V

THE FULNESS OF ATONEMENT

ATONEMENT is the word that seems best

fitted to express the meaning of the gospel of Christ in relation to a world of sin. I have used it thus far without defining it, for three

reasons.

First, because a final definition is impossible. The work of Christ for the saving of sinners can never be confined within the phrases which men invent to describe what they can see of it. It overflows the boundaries. Its fulness makes it indefinable.

Second, because the very attempt to define it has so often led to misconception and strife between men who believed in it with equal sincerity. I have read many books on the atonement. If the titles and references were given here, they would fill several pages. In almost all of these books I have found truth; in none of them the whole truth. The writers have helped me most when they have expressed their own experience of the saving power of

Christ. They have helped me least when they have been making definitions to shut out and condemn the views of other writers. Yet even in this they have not been altogether unprofitable. An attack upon a book has often led me to read it sympathetically, and so to discover in it a new source of illumination, a new testimony of experience.

The third reason why I have not tried to give a definition of the atonement is because it is not needed. The word is clear enough and plain enough already. It denotes a certain mystery,-the entire work of Christ in reuniting man to God,-the perfect result of that work in the establishment of peace between man and God, the redeeming relation of that work to human sin,-the satisfying relation of that work to divine righteousness,it denotes a mystery, but it denotes it in language which brings it into analogy with things that we know, and throws upon it light enough to enable us to see at least some of its essential elements.

What is this word, atonement, and where does it come from? It comes directly out of human life and experience. It is derived from an older word, "onement," which means unity or concord. To set two persons or things "at one

ment" means to bring them together in harmony after discord. Atonement is simply the process, or the result of reuniting and reconciling those who have been separated. Thus, in Shakespeare's Richard III, Buckingham says to the Queen:

"Ay, madame; he desires to make atonement

Between the Duke of Gloster and your brothers."

From this original and broadest meaning, the word is sometimes narrowed a little to denote some particular action or offering by which the reconciliation is effected. It may come either from one of the separated parties, or from a third person who offers himself as a reconciler. But in any case three elements must always enter into the idea of an atonement.

First, the motive of it must be love. It cannot possibly spring from any other cause. Justice, or righteousness, or authority,—and least of all anger or hate,-would never account for the desire of making a reconciliation. It can only come from a sincere love for the persons to be reconciled, and an earnest wish that they shall love each other.

Second, the condition under which this love works is the sense of a present separation, arising out of a fault, an offence, which has created

a real obstacle between the persons who are separated.

Third, the purpose which this love has in view is a real state of harmony, in which the persons who are to be brought together shall be vitally at one.

These, then, are the three marks of all atonement. Its creative cause is the power of love. Its occasional cause is the recognition of an offence. Its final cause is the restoration of vital union.

Atonements have been going on in the world from the beginning; between man and man, and between man and God. Those who have been conscious of injury and offence against their fellow-men have been trying to make some reparation, to show some contrition for the wrong, and to reëstablish peace. Those who have been grieved at the prevalence of enmity and strife among their friends have been trying to bring about reconciliation, by mediating between the offended and the offender.

This mediation involves suffering and sacrifice on the part of the peacemaker. It is hardly possible to obtain forgiveness and love for a guilty person without bearing something of hist pain and punishment. Many a father has suffered for the sake of making peace among his

children who were at strife. Many a mother has borne not only grief, but also actual trouble and loss, for the sake of reconciling a rebellious boy to an offended father. Many a brother has shared the disgrace and paid the debts of a brother for the sake of bringing him back into the harmony of the social order. And in such sufferings of love for the cause of atonement there is always something which propitiates the heart and inclines it to show favour. The father's compassion towards an erring son is always quickened by the thought of the mother's love as expressed in sacrifice. The sentiment of society, which after all is the final earthly court of appeal in all questions of conduct, is certainly affected favourably towards an offender by the fact that an innocent friend is willing to stand beside him and share in some degree the consequences of his fault. All this is of the nature of atonement, and there is no corner of the world where the letters of this word may not be spelled out, like a dim and broken inscription, on the fragments of human life.

The same word runs through the history of religion from the beginning until now. Sacrifice is another way of spelling it; and sacrifice is primitive and universal.