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 Cone, Orello, 1835-1905 
 Salvation 
 
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i^lanuals of JFaitlj ano ©utp. 
 
 EDITED BY REV. J. S. CANTWELL, D.D. 
 
 A SERIES of short books in exposition of prominent teachings 
 of the Universalist Church, and the moral and religious 
 obligations of believers. They are prepared by writers selected for 
 their ability to present in brief compass an instructive and helpful 
 Manual on the subject undertaken. The volumes will be affirmative 
 and constructive in statement, avoiding controversy, while specifically 
 unfolding doctrines. 
 
 The Manuals of Faith and Duty are issued at intervals of 
 three or four months ; uniform in size, style, and price. 
 
 No. I. THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. 
 
 By Rev. J. Coleman Adams, D.D., Chicago, 
 
 No. II. JESUS THE CHRIST. 
 
 By Rev. S. Crane, D,D , Norwalk, O, 
 
 No, III, REVELATION, 
 
 By Rev. I. M, Atwood, D.D., President of the Theological 
 School, Canton, N, Y, 
 
 No. IV. CHRIST IN THE LIFE. 
 
 By Rev, Warren S, Woodbridge, Medford, Mass. 
 
 No. V. SALVATION. 
 
 By Rev. Orello Cone, D.D., President of Buchtel College, 
 Akron, O. 
 
 Number VI. of the Series will be : " The Birth from Above," 
 by Rev. Charles Follen Lee. Other volumes and writers will be 
 announced hereafter. 
 
 published by the 
 
 UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE, 
 
 BOSTON, MASS. 
 Western Branch: 69 Dearborn Street, Chicago. 
 
JHanuals of JFait|) antj ©utg. 
 
 No. V. 
 
 - OCT 13 1920 
 
 
 SALVATION. 
 
 BY 
 
 ORELLO ^ONE, D.D., 
 
 PRESIDENT OP BDCHTEL COLLEGE, AKRON, 0. 
 
 For the law of the spirit of life ix Christ Jesus hath 
 made me free from the law of sin and death. 
 
 Komaus viii. 2. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE. 
 
 1889. 
 
Copyright, 1889, 
 By the Universalist Publishing House. 
 
 John Wilson & Son, Cambridge. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Section Page 
 
 Introduction ........... 5 
 
 I. SOLVATION IN THE OlD TESTAMENT .... 8 
 
 II. Salvation as Taught by Jesus 27 
 
 1. Relation to the Old Testament ... 30 
 
 2. The Ethical Factou 36 
 
 3. The Religious Factor 44 
 
 III. The Pauline Doctrine 54 
 
 IV. The Doctrine in Hebrews 65 
 
 V. Salvation and Science 68. 
 
 YI. Secular Salvation 74 
 
 VII. The Intelligent, Emotional, and Volun- 
 tary Factors 80 
 
 VIII. " Probation " and Morals . . \ . . . 85 
 
 IX. Universality of Salvation 92 
 
(&i tijose hjfjo care for reltcjion, i\)t multitutie uf us hiant 
 t!jt materialism of t\)c ^pocalgpse ; t\}t fcb toant a bague re* 
 lifltosttg. .Sctencf, fajf}ic!j more anlJ more teacljes us to finB 
 in tf}e utiapparent tije real, toill rjratiuaUg serbe to ronquer 
 tf}e materialism of t\)t popular religion. ®!je frienHs of 
 barjue rcligiositg, on tlje otl)er IjanU, biill lie more anU more 
 tautjljt bs erpertenre tljat a tbcologg, a scientific appreciation 
 of tije facts of religion, is bianteti for religion ; fiut a tije* 
 ologs ^W^ is a true tljeologg, not a false. 
 
 Matthew Arnold. 
 
SALVATION 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 'PVERY religion presupposes an unnatural, 
 J—' discordant relation of man to the spiritual 
 laws of his being. Perfect, he would have no 
 need of a religion, and would never originate 
 one. Dependent and fallible, the sharp sense 
 of weakness and spiritual want he cannot cast 
 out, nor can he escape the obtrusive presence 
 of the higher Powers. Deep mystery surrounds 
 him, in which he can read little save the char- 
 acters of law, written large and luminous. 
 Finding himself out of harmony with the great 
 order into which he is cast, he is filled with 
 unrest, and sets himself to a solution of the 
 problem of reconciliation. This consciousness 
 of discord and the struggle with the problem 
 how to attain harmony denote the beginning of 
 religion, and his solution of the problem marks 
 the degree and character of his spiritual insight. 
 
6 SALVATION. 
 
 If his thought do not rise above Nature, his re- 
 ligion will begin and end in a propitiation of her 
 supposed malign forces. If he attain the appre- 
 hension of a personal benignant Power and Will 
 superior to the natural order, originating and 
 imposing a moral law, his religion will be a 
 sense of dependence upon God, worship, com- 
 munion, aspiration for harmony with Him, inde- 
 structible confidence and faith. The nature of 
 his idea of God will determine his conception of 
 salvation. 
 
 Salvation implies a bondage in certain evil 
 conditions from which it is a deliverance. It 
 sinks in man's thought to the level of release 
 from temporal misfortune, social or political 
 calamity, sorrow, physical pain or discomfort, or 
 rises into the realm of purely spiritual relations, 
 according to the note of his interpretation of the 
 Supreme Being. Accordingly, its doctrine of 
 salvation reveals the inmost character of a re- 
 ligion. It is its vital part. Herein does religion 
 affect man most powerfully, because herein it 
 immediately touches his life. His conduct sinks 
 to a lower or rises to a higher point according 
 as, through his conception of salvation, he ap- 
 prehends his relation to God. Whether in his 
 
SALVATION. 7 
 
 worship he shall grovel in rites, ceremonies, and 
 bloody offerings, in propitiation and atonement, 
 to reconcile an offended and changeable Deity, 
 or in spirit and truth rise into communion with 
 Him who is a Spirit, is largely determined by his 
 ideas regarding this central point in religion. 
 
 As a moral being, capable of conceiving an 
 ideal development and endowed with a passion 
 for its attainment, man cannot but be restless 
 under the bondage of his lower impulses, and 
 struggle with an energy proportional to his 
 ethical enlightenment for deliverance, or salva- 
 tion, from the degradation into which they bring 
 him. The most intensely interesting and pa- 
 thetic part of the story of his life is the record 
 of this struggle. As a spiritual being, believing 
 in God as a moral -Governor and Father, the 
 sense of this discord between his higher and 
 lower nature is sharpened to its acutest note in 
 the consciousness of sin. In the Biblical con- 
 ception of man this latter relation is brought 
 into prominence with great pathos and power. 
 Very significant, too, it is that on the first page 
 of the Bible, in the legend of the Fall, is sounded 
 a joyful note of deliverance in the announce- 
 ment that the seed of the woman, the essential 
 
8 SALVATION. 
 
 man, — man realizing the Divine plan, — shall 
 be victorious in the contest with the seed of the 
 serpent, the rude and brutal forces of his nature. 
 The bitterness of this conflict is manifested in 
 the long and all but hopeless struggle of the 
 Prophets with the obduracy of their people, 
 gives a tone of sadness and despondency to 
 many a Biblical writing, and finds intensest ex- 
 pression in the sharp cry of despair and pain 
 wrung from the soul of the great Apostle to the 
 Gentiles. 
 
 I. — Salvation in the Old Testament. 
 
 If the sense of bondage to sin is profound in 
 the human soul, not less so is that of the ur- 
 gency of deliverance from this condition. No 
 more sagacious interpretation of human nature 
 in this relation has been made by any of the 
 great teachers of men than is furnished in the 
 works of the conspicuous writers of the Old 
 Testament. So obvious is this to every careful 
 and unbiassed student of these writings, that one 
 hazards nothing in saying that the religion of 
 the Old Testament is pre-eminent among the 
 religions of antiquity for the distinctness and 
 energy of its conception of salvation. What- 
 
SALVATION. 9 
 
 ever may be thought of the remedy which it 
 proposes for sin, however limited its spiritual 
 horizon may be deemed, its vigorous accentu- 
 ation of the dreadful fact of sin and of the ur- 
 gency of deliverance from the bondage of the 
 violated law is indisputable. 
 
 The writers of the Old Testament set forth 
 no philosophy of sin, either regarding its origin 
 or nature, and do not attempt a solution of the 
 problems which it has presented to the reflec- 
 tion of later ages. With the exception of the 
 author of the book of Job, the}^ do not enter 
 with serious purpose upon metaphysical in- 
 quiries. One of the two documents which criti- 
 cism traces in the Pentateuch (the Elohistic) 
 does, indeed, give a mythical account of the 
 Fall of man and of the entrance of sin into the 
 world, assuming the human race to have begun 
 its existence in a state of childlike innocence 
 and ignorance of good and eviL But the Je- 
 hovist narrator knows nothing of all this, and 
 there are no decided marks of its influence in 
 the later writers. The doctrine of Original Sin, 
 as it has unhappily been set forth in Christian 
 theology, finds no support in the canonical books 
 of the Old Testament. The natural weakness 
 
10 SALVATION. 
 
 and tendency to sin in man are recognized, — 
 that the imagination of his heart is evil ; that 
 he was shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin ; 
 that he dwells in a house of clay, and has his 
 foundation in the dust/ etc. It is thus taught 
 that man has in a certain sense inherited sin, 
 that is, has received by heredity the germ of its 
 development, and is, accordingly, to a degree 
 excusable ; that God has not willed it, but only 
 set the possibility of it in man, whom He has 
 created with the power of self-determination 
 and of overcoming in the struggle with evil 
 passions. 
 
 The Hebrew conception of sin finds its ex- 
 planation only in connection with the theo- 
 cratic idea. From this it receives its predominant 
 tone, although there is not a little teaching 
 which proceeds upon general ethical and spirit- 
 ual principles. The law, the ceremonial pre- 
 scriptions, the entire cultus are enjoined upon 
 the people as expressing the will of Jehovah, 
 the theocratic head of the nation ; and the great- 
 est importance could not but be attached to all 
 acts and observances b}^ which a true citizen of 
 the theocracy was distinguished from the rest 
 ^ Genesis viii. 21 ; Psalm li. 7 ; Job iv. 17. 
 
SALVATION. 11 
 
 of mankind. Hence the externality which 
 characterized all expression of religion, and the 
 degenerate formalism which stifled worship. 
 How deep-seated this perversion was, appears 
 in the vehement denunciations of the cere- 
 monial observances by the Prophets, who stand 
 forth, one might almost dare to say, as the 
 preachers of a new morality and religion, and 
 teach that only he who is of a contrite spirit 
 and trembleth at the word of God shall find 
 favor in His sight. Yet are not the Prophets 
 themselves outdone in the denunciation of the- 
 ocratic sins, or offences against Jehovah as the 
 Ruler of the nation, who resents as injuries to 
 Himself all acts prejudicial to its welfare. 
 
 The immediate personal relation of sin to 
 Jehovah is strongly set forth in the Hebrew 
 theology and theodicy. Jehovah is represented 
 as having His people in charge, as having en- 
 tered into a covenant with them and earnestly 
 seeking their welfare. On His part the cove- 
 nant is sacredly kept, for He is the Righteous 
 One. Through the teachers and Prophets whom 
 He has commissioned, His will has been made 
 known and strictly enjoined. But the people 
 are unrighteous, breakers of the covenant, idol- 
 
12 SALVATION. 
 
 aters. Their violation of the law is character- 
 ized as sedition, revolt, apostasy. It is an 
 arrant wrong, a foolish wickedness, an aimless 
 and unsubstantial proceeding, since it is di- 
 rected agahist the All-Powerful, who will smite 
 His enemies with confusion and overthrow. 
 Enemies of God, indeed, are they who break 
 His covenant and disobey His law, and " He will 
 wound their head and hairy scalp." The an- 
 thropopathism of the Hebrew writers, of which 
 a considerable residuum is left after due allow- 
 ance has been made for Oriental modes of ex- 
 pression, has colored their idea of sin as related 
 to the Deity, and perhaps led them to give ex- 
 cessive prominence to this side of it. The 
 wrath of God against His " enemies," however 
 these writers may have conceived it, and the 
 swift overthrow which awaits them, are expres- 
 sions so often recurring that they can hardly 
 be regarded as merely poetic ornaments of 
 speech. Rather, such words convey what to 
 those who so constantly use them was a terrible 
 reality. 
 
 The phase of sin in which it is immediately 
 related to man — its human side — is likewise 
 set forth in the Old Testament with thorough 
 
SALVATION. 13 
 
 earnestness and in a tone of energetic warning. 
 The swift and certain consequences of disobedi- 
 ence are proclaimed ; mischief and destruction 
 pursue the transgressor, and no human acu- 
 men, no joining of hand in hand, can avert the 
 doom. Are not the eyes of the Lord in every 
 place ? The wings of the morning cannot bear 
 one where He is not in His protecting or 
 avenging power. 
 
 The consequences of sin, and therefore the 
 nature of salvation, are, however, more definitely 
 determined from the point of view of the the- 
 ocracy. Sin, as ordinarily treated in the Old 
 Testament, being a theocratic offence, receives 
 in reference to its effects a theocratic interpre- 
 tation. Now the theocrac}^ being regarded from 
 the " particularistic " point of view as a temporal 
 order of things, must find its completion in the 
 world. Accordingly, the Hebrew view of sin 
 does not include a retribution future to the 
 present life. In the story of the Fall, death is 
 announced as the penalty of disobedience. But 
 this doctrine appears to have exerted no influ- 
 ence upon Hebrew theology. Indeed, the ac- 
 count is not, on the surface at least, consistent 
 with itself; for in Genesis iii. 19, man is spoken 
 
14 SALVATION. 
 
 of as naturally mortal, and in verse 22 it is im- 
 plied that the only way to prevent his acquiring 
 immortality is to cut off his approach to the tree 
 of life. Hence death cannot be regarded, ac- 
 cording to the legend itself, as the consequence 
 of disobedience, unless indirectly, through ex- 
 clusion from the garden where man might have 
 eaten of the unforbidden tree of life. 
 
 The popular Hebrew doctrine of the relation 
 of death to sin is not, however, without close 
 relation to this ancient tradition thus inter- 
 preted. For while length of days and temporal 
 prosperity are regarded as the sure reward of 
 the righteous, it is taught that the expectation 
 of the wicked shall perish, that their days shall 
 be shortened, — like sheep are they laid in the 
 grave. ^ On the other hand, long life is prom- 
 ised as the reward of obedience to tlie law of 
 God ; and life and good, death and evil, are set 
 over against each other in the solemn summary 
 of the divine order of the theocracy .^ Probably 
 no stronger and in tenser expressions of the tem- 
 poral disaster which a wicked life may cause 
 are found in any literature than the Biblical 
 
 i Proverbs x. 25, 27 ; Psalm xlix. 
 
