t whosoever believeth in
Him should not perish, but have eternal life."[9] Beneath all
differences of condition, of intellect, of culture, there is a common
soul which the Gospel reaches, and which nothing else in the same
manner reaches.

Now, in contrast to all this, the contents of any special theology
commend themselves to a comparatively few minds. And such hold as
they have over these minds is for the most part traditionary and
authoritative, not rational or intelligent. There can be no vital
experience of theological definitions, and no verification of them,
except in the few minds who have really examined them, and brought
them into the light of their own intelligence. This must always be
the work of a few--of what are called schools of thought, here and
there. It is only the judgment of the learned or thoughtful
theologian that is really of any value on a theological question.
Others may assent or dissent. He alone knows the conditions of the
question and its possible solution. Of all the absurdities that have
come from the confusion of religion and theology, none is more absurd
or more general than the idea that one opinion on a theological
question--any more than on a question of natural science--is as good
as another. The opinion of the ignorant, of the unthoughtful, of the
undisciplined in Christian learning, is simply of no value whatever
where the question involves--as it may be said every theological
question involves--knowledge, thought, and scholarship. The mere
necessity of such qualities for working the theological sphere, and
turning it to any account, places it quite apart from the religious
sphere. The one belongs to the common life of humanity, the other to
the school of the prophets. The one is for you and for me, and for
all human beings; the other is for the expert--the theologian--who
has weighed difficulties and who understands them, if he has not
solved them.

III. But again, religion differs from theology in the comparative
uniformity of its results. The ideal of religion is almost everywhere
the same. "To do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God."[10]
"Pure religion" (or pure religious service) "and undefiled, before God
and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their
affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."[11] Where
is it not always the true, even if not the prevalent type of religion,
to be good and pure, and to approve the things tha