There now appears in Augustine’s teaching the second centre around which the masses of his thought group themselves. This is his conception of the church in its authority and law. Here is the principle of universality――and historical universality――and it runs counter to the principle of spiritual individualism which his psychological analysis had built up. Augustine is just as vigorous a champion of the idea of the church as the means to salvation as he is champion of the individual certainty of truth. The two antithetical propositions lie together in his mind. As a pietist, he was an individualist; as a priest, he was a loyal subject to dogma. We have discussed his teaching as it centred about man; now the discussion centres about God as represented by His church. In practical life the will of man is important, but in the eternal life the central influence is the grace of God. Between the will of man and the grace of God there is a chasm. This is felt the more by Augustine, and the necessity of a God-centred doctrine seems the greater, when he beholds the contrast between the perfectness of God and the evil world of men. Evil now appears to him as a great stream flowing through the world. Humanity is by nature void of God. Theoretically man is free, but in the actual world he is chained to his senses and to sin. Adam, the first man, alone could have possessed freedom; but Adam in his freedom sinned, and his sin was that of the whole human race. Sin is therefore original to all men now living, and no man personally deserves salvation, however meritorious his conduct. Moreover, as the result of Adam’s sin, all men would be damned were it not for the grace of God. The God-man by death brought power to replenish empty humanity with divine love. Divine love is the beginning, middle, and end of salvation. Out of this love God has sent His Son and founded His church. Universal man died, and only universal man can save. Belief in Christ is the only means of salvation, yet belief in Christ comes only by God’s grace, and divine grace is not conditioned on human worthiness. Thus it is only by grace even now that man is saved; and no injustice would be done to men were all damned. On the other hand, divine justice demands that some men at least should be excluded from salvation in order that the punishment for Adam’s sin be permanently maintained. The choice of the favored ones depends entirely upon the unsearchable decree of God. These are elected as monuments of His loving grace, while the others are elected to be damned as monuments of His justice. The apparent calamity to the majority of mankind only shows the goodness of God the more. For, in the first place, evil is not positive like the good. It is only negative and primitive――the absence of the good. The condemnation of the wicked is therefore no defect in this theocratic system. In the second place, the wicked only receive justice, for the salvation of only a few is a