^i^^.
\^^-^-
J^ *-
IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)
7
^
/
o
,.**>.
{/^
1.0
I.I
il.25
32
Jib
us
1^
ilM
1.8
1.4 IIIIIL6
"/}
%
/.
oi
^3
^%^^
^^J^
V
o
7
//a
^C
Sciences
Corporation
23 WKST MAIN STREET
WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580
(716) 872-4503
\
(V
4^
^9)
\
AS-
.M,
'
that time you will live in the present and no longer in the past.
No longer will you inquire what was true or untrue, yescerday^
or yesterday a week, or yesterday a twelvemonth. Forgetting
the things that are behind, you will live where Paul lived — in
(lod's golden, everlasting now — "the life which I ;/07f' live ii\
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave Himself for me."
But why has not Ciod made things so clear that men cannot
object ? For several reasons.
I. The nature of truth, of all truth, exposes it to objection.
Truth always involves more than appears on the surface. The
Indian savage who lies upon his back beneath the starlit heavens
fancies that the sky above him is a broad blue blanket, and
those stars, gilt spangles loosely scattered over it. To La Pjace
or Herschell the same heavens are depths of infinite
space crowded with rolling worlds, each one of which de-
scribes an exact mathematical circle — each one of which is
subordinate — satellite to ])lanet, planet to sun, and sun to far-
binding Pleiad. Now to this scheme of La Place and Her-
schell, the savage would have many objections. In contrast
with his first untutored impression,how would it be possible for
him to prefer the slow results of calculation and the minute re-
ports which come to him through the lenses of the telescope ?
Precisely so is it with the Bible, that heaven of the moral
universe. Like the savage, men look upon its statements as a
congeries of isolated truths, confused, conflicting, contradictory,
scattered over the 900 pages less or more of this book. The
idea that there is a system here — that that system lies open to
investigation — that it can be measured in all its expanses and
fixed in all its details, and that in the line of patient discovery
each truth falls into place and marches in the orbit of undeviat-
•\
«' Sf:' '
I
mi h
ti
,'
•
6 THE ATONEMENT.
ing purpose around the central and all-dominating thought of
Oodjisan idea which ignorant, hasty and unthoughtful men have
overlooked, and yet, if (jod be like Himself, and if the (lod of
the universe be the (lod of the Bible, what other thing can be?
You must either consent to investigate — to use the mind that (lod
has given you upon the things of God — patiently to learn in a
*' comparison of spiritual things with spiritual," or else, my
brother, like the untutored savage, your independent and undis-
ciplined free thought will check you at the threshold of moral
advancement and bar you from the knowledge of what God is
forever. But,
2. The nature of fallen man prevents God from making
things so clear to him that he cannot object.
The nature of fallen man is opposed to (iod; and that opposi-
tion lies in the /////ai to begin with. It is the carnal Mind that
is enmity against (iod. Do you know anything from experi-
ence of the difficulty of stating yourself to men who dislike you,
who have prejudged you and whose interest it is to make you
out wrong ? That is the difficulty, on an infinite scale, which
(iod has to contend with. God is right, and He must put
Himself right. But that puts the sinner wrong and then the
sinner must justify himself. It has been truly said to be "a
law of man's intelligent nature that when accused of wrong
either by conscience, or by some other agent, he must either
confess or justify." The latter is the sinner's alternativj. This
is the reason why he has so many objections and why he
flies from one to another, as if the aggregate of his objections
would make up for the intrinsic weakness of each. Alas! be-
hind all this dishonesty, behind all this evasion there is that
which nothing but the touch and the renewal of the Holy
Ghost can cure — the inveterate opposition of the man to (iod.
All objections to the Christian system are, in the last ana-
lysis, objections to the doctrine of vicarious atonement. Hence
the pertinency of the question, " What think ye of Christ ? "
What think ye of His Deity ? What think ye of His dying ?
What think ye of the nature and the limitations of His work?
♦* What think ye of Christ ? is the test
To try both your state and your scheme ;
You cannot be right in the rest
Unless you think rightly of Him."
