Article December 4, 1909 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from R. J. Campbell

[Rev. R. J. Campbell, M.A., in Christian Commonwealth, London.]

I do not believe Jesus meant to say that he was not good when he asked the question, "Why callest thou me good?" I mean that the expression was no acknowledgment of sinfulness. He had another point of view, and was giving to the word "good" a wider connotation than it usually received. By the good he meant the fullest possible life, the highest conceivable excellence in everything, the ideal beauty, the light without shadow, the power that knows neither hindrance nor limitation, the blessedness to which nothing can be added and which has no change to fear. This is the good, and it is obvious at once that in this sense God alone is the good, for God is the one life that is all exhaustive and all inclusive, the infinite and eternal. The good in any other sense is but relative to this absolute ideal. The good in finite human life—either morally speaking or in anything else—is but a partial raying forth of the eternal. No one human being can express it all, even if he were to live a million years; he can but express or bring into manifestation, according to the measure of his opportunities, as many aspects as possible of a reality that knows no limits. In so far as he succeeds in doing this his life is good; in so far as he fails or comes short it is not good. In the absolute sense there is none good but God; in the relative sense all life is good in the degree that it expresses God.

[Western Christian Advocate.]

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