We shall only understand the ground of the revealing and of the
hiding if we understand what it is which is offered. It is of such a
nature as necessarily to involve a twofold effect, caused by a
twofold attitude towards it.
1. The Gospel addresses itself to all men--man as man--not to what
is sectional or accidental, not to classes, not to schools, not to
the _élite_. It is broad and universal. It speaks no dialect of
a province, but the universal language. It is addressed to Man as
Man. 'We have all of us one human heart.' It appeals to the noble
and the peasant, to the beggar on the dunghill and to the prince on
his throne, in precisely the same fashion. It is equal as the
providence of God, impartial as the light, universal as the air
which reddens equally the blood that flows in long-descended veins
and that of the foundling on the streets. In its sublime
universality there are no distinctions. Death and the Gospel know no
ranks. In both, 'the rich and the poor meet together, the Lord is
the Maker of them all.' 'In Christ Jesus there is neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision.' The blue sky which bends above all
alike is like that great word.