[Gutenberg 52646] • The Breadth, Freeness, and Yet Exclusiveness of the Gospel

THE subject has, I presume, been chosen for our discussion, in order to meet the aspersions of those who claim for their own system the merit of breadth, comprehensiveness, and large-heartedness, while they speak of our Gospel as the narrow-minded theology of a body of men whose contracted intellects are so cramped and stunted that they are unable to take in the broad views of the nineteenth century. Such persons consider themselves broad, and us narrow; and their teaching to be characterized by largeness, ours by narrowness; theirs by generosity, ours by bigotry; theirs by comprehensive philanthropy, ours by an exclusive interest in a small section of the human family.