, kings unto God, therein followingin the footsteps of Christ as He seeks to save those that are lost.They have the claim upon his promise, ' 1 Lo, I am with youalways, ' ' and to any going down to darkness, to the haunts ofcrime, to the depth of sin, to the search and effort at réclamation,they carry with them the assurance of the grâce for every time