THK ATONKMKN'J". 7
This being the case, the Holy Spirit, in removing a sinner's
objections — in reducing him from a state of combativeness to
■one of v/iUing reception — aims from first to last, at setting Christ
before him. "Casting down imaginations, " says the apostle,
" and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of Ood and bringing into cai)tivity every thought to the obedi-
ence of Christ. " My brother, my sister, what you want is the
obedience of Christ — tlse obedience of which Christ is the
source and object — the obedience which comes from Christ
and terminates on Christ. Christ is the end of nature's quest
and questionings — the all-atoning Chr.st.
Let us, then, for a few moments, fix our eyes on Christ — on
Christ in His most central and soul-saving asjiect — ^on Christ
•exemplifying these three things :
I. The Truth of the Atonement.
n. Its H0LINES.S.
HI. Its Saving Power.
I. The Truth of the Atonement — what it is not, what it
is — and,
h'iRST. It IS not what is called Hunianitariatmm—\k\'sX Christ
was a good Man, divine in some sense, who appeared among us
.as an example, to show us how to be holy ; so that if we follow
Him and do the best we can, we shall be saved. That this is
not what the Bible means by the cross is evident —
(i.) From the fact that it leaves the question of past sin un-
touched. We know that Lady Macbeth, in utterance of the
Jiecessity of nature, cries —
" Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand?"
It is a (juestion of washing away blood which has already
stained.
(2.) This notion is untrue because it mocks us. To present
ii faultless model of perfection to a fallen creature helplessly de-
praved — to say to him, "Be like this," "Do like this," is to
make ghastly sport of his misery.
%
I*
s
'F'lH .
t\.
mii
8
'IHK AI'ONKMKNI'.
m\
t
(3.) The life of the Lord Jesus Christ down here was a life of
suffering unto death. What sort of an example does that
afford to you and to me who wish to escape death? What sort
of an exami)le to a lost sinner is a crucifix ?
(4.) An atonement in which we follow Christ and do the besi
we can, is an atonement in which man and not Christ is the
Atoner. We follow Christ ! At what distance ? At our own
distance. Then the distance may widen— the interval may
stretch, until at last Christ minified to a mere speck, a i)oint
upon the dim horizon, passes out and vanishes clean from His
own atonement and leaves behind just this — " Man, woman, do
the best you can, or try to do it, or do something, and you
shall be saved."
Second. The Atonement is not a device of general and govern-
mental benevolence — a mere theatrical display calculated to
make an impression on the universe, and so to prevent the
spread of sin, bring sinners 10 repentance, and secure harmony
and happiness upon the largest scale.
It is well known that this has been a popular and a wide-
spread representation : it is an untrue representation, however,
because it is based on the following untrue assumptions.
(i.) That sin does not deserve to be punished because it is
sin, but only because of its consequences.
(2.) That there is no such thing as an eternal justice in God
striking down upon sin : God is breadth only, — love, an
horizontal line and not a cross — that there is no perpendicular
in Him. " Justice," say the teachers of our modern liberalistic
thought, "is benevolence guided by wisdom;" in other words,
it is a general good will and good nature in God which keeps
up a government in order to the happiness of His creatures.
God, then, exists for His creatures ; He is not His own highest
end. And God is righteous not because His holy nature com-
pels Him to be, but because the interests of a governmental
policy demand it.
The theory stript of its plausibilities, and stated in broad
terms and carried to its logical results, is this : Happiness is
the end of creation — in order to happiness there must be
1:
lar
tic
be
THK ATONKMKNT. 9
rij^hteousness — righteousness, therefore, is a means to an end.
In other words, virtue is simply expediency, and the question
of right and wrong is simply a question of profit or loss.
Such, squarely stated, is the modern and poi)ular notion of
the Atonement — a notion born of philosophy and not of
Christ — a notion without a word of Scripture to support it — a
notion utterly repugnant to the sentiments of every honest
heart — a way since sin is in the universe, not of coming
straight out and dealing with sin; but of ^ettin^ around it. A
way of doing something, no one knows what, but something of
which the cross is a voucher, by which the machinery of the
universe is kept running, its ruin is averted and a door is
opened ; no one knows exactly where, and no one knows exactly
on what conditions, to God.
