^ The same word is used in telling of the stormy darkness when " neither sun nor stars " had for many days " a'piKared" and then at last a rift came in the thick cloud, and the blue was seen, and the blessed sunshine poured down on the damp and desolate world. So, by some historical manifestation, this mighty thing, the love of God, has been put into concrete shape, embodied and made a visibility to men. What can that point to except the incarnation of Jesus Christ, His life and death, the cradle and the cross, with all that lay between, and all that has come after ? The mission of a Saviour, in whom the Unseen has drawn near to human sense ; in whom the love of God, like sunbeams caught in a cloud, has been diffused, encircled with a revealing because a veiling medium, is what Paul points to. The Man Christ Jesus, in the sweetness of His life, in the sacred mystery of His death, in the power of His indwelling Spirit, stands before us, the embodiment of the love of the unseen God. Scientists can make sounds visible by the symmetrical lines into which heaps of sand upon a bit of paper are cast by the vibration of a string. God
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254 SAVING AND INSTRUCTING GRACE
has made invisible love plain to the sight of all men, because He has sent us His Son, and now we can say, " That which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands have handled of the Word of life, that declare we unto you." ^
4. The grace of God hath appeared " bringing salvation to all men."
(1) The grace brings salvation to all men, because all men need that more than anything else. In the notion of salvation there lie the two ideas of danger and of disease. It is healing and it is safety ; therefore, if it be offered to all, it is because all men are sick of a sore disease, and stand in imminent and deadly peril. That is the only theory of men's deepest need which is true to the facts of human existence. There are plenty of shallower diagnoses of what is the matter with mankind, and therefore of less radical and drastic cures offered. In their places, and for the purposes to which they may wisely be confined, they are good and whole- some for mankind. But we want to dig far deeper than the shallow husbandry of agriculturists who have no tools but education, culture, reformation of manners, and alteration of the conditions of society can ever reach.
(2) The grace of God brings salvation to all men. It is a wonderful assertion ; but, on reflection, we see that it does not state too much. Wide and strong as the affirmation undoubtedly is, it is only commensurate with the fact. Yes, God's free favour, manifested in the Person of His own blessed Son, is designed to produce saving effects upon all. God makes no exception, excludes none. He has not sent a message down to the world, that He purposes to take the case of a certain number of persons into con- sideration, and leave the rest to perish. St. Paul simply could not have used this expression if that had been his view of God's mind and will ; but it is stated in the strongest possible terms that to every man this revelation has been made, and for every man this grace has been exhibited ; and that, as the result of this, obviously every man, if he only will, is in a position to become the recipient of the salvation which the grace of God has brought within his reach.
(3) But when the Apostle says that this grace brings salvation unto all, he does not say that all receive the salvation which is
* A. Maclaren.
TITUS II. II, 12 255
brought to them. There is a whole world of difference between the two expressions. And the word that he employs — for it is one word in the original which is rendered in our Version by the three "that bringeth salvation" — describes not an actuality, but a potentiality and a possibility. The aim and purpose, not the real- ized efifect, is what is pointed out in this great word of the text.
For there is a condition necessary from the very nature of the case. If God could save all men, be sure that He would do it ; the love that thus takes its rise in the counsels of Eternity, and flows on for ever through the waste and barren ages of human history, and is ever waiting to bestow itself, in its tenderness and in its liberality upon all men, is not made less universal, but it is conditioned by the nature of the gifts that it brings. Salvation cannot be flung broadcast and indiscriminately upon all men of all sorts, whatever their relation to God. If it could, be sure that it would be. But just because it is a deep and inward thing, affect- ing men's moral and religious state, and not only their position in regard to some future hell, it cannot be given thus broadcast, it must be sown in the fitting places. The one thing that is requis- ite, and it is indispensably requisite, is that we shall trust Him who brings salvation, and, trusting Him, shall take it out of His hand. If the medicine stands on the shelf, in the bottle with the stopper in, the sick man will not be cured. That is not the fault of the medicine ; it is a panacea, but no remedy can work where it is not applied. This great ocean of the Divine love goes, as it were, feeling along the black cliffs that front it, for some cranny into which it may pour itself, but the obstinate rock can fling it all back in impotent spray. Though the whole Atlantic surges against the cliff, it is dry an inch inwards. Thus the universality of the gift, the universal potency of the gift, is not in the slightest degree affected by the fact that, where it is not taken, its benefits are not realized.