48 



THE REV. H. J. E. MARSTON, M.A.^ ON 



measure of hostility which is inevitable ; and which even 

 St. Paul lamented when he wrote to the Philippians about the 

 enmity towards the Cross of Christ. 



For the New Testament accuses man of guilt, misery, and 

 impotence ; and charges him with being responsible to some very 

 real degree for each of these three calamities. It announces 

 also a provision made by God which corresponds with these 

 calamities. It declares that in Jesus Christ God's love has 

 entered into the world of time and history on what may be 

 called a campaign of redemption. This love is just and pure ; 

 and in fulfilling this pure and holy purpose the Son of God 

 became incarnate that He might reconcile and release in reality 

 as well as in truth. The Incarnate Son incurred the total 

 liability of the race which He came to redeem ; even the sacred 

 wrath against sin which is essential to the Godhead was to the 

 full vicariously felt by Him. So completely was this the case 

 that nothing now remains over to be demanded by eternal 

 perfection. 



Since in the intention and knowledge of the representative 

 Christ, Man corresponded with all those demands, a true satis- 

 faction for sin has actually been made. 



Thus a mutual reconciliation of God with the world was 

 brought to pass by God Himself : and love in equity invites all 

 men to become reconciled with God. As, believingly, we 

 remember the speaking of the blood of sprinkling, whose voice of 

 endless power allures all souls, peace with God obtains an inward 

 ascendancy, which is accompanied by a penitent recoil from that 

 which cost the shedding of the Eedeemer's blood. Thus is 

 effected an actual release from the habits and even from the 

 impulses of sin. The Atonement becomes an ethical force ; its 

 influence begins to tell directly upon the springs of life and 

 character. 



IV. — The Docthine of the Blood of Jesus. 



The New Testament is penetrated by the teaching that an 

 intimate connection subsists between the Blood of Jesus and the 

 putting away of sins. The doctrine is supported by each of the 

 four Gospels; by the Acts of the Apostles, by the language of 

 St. Paul, by St. John in his first epistle and in the Apocalypse ; 

 and by St. Peter in his epistle addressed to the churches of the 

 dispersion. 



The apostle to the circumcision and the apostle to the 

 Gentiles equally proclaim this intimate connection. The church 



