Making use of the phrase "son of man," Jesus
teaches that all men have a common impulse toward
good and toward reason, which leads to good. It
is superfluous to attempt to prove that ' ' son of
man" means "Son of God." To understand by
the words ' ' son of man " anj-thing different from
what they signify is to assume that Jesus, to say
what he wished to say, intentionally made use of
words which have an entirely different meaning.
But even if, as the Church says, "son of man"
means "Son of God," the phrase " son of man"
applies none the less to man, for Jesus himself
called all men " the sons of God."

The doctrine of the ' ' son of man " iinds its most
complete expression in the interview with Nicode-
mus. Every man, Jesus says, aside from his con-
sciousness of his material, individual life and of his
birth in the flesh, has also a consciousness of a spir-
itual birth (John iii. 5, 6, 7), of an inner libertj', of
something within; this comes from on high, from
the infinite that we call God (John iii. 14-17) ; now
it is this inner consciousness born of God, the son
of God in man, that we must possess and nourish if
we would possess true life. The son of man is
homogeneous (of the same race) with God.
Whoever lifts up within himself this son of God,
whoever identifies his life with the spiritual life, will
not deviate from the true way. Men wander from
the way because they do not believe in this light



126 MT RELIGION.
