The theme of the Gospel is a Savior, salvation through another. Its essence is the forgiveness of sins. This makes the Gospel the Gospel; and this beyond all comparison distinguishes it from every other religious system. Vain is the search through all the literature of the world for a parallel to the announcement that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Here, too, is the touchstone by which the genuineness and soundness of the various types of Christianity may be tested. So far as men ascribe salvation wholly to the grace of God they have the pure Gospel; so far as they admit any saving efficaciousness in human effort, works, or merits, they corrupt the true faith, they approximate heathenism.

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