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 THE 
 
 
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 CHRISTIAN DOCTRIJfiailASS 
 
 FORGIVENESS OF SIN; 
 
 an SEssag^ 
 
 JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 
 
 FOURTH EDI' 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 AMEKICAN UNirAKlAXv' ASSOCIATION. 
 
 1874. 
 

 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by the 
 
 AMEKICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : 
 
 BTEBBOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 
 
 JOHN WILBON AND SON 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. — STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 BBCT. PAQB 
 
 1. Importance of the Doctrine of Forgiveness 9 
 
 2. Taught by Jesus in the Gospels 10 
 
 3. And in the Book of Acts 11 
 
 4. And in the Epistles of Paul 13 
 
 5. And by the other Apostles 15 
 
 6. It is necessary for Peace and Progress 17 
 
 7. The Moral Law by itself may make men worse; therefore 
 
 Forgiveness is needed 18 
 
 8. But the Doctrine of Forgiveness is attended with Diffi- 
 
 culties 21 
 
 9. Which are also found in the N"ew Testament .... 24 
 
 10. Which teaches Doctrines apparently opposed to that of 
 
 Forgiveness 26 
 
 11. Such Apparent Contradictions the Token and Evidence 
 
 of the Presence of Large Truths 30 
 
 12. Truths which God has joined together, not to be put 
 
 asunder 32 
 
 13. The Orthodox do not fully teach Eetribution .... 34 
 
 14. Nor the Rationalists, Forgiveness 37 
 
 [3J 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAKT n.— -THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS. 
 8B0T. PAOB 
 
 15. What is Forgiveness ? 41 
 
 16. The Consequences of Sin are Twofold 42 
 
 17. The First, a Sense of Divine Displeasure 44 
 
 18. Which is removed by Forgiveness 45 
 
 19. Implying also an Objective Change in the Mind of God 46 
 
 20. The Second Consequence of Sin, which is Depravity of 
 
 Character, is not immediately removed by Forgiveness 48 
 
 21. Recapitulation 50 
 
 22. This View of Forgiveness satisfies the Sense of Justice 52 
 
 23. And the Need of Pardon 54 
 
 PART III. — FAITH AND WORKS; OR, THE CONDITIONS OF 
 FORGIVENESS. 
 
 24. Faith, Works, a Forgiving Spirit, Repentance and Con- 
 
 fession, the Scripture Conditions of Pardon .... 58 
 
 25. Faith or Works 60 
 
 26. The Opposition of Paul and James 61 
 
 27. The Distinction between Forgiveness and Justification . 64 
 
 28. Faith and Knowledge distinguished 65 
 
 29. Faith and Belief distinguished 69 
 
 30. Faith and Opinion distinguished 72 
 
 31. Importance of these Distinctions 73 
 
 32. Christian Faith in particular 75 
 
 33. Christian Faith as the Condition of Forgiveness ... 78 
 
 34. Works, growing out of Faith, the Condition of Full Sal- 
 
 vation 79 
 
 85. Mutual Relation of Faith and Works in the Christian 
 
 Life 81 
 
 36. Results of Forgiveness in the Future Life 82 
 
 87. Objections to this Doctrine Answered 85 
 
CONTENTS. O 
 
 PART IV. — OBSTACLES AND HELPS. - 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 38. Difficulty of believing in Forgiveness 90 
 
 39. All Moral Training makes it more difficult 93 
 
 40. Christ's Revelation of Pardoning Love alone makes it 
 
 possible 93 
 
 41. The Work of God in Human Forgiveness .... 95 
 
 42. The Work of Christ in Human Forgiveness ; First, 
 
 as a Teacher 98 
 
 43. Second, in his Life 101 
 
 44. Third, by his Death. Principal Texts 102 
 
 46. Various Theories concerning the Effect of Christ's Death 106 
 
 46. These Theories, matters of Theology, not of Religion . 108 
 
 47. How the Death of Christ may produce Faith in Forgiv- 
 
 ing Love 109 
 
 48. As, in fact, it has actually done 112 
 
 49. How Christ's Death may have satisfied God .... 113 
 
 50. By communicating Actual Holiness to Man .... 117 
 
 51. The Work of Man in his own Forgiveness .... 120 
 
 52. His Efforts to do Right a Preparation for Forgiveness . 122 
 
 53. Repentance, and its Relation to Faith 124 
 
 54. Is Faith Man's Work or God's Gift? 125 
 
 55. God and Man concur in every Act of Faith 126 
 
 56. What Man can do, and what he cannot do 127 
 
 67. The Work of the Christian Church 130 
 
 58. The Twofold Work of the Church in Forgiveness . . 136 
 
 part v. — RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 69. The New Life growing out of Forgiven Sin .... 140 
 
 60. Its Twofold Character, and that of Goodness in general 144 
 
 61. The Christian Life the Synthesis of both kinds of 
 
 Goodness 149 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 8BGT. PAGB 
 
 62. The Evil of cultivating exclusively the Goodness of 
 
 Effort 151 
 
 63. Forgiveness the Practical Solution of the Problem of Evil 155 
 
 64. And that of Human Freedom and Divine Providence . 157 
 
 65. Conclusion ...... 159 
 
NOTE. 
 
 The American Unitarian Association have, with the consent 
 of the author, and in response to a very frequent and earnest re- 
 quest, republished this volume, which has for many years been 
 out of print. The cordial reception of this Treatise in the former 
 editions proves that it meets a very general religious want. 
 
(i ^EESIT' 
 
 PART I. 
 
 STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 § 1. Importance of the Doctrine of Forgiveness. 
 
 The doctrine of Forgiveness of Sin occupies 
 an important place in Christian theology. As 
 connected with the doctrine of the Atone- 
 ment, it has been placed by many theologians 
 in the centre of the Christian system, and has 
 been called the essential doctrine of Christi- 
 anity. It is prominent in the teachings of 
 Jesus and his apostles. Its influence on the 
 formation of the Christian character is, as I 
 shall hereafter show, great and constant. Yet 
 the subject is attended with difficulties, which 
 past investigation has not wholly removed. 
 On this account, it seems desirable that the 
 doctrine should be examined anew, its diffi- 
 
 [9] 
 
10 STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 culties fairly considered, and an attempt made 
 to remove them. 
 
 § 2. Taught by Jesus in the Gospels. 
 
 In the Gospels, we find our Saviour fre- 
 quently speaking of the Forgiveness of Sin. 
 In the Lord's Prayer, we are taught to pray 
 for Forgiveness every day. Sometimes, when 
 healing diseases, Jesus said to the patient, 
 " Thy sins are forgiven thee." One of these 
 occasions occurred near the commencement 
 of his ministry, and is recorded in the second 
 chapter of Matthew and the fifth of Luke. 
 On this occasion, the scribes accused him of 
 blasphemy, saying, " Who can forgive sins 
 but God alone?" But Jesus assured them 
 that he had power to forgive sins, and con- 
 firmed his assertion by healing the sick man. 
 In another place (Luke, vii.), we have the 
 remarkable story of the sinful woman, who 
 washed his feet with tears, and anointed 
 them with the ointment. At this time, Jesus 
 not only said to her, " Thy sins are forgiven," 
 
STATE OF THE QUESTION. 11 
 
 but seemed to show that her love was a 
 proof of it. She was not forgiven because 
 she loved, but she loved because she was for- 
 given.* Another remarkable passage, in re- 
 lation to this subject, is that in which Jesus 
 says, that " All sins shall be forgiven to 
 men, except that against the Holy Ghost." 
 So also is that in which he gives to his disci- 
 ples the authority or the power of remitting 
 sins.f The parable of the " Prodigal Son " 
 turns upon Repentance and Forgiveness. The 
 parable of the " Pharisee and the Publican " 
 teaches that humility is a condition of For- 
 giveness. 
 
 § 3. And in the Book of Acts. 
 
 When we turn to the book of Acts, and 
 read the History of the Planting of the Chris- 
 tian Church, we find that Forgiveness of Sins 
 
 * This appears from the last clause of verse 47, " To whom 
 little is forgiven, the same loveth little." Love is here not the 
 condition^ but the effect^ of Forgiveness, — a distinction, as we shall 
 hereafter see, of great moment. 
 
 t John, XX. 23. 
 
12 STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 was always announced by the apostles as one 
 of the great privileges of the Kingdom of 
 Christ. In Peter's first sermon, he tells his 
 hearers to " repent and be baptized," and they 
 " shall receive the remission of sins, and the 
 gift of the Holy Ghost." In his next address 
 (recorded in the following chapter), he tells 
 them to " repent and be converted, that their 
 sins may be blotted outJ^ In the fifth chapter, 
 we have another address of Peter to the Jew- 
 ish Sanhedrim, in which he tells them that 
 " God has made Jesus a Prince and Saviour, 
 to give repentance to Israel 3.nd forgiveness of 
 sinsJ^ In the first account we have of the 
 preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts, 
 X.), Peter teaches Cornelius concerning the 
 facts in the life of Jesus, and about his resur- 
 rection ; and says, that, "through his name, 
 whosoever believeth in him shall receive re- 
 mission of sins, ^^ In the first account which 
 we have of the preaching of Paul (Acts, xiii.) 
 at Antioch, he says, " Be it known unto you 
 therefore. Men and brethren, that througli this 
 
STATE OP THE QUESTION. 13 
 
 man is preached unto you the forgiveness of 
 sins,^^ In the book of Acts, therefore, it ap- 
 pears that the Forgiveness of sins was the 
 first thing offered, both to the Jews and to the 
 Gentiles, as the gift of God to believers. 
 
 § 4. And in the Epistles of Paul. 
 
 When we turn to the epistles of Paul,* we 
 find this doctrine made equally prominent in 
 his system of doctrine. It is the main subject 
 of the Epistle to the Romans, and of the 
 Epistle to the Galatians ; for Justification is 
 but another name for Forgiveness, and the 
 essential idea of Forgiveness is also conveyed 
 by the word Reconciliation. Throughout 
 Paul's other epistles, the Forgiveness of Sin 
 
 * Is it not time to stop calling the apostles Saints, and to 
 speak of Matthew, Mark, John, and Paul, without degrading them 
 with this Roman Catholic title ? We never hear a minister say, 
 " Let us read from the Epistle of Saint Paul," or " Saint Peter," 
 without feeling that a true reverence for those great men ought 
 to show itself by following their own gospel simplicity. They 
 called ALL believers " Saints," " holy; " for all believers were 
 one in Christ, and partaking of his holiness by faith. We discard, 
 so far, their own idea of Christianity when we separate them from 
 their brethren by such titles of honor. 
 
14 STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 is a prominent idea. Thus (Ephes. i. 7), " In 
 whom we have redemption through his blood, 
 the forgiveness of sins. '^^ (Ephes. iv. 32) "Be 
 ye kind to one another, tender-hearted, for- 
 giving one another, even as God in Christ (or 
 by Christ) has forgiven youP (Col. i. 14) 
 " In whom we have redemption, even the for- 
 giveness of sinsP (Col. ii. 13) " And you, 
 being dead in your sins, hath he made alive 
 with him, having forgiven you all trespasses^ 
 So (Col. iii. 13), too, he tells them to forgive 
 one another, even as Christ forgave them. 
 We see, therefore, from such passages, that, 
 while the hoj)e of forgiveness was presented 
 by Paul as a leading motive to induce men 
 to become Christians, he also appeals to their 
 consciousness of being forgiven as a main mo- 
 tive to induce them to live as Christians. 
 Future forgiveness is a motive to repentance ; 
 past forgiveness is a motive to Love. This, 
 we see, corresponds again with the declaration 
 of Jesus, that the woman loved much " because 
 she had been forgiven much." 
 
STATE OF THE QUESTION. 15 
 
 § 5. And by the other Apostles. 
 
