THE NEW THEOLOGY. 325 



plication to the race. It is true, tlie advent of Christ was of interme- 

 diation in time, but in essence of being it was contemporaneous with 

 accountability, and was revealed in prophetic language at the first 

 overture of moral delinquency as the seed of the woman " that should 

 bruise the serpent's head" ; and has ever, according to all human ex- 

 perience, been recognized in the ideal of good which reproaches every 

 varying thought and deed, and which constitutes the inspiration and 

 the encouragement to all improvement. The advent and life of our 

 Lord did not therefore impart a new moral element to the world, nor is 

 Christianity a new provision of grace in the plan of human redemp- 

 tion ; and the time element in their introduction is a mere question of 

 policy, since they are not of vital importance. That is, it was for di- 

 vine wisdom to determine when it would be most advantageous to the 

 race to send the quickening example and teaching of Christ into the 

 world, but their advent has in no way modified the relation of God to 

 man, or of man to God, nor made the provisions of human redemption 

 more ample or available. They are incidents in the process of moral 

 progress, and could wisely be introduced only at the proper stage of 

 development, so that the delay in their intercalation can not be re- 

 proachful. 



The aim of the atonement is to exemplify a condition and life cor- 

 responding to, but surpassing, the highest ideals of men, which may be 

 approximately attained by every individual of the race in every stage 

 of accountability ; and the effort to realize this condition and life is 

 the acceptance of its provisions and its accounted righteousness or the 

 transfer of Christ's righteousness to the believer ; for the faith that 

 impels to be like Christ is transforming in its effect, and by its con- 

 tinuous exercise believers become Christ-like in character and conduct. 

 And this has ever been the result among heathen and Christians of 

 efforts to attain ideal excellence ; for the human mind is so constituted 

 that its desirable ideal is always an approximation to the perfection of 

 Christ ; and hence the declaration of Peter, "I perceive that God is 

 no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and 

 worketh righteousness is acceptable to him " ; and hence, also, the 

 Christ-like worthies among Hebrew saints and pagan philosophers, 

 Mohammedan dervishes, Indian fakirs, and fetich -worshipers. Moral 

 processes, corresponding to those accorded to the atonement of Christ, 

 have been going on in all ages and among all races, regenerating the 

 hearts and improving the conduct of all believers — i. e., of all who 

 aimed to realize their ideal excellence ; and this regenerating process 

 was probably signified in the occult religious mysteries of the more 

 cultured nations of antiquity. The atonement, therefore, is not a pro- 

 vision for sin or for the sinner, but for man ; and, had sin never en- 

 tered the world, the mission of Christ would have been as necessarv 

 to the exaltation and salvation of mankind as it is under the reign and 

 power of sin. It is a practical revelation of an ideal which was essen- 