Before dismissing the theory of the Atonement it is pertin-
ent to add these two remarks :
First. This theory goes far, and more than far to explain the
perplexity of the masses under certain modern sermons. Many
men and many Christians complain that they cannot under-
stand what is said — that they cannot take it away. They
think the fault is in themselves, their ignorance, their obtuse-
ness, but it is not so. A straight line is the shortest distance
between two points. The Gospel is a straight line, and any-
body can understand a straight line. The fault, in these cases,
is not so much with the people as with the pulpit. It is because
the preacher is muddled himself. It is because he is flounder-
ing about in a net-work of moral absurdities which have no
cohei'ejice, no beginning, nor middle nor end. It is because
he is trying to preach a philosophy which is not the gospel —
which is anything but the gospel, and which gives an open con-
tradiction to the Bible, and to common sense, and God.
Another remark proper at this point is this — the dishonesty
now prevalent in our churches, the moral obliquity, the squint
in the eye, common to so many professo'-s of religion, is charge-
able to this false theory of the atonement. Men listen to the
preaching and they get a notion that the universe is a machine
— that God is running it, and that He is behind pulling wires.
■i^U
i
10
THE ATONEMENT.
"What is the inference from this? Is it not that they too may
pull wires ? Men listen to the preaching and they get the notion
that salvation is a piece of diplomacy, (jod is a diplomat, why
should not they be diplomats ? God's virtue is "what is expe-
dient;" why should not their virtue be "what is expedient?" With
(iod the end covers the crookedness of the means, why with
them should not the end cover the crookedness of the means ?
Nothing is more certain than this, that men will be politic so
long as they believe in a politic God.
Second. Having thus cleared the ground before us — having
stated what the atonement is not, it will not be difficult now to
state what it is. All truth Is quickly stated, and this truth lies in
one word, substitution. It is put with all possible plainness
in the parallel, the sublime equation of 2 Cor. v. 21, "For He
hath made Him to be sin for us " — identified Him with it so as
to make Him wholly chargeable therewith — " that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him," — that we might be
identified and wholly chargeable with righteousness.
The doctrine stated in contrast and for distinctness is
tnis,
(i.) Sin, because it is sin, must be punished. ("^
(2). Justice, because it is justice, must punish sin.(''')
(3). If sin is on the sinner, then justice must strike through
both sin and the sinner who carries it.<'^)
(4). If the sin of the believing sinner is taken from his
shoulders and laid upon the Son of God, then justice, still fol-
lowing after the sin, must strike through the sin and the person
of the Son of God now underneath it.^"')
(a). Rom. vi. 23. The -Ufagcs of sin, ///<■ thing due to it, ivliich must be paid, is
Therefore,
(7). The moment the believing sinner accei)ts Christ as his
substitute, he finds himself not only freed from his sin, but
re7c>arded. He gets all heaven because of the glory and merits
•of Christ.^iT)
The Atonement, then, which we preach is one of absolute
exchange. <''') It is that Christ took our jjlace literally, in or-
der that we might take His ]jlace literally— that God regarded
^ind treated Christ as the sinner and that He regards and treats
the believing sinner as Christ.^ From the moment we believe,
^y shepherd,
■&nd against the Man that is ATy Fellow, saith the Lord."
(/). Isa. xl. 10, Ixii. II : " His rewards with Him, and His recompense (see mar-
cin) before Him." Isa. liii. 12 : "Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great."
.ttc. Phil. ii. 6: " Wherefore (lod hath highly exalted Him," &c. Heb. ii. 9: "O-oji/Mtv/
Him with glory and honor."
(^). John xvii. 22; " The .
suppose a rotten timber somewhere in the Portage bridge, —
the workmen are called together and that timber is taken out
and a sound timber is put in its place. What part, after that,
does the rotten timber play in sustaining the bridge ? What
is it that sustains the bridge now ? The sound timber — the
substitute. The rotten timber lies there, on the muddy bank
of the river. It is wholly thrown out. Now that will do as a
representation of the sinner, and the bridge of Adam's
broken covenant of works. The sinner is a rotten timber.
He is wholly worthless, (iod comes along and throws him out.
He supersedes him. He puts Christ in his place. He lays on
Christ the weight of the bridge of salvation, and Christ alone
sustains it. Your good works, my brother, have nothing more
to do with your justification before God than the worthless,
rotten timber lying on the mudflats of the Genesee has to do
with the complete and colossal structure which bridges its banks.
