Kerson is only inasmuch as he is living, growing. Ian is, as he lives in God ; and his capture ** and surrender are achieved not in a thing but in a person, and not to a thing but to the One Person, whose right to claim him and renew his life con- sists precisely in this, that He is Himself absolutely, infinitely, and actually what man is derivatively, finitely, and potentially. Thus the act which binds man to God does so for growth and enhancement of life. All that comes from the living God is worked out by living souls, and is ever living and enlivening ; it is as varied and individual as the variety of individuals concerned.
The apostles were Hebraic, and no true Hebrew could misinterpret this. To the Fathers it was so
• 2 Co 5". GaUeiB. t Rev 211. o. j Ac 2024.
§ Cf . art. • Personality and Grace,' v., by J. Oman in Expositor, Sthser. iii. [1912] 468 fl.
I Cf. St. Paul'3 ' baptism with Christ ' (Ro 6*, Col 2i2). Cf. for the idea, art. 'St. Paul and the Mystery-Relifjions,' m., by H. A. A. Kennedy, In Expositor, 8th ser. iv. [1912] 60 fl.
H This criticism does not apply to mystical piety or evangelical.
*• It is a seizing by God as well as a yieldiiig by man, 'appre- henaion ' on both sides (Ph 3i2).
familiar. The covenant-relation was tho central truth of their religion. Its very essence was this inutualness of religious communion. Vital godli- ness hinged on two realities — the Divine Being willing to be gracious, and the no less ready response man must make to Him. For God and man to come together, both must be individually active. To God's willingness to help, man comes with his willingness to be helped. To God's desire to forgive, man conies with a penitent mind. By mutual love, the love of God to man meeting the love of man to God, the two are reconciled. Com- plete surrender (religion) brings with it growing individuality and independence (morality). Herein, further, let us note, rests the explanation of two conspicuous facts in the life of grace — the fact, viz., that the inspiration of grace is neither infallible nor irresistible ; * and the fact of the splendid out- burst of fresh forms of goodness. The Clmrch in her materialistic moods has been prone to forget both. The Apostolic Age is so rich spiritually just because so sensible of both. 'We have this treasure in earthen vessels ' is the precise counter- part of the psalmist's ' the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.' It is never forgotten that while the Divine Life is the milieu of the human, the human is the medium of the Divine, its assimi- lative capacity adequate only to the present need, not to the ultimate reality ; t while its readiness to receive is never in vain in any event or circum- stance or relation of life. The human spirit may appropriate only within limits ; but the indefinite variety of limits alone bounds the operation of grace. Grace is all-sufficient ; the * fruits of the Spirit ' correspond to its plenitude.
2. Specific redemptive content. — In seeking to analyze the contents of grace, we have no lack of material. What grace is is to be seen in the spiritual personality it produces. The Apostolic Letters furnish a complete, typical description, of rare intensity and lucidity, of two such personalities of the loftiest order — St. Paul and St. John, and we possess abundant parallel records of Christian sanctity of every later age, to verify our conclu- sions. The letters are not so much doctrinal systems as a sort of journal intime of soaring, searching spirits : autobiographies of spirit, ' confessions ' of what the writers saw and heard and knew of ' the mystery of Christ.' J As Christ 'witnessed' of Himself, the apostles 'witness' of Christ. Their witness is oftered in two distinct types — the pre- dominantly ethical and the predominantly con- templative— neither of which has ever failed to recur constantly in subsequent history. It may therefore be taken as comprehensive and normative. It is, moreover, offered with a minimum reference to the material through which it has operated — the psycho-physical organism and temperament in which the gracious working has developed itself.§ The scattblding has been taken down, and the building is disclosed unencumbered with immaterial detail. From that fact we may trust in the apos- tles' balance of mind and credibility, since the very richness of their spiritual vision points to an unusually large subconscious life of ' the natural man' and its insurgent impulses, not easy to subdue, yet whicli, instead of dominating, is so exquisitely kept in place as to become a chief instrument and material of their life's worth and works. Regarding our data in this light, what do
• See art. Perseverance.
t Cf. a sermon by Phillips Brooks, 'The Candle of the Lord* (The Candle of the Lord and Other Sennons, 1881).
t The recent extensive literature devoted to the study of the apostles' teaching^ has for main result to cast into bolder relief the splendid spiritual stature of, next to Christ, the two great figures, St. Paul and St. John.
§ Hints occur in St. Paul's writings (Ro 7^ 121, l Oo 8", 2 Co 187-8 122).