ATONEMENT 109 



But, in the light of scientific thought, all such theological 

 speculation appears childish in the extreme, and this 

 part of Anselm's theory we rarely hear about* 



Later still, Calvin of Geneva further elaborated 

 Anselm^s substitution theory into a hard, legal system, 

 which we still know as Calvinism* But notwithstanding 

 the fact that these theories originated with some of the 

 noblest and best of God*s saints, and that they have been 

 held by good men for all these centuries, I have no 

 hesitation in saying that scripturally they are unsound, 

 and ethically they are immoral* They seem to me to 

 be like the stained-glass windows of a cathedral* When 

 we are inside the building we can only see the patterns 

 and pictures into which the stained glass has been wrought 

 by art and man's device, and it is difficult to realise that 

 the truth of God lies behind them and is obscured by 

 them* 



Let us, then, leave this cathedral, this temple made 

 with hands, with its close and fetid atmosphere, its dim 

 religious light, and let us breathe for awhile the bracing 

 air of the mountain tops, viewing the truth of God in the 

 light of Christ* 



In the fifteenth chapter of Luke we read a story which 

 Christ Himself told to illustrate His view of the atone- 

 ment — the reconciliation of God and Man* It is a 

 story so full of human tenderness and Divine compassion 

 that I often find it difficult to read, because my eyes fill 

 with tears, and a lump rises in my throat* It tells of a 

 father who had two sons, and the younger one said to 

 his father, ** give me the portion of goods that falleth 

 to me,'' and he divided unto them his living* And not 

 many days after the younger son took his journey into 

 a far country, and there wasted his substance in riotous 

 living* He was not driven out of doors, but wilfully 

 he went his way* And when he had spent all, there 

 arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be 



