sphere of existence, but as drawing them with all their surroundings into holy and loving relations; of the Church, not as a separate body, but as seeking always, and destined finally, to embrace the whole race of mankind.

The purpose of God, which we have been endeavouring to follow out in these Lectures, must be held fast. That purpose is described in the words of St. Paul: 'That He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth;' or in the vision of the Apocalypse, which places the Lamb in the midst of the throne, and in concentric circles round him the redeemed humanity and the various orders of the creation. To guard against mere archaism, we may state this in the simplest terms. It implies that the Christian spirit of universal, selfrenouncing love is, and must show itself to be, the supreme power in the world; that its operation is first to raise men individually out of moral evil or selfishness, and then to bind them together by a spiritual bond; that this bond is the uniting power in all the various circles into which human society is subdivided; that all these rings and circles of life, these wheels within wheels, must be united by the same power into one great comprehensive brotherhood; and further, that the whole material world, which becomes more and more subject to man, partakes through him of the same redeeming influence; so that finally the spiritual and the material worlds form together a perfect harmony. We may express this also in theological language, thus: That the manifestation of God in Christ, acknowledged

and believed, redeems man and transforms him in all his relations, to God, to other men, and to outward nature, and issues in a spiritual unity, of which God in Christ is the centre, and in which all the creation in its various degrees partakes. This, we say, is the

purpose of God.

We are also His offspring. We are made in the image of God, and can enter into His thought and purpose. The man who apprehends it finds the world made new to him; he sees it ideally as it is in the Divine intention; and, further, he becomes a fellowworker with God, an organ of the Divine Spirit, in bringing it to pass. He feels himself no longer isolated and no longer aimless, but a conscious member of a vast spiritual whole, of which every part conspires for the execution of the Divine purpose: and every minor society in which he is associated with his fellow-men he looks upon as undertaking some department of this great enterprise.

We need make no distinction at this point between those who are confessedly and consciously Christians, and those who are not yet awakened to this sublime calling. The love of God and his purpose of grace embrace us all. The spirit of God and of Christ is working upon every conscience, though the result of this working is infinitely varied. We all accept the fact that the spirit of Christ was in the prophets, and that it wrought upon the Jewish nation at large in the ages before Christ came. St. John's doctrine of the Word, without which nothing was created, the Light which lighteth every man, and that of St. Paul, that

God is not far from any of us, since in Him we live and move and have our being, enables us to extend this belief to mankind universally. There is, to use a phrase - of grammar, a proleptic, or anticipatory, Christianity, of which we may see traces deep down in the convictions of the various races of men. It shows itself partially and fitfully in their religions, but more in their philosophies, their family life and their laws. In these God has always had a witness among them. Christ came in the fulness of time. The ground was laid on all sides in preparation for Him; the human race was growing towards Him: so that we must look at the whole human development as one, and on the Christian spirit as the root of all that is good and true in it, and on Christ Himself as its crown.

But, besides this proleptic Christianity in ancient times before Christ came, there is also an unconscious Christianity in modern times, by which men are being trained for the eventual recognition of God in Christ. Within the recognised boundaries of the Church this is fully acknowledged. It forms the justification for the original admission of whole families within its pale, in which, if there were not, as is sometimes argued, little children, there were certainly immature members like the slaves, who were in this stage of unconscious Christianity. It forms also the substratum of truth

1 John iv. 53: 'Himself believed and his whole house.' Acts x. 2, 24, 44: 'Cornelius, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house.' 'Cornelius had called together his kinsmen and near friends.' The Holy Ghost fell upon all them which heard the word.' Acts xvi. 31: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house.' Ib. 33: 'He was baptized, he and all his, straightway.' Ib. 34: He rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.'

beneath the doctrine of baptismal regeneration which is so untenable when baldly stated; that is, that those who have been brought up within the Christian community imbibe into the very texture of their moral nature some of the primary assumptions of Christian morality. But ideas and moral influences pass, as by some subtle form of commercial exchange, from man to man and from nation to nation, through all the forms of human intercourse, without as well as within the pale of Christendom. It is impossible to look at the wide diffusion of goodness and not to admit its existence in many different modes, in connexion with or apart from the actual confession of Jesus Christ. The heads of the organisations of professed believers have often been too slow to recognise this, and the want of its recognition has been greatly to the detriment of the Church.

We can find no standing ground until we identify Christianity with moral goodness, and the Christian Church, in its idea and ultimate development, with the whole moral, social, and political system by which the human race is growing to its fulness. But this does not imply that the true condition of things which we thus describe is already realised, or that the divine spirit is diffused at once and equably throughout the

This last case is a striking one, since it is impossible to suppose that the women, children, and slaves composing the house of the Roman jailor could give more than a simple assent to what the head of the family had done. The manner in which v. 31 is quoted is a mark of the difference between a merely individualistic Christianity and the social Christianity now making itself felt. It has usually been quoted only as far as the words, thou shalt be saved.' If we add the concluding words, and thy house,' we get the idea of faith, which is given in these Lectures.

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mass. The principle of Election must be acknowledged as that by which the whole process is carried on; not an election to happiness but to service; not an election in an exclusive sense, but as the medium of blessing to all. The race of Israel from Abraham downwards was the elect race to whom, in the first instance, God made himself known; but the promise, for the sake of which they were called, was that through them all families of the earth should be blessed. Similarly, the Greeks, the Romans, the Oriental nations, the Germans, have had their special gifts of mind or of art, of social or political capacity, which were also destined to become universal. We have learnt to interpret the dealings of God in these matters more fully through historical and ethnical research, and through the comparison of languages and religions.

But further, this doctrine of Election extends to all the various special spheres of human life. Each department or circle has as its leaders those in whom the spirit of the society dwells in the fullest degree. But their election is not for themselves, but that through them the rest may be taught, led, influenced, inspired, until the whole body is brought up to the level of its leaders. Nay, to follow St. Paul's teaching, each man has his gift, which is for the common use, to edify others by sharing it with them.

If we apply this doctrine to the Church in the wide sense which we have given to it, we need not scruple to take into our view the whole human race without exception, since we confess that all have been redeemed, and that upon all the Spirit of God is playing and