 2 Exodus XX. 12; Deuteronomy xxx. 15-20. 
 
SALVATION. 15 
 
 writers employ. Their insight is in this regard 
 remarkably clear. They are seers to whom the 
 wisdom of ages and the lessons of human ex- 
 perience stand forth clearly defined in their 
 naked reality. In how fine a contrast are the 
 ways of the righteous and of the evil doer set 
 in these words : " The path of the just is as 
 the shining light, that shineth more and more 
 unto the perfect day ; " but " the way of the 
 wicked is as darkness : they know not at what 
 they stumble." How terrible the picture of the 
 wicked man, whose spiritual vision is dimmed, 
 going down into ever-increasing darkness, and 
 at last losing moral discernment, so that he does 
 not know at what he stumbles ! 
 
 The fact, however, that in actual life the 
 wicked often appear prosperous, and the righ- 
 teous suffer affliction, presented to the Hebrew a 
 problem whicli he could not solve by postponing 
 the adjustment to a future life, because of the 
 temporal limitation of his view. He comforted 
 himself as best he could with the reflection that 
 the death of the wicked must be as dreadful as 
 that of the righteous was beautiful and full of 
 peace. In despair of any solution of this problem, 
 some of the less devout and perhaps less profound 
 
16 SALVATION. 
 
 adopted the point of view of pessimisftic indiffer- 
 entism, which found expression in the epicurean 
 motto, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow 
 we die." The pious, however, cherished such 
 slender consolation as they could find in their 
 temporal hopes. The happiness of the Avicked 
 endures, they reasoned, only for a day ; speedily 
 are they hurried off the' scene of existence : but 
 the righteous are delivered from the peril of 
 death, and at least nmj enjoy a long life and a 
 peaceful demise. In the admonitions of the 
 writer of Proverbs, in the exhortations of the 
 Prophets, and in the warning and exulting 
 strains of the Psalmists, a utilitarian practical 
 wisdom attains a most energetic expression. 
 
 The Hebrew conception of salvation was de- 
 termined by that of sin and its consequences, as 
 held under the law and by the Prophets. Sal- 
 vation, so far as it was legally and ethically 
 regarded, was simply a bondage to the law. 
 Deliverance, indeed, it was from the bondage 
 which the broken law imposed in the form of 
 penalty ; but under the intolerable burden of 
 ceremonial and a tedious cultus, he still remained 
 who had performed the rites and offered the 
 atoning sacrifice. Jehovah, through the law, 
 
SALVATION. 17 
 
 was the Saviour who, by severe discipline, force, 
 and penalty, restrains the evil passions of men. 
 He is conceived as the Supreme Lawgiver and 
 Executive, a being of unapproachable majesty, 
 revealing Himself in the terrific forces of Nature, 
 — in thunder, lightning, earthquake. A free, 
 joyous, and peaceful development, a hopeful 
 striving to attain an ideal spiritual life, a serene 
 abiding in love and communion with God as 
 Father, were necessarily impossible from this 
 theological point of view. Salvation is a nega- 
 tion, a release from fear and pain, rather than 
 an impulse to a fresh and positive ethical striv- 
 ing. No one who has understood the real nature 
 of the Hebrew legalism will think Paul's ar- 
 raignment of it too strong. There is a note of 
 melanchol}', a sense of bondage and weariness 
 in that vast system of formalism and severity, 
 which are in strong contrast with the joyful 
 consciousness of liberty, expressed by no one 
 with more force and fervor than by this same 
 Paul. Not wholly wanting, indeed, to the 
 Hebrew religious poetry are the cheerful tone of 
 mind and the exhortation to rejoice in the Lord. 
 But how often does the spirit in which the re- 
 joicing is called for throw over it a veil of sad- 
 
18 SALVATION. 
 
 ness ! — " Let the people tremble • " "a fire go- 
 eth before Him and burnetii up His enemies." 
 
 As a means of counteracting or breaking the 
 relentless force of the law and furnishing de- 
 liverance, or salvation, from its curse, sacrifices 
 held a prominent place in Hebrew legalism. In 
 the vast number of cases in which the law was 
 violated through ignorance, weakness of the 
 flesh, or error, provision was made to atone for 
 the fault, to make restitution, by the offering of 
 sacrifices to avert the withdrawing of the Divine 
 favor and the retributive consequences of the 
 offence. It is not to the present purpose to 
 enter into a minute account of the sacrificial 
 prescripts. Suffice it to remark that the com- 
 parative history of religions shows the high an- 
 tiquity and wide prevalence of propitiatory 
 offerings to the gods. The institution of sacri- 
 fices was not of Mosaic origin, nor does the 
 elaborate form of the ceremonial as it is laid 
 down in the Pentateuch date from an earlier 
 period than the age of Solomon. The religious 
 feeling out of which the sacrificial system and 
 ceremonial sprang was that the Divine favor 
 could be secured by the offering of some valu- 
 able possession. The burnt-offering was an 
 
SALVATION. 19 
 
 expression of reverence towards God, of devo- 
 tion to Him, and willingness for His service. 
 The thank-offering was a return for a benefit 
 received. The sin-offering expressed an ac- 
 knowledgment of the disturbance through trans- 
 gression of the peaceful relation with the Deity, 
 and was offered with a view to reconciliation, to 
 annulment of the sin in the sense that its penal 
 consequences should not follow if the sacrifice 
 were graciously received. Symbolical, perhaps, 
 in a general sense, these sacrifices were. But 
 there can be little doubt that the sin-offering 
 was regarded as substitutional, or at least as fur- 
 nishing satisfaction for the offence on account 
 of which it was made. '* The life of the flesh," 
 which '^ is in the blood," " is given upon the 
 altar to make an atonement for the life " of the 
 tr-ansgressor, forfeited by the sin.i The analogy 
 of other ancient religions is not without signifi- 
 cance in relation to the interpretation of this 
 sacrificial rite. Precisely in this idea of the im- 
 portance in itself of the external side of the sac- 
 rifice lay the imperfection and the peril of the 
 
 1 Leviticus xvii. 11. This view is philologically established 
 by the fact that the Hebrew word for sin-offering comes from 
 another which signifies " to make restitution for something 
 lost," etc. 
 
20 SALVATION. 
 
 entire ciiltus. TJie belief that the offering />er se 
 was a meiitorioLis act, and a magical means of 
 propitiating the Deity and averting the penal 
 consequences of disobedience, could not but re- 
 sult in the loss of the sentiment of worship and 
 the sNvay of a degrading formalism, — in such 
 a moral and spiritual degeneracy, in fact, as 
 called forth the vehement denunciation of the 
 Prophets. 
 
 While the acceptance of a sacrifice may be 
 regarded from a strictly legal point of view 
 as an acknowledgment of satisfaction, it was 
 deemed in the Hebrew theology a modification 
 of the law in the interest of mildness. There 
 was found, therefore, room for merc3^ God, as 
 the Saviour of His people, is accordingly repre- 
 sented as forgiving sin. As inexorably severe, 
 He is said, indeed, to visit the sins of tlie 
 fathers upon the children ; but in the later 
 development of the people this doctrine is 
 renounced. Under the law certain sins are 
 passed by on account of sacrifices offered ac- 
 cording to the ceremonial requirements. But 
 the Prophets attained a higher point of view, 
 and represented the Divine forgiveness as a free 
 act of grace, conditioned, indeed, upon repent- 
 
SALVATION. 21 
 
 ance and abandonment of sinful conduct. It 
 should be kept in mind, however, that the domi- 
 nant note in the Hebrew doctrine of forgive- 
 ness and salvation is deliverance from the 
 external, temporal consequences attached to 
 sin by the law. It would be a great error to 
 read into this theology the ethical and spiritual 
 apprehension of sin as a violation of the nature 
 of man, the effects of which follow in the soul 
 by irreversible natural law. It is arbitrary, not 
 natural, law which is taken into account. The 
 doctrine, however, that righteousness, obedi- 
 ence, and harmony with God are " good " and 
 desirable, and that they insure peace as well as 
 prosperity, does not fail of frequent and decided 
 expression. In proportion as the Psalmists and 
 Prophets rise above the earlier legalism they 
 attain a more spiritual point of view. The 
 theocratic conception of forgiveness and salva- 
 tion was, however, scarcely transcended by any 
 of the writers of the canonical books of the 
 Old Testament. To them Jehovah was the 
 God of Israel. The Divine mercy and love 
 were for the members of the theocratic com- 
 munity only. Destruction would overwhelm all 
 who were enemies of these. The hope, which 
 
22 SALVATION. 
 
 finds expression in some of the Prophets, that 
 all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation 
 of God, could have found its expected realiza- 
 tion only in the conversion of the heathen to 
 the theocratic worship. The limits of parti- 
 cularism were not passed until Judaism came 
 in contact with Greek culture. Whether the 
 broadening of mind was the result of inter- 
 course with foreign and particularly Hellenistic 
 tendencies, or came by an inward development, 
 may be open to question ; but in the apocry- 
 phal Book of Wisdom are found conceptions of 
 God which are closely akin to those of Jesus. 
 He is here represented as a Spirit friendly to 
 man. Great and small has God created, and 
 He cares equally for all. He loves all that is, 
 and abhors nothing which he has made ; for if 
 He hated anything He would not have created 
 it. His imperishable spirit is in all. This noble 
 idea may, however, very naturall}^ have been 
 derived from the ancient Hebrew story of the 
 creation of man, the profound significance of 
 which had for ages been buried under a vast 
 system of exclusiveness and national conceit. 
 
 Under the law there was, however, a large 
 number of sins for which no forgiveness was 
 
SALVATION. 23 
 
 provided. The transgressor who had been 
 found guilty of these could hope for no salva- 
 tion. He was doomed. He must die, and 
 this was the end as an awful warning to "those 
 which remain." For sacrificing to Moloch, a 
 man was condemned to be put to death by 
 stoning. If a brother, son, daughter, wife, or 
 friend entice a man to worship other gods, the 
 man so enticed is ordered to "surely kill" the 
 entice r ; and the people are enjoined to stone 
 him to death, to make his destruction sure. 
 For blasphemy the oifender, whether a native 
 or a stranger, is doomed to death, "and all the 
 congregation shall certainly stone him." The 
 man who " will not hearken unto the priest" 
 has committed an unpardonable sin and must 
 die, that the people may " fear and do no more 
 presumptuously." It is commanded in heart- 
 breaking detail that the father and mother of 
 "a stubborn and rebellious son " shall seize him 
 and bring him as accusers to the elders of his 
 city, that all the men of his city may stone him 
 till he be dead.^ The numerous curses in the 
 
 1 In the twentieth chapter of Numbers is a long list of of- 
 fences for which death alone could atone. Tlie sad Book of 
 Deuteronomy abounds in them. 
 
24 SALVATION. 
 
 twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, pro- 
 nounced upon tliose who sliould not keep the 
 law, are equivalent to sentences of death or an- 
 athemas worse than death. Repulsive as all 
 this unmitigated severity is to a humane senti- 
 ment, it should not be overlooked that a tone 
 of profound moral earnestness pervades the 
 Old Testament; that duty^ with whatever de- 
 fects of ethical conception it may have been 
 apprehended, is enjoined with earnest emphasis 
 and endless repetition ; that the will of God is 
 incessantly proclaimed as the supreme, invio- 
 lable law ; that the disaster and ruin wrought 
 by sin are exhibited in so terrible a light as to 
 excite deep horror of it in the minds of the 
 people, and that the praises of righteousness 
 are sung in sweet and lofty strains. Much 
 easier, indeed, it is to criticise this religious 
 system than to invent another which could 
 have been established under the conditions 
 which determined this, or, if it had existed, 
 would have served the educational end which 
 this did undoubtedly serve. 
 
 The Hebrew conception of salvation can be 
 understood only in connection with the national 
 religious and patriotic spirit. This is true at 
 
SALVATION. 25 
 
 least of the later development of the doctrine 
 in the Prophets. To these great teachers Israel 
 appeared as the people of mankind, — a world- 
 people, having a providential calling which dis- 
 tinguished them from all other races, — and as a 
 mission-people in the interest of monotheistic 
 worship. Idolatry, all worship of other gods 
 than Jehovah, it is their calling to overcome, 
 whether in their midst or among the surround- 
 ing peoples. An immediate personal responsi- 
 bility to God — no ceremonial intervening — 
 is emphasized. The heavy guilt which rests 
 upon the people can be removed by no sacri- 
 fice but that of sin itself, — by repentance and 
 return to right worship and life. The inner 
 law of the conscience comes in the Prophets to 
 clear recognition and forcible expression. The 
 great national mission is, however, kept con- 
 stantly in view, and salvation is generally 
 conceived in relation to this, and as including 
 whatever will further this providential calling 
 and work, — deliverance from idolatry, from the 
 power of enemies, from exile and all temporal 
 evil, such as oppression, violence, and internal 
 dissension. Bat one personal Saviour is recog- 
 nized in this prophetic teaching, and that one 
 
26 SALVATION. 
 
 is Jehovah, the all-mighty, in whose right hand 
 is victory, and He will rear and nurture Israel 
 as a peculiar people. For their salvation — that 
 is, for the preservation of their national mono- 
 theistic integrit}^ — He employs the teachings 
 of the Prophets, misfortunes of various kinds, 
 and especially does He scourge them with the 
 heathen nations, whom He brings down upon 
 them (such is the Hebrew conception of history) 
 to lay waste and destroy, to slay and carry into 
 exile for their disobedience and revolt. It be- 
 longs, however, to the point of view of the 
 Prophets, while they recognize Jehovah as the 
 true Saviour of His people, to mediate the sal- 
 vation through the sufferings of the righteous, 
 who in some sense atone for the sins of the 
 nation. Thus the second Isaiah (chapters xL- 
 Ixvi.) looks for the " healing " of the people 
 by means of the " stripes " which the faithful 
 theocratic remnant had suffered in the exile. 
 Some of the Prophets do, however, expect a 
 future salvation through a personal deliverer of 
 the line of David. Out of Bethlehem should 
 come forth one who should be *' a ruler in 
 Israel ; " he should be a " rod out of the stem 
 of Jesse," ''Wonderful, Counsellor, Prince of 
 
SALVATION. 27 
 
 Peace ; " he should sit on the throne of David, 
 restore the fallen power of the nation, and set 
 free, cleanse, and glorify the enslaved and hu- 
 miliated people. The failure of this hope to 
 be realized in the terms in which it was con- 
 ceived, illustrates the defects and limitations of 
 the Hebrew idea of salvation, which, though 
 occasionally showing gleams of a noble spirit- 
 ual conception, was in general hampered by its 
 theocratic point of view, and confined to an 
 earthly and temporal scope. Under these con- 
 ditions it was not adapted to become a perma- 
 nent factor in a universal religion. 
 
