A T O N E M E N T.
By L. K. WASHBURN.
BOSTON:
PRESS OF JOHN WILSON & SON.
1879.

ATONEMENT.
It is worse than useless to deny that the Christian
doctrines are dying, and that their existence depends
upon well-organized methods of training rather than
upon any special claim to rational belief. I say this, not
with reference to one particular dogma of the Christian
Church, but with respect to them all. Slowly but surely
has the life-blood been ebbing from the entire Christian
system; and the pale, thin, ghostly figure which now
stands for Christianity bears but a ſaint likeness to the
once sound, healthy body that bore that name. It is
unnecessary to go far back to find what is called Ortho-
doxy the leading theology of the civilized world.
The weak hold which most of the Christian doctrines
have upon the mind to-day demonstrates beyond any
power of argument or force of illustration the falseness
of these doctrines. There is but one way left to save
respect for them, and that is to declare them sacred.
The Church has manifested its accustomed penetration
in adapting its methods to the temper of the human
mind. No one likes to speak against what mankind
looks upon as holy, hence but few have braved the cer-


4.
tain condemnation which is visited upon all who dare to
criticise what the world protects with its reverence. It
is a duty when speaking upon theological or religious
questions to speak the truth as far as it is known, and to
do this is to speak against the doctrines of Christianity;
but let it be understood that we do not do this because
we love to censure, but because we are bound to do it,
as honest men. When we reflect that within the mem-
ory of living men and women, the doctrine of infant
damnation was preached in Christian pulpits, and that
the dogmas most discussed, half a century ago, by min-
ister and people, were the dead dogmas of election, a
hell of literal fire and flame, everlasting suffering for the
deeds done in our earthly life, and atonement for the
sins of men by the actual blood of Jesus which was shed
upon the cross, we can declare, upon the authority of
acknowledged facts, that Christianity as a theology is
decaying. I am aware that Christian churches are at-
tended in town and city, and that ministers are ordained
to preach the doctrines of Christianity; but with what
nearness to their original meaning and intention every
one knows. The world has learned that God is not half
as bad as Christian theology declares, and that man is a
good deal better; and it is making its own experience
the basis of its faith, instead of an assumption that was
framed by ignorance and reared by superstition. Be-
cause all men are not moral and upright, are we justified
in preaching the depravity of human nature? While
knowing that man is not perfect, and that he is yet far
from that greatness which his nature prophesies, I still
believe in human possibility. We may not be able to
reconcile the strange contradictions of good and evil in

5
almost every heart: but we cannot escape the persuasion
that man's power is superior to his acts.
There are many acts which are called wrong for man
to do that all are not convinced are wrong; and it is this
lack of conviction that is the source of much which
mankind condemns, and not any inherent tendency to
evil. What change in our standard of morality will be
effected by taking advantage of this want of conviction,
and following inclination as Nature's direction, cannot
be affirmed. If a wider interpretation is to be allowed
human freedom, and human relations are to be governed
by laws framed upon desires alone, we may safely de-
clare that, unless they tend to a higher humanity and a
purer moral character, they will meet with speedy and
certain annulment. Nature desires the preservation of
the human race, and every instinct and passion of man
was endowed with the mission of perpetuation. We
may rest confidently in the assurance that, if we live by
any course of conduct that is opposed to the right de-
velopment of Nature's plan, it will receive in the end
utter revocation and repeal. Humanity as a moral
creation can have continued existence only by obedience
to moral laws; and Nature in every realm rests upon
the survival of the fittest. The moving pedestal of life
upon which science has enthroned the world, is truer as
a religious incentive than any fixed manner or method
of living. Growth is a fact, and in Nature's economy
only what is pure and sound survives. Let us know
that this human growth of ours depends upon the same
principles that control and determine vegetable and
animal existence. Are we yet ready to accept the truth
that mankind, though only one kind, is nevertheless a