 The other Apostles, in their writings, lay- 
 equal stress upon this doctrine. The author 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews (whose purpose 
 is to show that the Jew loses nothing of real 
 value when he becomes a Christian) teaches 
 that the essential advantage and meaning of 
 the priesthood and the temple-worship is re- 
 placed by something in Christianity which is, 
 in relation to these, like the Substance to the 
 Shadow. Christ therefore, he says, "is our 
 High Priest, to make reconciliation for the 
 sins of the people." " He is our sacrifice (or 
 covenant-offering) for the redemption of our 
 transgression" (Heb. ix. 15) ; and "the media- 
 tor of that new covenant, of which God had 
 said, that in it he would be merciful to the 
 unrighteousness of Israel, and their sins and 
 iniquities would remember no more" (Heb. 
 viii. 12 ; x. 17). Luther called the Epistle of 
 James " an epistle of straw," because James 
 lays stress on works, and seems to contradict 
 
16 STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 the Pauline doctrine of justification by faith 
 alone. But even James teaches (v. 15) that 
 by the prayer of faith Sins shall be Forgiven. 
 The apostle Peter, as we might suppose from 
 his sermons in the book of Acts, refers to the 
 same doctrine in his epistles. " Christ also," 
 he says (1 Peter, iii. 18), "hath suffered for 
 sins, that he might bring us to GodP " God," 
 he says (i. 3), "hath, by his abundant mercy, 
 begotten us again unto a lively hope by the 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ." In the epistles 
 of John, the Doctrine of Forgiveness is quite 
 as prominent. We read (1 John, i. 9) that 
 " If we confess our sins. He is faithful and 
 just to forgive us our sinsy (ii. 2) " He is 
 the propitiation of our siiisJ^ (ii. 12) " I write 
 unto you, little children, because your sins are 
 forgivenP And (iv. 10) " Herein is Love, 
 not that we loved God, but that he loved us, 
 and sent his Son to be the propitiation for 
 our sins,''^ John also teaches (iv. 19), " We 
 love him because he first loved us," agreeing 
 with Jesus and the apostle Paul in repre- 
 
STATE OF THE QUESTION. 17 
 
 senting Forgiveness as a motive to Christian 
 Love. 
 
 § 6. Necessary to Peace and Progress. 
 
 Not only dqes the importance of this doc- 
 trine appear from the prominent place which 
 it occupies in the Christian Scriptures, but 
 also from its necessity for peace and progress. 
 The mind which is weighed down with a 
 sense of sin can have no peace. The mind 
 that is destitute of peace can make no prog- 
 ress. Anxiety and doubt unnerve the wilL 
 There must be inward composure, or there 
 can be no moral energy. Every thing which 
 distracts or divides the mind weakens its 
 powers. And, to accomplish any thing well, 
 we must be able to " forget the things behind, 
 and reach out to those before." The man 
 who is looking back with regret at the failure 
 of past enterprises will not engage with energy 
 in new ones. The man who is looking back 
 with remorse at past violations of duty will 
 not fulfil his present duties with that joyful 
 2 
 
18 STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 energy which alone does duty well. Accord- 
 ingly, we find, throughout all Christian expe- 
 rience, that the peace which comes from a 
 conviction of pardoned sin is one of the essen- 
 tial motives to Christian progress. 
 
 § 7. The Moral Law hy itself may make men worse. 
 
 This brings us to a profound truth of hu- 
 man nature, namely, that to enlighten the 
 conscience by the moral law, instead of mak- 
 ing man morally better, may often make him 
 worse. We all know that the conscience, 
 when unenlightened or misinformed, may lead 
 to crime; and that men (like the apostle 
 Paul) have "verily thought that they ought 
 to " persecute heretics and burn errorists. But 
 the apostle Paul was the first to recognize 
 the fact, which no one since his time has 
 dared to state as plainly as himself, that 
 moral teaching by itself , instead of strengthen- 
 ing, may weaken the moral energies. " The 
 law," he says, " is holy, just, and good ; " but 
 " though ordained for life, it becomes death " 
 
STATE OP THE QUESTION. 19 
 
 ill consequence of human weakness (Rom. 
 vii. 8 — 13). "Sin," he says, ^^ takes occasion 
 by the commandment," and, being dead before 
 the moral law comes, is developed by it, 
 and becomes active. And, still more for- 
 cibly, " The strength of sin is the law " 
 (1 Cor. XV.). The way in which this takes 
 place is plain. The law (that is, the sight 
 of moral truth) arouses the conscience, and 
 shows us our duty, but does not give us 
 strength to perform it. It produces a dispro- 
 portion between our moral powers and our 
 moral aims. In order that we may make 
 moral progress, two things are necessary, — a 
 new aim, and a new power; a clearer sight 
 of what we ought to be, and stronger motive 
 to induce us to become it. Now, the moral 
 law only fulfils one of these conditions. It 
 shows us what we ought to be. We endeavor 
 to obey it, and may succeed to a certain ex- 
 tent, but never wholly; for the moral law 
 demands perfect obedience, and consequently 
 it always leaves us with a sense of failure. 
 
 IK 
 
20 STATE OP THE QUESTION. 
 
 This, of itself, unnerves us. But more than 
 this. It sets before us duties which are op- 
 posed to our wishes, and which we do not 
 even try to fulfil. This leaves us not only 
 with a sense of failure, but with a sense of sin, 
 of guilt. But a sense of guilt no one can 
 endure ; and, to escape from it, we must stifle 
 the voice of conscience, cease to think of duty, 
 and plunge recklessly into that other kind of 
 satisfaction which comes from the gratifica- 
 tion of desire. Consequently, we go further 
 into guilt than we should have done if the 
 conscience had not been enlightened at all. 
 Much more might be added upon this subject; 
 but for our present purpose this must sufiice. 
 We see that to awaken the conscience, and 
 to enlighten it by the sight of a high moral 
 standard, is the first and essential condition 
 of moral progress. But we see also, that, in 
 order eiSectually to make progress, a second 
 condition must be fulfilled ; otherwise, instead 
 of becoming better, one may be made worse. 
 It is absolutely necessary to take the first 
 
STATE OF THE QUESTION. 21 
 
 step, bat still more necessary to take the 
 second. And this second step is taken by- 
 means of the Doctrine of Forgiveness. The 
 law teaches duty, and awakens conscience. 
 The gospel offers pardon, and creates Love. 
 The first gives us aim ; the second, power. The 
 way in which this is effected we shall show 
 hereafter. 
 
 § 8. The Doctrine of Forgiveness is attended with difficulties. 
 
 But though the Doctrine of Forgiveness 
 is thus prominent in the New Testament, 
 and is thus important for the development 
 of the Christian character, it is attended with 
 difficulties. What is forgiveness ? We know 
 what forgiveness is when predicated of man ; 
 but how can we say in any like sense that 
 God forgives? When man forgives an insult 
 or an injury, we know what it means. It 
 means either that he ceases to be angry with 
 the offender, or that he remits the punishment 
 of the offence, or both. When the execution- 
 ers who were about to kindle the pile which 
 
22' STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 was to consume the Maid of Orleans asked 
 her forgiveness, they did not mean to ask her 
 for a remission of punishment^ for they were 
 not exposed to any punishment : they meant 
 to ask that she should not he offended with 
 them for what they were compelled to do. 
 But when a condemned criminal asks forgive- 
 ness of the executive power, he does not ask 
 that the King or Governor, in whose hand 
 mercy lies, shall not he angry with him ; for he 
 knows that they entertain no such feeling. 
 He asks for a remission of the penalty of his 
 crime. * Now, it would seem at first sight that 
 the Deity cannot be expected to forgive the 
 sinner in either of these ways. Not by ceas- 
 ing to be angry; for he never was angry. 
 Not by remitting the penalty ; for the penalty 
 is not an arbitrary infliction, but the natural 
 and necessary consequence of the offence. 
 When God is said to be angry, when his 
 wrath is spoken of, whatever it means, it can- 
 not mean any thing like human passion. 
 Such passion is inconsistent with the essential 
 
STATE OF THE QUESTION. 23 
 
 attributes of Deity; for it implies weakness, 
 suffering, and selfish irritation. But if God's 
 anger be a holy indignation, or the necessary 
 aversion with which a holy nature contem- 
 plates sin, then it would appear that this 
 anger cannot cease until the sinner is alto- 
 gether purified. And if punishment be the 
 natural consequence of sin; if, in the very 
 nature of things, evil conduct must deprave 
 the character, pollute the mind, harden the 
 heart, — how can we expect these consequences 
 to be remitted? Can the wicked be made 
 happy until they be made holy? Can we 
 enjoy an outward Heaven until we have 
 Heaven within us? And must not each 
 man's happiness, here and hereafter, depend 
 upon the precise degree of his moral character 
 and moral attainments ? If, then, forgiveness 
 means either the cessation of God's holy 
 indignation against sin, or the remission of 
 the penalty of sin, which is its natural attend- 
 ant, it would seem that the one kind of 
 forgiveness is forbidden by the nature of 
 
24 STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 God, and the other by the nature of man ; 
 and that, therefore, forgiveness of sin is an 
 impossibility. 
 
 § 9. The same Difficulties in the New Testament. 
 
 If now we turn to the New Testament, we 
 meet with the same difficulty there. The 
 doctrine of Forgiveness is, as we have seen, 
 plainly taught. But other things are also 
 taught, which seem, at first view, inconsistent 
 with it. We read, indeed, that God loves the 
 sinner ; for we are told that his Love for the 
 sinner was the original cause of the coming 
 of Christ, and that the salvation of the sinner 
 was the final cause of Christ's coming. We 
 read that " God reconciles us, when sinners, 
 to Himself;" and "that, when we were sin- 
 ners, Christ died for us." The joy in Heaven 
 over one sinner who repents, shows the yearn- 
 ing love toward the impenitent, which dwells 
 in heavenly minds. But, on the other hand, 
 we read, in equally plain and distinct lan- 
 guage, that the wrath of God abides on the 
 
STATE OF THE QUESTION. 26 
 
 impenitent ; that " indignation and wrath, 
 tribulation and anguish," come by the right- 
 eous judgment of God upon "every soul that 
 doeth evU." A sound criticism must admit, 
 and seek for the meaning of both these classes 
 of texts, and explain away neither. The in- 
 dignation against the sinner, ascribed to God, 
 must be consistent with his Love for the sin- 
 ner; and his Love must consist with this 
 Indignation. It must therefore be an aversion, 
 or an estrangement from the sinner, only 
 because of his sin, and only while he con- 
 tinues in sin. But, inasmuch as the sincerely 
 penitent have sin still clinging«.to them, and 
 are not wholly free from it, the difficulty 
 which remains is this : How can that Recon- 
 ciliation to God, which is God dwelling in 
 us, and we in him, and by which we become 
 " partakers of the Divine Nature," take place 
 (which is promised in the New Testament, 
 and is implied in forgiveness), so long as we 
 continue to any degree sinners? Though 
 God is not angry with us with the anger of 
 
26 STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 human passion, must he not be and continue 
 estranged from us by the anger of divine 
 holiness, just so far and so long as any degree 
 of sin remains in us ? It would seem, there- 
 fore, from the Scripture, that the holiness 
 therein ascribed to the Divine Nature must 
 prevent him from being wholly reconciled to 
 man, while man remains to any extent a sin- 
 ner. But, according to the same Scripture 
 (Rom. V. 10), " We were reconciled to God 
 when enemies." Here, then, we find the same 
 apparent contradiction, or antinomy, in the 
 Scripture which we before found in the na- 
 ture of the sitbject itself. 
 
 § 10. Which seems to declare that Forgiveness in either sense 
 is impossible. 
 
