not that look very like a failure of the divine plan? If Christ gave
Himself for the sins of the world, would not the sins of the world be
put away? If He is called the Saviour of the world, is He so only in
name, and not in fact?

But clearly, all the world was not saved. Here was the dilemma. The
difficulty was, to square universal Atonement with partial salvation. So
the difficulty was solved by one party in adopting the theory of a
limited Atonement, and so that doctrine became a cardinal plank in the
Calvinistic theology. It could not be conceived of as a possibility that
God would make provision for the salvation of the whole world, and thus
express His desire for the salvation of the whole world, yet that His
provision and His desire should fail of their effect.

Surely this was right. But it was not right to ignore the plain teaching
of Scripture for the sake of building up any human system. It would have
been better to accept the clear statements of the word, contradictory
though they might appear, and trust that some day divine harmony would
be revealed.

That revelation has come now. The harmony consists in the fact that all
the world will be redeemed yet, in accordance with the provision that
God made for, and desires, such a consummation. The difference is, that
the operations of divine grace are not restricted to this short span of
time, as men supposed. But the time will come! Oh, yes; it will come! If
Christ tasted death for every man, He will save every man! Praise His
name forever! The very thought is enough to awaken our everlasting
songs!

Herein consists, as it seems to me, the weakness of the Methodist