In Scripture and in Christian experience these extremes meet in harmony not in conflict as many commonly suppose. Hence we are exhorted, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Not man working apart from God, or God working apart from man, but both working together in the glorious harmony of the Christian life. God renewing, man willing and obeying.

Insistence on one extreme to the detriment of the other has led to the development of opposed and irreconcilable heresies. The one error taken to its logical conclusion merely states "Man did it," and begets the proud boast, "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." That is Arminianism. The other error merely states. "God did it" and so insists on the divine agency as to lose sight of the human, consequently denying moral responsibility and destroying human personality. That is Hyper-Calvinism. A theology or philosophy which is cramped within the bounds of finite human understanding concludes that either the one or the other is true. It is inadequate, both are true. God is sovereign, man is free. Calvinistic theology alone accepts both as whole truth, sees in either truth the necessary complement of the other, declares that in Christian experience there is such a close interrelation of divine grace and human action that man lays hold of the eternal life to which he is called.

Hence Paul's paradox "I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me: and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.'' He states, "I live,'' and "Christ lives," not one but both. This is not the submersion of human personality in God, but God dwelling in man. Christ in man and man in Christ. Not union with fusion of personality, but communion as Paul's will and life are conformed to Christ. Again Paul says, ''I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Here he denies neither God's grace, nor his own efforts, but strongly emphasises both. In every human act there is to be seen the concurrence of two wills, the purpose of God and the activity of man. But nowhere is this close yet mysterious harmony of life found to such a degree as in Christian experience, where men consciously do God's will. In our thinking we should never allow limited human intellect to alter this exquisite balance in the divine economy, by refusing to accept what we cannot fully explain. To reason we add faith. These things are both truths of Scripture and facts of Christian experience. Modern psychology has barely touched the surface much less plumbed the depths of that experience. This knowledge is too high for us but there is knowledge higher than human. God's thoughts are high as heaven above our thoughts. And so in faith we accept what human reason cannot fully analyse.

"Salvation is of the Lord," not of man. Yet man is the subject, not the object of salvation, is active not passive. God has approached man in gracious condescension since He sought our erring parents, in Eden as the evening closed on the first tragic day in human history. He still approaches and shall approach our wayward race till time merges into eternity. And this approach in every age quickens response in gracious hearts. He speaks "Seek ye my face" and "Thy face Lord I will seek." He quickens whom He will and the life imparted to the spiritually dead breaks the bonds of sin and issues in the perfect freedom of holy obedience. We willingly and gladly come to the Saviour as we are drawn by the Father. "A willing people shall come to Thee in the day of Thy power." We lay hold of eternal life to see the gate of the kingdom wide with welcome, and the superscription over the gate. "Whosoever will may come." We enter with the full consent of faculties renewed with spiritual life and glancing back see written on the inside "Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world." We realise that the faith that we consciously exercise is the gift of God.

"The salvation of the Lord standeth sure, having this seal, "The Lord knoweth them that are His and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." This thing is doubly sealed. Sealed within by the secret mystical seal stamped by God Himself, and visible only to the eyes of His eternal foreknowledge. Sealed without by the seal read and known of all men, the open profession of the Christian departing from iniquity. Where does the contradiction men conceive of occur in this? Is not the one seal the necessary complement of the other?

Not only in conversion do we see the intimate operation of divine grace in human life, but also in all Christian experience. With piercing spiritual insight, John Bunyan saw the truth, and presents it in describing the Pilgrim's experience in the House of the Interpreter. The flame could not be quenched though it was flooded with water. The secret of this strange fact lay behind the wall whence oil was constantly fed to the flame. It is a human fact that water added to burning oil extends not diminishes the flame. Even so Christian faith and piety are maintained, nay flourish, in the most unpromising environment and under the most adverse conditions.

"My soul follows hard after Thee; Thy right hand upholdeth me." The secret of David's holy abandon, of his incessant urge for God's presence and fellowship is there revealed. The hand of God which took him from the fearful pit upheld him constantly and established his goings. The supporting Saviour upholds the seeking and pursuing soul. "We love Him because He first loved us." Where is discord in this sweet language created as the Spirit of God weeps over the soul of man? How purblind the mind which denies the delicate balance of this wonderful thing.

The Church of Christ is founded on a rock and the gates of hell cannot prevail against her. Yet this rock, Peter's confession of Christ as the Son of God; given spontaneously with the full consent of his mind was not formulated by flesh and blood but revealed to him by the Father. The gates of hell breed resistence. "The righetous scarcely (or with difficulty) are saved," but saved they are because in the ultimate their salvation rests not on human effort, but on divine power. This life is a warfare, a fight, an agony of the most intensely spiritual nature engaging all the faculties of men; yet it is a demonstration and triumph of divine grace. We persevere, because preserved. We keep the faith, because ''kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation," "Tenco et teneor." Christian experience fills that old motto with meaning. "I hold and I am held." What an effort, but what an assurance!

See that weak creature oppressed with fears and doubts within assaulted by principalities and powers without, wayward in heart and tempted in life, struggling against overwhelming odds. Can he win through? By grace he can, more than conqueror through Christ who loved him. Into the depths of his unfathomable need flows the boundless tide of God's riches in glory by Christ. From the depths he cries, and from heaven the answer comes "My grace is sufficient for thee, my strength is made perfect in weakness." See that soul ascending the greatest heights of spritual attainment, mounting up with wings as an eagle, earth's fetters broken, heaven's glory opening. His strength is renewed by the Lord upon whom he waits. The things of Christ flash with glory into the enquiring mind, but it is the Holy Spirit who ministers them. In joy and sorrow, in seeming failure and glorious triumph with full personal consciousness the whole man is engaged in experiences intensely real and enforced; yet in and through all he is dependent on the enabling power of God. Without Him we can do nothing, with Him all things are possible.

In the texture of Christian life the threads of divine grace and human response are inextricably interwoven. Our Lord Jesus showed that with words of exceeding power and beauty. "My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." There is the call and the response, and the grace given that issue in glory. For as in life, so in death, as hereafter the good work which God has begun in our hearts shall be carried to endless perfection. One of Scotland's greatest saints ''struggled on towards heaven, 'gainst wind and storm and tide" but he went in at heaven's gate, to use his own rich phrase. "borrowing strength from Christ," went into ''the glory dwelling in Emmanuel's land." One of Scotland's profound thinkers, who danced for joy, in the personal consciousness of God, driven by restless spiritual urge cried "O that He may be mine and I His, and I His!" To hold and be held forever. Forever to apprehend that for which we have been apprehended. It shall be so, "I will be their God" is the eternal answer to their eternal desire, "They shall be my people." Christ rejoices evermore in His dearly bought possession as He sees the travail of His soul and is satisfied. The truth of complete fulfilment is not in the middle, nor in one extreme, but both extremes. "I will be their God and they shall be my people." "Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord."