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do unto you;" and to "love your neighbour," by practical exhortations applicable to the daily life of their hearers. What an awakened interest might not modern preachers create in the breasts of their drowsy listeners if they would select texts like these for their discourses, and endeavour to bring religion home to mankind as a practical rule for guidance in every-day life, instead of, as at present, perpetually dwelling on obscure points of doctrine about which scarcely any one is agreed, and which, on the authority of Christ himself, are of not the least importance to our salvation. Verily, one might say to such preachers— Men ask for bread and ye give them a stone!

I stated on ante p. 97, it could not be denied that Christ did teach certain doctrines, some of which undoubtedly would seem at first glance to justify the dogmas and sacraments of modern theology-such, for instance, as the Atonement, Christ's Divinity, the Lord's Supper, &c. These statements are reported to have been made by Christ, and they are also again and again repeated, and, I think, exaggerated, by the Apostles; but as I have already pointed out, and cannot too often repeat, Christ nowhere requires us to believe the truth of these doctrines as a necessary condition to salvation. Modern theology—as we shall see presently-does insist upon belief in these doctrines as necessary to salvation, and herein lies the weakness of its position.

The doctrinal questions touched on by the Apostles may be summed up under the following heads, ante pp. 67-75:The atonement; salvation by faith; the divinity of Christ; the Trinity; natural depravity and original sin; salvation by faith rather than works; eternal punishment; the resurrection; baptism; the Lord's Supper; election and predestination; and praise and prayer.

CHAPTER VII.

Conclusions from the Foregoing.

THE general conclusion which, at first glance, seems inevitable from the foregoing summaries of Salvation according to Christ, and Salvation according to the Apostles, would seem to be that

Beneficence is the great desideratum in those who wish. to be saved.

When, however, we come to analyse the meaning of the great commandments of Christ, in the light of their practical application, we shall find that it includes much more than we usually understand by the word beneficence. It would seem that

There must be benevolence also.

If faith without works is dead, certainly it is equally true that works without benevolence can avail a man nothing.

It requires, indeed, very little experience of the world to see that mere deeds of charity could not possibly be meant by Christ to suffice as a test of a man's qualifications for entrance into heaven, since every one knows that the greatest hypocrites are they who cultivate a reputation for piety by ostentatious beneficence. In short, this brings us to the true test, namely, the inner motives, which actuate men in the performance of good works. If the motive is a selfish. one-for instance, a desire to stand well with the world by seeing one's name in the newspapers, or being otherwise applauded-it is obvious that the good deeds of such a man are no proof of his benevolence. He may delude his fellowmen, but he cannot deceive the Searcher of all hearts.

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In glancing back once more at the summary under Salvation according to Christ (p. 98), we are bound to conclude, that however valuable the expressions of Christ— alluded to under heading No. 4-may be as an answer to St. Paul's teachings (contradicted by James), that faith without works is sufficient to ensure salvation, it is impossible to deny that the statement, which Christ seems there to make, that works alone will suffice—cannot be taken by itself as an infallible guide in life. Either Christ is misreported, or the words were not intended to be taken literally. We find ourselves obliged, therefore, to class the various utterances of Christ on the subject of salvation together and regard them as a whole; in short, we are compelled to exercise our reason in interpreting the passage. Even the most orthodox Christians claim the privilege of doing this when passages are presented to them which seem contradictory or absurd. When the heterodox claim the same privilege they cannot, therefore, be blamed for so doing.

Taking the summary of Christ's commands as a whole, we find, therefore, that the duties of a Christian may be summed up under two heads:

Istly. To love God; and,

2ndly. To love mankind.

Love of God necessarily implies a belief in God, and faith, as St. Paul says (in Romans 10: 14)—

"Cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
"How then shall they believe in Him of whom they have
not heard?"

I therefore contend that what the Apostles teach in regard to having faith in God is included in the command to love God.

In regard to the first of the foregoing heads-Love to God-it is impossible to believe that the Bible is the only means by which men can come to a belief in God; otherwise we should find all so-called heathen nations without any belief in a Supreme Being; whereas we find, on the

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contrary, that almost every nation on the earth (whether they have heard of our Bible or not) have some such belief. Those who believe in God must, it seems to me, either love or fear Him. It is impossible to conceive of indifference in the minds of those who believe in the Creator. Those who believe that the scriptural accounts of "God's wrath" and "God's vengeance are to be taken as reliable-see the extracts under "Eternal Punishment," ante p. 72, and under "Is God Merciful," p. 87-must be much more inclined to fear God than to love Him. I have, however, endeavoured to counteract the effect of these false notions of God, by quotations which show that mercy is much more likely to be the characteristic of the Almighty than vengeance. Indeed when one considers how merciful and forgiving Christ himself was-forgiving his murderers even in his death agony (as did even his follower, Stephen, also) it seems little less than blasphemous, as it certainly is a contradiction in terms, to picture the Father as an angry and revengeful God, and, in the same breath, to say that the Saviour and the Father are one (ante p. 65), and that the Father dwelleth in Christ! Since Christ enjoins -Ist, Love of God as necessary to salvation, we are bound to conclude that those who do not believe in and therefore do not love God-in other words, atheists-can hardly be said to come under Christ's definition of those who are to be saved, as expressed in the New Testament.

Having, however, already discussed the Law for the Heathen (ante p. 92), and the Law for the Honest Doubter (ante p. 94), and shown how impossible it is to conceive that a merciful God would punish men-sincere and good in other respects-for not being able to believe in the orthodox scheme of salvation, I am bound also to go further, and even dissent from the proposition that those who do not believe in God will be eternally lost. So long as the penalty of eternal punishment is appended to the non-belief in the Deity-as the alternative of salvation,-it

seems to me either that we must disbelieve in the accuracy of a record which declares that a merciful Creator will thus wreak vengeance on those who are honestly unable to believe in God as described in the Bible; or else we must interpret the word salvation in a very different sense to that which is usually put upon it. Consistently with mercy and justice, the awful penalty of eternal punishment seems inconceivable as the consequence of an involuntary act of the mind, like belief or disbelief: in short, belief in God cannot be necessary to salvation as the Gospels interpret the word salvation.

It will thus be seen that the question depends upon the meaning we attach to the word "salvation." If it means as the Church teaches-eternal happiness as opposed to eternal damnation to make a belief in God one of the requirements of salvation, seems to impugn the justice and mercy of the Creator, for the very same reasons that are advanced on pp. 92 and 94 ante; and must be rejected. If, however, we find that we can place another interpretation on "salvation," as I have endeavoured to do further on, the matter becomes at once more simple; and it is not impossible to understand how the love of God may, in a sense, be necessary to salvation.

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I question, however, whether any man absolutely disbelieves in the existence of God in some form other; though he may not do so in the God of the Bible. All atheists believe in the laws of nature, because they have occular demonstration of them, and, since the laws of nature are undoubtedly the laws of God, they in reality do believe in the operation of God's laws, only under another Whether they will or will not be punished hereafter for not believing more, it is impossible for any human being to say; but of one thing we are certain, namely, that in so far as prayer to God is a blessing to those who practice and believe in it, to that extent do atheists suffer for their unbelief. No thorough atheist can possibly derive any advan

name.

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