 "We have seen that we know only two 
 kinds of forgiveness, — one of which removes 
 alienation of feeling, and the other removes 
 the external penalty. We have seen, more- 
 over, that the New Testament opposes diffi- 
 culties to the supposition that God forgives 
 us in the first sense. But it presents still 
 
STATE OP THE QUESTION. 27 
 
 greater difficulties to the supposition that 
 God forgives us by removing the external 
 penalty. The New Testament plainly teaches 
 a fixed and certain Retribution for aU ; peni- 
 tent and impenitent ; believers and unbeliev- 
 ers; those who are forgiven, and those who 
 are not. We read that "we shall all stand 
 before the judgment-seat of Christ, that ever^ 
 one may receive the things done in his body, 
 according to that he hath done, whether it be 
 good or bad " (2 Cor. v. 10 ; Rom. xiv. 10 — 
 12). We read that God "will render to every 
 man according to his deeds," and that " every 
 one of us shall give an account of himself to 
 God." We are also taught in one parable 
 (Luke xix. 13) the principle of Retribution; 
 and in another (Matt. xxv. 14) the principle 
 of Accountability.* According to the first, we 
 
 * It is often taken for granted that the Parable of the ten 
 Pounds (Luke, xix. 13), and that of the Talents (Matt. xxv. 14), 
 convey the same doctrine. But it is evident the one teaches the 
 Law of Retribution^ and the other the Law of Accountability. In 
 the first, the trust committed to each is the same (ten pounds to 
 ten servants) ; but the improvement of each is difierent, and the 
 yeward different. In the second, the original trust confided to 
 
28 STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 are rewarded hereafter according to the exact 
 degree in which we have improved the talents, 
 means, opportunities, faculties, of which we 
 are the stewards. According to the other, 
 we are to account according to the different 
 amount and quality of these talents. To 
 whom much has been given, of him will 
 much be required. This Retribution is not 
 arbitrary, but is compared to the most certain 
 and inflexible operations of nature. " Be not 
 deceived ; God is not mocked : whatsoever a 
 man sowetJi, that shall he also reap. He who 
 soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap cor- 
 ruption; but he that soweth to the spirit, 
 from the spirit shall reap Eternal Life" (Gal. 
 vi. 8). In the book of Revelation (xx. 12, 13) 
 we read that "the books were opened, and 
 every man judged out of the things written 
 in the books, according to their works." It 
 
 each is different ; but the proportionate gain is the same, and the 
 reward the same. A parable miff hi have been constructed which 
 would have included both doctrines, but it would have been too 
 complicated ; and Jesus, with his usual wisdom, separated what 
 he had to say, and taught part on one occasion, and the othei 
 part on another 
 
STATE OP THE QUESTION. 29 
 
 seemsj therefore, that Scripture plainly teaches, 
 what we have already seen to be reasonable, 
 that every action, good or evil, brings after it 
 an inevitable consequence. The consequence 
 in the one case is Eternal Life ; that is, as I 
 suppose, an elevation and striengthening of 
 the immortal Principle. The good action 
 re-acts upon the character by a fixed law to 
 make it better. It brings an access of faith 
 and love, which qualifies us for higher action 
 and deeper enjoyment. We "sow to the 
 spirit, and of the spirit reap" spiritual or 
 eternal Life. The consequence in the other 
 case is as unerring. The bad action also re- 
 acts upon the character. He who sows to the 
 flesh reaps corruption. Every higher faculty 
 decays. The power of insight is dulled. 
 Love is frozen in the heart. Faith in God, 
 in things unseen, in universal ideas, in the 
 Right, the Good, the Beautiful, dies out of 
 the soul. The Retribution is sure and cer- 
 tain ; certain as the law of gravitation. For- 
 giveness cannot remit this penalty ; for what 
 
30 STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 remission of penalty will change the charac- 
 ter ? Can one who is stained, weakened, 
 defiled by sin, gain any thing by being taken 
 from an outward Hell, and placed in an 
 outward Heaven? He would rather lose 
 thereby ; for to such an one Hell is more sat- 
 isfactory than Heaven.* Just so, the depraved 
 taste of a vulgar mind finds more pleasure in . 
 coarse and profane society than in the com- 
 pany of the pure. 
 
 § 11. Such apparent Contradictions the token of the presence 
 of large Truths. 
 
 We are therefore brought to this conclu- 
 sion. On the one hand. Reason demands 
 and Scripture teaches a doctrine of Forgive- 
 ness; and, on the other, Reason and Scrip- 
 ture deny that Forgiveness is possible in 
 
 * Which is well illustrated by Swedenborg in one of his mem- 
 orable relations. He states that a person in one of the Hells 
 tj^ought himself unjustly treated, and wished to be in Heaven. 
 Whereupon the angels were allowed to take him up there, to 
 show him his error. No sooner was he placed in Heaven than 
 he fell down, writhing with pain and in great agony; which 
 was only relieved by his being taken back " to his own place," 
 when he became comparatively comfortable. We quote from 
 memory. 
 
STATE OP THE QUESTION. 31 
 
 either of the usual meanings of the term. 
 But such apparent contradictions are every- 
 where to be found in the domain of Truth, 
 and like paradoxes are constant in the Scrip- 
 ture. Truths, indeed, are never really contra- 
 dictory to each other; but they seem so 
 because they are antagonist. As the whole 
 movement of the human body is carried on 
 by means of antagonist muscles; as the 
 movement of the planets round the sun is 
 maintained by constant antagonist forces ; as 
 the mental and moral constitution of man 
 consists throughout of antagonist faculties, so 
 in the world of Truth we find the same law 
 of Polarity, and God "has set everywhere 
 two against two." It is only by the percep- 
 tion of these antagonisms that any progress 
 is possible in true knowledge. We must see 
 the contradiction before we can find its solu- 
 tion. We must see the Thesis on the one 
 side, and the Antithesis on the other, before 
 we can find the higher Synthesis which in- 
 cludes the two. It is not by ignoring such 
 
32 STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 difficulties, but by distinctly recognizing them, 
 that we make a truly scientific progress. The 
 charge sometimes brought against Scripture, 
 that it furnishes proof-texts for both sides of 
 every question, is in fact its highest praise ; 
 for it shows that Scripture is wide and deep 
 as Nature. Nature, too, furnishes proof-texts 
 on both sides of every question. When we 
 meet, therefore, with these apparent contra- 
 dictions, we are to regard them as locked 
 doors, by which, when we have found their 
 key, we shall have access to a higher plane of 
 thought. 
 
 § 12. Truths which God has joined together, man must not put 
 asunder. 
 
 But hitherto it has happened, that, instead 
 of recognizing both sides of the truth in rela- 
 tion to the subject before us, opposing parties 
 in the Church have taken possession each of 
 a single truth, and passed by the other. One 
 party, calling itself Orthodox and Evangeli- 
 cal, has inculcated the doctrine of Forgive- 
 ness. Another party, calling itself Rational, 
 
STATE OF THE QUESTION. 33 
 
 Liberal, or Spiritual, has inculcated the doc- 
 trine of Retribution. The Orthodox have not 
 denied Retribution ; but they have neglected 
 and undervalued it. The Liberals, or Ration- 
 alists, have not denied Forgiveness, but have 
 undervalued it. In both cases, one doctrine 
 has been understated; and, as a necessary- 
 consequence, the other doctrine has been over- 
 stated. For it is also true here that man 
 must not put asunder what God has joined 
 together. And when antagonist truths are 
 divorced, each is mutilated. In the old fable 
 of Eros and Anteros, neither the human nor 
 divine brother could thrive alone ; and so in 
 the world of Truth, in the world of Knowl- 
 edge, each truth fades in the absence of its 
 opposite truth. In the moral world, every 
 virtue needs an antagonist virtue for its own 
 perfection. Courage without caution is not 
 courage, but rashness ; caution without cour- 
 age is not caution, but cowardice. Gener- 
 osity without prudence is not generosity, but 
 extravagance. Humility without self-respect 
 3 
 
84 STATE OP THE QUESTION. 
 
 is not humility, but meanness. Self-respect 
 without humility is not self-respect, but pride. 
 So we might go through all the virtues, and 
 show that each, by destroying its antagonist 
 virtue, destroys itself. The same law prevails 
 in the domain of Truth ; for this law of sym- 
 metry seems universal. 
 
 § 13. The Orthodox do not teach fiill Retribution. 
 
 The party of thinkers in the Christian 
 Church, usually called Orthodox or Evangeli- 
 cal, have, we have said, in their love for the 
 doctrine of Forgiveness, not done adequate 
 justice to the doctrine of Retribution. They 
 have not taught with sufficient emphasis, that 
 saints, no less than sinners, are to give an 
 account of themselves at the day of judg- 
 ment, and to be rewarded and punished 
 according to their works. The idea conveyed 
 by their teaching is, that a sinner, at the close 
 of an evil life, may be converted (which is 
 true) ; and that, being converted, all the con- 
 sequences of his past sins are removed, which 
 
STATE OF THE QUESTION. 35 
 
 nothing in the Scripture confirms. They 
 have taught that repentance, and faith in the 
 Atoning Sacrifice of Christ, will at any time 
 procure for sinner or saint a forgiveness 
 which obliterates all the penalties of evil do- 
 ing. But such a forgiveness as this is evi- 
 dently inconsistent with Retribution, and the 
 effect of such a view is dangerous and per- 
 nicious. Many men will postpone repentance 
 till the end of life, if they believe that pardon 
 at that time will remove all the consequences 
 of past sin. Such is in fact the case; and 
 the only argument urged by the pulpit against 
 such procrastination is, that one may die 
 suddenly without an opportunity for ade- 
 quate repentance. The true argument would 
 be, that every hour in which the real work of 
 life is postponed is so much actually and for 
 ever lost. Every moment given to sin re- 
 ceives an immediate and permanent penalty 
 in so much loss of moral Life. But another 
 pernicious result of this false view of forgive- 
 ness is seen in the low spiritual condition of 
 
36 STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 the Christian Church. Believing the whole 
 of Salvation to be contained in forgiveness, 
 and forgiveness to be conveyed exclusively by 
 penitence and faith, the Church has occupied 
 itself with these exercises alone, and not car- 
 ried Christianity into every-day duties, and 
 into all parts of life. Hence we have seen 
 men living like Christians at church and on 
 Sunday, living like Pagans out of church on 
 Monday; praying Christians in their church, 
 covetous Christians in their shop, ill-tempered 
 Christians in their family. Hence we have 
 seen aristocratic churches, and fashionable 
 churches with room only for the rich ; Eccle- 
 biastical conventions condemning dancing, 
 but refusing to condemn Slavery; Monu- 
 ments erected in Christian Cathedrals to sol- 
 diers, excellent only for their skill and success 
 in slaughtering their fellow-men. If those 
 who for conscience' sake submit cheerfully to 
 suffering rather than disobey God declare 
 plainly that they believe in a judgment to 
 come, those who do such things as I have 
 
STATE OF THE QUESTION. 37 
 
 spoken of declare as plainly that they believe 
 in none. A few years since, an eminent 
 statesman, who had plunged his country into 
 war with a neighboring state, the object of 
 which was evidently the acquisition of terri- 
 tory, and who had justified this war by most 
 manifest falsehoods, when about to die, was 
 extremely anxious to be baptized; and, this 
 rite having been performed, and having ex- 
 pressed his belief in forgiveness through the 
 Atonement, passed tranquilly out of the 
 world. Neither himself nor his spiritual ad- 
 viser seems to have felt any anxiety lest the 
 war, for which he was responsible, might have 
 been unnecessary. They evidently thought 
 that this question had far less to do with his 
 preparation for Eternity than that of his bap- 
 tism. So long as these views of Retribution 
 are held, so long must the standard of char- 
 acter in the Christian Church be low. 
 
 § 14. Nor the Liberalists full Forgiveness. 
 
 On the other hand, the party of thinkers in 
 the Church, sometimes called Rational or 
 
3S STATE OP THE QUESTION. 
 