 II. — Salvation as taught by Jesus. 
 
 A doctrine of salvation appropriate to a 
 world-religion was presented by the great 
 Teacher, who by reason of it has earned the 
 title of Saviour of Mankind.^ This title will be 
 the more readily accorded to him by all the 
 world, the more the truly spiritual and universal 
 character of his teaching is recognized, the more 
 it is apprehended in its wonderful simplicity 
 and liberated from the burden of dogma under 
 
 1 A forthcoming volume in this series of Manuals is en- 
 titled " The Saviour of the World." — Editor. 
 
28 SALVATION. 
 
 which it has been for ages smothered and dis- 
 torted. As a spiritual interpreter of human 
 nature, Jesus of Nazareth has never been sur- 
 passed. As an embodiment and manifestation 
 of whatever is noblest, purest, and tenderest in 
 man, he stands unrivalled among the great re- 
 ligious teachers of the ages. Other personality 
 so morally fruitful, so abounding in intensity of 
 spiritual power, has never appeared in history. 
 In him all that is most godlike and most human 
 was united in harmony, and found consummate 
 expression. His life is at once the enigma of 
 the centuries and the solution of their problems. 
 In the universality of liis religious genius, in 
 the scope and sureness of his ethical insight, in 
 the depth of his sympathy and the breadth and 
 lucidity of his understanding, in the intensity 
 of his sufferings and the completeness of his vic- 
 tory, he was the true Son of Man. Tempted in 
 all points, and assailed by the powers of sin and 
 the ferocity of enraged and brutal men, he held 
 with a firm grasp the sceptre of spiritual ascen- 
 dancy which shall never depart from his hand. 
 
 Although reared in the religious faith of his 
 people, nurtured in the law and the Prophets, 
 Jesus recognized and adopted only the spiritual 
 
SALVATION. 29 
 
 and universal principles of Hebraism and Juda- 
 ism. The imperishable hope of salvation, which 
 had been cherished in the hearts of Jews through 
 many ages of oppression, he sought to rekindle, 
 indeed, but only in giving it an entirely new 
 interpretation. In the alchemy of genius all 
 that it touches is turned into gold. Out of the 
 spiritual crucible of Jesus the Jewish conception 
 of salvation came forth transfigured. Now no 
 longer did it bear its antique form of national 
 and theocratic self-seeking, its cramped and de- 
 graded aspect of bondage to the law. Inter- 
 preting the striving and aspiration of mankind 
 for deliverance from servitude to sin in the 
 light of the great idea of the universal Father- 
 hood, he exalted salvation to the rank of a 
 world-principle of life. Not now was it to be 
 consummated in Jerusalem rebuilt and the 
 magnificence of the temple restored, not in cere- 
 mony of sacrifice and voice of prayer on Geri- 
 zim, nor yet in the pitying answer to the mute 
 despair of exiles by the rivers of Babylon, which 
 should wake their silent harps to theocratic 
 melodies, but in the deliverance of a world from 
 the dominion of selfishness, in the universal 
 reign of tlie kingdom of God. 
 
80 SALVATION. 
 
 1. Relation to the Old Testament. — The po- 
 sition which Jesus assumed towards the sacred 
 writings of the Jews, regarded both as docu- 
 ments of a theocratic national religion and as 
 literature, indicates the point of view from which 
 his teaching of salvation must be considered. 
 In the freedom of his spirit, in the grandeur of 
 his conception of life, and in the clearness of his 
 insight into the divine order of the world, he 
 resembled and yet surpassed the greatest of the 
 Prophets. The most spiritual of these teachers 
 had no vision of a restored Jerusalem without 
 its temple and altar, which shouM stand as 
 symbols not only of worship, but of national 
 supremacy and splendor. But the establishment 
 of a political, theocratic kingdom Jesus repudi- 
 ated as foreign to his aim and opposed to the 
 spirit of his mission. He sought to dissipate in 
 the minds of his followers all dreams of worldly 
 dominion. As he came not to be ministered 
 unto, but to minister, so he taught them that in 
 his kingdom the position of servant was the 
 chief honor to be attained. He regarded the 
 whole sacrificial system, the theocratic striving 
 and ambition, as nourishing the selfishness which 
 it was his mission to overcome by fostering the 
 
SALVATION. 31 
 
 spirit of universal love. To the temporal Mes- 
 sianic prophecies and expectations of his nation, 
 he gave no heed and no encouragement. '' My 
 kingdom is not of this world," was his answer 
 to the ineffectual fanaticism of those of his own 
 time in whom the national spirit of the Prophets 
 still excited futile strivings after political liberty 
 and glory. He expressed no sympath}^ with 
 the bondage to Rome, under which his people 
 groaned, nor with their fruitless longing for de- 
 liverance from its chains. He even enjoined 
 that what Avas due to Caesar should be rendered 
 to him, and did not neglect to add that duties 
 to God must also be discharged. Not the re- 
 storer of the ancient national supremacy would 
 he be, but the founder of a new kingdom. 
 
 In Matthew v. 17-21, Jesus makes a formal 
 declaration of his relation to the economy of the 
 Old Testament. As to the law or the Prophets, 
 he came not, he says, to destroy, but to fulfil them. 
 Not one jot or tittle of the law shall pass till all 
 be fulfilled ; and he that breaketh the least of 
 the commandments, and teacheth men so, shall 
 be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. 
 Yet in the same discourse he takes a position 
 above the law, abrogating or modifying pariicu- 
 
32 SALVATION. 
 
 lar commandments, and setting up his personal 
 authority unqualifiedly against that of '^ those of 
 old time." In respect to the law against homi- 
 cide he places the disposition on an equal foot- 
 ing with the act. As to adultery, it is within, 
 in the cherished lustful passion as well as in the 
 act contemplated in the law. The law of di- 
 vorce is essentially qualified, and that of re- 
 taliation is abrogated, love even of enemies 
 being enjoined in the place of taking an eye for 
 an eye. The difficulty in reconciling these an- 
 tithetic declarations does not lie in the opposi- 
 tion of the general statement of Jesus that he 
 came to fulfil the law and the Prophets to the 
 free and independent position taken afterwards. 
 For in this very position is unmistakably indi- 
 cated the manner in which he would have the 
 law fulfilled. In harmony with the spirit of all 
 his teaching, he here emphasizes the principle 
 that the moral quality of actions is determined 
 by the disposition, and that the true ethical ful- 
 filment of the law is not in the outward act, but 
 in the inward feeling and intention. The fun- 
 damental opposition of his doctrine to the 
 legalism of the Old Testament could not be 
 more forcibly expressed by one who might 
 
SALVATION. 33 
 
 desire to counteract the defects of that system, 
 while retaining whatever in it was of universal 
 and permanent worth. But the point of her- 
 meneutical contention is in the declaration that 
 not one jot (the smallest Hebrew letter), nor 
 tittle (the hook, by which nearly similar Hebrew 
 letters are distinguished from one another), 
 should pass till all be fulfilled, and that he who 
 breaks the least of the commandments should 
 be least in the kingdom of heaven. The prob- 
 lem is to reconcile this emphatic language of 
 legalism and the letter with the subsequent 
 teaching. To explain it by calling the expres- 
 sion hyperbolic is to evade the difficulty. For 
 in saying that he came to fulfil the law, Jesus 
 had already expressed himself quite fully, in 
 a general way, and these words can indicate 
 nothinof short of an intention to set forth in most 
 emphatic terms the legaHstic point of view. 
 They convey a universal declaration, and cannot, 
 accordingly, be referred to his own fulfilment 
 of the law. 
 
 The difficulties in the interpretation of the 
 passage have led some eminent scholars to doubt 
 that the words were spoken by Jesus, on the 
 ground of their inconsistency with the spirit of 
 
34 SALVATION. 
 
 his doctrine in general, and with his unmis- 
 takable attitude towards the legalism and liter- 
 alism which they express. No solution of the 
 difficulty which they present can probably be 
 given which will satisfy every one. Whether by 
 exegetical pressure they be brought into accord 
 with what follows or be set aside as added to 
 the tradition or the record, they must be in any 
 case subjected to a somewhat violent treatment. 
 For yield they must to the force of the analogy 
 of the teaching and spirit of Jesus. His attitude 
 in respect to the traditional legalism and the liter- 
 alism of the law is indicated in his declarations 
 regarding the Sabbath. When his disciples are 
 censured for plucking the ears of corn on that 
 day and he for healing the sick, he declares 
 himself superior to the Sabbath, thus putting 
 his personal authority against prescripts of the 
 law. In his transfiguring of the Sabbath it 
 becomes simply an institution to serve man, not 
 to enslave him. Man is placed above it. It 
 was made for him, not he for it ; and he may 
 freely use it, according to his own conscience, 
 as it will most promote his welfare. To the 
 complaint of the scribes and Pharisees that his 
 disciples neglected the washing of hands before 
 
SALVATION. 35 
 
 eating, he answered that they made the law in- 
 effectual by their traditions, and he took occa- 
 sion to call the multitude together and teach that 
 not that which enters into a man defiles him, 
 but that which proceeds out of his mouth, thus 
 showing that he regarded the Mosaic law as to 
 purification as morally indifferent. That he at- 
 tributed to the law only a relative validity is 
 evident from his deriving the Mosaic permission 
 of divorce from regard to the hardness of the 
 people's hearts. It is apparent, then, that he 
 ascribed to the law no absolute and binding au- 
 thority. If he did not openly renounce it ; if 
 he enjoined upon his followers to do whatever 
 the scribes and Pharisees sitting in Moses' seat 
 should bid them do ; if he in his denunciation 
 of the Pharisees told them they ought to have 
 practised mercy and judgment, and not to have 
 left undone the payment of tithes of mint, anise 
 and cummin, — it was because he did not choose 
 to come to an open rupture with the law, but 
 believed that he had taught principles whicli 
 would in time work its dissolution and destruc- 
 tion and set man free from its bondage. 
 
 His treatment of the Old Testament as com- 
 posing the sacred writings of his nation is like- 
 
36 SALVATION. 
 
 V, 
 
 wise remarkable, and in striking contrast to that 
 of his contemporaries, as Philo for example, 
 and to that of his followers, the evangelists. 
 The allegorizing of these betrays their bondage 
 to a theory of the infallibility of those writings, 
 while he put himself above them, modifying or 
 setting aside single prescripts, asserting his au- 
 thority as Son of Man to judge for himself, to be 
 Lord over all institutions and the slave of none, 
 and declaring as the principle of his own life 
 and the watchword of progress for men, "It is 
 the spirit that quickeneth." 
 
 2. The Ethical Factor. — Although not openly, 
 yet really, setting aside the law, Jesus proceeded 
 in his teaching from an important point of view 
 of the old religion, — the moral, the practical 
 application of truth to the life of men. His 
 voice is the voice of Moses and the Prophets, 
 but it sounds a new note, — the note of a uni- 
 versal human sympathy. The present life and 
 the fortune of men in it hold a prominent place 
 in his conception of salvation. One looks in 
 vain through his teachings for traces of that 
 eager, nervous solicitude about the destiny of 
 the soul in another life which has unhappily 
 given to the popular Christian idea of salvation 
 
SALVATION. 37 
 
 # 
 
 II too decided tone of self-interest. That man 
 should have his daily bread, be not led iuto 
 temptation, be delivered from evil, — these 
 were chief desiderata, aims of prayer and work. 
 Morality is with him no trivial, secondary con- 
 cern, to be put aside in the hasty pursuit of 
 a religion valued more for its ulterior advan- 
 tages than for its help in the present stress. 
 Rather is it the foundation of his teaching. 
 From the prominent place which morality holds 
 in his teaching it would appear that its incul- 
 cation, the putting of it on the right ground, 
 was thought by him to be a very important 
 part of his mission. It was to the reform of 
 the popular morality that he addressed himself 
 with relentless energy from the beginning of his 
 mission to its close. Against the hypocrisy, 
 narrowness, and hatred, the half-heartedness, 
 conceit, and cruelty of the dominant parties in 
 Jewish life, he shot his sharpest words of re- 
 proof and correction. He could hardly have 
 expressed himself in more decided and un- 
 mistakable terms, had he declared that he rec- 
 ognized no salvation which was not conditioned 
 upon the recognition and practice of morality. 
 He never disparaged this life. On the contrary, 
 
38 SALVATION. 
 
 it appears to have been the underlying presump- 
 tion of his teaching that the chief thing for 
 men to do is to set themselves right with refer- 
 ence to their daily duties and relations towards 
 one another. To set themselves right, — this 
 was fundamental in the morality of Jesus, for 
 in it everything depends on the disposition. 
 Truthful, clean, and pure this must be, as the 
 condition of a right life ; and all external actions 
 find their worth determined by reference to this 
 inward standard. Those who " draw near with 
 their mouth and honor God with their lips" 
 he denounces as hypocrites, after the manner of 
 the Prophets.^ Treasures should be laid up in 
 heaven, because it is important that the heart, 
 which follows the treasure, be in the right 
 place.2 Now, that right place can be one place 
 only. An undivided heart is essential to a 
 right moral life. Hence it is impossible to 
 serve God and mammon. Singleness of heart, 
 unity of aim, are indispensable moral requisites. 
 If the eye be single, the whole body shall be 
 full of light.^ Unless the aim be undivided, 
 the life has no promise of strength or victory. 
 One must die to one's lower life, if one will 
 1 Matthew xv. 7, 8. 2 iXyi^, vi. 19. ^ ibid. vi. 22. 
 
SALVATION. 39 
 
 truly live, — " he that loseth his life for my sake 
 shall find it." 
 
