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do not solve the problem. Nor do we see any necessity of solving it. We have a Father in heaven, even though there are depths of Divine wisdom and knowledge which we are as yet unable to fathom.

So in the doctrine of Christ crucified, as a "propitiation through faith in his blood,"—" that God may be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus;" there are many still who see no satisfaction to the Divine Justice in this, but an utter overthrow and abandonment of every idea of righteousness and goodness. They deny the propitiation for sin. They deny the satisfaction rendered to the Divine Justice. They deny the need of any such propitiation or satisfaction. They make Christ a mere messenger of love and goodness; and his death the mere incident of such an errand; of no more significance or effect than as it moves the heart of man to tenderness and repentance. They do indeed remove "the offence of the cross." It is no longer odious to the modern rationalists, nor would it have been of old a stumbling-block to the Jew, or foolishness to the Greek. But in making the offence of the cross to cease, they have taken away the very elements of its power; they do indeed claim that they exalt its power over the human soul, by holding up pre-eminently Christ's tender sympathy, his holy example, and his bleeding love. But neither has the common doctrine of Christ crucified omitted these; nor exhibited them with less tenderness, nor insisted upon them as matters of less moment.

After all, there is no love exhibited in any mere sympathy and faithfulness, like that exhibited in Christ's dying to redeem us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; and bearing our sins in his own body on the tree. The peculiar and efficient power of the Gospel to draw men to the Saviour, and to bring them to repentance, lies not alone in the mere sympathy, and love, and suffering, which it exhibits; but most of all, in the reason and significance of that death; as it declares God's awful holiness and justice; his utter condemnation of all sin; the deadly character and desert of sin; the utter impossibility that God should indulge his love and save the sinner without some way in which he may "BE JUST;" preserving in all its integrity the holiness, the sacredness, the

vindicatory power and authority of his law. It is this that alarms the conscience. It is this that crushes down the soul under a sense of sin, and guilt, and ruin. It is this that makes the law a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. It is this alone that reveals the depths of the Saviour's sympathy and love. It is this alone that gives the deepest impression of the nature and need of holiness. It is this that magnifies the love of God in redemption, and that shows his salvation to be indeed a great salvation.

The other scheme, in taking away the offence of the cross, takes all this power away. It relieves the soul from the most painful impressions of the desert and punishment of sin, and of the awful and inflexible character of the divine law. It gives a low view of the righteousness which the law requires, when it sets the sinner to trust to his own attempts to raise himself to a personal righteousness which shall constitute his justification before God.

What constitutes the offence of the cross to some is proved by experience to constitute the very element of its power. Nor does Paul admit that they are the truly wise, to whom it is a stumbling-block or foolishness. It is so indeed to some, but only to "them that perish;" while to "them that are saved, it is the wisdom of God." "Howbeit," says Paul,

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we speak wisdom to them that are perfect (rõs tedeiois).” To men of adult understanding and spiritual comprehension, the doctrine is not foolishness but wisdom. Oh, how full of wisdom! How rich in its revelation of the eternal harmony and combined glory of the Divine attributes of holiness, justice, mercy, and love! And has not the Gospel long proved itself in these, to be indeed the wisdom of God, and the power of God unto salvation? Is there then any ground left, on which the rationalistic objections commonly urged against the doctrine of the Atonement, may fairly be considered to be of any moment?

Does any one suppose that, nevertheless, such difficulties ought to be considered and removed before we may unwaveringly receive the doctrine? Nay, what the difficulties are is not the question, but whether God has, on a fair interpretation, unequivocally revealed it? Can finite beings ever be set free

from mysteries and difficulties, amid the plans and government of the Infinite God?

Suppose we see clearly whatever lies wholly within a sphere of one mile in diameter; and all that we fully comprehend is wise and glorious. But there are things, parts of which are apparent in that sphere, while the other parts lie mainly beyond it. These things, partly seen, appear dark and forbidding. We cannot reconcile them with the goodness of God.

Enlarge the diameter of our sphere to ten miles: the things partly seen before are now seen completely. The darkness. vanishes. They are more glorious than any thing we had before conceived of. But by enlarging our sphere we have increased our difficulties. For now there are a hundred times more things lying partly within and partly without our sphere, and these more dark and difficult than those which disturbed us before; and, unless our faith keeps pace with the increase of our knowledge, it turns out true that "He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow."

