proclaim the need and possibility of a radical change in life. So full of hope was He for man that He despaired of none, not even of those who had most grievously failed, or most utterly turned their back on purity. The parables in the Third Gospel of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son lay emphasis upon the possibility of recovery, and, in the case of the prodigal, specially on the ability to return for those who have gone astray. The teaching of Scripture implies that while God is the source of all spiritual good, and divine grace must be present with and precede all rightful action of the human will, it rests with man to respond to the divine love. No human soul is left destitute of the visiting of God's spirit, and however rudimentary the moral life may be, no bounds can be set to the growth which may, and which God intends should, result wherever the human will is consentient. While, therefore, no man can claim merit in the sight of God, but must acknowledge his absolute dependency upon divine grace, no one can escape loss or blame if he wilfully frustrates God's design of mercy. Whatever mystery may attend the subject of God's sovereign grace, the Bible never presents it as negating the entire freedom of man to give or withhold response to the gift and leading of the divine spirit. In the deepest New Testament sense to be free is to have the power of acting according to one's true nature. A man's ideal is his true self, and all short of that is for him a limitation of freedom. Inasmuch as no ideal is ever completely realised, true freedom is not so much a possession as a progressive appropriation. It is at once a gift and a task. It contains the twofold idea of emancipation {96} and submission. Mere deliverance from the lower self is not liberty. Freedom must be completed by the appropriation of the higher self and the acceptance of the obligations which that self involves. It is to be acquired through submission to the truth. 'Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' A man is never so free as when he is the bondsman of Christ. The saying of St. Paul sums up the secret and essence of all true freedom: 'The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.' [1] Mach, _Erkenntniss und Irrtum_. Vorwort. See also _Die Analyse der Empfindungen_, p. 20. 'Das Sich ist unrettbar,' he says. [2] Cf. W. Schmidt, _Der Kampf um die Seele_, p. 13. [3] Cf. Eucken. [4] Cf. Wallace, _Logic of Hegel, Proleg._, p. 233. [5] Wallace, _Idem_, p. 235. Cf. Aristotle's wise man whose conduct is not _kata logon_ but _meta logon_. [6] _Proleg._, section 108. [7] _The Will to Believe_, p. 154. [8] _The italics are ours_. [9] _Creative Evolution_ (Eng. trans.), p. 252. [10] _Idem_, p. 265. [11] Cf. Morris, _Lects. on Art_, p. 195; Bosanquet, _Hist. of Aesthetic_, p. 445; also _Individuality and Value_, p. 166. [12] _Life's Basis and Life's Ideals_, p. 181 f.