Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/67

Rh sufferings and death, or feels towards our race as if they themselves had suffered the merited punishment. It is for this reason that the Atonement is commonly called by Christian writers vicarious. Christ, they say, suffered as our vicar or substitute—suffered in our stead—and, by his own death, paid the penalty which the Father demanded for his violated law. In this way He satisfied the demands of Divine Justice, and purchased a pardon for man, or propitiated the Deity.

This doctrine needs no comment. It would seem as if every honest man and woman who are not willing to utterly renounce their understanding in matters of religion and accept a blind faith, could hardly fail to perceive that such a doctrine must be false the moment they hear it stated. Yet no other doctrine is clung to with such blind and inveterate obstinacy as this—for the reason, doubtless, that no other promises the sinner salvation on such easy terms.

What, now, is the New Church doctrine on this subject? It is not easy to present it in such a manner that it will be readily apprehended by the natural man. For until we have had some experience of the Atonement—until our natural has, to some extent, been brought under subjection and into agreement or oneness with our spiritual