 From this universal ethical point of view a 
 multitude of particular and minute directions 
 for conduct is not to be looked for. A new era 
 in morals has begun, and the life of man is 
 liberated from the hard restraint of arbitrary 
 rules and left to its free development from 
 the inward source of right belief and feeling. 
 " Those who stood watching the career of Jesus 
 felt that his teaching, but probably still more 
 his deeds, were creating a revolution in mo- 
 rality, and were setting to all previous legisla- 
 tions. Mosaic or Gentile, that seal which is at 
 once ratification and abolition. While they 
 watched, they felt the rules and maxims by 
 which they had hitherto lived die into a higher 
 and larger life. They felt the freedom which 
 is gained by destroying selfishness instead of 
 restraining it, by crucifying the flesh instead 
 of circumcising it. . . . It no longer seemed 
 to them necessary to prohibit in detail and 
 with laborious enumeration the different acts 
 b}^ which a man may injure his neighbor. Now 
 that they had at heart as the first of interests 
 the happiness of all with whom they might be 
 
40 SALVATION. 
 
 brought into contact, they no longer required 
 a law, for they had acquired a quick and sen- 
 sitive instinct, which restrained them from do- 
 ing harm. But while the new morality incor- 
 porated into itself the old, how much ampler 
 was its compass ! A new continent in the 
 moral globe was discovered. Positive morality 
 took its place b}^ the side of Negative. To the 
 duty of not doing harm, which may be called 
 Justice, was added the duty of doing good, 
 which may properly receive the distinctively 
 Christian name of Charity. And this is the 
 meaning of that prediction which certain shep- 
 herds reported to have come to them in a mys- 
 tic song, heard under the open sky of night, 
 proclaiming the commencement of an era of 
 '-good will to men.'^'^ 
 
 The sum of the teaching of Jesus respecting 
 the ethical salvation of men is expressed in the 
 celebrated principle which he declares contains 
 all the law and the Prophets : *' Whatsoever 
 ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
 even so to them ; " which is of the same im- 
 port as the direction to love one's neighbor as 
 one's self. " Men " and *' neighbor " having re- 
 1 Ecce Homo, Boston, 1878, pp. 204, 205. 
 
SALVATION. 41 
 
 ceived a universal application in the interpreta- 
 tion of Jesus, the limits of race and social con- 
 dition are removed, and the world is opened to 
 the sympathy and interest of each individual. 
 Since love cannot be commanded, freedom be- 
 ing essential to its existence, these words should 
 be regarded as expressing the universal ethical 
 principle of man's development, in accordance 
 with which he can alone find his true life, his 
 salvation from moral evil. The central ethical 
 principle of Jesus, that the disposition is the 
 all-important factor in conduct, finds also here 
 its application. For if this precept be in- 
 terpreted by his spirit and example, its true 
 meaning will be seen to be nothing short of an 
 inspiration of love and a renunciation of self, 
 from which follows such a consecrated service 
 of man as distinguished him whose life is ex- 
 pressed in the simple words, '' He went about 
 doing good." 
 
 In the moral teaching of Jesus the love of 
 wealth and the striving for its accumulation are 
 disapproved as endangering the higher life. Not 
 to mention the woe pronounced upon the rich,^ 
 it is declared to be ''the deceitfulness of riches" 
 1 Luke vi. 24. 
 
42 SALVATION. 
 
 which choked the seed that fell among thorns 
 and made it unfruitful.^ The love of riches 
 makes one who was inclined to follow the di- 
 vine call turn back,^ and makes another regard- 
 less of spiritual interests.^ The service of mam- 
 mon is said to be incompatible with that of God. 
 Indeed, the claims of the kingdom of God are 
 supreme, the ideal is high, and all lower rela- 
 tions and interests must yield to that which 
 men are enjoined to " seek first." He that 
 putteth his hand to the plough and looketh 
 back is not fit for this kingdom of Renuncia- 
 tion. Love for relatives, the burying of the 
 dead, wedding joys, — none of these must be 
 suffered to detain him whom truth and duty 
 call to this kingdom of Consecration. Let the 
 dead bury the dead ! If an eye or hand offend, 
 pluck out, cut off! See that thou enter into 
 life, though maimed and naked ! 
 
 The ethical doctrine that the doing of one's 
 duty is ample reward, that the good should not 
 be pursued for the sake of profit or pleasure, 
 is decidedly taught by Jesus. The reward 
 of service, be it great or small, is a free gift, 
 
 1 Matthew xili. 22. ^ Hjid. xix. 21-26. 
 
 8 Luke xii. 16-20. 
 
SALVATION. 43 
 
 whether the lord of the vineyard bestow much 
 or little.^ One should lend without hope of 
 receiving anything in return. He wlio has 
 wrought well, has at the best done no more 
 than his duty, and may still expect not to 
 regale himself, but to serve his master at sup- 
 per, receiving no thanks for having borne the 
 burden and heat of the day.^ Whatever power 
 of salvation resides in morality must, indeed, 
 express itself according to this principle, since 
 on no other does conduct have any quality of 
 spiritual life, or even, according to Kant, any 
 moral quality. 
 
 The moral fruitfulness in the life, the ethi- 
 cally saving power of interest in the spiritual 
 welfare of those who by reason of weakness 
 have need of kindly consideration, is a fact to 
 which many a noble and tender character has 
 borne witness. Jesus, himself a fine illustration 
 of this spirit, enjoined it in words of great 
 pathos and force. The abstaining from offend- 
 ing the "little ones," the "cup of cold water" 
 borne to them, have been set forth in simple 
 and tender words which will be spoken of 
 wherever the Gospel shall be preached. " You 
 
 1 Matthew xx. 1-16 ; vi. 35. 2 L^^e xvii. 7-10. 
 
44 SALVATION. 
 
 cannot step my journey for me, cannot carry 
 me on your back, cannot do me any great ser- 
 vice ; but it makes a world of difference to me 
 whether I do my part in the world with or 
 without these little helps which fellow-travellers 
 can exchange." ^ It makes a world of differ- 
 ence to us, too, whether we tender the cup of 
 cold water, and, if need be, stoop to bind up the 
 fellow-traveller's wounds, or pass by on the 
 other side. Better for us were it, if we are 
 recreant to this duty, that a millstone be hanged 
 about our neck and we be cast into the sea. 
 The fortune of those who keep this great ethical 
 law is not more blessed than is the judgment of 
 those dreadful who break it. 
 
 3. The Religious Factor. — Important, how- 
 ever, as is the ethical factor in salvation, Jesus 
 did not leave the deliverance of men from sin 
 dependent on this alone. He had a too sure 
 insight, knew too well what was in man, not to 
 discern the human need of a higher strength 
 and support in the stress of temptation than 
 are furnished in man's moral intuitions and 
 sentiments, — the need of trust, faith, and hope 
 in a Divine Providence, — in a word, the need of 
 
 1 W. C. Gannett. 
 
SALVATION. 45 
 
 Religion. At the centre of his teaching of 
 religion is the idea of God as the Father of men. 
 With him ttfis is not, first of all, a doctrine. It 
 is rather chiefly the expression of his profound- 
 est feeling and belief, of his religious conscious- 
 ness. He felt himself to be the Son of God, 
 in a unique spiritual relation, but no less on 
 this account the Son of man. His model prayer 
 he taught to his disciples, instructing them to 
 address his Father in heaven as theirs. Proof 
 for the existence of the Father he seems never 
 to have thought of asking for himself, much 
 less of giving to others. The intimate relations 
 of human fatherhood — its love, interest, help- 
 fulness — are to him the earthly type of the rela- 
 tion of God to men, — the fatherhood which 
 will not give a stone when asked for bread, and 
 will extend open arms of welcome to the peni- 
 tent prodigal, though returning in misery and 
 squalor. There remains now no limitation of 
 race. It is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob to whom Jesus directs men, but the 
 Universal Father. If some are the children 
 of the evil one, it is because of their spiritual 
 kinship ; essentially they are the children of 
 God, as He would have them spiritually be- 
 
46 SALVATION. 
 
 come. Practical in the highest degree and of 
 saving efficacy does this doctrine become in his 
 application of it to men. As children of God 
 they are enjoined to be perfect as He is perfect, 
 to strive after godlikeness, to bless those who 
 curse them, to love their enemies that they may 
 be like their Father in heaven, who maketh His 
 sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and 
 sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.^ 
 Thus does he transfigure morality into religion, 
 breathing into it the breath of a new life, as- 
 piration for a divine fellowship, and the feeling 
 which belongs to a divine service. Thus should 
 men be exalted to the height of religious con- 
 sciousness which he himself occupied, — the 
 consciousness of being children of God. So 
 high a religious conception as this has never 
 been attained by any other teacher, — a concep- 
 tion showing so deep an insight into the spirit- 
 ual capacities and needs of man, and making a 
 provision so simple and so adequate for his 
 salvation. 
 
 That one so pure as was Jesus, living in such 
 high converse of spiritual fellowship with God, 
 should have a keen sense of sin and its dread- 
 i Matthew v. 44-48. 
 
SALVATION. 47 
 
 fill consequences in the life of man, goes with- 
 out saying. His conception of his mission, his 
 consecration and sacrifice, find their interpre- 
 tation in this. Dull of spiritual discernment, 
 hard of heart, having ears and hearing not, 
 obdurate and blind, he finds men to be, not by- 
 reason of original depravity, but of their own 
 choice. As free and capable of accepting the 
 truth and choosing the divine life, does he al- 
 ways address them, with an appeal to con- 
 science and the better impulses. As estranged 
 from God and in darkness, he appeals to them 
 to return to their allegiance and to the light. 
 The Father is ready to welcome them. Heaven 
 is moved to joy at their coming. They are 
 even sought with unwearied solicitude. The 
 shepherd is not at peace, with his ninety and 
 nine safely sheltered, so long as one wanders 
 lost. It is, indeed, these lost, bewildered soul» 
 whom Jesus himself came to " seek and save." 
 The whole economy which he represents is one 
 of pitying tenderness, love, and mercy. Heaven 
 bends benignant and full of yearning over a 
 darkened world, to watch and support his mis- 
 sion. One condition is, however, imposed upon 
 the impenitent, — repentance (^ixerdvoLo)^ — a 
 
48 SALVATION. 
 
 change of mind, disposition, affections. To 
 call sinners to repentance, this Jesus declares 
 to be his mission.^ Sin must, indeed, have its 
 dreadful course and work its inevitable anguish. 
 The wretched prodigal must dwell with swine 
 in a land seared by famine, must feel the curse 
 and shame of his sinful life, until he is moved to 
 confess that he has sinned and is unworthy to be 
 called a son, before the paternal clemency can be 
 extended to him. But when the sinner has thus 
 set himself right in relation to the Father ; when, 
 no sacrifice being required but that of his own 
 pride and evil passions, he has become softened 
 and reconciled through sorrow and suffering, — 
 then does forgiveness rush forth to meet him, 
 and he is welcomed and crowned amidst great 
 rejoicing as the son who was lost and is found. 
 What simplicity, what tenderness, what deeps 
 of pathos, are here ! How is the great, hard 
 world-order of law softened with pity and 
 transfigured by the touch of love ! 
 
 To seek the kingdom of God and its right- 
 eousness is, according to Jesus, to attain salva- 
 tion, — that is, to enter into that community of 
 devout souls which he came to establish on the 
 1 Luke V. 32. 
 
SALVATION. 49 
 
 earth. The required righteousness must, how- 
 ever, exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. 
 It was not the merely outward observance of 
 ceremonies, but an inward likeness to God. 
 This righteousness was a new religious idea as 
 apprehended and taught by him, an old principle 
 transformed ; for in it the old separation of man 
 and God is removed, and the human soul re- 
 nounces its will and gives itself up in love and 
 trust to the Father. They who hunger and 
 thirst after righteousness are among the blessed, 
 for they shall be filled. In fellowship with 
 God, in the God-consciousness, as he knew it, 
 shall they find peace and everlasting strength. 
 Let them take his soft yoke and easy burden, 
 and they shall have rest, not only from weari- 
 some ceremony and hollow formalism, but also 
 from the fatal bondage of sin, and with him 
 enter into liberty and life in God. A light 
 yoke and an easy burden ! Strange paradox I 
 Wondrous invitation ! This sorrowful and bur- 
 dened soul, this great cross-bearer, invites men 
 to come to him for rest I Yet the resolving of 
 this paradox reveals the secret of salvation as 
 discerned and taught by Jesus. In communion 
 with God, in the sense of not being alone be- 
 
50 SALVATION. 
 
 cause the Father is with him, in love, trust, and 
 faith, in doing righteousness with singleness of 
 heart, in fulfilling a divine mission although 
 uncomprehended and abandoned by the world, 
 a man in mortal weakness and shaken by temp- 
 tation finds an invincible strength. The yoke 
 of such a service is soft to his neck; the heaviest 
 cross, an easy burden. 
 
 This coming to him, this prominence given 
 to his personality, is a unique feature in Jesus' 
 teaching of salvation, — a feature which places 
 his interpreters in the dilemma of either charg- 
 ing him with the most audacious assumption, 
 or admitting that he was profoundly conscious 
 of holding to men the relation of exhibiting 
 an ideal type of life, in the appropriation of 
 which salvation was pre-eminently, if not alone, 
 to be found. The everlasting or eternal life, 
 the idea of which is central in his conception 
 of the saving of men from sin, he represents 
 as manifested in himself, as to be communicated 
 to the world through his personality. This 
 divine life-principle, by which the earthly ex- 
 istence of man is transfigured and glorified, the 
 life in faith and love and spiritual striving, is 
 to be attained by belief in him. "He that 
 
SALVATION. .51 
 
 believeth on the Son hath everlasting life," is 
 a great saying which no magical interpretation 
 can exhaust ; but it must be understood in the 
 light of the declaration that it hath been given 
 to the Son to have life in himself as the 
 Father hath it in Himself. To acquire eternal 
 life by faith in Jesus is, accordingly, to believe 
 in his life of consecration, obedience, worship, 
 and love, and make it one's own. The sim- 
 plicity and directness of the process of salva- 
 tion as thus taught by Jesus, compared with the 
 complicated " plan of salvation " as set forth 
 in Christian theology, call to mind Lessing's dis- 
 tinction between the Christian religion and the 
 religion of Christ.^ 
 
 By the life of Jesus, however, by the power 
 of his personality as manifesting truth, are men 
 to be saved, according to his teaching, and not 
 by means of his death. To come to him, to 
 follow him, to keep the commandments, to 
 renounce earthly possessions, to seek the king- 
 dom of God, — these things must he do who 
 would have eternal life. In his Sermon on 
 the Mount, in his discourses generally before 
 
 1 " Lessing's Theological Opinions/' Universalist Quarterly, 
 April, 1881. 
 
