be lost, or that they are left in a perdition from which they have no power to escape. Augustine, however, evaded its plain meaning by limiting 'all' to the predestinated, or by referring it to individuals of every class and condition.1 Thus what was originally a gospel, glad tidings of great joy, for mankind, proclaiming the universality of Divine love, has been changed by theologians into a doctrine of damnation and despair, and they have derived a feeble and selfish comfort from the belief that they themselves and a few others have been arbitrarily pulled out of the general wreck. But the Christian doctrine of predestination proclaims that the loving providence of God is slowly working out a sublime purpose for our race, and has 'great hopes,' not only for 'great souls,' but for the weary and heavy-laden, for the down-trodden and the outcast, for those who have striven with sin and found it too masterful, for those to whom Divine truth is but a glimmer in a dark place. There is many a mystery which may fill our hearts with shame and our eyes with tears; but yet we trust that over all is a purpose of good which never falters, and that ‘sin and death shall not prevail.'2

Closely connected with this doctrine of predestination is the question whether there is any salvation for those who are entirely outside the Christian religion. Augustine expressed the negative view which necessarily resulted from his doctrine that Christianity was a method of rescuing a certain number out of the universe of the damned. He admitted, however, that there would be gradations in the punishments. Fabricius, he said, would be punished less than Catiline, not because the former was good, but because the latter was worse; and Fabricius was less impious than

1 See Grimm, p. 391, note 2; Hagenbach I, p. 431, note 2.

2 Schleiermacher, among others, believed that grace would be extended ultimately to all, if not in this world, then in the next, and that whether it came a little sooner or a little later was a point of subordinate importance (Der christliche Glaube, §§ 117 sqq).

Catiline, not by the possession of real virtues, but by not deviating so widely from real virtues ; and the lightest damnation would be the lot of unbaptized infants who had not added to original sin any transgressions of their own.2 The Reformers necessarily embraced this doctrine in all its repulsive harshness; but we must in justice to them observe that it was founded on the sense of spiritual deliverance which they had themselves experienced. Thus Luther's Larger Catechism remarks that we could never have come to the recognition of the Father's grace without Christ, the mirror of the Father's heart, without whom we see nothing but an angry and terrible Judge; and of Christ we could know nothing if it were not revealed through the Holy Spirit. Consequently these articles of the faith, the Catechism continues, separate us Christians from all other men upon earth. All that are outside Christianity, be it heathens, Turks, Jews, or false Christians and hypocrites, though they may believe in and adore only one true God, nevertheless remain in eternal wrath and damnation, for they have not the Lord Christ, and are not enlightened through the Holy Spirit.3 The Westminster Confession speaks with its usual explicitness :-' Others not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the word, and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet they never truly come unto Christ, and therefore cannot be saved: much less can men not professing the Christian religion be saved in any other way whatsoever, be they ever so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, and the law of that religion they do profess; and to assert and maintain that they may, is very pernicious and to be detested.'

1 Contra Julian. iv. 3.

The

2 Ibid. v. II. See also Enchiridion xciii. Mitissima sane omnium poena erit eorum, qui praeter peccatum, quod originale traxerunt, nullum insuper addiderunt, et in ceteris, qui addiderunt, tanto quisque tolerabiliorem ibi habebit damnationem, quanto hic minorem habuit iniquitatem.' 3 Part II, Article iii., p. 503.

4 Chap. X, § iv. See also the Larger Catechism, Question 60.

Church of England, where damnation is involved, is equally free from ambiguity :-' They also are to be had accursed that presume to say, That every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law, and the light of Nature. For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.'1

