324 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



suffering of the innocent for the guilty in order to placate the divine 

 anger and render the Deity propitious, or to satisfy the claims of jus- 

 tice so that the Judge can be clement to transgressors of law and per- 

 mit them, untrammeled by guilt for the past, to reform, or give them 

 another chance to do better. Neither the divine holiness nor justice was 

 ever antagonized to the sinner, and therefore never needed to be con- 

 ciliated, and certainly neither could ever be reconciled with sin ; so 

 that an atonement either to dispose God favorably toward sinners or 

 to tolerate sin, or to make any allowance for sin or to pardon sin, 

 is inconsistent with the divine nature. And nothing can be more ab- 

 surd than the teaching that God was at enmity with the sinner, unless 

 it be the affirmation of those who believe it, that the atonement is " a 

 provision of divine grace or love " ; for, plainly stated, it is this : An 

 atonement or means of reconciliation was necessary because God hated 

 sinners, but was really instituted because " God so loved the world " 

 of sinners. Men feel that God is angry with them and hostile to them, 

 but certainly the atonement of Christ, whatever it be, is counteracting 

 this erroneous sentiment by its disclosure of the infinite and unwaver- 

 ing paternal love of God for man in the life and death of his Son ; and 

 any provision of mercy which the divine wisdom and goodness has 

 made for sinners is necessarily predicated on this infinite love of the 

 common Father of the race. And so the New Theology objects to all 

 moral views of the atonement which make provisions for waiving any 

 legal process or infliction of penalty, and holds that no new provision 

 of grace or special scheme of redemption for the recovery of man from 

 the power and dominion of sin was necessary ; that all the elements 

 for the restoration from sin to righteousness are included in the pro- 

 visions of Nature, and are sufficient when quickened and invigorated by 

 the Divine Spirit to reinstate men in holiness and in the favor of God. 

 So that the regeneration of the human soul is as practicable with- 

 out the mission or work of Christ as an additional agency as with it, 

 for it consists essentially in the deliberate determination henceforth 

 and forever to be at one with God ; and from this determinative ini- 

 tiative the optimistic element of the mind brings the peace, courage, 

 and hope of faith. There is nothing now to affiict or discourage ex- 

 cept the past, and that is forsaken and abhorred; and since in eternal 

 progress, and effort the soul is in accord \vith the laws of its being and 

 the Divine Will, it gradually comes to forget, as God does, its back- 

 slidings, and to think only of that which is pleasing to God and which 

 will be the source of perpetual delight. 



It would not be consistent with the general run of creation had 

 remedial provisions been left out of the moral nature of man while 

 they are incorporated in animal, in vegetal, and in social being ; nor 

 would it be consistent with the infinite forethought or consideration or 

 compassion of our Father in heaven to introduce a new agency essen- 

 tial to human welfare which was not of immediate and universal ap- 