6
part of the all-kind, and that the whole chain of events
is made up of every link of action? We must see that
there is one purpose in all things, and that to get into
harmony with this one purpose is the struggle of life.
What Nature affirms or denies we must assent to, or be
false to truth. Whatever shapes the ends of earth and
heaven, shapes ours as well. If it be divinity in the
grass and sky, it is no less than divinity in human action
and thought. We do not so much achieve destiny as
wear it, and the atonement man is to make is to bear the
cross of fate as life lays it upon him.
This word “atonement” has somehow come to stand
for and represent only one act; but the word is wide in
its significance and has a meaning larger than is covered
by any one’s individual performance. In the Christian
system the import of this word is narrowed to the cruci-
fixion and suffering of Jesus on the cross, and we are
told that in this suffering was condensed the sufficient
pain of all the sins of human kind. The multiplied
agony which this idea suggests cannot be grasped by the
mind. A few hours of time made to hold the sum of
all the pains of all the sins of all mankind for ever!
Never were moments so expanded with suffering as
these, and never victim so loaded with punishment as
the being who bore the penalty of human guilt! Let
us look a little into this word atonement. We cannot
in an essay trace out the historical and mythological
connections of the word: to do this a volume would be
requisite. We want to find what the word means, and
then examine the idea it stands for to the world.
To atone is to make amends or satisfaction for an
offence or a crime; to expiate. Atonement is satisfac-

7
tion made by giving an equivalent for an injury or
offence. It is reparation. Atonement is a word which
is used to represent the act whereby two estranged per-
sons are restored to agreement. Atonement may require
a sacrifice on the part of a third person, — for instance,
in discharging a debt or the like; but the one for whom
the debt is paid by the third party is not released from
obligation: his obligation is merely transferred. Atone-
ment may stand for the act which reconciles one person
to another. This reconciliation may be effected without
sacrifice on the part of either party, simply by removing
the cause of disagreement: which may be done by ex-
planation. To illustrate: Two friends hear an account
of a certain affair; each one hears a different version,
and, influenced by what they hear, take sides on the
subject, and become opponents. A third party, knowing
the facts in the case, and wishing to make the two friends
at one again, goes to both and relates the whole affair
just as it happened. They, upon seeing the truth as it is,
have no cause for further enmity, and reconciliation is at
once effected. But usually the word atone is used in the
strict Christian sense. We are told that God and man
were estranged by some act of man, and that the death
of Jesus was the atonement made which effected recon-
ciliation. Not one man was estranged from God, but all
mankind, by this act of one man. One man's act cannot
bind another man morally; that is, one man cannot be
held responsible for another man’s act. Justice bids us,
if we have done a wrong, to repair it; but justice does
not make the innocent suffer for the guilty. When Jesus
hung bleeding on the cross, do you tell me that the sins
of man were expiated? No! another crime was added

8
to the catalogue of human guilt. God never demanded
such a sacrifice, —never blotted human history with the
blood of innocence. This notion that Jesus was a sac-
rifice accepted by God for the sins of men is a theo-
logical fiction. There is neither truth nor sense in it.
It is a priestly fabrication, a monstrous invention for
selfish ends. The Christian Church teaches that it is
right to make the innocent suffer for the guilty. This
idea is the centre of the doctrine of vicarious atonement.
This infernal parody on justice should be condemned
with a thousand tongues. It is a vile slander on hu-
manity as well as on divinity. The guilty should suffer
for their guilt. There is no other law that is right.
Is the religion that is founded upon the idea of vica-
rious atonement the highest that men can live? Is this
the best scheme of salvation that intelligence can desire? "
Why command mankind to do right, if those who do
wrong are to be freed from the penalty of wrong-doing,
and those who do right are to suffer punishment for those
who do wrong? Jesus suffered the pain of crucifixion,
not the penalty of human sins, when on the cross. Let
us apply common sense to this idea of vicarious suffer-
ing. For what sin did Jesus suffer? For none that he
did, for none that you or I have done: but for the sin
which the first created man committed, we are told. This
sin, which brought enmity between God and man, was
that of disobedience. God told the first created man
not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, for in the day that he should eat thereof he should
surely die. Now this first man did not die in the day
that he ate thereof, according to the account of the event,
but instead his eyes were opened to the knowledge of