It may seem to us strange that such sentiments could be held by men who were in any degree imbued with the Christian spirit; but they may perhaps be traced to three principal sources, a consideration of which will make them appear less extraordinary. First, there is a natural tendency, under the influence of strong religious emotion, to suppose that that emotion has lifted us above the ordinary experience of mankind, and that the way in which we ourselves were raised into a higher spiritual life is the only way by which communion with God can be attained. Thus, apart from any real arrogance, which, however, is too apt to steal in, a deep and novel religious experience begets exclusiveness; and it requires a wide and sympathetic acquaintance with men to teach us that the calmer life of multitudes rests upon genuine faith, and that God has many ways of appealing to the souls of his children. Again, we are all too much governed by the unconscious assumption that God really is what men think that he is. Thus we are prone to speak of the atheist as if he had no God, and of those who deny the Divine Fatherhood as if they had no heavenly Father. But supposing it to be true that Christ alone has revealed the Father's heart, and that all who are not Christians think of God only as an angry and terrible Judge, it does not follow that he is an angry and terrible Judge, but, on the contrary, that that is a mistaken view, and that even the children of darkness are dear to the Father's heart, and, though they know it not, are led by his loving hand. And lastly, this narrowness of view was much more excusable when the non-Christian

1 Article xviii.

world occupied a far smaller place in Christian thought than is possible at the present day. Time and space have broken their bounds. Hebrews and Greeks and Romans have become a small and modern portion of the world's inhabitants, and we must go back through teeming ages, and behold mighty civilizations which flourished long before Rome rested on its seven hills, or Athens became the queen of literature and thought, or Abraham left his kindred in answer to a Divine call. Are we to suppose that through all these thousands of years God abandoned his children, and that nothing but sin reigned on the earth, that temples rose, and worship was offered, and laws were enacted, and great communities held together in mutual helpfulness and service, all under the administration of the Devil? Human history is, no doubt, a chequered scene, full of painful episodes; but if Christ has indeed revealed the Father's heart, then assuredly his providential care was guiding the vast movement, and leading men by a gradual progress to higher things. A similar change of view has taken place in regard to the contemporary world. Christendom no longer fills so vast a place in our eyes, for increased facilities of communication have made distant nations far more real to us; and closer intercourse has taught us that they also have their moral ideals and their religious faith, which tell them of nobler things than they have yet attained. The barriers are slowly breaking down, and we are beginning to perceive that the Holy Spirit of God has a world-wide empire, and has been slowly preparing men for that universal brotherhood which was dear to the heart of Christ.

It cannot be maintained that the exclusive claims of Christianity are without support in the New Testament. Verses may be quoted which appear to give it a decisive sanction. Peter, in addressing the Sanhedrin, and speaking of the miraculous effect of the name of Jesus, says, 'There is no salvation in any other; for neither is there any other name under heaven given among men in which we must be

saved." The fourth Evangelist writes, "He that believes on the Son has eternal life; but he that disobeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.'2 And again we read in the first Epistle of John, ‘He that has the Son has life: he that has not the Son of God has not life': 'We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the evil one.'3 The remarks already made are applicable to the feelings expressed in such words. But we must further consider the circumstances of the time. It was inevitable that the disciples of Jesus, conscious as they were of a new life within themselves, and filled with a pure enthusiasm, should have regarded Christianity as the one only means of redeeming the Roman empire, which was practically their world, from its moral corruption. We know from the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans how foul was the appearance which Gentile society presented to a pure and lofty mind like Paul's. And now it seemed that God's own love had come down into the seething mass of pollution, and was appealing to men to come out of the dark abodes of sin into the light of heaven, and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Christ's was the one only life that made men one with God. A great crisis had come upon the world, winnowing men, and gathering some into a brotherhood consecrated to righteousness, while others refused to hear, and remained exposed to that destruction which waits upon all guilt. This mode of viewing the relation between the new and the old was greatly strengthened by the Messianic expectation. The first generation of disciples confidently expected Jesus soon to return, and establish the kingdom of the Messiah. That world-wide kingdom was to gather in all who would be saved; and those who chose to remain outside would meet their merited doom, and perish in their sins. Thus the exclusiveness, which to a philosophical onlooker may appear a blemish in primitive Christianity, arose inevitably out of the circumstances of the time, and was 2 John iii. 36. 3 I John v. 12, 19.

1 Acts iv. 12.