52 SALVATION. 
 
 his departure from Csesarea Philippi for Judsea, 
 there are no allusions to a connection between 
 his death and his work as Saviour ; and nowhere 
 do we find him teaching that belief in his death 
 or in any effects to be wrought b}^ his death 
 has a saving efficacy. One passage, however, 
 presents some difficulty, and a difference of 
 opinion has arisen in its interpretation. In 
 Matthew xx. 28, Jesus says that he " came not 
 to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to 
 give his life a ransom for many,'''' But there is 
 here no mention of faith in his death, nor of 
 any subjective appropriation of it as a means 
 of salvation. To his death are, indeed, ascribed 
 the meaning and effect of a ransom, — for as 
 implying his death, we ought probably to in- 
 terpret the words " to give his life." The inter- 
 pretation hinges on the meaning which belongs 
 to " ransom." • The original meaning is " price 
 for redeeming ; " and if it is to be taken strictly 
 in that sense, here it can only mean that one 
 life, that of Jesus, was given and accepted in 
 the place of the lives of many, that is, to save 
 them from death. But the connection, as well 
 as the whole analogy of his teaching, appears 
 to require the interpretation that his death, like 
 
SALVATION. 53 
 
 his life, is to be regarded as saving, delivering, 
 setting free morally and spiritually from bond- 
 asre to sin. That the connection favors the 
 ethical and not the legalistic interpretation, is 
 evident from this, that there the ministering 
 quality, the service, of his life is made the cen- 
 tral idea of his mission. It is in this way that 
 he releases, or ransoms, men. His death, the 
 crowning act of this service, is just such a 
 Xvrpov, or '' ransom." ^ 
 
 1 Winer and Meyer, the highest grammatical authorities, lay 
 stress upon the preposition duri, which, as here used, means 
 " instead of ; " and the latter maintains that substitution is ex- 
 pressed by it here. Baur takes this view also, and regards the 
 words as not spoken by Jesus, so strongly does he think them 
 opposed to the analogy of the teaching of the Gospels. On 
 the contrary, De Wette says that " ransom " is not to be taken 
 as indicating an exchange, but dynamically as marking an 
 effect. The passage is no doubt diflBcult, and grammar ap- 
 pears to come into conflict with analogy of teaching in its 
 interpretation. But the question may fairly be raised whether 
 or no it is not hypergrammatical to attempt, as Meyer does, to 
 establish a doctrine upon a single preposition in writings com- 
 posed as the Gospels were, and having had such a fortune as 
 they have had in the hands of copyists, — more especially 
 wlien the words in question were undoubtedly spoken in an- 
 other language than that in which they were written down in 
 the record. In this case one will surely not be accused of 
 hermeneutical violence in making the preposition yield to the 
 analogy. 
 
54 SALVATION. 
 
 III. — The Pauline Doctrine. 
 
 Jesus died upon the cross ; but the greatest 
 of his followers saw in that instrument of tor- 
 ture the glorified central figure in a universal 
 plan of salvation, and gave it a unique interpre- 
 tation for the ages. Saul of Tarsus, reared in 
 the traditions of Judaism and accordincr to the 
 tenets of the strictest of its sects, learned in 
 Rabbinical lore, a student of the law and the 
 Prophets, a zealot in his religion, a persecutor 
 of the Christians, was suddenly converted to 
 the religion of Jesus while on his way to Da- 
 mascus as its most dreaded enemy. Upon the 
 details of this conversion it is not necessary 
 here to enter, nor to discuss its probable prepara- 
 tions and antecedents. It is enough that Saul, 
 the persecutor of Christianit}^, became Paul, its 
 greatest apostle; for as an apostle, or one sent, 
 he regarded himself from the eventful hour of 
 his conver.sion. From that hour he gloried in 
 the cross, which before he had looked upon 
 as the detestable symbol of a noxious fanati- 
 cism. Now rather did it have for him a world- 
 historical significance, and stand for the breaking 
 down of partition walls of Judaistic national 
 
SALVATION. 55 
 
 exclusiveness, for the abolishing of distinctions 
 of race and sect in relation to the Divine favor, 
 for the universal offer of the Divine grace to 
 men, and for universal liberty and salvation. 
 Although it might be to the Jew a stumbling- 
 block and to the Greek foolishness, to this seer 
 it was " the power of God." 
 
 The great Apostle to the Gentiles, properly 
 so called because he apprehended Christianity 
 as a universal principle, takes as the central 
 thought of his Gospel the idea of Righteous- 
 ness, that " master-impulse of Hebraism." The 
 relation of man to God — or, in other words, relig- 
 ion — he brings under this conception. The fit- 
 ness, the rightness, in this relation ; conformity 
 to God's will ; '' harmony with the universal 
 order ; " the state of mind which God will have 
 in men, — are all expressed by this great word. 
 To him the task of religion is to bring men into 
 this relation, and its great problem is how to 
 do it. Now, if he had been dealing with religion 
 in general, it is evident that his discussion of 
 the question would have taken a very wide 
 range, and we should not have had what ma}' 
 very properly be called his distinctive contribu- 
 tions to religion, or what he calls his '' Gospel." 
 
56 SALVATION. 
 
 It is, however, as a Christian that he approaches 
 the problem, and as a Christian it is that with 
 masterly insight he seizes upon the personal fac- 
 tor which, as we have seen, Jesus made so con- 
 spicuous. For him righteousness is no mere 
 abstraction. It has had once for all, for all 
 ages and for all men, a perfect embodiment and 
 manifestation. It has been lived ; and in the 
 life which had revealed it he sees the whole 
 meaning which Christianity has for him, his 
 sole hope for personal deliverance from sin and a 
 universal principle and power for the salvation 
 of the world. Of his own spiritual trans- 
 formation, or conversion, he says it is a revela- 
 tion of the Son of God in him which it has 
 pleased God to make.^ Hereby has come into 
 his life and into that of every Christian a new 
 religious consciousness, in which there are no 
 more the bondage and limitations of Judaism, 
 but liberty and a spiritual principle victorious 
 over the flesh. ' The spirit (irvev^ia) it is which 
 the Christian has received, and whereby he is 
 distinguished from what he was before, whether 
 Jew or Gentile. They who receive Christ into 
 their life by faith receive this spirit ; for he, the 
 1 Galatians i. 15, 16. 
 
SALVATION. 57 
 
 Lord, is spirit,^ and where the spirit of the Lord 
 is, there is liberty. No longer now is their sal- 
 vation dependent on aught external, but it is 
 conditioned on fellowship and union with God. 
 In receiving the Son, they themselves become 
 sons of God ; for this spirit which they have 
 liad revealed in them, this Chrisf-principle, is 
 the spirit of adoption whereby they cry, " Abba, 
 Father." 
 
 The absolute necessity of the mediation of 
 Christ in man's attainment of righteousness, in 
 his justification or salvation, is the great thesis 
 of the Pauline soteriology. Of the two kinds 
 of righteousness which the Apostle recognizes, 
 that of *^ works" and that of ''faith," the 
 former is declared to be unattainable. This is 
 legal righteousness, or righteousness under the 
 law, which, so far as Jews were concerned, 
 could be attained only by fulfilling the Mosaic 
 law, and so far as the heathen were concerned, 
 by following the law " written in their hearts." 
 It is the righteousness of obedience, of entire 
 fulfilment of the law, whereby alone from this 
 point of view man can come into the required 
 relation to God. That man cannot fulfil the 
 
 ^ 2 Corinthians iii. 17. 
 
58 SALVATION. 
 
 law, and hence can never compass the righ- 
 teousness which is of works, is the fundamental 
 proposition of Paul for this negative side of his 
 doctrine of salvation. His own profound con- 
 sciousness of sin should doubtless not be left 
 out of account in appreciating his judguient on 
 this point. But why is the law thus ineffectual ? 
 It is through the law that the consciousness of 
 sin comes : " the law is spiritual ; " it is " holy, 
 right, and good." ^ How, then, is that whose 
 " design was life " found to '' issue in death " ? 
 The answer to this is found in Paul's concep- 
 tion of the " flesh," — a term by which he 
 designates not the body only, but the sensuous, 
 earthly nature of man, which is prone to sin, — 
 in a word, all that is opposed to the " spirit." It 
 is the seat and organ of sin. In this lies the 
 reason of the inability of the law to "make 
 alive." It is " weak through the flesh." ^ The 
 imperative of the law, its high ideal, its convic- 
 tion of sin, are ineffectual against this fatal 
 power, this fleshliness, this tendency to sin. 
 But is there not " the law of the mind," or 
 reason, '' the inner man," to contend against the 
 flesh? The fact that the Apostle recognizes this 
 
 1 Romans vii. 7-17. 2 md.^ yjii. 3. 
 
SALVATION. 59 
 
 principle in the unre^enerate man, this mind 
 which *' delights in the law of God," shows 
 how far he was from the Augustinian point of 
 view in his anthropology, — from the doctrine of 
 the fall of man and hereditary depravity. Yet 
 the " mind " is unable with the law and with 
 experience to prevail against the flesh ; and the 
 " wretched man," after all his ineffectual strug- 
 gle, at the end of the pathetic conflict is brought 
 " into captivity to the law of sin." 
 
 Here, ^'om the Apostle's point of view, would 
 man be left, weak, defeated, hopeless, were it 
 not for Christ, who alone could redeem him ; or 
 rather, were it not for the grace of God in 
 Christ. '' For what the law could not do," what 
 the *' inner man," or the reason, " the law of the 
 mind," was unable to do in its endless and in- 
 effectual struggle with the flesh, " God hath 
 done, who on account of sin sent His own son 
 ... and passed sentence of condemnation on 
 sin in the flesh ; so that what is required by the 
 law is accomplished in us who walk not accord- 
 ing to the flesh, but according to the spirit." i 
 Thus is salvation placed by Paul in immediate 
 dependence on the person of Christ, who is a 
 
 1 Romans viii. 1-4. 
 
60 SALVATION. 
 
 means employed by the Father for enabling man 
 to acquire the righteousness which shall put 
 him into relations of harmony and peace with 
 God. The old order has passed away. The 
 law is abrogated in the sense that its require- 
 ments possess a power to effect righteousness. 
 Man cannot be justified by the works of the 
 law, because tvithout Christ he is unable to 
 render a perfect obedience. We have not, how- 
 ever, here an artificial scheme, nor a scheme of 
 salvation by magic, nor yet the Augustinian one 
 of " satisfaction." Paul does not degrade Christ 
 to the place of a victim sacrificed to appease the 
 wrath of God. It is contrary to the whole 
 temper of the Apostle's mind and the whole tone 
 of his teaching, that a man should come to so 
 great a fortune as that of righteousness through 
 the fiction of appropriating the merits of Christ. 
 To manifest the righteousness of God is the 
 death of His Son set forth, and the " propitia- 
 tion " is a mere reference to Jewish ceremonial, 
 and must not be pressed, since it has no vital 
 connection with PauFs real doctrine of salvation. 
 So precious an offering as this blameless life, 
 and nothing less than this, is, indeed, well 
 adapted to manifest the Divine sense of the 
 
SALVATION. 61 
 
 enormity of sin, against which the Divine righ- 
 teousness is relieved in glaring contrast. But 
 to Paul the death of Christ had its chief signifi- 
 cance for men. Upon them was its effect. The 
 great Martyr on the cross turned his face, dis- 
 torted with agony, not towards the unrelenting 
 heavens to affect the Deity, but upon the earth 
 for the sake of men. Accordingly, Paul declares 
 that " God was in Christ, reconciling the world 
 unto Himself." That God needed to be recon- 
 ciled to men, seems never to have entered his 
 mind. In his death, the destruction of his flesh, 
 Christ is manifested to Paul as spirit and as spir- 
 itualizing. Now that he has passed through the 
 great transformation and even the great victory, 
 he is no longer to Paul the material, temporal, 
 limited Messiah of the Jews, but a universal 
 spiritual and quickening power. If he has ever 
 known Clirist after the flesh, he says, he now so 
 knows him no longer, since he has died for all ; 
 nor will he henceforth know any man after the 
 flesh, since, Christ having died for all, all have 
 died, their death to the flesh being included in 
 his dying on their behalf.^ Here, indeed, we 
 have a " substitution," and the only substitution 
 
 1 2 Corinthians v. 14-15. 
 
62 SALVATION. 
 
 which Paul knows. Christ, dying on behalf of 
 all, t3^pifies in his death the death of all men to 
 the flesh and to sin, '* that they should no 
 longer live to themselves, but to him who died 
 for their sakes." 
 
 As a representative of the race, then, it is 
 that, in Paul's view, Christ in his life and in 
 his death stands forth ; yet not as a representa- 
 tive of the race only, but as one who loved all 
 men and would bring them all to his own spirit- 
 ual attainment. In his life he had been a per- 
 fect manifestation of " the righteousness of God," 
 and thus an ideal set up for men and a quicken- 
 ing spirit. In his death all men died to sin, and 
 the world was ideally reconciled to God ; that 
 is, men assumed such a relation to Him as to be 
 proper subjects of the forgiveness which He was 
 always ready to grant. No longer does the law 
 overshadow them with its antique and awful as- 
 pect of bondage. Christ has rendered it a perfect 
 fulfilment, being without sin. " The handwrit- 
 ing of ordinances that was against us " he has 
 '-' nailed to the cross," and now the level way of 
 salvation lies open to men through participation 
 in the life and power of his triumphant spirit. 
 
 One factor is yet, however, wanting to effect 
 
SALVATION. 63 
 
 the great work of men's salvation through Christ. 
 The righteousness to be attained is that through 
 faith. This faith, as Paul apprehends it, is as 
 far as possible removed from magic and mystery. 
 It does not effect a transfer of the " merits " of 
 Christ to man. It is belief in the whole manifes- 
 tation by Christ of the liigher life, of the spirit, 
 — belief in his death and resurrection. They 
 who believe in Christ are one with him ; with 
 him they have died, having crucified the flesh, 
 and with him have they risen to newness of life. 
 " Faith is the bond," says a great interpreter of 
 Paul,i " of a fellowship of life with Christ, in 
 which Christ so lives in us that all which in us 
 is only limited, only belongs to our selfish ego, 
 is removed, and we no longer live to ourselves, 
 but in him." In the same vein writes one of 
 the acutest literary interpreters of the Apostle : ^ 
 " Identifying ourselves with Christ through this 
 attachment [of faith], we become as lie was ; we 
 live with his tlioughts and feelings, and we par- 
 ticipate, therefore, in his freedom from the ruin- 
 ous law in our members, in his obedience to 
 the saving law of the spirit, in his conformity to 
 the eternal order, in the joy and peace of his 
 
 1 F. C. Baur. 2 Matthew Arnold. 
 
64: SALVATION. 
 
 life in God." Faith does not, however, effect 
 this consummation alone. It " works by love," 
 by recognition of and response to that divine 
 principle to which was due the sending of Christ, 
 and his own offering up of himself for men. 
 Without this, faith could not bring about that 
 entire union with Christ in which we partici- 
 pate in his self-sacrificing spirit, die with him to 
 the selfish lusts of the flesh, and have a share 
 also in his victory. 
 
