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Supplement to "Notes for Bible Study.''' 
 
 No. III. 
 
 PAPERS FOR THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 71. 
 
 :o:— 
 
 I 
 
 THE ATONEMENT, 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. GEORGE S. BISHOP, D.D., 
 
 ORANOE, N.J. 
 
 i'P 1 
 
 S. R. BKIGGS, 
 WILLARD TRACT DEPOSITORY AND BIBLE DEPOT, 
 
 SHAFTESBURY HALL, TORONTO. 
 
 1881. 
 
 5c. each, or $2.75 per 100 (Post Paid). 
 
 W-^ -^ 
 
PAPERS FOR THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 We hope to issue two of these papers each month. I'hej' 
 will make in all some eighteen i 6-page papers, uniform in size 
 and style, so that when completed they can be bound in book 
 form. The papers will be ])repared by well known evangelical 
 ministers and others — among whom are the following: — Revs. 
 Dr. J. H. Brookes, W, J. Erdman, (1. Cochran, P. McF. 
 McLeod, H. M. Parsons, (i. C. Needham, Robert Cameron, 
 Albert Erdman, Vice-Chancellor Blake and Dr. Lymaa 
 H. A. Atwater. 
 
 Terms — 5c. each, or $2.75 per 100; complete sets, 60c.. 
 post paid. 
 
 The subjects treated in this and the following papers, have 
 been assigned to different Christian ministers, evangelists, and 
 laymen, well and widely known for their deep devotion to the 
 truths termed evangelical and scriptural. Each paper will be 
 found distinct and complete in itself Each writer is responsi 
 ble for his own sentiments as uttered, and for 7io7ie of the 
 others. 
 
 Having this separate and independent treatment, it is be- 
 lieved the great doctrines here presented will have a wider dis- 
 tribution and reception among the people. The selected 
 themes bear upon those great truths of Scripture which seem 
 just now most imperilled by the assaults of the foe. It is in the 
 earnest belief that many readers desire to know the divine 
 meaning of many doctrines, about which much debate and dis- 
 trust have recently arisen, that these " Papers for the Present 
 Time " have been prepared, and now are to be issued. We 
 heartily crave the blessing of Him who has revealed the true 
 God, and by His Spirit exhorts us to " earnestly contend for 
 the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" 
 
 H. M. Parsons. 
 
 Toronto. i6th May. 
 
THE ATONEMENT 
 
 HV IHK 
 
 REV. GEORGE S. BISHOP, D.I)., 
 
 ORANGE, N. J. 
 
 There are two classes of objectors to orthodox truth. One 
 we may call the ingenuous and honest : they do not mean ta 
 go wrong, but they are ignorant ; they cannot quite see how 
 this thing, that thing, and the other, are consistent ; they do 
 not find fault with these things ; — they want to see through 
 them. They believe that God can explain Himself; they are 
 in sympathy with God ; they wait upon Him ; they pray over 
 their difficulties ; they ask God for light, and the result is that 
 they soon emerge into a wide and wealthy place — the sweep of 
 their horizon well defined — the sky above them cloudless. 
 
 To this class of objectors let us say, Dear brethren, we sym- 
 pathize with you. So far you are right, and you will come out 
 right. Follow after (jod ; grapple your difficulties, face them, 
 confront them with the Scripture. Then when you get a 
 point, keep it ; do not play at shuttlecock. Remember what 
 St. Paul says to the Philippians-;-" Brethren, whereto we have 
 already attained, let us square ourselves by it" — drotxEiv xavdvt 
 — let us keep up to the mark, let us be fixed in our conviction ; 
 and, " if in anything ye be otherwise minded," doubtful, not 
 clear as yet, " God will reveal even this unto you." 
 
 The second class of objectors is composed of the disingenu- 
 
 
mi 
 
 4 IHE ATONE.MLNT. 
 
 oiis, Tind the dishonest. They are not right within. They are 
 not for (lod and for the truth, let it cut how it may. They are 
 not manly. They do not bare their breasts to the knife. They 
 <lo not say " Search me O God, and see, and lead me in 
 the way everlasting." They do not make their objections 
 3is led by the Spirit, and as depending on the Spirit, but they 
 make them in order to self-justification. Their object is not to 
 vindicate God, but to apologize for themselves. It is with them, 
 self, self, SKi.F, all the way through. 
 
 How does Ml is come about ? How does it occur that many 
 ])rofessors of religion, many, many in this evil day are in this 
 second class ? 
 
