e literally and grandly true. After this he may go on
believing all kinds of things about verbal inspiration, the precious
blood, the fate of the impenitent, and I know not what else, but the
quality of the new life is always the same; it is dominated by the
spirit of love instead of the spirit of selfishness; it is harmony with
God. Often this change is very complete and beautiful, but in every
case it involves a long and slow ascent to the stature of the perfect
man in Christ Jesus. It is no delusion, either, that in the endeavour
to live the new life divine help is forthcoming. The Holy Spirit of
truth and love is ever present with a child of God to guide him to
higher and ever higher heights of spiritual attainment. Without this
blessed religious experience, the experience of those who are "called
to be saints," this world would be a poor place to live in. I may
perhaps be pardoned for adding that in my judgment even the earnest
redemptive endeavours of men like the editor of the _Clarion_ have
indirectly been made possible by it. Take out of the world what
Christian saints have owed to their fellowship with Jesus, and there
would be very little of hope and inspiration left. Still, what I want
to emphasise here is the fact that, however crude the various
theologies may have been in which this experience has clothed itself,
it is always the same; it represents the victory of love in the human
heart.

+Salvation and penalty.+--But does this kind of salvation do away with
the penal consequences of past sin? If not, what is its relation to
them? To answer these questions we must look a little more closely
into the nature of such penal consequences. Perhaps it would help to
clear up the subject if I were to say frankly before going any farther
that there is no such thing as punishment, no far-off Judgment Day, no
great white throne, and no Judge external to ourselves. I say there is
no punishment of sin in the sense in which the word "punishment" is
usually employed. We are accustomed to think of punishment as a
sentence imposed by some authority from without and containing within
itself some element of vengeance for wrong-doing. But in the divine
dealings with men such punishment has never existed and never will.
What has already been said in a previous chapter on the subject of pain
should help to make this statement plain. We have seen that pain is
life pressing upon death and death resisting life. If