 Liberal Christians, have not always done 
 adequate justice to the doctrine of Forgive- 
 ness. Believing strongly in the moral law, 
 they have maintained correctly the doctrine 
 of Retribution. Believing also in moral free- 
 dom, they have taught that each man's des- 
 tiny depended on the fidelity with which he 
 exercised it. And, believing in the justice of 
 God, it seemed to them impossible that he 
 could remove the consequences of sin, on 
 account of the single act of penitence or 
 faith, and make those who had wrought a 
 single hour equal with those who had borne 
 the burden and heat of the day. They have 
 seen, that, in this world, success depends not 
 upon single efforts, but upon patient continu- 
 ance in well-doing. They have, therefore, re- 
 jected the common doctrine of forgiveness. 
 But, inasmuch as forgiveness of sin is evi- 
 dently taught in the Bible, they have ex- 
 plained it as meaning this ; that, when a man 
 has repented of any course of evil conduct, 
 and has reformed his character so as to be as 
 
STATE OF THE QUESTION. 39 
 
 good a man as he was before, he will be as 
 happy a man as he was before. But this 
 doctrine of forgiveness differs from that of 
 the New Testament in several points. First, 
 it is a future forgiveness, whereas that of the 
 New Testament is present. Secondly, its 
 condition is reformation, or entire change of 
 character; whereas the condition of forgive- 
 ness in the New Testament is repentance, or 
 change of purpose, and the act of faith which 
 attends repentance. And, thirdly, this forgive- 
 ness is not given by God, but earned by our- 
 selves ; and it proceeds, not from the mercy, 
 but the mere justice, of the Deity. The 
 practical evils resulting from this defective 
 view of forgiveness are the reverse of those 
 resulting from defective views of retribution. 
 As the Christian life is weakened by the one 
 in its sense of accountability, so it is weak- 
 ened by the other in its sense of dependence. 
 The one defect palsies effort ; the other weak- 
 ens love. We need the doctrine of a present 
 forgiveness of sin, to create in the soul a 
 
40 STATE OP THE QUESTION. 
 
 sense of the immediate love of God. We 
 need to feel that God gives us forgiveness 
 now, not that he will give it to us hereafter. 
 We need to be reconciled and made at one 
 with him, before we can have the strength 
 necessary to enable us to work out our salva- 
 tion. The New Testament motive is not, 
 " Do good that you may he forgiven," but " Do 
 good because you have been forgiven." " Be 
 kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving 
 one another, even as God in Christ has for- 
 given youP — "Brethren, if God so loved us, 
 we ought also to love one another." 
 
 We have thus considered the importance of 
 the Doctrine of Forgiveness, and the difficul- 
 ties which surround it, — difficulties which 
 have caused different parties of thinkers to 
 omit one side or the other of the Divine Law. 
 Let us now pass on to inquire what the true 
 Doctrine of Forgiveness is. 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 § 15. What is Forgiveness ? 
 
 Having thus considered the importance of the 
 Doctrine of Forgiveness, and the difficulties 
 which attend the doctrine as it is usually 
 taught, we proceed to ask whether these diffi- 
 culties can be removed. And the first step 
 to be taken is to analyze anew the notion of 
 Forgiveness. What is it? What do we 
 mean by it? What is necessarily included 
 in it ? In any controversy or difficult inquiry, 
 a great deal is often gained by a careful anal- 
 ysis of the terms under discussion. Unless 
 this is done, a controversy may be indefinitely 
 protracted, and no step taken toward its final 
 
 [41] 
 
42 THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 settlement. We often hear discussions of 
 questions like these : — " Was Christ a literal 
 sacrifice ? " " Was his death a real expiation 
 of sin ? " " Was it an atonement to God ? " 
 In such discussions, both sides proceeding to 
 argue, pro and con^ without first defining the 
 meaning of the terms Expiation^ Sacrifice^ 
 Atonement y no practical result is obtained. 
 
 § 16. The Consequences of Sin are twofold. 
 
 God's forgiveness of sin, however much it 
 may difTer from human forgiveness, must 
 have some analogy with it ; for otherwise we 
 could not understand it. We have seen, that, 
 when man forgives man, it is by remitting 
 one or another of the two penalties of the 
 offence; — one of the penalties being anger, 
 or estrangement from the offender ; the other 
 penalty being some outward act of punish- 
 ment, some external suffering or loss inflicted 
 on the offender. Now, this anger on the side 
 of the injured party, and this suffering inflicted 
 in return upon the injurer, are the natural 
 
THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS. 43 
 
 consequences of the offence committed against 
 man. What are the natural consequences 
 of the offence against God ? They are these 
 two: First, a sense of Divine displeasure; 
 and, secondly, a deterioration of the moral 
 character. As far as the sinner himself is 
 concerned, these two are the natural, neces- 
 sary, and 'immediate consequences of sin. 
 By a law of his nature, the operation of which 
 we shall look at hereafter, he feels himself 
 under the displeasure of God. Whether God 
 be displeased, or whether he be not displeased, 
 makes no difference so far as this feeling is 
 concerned. This consequence is immediate 
 and inevitable. So, too, of the other. The 
 question of positive punishment hereafter 
 may be omitted, as far as the question of 
 immediate, present forgiveness is concerned. 
 The immediate, outward penalty of sin is the 
 present depravity of character, occasioned by 
 the formation of an evil habit. Now, we ask, 
 are either of these consequences removed by 
 forgiveness ? 
 
44 THE NATURE OP FORGIVENESS. 
 
 § 17. The first, a sense of Divine Displeasure. 
 
 The sense of Divine displeasure, which is 
 an inevitable consequence of every act of 
 wilful sin, is its heaviest penalty. By a law 
 of the conscience, as fixed as the law of gravi- 
 tation, every wilful transgression produces in 
 the transgressor's mind a sense of Divine dis- 
 pleasure. Just so far as our conscience is 
 awake and active, we feel on such occasions 
 that God, because of his holiness, must regard 
 us with disapprobation. This feeling pro- 
 duces again estrangement on our part. Like 
 Adam, we hide ourselves from God among 
 the trees of the garden ; turning from spiritual 
 things to temporal, and trying to forget that 
 God sees us, by looking away from him. 
 This leads us to cast off fear, and restrain 
 prayer; to cease from filial, affectionate com- 
 munion with our Heavenly Father, and to 
 say with the Centurion, " I am not worthy 
 that thou shouldst come under my roof." 
 This state of mind is described in the New 
 
THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS. 46 
 
 Testament as "estrangement," "alienation," 
 " separation from God," " enmity against 
 God." It is enmity, in the sense of repug* 
 nance, of a dislike to think of that which 
 gives us pain. 
 
 § 18. Which is removed by Forgiveness. 
 
 Now, it is evident from the New Testa- 
 ment, that forgiveness implies the removal of 
 this first and worst consequence of sin. The 
 words ever)nvhere used concerning it are 
 reconciliation, peace with God, being at one 
 with God, dwelling with God, and God with 
 us. A happy, childlike relation of the soul 
 with God, in which aU sense of Divine anger 
 is taken away, is immediately given to the 
 Christian believer. In this sense the forgive- 
 ness of sin is immediate. " Being reconciled 
 by faith, we have peace with God through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." "Being no more 
 strangers, but sons, " the spirit is put in our 
 hearts by which we cry. Father." " There is 
 now no condemnation to them which are in 
 
46 THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 Christ Jesus;" and "through him we have 
 'access by the spirit to the Father," and have 
 " confidence to come boldly to the mercy-seat 
 for grace to help in time of need." Such 
 peace with God, such joy with God, such 
 filial communion with God, is everjrwhere 
 spoken of in the New Testament as belong- 
 ing to forgiven sin. 
 
 § 19. Implying an objective Change also in the mind of God. 
 
 But if the subjective displeasure of God, 
 that is, the sense of it in the human soul, is 
 thus removed by forgiveness, the objective 
 displeasure, or real feeling of displeasure, in 
 the mind of God, must also be removed. 
 For he could not make us feel that he was 
 reconciled with us, if he were not so. If God 
 communicates to man the conviction of par- 
 don, this is sufficient evidence that there is no 
 alienation from man on the part of God. 
 The difficulty remains, indeed, to explain how 
 God can be fully reconciled, so long as any 
 degree of sin remains in the human being. 
 
THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS. 47 
 
 This difficulty I have not forgotten, and shall 
 attempt its solution hereafter. But it is quite 
 important to distinguish between a fact, and 
 the explanation of that fact. At present we 
 have to do with the fact, and not its explana- 
 tion. The fact before us is, that there is a 
 forgiveness taught in the New Testament, 
 and confirmed by Christian experience, which 
 removes every thing which separates us from 
 the Divine Love, whether the obstacle be on 
 our part or on the part of the Deity. The 
 proof of this fact is manifest throughout the 
 New Testament, and written in the whole 
 history of Christian experience. This for- 
 giveness, which removes all sense of the 
 Divine displeasure, is an immediate forgive- 
 ness. And in this consists essentially the 
 whole meaning and blessing of pardon. Par- 
 don, therefore, is not a formal act of the Divine 
 government, remitting the legal penalty of 
 the offence, but an actual change of relation 
 between the human child and his Heavenly 
 Father. It is a renewal of Fatherly and filial 
 
48 THE NATURE OP FORGIVENESS. 
 
 intercourse. It is the expression of love on 
 the side of the Parent; the reception of love 
 on the side of the child. 
 
 § 20. The second, Depravity of character, Forgiveness does not 
 immediately remove. 
 
 The first consequence of sin, which is 
 separation from God, is therefore^ removed 
 by forgiveness immediately. The second, 
 depravation of nature, is not removed imme- 
 diately. There is no evidence in the New 
 Testament that pardon removes directly the 
 vicious habits, the depraved character, the 
 corrupted tastes, the torpor of mind, the in- 
 firmity of will, which have resulted from the 
 practice of evil. In the parable of the Prodi- 
 gal Son, the twofold penalty of sin is repre- 
 sented by the younger son's absence from his 
 Father's house, and the waste of his substance. 
 When he was forgiven, the first consequence 
 of his sin was removed, but not the second. 
 He received from his Father every evidence 
 of a new love. They were re-united in the 
 bonds of a tender affection; but he did not 
 
THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS. 49 
 
 receive again the patrimony which he had 
 wasted. All that Ms Father had was the 
 portion of the elder son; but the younger 
 possessed again his Father's affection, and 
 this was enough. He was willing to be as 
 one of the hired servants. He cheerfully con- 
 tinued to bear the outward penalty which he 
 had brought upon himself by wasting his 
 patrimony. 
 
 But, though forgiveness does not remove 
 immediately that depravity of nature which 
 is the secondary consequence of sin, it re- 
 moves it mediately and indirectly by giving 
 new energy to the moral nature. The sense 
 of pardon Creates a power of grateful affection 
 in the heart, which enables it to retrace its 
 steps, rebuild its character, form new habits 
 of virtue, and, forgetting the ignoble past^ 
 reach forward to a better future. As it is 
 a law of mechanics, that what we lose in 
 time we may gain in power; so also here, 
 the new power of spiritual life may more 
 than compensate for many a wasted day. 
 4 
 
50 THE NATUEE OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 Experience shows that he who has received 
 the conviction of forgiven sin is a new crea- 
 ture. Old things have passed away, and all 
 things have become new. 
 
 § 21. Eecapitulations. 
 
 Let us recapitulate what we have thus far 
 seen. We have seen that the doctrine of 
 Forgiveness occupied an important place in 
 the Gospels and Epistles, and that it was 
 important for human peace and moral prog- 
 ress, but that there were difficulties connected 
 with it. These difficulties were that forgive- 
 ness must either mean, that God ceases to be 
 angry with the sinner, or that he ceases to 
 punish the sinner. The first supposition 
 seemed inconsistent with the moral character 
 of God ; for, if by God's anger we understand 
 any thing akin to human passion, that of 
 itself would imply imperfection. Eejecting 
 this supposition, therefore, we must believe 
 the anger of God to be the repugnance with 
 which a holy being necessarily regards sin, 
 
THE NATURE OP FORGIVENESS. 51 
 
 and the estrangement of feeling with which 
 a holy being necessarily regards a depraved 
 one. This view, however, of Divine anger 
 creates a new difficulty; for how can this 
 holy displeasure cease, and man be forgiven 
 in this sense, so long as he continues at all 
 infected with the disease of sin? But the 
 best of Christians is, to some degree, a sinner : 
 therefore it would seem that the best of Chris- 
 tians can never be fully reconciled to God. 
 The other view of forgiveness which makes 
 it consist in the remission^ of the external 
 penalty of suffering and loss, we saw, pre- 
 sented still greater difficulties. For this loss 
 and suffering is not an arbitrary penalty to be 
 infficted hereafter, but the present, immediate, 
 and natural consequence of each sinful act. 
 Therefore, notwithstanding the difficulty con- 
 nected with the first view of forgiveness (a 
 difficulty not yet solved), we have concluded 
 that forgiveness means the direct and im- 
 mediate removal of the alienation existing 
 oetween the sinner and the Deity. This 
 
52 THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 alienation is both subjective and objective. 
 Subjective, so far as it is a sense of God's 
 displeasure in the sinner's mind, arising from 
 the action of his own conscience, and causing 
 him to turn away from God; — objective, so 
 far as there is any actual alienation in the 
 Divine mind corresponding to it. Forgive- 
 ness, we have concluded from the teaching 
 of the New Testament, and from the history 
 of Christian experience, must mean the re- 
 moval of this alienation, and not the remission 
 of the outward penalty. This penalty is not 
 removed immediately by the act of pardon, 
 but indirectly by means of the moral power 
 created anew in the soul of the forgiven sin- 
 ner. 
 