 Is there, then, no place for works, for the law, 
 for morality in this scheme of the Apostle ? Far 
 be it ! They who so apprehend him as to an- 
 swer this question in the affirmative do not know 
 his profundity, his practical sense. They forget 
 that he was of the Hebrew stock, pre-eminent 
 in its genius for righteousness. They suppose 
 him to have mistaken entirely the practical 
 morality of Jesus, to have misconceived the 
 whole spirit and method of bis Master. This 
 polemic against the law, this panegyric of faith, 
 are but the strong contrasting of Judaism and 
 Christianity, and do not affect, much less invali- 
 date, the conceptions of duty, obedience, and 
 service. He did not so misunderstand the re- 
 ligion of his nation as to regard it as altogether 
 
SALVATION. (J5 
 
 legalistic and external, as taking no account of 
 the disposition and finding no place for pardon. 
 A stern moralist in his judgment of himself, he 
 never loses sight of the moral law and human 
 responsibility. We accordingh^ find him de- 
 claring with solemn emphasis that God will 
 render to every one according to his works, and 
 proclaiming that tribulation and distress shall 
 be upon every soul whose works are evil. Works 
 and faith together are the two essential factors 
 in attaining righteousness. With what unwea- 
 ried energy did he spend himself in the service 
 of his Master and of men ! To him the union 
 of the soul with Christ through faith was a 
 partaking of the Christ-spirit of consecration to 
 toil, to the dungeon, to stripes, or to the cross 
 for the sake of men. The righteousness of faith 
 was consummated in the righteousness of loving 
 service and all-renouncing sacrifice. 
 
 IV. — The Doctrine in Hebret\^s. 
 
 The Epistle to the Hebrews, the author of 
 which is unknown, presents the doctrine of sal- 
 vation from a peculiar point of view. Whether 
 the writer was influenced, as some hold, by 
 the Alexandrian philosophy or not, he un- 
 
66 SALVATION. 
 
 questionably held a view of the relation of Juda- 
 ism to Christianity quite different from Paul's. 
 In Paul the two are related as letter and spirit, 
 servitude and sonship ; in this writer, as pre- 
 figuration and completion, as shadow and reality. 
 The Epistle was evidently written for Jews, 
 with the design of showing them that Chris- 
 tianity was a fulfilment of things typified in 
 the old religion, and of making easy their transi- 
 tion from the one to the other. Interest in this 
 writing, so far as it relates to salvation, centres 
 in its apprehension of the office of Christ, 
 which is here treated under the conception of 
 the priesthood. Christianity is a completion 
 of the Jewish religion, that " shadow of things 
 to come," in the dignity and grandeur of its 
 priestly, atoning institution. A " Priest for- 
 ever, after the order of Melchizedec," Christ 
 assumed the sacrificial office, and " once for all " 
 entered into the sanctuary, and '' with his own 
 blood obtained for us everlasting redemption." 
 Into no sanctuary made with hands, however, 
 did he enter, but " into heaven itself, now to 
 appear in the presence of God in our behalf." 
 Unpauline as is this transfer of the scene of 
 Christ's work from earth to heaven, there is a 
 
SALVATION. 67 
 
 reminiscence of the doctrine of Paul as to the 
 reconciling efficacy of Christ's offering of him- 
 self in the fine words : '* How much more shall 
 the blood of Christ, who by his everlasting 
 spirit offered himself without spot to God, 
 purify your conscience from dead ivorks^ for the 
 worship of the living God ! " From the point 
 of view of this writer the work of Christ con- 
 sists chiefly in consummating an atoning work 
 shadowed forth in the ceremonial of the Old 
 Testament. Depreciated as a " shadow," the 
 old economy is exalted by the very fact of its 
 prefiguring function. The Epistls contains no 
 reference to the Pauline contrast of the rig-h- 
 teousness of faith and of works, and faith itself 
 receives an interpretation quite different from 
 Paul's absolute trust in the saving grace of 
 God in Christ. Far from being set forth as a 
 distinctively Christian virtue, examples of its 
 exercise are drawn from Jewish history or 
 legend. It is declared to be "the substance of 
 things hoped for, a conviction of things not 
 seen." Not as a mystic fellowship of the life 
 with Christ is it taught or illustrated, but 
 rather as a holding fast to supersensible things, 
 a looking for that " city which hath founda- 
 
68 SALVATION. 
 
 tions" whose builder and maker is God, and 
 for that " better and heavenly countr3\" The 
 exaltation of the priestly, atoning office of Christ 
 ill this Epistle, and its implied depreciation of 
 the present life, may suggest an inqnir}^ as to 
 the extent of its influence in shaping a long 
 prevailing type of Christian theology. Too 
 much, perhaps, have men interpreted the New 
 Testament by this work of an unknown author 
 which did not even find a place in the Canon 
 without decided opposition. 
 
 V. — Salvation and Science. 
 
 Mr. Huxley, in one of his Lay Sermons, ex- 
 presses a preference for justification by verifica- 
 tion over justification by faith. The inference 
 which one would naturally draw from this ex- 
 pression is that the sort of justification which 
 Mr. Huxley prefers is, in the opinion of a rep- 
 resentative of science, a real, scientific justifica- 
 tion, while the other is unsubstantial, imagi- 
 nary, — in a woi'd, unscientific. Now, to brand 
 an opinion or process as unscientific is, in these 
 days, in the opinion of very many people, to put 
 upon it the seal of condemnation and annul- 
 ment. It may, accordingly, be well to give a 
 
SALVATION. 69 
 
 little space in this monograph on Salvation to 
 the inquiry whether or no there is, after all, 
 an irreconcilable difference between these two 
 ways of attaining righteousness, and whether 
 Mr. Huxley's placing of them in so sharp a con- 
 trast is not due to his misapprehension of the real 
 nature of the latter. As to verification, no one 
 knows better than they who are greatlj' occu- 
 pied with it that far from being in any way op- 
 posed to faith, it is so much dependent thereon 
 that without it it cannot proceed at all. Every 
 process of the kind depends upon putting trust 
 in certain ultimate principles which, if not in- 
 tuitively discerned and hence requiring faith 
 in the immediate declarations of the human 
 consciousness, are the products of human ex- 
 perience through many ages, and as such call 
 for belief in the integrity of the nature of man. 
 That much depends, too, in the construction of 
 any science, on the trustworthiness of human tes- 
 timony, every scientific investigator will concede. 
 All the great sciences are the accumulations 
 of the contributions of observers and students 
 often unknown to one another and separated 
 by great intervals of time or space. How 
 much depends, likewise, on the sureness of an 
 
TO SALVATION. 
 
 eye or a hand, the accuracy of perception, the 
 correctness of inference, and the freedom from 
 bias in the observer, is very apparent. The 
 great authorities in science, men of creative 
 power, whose genius marks epochs in knowl- 
 edge, are objects of faith, one might almost 
 say of worship, to their followers. What yawn- 
 ing chasms would open in the continuity of 
 science if one could no longer have faith in the 
 sure insight and conscientious accuracy of a 
 Newton or a Darwin! A lapse of faith in its 
 conspicuous authorities would work such con- 
 fusion and catastrophe in the world of science 
 as doubt of the integrity and truth of Jesus 
 would cause in the Christian Church. More- 
 over, faith as a factor in scientific verification 
 has yet another application. Will any one 
 deny that faith in a great master in science, in 
 the sense of a trustful appropriation to one's 
 self of his spirit, his enthusiasm, his devout 
 consecration to truth, and his sympathy with 
 Nature, — in a word, a fellowship of life with 
 him, — might be vastly helpful to a disciple? 
 If, now, verification is not carried on without 
 faith, or at least if faith is a very important 
 factor in it, it would appear to follow that the 
 
SALVATION. i 1 
 
 justification by verification which Mr. Huxley 
 advocates is also not without relation to faith. 
 He who should undertake to acquire righteous- 
 ness by verification, that is, by scientifically or 
 experimentally establishing the ethical and 
 spiritual principles on which it rests, would 
 evidently be greatly aided by faith, and in par- 
 ticular by that application of it in which he 
 might adopt as his own the virtues, the spirit, 
 and the enthusiasm whereby a great Master of 
 Righteousness had triumphed. On the other 
 hand, the justification by faith, which modern 
 science regards as unreal and sentimental, will 
 be found, when stripped of the magic which 
 has so long disguised it, to proceed quite in the 
 manner of verification, and to be in fact a sort 
 of righteousness according to science. For to 
 live conformably to verified principles, whether 
 in the sphere of the physical life or of the soul, 
 is to live scientifically. Whoever, then, pur- 
 sues righteousness, trusting in a great moral and 
 spiritual order, which experience has verified 
 as the true order for human beings, and con- 
 formity to which has been found for many ages 
 to render the lives of men strong, sweet, and 
 noble, is, though not far from the kingdom of 
 
72 SALVATION. 
 
 Heaven, still within the realm and method of 
 science. And it is, surely, no unscientific pro- 
 ceeding to take, as Paul did, a great principle 
 illustrated in a great life as the basis for a phi- 
 losophy of living, and to carry out the pursuit 
 of righteousness in conformity with it. The 
 dash of mysticism in his idea of identification 
 with Christ in his death does not invalidate his 
 essentially scientific position, which is that a 
 mode of life which has been verified and shown 
 to be of the noblest sort is, therefore, to be com- 
 mended and trustingly adopted. Even as to 
 this matter of dying, which Paul puts in a 
 mystical way, — is it not, after all, in the highest 
 sense scientific, that is, verifiable, that he who 
 will live to the higher things must die to the 
 lower ? One would scarcely presume to say 
 that Jesus was dealing with an unrealitj^ an 
 image of the fancy, and not rather with a most 
 substantial, not to say awful fact, when he as- 
 serted that he who would save his life must lose 
 it. Do not even the scientists the same, — that 
 is, die to indolence, prejudice, and the senses, 
 that they may live to the truth, to reason, to 
 discovery ? No one, assuredly, will charge the 
 great Goethe with being unscientific, and it is 
 
SALVATION. 73 
 
 lie whom Mr. Arnold regards as " an unsus- 
 pected witness to the psychological and sci- 
 entific profoundness of Paul's concej3tion of 
 life and death." ^ " Die and le-exist ! " he says ; 
 "for so long as this is not accomplished, thou 
 art but a troubled guest upon an earth of 
 gloom." 
 
 It may very well be imagined, however, that 
 Mr. Huxley would say that Paul did not con- 
 fine himself to the sphere of the verifiable, but 
 included God in his scheme, teaching that sal- 
 vation is by His grace in Christ. Now, from the 
 point of view of science, God is not verifiable, 
 and the grace of God is a fiction with which it 
 can have nothing to do. But the scientific 
 character of Paul's method of justification by 
 faith is not affected by his conception of a Being 
 from whom, as he assumed, proceeded the order 
 of spiritual phenomena and laws with which he 
 was dealing. The relating of these to an ulti- 
 mate Power which he could not explain, neither 
 supports nor invalidates the interpretation of 
 them in relation to the particular end, — righ- 
 teousness, or justification. Science, too, has its 
 ultimate powers and principles, which it does not 
 1 Saiut Paul and Protestantism, London, 1870, p. 149. 
 
74 SALVATION. 
 
 pretend to account for or comprehend. Yet 
 its particular relatings of phenomena and induc- 
 tions of laws proceed with as much certainty as 
 if it had fathomed the unknowable, or could 
 give an account of the nature of matter or force. 
 If science were without faith and righteousness 
 without verification and a scientific basis, then 
 might there be, indeed, an irreconcilable discord 
 between these two most powerful and most 
 fruitful agencies in human development. 
 
 VI. — Secular Salvation. 
 
 It has already been intimated in the foregoing 
 section that if Salvation were stripped of the 
 disguise of magic w^hich has been put upon it, it 
 would be found to have points of relation with 
 science otherwise unobserved. It may fairly be 
 presumed, too, that when thus revealed in its 
 real nature it will be seen to have more to do 
 with this world, to stand in more relations to 
 the secular life of men, than has commonly been 
 supposed. From the magical point of view it 
 has generally been understood to be a means of 
 escaping, or a condition of having escaped, the 
 penalties of the violated law of God, — safet}^, 
 refuge from the storm of Divine wrath which it 
 
SALVATION. 75 
 
 was supposed would especially break forth in the 
 life to come. Thus the chief interest in salva- 
 tion has been centred in its relations to that life, 
 and it has been given a predominant other- 
 worldly tone. Now, it has already been pointed 
 out how much stress was laid, by Jesus on con- 
 duct, and how Paul, notwithstanding his vigor- 
 ous polemic against the law, still attached the 
 greatest importance to righteousness in the 
 sense of the right relation of man to the Divine 
 order, regardless of worlds, whether of this or 
 some other, and of times and eternities. In 
 order, then, that the pursuit of salvation be not 
 degraded so as to become chiefly an eager, self- 
 ish seeking for a remote and undefined good, 
 and a hasty scramble for security from some 
 other-world peril, it would seem that all sound 
 thinking and healthy feeling concerning it must 
 assume a decidedly this-world tone. Not that 
 the life to come, that destiny, is of no interest 
 and importance, but that it is of supreme impor- 
 tance to right conduct that men lay slighter 
 stress upon times and places and far more upon 
 moral and spiritual relations, and believe that 
 righteousness .attained and held fast in this 
 present life will open to its possessor all the 
 
76 SALVATION. 
 
 mansions of the Father's house. The real 
 danger to which theology is exposed is not that 
 of becoming too practical, but that of being 
 turned into a theurg}^ So soon as the chief 
 interest in righteousness is transferred from this 
 earthly theatre of man's struggle and tempta- 
 tion, and concentrated upon future security, 
 theology becomes degraded to the rank of a 
 system of magic, the show of which man may, 
 indeed, be interested in watching, but such a the- 
 ology will touch his life only a little more than 
 any common jugglery. It is not the theurgy of 
 the now departing theology which has nurtured 
 great characters, but the practical morality, the 
 simple faith of Jesus, and the tender but ma- 
 jestic life which the Gospels make known. 
 