9
the nature of things. The being called God in this
fable told man a lie, and punished him for learning the
truth. Surely the first experience of man in searching
after the truth was not calculated to make him wish to
continue the search. I have often thought that these
second and third chapters of Genesis were a satire on
the desire of man for knowledge, and that instead of
sober truth we should read them as grim humor.
If there is one tree that man does need to eat of, it is
this forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil;
and if any knowledge will keep him alive and make him
happy and perfect, it is just this knowledge which he
was forbidden to acquire. We are dying to-day from
ignorance, not from knowledge, – dying because we do
not know the good from the evil; and we are dooming
ourselves and future generations to premature death
because we do not eat more of the tree of knowledge.
To know more is what we need. Let us look into things
and find out what the world means. If this universe is
only an illuminated deception, the man who discovers
the fact will be a public benefactor. If things which
exist around us are lying to us, - if the stars that shine
out through the deep space above us are only fire-flies of
the night, let us know it. Knowledge will not hurt us
so much as ignorance and deception. If the flowers
that uncover their beauty for our delight have but a
phantom loveliness, and nought is real in the enchanting
world about us, then let us be told the truth. The soul
can bear it better than to be deceived. We may be
trusted with the knowledge of good and evil and of right
and wrong, ye God of Genesist and praise be to the
first created man for breaking the command to remain

IO
in ignorance, and taking the first step towards solving
the riddle of life! We learn every thing by living.
The truth is not revealed to us: we must discover it. It
is seen when we climb high enough to see it, or live
wise enough to feel it, or act true enough to utter it.
When we hear the truth, we hear only the echo of the
universe. The last thing that we have to fear is the truth
and the consequences of knowing it. Almost the whole
business of life is finding it. Let us not fear to speak
it or to hear it. And let us go with it whenever found.
They who are keeping the world from the knowledge of
good and evil, who are trying to discourage the preach-
ing of truth, are the enemies of mankind.
Every act is followed by its natural consequence. We
cannot sin against ourselves or against another, and
escape the penalty of our act. The punishment is im-
mediate, and is intended to be remedial. What pain
did Jesus bear on the cross? Surely not the pain which
the first created man felt for disobedience of his God's
commandment, for that pain he bore himself. He did
not bear the pains which our sins bring, for we have to
bear them. In the life of man on earth where does the
vicarious suffering of Jesus come in? If we break a
limb, it does not heal without pain. If we are afflicted
with rheumatism, the pangs shoot along the part where
the disease is located. If we cheat a neighbor, our
conscience smarts under the deed. There is not a pain
less in the world to-day for the crucifixion of Jesus, -
not a single act that is exempted from its just reward or
punishment; and man's relation to Nature is just the
same it was before the torture of the Nazarene began.
From what are we saved by the death of Jesus? Cer-

II.
tainly not from the wrongs of persecution, not from the
evils of hate and revenge. Men to-day for honest ut-
terance are maligned and abused the same as was Jesus.
I do not desire to throw discredit upon the greatness of
that life of Judea which Christendom has made divine;
I acknowledge the rare human qualities of the man Je-
sus: but I do protest against the common way of judging
him. We do not know the measure of divine action:
but I cannot discover in the life of Jesus any act that
transcends human performances. He lived a good life;
we do not know how good: but others have done the
same. He died a cruel death; and history tells us that
he died bravely: but others have done so too. A thou-
sand sacrifices besides the sacrifice that Jesus made
could not be spared by the world. I believe that the
weak, unhealthy religious sentiment that pervades society
springs from the idea taught by the Christian Church,
that men can be saved by this scheme of vicarious
atonement.
There will be a sound tone to our religious thought
when we acknowledge the truth that we must save our-
selves, and that self-reliance and individual virtue will
alone insure salvation to the world. The Christian
Church has taught the notion too long that one could
believe in Jesus and be saved. We do not want to
profess a certain theological belief, but to be true to the
belief that we have, no matter what it is. Religious
honesty is the demand of the age. There is in the
world far too much pretended faith. Hypocrisy is in
the Church more plainly than was the writing on the
wall that pointed to the downfall and death of Belshazzar;
and it requires no prophetic vision to read the warning

I 2
it contains. As a people we are too careless about our
church connections. We do not go where our religious
convictions would carry us, but too often where self-
interest or social advantage suggests. The churches of
America to-day are attended and supported by people
who reject the theology upon which they are founded.
When honesty is put under the corner-stones of our
churches, their thirty-nine dogmas will be taken out.
The Christian belief to-day is not the strong, sturdy
faith of a century ago. There is apology where once
there was assertion; the admission of lack of evidence
where there was formerly declaration of the firmest
proof. There is a manifest desire on the part of the
Church to court the favor of modern thought; and many
of the doctrines of Christianity are put forward in such
a way as to annul their force and compromise their mean-
ing. Many Christian pulpits have lost that dogmatic
manner of utterance that fifty years ago characterized
sermon and prayer. Christianity has met with a change
of form if not with a change of heart which is fatal to
its theology. We have only to follow up the advantage
gained, to see within the next generation such a triumph
of free thought as will place mankind in this country for
ever beyond the influence of priestly authority. The
Orthodox God is dead, and nought but his remains can
be found in human belief to-day. The entire Christian
faith is under the care of the physician, and the reverend
doctors who are attending this failing theology evince
alarm for the condition of their patient, who with all
her many faults has always paid her doctors liberally.
Atonement has been explained until it is explained
away, and the act it stands for to-day is scarcely more