 § 22. Our view of Forgiveness satisfies the sense of Justice. 
 
 This view of forgiveness completely satis- 
 jfies both the sense of justice and the need 
 of pardon. The sense of justice is satisfied ; 
 for the sinner is not placed by forgiveness 
 exactly where he was before. He still has 
 
THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS. 53 
 
 to bear a portion of the penalty. The law 
 of retribution holds on its way. Its con- 
 sequences are not suspended nor annulled. 
 As he has sown, so he reaps. His posi- 
 tion in the moral universe, his moral growth, 
 power, capacity, is the exact result of his 
 fidelity to conscience, of his loyalty to duty. 
 He who by means of his pound has gained 
 one pound is made ruler over a single city. 
 He who has gained five pounds is made 
 ruler over five cities. The man who has 
 pursued a course of vice through a long 
 life, and then repents, is not made equal 
 with him who has passed from innocent 
 childhood through a virtuous youth, and a 
 manhood whose strength has been devoted 
 to usefulness. In one respect only are these 
 two equal; in their nearness to God, and 
 the sense of his full Fatherly love. But 
 they differ in outward position, rank, pow- 
 ers of usefulness, capacity to serve their 
 Master. One is a high Archangel, near 
 his throne; the other far down, in a lower 
 
54 THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 rank of the Heavenly Hierarchy. Yet he 
 is happy there; for his cup is full of joy. 
 It is not so large a cup as it would have 
 been, had he been more faithful; but it is 
 fuU. 
 
 § 23. And the Need of Pardon. 
 
 The need of pardon is also satisfied by 
 this view of forgiveness. The prodigal Son 
 was willing to be made as one of the hired 
 servants, provided he could be received 
 again to his Father's house and heart. The 
 penitent sinner, in like manner, accepts wil- 
 lingly the external consequences of his sin, 
 provided he can be at one with God, and 
 have an ever-present sense of his Heavenly 
 Father's love. He is even glad to honor 
 the law which he has outraged, by cheerful 
 submission to its necessary penalties. He 
 sees far above him those Cherubic intelli- 
 gences, those Seraphs of love, who have 
 been faithful perhaps in their few things, 
 while he has wasted the many gifts with 
 which he was endowed. He has gone 
 
THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS. 55 
 
 down, and they have gone up. His shining 
 light has grown dim ; their small candle 
 now blazes like a star in the firmament of 
 God. But he is well content with this low 
 position and small stewardship ; amply com- 
 pensated for this loss of capacity, power, 
 and office, by the conviction that inwardly 
 God is as near to him in love as to them. 
 He has perhaps wrought but one hour, and 
 has been made equal with those who have 
 borne the burden and heat of the day, in 
 the full sense of an all-embracing Divine 
 love. So, in an earthly household, when 
 the wilful child comes to himself, and be- 
 comes again obedient, he is received with 
 a joy and affection without limit. He has 
 an equal share with all the rest in the fam- 
 ily affection; and no one complains that he 
 has it, for the joy of the whole is increased 
 by his return. Thus, while in the vast 
 order of the universe there is rank above 
 rank, heaven above heaven, thrones, domin- 
 ions, principalities and powers. 
 
56 THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS, 
 
 "Spirits and intelligences fair, 
 And angels waiting on the Almighty's chair," — 
 
 each, in every part of this order, partakes 
 fully of the Divine life which flows through 
 the whole. Or, to use the image of the 
 apostle, — though " there are many mem- 
 bers, there is but one body;" eye and ear 
 and foot, each co-operating in its place for 
 the good of the whole. Each member is 
 satisfied with its place and duty, while it 
 is working for the good of the whole. 
 When the motive is private advantage, 
 there is no content while another stands 
 higher than one's self; but, when the mo- 
 tive is public good, one is content with any 
 position of real usefulness, no matter how 
 humble in appearance ; for then the gain 
 of the whole is the gain of the individual. 
 We see the operation of this principle in 
 those associations which are organized for 
 some great work. They have an esprit de 
 corps, or corporate spirit, which causes the 
 humblest member to feel himself exalted by 
 
THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS. 57 
 
 the success of the whole. How much niore 
 in that great corporation of which Christ 
 is the head, and of which the spirit of God 
 is the pervading life! To the humblest 
 member of this great society, — a society 
 whose members on Earth and in Heaven 
 make one communion, with a common ob- 
 ject, — it may be said, " All things are 
 yours ; " for you are " heirs of God and 
 joint heirs with Christ." Each pardoned 
 sinner enters into the full communion of 
 this pervading Love ; and the liquid element 
 of Love everywhere finds its level. It con- 
 stitutes the true equality. It breaks down 
 all walls of separation. It brings down the 
 high mountain, and fills up the low valley. 
 No distinctions of rank, power, or greatness, 
 can stay the flow of its tidal wave. For it 
 makes 
 
 " The spirit of the worm beneath the sod 
 In love and worship blend itself with God." 
 
PART in. 
 
 FAITH AND WORKS; OR, THE CONDITION OF FOR 
 GIYENESS. 
 
 § 24. Faith, Works, a Forgiving Spirit, Repentance, and Con- 
 fession, as Conditions of Pardon. 
 
 Having thus considered the nature of For- 
 giveness, we next pass to inquire, " How do 
 we obtain Forgiveness ? " The New Tes- 
 tament seems to answer this question in 
 different ways. According to the Apostle 
 Paul, we are justified by faith, and by faith 
 alone. According to James, a man is justi- 
 fied by WORKS, and not by faith only. Jesus 
 makes a disposition on our part to forgive, 
 the condition of our being forgiven (Matt. vi. 
 15; Mark, xi. 26). And in the parable of 
 the unforgiving servant (Matt. viii. 23-35), 
 we find that the forgiveness which had 
 been received was lost again, in conse- 
 [58| 
 
THE CONDITIONS OF FORGIYENESS. 59 
 
 quence of an unforgiving spirit in the ser- 
 vant. Repentance is also evidently made 
 the condition of forgiveness in the parable 
 of the prodigal Son; and in Luke, xxiv. 47, 
 it is connected with the remission of sin, as 
 it is also in Peter's discourses (Acts, ii. 38, 
 and Acts, iii. 19). Confession is elsewhere 
 declared a condition of forgiveness, as in 
 1 John, i. 9. But, if we carefully consider 
 these passages, we shall find, that, when 
 any one of them is spoken of by itself as 
 a condition of forgiveness, the others are 
 supposed and implied. Thus the repentance 
 of the prodigal Son proceeded not only from 
 a sense of his misery, but from a faith in 
 his Father's goodness. " How many hired 
 servants of my Father," he says, " have 
 bread enough and to spare, and I perish 
 with hunger!" His repentance also was 
 not complete till it had shown itself in ac- 
 tion and confession; till he had gone to his 
 Father, and confessed to him his sin. So, 
 when forgiveness of others is made a condi- 
 
60 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 tion of being forgiven ourselves, it is evi- 
 dently as a test of a true penitence and a 
 true faith. And, when confession is made 
 a condition of forgiveness, it is apparent, in 
 like manner, that it is a confession, which, 
 proceeding from penitence and faith, is itself 
 an evidence of their presence. The two du- 
 ties most difficult to the natural man are 
 to confess his own faults, and to forgive 
 the injuries he has received from others. 
 These, therefore, are made the tests and 
 evidences of true penitence and faith. 
 
 § 25. Faith or Works the Condition? 
 
 The only real difficulty, therefore, on this 
 subject, is the question. Are we forgiven in 
 consequence of faith, or in consequence of 
 works? On this question the two apostles 
 have been thought to differ, and it has been 
 a subject of repeated and very animated 
 discussion in the Christian Church. But 
 here we see the importance of defining the 
 terms in discussion before the argument be 
 
THE CONDITIONS OF FORGIVENESS. 61 
 
 gins. Every thing depends on the meaning 
 of the word forgiveness. K the meaning be 
 given which we have ourselves here ascribed 
 to it, namely, the removal of that estrange- 
 ment or alienation from God, which is one 
 consequence of sin, then the answer is, we 
 are forgiven or justified by faith. But if 
 by forgiveness is -meant the removal of that 
 depravity of character which we have seen 
 to be the other consequence of sin, then 
 the answer is, we are justified by works. 
 And if both of these meanings are included 
 in the term justification, then apparently the 
 proper answer would be, that we are justi- 
 fied by both, — by faith and works. 
 
 § 26. The Opposition of Paul and James. 
 
 And this is probably the explanation of 
 the apparent opposition between Paul and 
 James. When Paul speaks of justification^ 
 he means by it simply the taking away of 
 the sense of sin, and the reconciliation of 
 the soul to God. He means to teach that 
 
62 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 this blessedness of reconciliation comes at 
 once into the soul, as soon as it is able to 
 trust itself to the forgiving love of God. 
 He means to oppose the idea that we must 
 wait before receiving this blessedness, until, 
 by laborious discipline and ascetic culture, 
 we have conquered all sinful habits. His 
 doctrine is, that we are reconciled to God, 
 that we may reform our character, and not 
 because we have reformed our character. He 
 lays, therefore, this stress on justification hy 
 faith alone, in order to oppose the error of 
 that false humility which says it is not fit 
 to be forgiven, — of that false conscientious- 
 ness, which thinks it has no right to be for- 
 given, — and the distrust of God, which 
 cannot believe that it will be forgiven till 
 by laborious process it has removed, one 
 by one, every stain inhering in the soul. 
 Paul, therefore, makes Forgiveness the re- 
 sult of Faith alone, but teaches as strongly 
 that this Faith must produce Works, and 
 that out of Forgiveness must proceed Obe« 
 
THE CONDITIONS OP FORGIVENESS. 63 
 
 dience. He teaches those whose sins have 
 been forgiven, that they are not yet sure of 
 final salvation, but must "work out their 
 salvation with fear and trembling." In the 
 Epistle to the Romans, he gives a beauti- 
 ful description of the progress of religious 
 experience in the human soul. In the first 
 two chapters, he describes the Moral Death 
 of Jew and Gentile. In the seventh chap- 
 ter, he describes the Struggle and Conflict 
 in the mind under the influence of the Law. 
 The fifteenth to the twenty-fourth verses ex- 
 press Despair; the twenty-fifth verse. Peace 
 and Pardon through Faith in Christ. The 
 first part of the eighth chapter describes the 
 Walk in tlie Spirit; and the last part. Full 
 Redemption and Final Glory. Nothing can 
 be more profound, or more true to human 
 experience, than the whole of this description. 
 The Apostle James, on the other hand, 
 writing to those who had abused or misun- 
 derstood Paul's doctrine, and who thought it 
 enough to say they had faith, and whose lives 
 
64 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 showed no purpose of obedience, argues that 
 justifying faith is a working faith. He as- 
 serts that works are the necessary result, and 
 therefore a part^ of true faith ; and that faith 
 is imperfect without them. There may or 
 may not be a formal contradiction between 
 this statement and that of Paul; but it is 
 evident enough that there is no real contra- 
 diction. Paul is speaking of the inward ex- 
 perience of forgiven sin ; James, of that, and 
 of the life which flows from it. Paul denies 
 that works are necessary to produce justifica- 
 tion: James denies that justification can fail 
 of producing them. Paul opposes those who 
 would make works a condition of pardon: 
 James opposes those who think them unne- 
 cessary, as the result and evidence of pardon. 
 Each is teaching an important truth, and 
 these truths are antagonist, but are not con- 
 tradictory. 
 