 There are several reasons, but they all resolve themselves 
 into one — the fallacy ofliidng on an old experience. 
 
 If you talk with certain professors of religion, you always find 
 them going back to a point in their history which they call their 
 conversion. Un this they stake everything. They take it for 
 granted that their conversion was right, and therefore they are 
 right. But what was the conversion ? In nine cases out of 
 ten a mere spasm, a convulsion of the unregenerate moral 
 nature — a mixture of conviction, passion,and self-righteous reso- 
 lution — the shudder of a serpent who is trying to right himself 
 by straight lines. That is all. 
 
 Now think for a moment of the straight lines that radiate from 
 God. Those straight lines never cross nor cut. Suppose you, 
 my brother, are right — a little straight line— then you will live 
 in God's straight line and no other can cut you. But suppose 
 you are wrong, a crooked line, a serpent — for the serpent is 
 the emblem of the crooked line in the Scripture — then the 
 straight lines must cut you, and the more you twist, the more 
 they must cut you, until you drop in inch pieces through the 
 siftings of the pure white light of God. My brother, if you are 
 resting on a false experience, you cannot be easy or hapi)y 
 imder God's truth. In spite of yourself, )0U will doubt and 
 you will suggest doubt — you will question and criticize and 
 ■cavil. The only thing for you is to get rid of that experience 
 — to sponge it from your record — to forget you ever had it, 
 iind to bes^in witii Christ. Dead men do not stir. If ever you 
 
THE AIONKiMKNT. 5 
 
 see yourself dead you will stop talking about experience. What 
 experience can a corpse have ? If once you see that Christ 
 saves of mere mercy — instantly saves you — saves you not for 
 your emotions but in spite of your emotions — in spite of the 
 shallow deceitfulness of your tears — that will end it. You wil! 
 no longer hope, but trusting in Christ you will kno7i'. Self will 
 drop out, and Christ will take the place of experience. Frori> 
 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 
 <leath. 
 
 (h). Gen. xviii. 25 : " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right T Pay sin what 
 is due to itV 
 
 (c). Ezek. xviii. 20 : " The soul that sinneth it shall die." Ex. xxxiv. 7 : " 'rie will 
 by no means clear the guilty. 
 
 (d). Isa. liii. 5: " He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for 
 our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we 
 are healed." 
 
THE A]ONKiVu:NT. 
 
 II 
 
 (5). When justice once strikes the Son of God, justice ex- 
 hausts itself. Sin is amerced in an Infinite Object. (') 
 
 (6). Not only is this true, but more — not only does justice 
 exhaust itself, but, striking an Infinite Object, justice meets a 
 rebound, is reflected back upon God, and now God must re- 
 7vard Christ, as the substitute, for His overplusage of infinite 
 merits. (/> 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, 
 <lod looks upon us as if we were Christ.(^) He takes it as if 
 Chri'^t's atonement had been our atonement, and as if Christ's 
 life had been our life, and He beholds, accepts, blesses and re- 
 wards as though all Christ was and did had been ours. (*) 
 
 Perhaps an illustration here may serve to put the fact in 
 
 iv). Rom. viii. 3 : " God sending His <rjvn Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for 
 sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Zech. xiii. 7 : "Awake, O sword, against f>^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 .<f/('r)' which Thou gavest Me, I have given them." Rom. 
 V. 17; ".Shall leign in life by One, Jesus Christ.'* 
 
 (It). I. Pet. iii. -8 ; " For Christ also hath suffered, the Just for {vnip, instead of) 
 the unjust, to bring u:, to God." 
 
 (/). II. Cor. V. 21 ; " He hath made Him to be sin for us," &c. 
 
 (y). John iv. 17 ; " As He is so are we in this world." John xvii. 23 ; I. Cor. xit. 
 12 ; Eph. V. 30. 
 
 (k). Rom. V. lo : '■^ Justif I by His blood; sm'ed by His life." Rom. v. 21 ; 
 ■" Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
12 
 
 THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 ill 
 
 clearer light. Near the village of Portage, on the Genesee 
 river, there is a bridge. This bridge spans a chasm of six 
 hundred feet, and is entirely constructed of timbers. These 
 timbers are so placed that any single one may be removed 
 without interfering with the others, and so, as timbers rot, they 
 are replaced, and the bridge itself is rendered perpetual. Now> 
 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. 
 
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14 
 
 THE ATONKMKNT. 
 
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 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 } 
 
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 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. 
 
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