 If, now, the conception of salvation ought to 
 be extended so much as to include the deliver- 
 ance of man from all that binds him in the stress 
 and struggle of his earthly life, from all that 
 hinders his attainment of righteousness here, 
 then there should be included among its agen- 
 cies many of what may be called the secular 
 factors or forces. If his life does not consist in 
 the abundance of the things which he possesses, 
 neither does it consist in their paucity. Since 
 
SALVATION. 77 
 
 it is his fortune to work out liis own salvation, 
 he may well rejoice in having unlimited means 
 and agencies at his disposal, for it is ordained 
 that he shall not do this iji his closet nor in the 
 desert, but in the midst of men. His nature is 
 so complex, its several faculties are so dependent 
 on one another in their development, that a well- 
 ordered adjustment and harmony of all is essen- 
 tial to the true culture of ?iiiy. To isolate any 
 one of his faculties in its training is like the 
 folly of applying special cultivation to one branch 
 of a vine and leaving the stock in wildness and 
 weeds. The true salvation is that of the entire 
 man. It is the harmony of his whole nature 
 with the great order of things in which it is 
 placed. The salvation of the " soul " is a mis- 
 nomer borrowed from the vocabulary of magic. 
 Let us know henceforth only the salvation of 
 man, — a healthy soul in a health}^ body. A 
 right theory of salvation requires a sound an- 
 thropology no less than a sound theology. To 
 our peril do we leave physiology and hygiene 
 out of the account. Paul, with his keen practi- 
 cal sense, saw the importance of this physical 
 side of man to a true soteriology, and did not 
 fail to take the body into his system of righ- 
 
78 SALVATION. 
 
 teousness. ''I so fight," he says, " not as one 
 striking the air, but I beat down my body and 
 bring it into subjection." ^ To him, as to every 
 right-thinking person, the whole nature of man 
 is sacred, and each part is to be regarded with 
 awe. The body is '' the temple of the Holy 
 Spirit," 2 — a holy place for the worship of the 
 soul. *' Therefore," he exclaims, '' glorify God 
 in your body." By no hot-house methods with 
 a single faculty did he look for fruitage. " Pre- 
 sent your bodies a living sacrifice." How, in- 
 deed, like one vainly striking the air, does he 
 appear who with eager, nervous haste pursues 
 the. phantom of salvation for his "• soul," while 
 body, intellect, and moral facult}^ remain in sad 
 neglect as having no share in the Divine fortune 
 of righteousness. The sturdy Apostle may very 
 well have wrought out his salvation in part 
 by beating down his body. The problem may, 
 however, be approached from another side, and 
 we may find our secular salvation promoted by 
 such a training of the body as shall render it 
 the ready servitor of the soul in its attainment 
 of the higher life, — no longer a weight, but a 
 support. 
 
 1 1 Corinthians ix 26, 27. 2 ibid., vi. 19. 
 
SALVATION. 79 
 
 The principle, then, of this secular branch 
 of our theme is that all the physical, intellect- 
 ual, and ethical forces which contribute to the 
 development of human nature, to the upbuild- 
 ing of man, should be taken into account and 
 utilized in the working out of his salvation, 
 and that the conception of salvation should be 
 enlarged so as to include all these. The con- 
 duct of education, the making of laws, the es- 
 tablishment and direction of institutions, the 
 observance of social amenities and courtesies, 
 ethical training, sanitary and hygienic regula- 
 tions, the momentous struggle against intemper- 
 ance, the striving for political honesty and 
 purity, the humane ministries of charity, aspira- 
 tions and efforts in the interest of brotherhood 
 and universal peace and good-will, — these and 
 their kindred, whose name is legion, should be 
 regarded and employed as agencies in compass- 
 ing human salvation, — that is, in making man 
 complete. The religion which leaves these out 
 of account may, indeed, be a fine celestial 
 scheme, but it is not a religion for men, and 
 will not long endure upon the earth. 
 
80 SALVATION. 
 
 VII. — The Intelligent, Emotional and 
 Voluntary Factors. 
 
 In the fourth Gospel Jesus is reported to 
 have said, " Ye shall know the truth, and the 
 truth shall make you free." This recognition 
 by the highest authority of an intelhgent factor 
 in salvation may well claim our attention, more 
 especially since, in the current expositions of 
 the doctrine, it is too much disregarded. The 
 conception of salvation as a growth proceeding 
 according to the laws of the mind brings this 
 factor into prominence, and assigns it its true 
 value. Subject to these laws, the process of 
 salvation may very well be assumed to take 
 the natural order, — that is, the order in which 
 knowledge has the precedence. The differ- 
 ence between the product which is called sal- 
 vation and the product which we may name any 
 other mental state does not consist so much in 
 the difference of its factors as in that of the sub- 
 ject matter. The condition in question is a 
 peculiar state of the will and feelings resulting 
 from the occupation of the kriowing faculty, 
 or the intelligence, with a peculiar kind of 
 facts, or truths. Salvation is the overcoming 
 
SALVATION. 81 
 
 of tendencies, passions, influences, temptations, 
 which are contrary to the laws of the nature of 
 man, the putting of one's self in harmony with 
 these laws, and the persistent, consecrated living 
 in accordance with them. It is something more 
 than this. It is conformity with this order as 
 a Divine order, as proceeding from and imposed 
 by a Heavenly Father, a striving for obedience 
 to and fellowship with Him in faith. Now, the 
 particular order of facts with which the intelli- 
 gence is occupied in the course of this process 
 may be generally characterized as moral and 
 spiritual, — facts and laws which relate to con- 
 duct and the religious life. A clear perception 
 and a right knowledge and relating of these are 
 the first and indispensable requisite, without 
 which the appropriate feelings and volitions are 
 impossible. With knowledge, then, salvation evi- 
 dently begins. First of all, man must find 
 himself, his position and relations, in the great 
 order of which he is a part. He must recog- 
 nize himself as a spiritual and responsible be- 
 ing, acknowledge the Power above, and know 
 the fruitful words of prophet, seer, or Christ. 
 Jesus appears to have laid so much stress 
 upon knowledge as to declare that eternal life 
 
82 SALVATION. 
 
 consists in knowing God and the Son whom He 
 has sent. This knowledge may, assuredly, be 
 regarded as inclusive enough, and, if had with 
 the requisite intensity, as likely to produce the 
 feelings and volitions appropriate to the state 
 of salvation. 
 
 Important, however, as are knowledge, edu- 
 cation, and instruction, these are ineffectual 
 without the emotional and voluntary factors. 
 Know^ledge is not power. It is only one of the 
 conditions of power. Neither is it salvation, 
 but merely a condition of it. The beatitude 
 is not pronounced on those who know righ- 
 teousness, but on those who hunger and thirst for 
 it. The product of intelligence, the material 
 of knowledge, is supplied in vain unless the 
 emotional, affectional, and voluntary powers — 
 the great motive forces — perform their part. 
 The prominence given to love in the teachings 
 of Christ is not without profound significance, 
 — love to God being made of supreme moment 
 in religion, and love to man in morality. We 
 have seen, too, how Paul, a profound psycholo- 
 gist as well as theologian, accentuated the emo- 
 tional factor in connection with faith in Christ. 
 It is not irreverent, let us hope, and certainly 
 
SALVATION. 83 
 
 not irrelevant, to cite here the testimony of an 
 eminent scientist and philosopher : " Already 
 we have seen that the connection is between 
 action and feeling ; and hence the corollary 
 that only by a frequent passing of feeling into 
 action is the tendency to such action strength- 
 ened. . . . Not by precept, though heard daily ; 
 not by example, unless it be followed ; but only 
 by action, often caused by the related feeling, 
 can a moral habit be formed." ^ Well did Paul 
 feel the weakness of the law against the flesh and 
 the profound need of a "quickening spirit" to 
 effect the deliverance of man from bondage to 
 his lower nature. .What is it but infirmity of 
 will which speaks in the pathetic cry of the 
 " wretched man " for rescue from " the body 
 of this death " ? So far as education may con- 
 tribute to salvation, it is evident that it must 
 address itself as well to the emotions and the 
 will as to the intelligence. Each man's duty 
 to himself and to those whom he may influence 
 is to bring these great motive forces as much as 
 possible under influences and discipline favor- 
 able to moral and spiritual development. 
 
 1 Herbert Spencer, Study of Sociology, New York, 1882, 
 p. 367. 
 
84 SALVATION. 
 
 The freedom of the will confers upon man, 
 subject of course to influences, the fearful 
 power of determining his own destiny. The 
 pathetic words of Jesus, " But ye w^ould not," 
 are a solemn recognition of this fact. In this 
 life, certainly, and in any life in which man re- 
 tains his identity, the choice of good or evil is 
 his and his alone. Salvation cannot, assuredly, 
 be forced upon him, neither can he be kept in 
 a state of sin and condemnation if he choose 
 it not. The power of the keys is in his own 
 hand. Himself may he bind or loose ; for him- 
 self, open any door of darkness or of light. 
 Not without some appearance of reason, ac- 
 cordingly, has doubt been thrown upon the 
 dogmatic affirmation of the salvation of any or 
 of all. Good reasons there were, indeed, for 
 this doubt, if man's choices were alone to be 
 taken into the account. But while man is 
 free, he is not abandoned. The unrelenting 
 powers of Truth and Light have a hold upon 
 him and the infinite persuasions of Love forsake 
 him not. His deathless conscience, with its 
 eternal protest and inexorable demands, testifies 
 to the preponderance of good in himself. Not 
 only does the Eternal beset him behind and 
 
SALVATION. 85 
 
 before and lay His hand upon him, but God is 
 immanent in man, and there is hope of the 
 transformation of every deformed soul into the 
 Divine likeness so long as God is. 
 
 VIII. — "Probation" and Morals. 
 
 The conclusion which must be drawn from 
 the foregoing section is that salvation is sub- 
 ject to the law of cause and effect, — a law of 
 which psychology as well as physics has to take 
 account. Certain psychological conditions or 
 causes, certain factors of knowledge, feeling, and 
 will, are the necessary antecedents of the condi- 
 tion called salvation. Deliverance from sin im- 
 plies a conviction of it ; a perception of the law 
 of which it is the violation ; repentance towards 
 God, the author of the law ; a hunger and thirst 
 after righteousness and a resolute will to attain 
 it. When these factors are operative, the state 
 of soul which they condition invariably follows, 
 unless counteracting causes intervene. In the 
 absence of these factors of life, other factors, 
 those of moral and spiritual death, are in opera- 
 tion, bringing forth with fatal certainty their 
 appropriate product. Therefore, each succes- 
 sive state of the soul, each expression of its 
 
86 SALVATION. 
 
 strength or weakness, is dependent on, and in 
 a sense determined by, antecedent conditions, 
 — power begetting power, obedience bringing 
 forth life, and disobedience bringing forth death. 
 Accordingly, under the operation of the law of 
 causation, man is perpetually in a state of pro- 
 bation ; that is, his conduct to-day determines 
 in a measure the moral and spiritual conditions 
 under which to-morrow's conflict must be en- 
 tered upon. To-day, yesterday's defeat or vic- 
 tory contributes its influence in depression and 
 despair, or in uplifting and hope. Every success 
 in the endless moral struggle makes subsequent 
 success easier, and every failure makes it more 
 difficult. To say this is to affirm that character 
 is a constant factor in spiritual development; 
 that as it is, namely, has been made by antece- 
 dent choices, it determines in a large degree 
 the effect of influences, instruction, circum- 
 stances which may be brought to bear upon 
 men. Probation so conceived is interminable, 
 and of course never comes to a fixed or final 
 condition. There«' is no period in it at which 
 action and responsibility cease and judgment 
 begins. Judgment proceeds hand in hand with 
 action, since every deed is a cause on which its 
 
SALVATION. 87 
 
 effect or judgment follows under unchangeable 
 law. There is, there can be, no " final judg- 
 ment" for a soul to whose activity no final 
 limit is set. 
 
 Now, it is evident that in probation thus re- 
 garded all the moral forces have their due place 
 and influence. Character is recognized as an 
 indefeasible possession, and responsibility con- 
 tinues unbroken. Every act of obedience, ser- 
 vice, fidelity, or of disobedience and falsity, has 
 its legitimate effect. All attainment of excel- 
 lence is an increment of the soul's moral stature 
 or strength. Inexorable justice has its course, 
 no artificial scheme interfering to cheat it of its 
 claims. Man is lulled to no false security, and 
 is not taught to trifle with the law. God is not 
 mocked. The same unchangeable laws prevail 
 so long as the soul exists in this life and that to 
 come. The course of character is continuous, 
 regardless of time and scene. All the moral in- 
 fluence and all the stimulus and support which 
 accrue from a sense of the inviolability of the 
 moral order, from the conviction that what is 
 gained belongs forever to him who will hold it, 
 and what is lost must be regained by arduous 
 struggle, remain in force unimpaired. Virtue 
 
88 SALVATION. 
 
 is encouraged by the assurance that it belongs 
 to God's eternal order, and that all which is 
 mighty and all which is good in the universe 
 contends for and with it. Vice is not encour- 
 aged by the fallacious teaching that through a 
 scheme of substitution it can evade the law, and 
 by a tardy repentance sustain a claim to parade 
 in the garments of virtue. There is fixed no 
 period of time at which all that the soul has 
 gained by fidelity may be lost by reason of not 
 having fulfilled certain conditions, and all that 
 it has lost by infidelity may be gained by ful- 
 filling them. If, now, in place of a rational 
 probation of this kind, we suppose its opposite 
 to obtain, it is evident that we renounce all the 
 chief aids to salvation which man's moral nature 
 supplies. If we say that the law has been satis- 
 fied by an atonement, do we not render nugatory 
 the law, and blunt the point and invalidate the 
 force of the great Pauline announcement of 
 tribulation and anguish upon everj^ soul whose 
 works are evil ? If we declare that character is 
 estimated at its ethical worth up to a certain 
 period, say at death, or the " final judgment," 
 and after that time moral distinctions are not 
 at all taken into account, but the soul's rank in 
 
SALVATION. 89 
 
 the scale of spiritual excellence is determined 
 by its having accepted or rejected that atone- 
 ment, do we not juggle with righteousness and 
 weaken men's faith in the reality of the moral 
 oi'der ? Are we not in danger of confounding 
 moral distinctions and subverting ethics, if we 
 teach that a man who all his life has neglected 
 moral culture, has indeed been positively im- 
 moral, may be *' saved " at the moment of death 
 by accepting the atonement and " casting him- 
 self on the merits of Christ " ? Let us beware of 
 putting a premium on the last chance. Rather, 
 let us no longer teach that there is any last 
 chance. Our theology will be radically unsound 
 so long as this word " saved " is not emptied of 
 its magical meaning, is not ''depolarized," — so 
 long, in fact, as it means anything to us but 
 abandonment of sin and growth into a moral 
 and spiritual life according to the psychological 
 laws of growth. 
 
