Transcribed from the [1865] William Hunt and Company edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org THE BREADTH, FREENESS, AND Yet Exclusiveness of the Gospel. * * * * * BY THE REV. EDWARD HOARE, M.A., _Incumbent of Trinity Church_, _Tunbridge Wells_. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * LONDON: WILLIAM HUNT AND COMPANY, 23, HOLLES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE. IPSWICH: WILLIAM HUNT. THE BREADTH, FREENESS, AND YET EXCLUSIVENESS OF THE GOSPEL. JOHN III. 16. THE subject has, I presume, been chosen for our discussion, in order to meet the aspersions of those who claim for their own system the merit of breadth, comprehensiveness, and large-heartedness, while they speak of our Gospel as the narrow-minded theology of a body of men whose contracted intellects are so cramped and stunted that they are unable to take in the broad views of the nineteenth century. Such persons consider themselves broad, and us narrow; and their teaching to be characterized by largeness, ours by narrowness; theirs by generosity, ours by bigotry; theirs by comprehensive philanthropy, ours by an exclusive interest in a small section of the human family. Now there is something very noble in broad, large, and comprehensive views of the dealings and character of God, and something, on the other hand, exceedingly repulsive in any disposition to contract God’s message, or to half close the door which God has opened wide for the world. And, more than that, there is something so grand in the magnificence of creation, that we cannot be surprised if our judgment naturally decides in favour of that which claims to be the broader view of the religious government of God. We fully acknowledge therefore the attractiveness and persuasiveness of breadth, and are fully prepared to admit that the broad has much more to commend it than the narrow, and that the probability of truth lies on the side of the broadest, the widest, the freest message.