very conception of human freedom involves the possibility of its permanent misuse, of what our Lord Himself calls ‘eternal sin.’” If a man can go on successfully resisting Divine grace in this life, what reason have we for supposing that it would suddenly become irresistible in another life?  Build what we may on the unrevealed mercies of the future for them that live and die in the darkness of ignorance, let us build nothing for ourselves who are shutting our eyes and closing our hearts to the Divine light and love which are already ours.

* * * * *

“Behold, then, the goodness and severity of God;” and may His goodness lead us to repentance, that His severity we may never know.  This is, indeed, His will for every one of us:  He has “appointed us not unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  If we are lost we are suicides.

THE END

Footnote 1:  J. Stalker, The Christology of Jesus, p. 23, footnote.

Footnote 2:  “The sources for our knowledge of the actual teaching of Jesus do not lie merely in the Gospel accounts, but also in the literature of the apostolic age, especially in the Epistles of Paul....  Even had no direct accounts about Jesus been handed down to us, we should still possess, in the apostolic literature, a perfectly valid testimony to the historical existence and epoch-making significance of Jesus as a teacher.”—­H.H.  Wendt, Teaching of Jesus, vol. i, p. 28.

Footnote 3:  What is Christianity? p. 20.

Footnote 4:  Three Essays on Religion, p. 253.

Footnote 5:  Literature and Dogma, p. 10.

Footnote 6:  See Harnack’s What is Christianity? p. 4.

Footnote 7:  See A.S.  Peake’s Guide to Biblical Study, p. 244.

Footnote 8:  Thoughts on Religion, p. 157.

Footnote 9:  The Kingdom of God, p. 50.

Footnote 10:  “Christian apologists,” says Dr. Sanday, “have often done scant justice to the intensity of this [monotheistic] faith, which was utterly disinterested and capable of magnificent self-sacrifice.”—­Art.  “God,” Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, vol. ii, p. 205.

Footnote 11:  See R.F.  Horton’s Teaching of Jesus, p. 59.

Footnote 12:  A.M.  Fairbairn, Christ in Modern Theology, p. 244.

Footnote 13:  On the subject of this chapter see especially G.B.  Stevens’ Theology of the New Testament, chap. vi.

Footnote 14:  Christian Doctrine, p. 77.

Footnote 15:  Bishop Gore, Bampton Lectures, 1891, p. 13.

Footnote 16:  J. Denney, Studies in Theology, p. 25.

Footnote 17:  For an admirable statement of the argument of this paragraph see D.W.  Forrest’s Christ of History and experience, chap. i. and note 4, p. 385.