THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OP ATONEMENT. 



49 



of the Hebrews and the church of Eome, as also the churches in 

 Asia were all taught that a profound and inviolable association 

 linked the forgiveness of their sins with the shedding of the 

 blood of Jesus. 



From the middle of the ministry of Our Lord to the closing 

 decade of the first Chi'istian century this doctrine was deci- 

 sively and abundantly attested. 



The fact is so conspicuous and so impressive that it cannot 

 be passed by with a cursory notice. It demands to be weighed 

 ancl measured. For it proves that there dwelt in the apostolic 

 mind the conviction unbroken and diverse that 



" Without shedding of blood there is no remission." 



Apart from any belief in divine inspiration this concurrent 

 testimony is remarkable enough. Viewed in the liglit of any 

 real and reasoned behef in that inspiration, the testimony is 

 significant to the highest possible degree. 



The teaching of the apostles about the blood of Jesus was 

 much more than a survival in them of Hebrew habits of mind 

 formed under the influences of the ancient Law. For it is 

 announced in its most trenchant formula in the epistle to the 

 Hebrews ; an epistle which more than any other writing in the 

 New Testament discredits the sacrificial apparatus of the Old 

 Testament when placed in comparison with the sacrifice of 

 Christ. 



The doctrine, moreover, is too defined and emphatic to be 

 explained by that mysterious sentiment, seemingly coeval with 

 our race, that bloodshed is the medium most proper for com- 

 nmnication between God and His offending offspring ; the senti- 

 ment so pathetically treated by Schiller in the " Eleusische fest." 



In fact this doctrine is specific to Christianity ; it is integral 

 to the New Testament, and is distinctive of it. Shadowed 

 forth by the Levitical ritual ; attested by the indigenous 

 religions of the world, sometimes in gross, sometimes in 

 ferocious, always in tragic imitations, the doctrine of the 

 precious blood of Christ" (i Peter 1.) was proclaimed by His. 

 apostles with an energy and an unanimity, which prove that 

 it was practically original. The eternal value of this was 

 declared by them with all the more intensity, because they all 

 denied that 



" the blood of bulls and of goats had any power to take away 

 sins." — (Hebrew^s x.) 



The true origin of the doctrine is to be found in three 

 events in the lile of Our Lord. The first was His teaching in 



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