 § 27. The Distinction between Forgiveness and Justification. 
 
 It may here be asked, whether the term 
 justification means the same thing as the 
 
THE CONDITIONS OF FORGIVENESS. 65 
 
 term forgiveness. According to Rom. iv. 6-8, 
 it would seem to do so ; for Paul there quotes 
 the passage, " Blessed are they whose iniqui- 
 ties are forgiven, and whose sins are covered," 
 as a description of the happiness of one who 
 is justified without works. So far, therefore, 
 as man's feelings are concerned, they are the 
 same; and he who is forgiven is justified. 
 But, though the substantial meaning of these 
 terms is the same, their relative meaning is 
 different. Forgiveness relates to the removal 
 of the sense of guilt and alienation in the 
 human mind. Justification relates to the Di- 
 vine act, by which it is removed. Two things 
 are implied in the reconciliation of the sinner 
 to God. The first is God's love, which recon- 
 ciles ; the second is the sinner's sense of be- 
 ing reconciled. Justification expresses chiefly 
 the first idea ; and forgiveness, the second. 
 
 § 28. Faith and Knowledge. 
 
 What, then, is the nature of this faith 
 which is the only condition of Forgiveness ? 
 
66 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 Faith in general has been defined " A realiz- 
 ing sense of spiritual things," which corre- 
 sponds nearly to the definition in the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, " The substance of things 
 hoped for; the evidence of things not seen." 
 It is the organ by which we perceive the 
 Spiritual world. And without this organ we 
 should have no personal evidence of its exist- 
 ence, any more than the blind man has of the 
 existence of color. The blind man may be- 
 lieve that there is such a thing as color, on 
 the testimony of others ; and, without the ex- 
 ercise of faith, we may believe, on the testi- 
 mony of others, in the existence of a spiritual 
 world. But it is faith which gives us per- 
 sonal evidence of its reality, or what ntay be 
 called a realizing sense of it. We may dis- 
 tinguish between Knowledge, Faith, Belief, 
 and Opinion, in the following way. Knowl- 
 edge and Faith have the same degree of cer- 
 tainty, and both come from experience : but 
 the object of Knowledge is the external world; 
 the object of Faith, the internal world* The 
 
THE CONDITIONS OP FORGIVENESS. 67 
 
 instrument of Knowledge is sensation; the 
 instrument of Faith, intuition. By Knowl- 
 edge we mean the certainty we have attained 
 of the existence of outward things by the ex- 
 perience of our senses. By Faith we mean 
 the certainty we have obtained of inward 
 things by the experience of our intuitions. 
 Our certainty, therefore, of the existence of 
 the outward and inward world has precisely 
 the same foundation, — that of Experience. 
 Argument, Reasoning, Logic, can neither 
 give nor take away this certainty, in the one 
 case nor in the other. To think to obtain 
 Faith in God by means of argument is as 
 absurd as to think to obtain a knowledge of 
 forms or colors by means of argument. So, 
 too, no argument, however plausible or co- 
 gent, can convince a man of the non-existence 
 of what he has seen; and no argument, 
 however logical it may appear, can in the 
 slightest degree shake our assurance of the 
 existence of those spiritual things of which 
 we have taken cognizance by Faith. If it be 
 
68 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 said that we may be mistaken in our intui- 
 tions and misinterpret our consciousness, it is 
 also true that we may be deceived by our 
 senses, and misinterpret their testimony. But, 
 because our senses may deceive us, no one 
 thinks of denying that they are the source of 
 knowledge ; and, because our intuitions may 
 deceive us, no one can properly deny that 
 they are a legitimate source of certainty. If 
 we have all of us a greater degree of cer- 
 tainty concerning the outward world than we 
 have concerning the inward world, the reason 
 is simply this, that we have had more experi- 
 ence of the one than of the other. If our 
 intuitions had been as numerous and fre- 
 quent as our sensations, our certainty of the 
 spiritual world would have been equal to our 
 certainty of, the material world. The proof 
 of this is, that, in exact proportion to the ex- 
 ercise of Faith and spiritual insight, increases 
 our assurance of the reality of God, Eternity, 
 Heaven. The mass of men, whose senses 
 are constantly exercised upon the material 
 
THE CONDITIONS OF FORGtVENESS. 69 
 
 world, while their souls are seldom exercised 
 upon the spiritual world, look upon the first 
 as real, and the second as unsubstantial. 
 Religious men, who continually contemplate 
 God, Truth, Right, Love, Immortal Beauty, 
 perceive these things to be real; while, to 
 some of them, material things become shad- 
 owy and unsubstantial. Jesus, who dwelt by 
 habitual insight in the heavenly world, speaks 
 of spiritual things with the startling distinct- 
 ness and accuracy of an eye-witness. To 
 him they were evidently quite as real and 
 certain as the things of this world. 
 
 § 29. Faith and Belief. 
 
 Faith differs from Belief also, but in an- 
 other way. The object of Faith is reality: 
 the object of Belief is a proposition. Belief 
 comes through Reasoning and Logic ; Faith, 
 through Intuition and Insight.* The experi- 
 
 * The passage (Romans, x. 17) which declares that " Faith 
 comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God," is not in- 
 consistent with this assertion. The objects of Belief and of Faith 
 are both furnished from without; but there is also an inward 
 
70 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 ence of the outward and inward world, which 
 is the source of Knowledge and Faith, being 
 reduced to formal statements by the action 
 of the intellect, becomes the object of Belief. 
 By Faith we perceive the love of God. We 
 reduce this experience to a verbal statement 
 as nearly as we are able, and then it becomes 
 a Doctrine concerning God^s Love, which we 
 believe. This statement we may communi- 
 cate to another, who has not had any like 
 experience ; and on the strength of our testi- 
 mony he may believe it also. Then we shall 
 both have the same creed or belief, but by no 
 means the same faith. In like manner, two 
 persons, having the same religious experience 
 or the same faith, may not represent it to 
 their minds by the same statements. One 
 possessing more analytic power, and a better 
 reasoning faculty, may make a more correct 
 statement than the other of his experience. 
 
 action of the mind necessary in each case. This inward action is, 
 in one case, Reasoning; in the other, Intuition: the outward 
 source is, in both cases, Testimony. The testimony concerning 
 Christ, when reasoned upon, becomes Belief in Christ ; when 
 realized by Intuition, becomes Faith in Christ. 
 
THE CONDITIONS OP FORGIVENESS. 71 
 
 Then they will have the same faitli^ but a 
 different belief. And the belief of one will be 
 right ; that of the other, wrong. 
 
 The difference between Faith and Belief 
 will be made more clear by the following 
 illustration: one man believes that Jesus 
 Christ is God ; another believes that he is the 
 Son of God, and subordinate to the Father : 
 but both trust in him as a Saviour, able to 
 save to the utmost; as a Teacher whose 
 word is always truth; as a Friend whose 
 love is the most valuable treasure they pos- 
 sess. The belief of these two men is evi- 
 dently very different. But their faith is the 
 same ; for each trusts wholly in Jesus. The 
 man who believes that he is subordinate to 
 the Father, trusts entirely in him; and the 
 other can do no more. Again, they may 
 differ as to the way in which Christ saves 
 the soul. One may believe that it is by pay- 
 ing a debt due to God, and bearing the 
 penalty of human transgression. The other 
 may believe that it is by manifesting the 
 
72 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 truth and love of God to the soul, and by 
 creating a new life therein. But, while hold- 
 ing these different, beliefs as to the way of 
 Salvation, they both are receiving daily peace 
 and strength from communion with their 
 spiritual Friend. Both rely on him practi- 
 cally in the same way, and therefore must 
 have the same faith. Meantime it is evident 
 that two men may hold precisely the same 
 belief, and accept intellectually the same 
 creed; and, while one of them has a strong 
 faith, the other may have no faith at all. 
 For do we not see every day, in all the 
 churches, those who hold strongly to every 
 variety of creed, but who have not attained 
 thereby, as yet, to any Christian faith ? 
 
 § 30. Faith and Opinion. 
 
 Faith, we have seen, produces certainty ; 
 Belief, only probability. Still lower down is 
 Opinion^ which produces neither certainty nor 
 probability, but only a thought. When a 
 subject is presented to us, we have an opinion 
 
THE CONDITIONS OF FORGIVENESS. 73 
 
 concerning it, which results from the first 
 impression it makes upon our mind. These 
 opinions are not the result of examination : 
 they are not supported by reason, nor based 
 upon evidence. " Opinion," says Milton, " is 
 knowledge in the making ; " but, unfortu- 
 nately, in most cases it remains unmade. 
 Most persons, when they speak of their creed 
 or their belief, mean in reality only their 
 opinions. Their notions on religious subjects 
 are not the result of any careful or conscien- 
 tious investigation, but of the impressions 
 they have passively received, of the thoughts 
 which they have been accustomed to hear. 
 In order to turn their opinions into belief, it 
 would be necessary to subject each to an 
 examination, and to weigh the arguments for 
 and against it. Only by this process can 
 Opinion be changed into Belief. 
 
 § 31. Importance of these Distinctions. 
 
 When Faith is confounded with Belief, 
 many evil results follow, which we see illus- 
 
74 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 trated everywhere in the present condition of 
 the church. Salvation is made to depend on 
 the belief of dogmas, instead of a right state 
 of the affections. For, if a man believes that 
 his creed is his faith, he must necessarily be 
 a Dogmatist. Again, he must be a bigot, 
 and cling to his dogma with an exaggerated 
 fondness, idolize it, worship it, and believe in 
 its infallibility. All which is true when pred- 
 icated of Faith; namely, that it produces 
 certainty, assurance; that it saves the soul; 
 that without it there is no comfort, hope, nor 
 peace ; he will transfer to his dogma and 
 predicate of his Creed. Then follows intoler- 
 ance as another necessary result of this con- 
 fusion. All supposed speculative errors he 
 will confound with spiritual deficiencies. 
 What he believes a heresy he will also believe 
 to be irreligion, and to doubt his creed must 
 be to him the same thing as to be without 
 God or hope in the world. It may safely be 
 assumed, that the destruction of the spirit of 
 bigotry, intolerance, and sectarianism in the 
 
THE CONDITIONS OP FORGIYENESS. 75 
 
 Christian church, depends upon its recogni- 
 tion of this distinction between Faith and 
 Belief, between Religion and Theology. The 
 man who does not recognize this distinction 
 (in some form or other) ought to be a bigot, 
 and must be one. 
 
 § 32. Christian Faith in particular. 
 
 Faith, in general, we have seen to be the 
 sight of spiritual things. Religious faith is 
 the sight of God in his works and in his 
 providence. Christian faith is the sight of 
 God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Thus Faith 
 in general produces spirituality ; Faith in God 
 produces religion; Faith in Christ produces 
 the Christian life. God has made a special 
 revelation in Christ, and Christian faith, there- 
 fore, is specific; having a character of its 
 own, derived from its object. God in nature 
 reveals his power, his wisdom, and his good- 
 ness. He reveals himself as the great, wise, 
 and benevolent Order of the Universe. He 
 is above all, through all, and within all. 
 
