We may more than question therefore whether the cherished evangelicalism of the Arminian and Lutheran constructions is not more theoretical than practical; though meanwhile we must recognize that they at least postulate the evangelical principle in theory.
It is, however, the universalistic note which is the characteristic note of these constructions. As Pro- fessor Henry C. Sheldon of Boston University de- clares:”” “Our contention is for the universality of the opportunity of salvation, as against an exclusive and unconditioned choice of individuals to eternal life." There is to be noted in this declaration, (1) the conscious stress on universalism as the characteristic note of Arminianism, and (2) the consequent recogni- tion that all that God does looking toward salvation is to afford an opportunity of salvation; so that what is actually contended is not that God does not save some only but that he really saves none,—he only opens a way of salvation to all and if any are saved they must save themselves. So inevitable is it that if we assert that all that God does looking to salvation he does to and for all alike and yet that not all are saved, we make all that he does fall short of actual salvation: no one must receive more than he who receives the least.
Perhaps, however, the essential universalistic note of the whole Arminian construction never received a stronger assertion than in the creed of the Evangelical
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Union body, the so-called Morrisonians, the very reason of the existence of which is to raise protest against the unconditionality of election. Its positive creed it itself sums up in what it calls the “three universalities": *the love of God the Father in the gift and sacrifice of Jesus to all men everywhere with- : out distinction, exception or respect of persons; the love of God the Son, in the gift and sacrifice of him- self as a true propitiation for the sins of all the world; the love of God the Holy Spirit, in his personal and continuous work of applying to the souls of all men the provisions of divine grace.” Certainly if God is to be declared to love all men alike, the Son to have made propitiation for the sins of all men alike, and the Holy Spirit to have applied the benefits of that propitiation to all men alike, nothing is left but to assert that therefore all men alike are saved; or else to assert that all that God can do for sinful man can- not avail to save him and he must just be left to save himself. And where then is our evangelicalism, with its great affirmation that it is God the Lord and he alone with his almighty grace who saves the soul?
A lurid light is thrown upon the real origin of these vigorous assertions of the universalism of God's saving activities by some remarks of a sympathetic historian in accounting for the rise of the Morrisonian sect.“ “Of the movement now to engage our atten- tion," he remarks, “nothing is truer than that it was the genuine offspring of its age. During the thirties of the last century the legislatures of our country
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UNIVERSALISM
were made to recognize the rights of man as they had never done before. In politics the long night of privilege was far spent, and the dawn of a new age was beginning to appear. Brotherhood, equality and fair play were clamoring loudly at every closed door, and refusing to be turned away. A corresponding claim, quite independent of politics, was being made in the name of Christian theology. Here also it was demanded that doors of privilege be thrown open. Freedom for all, food for all, education for all, and salvation for all were now coming to be the national watchwords.” Words could scarcely be chosen which would more sharply present the demand for “the three universalities" as the mere clamoring of the natural heart for the equal distribution of the goods of the other life as of this, as, in other words, but the religious aspect of the “leveling?” demand which has filled our modern life. The cry “Give us all an equal chance!” may have its relative justification when it is the expression of the need of men perishing under the heel of vested privilege. But what shall we say of it when it is but the turbulent self-assertion of а mob of criminals, assailing a court of justice, whence is dispensed not “chances” to escape just penalites, but wisely directed clemency, having in view all rights involved? Surely the evil desert of sin, the just government of God, and the unspeakable grace of salvation are all fatally out of mind when men reason as to the proper procedure of God in bringing sinners to salvation by the aid of analogies derived from the [ 101]
THE PLAN OF SA TV AREO®m