The Problem of Religious Progress

r than to central truths, to the husk- rather than to the kernel; while some things once magnified are now minified, and others once in the background are now brought to the front. A purging process has been apparent in religious phraseology and never more so than at the present time. Great advances have been made in purifying and simplifying Christian doctrine and in developing fuller conceptions of the truth. Never, since the days of primitive Christianity, has the liberation from arbitrary systems been so complete; and never before has Christian truth stood upon conditions so favorable to the best .and most enduring influence. We have learned that no setting of the truth in systems of human construction can save it or make it effective. Truth, in its purest and simplest forms, is its own best conservator and advocate. Under Edwards, Hopkins, and the Andover and New Haven theologians successively, Calvinism has undergone great modifications. The thought of the age, and especially the Arminian theology, have continually warred against it, producing a widespread revulsion. The doctrine of the imputation of Adam's guilt to his posterity; the old Calvinistic view of depravity, which represented unregenerate men as just as bad as they can be, and capable of acting only in the direction of evil; and the theory that regeneration is effected by irresistible grace effectually calling and saving men, are only faintly shadowed in any of the writings of this ag...