ii6 QUAKER ASPECTS OF TRUTH 



atone for the folly of the foolish ; the generous have to 

 atone for the greed of the selfish ; the sympathetic have 

 to atone for the harshness of the unfeeling ; the 

 righteous have to atone for the sins of the wicked ♦ And 

 it was natural, indeed it was logically inevitable, that 

 the all-wise, the all-generous, the all-sympathetic and 

 perfect Son of Man should make atonement for the sin 

 of the world. Here, it seems to me, we have no 

 inscrutable mystery. That Christ should die and make 

 atonement for sin was natural and inevitable. 



And if this be the philosophy of the atonement, as 

 I believe it to be, what then should be our relationship 

 towards it ? Are we to sit with folded hands resting 

 upon the ** finished work of Christ '' ? The finished 

 work of Christ ! Look at the so-called '' Christian *' 

 nations of Europe. See them armed to the teeth, 

 watching each other with jealous rivalry lest one should 

 steal a march upon another ! Or look nearer home. 

 See the condition of our own streets — the poverty, the 

 drunkenness, the degradation, the prostitution at our 

 very doors. Or look again at the infantile mortality 

 in the working class neighbourhoods of our large cities, 

 where out of every hundred children that are born, 

 more than twenty die ere ever they are twelve months 

 old ! And more than half of them die before they are 

 five years old ! I tell you the work of Christ is not 

 finished, and those who speak of ''the finished work 

 of Christ '' must either close their eyes to facts, or speak 

 in sarcasm. 



And now, for a true view of Christ*s atoning work, 

 and our relationship towards it, let us turn for a moment 

 to the first chapter of the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians. 

 Here we find the Apostle speaking of the sufferings of 

 Christ, and how it was the Father's good pleasure that 

 reconciliation or atonement should be made through the 

 blood of His cross ; and this thought of the sufferings 



