But the question is asked, Does not this generous hope for the heathen weaken and even destroy the motive of Christian missions? I reply No; most emphatically not. The great motive of missions is the motive derived from. the chief end of God's plan and of man's existence, the establishment of God's kingdom. The place where that kingdom is to be established is here, in this world. What God is seeking in His redemptive work is to bring this world to Christ, not merely to bring souls out of it into heaven. The motive of missions is the motive of the Gospel everywhere, to bring about the completion of redemption, to hasten the time when the kingdom of the world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (Rev. xi. 15). So long as we delay this work, we trust that God in His equity will allow no soul to perish simply for our negligence. But this trust in nowise relieves us from our duty. It is ours to take the Gospel to our benighted brethren in heathen lands, to give them the same privileges which we possess, and the same glorious opportunities. It is ours to roll back the dark shadow which rests upon the earth. The Saviour's command has been given us, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to the whole creation" (Mark xvi. 15). The fact that God will deal equitably with all men and save those heathen who will permit themselves to be saved. should not encourage us to be remiss, but rather stimulate. ns to greater effort.

If we cannot send the missionary to the heathen unless we are sure that they will all perish if he stays at home, let us leave the work. But let us hope that God will raise up a race of men who can preach Christ from a nobler motive, even from love to their Saviour and their fellow-men.

XXIII.

ELECTION AND PREDESTINATION

OUR last topic was the universality of God's grace in Jesus Christ. But the question arises, Is this all that the Bible teaches? Is there not alongside of its universalisın a particularism which demands equally to be taken into account? A candid study of the Bible permits us to answer this question only in the affirmative. It becomes therefore a matter of importance, that, before entering upon the subject of the appropriation of redemption, we should examine this scriptural particularism and show, if we can, that it is consistent with the universal purpose of Christ's redemptive work and the bestowal upon all men of the opportunity to accept his grace.

I. We will look first at the teachings of the Bible upon the subject. The principle of election, as we saw when considering the redemptive revelation, occupies a prominent place in the Old Testament. It was "God's method of using the few to bless the many." An individual, a family, a nation, was chosen; invested with especial blessings and privileges; educated by various influences, providential and miraculous; made the recipient of divine revelation; and thus capacitated for particular functions in God's great work of establishing His kingdom in the world. Thus the divine call came to Abraham to get out of his country and from his kindred, and from his father's house, unto a land which God should show him, and the promise was given that he should become a great nation, and that all the families of the earth should be blessed in

him (Gen. xii. 1-3). In this election the foundation was laid for all God's future work of redemption. It was an election of grace, resting not upon the good works of the patriarch, but upon the divine good pleasure. The subjective condition of the election was Abraham's faith; he believed in God, and He counted it to him for righteousness (Gen. xv. 6). But this faith, which was the conditio sine qua non, the receptivity without which the election would have remained inoperative, was not the ground of the election, still less its cause; the efficiency lay in the divine grace; and the faith, although it involved an element. of personal and individual freedom, was in a true sense the result of the divine education. The election of Abraham is the great representative or typical case in the Old Testament; all the other instances follow the same model. Isaac, the son of promise, was chosen from the two sons of Abraham. The divine elective grace selected Jacob and passed by Esau; "for the children, being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her (Rebecca), The elder shall serve the younger" (Gen. xxv. 22, 23; Rom. ix. 11, 12). Then the stream of election broadens and the people of Israel are chosen to receive the special blessings and privileges of the redemptive revelation, and to be the bearers of the divine grace to the nations of the earth. Here, also, God is wholly the giver; all that Israel has to do is to receive the blessing and carry out the divine will. "The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not. set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all peoples; but because the Lord loveth you, and because he would keep the oath which he sware unto your fathers" (Deut. vii. 6-8). The principle of election is fol

lowed all through the history of Israel in God's prosecu tion of the work of redemption. The prophets, priests, and kings, and all God's instruments in the establishment of the kingdom, are called of God to their respective tasks. The Judges, Saul, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, were all chosen by God for their particular work. Finally, the messianic prophecies point to the Christ as pre-eminently God's Chosen One, elected for His highest tasks and made the recipient of His greatest blessings (Is. xlii. 1). The peculiarity of this Old Testament election is that it is concerned exclusively with God's historical process of redemption. The future life and the eternal blessedness were not yet revealed. The horizon of revelation in this stage was the present life. The blessings which God bestowed were temporal, and the chief end of the election was service in the kingdom on earth. As it was an election for time, so it was an election in time; there is no word as yet of an eternal decree of God as the foundation of the choice.

The doctrine-like all the doctrines of the Bible-is deepened and enlarged rather than changed in the New Testament. The old point of view is retained, while new and far higher points of view are attained. The twelve apostles are called and chosen for their great work in the establishment of the kingdom of God in its Christian form (Luke vi. 13-16). "Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide " (John xv. 16). So Paul was separated from his mother's womb and called, through God's grace, that he might preach Christ among the Gentiles (Gal. i. 15, 16). This was still the temporal election for temporal purposes. No mention was made as yet of a fixed and eternal element. One of the Twelve, though elected and called, frustrated the divine grace and became a reprobate. The Old Testament idea of national election also appears in the New Testament. Israel is

still the Chosen People, but God's election is enlarged to take in the Gentiles, and when Israel rejects the grace of Christ its former prerogatives are taken from it, and it loses its place in the kingdom of God. This is the subject with which Paul is engaged in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters of the Epistle to the Romans-a passage which refers primarily to the great question of national election, and is intended to vindicate God's righteousness in His rejection of the Jews by showing that this is due to their own refusal to accept the Messiah, and that it is only temporary. Whatever conclusions respecting individual election may be drawn from these chapters must be derived from it by way of inference, for it is not directly concerned with individuals.

The deeper New Testament view begins with the election of the Christ, which, as we have seen, was predicted by the Old Testament prophets. He is pre-eminently God's elect. He receives the divine call and the assurance of his election at the time of his baptism and on the Mount of Transfiguration: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;" "This is my Son, my chosen " (Matt. iii. 17; Luke ix. 35). But his election is not merely to earthly service in the kingdom, though that forms a part of it; he is chosen to be the eternal King of the everlasting kingdom. Moreover, his election does not take place merely in time; it is an eternal election (Eph. iii. 11; 1 Pet. i. 20). The election of believers corresponds to that of Christ and the eternal salvation revealed through him. They are indeed often called elect in a way that throws no light upon the nature of their election, but designates them merely as members of the church of Christ, which is the true "Israel of God" (Gal. vi. 16), the Chosen People of the New Dispensation, which has entered into the heritage of Israel's blessings. In a similar way they are called the "saints" or the "called." But we do not have to look far to discover that in many places