did He express it? By giving his Son. Then He must have given His Son
for every soul of man. It would be no expression of His love for me to
give His Son for somebody else. But He loved me personally, and gave His
Son for me personally. Hence Paul could say: "He loved me, and gave
Himself for me." And so everyone of the human race may truly say.


A THEORY.

Generality here tends to confusion and mistakes. It has been too much
the habit to think and speak of God as giving His Son for the world, and
yet holding a reserved and unexpressed idea that He gave His Son only
for the saved. Such an idea is not often expressed publicly, and I
believe is not held heartily, But it is formally professed; it is theory
in a certain creed. Not only so, but it is felt that universal atonement
involves universal salvation; and that is an issue which in many cases
men are not prepared to accept In fact many plain statements of
Scripture are twisted and tortured out of their plain meaning,
apparently to avoid the issue of universal salvation.

But let universal salvation be once granted, and all difficulty
disappears. Then the plain statements of Scripture do not need to be
modified, or explained away. Then all may freely accept the corollary
that universal atonement involves universal salvation; only in a far
larger sense than believed heretofore. We take in eternity now, as well
as the small span of time. We begin to realize that the sweep of the
eternal years makes no difference in the divine love or the divine
purpose. In God's administration of the universe there may be good
reasons for saving some of our race in this life; and some in the next;
but the principle is the same; infinite wisdom, infinite power, and