There is nothing formidable in Renan's attack upon Christianity. It is too unscientific in its whole method to make a lasting impression. In comparison with the work of Strauss, it is of little account. And we doubt not that the ultimate effect of the commotion it has excited, and of the examination it must undergo, will be to exhibit more impressively than ever the difficulty of overthrowing the proofs of Revelation.

ARTICLE II. THE ATONEMENT AS A REVELATION.

We propose to present our views on this subject briefly in a series of independent propositions; merely premising that by Atonement we mean that work of Christ which is the basis of Divine forgiveness.

PROPOSITION I.

The Atonement is not confined to the Death of Christ, but extends throughout his Entire Humiliation.

If the atonement be confined to the moment of death, not only will the sorrows of Gethsemane be excluded, but all the sufferings of the cross. This would be absurd. Where, then, shall we set the limit? Christ's earthly history was a unit from the manger to the tomb. His life, commencing in infinite humiliation, ever pointed to his death. Taking the cross as the centre, we must include the whole circle of sorrow and humiliation which ended in death.

Again: Since all earthly sufferings are, in the case of men, included in "the curse of the law," and since Christ endured these sufferings, they must be included in that curse which he bore to make atonement. Otherwise he endured one part of the curse, viz. death, to make atonement, and, another part, viz. suffering, for no such reason.

Again: The Scriptures do not confine the atonement to Christ's death, nor to the sufferings immediately connected with death. That they do not confine it to the moment of death, is apparent from the various forms of expressions used. Christ's atoning work is referred to not only as dying, but as crucifixion, shedding blood, being sacrificed, bearing our sins in his own body on the tree. All these expressions imply a scene of more or less prolonged suffering. But the Scriptures do not confine the atonement absolutely to the death scene. I Peter ii. 21: "Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps." Heb. ii. 17:

.

"Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren to make reconciliation [eis cò indoxsolar] for the sins of the people." "By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Rom. v. 19. Great prominence is indeed given to Christ's death, but this prominence does not exclude all previous suffering; it rather includes it, as the greater the less. Christ's death was the lowest point in his humiliation, the most astonishing fact of his earthly career, the consummation of his atoning work, and the most glorious exhibition of his character and love. To say "Christ died," was to give, in a word, the whole history of infinite condescension.

The Scriptures never hint at any contrast between Christ's death and his previous life. In interest, his death absorbs his life. It is the focus in which all the rays of his glory unite. But there is no intimation that his life accomplished one thing and his death another. His Death is sharply distinguished from his Resurrection and Intercession, but never from his earthly life, for, in truth, his life was but a part of the process of sacrifice; it was the approach to the altar, the journey of Isaac to Moriah. This our Lord intimates not only in the agony of the garden, (who dare separate this from the atonement?) but even in the early part of his ministry, when he quoted from the great Atonement-prophecy, "Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses," and applied the words to himself at that time.

PROPOSITION II.

That which is especially revealed in the Atonement, is the Character of God.

Rom. iii. 25: "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness." Rom. i. 17: "For therein [in the gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed." Rom. v. 8: "God commendeth his love toward us in that . .. Christ died for us." Jno. i. 18: (written after Christ's death), "The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."

PROPOSITION III.

The Divinity of Christ is fundamental to the revelation of God by the Atonement.

There are revelations which do not require the Divinity of the person employed to reveal, but in this respect the Atonement revelation differs from all others. "God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son . . . . . the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person." Heb. i. 1-3.

The Divinity of Christ is essential,

1. Passively That Christ might be an infinite gift for God to bestow. He "spared not his own Son." No other gift could reveal the heart of God.

2. Actively: That in all his actions and sufferings he might directly express the character of God. Other persons may exhibit qualities of God's character to a certain extent; Jesus Christ exhibits God himself. "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." John xiv. 9.

PROPOSITION IV.

The Humanity of Christ is the organ by which God is revealed in the Atonement.

Just as a revelation by words must be clothed in human language, so this living Revelation must be clothed in humanity.

This was necessary,

1. Passively That Christ might be open to all those influences which test character, and are the means of expression before men; such as pain, temptation, persecution, death.

2. Actively That Christ might communicate with men, and impress himself upon them in every way in which one man can impress another. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." John i. 14.

PROPOSITION V.

Christ's death was providential, not miraculous.

This needs no special proof, for the plain record of Jesus' life forbids every other supposition. God might have erected, without hands, an altar on Calvary and have laid his Son thereon, to be consumed with fire from heaven; but he chose instead that Jesus should die by the hands of wicked men in a way that could not be prevented, at the last moment, without a miracle. If Christ's death had been miraculous, i. e. by a direct and open interposition of Heaven, it would have been, in its significance, dissociated from his life; but as it is, we see the same unbroken chain of Providence connecting his whole earthly history, and the same life-language throughout for us to interpret.

PROPOSITION VI.

The Atonement is a revelation of Justice.

God set forth Christ as a propitiation "to declare his righteousness." Rom. iii. 25. "God's righteousness must mean the righteousness or justice which belongs to himself and his moral government; that which he possesses and requires. This righteousness may be declared either by a system of law exclusively, [èx, dià voμou], by enforcing the law upon all; or by a system of faith [x, diù ricrews] in which Jesus, "the express image of his person," takes the place of law, and faith in him takes the place of sinless obedience.

Christ in the Atonement reveals God's justice or righteous

ness,

1. By his perfect character, tested as it was by his humiliation and death. Does God by forgiving sin exhibit less love of right or of his law? This question is answered by the life of Christ. Behold the law of God carried out in its minutest demand, and widest comprehensiveness, and sublimest spirit, under the assaults of Satan, the persecution of men, and the pains of death; and all this by one who exchanged the glory