We then are saved, straight through eternity, by what the Son
of God has done in our place. *' By Him all that believe are
Justified from all things.^'' Other considerations have nothing
to do with it. It matters nothing what we have been, wh we
are, or what we shall be. From the moment we believe on
C hrist, we are forever, in CJod's sight, as Chris r.
Of course it is involved in this that men are saved, not by
preparing first, that is by repenting, and praying, and reading
the Bible, and then trusting Christ ; nor by the converse of
this, that is by trusting Christ first and then preparing some-
thing — repentance, reformation, good works — which God will
accept ; but that sinners are saved irrespective of what they
are — how they feel — what they have done — what they hope to
do — by trusting on Christ and that only. That Christ, and
Christ alone, stands between any sinner and the Lake of Fire,
and that the instant Christ is seen and rested on, the soul's
•■>.?
THE ATONEMENT.
13
eternity, by God's free promise, and regardless of all character
and works, is fixed.
Such is the doctrine of Vicarious Atonement, a doctrine
which, for grandeur, for simplicity, and comprehensiveness,
stands peerless and alone — God's thought in felt, in acknow-
ledged, in adorable contrast to all creature philosophies —
Ciod's thought which solves all problems and allays all appre-
hensions and, beyond all power of tongue to tell it, satisfies
the heart. But
IT. Is it a holy doctrine ? Objection has been brought
against it. It has been said that such an exchange as this, in
which the innocent is made to suffer for the guilty, is unjust ;
that it is exceptional, arbitrary, contrary to all processes of hu-
man law ; that it is at variance with the moral feelings of man-
kind, and that it tends to immorality.
To this objection, so succinctly stated, it is easy to reply.
First. So far from being exceptional, the principle of represen-
tation runs through the universe. It is the principle on which
the world is built. When a father commits a crime his whole
family sink in the social scale, though innocent. When a
father is lifted to office or to honor his whole family are lifted
without merit of their own. These examples go to prove that
so far from being exceptional, the scheme on which the Lord
Jesus Christ acts as agent, or trustee, or substitute of His peo-
p\e is congruous not only with the whole Scriptural theology,
hut with what we see around us, and with the very nature of
things. If we fell by Adam's sin without having a hand in it,
why may we not be raised again by Christ's righteousness with-
out having any righteousness of our own? But,
Second. The substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ is not arl/i-
trary. He was not forced to suffer. He was not dragged an un-
willing victim to the altar,and there, in spite of all His pleadings,
andofall His protestations, offered up. On the contrary, nothing
was ever so voluntary as the death of Christ — " I delight to do
Thy will " — *' How am I straitened until it be accomplished ? "
He Icn'ed us and gave Himself for us. Volenti 7iiilla fit injuria.
I ;
It
k
i
iliMiiiBMfl
am'
I
m
14
THE ATONKMKNT.
I
I n
I >:,
He is not wronged who gives his free consent. Christ was
master of His own life as i.ord of all. He had power to lay
it down and to take it up again, and in this supreme devote-
ment the Blessed Trinity concurred.
Third. The substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed
contrary to our processes of Imu, but not because it contravenes
them ; it rises above and passes beyond their finite limitations.
That is all. It is readily admitted that no human justice could
hang one man because another man had committed murder ;.
but what to human justice, hampered by conditions, is impos-
sible, is possible with God.
One thing : human justice has no power over life ; the State
is not absolute, but God is. The disposal of life for life, which
is not man's prerogative, belongs to God.
Another thing : Under a human government, no one has a
right, even voluntarily, to give up his life under law for another;
for man has not power over his own life when it comes to jus-
tice, but Christ had power over His.
Once more : Under a human government, if one dies for
another, one life is lost. The victim perishes, and there is no
surplus gain to the universe. But, in the glorious Atonement,
no life is lost, no victim perishes, for Christ who goes down into
the grave rises again triumphant — " dieth no more " — death
hath no more dominion over Him.
