ATONEMENT iii 



any need for the older brother to bear the younger 

 brother's punishment in order that the father's sense of 

 justice might be satisfied. It was not his sense of 

 justice, but his love that demanded satisfaction ; and that 

 is why, all the time the son was away, the father watched 

 anxiously for his return, so that when he was yet a great 

 way off his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran 

 and fell on his neck and kissed him, and the twain were 

 at one* Here, then, we have the atonement ; not the 

 atonement of the theologians, to be sure, but the atone- 

 ment as taught by Christ Himself* Could anything 

 be more exquisitely simple ? Could anything be more 

 absolutely true ? Whenever anything has stood in the 

 way of man's reconciliation with God, it has not been 

 God's sense of justice, but man's unwillingness to return* 

 We often hear people speak of *' God's plan of 

 Salvation," as though salvation were a ma2;e or a difficult 

 pu22;le requiring a chart or plan in order that we may 

 find our way about in it* But we read of no such plan 

 of salvation in Scripture* 



Who fathoms the eternal thought ? 



Who talks of scheme and plan ? 

 The Lord is God — He needeth not 



The poor device of man. 



In the Scriptures we read of a '* way of salvation,** 

 and we are told that it is so simple that the wayfaring 

 man, though a fool, shall not err therein* So simple is it 

 that the youngest child who knows what it is to err from 

 the path of rectitude, and to return to find his earthly 

 parent with open arms ready to receive him, can under- 

 stand, and often does understand, God's way of salvation 

 quite as well, if not better, than the most learned 

 theologian* 



I say to thee^ do thou repeat 



To the first man thou mayest meet 



In lane, highway, or open street 



8 