I 3
than neighborly assistance which the human heart offered
before the Cross cast its cruel shadow over the earth.
The attempt to modify the Christian dogmas is only a
confession of their falseness; and Unitarianism and Uni-
versalism must either go back to Rome or Geneva, or
else go forward to the truth. The thin skin of liberal-
ism over the bodies of these denominations cannot dis-
guise the Orthodoxy of their faith. If we believe in the
God of Nature, we cannot believe in the God of Chris-
tianity. If we believe that Jesus was a man, we cannot
believe he was Deity. If we teach morality, we cannot
teach vicarious atonement. Tens of thousands of help-
ing hands have been stretched to the world; and shall
we deny all but one, and say this alone is the saving
hand? This would be injustice to the rest. The world
must be taught to look at Jesus differently.
There are in the life of man hours of destiny. At
such times as these, men have impressed themselves upon
the world. Jesus at work as men work to-day is sur-
rounded with no halo of divinity. It is when he is
pictured on the mount that he becomes transfigured. I
would not destroy the respect or reverence of mankind,
but I would see it directed to right objects. Divinity
cannot be represented by man. Earth has borne noth-
ing higher than humanity; and for men and women to
worship a being that has lived on this earth is to be
guilty of idolatry.
There is a misunderstanding of radicalism by many
who are liberal in their faith. They cannot see why
there should be so much criticism of Christianity. These
persons say we ought to emphasize our own faith, not
denounce the faith of Christians. Was it by painting

I4
the beautiful face of justice that the abolition party
wrought the great national reform of emancipation, or
by showing the hideous features of the terrible evil
which they condemned 2 Reform requires as much
denial as affirmation, as much criticism as commenda-
tion. Our crusade against the Church is directed against
the falseness in it, not against the truth. We aim to
save religion, not to destroy it. The abolitionist's op-
position to slavery was not opposition to labor, but to
enslaved labor. He was not opposed to the negro
working, but to his working for a master instead of for
himself. So the radical's opposition to Christianity is
not opposition to religion, only to false religion, to the
Christian doctrines. Religion like labor must be free.
We have no more right to enslave a man's soul than we
have his body. It is said by liberal people that it is
policy not to say much against the Church, and that
more will join our movement if we let other beliefs
alone. We do not want large congregations if we can-
not have honest and true ones. What we should strive
to do is not to preserve our numbers but our integrity.
Radicalism cannot say, “Believe and be saved.” We
do not make a gift enterprise of our religious faith, and
offer heaven to those who will accept it. The man who
keeps himself safe from all evil in this life has got harder
work to do than to believe a theology.
This world needs to be taught how far it can go and
be safe, and where danger lies, and how to avoid danger.
We know little of ourselves, and are denied half the
happiness of existence from ignorance of our natures.
We should learn how to use our powers and faculties
without injuring them. With knowledge of ourselves

I5
must come a truer respect for our natures, – such a re-
spect as makes indulgence and excess a sin and a shame.
Men and women are suffering to-day from lack of this
respect. We cannot abuse a single function without
suffering; and the only atonement there is for such pain
is return to natural obedience. Our education has been
to make us afraid of too much knowledge, and to throw
discredit upon inquiry concerning certain parts of human
nature; but there is nothing about us that we can afford
to neglect, or that we can afford to be ignorant of.
All the errors and sufferings of the world seem to have
uttered that great command, “Know thyself.” When
we have suffered from lack of knowledge, we have cried
in despair, “Why was I not told better?” This cry
goes up night and day from every part of earth, and yet
the world does not heed the cry. It is time that we
were instructed in those things that will keep us from
suffering. We ought to know the results of human
study, what philosophy teaches, and be familiar with
the science of human life. Religion is true reverence
of Nature, and worship is obedience of natural laws.
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