(6) Salvation as individual and social. — In the earlier portions of the OT, the subject of the Divine salvation is Israel the nation. It is charac- teristic of primitive society that it has small regard for the individual as sucli. It is the tribe, tlie clan, the nation which is the centre of the religious as of the social life. So markedly is tliis the case that the action of Ruth in leaving her own people to follow he' iUother-in-law Naomi to Canaan is the cause of wonder, and is made the theme of an entire book. It is only natural, tlierefore, that we should find the interest of the Biblical writers centring in the fortunes of the people as a whole rather than in the units which compose it. Even where the outlook broadens, and the prophetic vision takes in other peoples, the point of view is still national. It is Egypt and Assyria whom the prophet sees standing with Israel as recipients of the Divine salvation, to wliom, as to Israel, J" applies the endearing title, 'my people' (Is 1&"-^). Where this point of view obtains, it is impossible to rise to any true universalism. For a universal religion must be founded in the nature of man as such, and for this tliere is needed a profound sense of the worth of the individual.
We have seen how this sen.se awakens in Jere- miali and Ezekiel ; how it is deepened by the experiences of the Exile and the Restoration. We have noted the tender and beautiful utterances in which it finds expression in the I'salms, and seen how its later development tended to follow the lines of legal conformity rather than of the fdial spirit. The individualism of the Apocalyptic books is the individualism of the law-court or the market - place rather than of the family. Its language is that of bargain and sale, of reward and punishment. There is indeed no theoretical objection to the reception of the Gentiles, if they will adopt the ceremonial law and become Jews. But there is the immense practical ditliculty of a condition laid upon strangers which even the children have not been able to bear. If the sal- vation of God is really to become a universal good, some deeper foundation must be found than that of ceremonial law. It must be grounded in con- ditions that are vital, not legal.
Such a foundation Jesns laid in His teaching
concerning the childlike spirit. Reviving the old prophetic teaching concerning the forgiveness of sins through the mercy and love of God, He laid a basis for His Gospel as broad as humanity. Men are not servants, with wliom God deals on terms of law, but sons, whom He is willing to receive, whenever they turn to Him in penitence and faith. Thus the Gospel of Jesus is founded in an intense sense of the worth of the individual. In the family each child has his peculiar place. To Jesus, salvation means the bringing back of the child who has been wandering in the far country into the plenty and peace of the Father's home.
And yet the Gospel of Jesns is a social Gospel. It is a Kingdom which He preaches, not a collection of individuals. His teaching difi'ers from that of His predecessors only in that He makes the con- ditions of entrance broader, simpler, more catholic — in a word, more human. Whether or not He used the word Church in Mt 16'*, there can be no doubt that He intended to found a society which should body forth to the world the principles for which He stood. In this respect the Pauline doctrine of the Church is the legitimate outgrowth of the teaching of Jesus concerning the Kingdom. In the Christian life none liveth to himself and no one dieth to himself (Ro 14'). The sacramental sign which marks the separation of the believer from the world marks also his entrance into the Christian brotherhood, and the feast by which he shows forth the death of Christ until He come is eaten with his fellow-disciples as a communion meal. The social character of the Christian life is indi- cated in a thousand unexpected ways, but perhaps nowhere more beautifully than in the Pauline word about the Parousia in 1 Th 4"- '* ' We that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep . . . wherefore comfort one another with these words.'
(c) Salvation as present and future. — We have seen that the earliest conception of salvation is present deliverance. This must be the case if death ends all. If God do not save while life lasts. He cannot save at all. The conception of national salvation does indeed open the way for a wider perspective. The life of the nation is longer than that of the individual, and God may delay His deliverance more than a single genera- tion and still be in time. Yet the point of riew is fundamentally the same. If God's succour is not to be in vain, it must come before the nation utterly perishes. There must be at least a remnant to carry on the national life, a shoot left in the old stock, which may spring up to newness of life (cf. Is 6'").