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the character which Jesus would have real within them is only partially wrought out. The salvation which is God's ideal for them is far from complete. Christian people represent various stages of salvation. Some have just begun,,some have developed to a much higher stage, and some have progressed remarkably and reveal a proximity to Christ's expectation of them in this world. All are being saved to that salvation, that character which Jesus came to make known. In no one is the task completed. We may be confident that God will perfect that which he has begun in us, as we conscientiously surrender ourselves to him, (Paul was sure that he would do it for the Philippians. See Chap. 1:6) but as yet, the best know it is very imperfect.

Nor have we any reason to conclude that this character salvation will be perfected on earth or instantaneously after death. Jesus said, "He who endures to the end shall be saved." The immediate application of these words was to persons who would be in the midst of the troublous times which were coming upon Jerusalem and had reference to their need amidst persecution and suffering to remain firm and endure. But the trend of his teaching would lead us to state that endurance to the end was the sign of a character and spirit which, while not perfect, would persist unto perfection. There is no suggestion in Jesus' utterances that when one died it was accomplished or enough was done at death to make its completeness a fact immediately afterwards. The process must continue, in the soul, (the personality) after the earthly house has fallen. It was the soul which was being developed and this lives. The man himself was the field of salvation and the man goes on. Im

mortality is the persistence of him. Salvation is his perfection. Salvation is his evolution toward the divine ideal. And this is not because of some arbitrary decree from God. It is simply because in the nature of God's moral universe it must be so. It is a biological necessity. It could not be otherwise. There is no possible trick or magic that can accomplish it any other way. In the Fathers' plan of salvation there is no way known to the divine mind whereby at the moment of death, any person with a poorly or partially developed character, can abruptly, in an instant be reconstructed or perfected morally and spiritually so that the processes of becoming would be abrogated and salvation become a fact without the human soul having truly experienced it. It must be a part of his experience and wrought out within him, regardless of the time it takes to accomplish it, if it is to be his salvation.

We see the wisdom of God's plan in view of the majesty and worth of an individual life. It is because the soul is a growing entity. It has within itself great possibilities and before it a divine, wonderful destiny. It may spread out so widely and develop so deeply and climb so loftily, that time must be given for its completion. God is so mindful of the intrinsic value of a human soul that he would not save it too quickly. To save it now and preserve it as it is would be a very poor achievement. An instantaneous salvation signifies a very limited one. God could save all there was to save but that would be very little indeed in some cases. Salvation, if it were to imply nothing but the preservation in exact entity of that which is in existence at death even, would be too small an accomplishment for the divine

mind to conceive of or the divine power to be de voted to.

Few people would like to think that the best that salvation could imply would be the conservation and preservation of what they are at death, with nothing more to be added throughout the long ages of eternity. No larger ideas, no clearer visions, no purer motives, no nobler aspirations, and no truer righteousness of character. It would be almost hell. Hell is hell if it means the arrest of personality in remorse for the past and the consciousness of no progress in the future. Some one asks when will salvation be consummated. I answer I do not know. Just to go on, to progress, to be larger, grander, nobler, freer, more like Jesus every day; this is salvation for the individual and humanity as a whole. This is what Jesus would have us understand salvation to be. Some day we shall know much more about it.

Well may we lift our hearts in thanksgiving to God for his grace in bringing to us through Jesus the revelation of the nature and scope of his salvation for man, the disposition and power to accomplish it, the patience and long suffering with his children in achieving it and the constant joy and inspiration of his presence within us as he leads us onward, outward, and upward to the moral and spiritual heights, pictured to us in the person and the teachings of Jesus our Saviour and Lord.

TH

CHAPTER THREE

SELF AND SALVATION

HE individual has very largely been the centre of the Christian objective. To secure the salvation of self has been the aim of Gospel preaching. Evangelists, pastors, personal workers, Sunday School teachers and the rank and file of church members have agreed that the work of Christians is to secure the salvation of individuals throughout the world. Jesus came to seek and save the lost and he has commissioned us to do the same. In order to do this we have arrested the attention of individuals by public mass meetings and by private conversations. The message of these public and private approaches has been in the nature of an appeal to be saved. Christians of one century have perpetuated the appeal of those of the preceding century and Christians of one locality have approached the individual in and about the same way that Christians of another locality have. Up to the present time there has been a remarkable similarity in the nature of this appeal among Christian people the world over. There have been many differences in method but the nature of the appeal has been about the same.

It has been an appeal to come and get saved, to be made safe, to become the recipient of that which would be an eternal insurance against any moral or spiritual calamity. Therefore the appeal has been and is, in many 'quarters, a selfish one. It is a warn

ing cry to get in out of the storm and protect yourself. It is the call to come and get something and to come for what you can get. It is to look out for number one and do it now. It is impossible thoughtfully to consider the popular evangelistic appeal to be saved without concluding that it is essentially a selfish one.

People are urged to listen to the Gospel message and receive Christ in order that they may escape the eternal penalty of their sins and the failure in this life which inevitably follows sinful indulgence. They are deliberately moved to be Christians by revelations of personal loss in the present life, by picturing the torments of the damned hereafter, by making known to them what they would gain now if they accepted Christ and by promises of reward in the life to come.

The appeal of profit and loss has been and is intensified in our effort to save the individual. It pays and pays well to be a Christian is the genius of this message. The motive may have been an excellent one but the appeal has been manifestly selfish. All one needed to do to be a Christian was to think more deeply and let the motive of selfishness control him more rationally and he would, for what he could get out of Christ during time and eternity, become one of his followers. For himself, for his own interests, for what life could signify to him, the individual would logically accept the proffers of God's grace through Jesus Christ.

We would not insinuate that there has been nothing more to the presentation of Christianity than this, but the appeal to be saved has been more or less limited as we have outlined. We know that millions have been drawn into our churches under this appeal.

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