From the two 9et« of data provided by the Synoptista and St. John, it is possible to attain c^aite* a clear insif^'ht into the conception oi predestination as it lay in our Lord's teach- ini;. It is quit( certain, for example, that there is no place in this teachiin; for a ' predestination ' that is carefully adjusted to the foreseen performances of the creature : and as little for a 'decree' which may be frustrated by creaturely action, or an ' election ' which is ffiven elVect only by the creaturely choice : to our Lord the Vather is the omnipotent Lord of heaven and earth, according to whose pleasure all tliin^cs are ordered, and who jrives the Kinj^dom to whom He will (Lk 123J, silt ii«, Lk 10-1). Certainly it is the very heart of our Lord's teaching that the Father's good pleasure is a gwd pleasure, ethically riglit, and the issue of infinite love ; the very name of Father as the name of God by preference on His lips is full of this conception ; but the very nerve of this teaching is, that the Father s will is all-embracing and omnip- otent. It is only therefore that His children need be careful for nothing, that the little fiock need not fear, that His elect may be assured that none of them shall be lost, but all that the Father lias jriveii Him shall be raised up at the l:ist day. And if thus the elective purpose of the Father cannot fail of its end, neither is it possiVilc to find this end in anything less than 'salvation' in the highest sense, than entrance into that eternal life to communicate which to <iying men our Lord came into tiie worl(L There are elections to other ends, to be sure, spoken of; notably there is the election of the apostles to their otiice (Lk O's, Jn C"0) ; and Christ Himself is conceived as especially God's elect one, iiecause no one has the service to render wliich He has (Lk 9» 23^). But the elect, by way of eminence: 'the elect whom God elected,' for whose sake He governs all history (Mk IS™); the elect of whom it was the will of Him who sent the Son, that of all that He gave Him He should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last d.ay (Jn (P'J) ; the elect whom the Son of .Man shall at the last day- gather from the four winds, from the uttermost parts of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven (.Mk 1327) ; it would be in- adequate to 8uppo.se that these are elected merely to opportuni- ties or tile means of grace, on their free cultivation of which shall depend their undecided destiny ; or merely to the service of their fellow-men, as agents in God's beneficent plan for the salvation of the race. Of course this election is to privileges and means of grace ; and without these the great end of the election would not be attained: for the 'election' is given effect only by the 'call,' and manifests itself only in faith and the holy Ufe. Equally of course the elect are 'the salt of tlie earth' and 'the light of the world,' the few through whom the many are blessed ; the eternal life to which they are elected does not consist in or with the silence and coldness of death, but only in and with the intensest activities of the conquering people of God. But the prime end of their election does not lie in these things, and to pKace exclusive stress upon them is certainly to gather in the mint and anise and cummin of the doctrine. That to which God's elect are elected is, according to the teaching of Jesus, all that is included in the idea of the Kingdom of God, in the idea of eternal life, in the idea of fellowship with Christ, in the idea of participation in the glory which the Father has given His Son. Their choice, and the whole development of their history, according to our Lord's teaching, is the loN-ing work of the Father: and in His keeping also is the consummation of their bliss. Their segrega- tion, of c.'urse, leaves others not elected, to whom none of their privileges are granted ; from whom none of their services are expected ; with whom their (glorious destiny is not shared. This, too, is of God. But this side of the matter, in accordance with Jesus' mission in the world as Saviour rather than as Judge, is less dwelt upon. In the case of neither class, that of the elect as little as that of those that are without, are the purposes of God wrought out without the co-operation of the activities of the subjects ; but in neither case is the decisive factor supplied by these, but is discoverable solely in the will uf God anil the consonant will of the Son. The ' even so, Father • (or so it seemed good in thy sight' (Mt 1126, Lk lo^i), is to our Lord, at least, an all. sufficient theodicy in the face of all God's diverse dealings with men.
2. The Teaching of the Disciples.— The disciples of Jesus continue His teachin',' in all its elements. We are conscious, for exaniiik-, of entering no new atmosphere wlien we pass to the Epistle of James. St. James, too, finds his starting-point, in a profound apprehension of the exaltation and perfection of God,— delining God's nature, indeed, with a phrase that merely repeats in other words the penetrating declar.'Uion that ' Ood is light' (1 Jn I''), wliich" reflecting our Lord's teaching, sounds tlie keynote of the heloved di.sciple's thought of God (Ja 1"), — and particularly in a keen sense of dependence on God (4" 5'), to which it was an axiom that every good thing is a gift from Ilim (1"). Accordingly, salvation, the pre-eminent good, comes purely as His ^ift, and can be ascribed only to His will (1") ; and its exclusively Divine origin is indicated by the choice tliat is made of those wlio receive it — not the rich and prosperous, who have somewhat