 But not only is this theory of probation im- 
 moral, it may be questioned whether it does not 
 run counter to a right psychology. It rests 
 upon the presumption that immediately after 
 death, according to the old theology, or after 
 the '' final judgment," according to the " new 
 
90 SALVATION. 
 
 theology," man enters upon an unchangeable 
 moral condition for eternity. Those who " die 
 in sin," according to one of these theologies, 
 those who are '• finally impenitent," according 
 to the other, will be forever excluded from 
 righteousness. Right thinking and right living 
 are supposed to be in some way put out of their 
 reach. Now, in what way this is done or comes 
 about is a matter of great interest to psychology 
 and to ethics as well, as, indeed, is the question 
 whether or no it can happen at all. In the 
 first place there appears to lurk a contradiction 
 in the terra " finally impenitent," afiirmed of 
 beings having liberty of choice. Liberty and a 
 " final " condition are incompatible, since he 
 who can choose can never get himself into a 
 fixed or permanent state, even if he were to 
 choose to do so. The power of choice would 
 imply the power to get out of it. Final im- 
 penitence is an unpsychological fiction. But 
 the popular idea of the punishment of sin is 
 that it is brought about by the direct inter- 
 ference of the Deity ; and it would accord with 
 this idea to say that if man cannot get himself 
 into this fixed condition, then God can put him 
 into it. But in taking from man the power to 
 
SALVATION. 91 
 
 choose, that is, to change his moral condition, 
 God would deprive him of that without which 
 he would not be a human being. " Petrified 
 into continuity of sinfulness," God's noblest 
 creation would be discrowned and mutilated.^ 
 Some theologians put the close of the period 
 of probation in an alleged permanency of char- 
 acter regarded as the natural consequence, under 
 the laws of the soul, of long continuance in evil 
 doing. A man, it is said, may become fixed in 
 the habit of sinning, so that he cannot do oth- 
 erwise than sin, — that is, cannot choose virtue. 
 But he who cannot choose virtue cannot choose 
 sin. To him who cayi do but one thing there is 
 no choice ; and where there is no choice there 
 can be no sin, since sin is the choice of wrong 
 when right might have been chosen. On this 
 theory, then, a man may exercise and develop 
 his power to sin to such a degree that he is no 
 longer able to sin at all ! The doctrine leads to 
 an equal absurdity on the side of virtue. It in- 
 volves a contradiction to say that a man may 
 become. fixed in doing right in the sense that he 
 cannot do wrong. For to do right in the ethi- 
 
 ^ The Doctrine of Probation Examined. By G. H. Emer- 
 son, D.D. Boston, 1883. p. 159. 
 
92 SALVATION. 
 
 cal sense implies a choice of right, and there is 
 no choice of right to him who cannot choose 
 wrong, since in a choice there must be two pos- 
 sibilities. He, then, who cannot do wrong is 
 not a moral being, and cannot do right. Ac- 
 cordingly, the phrase "permanency of charac- 
 ter " is a contradiction. A permanent character 
 would be no character at all, since character 
 involves freedom of choice. 
 
 IX. — Universality of Salvation. 
 
 Down to the present time in the history of 
 the world salvation has been limited to a small 
 number of men. Exactly what a disciple had 
 in mind when he asked Jesus whether or no 
 there be few that are saved, it may be difficult 
 to determine. But the indirect answer of his 
 Master is significant, " Strive to enter in at the 
 narrow door." Did he mean by this answer 
 that it is more important that each one strive to 
 attain salvation than that he know how many 
 do really attain it ? But do the words, " Many 
 shall seek to enter in and shall not be able," 
 cutoff hope for some? Rather the injunction 
 to strive for admittance implies its possibility 
 for all, and that the failure of some is due to 
 
SALVATION. 93 
 
 their defective seeking. That these will never 
 rightly seek and find an open door is by no 
 means implied. If by salvation we mean com- 
 plete harmony with the universal moral and 
 spiritual order, then " the man Christ Jesus " 
 may well be the only one who has attained it. 
 But if " the narrow door " admit those who 
 knock at it, bearing, indeed, many defects, but 
 animated by a master-purpose to attain right- 
 eousness, then may many be regarded as having 
 entered in. But how vast has ever been and 
 is the number of those who do not care for 
 righteousness, and crowd the broad way so 
 patheticall}' pointed out by Jesus ! That so 
 great a multitude of men wander in darkness 
 with " aimless feet," stumbling into degrada- 
 tion and bound in chains of passion, lust and 
 selfishness ; that so many dark places on the 
 earth have not been visited with the healing 
 ministry of truth ; that Nature holds relentless 
 sway, and smites with merciless retribution the 
 unhappy children of ignorance and sin ; that 
 Cruelty scourges the weak and helpless till 
 Pity weeps and turns her face away ; that Des- 
 potism grinds its subjects into the dust, and 
 smothers thought and manhood in Siberian 
 
94 SALVATION. 
 
 mines ; that the bitter ages are so long and 
 man's moral progress is so slow, — all these 
 things reveal problems and mysteries at which 
 faith falters and reason is dumb. How far is 
 the universal reign of the Kingdom of God 
 from its consummation ! How do the tears and 
 agony of the Son of Man seem to have been in 
 vain, and the blood of martyrs to have been 
 poured out upon a thankless, fruitless earth ! 
 Yet into the awful front of this mystery Faith 
 flings the great declaration that " God will have 
 all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of 
 the truth." Verily, of the times and the seasons 
 no man knoweth. This, however, we have 
 good reason to believe, that whatever may be 
 God's time, and in whatever mystery His 
 method may be hidden. He is the Universal 
 Father, and will, in His own way and season, 
 seek His lost, benighted children until He finds 
 them. If we are to believe in Jesus as an 
 interpreter of God's spirit and providence ; 
 unless his ministry to men was a mask of love 
 and pity to hide the face of indifference and 
 mock the world with a show of sympathy ; if 
 he truly represented the solicitude of Heaven for 
 men, — then must we believe that the Father's 
 
SALVATION. 95 
 
 heart is ever warm towards the prodigal, and 
 the doors of His house stand ever open to the 
 son who returns in penitence. 
 
 The universality of salvation — the hope of 
 all and the faith of many — would be a most 
 fitting consummation of a theistic government 
 of the world, and is a very natural conclusion 
 from its theistic origin. The salvation of a 
 part and the ruin of the rest is a legitimate 
 conclusion from Atheism. If the world, in- 
 stead of being the product of Wisdom and 
 Love, be the product of Chance, and have only 
 a fortuitous development, the wonder were that 
 not a part, but the whole, of the human race 
 should not find its end in darkness. There 
 are difficulties, no doubt, in interpreting the 
 order of the world and of human life under the 
 category of design. There are disorders and 
 discords where we look for order and har- 
 mony, evil and weakness where we look for 
 good and strength ; the dark problem of hered- 
 ity appears to indicate a design to propagate 
 infirmity forever. But in spite of the diffi- 
 culties which the world presents for a theistic 
 theory, the alternative offered to thought is 
 Theism and a beneficent purpose sometime to 
 
96 SALVATION. 
 
 find its consummation in universal good, or 
 Atheism with its corollary of infinite indefinite- 
 ness and uncertainty. The fact that we are 
 unable to reconcile the existing physical and 
 spiritual order with a beneficent purpose as we 
 understand it, furnishes no presumption against 
 the existence of such a purpose and its un- 
 broken operation before our eyes. No one 
 will dare maintain that the malign purpose of 
 an unloving Creator is being fulfilled in the 
 world and in man. The doctrines of the 
 Fatherhood of God and the arbitrary, endless 
 exclusion of any of His children from light 
 and life furnish a contradiction which the 
 human reason cannot endure. The love which 
 " springs eternal in the human breast " would 
 suffer endless unrest in view of the hard se- 
 verity of a Father shutting the door of recon- 
 ciliation against His penitent children. The 
 saints in light, if they may be supposed to bear 
 harps and crowns, would cast harp and crown 
 at the foot of the throne, and declare themselves 
 unworthy to worship the All-Holy, if it be not 
 permitted them to speed to the world of pain 
 with ministry of pity and message of peace and 
 pardon. The doctrine which affirms the failure 
 
SALVATION. 97 
 
 on the part of God to do all that He is able to 
 do consistently with the nature of man to effect 
 the salvation of all, denies His Fatherhood, and 
 sets Him before men as a Being who cannot 
 inspire trust, love, and worship in the highest 
 meaning of these emotions. It is fatal to the 
 noblest and purest expression of religion. 
 
 But if God fail not on His part, may not man 
 fail and miss of' salvation ? This dangerous gift 
 of freedom, may it not prove the ruin of many ? 
 Man is confronted with the conditions of salva- 
 tion. If he do not accept them ? We have 
 already seen that God cannot do violence to 
 human freedom by limiting man's period of pro- 
 bation and preventing him from choosing salva- 
 tion at any time in the existence of the soul, 
 without destroying the integrity of the soul it- 
 self. He cannot, assuredly, do a similar violence 
 in compelling man to accept the conditions of 
 eternal life. Indeed, to accept must be volun- 
 tarily to take, freely to choose. Does the salva- 
 tion of any or of all men, then, partake of the 
 uncertainty which attaches to all forecast of re- 
 sults in which a free will is a factor ? From a 
 purely speculative point of view, yes. Leaving 
 God out of account, yes. But it is not alto- 
 
98 SALVATION. 
 
 gether a speculative question, and God may not 
 be left out of the account, will not be left out. 
 Indifferent and inactive, indeed, He cannot 
 be, — the God of Jesus and of the New Testa- 
 ment, the Father. Given this premise, and as 
 has already been pointed out, human reason can- 
 not refuse the conclusion that the resources of 
 Divine .wisdom, truth, and love will be employed 
 without reserve to win men from sin. Un- 
 happily weak is the faith which admits the 
 doubt that these resources will be effectual in 
 compassing the utmost salvation. Will the Om- 
 nipotent, the All-loving, fail in such a task as 
 this ? Will truth be forever ineffectual against 
 error, light against darkness ? Will the Word 
 of God fail in teaching and enlightening the 
 darkened mind? Will the obdurate, the hard- 
 hearted, resist endlessly the chastening of the 
 Divine love ? Are the remorse-, the scourgings, 
 the darkness, which attend on disobedience 
 without terrors and motives for men ? Do not 
 the arid waste and desolation on which the 
 prodigal soul is stranded suggest the hospitable 
 plenty of the father's house, and bring the be- 
 wildered son to himself? Shall the Son of Man, 
 who on earth went about doing good, have no 
 
SALVATION. 99 
 
 ministry of teaching, of healing and pity, wher- 
 ever souls languish in sickness of sin ? Will 
 his great prophecy fail of fulfilment, that if he 
 were lifted up from the earth he would draw 
 all men unto him? 
 
 Let us not disguise the difficulties which this 
 great problem of the salvation of all men has 
 presented and still presents to many, in view of 
 the power of sin in human nature ; of the awful 
 record of depravity and degradation, of cruelty 
 and inhumanity ; of the persistence of evil, rear- 
 ing its brazen, indomitable front through all the 
 ages of history ; of the lapses of virtue and the 
 sudden fall of souls long steadfast from summits 
 of light into depths of darkness ; of the appar- 
 ently ineffectual struggles and hopeless defeats- 
 of the powers of good in their interminable con- 
 flict with the mighty forces of wrong ; of the 
 slow progress and tardy triumphs of even the 
 good cause of the Christ, with its great original 
 Example and spiritual Light, and its vast army 
 of martyrs, scholars, heroes, and consecrated 
 leaders of pre-eminent genius and power. To 
 those whom this awful front and unconquered 
 presence of TTrong appall, who with faltering 
 confidence in right dare not afiirm its ultimate 
 
100 SALVATION. 
 
 victory, there is no greater word to be spoken 
 than that of him who in his own person over- 
 came the world and proved the possibility of 
 victory for all : " Have faith in God." '' It 
 sometimes puts a terrible strain upon our faith 
 in God's fatherhood to contemplate the suffer- 
 ings of which this earth is so full ; to see the 
 millions of men who come into this world only 
 to be buffeted by its adversities and torn by its 
 severities, dragged through its hells and hurried 
 down to the dark death of the sinfuL The only 
 thought which saves us from crying out of our 
 sympathizing hearts that God has made a fear- 
 ful mistake in creating men is the faith, which 
 holds us in spite of all this misery, that God is 
 leading man through the shadows to the stars, 
 that strife and sorrow are growing less, and 
 man is being reclaimed and fitted for a true 
 sonship." 1 
 
 Mr. John Stuart Mill, although inclined to 
 agnosticism, thought it conducive to mental and 
 moral health to believe in God and a future life, 
 if one could do so. Let the creed of optimism, 
 of the final prevalence of the moral and spiritual 
 
 1 The Fatherhood of God (Manuals of Faith and Duty, 
 No. 1). By Rev. J. Coleman Adams, D.D. p. 88. 
 
SALVATION. 101 
 
 forces, be likewise commended to men. Hap- 
 pily it may be commended on abundant evi- 
 dence. As the central thought and essential 
 spirit of Christ ; as a consummation without 
 which his revelation of the Father is an enio^ma ; 
 as " the one far-off, divine event " towards which 
 the development of man, as shown in history, ap- 
 pears to be surely moving ; as the only solution 
 of the problem of evil, and the only satisfaction 
 of the unrest of the " practical reason " of man 
 in view of the struggles and hardships which 
 virtue undergoes, — it has adequate support for 
 a rational faith. It lies not far from the thought 
 of the philosopher who interprets human life 
 and history by the principle of evolution, nor 
 from that of the poet to whom 
 
 " Through the ages one increasing purpose runs ; " 
 
 for he who through the ages of the world's 
 history can trace a Divine purpose ever evoking 
 order and good, is very near having attained the 
 prophetic vision and faith by which such a pur- 
 pose is seen to run victorious through the ages 
 to come. 
 
 THE END. 
 
Illlllinnrnin^i' Semmary-Speer Library 
 
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