Yet the experiences of later Jewish history made this contact between present and future increas- ingly dilficult to maintain. The old national prestige seemed gone, never to return. More and more, men despaired of present deliverance and concentrated their thoughts upon the future. The very barrenness of their present experience, tlie very absence of all evidence of God s present in- terest and help, served but to enlarge their ex- pectations for the distant day when J" should at last make bare His arm to help. What if indi viduals died ? what if Israel as a nation should perish ? God was able even to raise the dead. Some day He would stir the dry bones, and tlie nation would rise to newness of life (Ezk 37). Nay, He would call back from their graves the very individuals who had passed away, that they mi^ht share the joys of the final triumph (Is 26'", Dn 12'). Thus more and more the conception of sal vation becomes eschatological and transcendent. The gap between present and future widens. Be tween the present time of distress, without expert
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erne of God's redeemine grace, and the future age which brings His great aeliverance, there is a great gulf fixed.
This gulf Jesus bridged with His Gospel of a present Kingdom. He restored the older concep- tion of a living God, able and willing to help His children in their daily need. I5ut He saw that the great need was spiritual, not temporal. Conceiving of salvation as deliverance from sin. He taught that 6u<^h deliverance was possible here and now. Prophet and psalmist before Him had had their intimations of a coniiii'.inion with God possible e\en in the midst of present trouble and distress. He made tliis communion a familiar experience. Devout spirits even within the OT, finding out- ward i)rosperity too little, had prayed for a clean heart and a contrite spirit; He showed how this prayer could be answered. The influence of the \laster is apparent in the new view-point of the disciples. To the Christian believer, whatever his thought of the future, salvation is a present ex- perience, introducing a man into a fellowship with God which no earthlj' sorrow or misfortune — not even death itself — can interrupt.
And yet here, again, we must beware of exag- geration. However great the empliasis on present deliverance, to Christianity, as t« Judaism before it, salvation has its future meaning. We have noted the eschatological element in Jesus' own teaching. We have seen it repeated in that of His disciples. It is present in St. Paul ; it is not absent even from St. John. He, too, rejoicing in communion witli a present Christ, looks forward to a day when He shall be yet more fully mani- fested, and believers, seeing Him as He is, shall be transformed into His image (1 Jn 3-'). The very ,t)reciousnes8 of the present experience, the very exaltation of the spiritual standard, serve but to deepen the longing for the day wlien all that now impedes the progress of Christ's Kingdom shall be done away, and God be all in all.
2. Conditions of .salvation. — These may be con- Bidered on the Divine side and on the human.
(n) On the Divine side. — The ultimate cause of salvation is the Divine mercy. This is the uniform teaching of OT and NT. Whether in the simpler meaning of victory in battle or the more profound conception of spiritual regeneration, salvation is undesen-ed. (iod does not treat the Israelites according to their merits, but according to the riches of His grace. They were not more in num- bi'r than other peoples when He chose them for His own, and delivered them from their captivity in Egypt (Dt 7'). Kor His name's sake He saved them, that He might make His mighty power known (Ps 10(i', cf. Jer 14'). When they forsook Him and wandered from Him, Ho did not give them up. His lovo endured in spite of their un- faithfulness (Hosea). He was inquired of by tliem that asked not for Him, found of them that sought Him not. He spread out His hands all the day unto a rebellious peojile (Is 65'- ''). Even His judg- ments are a marlv of His love (Am ;!-'). Not only the deliverance from enemies, but the repentance which makes it [lossible is His gift (Ps 51'"). * The same conception reappears in the NT. God U not the stern creditor exacting the uttermost farthing, but the loving Father, forgiving His erring children ; more reiuly to give good gifts than earthly jiarcnts to their cliildren. The disciples did not choose Christ, but Ho chose them and appointed them that they should go and bear fruit, and that their fruit should abide (Jn 15'"). The more profound and spiritual the conception of sal- vation, the deeper the conviction that it is unde- served. ' By grace have ye been saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God' (Eph 2»).
In many passages indeed, esp. in OT, the Divine mercy is represented as an arbitrary thing. Not only IS the deliverance of God contrasted as purely miraculous with all human instrumentalities (cl. 1 S 14" ' no restraint to J " to save by nianj' or by few'; Is 59' ' J "s hand is not shortened that it cannot save'; 1 S XT'" 'J"saveth not with sword and spear ' ; Hos 1' salvation by J" contrasted with salvation by bow or by sword, or by battle, etc. ; cf. Ex 14" the deliverance from Egypit ; Jg 7^ the defeat of the Midianites by Gideon ; Ps 33" 44' 57'), but it often seems dependent upon moods of the Divine feeling which man cannot fathom. There are times when J" may be ap- proached ; there are others when no man may draw nigh to Him (I's 32", cf. Is 55''). When the great waters overflow, prayer cannot reach Him (Ps 32^?). At such a time the part of wisdom is to wait patiently until His anger be past. But on tlie whole we find an increasing emphasis upon the