punishment, but at the very least it is vicarious atone

ment.

The unknown author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has given us a complete and most important exposition of Christ's atoning death in its relation to the Old Testament ceremonial system. He follows especially upon those two lines of approach to the New Testament doctrine, of which mention has already been made, the high-priesthood and the sacrifices. Christ in his death is at once high-priest and sacrifice; he presents the atonement and is the atonement. He is "a merciful and faithful highpriest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (Heb. ii. 17). For this office the Saviour was prepared by his temptations and sufferings (ii. 18; v. 8). His superiority to the high-priest of the Old Testament is demonstrated. He is a high-priest after a different order, namely, that of Melchizedek (v. 1–10). He did not need to offer up sacrifices for his own sins, seeing that he was sinless, but made one all-sufficient sacrifice when he offered up himself (vii. 26, 27). The Old Testament sacrifices were intrinsically insufficient; "the blood of bulls and of goats could not take away sin" (x. 4). But Christ was the perfect sacrifice. The old sacrifices had to be offered over and over again. The high-priest year after year went into the holy of holies with the sacrificial blood on the great day of atonement. But Christ has been offered once for all a perfect sacrifice that needs not to be repeated. The virtue of his sacrifice lay in the perfect surrender of his will to God, "by the which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all" (x. 5-10). So having offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he has sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet (x. 12, 13). One has to give a new meaning to the whole Old Testament system in order to find any other doctrine in

this wonderful epistle than that of a vicarious atone

inent.

The passages in the epistles of Peter emphasize the same aspects of truth, so fully brought out in the Epistle to the Hebrews and the writings of Paul. The two ideas of redemption and sacrifice are continually in this apos tle's mind (1 Pet. i. 18, 19). He describes the Saviour's death in language that is an echo of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah: "Who his own self bear our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Pet. ii. 24). And in words which remind us of the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians, he tells us how "Christ also suffered for sins once, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God" (1 Pet. iii. 18).

It remains only to speak of the Apostle John. The truth which he records in the utterances of our Saviour, as given in his Gospel, is amply confirmed by his own declarations in his other writings. In the First Epistle he teaches that "the blood of Jesus his (God's) Son cleanseth us from all sin " (i. 7). He tells us that Christ is "the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world" (ii. 2). "He laid down his life for us (iii. 16). "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (iv. 10). Notice how the atonement or propitiatory sacrifice is represented as originating in the love of God. In the Apocalypse Christ is represented as he "that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood" (Rev. i. 6). He is "a Lamb as though it had been. slain" (v. 6), and this is his common designation throughout the book, giving prominence to the atonement even in the heavenly state. The Lamb is the light and the glory

of the New Jerusalem.

I have not as yet entered into any of those problems which have made the doctrine of the atonement a theo

logical battle-field. But I think that enough has been said to show that the Bible contains a distinct and unequivocal truth to teach on the subject. It does not tell us in what the inmost essence of the atonement consists. It gives us but imperfect glimpses into the heart of the mystery. But it does give us a doctrine, and that, one capable of being stated in simple and definite language. It is the doctrine of a vicarious atonement-that is, that Jesus Christ has rendered to God the amends for our sins which we cannot render ourselves, and yet which is due from us, and that thus he has rendered it consistent with God's holiness to grant us forgiveness and restore us to His favor. I said that Christ has done this for us. Rather let me say that God Himself has done it for us, through Christ. In this great and sacred truth the universal church is one.

XXI.

THE REDEMPTIVE WORK OF CHRIST

(2. The Work of Atonement)

WHATEVER View may be taken of the Emperor Constantine's vision of the flaming cross-whether it was a real experience, or, as one of the most recent ecclesiastical historians suggests, an "optical illusion," or, to be explained as a legend of later growth-it points to a great truth. The cross symbolizes what is most essential and sacred in Christianity. It was not without reason that the labarum was carried as the standard of the first Christian armies, and that the Crusaders wore the sign of the cross on shoulder or breast. It has not been without reason that the church in all ages has made the cross its emblem. To-day, as in the days of Constantine, we conquer by this sign. But in taking the cross as its symbol, the Christian church has given to the doctrine of the atonement a central and unique place among the truths which it teaches. By this doctrine, as by no other, it stands or falls. I say this with no thought of detriment to the immemorial Protestant claim that the doctrine c justification by faith is the articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiæ, the fundamental article of Christian faith, for this doctrine is rooted in the atonement and receives all its significance from it. We cannot, without surrendering what is most essential in Christianity, treat the truth of Christ's atonement lightly or regard it as of secondary importance. It is our duty to uphold it in its integrity and to seek to penetrate, as far as may be, into its deepest

meaning, and at the same time to give our best efforts to commend it as reasonable to the acceptance of those Christians who are hindered by intellectual or practical difficulties from accepting it, as well as to defend it against the attacks of the opponents of Christianity.

I. I wish to speak first of the history of the doctrine, and hope to be able so to present the facts, even in this brief survey, as to show that, in spite of differences respecting the theological explanation of the doctrine, and of some temporary aberrations from the scriptural teachings, the church in all ages has held the essence and core of this great truth.

In the earlier centuries of the church's history attention was concentrated upon problems very different from that of the atonement. The person of Christ, the Trinity, sin and grace, and the nature of the church and the sacraments, were the subjects about which the primitive. controversies were waged. The central importance of the Saviour's redemptive work was everywhere recognized, and the absolute necessity of his death in order to human salvation universally taught. Just as to-day the ordinary Christian, uninstructed in systematic theology yet mighty in the Scriptures, declares with a true and vigorous grasp on the essential truth of the atonement, that his

Hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;"

so it was with the early church, which with profound conviction and unvarying constancy affirmed, chiefly in scriptural language, that the Saviour's death upon the cross was the vicarious sacrifice for human sin, without an interest in which no man could enter the kingdom of God. In connection with this simple unscientific faith there are anticipations, consisting rather in hints than in systematic doctrinal statements, of almost all the great theories of the atonement which have attracted attention in later times.