ON one occasion when he was teaching, Jesus said, “Not that which entereth into the mouth defileth the man; but that which proceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth the man.” Referring to this statement afterward, his disciples asked, “Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, when they heard this saying?” From the connection it is plain that Jesus was not dealing with the nature of the food eaten, but with the pharisaical tradition of defilement from eating the food with unwashed hands; for in his further explanation to his disciples he said, “To eat with unwashed hands defileth not the man.” Any effort to replace mere formalism with the genuine principles of Christianity will offend the Pharisees to-day just as much as in the time of Christ. Many who wear the cross as an ornament refuse to bear the cross in their daily experience, and are offended if the duty is pressed upon them. The name of nominal church-members is Legion, for they are many, but on the invisible church books a large proportion of them are entered as belonging to the sect of the Pharisees. The substitution of the human for the divine in religion has been carried to such an extent that but little of primitive Christianity remains in the belief and experience of many. There certainly needs to be “a revulsion against the skepticism which has been dominant for so long,” but if there is to be such a revival, it will have to begin, as even a secular paper has the discernment to perceive, “with a reawakening of faith in the church itself. Dr. Lyman Abbott, in his recent rejection of the old religious theory of the government and guidance of the universe by a personal God, and in his substitution for it of the theory of an immanent force or energy, represented a form of skepticism which is now extensive in theological seminaries and pulpits nominally Christian. A personal God, with a loving heart, movable by human supplications, is displaced by this new school in favor of a coldly scientific explanation of the order of the universe which is practically atheistic.” There must be lifted up the standard upon which is inscribed “The Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus.” This is the rallying cry for the last message of truth to the world. The Pharisees must needs be offended.