ARBITRARY CHANNELS OF GRACE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—In the manifesto of the " vague Christians," as quoted in the Spectator of March 15th, I note the following (the
italics are mine) :—" God is manifest not in the arbitrary selection of individuals or nations as channels of grace."
Probably all the signers of the manifesto call themselves believers in evolution ; yet they here show themselves ignorant or forgetful of the most certain of Darwin's teachings,— namely, that, as stated on the title-page of his great work, organic progress is due to the natural selection of the favoured races, through the agency of the struggle for existence. It is a commonplace of historical philosophy that all historical progress is due to minorities, and originates with a few ; Darwin has shown the same to be true of organic progress ; the entire history of religion, both before and since the coming of Christ, shows it to be true of spiritual progress,—yet Mr. Stopford Brooke and his allies begin their work by denying this, and substituting a vague faith in a kind of tidal rise of religious sentiment, acting on all together.
What is called the " doctrine of election " is a " natural law in the spiritual world " no less than in the organic : it has got a limited and false meaning in systematic theology ; but in the Old and New Testaments it means that when God has a purpose of good to mankind, he effects it through favoured individuals and races.—I am, Sir,
Previous page