Fourth. The principle of substitution, so far from being at
variance ivith the feelings of a holy and a humble hearty is, of all
principles that which such a h' art must welcome as the only
possible extrication from the agonies of conviction. " The
soul that sinneth, it shall die !" Has God said it ? Then it
must be. Then the soul must die, either in its separate per-
sonality, or in the Larger Personality which covers it — either
in itself, or in the Head of the great family to which, believiiig,
it belongs. Amid the growing light, this sun-like truth stands
clear, Die the sinner must, or Jesus I
Fifth. The doctrine of Substitution does not tend to immor-
ality. Objection has sometimes been expressed like this—
'^m^
THE ATONEMENT.
15
" If I understand it, I, by trusting, though the worst and
most abandoned sinner out of hell, am saved — saved in a
clock-tick — saved as truly and as certainly as Paul himself, wha
is in glory. If I understand it, the whole {question of my des-
tiny is settled, over and done, the moment I consent to believe!
Now, ,1 am surprised at this doctrine. It takes away my
breath. I am afraid of it. It seems to me, if I knew that
my eternity were settled, I should run straight into excess — I
should argue " It makes no difference — I am saved anyhow —
a little sin more or less will not count."
The answer to this objection is that it is the result of a truth
but half apprehended. The sinner who makes it is like a
man who is looking at one arm of a walking-beam, he does
not know how the arm on the other side works. It is a mistake
to suppose that settling things upon a righteous basis tends to
laxity. The fact is just the reverse. Take an illustration
from the angels. Their destinv is settled and has been settled
for ages. /;/ all heavefi there is not a doubt. No angel ever
doubts his eternal salvation ; but that does not tend to make
angels immoral. Take an illustration from the case of a wife.
Will any one say that for a woman to know she is married,
and fixed by a permanent tie, tends to make her immoral ?
Does not every one know that the possibility of divorce enter-
tained, makes people immoral hat doubt in this thing, is its
death ? Does not every one know that the strongest bond of
all social life and the surest defence of all social honor is the
fiat "whom (iod hath joined together, let not man put
asunder ?"
But argue the question a moment, along the line of its
merits.
(i.) To trust in Christ is to obey God. "This is His com-
mandment that we should believe on the name of His Son
Jesus Christ." Without faith it is impossible to please Him ;.
hence men must be brought to the obedience of faith. When
they believe, for the first time in their lives, they begin to
obey. But, does beginning to obey God tend to make men
immoral }
\^lt^y>
\ ",
I':
hi* •(» it !
I IB
,9 111
I':,
ii'
.
16
THE A'lONKMENT.
(2.) To trust Christ is to drarc near to Christ ; but how can
that make men immoral ? Faith is nothing but coming to
Christ under the attractions of a Divine, unspeakable, all holy,
^11 compelling love. It is the rebound of gratitude in us to-
wards Him who died for us. " To Whom coming as to a
Living Stone." Coming, coming, always coming — how can
that make men immoral ?
(3,) To trust Christ is \.o yield to the Spirit of God. For the
first time in your life, instead of resisting, you yield. What is
the result ? You keep }'ielding. More and more you
give yourself up to the Spirit's control. You are taught
by the Spirit. You are led by the Spirit. You are
strengthened by the Spirit. You are filled with t^ ' Spirit. You
iire born again of the Spirit. How can that make you im-
moral ?
But finally, to end discussion by an ultimate appeal, the
question whether Substitution is a holy doctrine, is the ques-
tion, whether the Bible, which proclaims it, is a holy book. It
will be noticed that not one of the objections canvassed is
brought forward from the Scripture. They are all of them ob-
jections, speculations, reasonings and cavils of the carnal heart.
To confute the Scripture, men must bring forward Scripture.
Until they do this, the doctrine of Vicarious Atonement will
stand. It will stand because the Bible teaches it ; because
what the Bible teaches, God teaches ; and because what God
teaches must eternally be true.
III. Is this doctrine .W77//^? God says so. Millions in the
past have proved it. Millions in the present are embarked up-
on it. You yourself have known many who have died trusting
it. Not one of all these has it failed. It will not fail you.
Try it, my brother. You never have tried it. You never have
dropped yourself a dead iveight on the hands of Christ and gone
away believing that salvation was settled. You never have done
this, and yet this is the point, the single point of the Gospel.
" He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ! "
IViiued 1-y I>tn^^'ough, Moore & Co., 33 & 35 Adelaide St. West, Toronto.
HMIa.ulinii''
g-g~
J^-'J