76 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 Above all, as the Creator ; through all, as the 
 Sustainer ; and within all, by communicating 
 his Life and Joy. God also reveals himself 
 IN THE HUMAN SOUL, by its intuitions of Justice, 
 Truth, Beauty, Personality, Infinity, and Be- 
 ing, — as the personal Moral One, sole fair, 
 sole true. But the Revelation in Christ has 
 something special in it, not found in God's 
 revelation through nature, or his revelation in 
 the human soul. In Christ He comes to 
 man, estranged from him by sin, to reconcile 
 him again to himself. In Christ he manifests 
 himself, not as Creator, nor as King, but as 
 Father. He enters into a new and beautiful 
 relation with the individual soul, teaching it 
 to cry " Father," and to feel itself his Child. 
 We find in nature few, if any, indications of 
 forgiveness. Everywhere in nature we read 
 Law, — inexorable, unrelenting Law. These 
 Laws, indeed, are always adapted to the good 
 of the whole, and to the advancement and 
 perfection of the race; but beneath them the 
 individual is continually crushed. Nature 
 
THE CONDITIONS OF FORGIVENESS. 77 
 
 never pardons. Her wheels thunder on along 
 their iron track, nor turn out to spare any- 
 helpless mortal who has fallen beneath them. 
 Ignorance of the Law is no excuse. Help- 
 lessness is no excuse. There is no appeal to 
 any Court of error ; but prompt execution 
 follows judgment. The innocent child, who 
 ignorantly touches fire, is not the less burned. 
 The man who, in the night, ignorantly walks 
 over a precipice, is not the less destroyed. In 
 nature, therefore, we find no word of pardon 
 for those who have broken the Law, what- 
 ever may be their excuse or sorrow. Nor do 
 the intuitions of the soul have much to say 
 of pardon. Conscience, that higher voice of 
 God within us, punishes our errors, rewards 
 our virtues, but says nothing of forgiven sin. 
 In Christ alone do we find a full manifesta- 
 tion of this divine attribute. Christ comes as 
 the representative of God to the fallen, the 
 outcast, the sinful, to show them God's for- 
 giving Love. This forgiving, reconciling 
 Love is the one essential object of Christian 
 
78 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 faith. And the saving faith of Christianity 
 is a reliance on God's forgiving Love. 
 
 § 33. Christian Faith as the Condition of Forgiveness. 
 
 The faith, therefore, which is the one con- 
 dition of forgiveness, is an act of reliance on 
 the reconciling love of God^ sliown to us in 
 Christ It is essentially, therefore, an act, 
 not a belief nor a feeling. So far, indeed, as 
 it is a sight of God's love, it has an intel- 
 lectual character. So far, too, as it is a loving 
 reliance on that love, it has an affectionate 
 character. But it is in its essence a moral 
 act, an act of choice and will ; and yet a 
 receptive act; the opening of the heart to 
 God. It is choosing to lean on him, to repose 
 on his goodness, to rest in the bosom of the 
 Father, to wait on the Lord, and so renew 
 strength. It is ceasing from our own works, 
 that God may work in us and by us. It is 
 " feeding the mind with a wise passiveness," 
 and becoming the channels through which the 
 spirit of God may flow. When we can thus 
 
THE CONDITIONS OF FORGIVENESS. 79 
 
 come near to God, looking away from our- 
 selves, and looking to him with a perfect 
 childlike trust, we may lay down our sins 
 before him, and receive a peace which passes 
 understanding into our soul. This peace is 
 th^ result of no effort of ours : it is the pure 
 gift of God. All that we have to do is to 
 believe in it, wait for it, and receive it. Faith, 
 then, becomes the organ by which the holy 
 spirit enters the soul, and helps us to cry, 
 Father. 
 
 § 34. Works, growing out of Faith, the Condition of full Salva- 
 tion. 
 
 But what is the place of Works, according 
 to this view? If the only condition of for- 
 giveness is iPaith, what becomes of Works ? 
 The answer follows from what we have before 
 said. Sin, we have seen, has two results: 
 the first, which is estrangement from God, is 
 removed at once, when we have faith in his 
 pardoning love. The second, which is moral 
 depravity, is gradually removed by faithful 
 continuance in well-doing. We are justified 
 
80 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 by faith ; we are saved by works, flowing out 
 of that reconciled state of the heart. The 
 man who is forgiven is not yet saved. He 
 has the principle of salvation within him, but 
 he must work it out. By the strength which 
 comes to him from union with God, he must 
 build up his character, overcome evil habits, 
 purify his soul from all unworthy desires, and 
 acquire the power of self-denial, generosity, 
 patience, and fidelity, which shall make him a 
 perfect man in Christ Jesus. This is a great 
 work, enough to task all the energy of his 
 soul, and which will develop energies of which 
 he is unconscious. But it is a work which 
 is done, not that he may be pardoned, but 
 because he has been pardoned; not as task- 
 work done by a servant for wages, but the 
 free and glad efforts which a friend makes 
 for the sake of a friend. It is not anxious 
 drudgery, done only because it is necessary 
 for something else, but toil which is lightened 
 by the sense of the Divine aid and the Divine 
 love, which strengthens us to perform it, and 
 
THE CONDITIONS OF FORGIVENESS. 81 
 
 which brings with it its own immediate re-- 
 ward. The Epistles of Paul are filled with 
 exhortations to good works; but the pecu- 
 liarity of these exhortations is in the motive 
 appealed to. This motive appealed to is not 
 a selfish one. It is not the fear of Hell, or 
 the hope of Heaven. But Christians are 
 called on, by their sense of gratitude for what 
 has been done for them, because they have 
 been forgiven, because they have been bought 
 with a price, because God has chosen them 
 before the foundation of the world, and has 
 blessed them with infinite blessings in Jesus 
 Christ, to be faithful and to abound in the 
 work of the Lord, knowing that their labor is 
 not in vain. 
 
 § 35. Mutual relation of Faith and Works in the Christian Life. 
 
 But, if works proceed from faith, faith also 
 proceeds from works, and each needs the 
 other in order to complete it. Faith gives us 
 energy, and enables us to work successfully. 
 But, while we are working, we feel the need 
 6 
 
82 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 of greater faith, and are led to seek for it and 
 obtain it The two, therefore, become in- 
 separably associated in the Christian life ; 
 and neither can exist or thrive without the 
 other. We see a work to be done, a duty to 
 be performed ; and, conscious of our inability 
 to do it as we ought, we are led to exercise 
 faith in God, to trust ourselves to his help, 
 and to do it in his strength. Thus the sense 
 of duty, the feeling of responsibility, has led 
 to the sense of dependence, has produced an 
 act of faith ; but this again immediately 
 impels to action. Through faith in God we 
 become strong, and the performance of duty 
 is no more a task, but a pleasure ; and thus 
 faith leads to w^orks, and works to faith ; and 
 no one can say which is the first, and which 
 the second. In the logical order, faith pre- 
 cedes works ; but, in the chronological order, 
 they are simultaneous. 
 
 § 36. Results of Forgiveness in the Future Life. 
 
 But what is the final result of forgiveness 
 hereafter ? This is the question we must next 
 
THE CONDITIONS OF FORGIVENESS. 83 
 
 proceed to consider. And first we say, that 
 each forgiven soul, being reconciled to God, 
 and at one with him, and feeling itself his 
 child, must be filled with God's love and joy, 
 to its utmost capacity. Evil may still adhere 
 to it ; it may not yet have got rid of the con- 
 sequences of wrong-doing: but this evil is 
 only negative evil, it is only the absence of 
 good. It is incompleteness, smaller capacity, 
 less power ; a less degree of faith, hope, and 
 love. Forgiveness has removed the antago- 
 nism of the soul to God ; and in this antag- 
 onism, this wilful perversion, this determined 
 hostility to goodness, consists the whole posi- 
 tive character of sin. All this wilful perversity 
 is changed into willing submission and loving 
 ^obedience, by the forgiving act of God. The 
 evil that remains, therefore, must be purely 
 negative. But this negative evil, this absence 
 of good, will have its effect on the position 
 of the soul in God's universe. The reason of 
 things and the tenor of the New Testament 
 equally lead to the opinion, that, in the other 
 
84 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 life, as in this, there will be an ascending 
 scale of being, a gradation, and an order. 
 While all forgiven souls are equal in one 
 respect, their position in another respect will 
 be different. Equal in their inward sense of 
 God's loving nearness, they will be different 
 in their outward faculties and powers, and in 
 the service which they are able to render, — 
 the work they are able to do. Possessing 
 different degrees of insight, energy, and love, 
 some will preside over ten cities, some over 
 five, and others over two. Thus may be 
 reconciled the doctrine of Retribution, taught 
 in the parable of the ten pounds (Luke, xix. 
 12), with the parable of the laborers in the 
 vineyard (Matt, xx.) ; the first of which teaches 
 that each is rewarded in proportion to his 
 effort, while the other teaches that the man 
 who had wrought but one hour is made equal 
 with those who have wrought the whole day. 
 Outwardly, in his relation to others and to 
 the universe, each one is placed according 
 to his fidelity ; while inwardly, in their rela- 
 
THE CONDITIONS OF FORGIVENESS. 85 
 
 tion to God, all forgiven souls are equal. 
 Thus can be reconciled Mercy and Justice, 
 Law and Love. Thus will the Sacred Order 
 of the universe be maintained; but all parts 
 brought into a perfect harmony, the highest 
 and the lowest being in fulness of sympathy 
 and entire accordance. So will Mercy and 
 Truth meet together. Righteousness and Peace 
 kiss each other. 
 
 § 37. Objections to this Doctrine, and the Answer to them. 
 
 Let us now proceed to consider some of 
 the objections which may be urged against 
 this doctrine. The doctrine of forgiveness 
 immediate and entire, on the simple condition 
 of faith, is unfavorable (it may be said) to 
 moral effort. If we can be pardoned freely, 
 on the condition of faith without works, it is 
 argued that we shall not be likely to work. A 
 similar objection appears to be taken notice 
 of by Paul. " Some might say, Let us con- 
 tinue in sin, that grace may abound." He 
 replies, " But how can those who are dead to 
 
86 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 sin live any longer therein?" His answer 
 amounts to this, that forgiveness produces a 
 dislike to sin, and a wish to do right; that 
 those who are forgiven, love right-doing, and 
 therefore there is no danger of their omitting 
 to work. A new and stronger motive for 
 moral effort is substituted in place of that 
 which is taken away. All experience confirms 
 this, and shows that there are none so active 
 in the service of God, in the performance of 
 duty, in working for human advancement, as 
 those who feel that God has freely forgiven 
 them by his grace. The love and joy thus 
 created in the heart is a perpetual spring of 
 action. So far, therefore, as he who is forgiven 
 is concerned, so far as regards the penitent, 
 this seems a sufficient answer to the objec- 
 tion. But more than this. If this motive 
 of love be not enough to produce moral effort, 
 we must remember that there is still a retri- 
 bution to which he must look forward, — 
 strict and inevitable. His power of serving 
 God hereafter will depend upon his fidelity 
 
THE CONDITIONS OF FORGIVENESS. 87 
 
 here. And the prospect of this inevitable 
 retribution, which no forgiveness can annul, 
 while it animates the Christian to new effort, 
 alarms the impenitent, and leads him to turn 
 to God. Another objection, the opposite to 
 this, may be urged by those who are discour- 
 aged because forgiveness does not remove all 
 the consequences of sin. They think it dis- 
 couraging that the forgiven sinner should be 
 obliged to submit to the Law of Retribution, 
 and endure any penalty on account of his 
 past sin. The objection is, that forgiveness 
 is not full and perfect, unless it immediately 
 removes all the consequences of wrong-doing. 
 But to this we may answer, first, that the 
 New Testament itself, in the Parable of the 
 Ten Pounds, plainly -teaches that those who 
 are saved come nevertheless under a strict 
 law of Retribution, and are rewarded in 
 different degrees, according to their past fidel- 
 ity. This doctrine, which is found throughout 
 the New Testament, must not be explained 
 away or omitted, as it usually has been, in 
 
88 FAITH AND WORKS, OR 
 
 any theory of the future life. And, in the 
 second place, we may say that he who is 
 forgiven in the sense which we have described 
 must be satisfied with his outward lot, wherever 
 it may be. The forgiveness which unites the 
 soul w^ith God, and which fills it with the 
 love of God, is enough. He will gladly take 
 his place in the great order of the universe, 
 whatever that place may be, and do honor to 
 the holy law of God by a glad submission 
 to its requirements. He will be glad to do 
 his Master's work in a lowly place and a 
 lowly office, if it is right that he should be 
 there. He will rejoice that others stand higher 
 than himself among the thrones, principalities, 
 and powers of the heavenly world, since it is 
 the decree of divine wisdom that it should 
 be so. It is only our earthly selfishness, not 
 our Christian feeling, which can complain of 
 God's forgiveness as imperfect, because it 
 only gives us the full love of God, and does 
 not raise us as high as his more faithful 
 servants. The Prodigal Son, in the Parable, 
 
THE CONDITIONS OP FORGIVENESS. 89 
 
 may teach such objectors a lesson of humility. 
 Neither of these objections to our view of 
 Forgiveness seems to be important, and we 
 may therefore pasrf on to more serious diffi- 
 culties. 
 
