Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/337

Rh to the race. It is true, the advent of Christ was of intermediation in time, but in essence of being it was contemporaneous with accountability, and was revealed in prophetic language at the first overture of moral delinquency as the seed of the woman "that should bruise the serpent's head"; and has ever, according to all human experience, been recognized in the ideal of good which reproaches every varying thought and deed, and which constitutes the inspiration and the encouragement to all improvement. The advent and life of our Lord did not therefore impart a new moral element to the world, nor is Christianity a new provision of grace in the plan of human redemption; and the time element in their introduction is a mere question of policy, since they are not of vital importance. That is, it was for divine wisdom to determine when it would be most advantageous to the race to send the quickening example and teaching of Christ into the world, but their advent has in no way modified the relation of God to man, or of man to God, nor made the provisions of human redemption more ample or available. They are incidents in the process of moral progress, and could wisely be introduced only at the proper stage of development, so that the delay in their intercalation can not be reproachful.

The aim of the atonement is to exemplify a condition and life corresponding to, but surpassing, the highest ideals of men, which may be approximately attained by every individual of the race in every stage of accountability; and the effort to realize this condition and life is the acceptance of its provisions and its accounted righteousness or the transfer of Christ's righteousness to the believer; for the faith that impels to be like Christ is transforming in its effect, and by its continuous exercise believers become Christ-like in character and conduct. And this has ever been the result among heathen and Christians of efforts to attain ideal excellence; for the human mind is so constituted that its desirable ideal is always an approximation to the perfection of Christ; and hence the declaration of Peter, "I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is acceptable to him"; and hence, also, the Christ-like worthies among Hebrew saints and pagan philosophers, Mohammedan dervishes, Indian fakirs, and fetich-worshipers. Moral processes, corresponding to those accorded to the atonement of Christ, have been going on in all ages and among all races, regenerating the hearts and improving the conduct of all believers—i.e., of all who aimed to realize their ideal excellence; and this regenerating process was probably signified in the occult religious mysteries of the more cultured nations of antiquity. The atonement, therefore, is not a provision for sin or for the sinner, but for man; and, had sin never entered the world, the mission of Christ would have been as necessary to the exaltation and salvation of mankind as it is under the reign and power of sin. It is a practical revelation of an ideal which was