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god the invisible king-第26章

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upon every  ordained priest and minister as his first act of faith。  Once that  he has truly realised God; it becomes impossible for him ever to  repeat his creed again。  His course seems plain and clear。  It  becomes him to stand up before the flock he has led in error; and to  proclaim the being and nature of the one true God。  He must be  explicit to the utmost of his powers。  Then he may await his  expulsion。  It may be doubted whether it is sufficient for him to go  away silently; making false excuses or none at all for his retreat。   He has to atone for the implicit acquiescences of his conforming  years。

10。 THE UNIVERSALISM OF GOD

Are any sorts of people shut off as if by inherent necessity from  God? This is; so to speak; one of the standing questions of theology; it  reappears with slight changes of form at every period of religious  interest; it is for example the chief issue between the Arminian and  the Calvinist。  From its very opening proposition modern religion  sweeps past and far ahead of the old Arminian teachings of Wesleyans  and Methodists; in its insistence upon the entirely finite nature of  God。  Arminians seem merely to have insisted that God has  conditioned himself; and by his own free act left men free to accept  or reject salvation。  To the realist type of mindhere as always I  use 〃realist〃 in its proper sense as the opposite of nominalistto  the old…fashioned; over…exact and over…accentuating type of mind;  such ways of thinking seem vague and unsatisfying。  Just as it  distresses the more downright kind of intelligence with a feeling of  disloyalty to admit that God is not Almighty; so it troubles the  same sort of intelligence to hear that there is no clear line to be  drawn between the saved and the lost。  Realists like an exclusive  flavour in their faith。  Moreover; it is a natural weakness of  humanity to be forced into extreme positions by argument。  It is  probable; as I have already suggested; that the absolute attributes  of God were forced upon Christianity under the stresses of  propaganda; and it is probable that the theory of a super…human  obstinancy beyond salvation arose out of the irritations natural to  theological debate。  It is but a step from the realisation that  there are people absolutely unable or absolutely unwilling to see  God as we see him; to the conviction that they are therefore shut  off from God by an invincible soul blindness。 It is very easy to believe that other people are essentially damned。 Beyond the little world of our sympathies and comprehension there  are those who seem inaccessible to God by any means within our  experience。  They are people answering to the 〃hard…hearted;〃 to the  〃stiff…necked generation〃 of the Hebrew prophets。  They betray and  even confess to standards that seem hopelessly base to us。  They  show themselves incapable of any disinterested enthusiasm for beauty  or truth or goodness。  They are altogether remote from intelligent  sacrifice。  To every test they betray vileness of texture; they are  mean; cold; wicked。  There are people who seem to cheat with a  private self…approval; who are ever ready to do harsh and cruel  things; whose use for social feeling is the malignant boycott; and  for prosperity; monopolisation and humiliating display; who seize  upon religion and turn it into persecution; and upon beauty to  torment it on the altars of some joyless vice。  We cannot do with  such souls; we have no use for them; and it is very easy indeed to  step from that persuasion to the belief that God has no use for  them。 And besides these base people there are the stupid people and the  people with minds so poor in texture that they cannot even grasp the  few broad and simple ideas that seem necessary to the salvation we  experience; who lapse helplessly into fetishistic and fearful  conceptions of God; and are apparently quite incapable of  distinguishing between what is practically and what is spiritually  good。 It is an easy thing to conclude that the only way to God is our way  to God; that he is the privilege of a finer and better sort to which  we of course belong; that he is no more the God of the card…sharper  or the pickpocket or the 〃smart〃 woman or the loan…monger or the  village oaf than he is of the swine in the sty。  But are we  justified in thus limiting God to the measure of our moral and  intellectual understandings?  Because some people seem to me  steadfastly and consistently base or hopelessly and incurably dull  and confused; does it follow that there are not phases; albeit I  have never chanced to see them; of exaltation in the one case and  illumination in the other?  And may I not be a little restricting my  perception of Good?  While I have been ready enough to pronounce  this or that person as being; so far as I was concerned; thoroughly  damnable or utterly dull; I find a curious reluctance to admit the  general proposition which is necessary for these instances。  It is  possible that the difference between Arminian and Calvinist is a  difference of essential intellectual temperament rather than of  theoretical conviction。  I am temperamentally Arminian as I am  temperamentally Nominalist。  I feel that it must be in the nature of  God to attempt all souls。  There must be accessibilities I can only  suspect; and accessibilities of which I know nothing。 Yet here is a consideration pointing rather the other way。  If you  think; as you must think; that you yourself can be lost to God and  damned; then I cannot see how you can avoid thinking that other  people can be damned。  But that is not to believe that there are  people damned at the outset by their moral and intellectual  insufficiency; that is not to make out that there is a class of  essential and incurable spiritual defectives。  The religious life  preceded clear religious understanding and extends far beyond its  range。 In my own case I perceive that in spite of the value I attach to  true belief; the reality of religion is not an intellectual thing。   The essential religious fact is in another than the mental sphere。   I am passionately anxious to have the idea of God clear in my own  mind; and to make my beliefs plain and clear to other people; and  particularly to other people who may seem to be feeling with me; I  do perceive that error is evil if only because a faith based on  confused conceptions and partial understandings may suffer  irreparable injury through the collapse of its substratum of ideas。   I doubt if faith can be complete and enduring if it is not secured  by the definite knowledge of the true God。  Yet I have also to admit  that I find the form of my own religious emotion paralleled by  people with whom I have no intellectual sympathy and no agreement in  phrase or formula at all。 There is for example this practical identity of religious feeling  and this discrepancy of interpretation between such an inquirer as  myself and a convert of the Salvation Army。  Here; clothing itself  in phrases and images of barbaric sacrifice; of slaughtered lambs  and fountains of precious blood; a most repulsive and  incomprehensible idiom to me; and expressing itself by shouts;  clangour; trumpeting; gesticulations; and rhythmic pacings that st
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