Enlarge our sphere to a diameter of ten thousand miles; or to the sphere of knowledge open to an archangel. We have increased the number of things lying partly without and partly within our sphere, in the duplicate ratio of the increased diameter, and these things are still more wonderful and difficult.

Where shall we stop? Where shall we reach the point where we may grasp and comprehend all the plans of the Infinite God? Plainly, there can never be a point where, to creatures, clouds and darkness shall not be round about the Throne of God. Whatever be the reach of our knowledge, we shall still be obliged to trust God, because we cannot fully know. What necessity, then, for solving all mysteries, before we can know that we have a Father in heaven? Or for removing all difficulties, or for altering the fair import of what our Father teaches, before we can receive his teachings as the truth? These difficulties may reveal the richest glories, when our knowledge shall be but a little more enlarged. They may be difficulties only to our narrow views, our ignorance, our prejudice, or worse,-to our wickedness. To such beings as

we, either the Divine glories must be limited to a narrow compass, or they must extend beyond our narrow vision. Somewhere we must have faith. Nay, everywhere we must have faith. And whatever God may do, or whatever he may reveal, there is ever enough known to him to warrant the most implicit trust.

Even the little part which lies wholly within the history of this world has, to us, many deep mysteries. Shut out from us the light of prophecy; let us read the Divine purposes only from human history; and what a dismal chaos does the government of this world, in many parts appear? What a chaos it must appear without the Bible? What can we judge of wars, of changes, of the rise and fall of nations, of the wisdom or order of these things, any better than the insect of a day can judge of the winter or of the storm, or of the utility of these to the earth, to its fruits, or to the salubrity of its atmosphere, or to the well being of the people who inhabit it? Close the volume of inspiration; let no voice from heaven reveal the connection of any great event with the Divine purpose, the Divine justice, or the Divine government; let no prophecy point to the consummation of a scheme of glory and blessedness in the ages to come; and what can the people of any age know of the meaning and utility of the events passing before their eyes? Had the Israelites in their bondage in Egypt known of no promise of deliverance, and of no covenant with their fathers, nor of any divine purpose in that sojourning in bondage; what judgment could they have formed of its significance or design? So, when they were passing through the wilderness, and in their subsequent history under the judges and kings, the eye of faith alone, trusting to what God had revealed, could see any order, or justice, or government, or goodness in the current events of their history while these events were transpiring. Such darkness rests upon our minds still, with regard to the long deferred destinies of India and China. Such darkness rests still on the government of a just and holy God with regard to benighted Africa. Why her long-continued blindness and woes? Why have wickedness and woe reigned so long in this world? Who could see any end, or hope, were it not that

God has declared that the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea? Taught by revelation something concerning such a vast and beneficent design on the part of Jehovah, we do begin at length to see light dawning upon the otherwise dark and chaotic history of this world. Plans reaching from generation to generation, for thousands of years, seem to be verging toward their completion. Christ is manifestly setting up his kingdom. We begin to see how disastrous events had their part in preparing the way, or in hastening on the work. We begin to see that there has been a devising mind and a guiding hand. We begin to trace out the connection and design of events, which, as they were passing, seemed without order or law; as though mankind had been left the sport of chance, or given up, without guidance or control, to their blindness and wickedness. Who, that has intelligently read Edwards' "History of Redemption," has not felt his soul comforted and joyful as he has seen a chain of the Divine purposes running through the earth's whole history, marking Jehovah's reign and Jehovah's plan in every thing; and discovering in all things an ultimate bearing upon that one point-the glory of God in the redemption of a fallen world? Perhaps the time will come when the book of the Divine Providence in the government of this world will be completed; and what we have hitherto read, even in Bible history, shall be almost lost in the flood of light that shall then burst upon the vision of the sons of God. Nay, when this world's history is complete, then the Divine providences will hold on their way through purposes not yet imagined by mortal man, unfolding the glories of the Divine wisdom and goodness more and more for ever and ever. With what rapture, as the redeemed behold these things, will they shout, "Alleluia ! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!"

It is interesting to see that, as men advance to a wider survey of the physical history of our earth, the same far-reaching purpose of God is apparent in the ages before man was made.

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In this respect the comprehensive survey of Edwards, in his History of Redemption," has its counterpart in the work of Guyot, "The Earth and Man." God was preparing the earth for man in the slow ages during which, in obedience to his

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