The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-16

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 tied to human means in touching the
 hearts of men. He can speak through
 the conscience and the moral and re- ligious feelings which are native to man by virtue of his kinship with God. Who
 can believe that God is spirit, and then
 affirm that He can speak to His creat-
 ures only through audible voices or | outward signs? Of many of His mani
 festations we can say what the psalm ist says of the testimony of the heav-
 ems to the glory of God:
 "There is no speech, nor language;
 Their voice cannot be heard"
 Who can believe that God is light
 and suppose that He shuts up His rays
 within Himself, sending down only here and there a beam into the darkness of
 human ignorance and sin? It is cer-
 tainly more consonant with the highest conception of the character of God to | suppose that in such ways as are pos sible and known to Himself, the Father of Spirits reveals Himself to all men and that men are responsible for the
 way in which they welcome or reject such light as they have.
 l I am far from claiming that, on any view of the matter which we may take, we can explain the enigmas of history l and the mysteries of providence, but am only urging that the view of some kind of manifestation of God to all men accord with the conception of the universal benevolence of God.
 Moreover. all revelation is Christian revelation since Christ is the medium of | it's communication. He is the light that | lights every man, decloses the Apostle | John. We must not limit the signifi- canoe of Christ to the incarnate life of Jesus, "The historic Chrlst-to use current phrase-is not co-extensive with i the divine, universal Christ of John and Paul Christ was in the life of l Israel of old; He spoke through the prophets, but how unwarranted and irrational to stop there and deny that He has spoken to men in other nations and in all ages. Tn the early church | the belief was common that God re- vealed Himself, in invisible ways through Christ to pure and lofty spirits outside Judaism and historic Christian ity. Justin Martyr says that Christ who was and is in every man was par tially known by Socrates, and Angus tine declares that Christianity is as
  cords with Johns idea of Christ as the source of life and the light of men. It is common to speak of revelation in contrast to what men know by ''unaid- ed reasons" but may we not well ask (with Newman): "Who knows that the reason of man ever is unaided? That God should withdraw from the greater portion of mankind seems inconsistent KI,lN grrI,. .e,E 70 t- nature.
 Let us not suppose, however, that this broader view of Christ'e relation to the race at which John and Paul so plainly hint, limits the unique signif1- canoe of that special course of revela- ton of which the Bible is the product and record. To my mind that revela- ton seems more glorious when we re- member that it's central figure, Jesus Christ, is not merely historic charac- ter, like other men, who appeared in the world for few brief years and then passed away, but that He is the eternal son of God, the medium of revelation to all men in all times, who in His in- carnation reveals the Father in a hu- man life and works" Gas He Himself says) in accord with the ceaseless work | ing of the Father for the salvation of men. If Christ is, and always has been, | everywhere touching and influencing the souls of men, it is none the less true that He has spoken in His life and | teaching on earth with unexampled 1 clearness, and that this most adequate | revelation is the standard by which | we are to estimate all less definite dis l closures which, by their very nature, l we can but imperfectly describe and | measure.
 These considerations suggest my sec ond point viz: This conception of l Christ's universal significance involves | a nobler idea of His saving work.
 I presume that in many minds the | question will arise: Is not the atoning | death of Jesus the one great saving | act and, if so, how can He be conceived | as saving men in all ages and lands? | Is not salvation grounded in a historic | transaction which took place on a cer- tain day about 1900 years ago? But let | us also ask: How were Abraham and | Moses, David and Isiah saved? Shall | we say: By the Old Testament sacri- l fees? But the New Testament declares 1 that it is impossible that such sacrifices l SnOuld ldke away SlHS. oudll we lHeu | say; By prophetic faith in Christ to | come? But this view involves the idea | that a saving deed can save in advance | of it's accomplishment and would logic | ally carry us to a larger conception of l the atonement than that which limits it l to a single transaction-the death of | Jesus on one cross. What conception, then, shall we adopt? To limit the | atonement strictly to the death of Jesus on the cross would exclude from sal vation all men who lived before that event, as well as all who, in the cen turies that have since elapsed, have not heard and accepted of it. If, however, we hold that any persons outside this limited company in few recent centu- ries have been saved. we must assume some ground for their salvation. That ground must be the work of Christ and we must adopt some larger view of it than that which restricts it to an act done on a particular day, centuries ago.
 Just here let us observe certain sug- gestions of Scripture. One passage-ac- cording to both our versions-speaks of | 1o, ,,o1o cIo fto,oo tI,a +iox,