PAET IV. 
 
 OBSTACLES AND HELP{ 
 
 § 38. Practical Difficulty of believing in Forgiveness, arising 
 from the Conscience. 
 
 The objections urged against this view of 
 forgiveness from the side of the intellect are 
 easily answered. But the practical difficulty 
 of believing in forgiveness is much greater 
 than the intellectual. It is much easier to 
 believe that the sins of David were forgiven, 
 or the sins of Peter were forgiven, than to 
 believe that our own sins can be forgiven. 
 But what we have to do is not to believe in 
 the forgiveness of David or of Peter, but 
 in our own. And the difficulty arises, not 
 from fear, but from conscience. It is the 
 conscience which makes it difficult to believe 
 [901 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 91 
 
 m forgiveness. We think we have no right 
 to be forgiven. For conscience in every man 
 decides all questions according to the moral 
 standard, and the views of right and wrong, 
 to which each man has attained. Now, the 
 moral standard of one who is not a Christian 
 leads him to believe it his duty not to forgive, 
 but to punish. He has not learned to for- 
 give others, and he cannot therefore believe 
 that he himself may be forgiven. He thinks 
 that society would be injured, if severe pun- 
 ishments were abolished ; and he is obliged, 
 by the law of his own mind, to believe that 
 the government of God would be shaken, if 
 God should forgive instead of punishing. 
 Educated by the opinion around us and by 
 our own treatment of others to disbelieve in 
 the power of mercy, and to rely on force and 
 fear, the necessary result is that we cannot 
 believe it possible for God to forgive freely 
 without punishing. In this way, therefore, 
 the assertion of Christ is strictly verified, 
 that, if we forgive not others their trespass- 
 
92 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 es, neither will God forgive us our trespasses. 
 He will not forgive us till we have faith in 
 his forgiving love; for that is the condition 
 of forgiveness. And we cannot believe in 
 his forgiving love, so long as we do not our- 
 selves practise forgiveness; for conscience 
 compels us to judge' all cases by the same 
 law. And thus it is that all of our sinfulness, 
 selfishness, and hardness of heart, which leads 
 us first to do wrong, and then to excuse our 
 wrong-doing, sophisticates and perverts the 
 moral sense, and then re-acts upon ourselves. 
 When we have succeeded in persuading our- 
 selves that we ought to be vindictive and 
 unforgiving to others, we persuade ourselves, 
 at the same time, that God ought to be vin- 
 dictive and unforgiving toward ourselves. 
 For, "to the merciful man, God will show 
 himself merciful, and to the pure he will 
 show himself pure." But to the unmerciful he 
 will necessarily appear unmerciful. Here, then, 
 we see a practical difiiculty, which prevents 
 our believing in forgiveness, — a difficulty 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 93 
 
 which remains after all intellectual objections 
 are answered. 
 
 § 39. All Moral Training makes it more difficult. 
 
 But not only does all sin increase the diffi- 
 culty of believing in forgiveness, but all our 
 moral training increases the difficulty also. 
 All moral training quickens the conscience, 
 makes it sensitive, and leads us to look in the 
 direction of law, rather than in that of love. 
 A habit of mind is formed which leads us to 
 contemplate every thing in its relation to thfe 
 moral law. We look at Retribution until it 
 becomes difficult to believe in pardon. It is 
 not that moral culture lays too much stress 
 On the doctrine of Retribution, but, by laying 
 exclusive stress on that doctrine, it becomes 
 difficult to realize the antagonist doctrine. 
 
 § 40. Christ's Revelation of Divine Love alone makes it 
 possible. 
 
 Here, then, we see the difficulties which 
 were to be surmounted by means of the gos- 
 pel of Christ. In the first place, sin estranges 
 
94 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 the soul from God; and, when estranged from 
 God, the moral power which should conquer 
 sin is palsied. Then conscience itself in- 
 creases the evil, by leading us to believe that 
 we have no right to come to God ; that we 
 are not worthy to speak to him, or feel toward 
 him the confidence and afFectign of a child. 
 All our own implacable and unforgiving ac- 
 tions and feelings increase the difiiculty, by 
 leading us to attribute the like disposition to 
 the Almighty. The light of Nature cannot 
 fielp us ; for Nature teaches, not pardon, but 
 Law. The intuitions of the soul cannot help 
 us ; for they say nothing of forgiveness ; moral 
 culture does not help us, but rather increases 
 the difiiculty by giving a disproportionate 
 importance in our minds to the doctrine of 
 Retribution. Yet it is evident, that only by 
 being brought into union with God can any 
 new life or spiritual power be obtained. We 
 can do nothing to efiect this. God himself, 
 therefore, must come to us ; for we are morally 
 unable to go to him. This he does in the 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 95 
 
 gospel, — the essential meaning of which is, 
 that God is in Christ, reconciling the world to 
 himself, not imputing their trespasses unto 
 them. This is the substance of the gospel. 
 The gospel is a new and peculiar manifesta- 
 tion which God makes to men in Jesus 
 Christ. This manifestation is love ; as it is 
 written, " God so loved the world that he 
 gave his only-begotten Son, that whoso be- 
 lieveth on him should not perish, but have 
 eternal life." And this leads us to ask. What 
 are the agencies which co-operate in human 
 forgiveness ? And we shall find, that, for the 
 forgiveness of every human being, something 
 has been done ; first by God, next by Christ, 
 thirdly by the Church, and lastly by the sinner 
 himself. 
 
 § 41. The "Work of God in Human Forgiveness. 
 
 What is the work of God in human for- 
 giveness? It is to make a new and special 
 revelation of himself to man. As the sinner 
 has made himself incapable of returning to 
 
96 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 Godj God turns to him. Christianity shows 
 that the Divine Being is also a personal 
 being ; not a mere collection of laws ; some- 
 thing more than the order of the universe. In 
 him are united both Law and Love ; an im- 
 mutable moral nature, which is the basis of 
 all moral distinction, and a perfectly free will, 
 not bound by the laws of this nature, but 
 perpetually originating new movements. If 
 Christianity be true, that view is false which 
 makes the Deity nothing else than the support 
 of already existing laws. This view widely 
 diffused, and more often believed than ex- 
 pressed, really makes the Deity less free than 
 man himself. For man moves in the twofold 
 sphere of moral character and moral freedom. 
 A wise and good parent, in his intercourse 
 with his children, adopts and maintains cer- 
 tain laws or rules of action, but does some- 
 thing more than this. There is, beside this, 
 a spontaneous movement of affection and of 
 thought, by which he meets and answers 
 every change in the condition of his children, 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 97 
 
 every new want and desire. The gospel 
 affirms the same thing of the Deity. He also 
 moves in the two spheres of Law and Love, 
 of Nature and Freedom; makes new mani- 
 festations of himself, corresponding to the 
 new wants of his creatures ; comes to them 
 when they cannot come to him; takes the 
 initiative; not merely answers their prayers, 
 but incites them to pray ; not merely rewards 
 their efforts, but supplies new motives to lead 
 to effort. Thus, while in one sphere the Deity 
 appears as the moral order of Creation, He 
 moves in the other sphere as the eternal 
 Father and Friend. The miraculous char- 
 acter of the New Testament history consists 
 essentially in this. The great miracle, under- 
 lying all the rest, is the new manifestation 
 of God's character which is made in Christ. 
 But this manifestation was not a single act, 
 beginning and ending with the life of Jesus, 
 but is a constant, continued manifestation 
 made in every age to the believing soul. It 
 is a perpetual miracle, by which God reveals 
 7 
 
98 OBSTACLES AND HEI^PS. 
 
 himself in Christ, forgiving sin, and bringing 
 his child back to himself. The work of God 
 ill forgiveness y therefore^ is a positive, keal 
 
 COMMUNICATION OF HIMSELF THROUGH ChRIST 
 TO THE HUMAN SOUL. 
 
 § 42. The Work of Christ in Human Forgiveness, as a Teacher. 
 
 We ask, in the second place, What has 
 Christ done for our forgiveness ? His work, 
 in this respect, was done by his teaching, 
 by his life, and by his death. His teaching 
 unfolds an entirely new view of the Divine 
 Being. This view he makes intelligible in 
 the only way by which it can be made intel- 
 ligible, — by means of the analogy of the 
 earthly parent. In the earthly parent we see 
 that the most perfect purity and the strictest 
 sense of virtue may be joined with tender 
 compassion for an erring child, and untiring 
 efforts for his reformation. We see the good 
 parent devoting time, thought, means, effort, 
 to bring back to a sense of duty, or to save 
 from utter destruction, the reckless, ungrateful, 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 99 
 
 and abandoned son. Here is something more 
 than strict justice, — something more than 
 the moral law. In the story of the Prodigal 
 Son, Jesus carries to the utmost extent this 
 trait of fatherly character. He says there is 
 
 MORE JOY IN HEAYEN OVER ONE SINNER THAT 
 REPENTETH, THAN OVER NINETY AND NINE JUST 
 PERSONS THAT NEED NO REPENTANCE. Does God, 
 
 then, love the sinner better than the saint? 
 Does he feel more interest in the one return- 
 ing from his wickedness, than in the ninety 
 and nine persisting in their goodness? The 
 answer is, he feels, not more, but differently. 
 There is more joy, but not more of love. 
 Yet there is a different kind of love. God, 
 who loves the good with the love of appro- 
 bation and sympathy, loves the evil with the 
 love of pity and compassion. The love of 
 approbation is greatest for the good ; the love 
 of pity, the greatest for the evil. The love 
 of sympathy and approbation increases in 
 proportion to nearness ; the love of pity, in 
 proportion to distance. Those who, by patient 
 
100 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 continuance in well-doing, have worked out 
 their own salvation, have freed themselves 
 almost entirely from selfishness, have become 
 the children of God, are able to enter into his 
 thought, able to appreciate his creative energy 
 and his holy will. But tho^e who have re- 
 ceded, by their wilful obstinacy and perverse- 
 ness, to the greatest distance from him, plun- 
 ging into the blackest night and the coldest 
 moral death, receive the most of that pitying 
 love which aims at their rescue and pardon. 
 And as the joint action of the centripetal and 
 centrifugal forces maintain the balance of the 
 physical universe, so is the moral creation of 
 God bound together and maintained by the 
 combined action of these two principles. 
 The teaching of Jesus on this subject, which 
 is wholly original and unprecedented, presents 
 a view of God in his Fatherly character abso- 
 lutely essential to human forgiveness. Jesus, 
 therefore, can say with strict historic truth, 
 " No man comes to the Father but by Me;" 
 for this peculiar revelation of God's love to 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 101 
 
 his erring child belongs to the teaching of 
 Jesus alone. He gives a view of God which 
 neither prophet, lawgiver, nor sage ever dared 
 to imagine, — yet no dead speculation, but 
 a flood of Light which is also warm with 
 Life; and this living Light has illuminated 
 the world. 
 
 § 43. And in his Life. 
 
 Again, Jesus taught by his life the for- 
 giving love of his Father, and thus became 
 himself the image and manifestation of his 
 Father, — God manifest in the flesh. That 
 principle of mercy, that love of pity, which 
 is the principle in the Divine Being which 
 makes human forgiveness possible, was the 
 great active principle which animated the life 
 of Jesus. He came to seek and to save the 
 lost ; and not to call the righteous, but sinners, 
 to repentance. His mercies were pronounced 
 on those who felt themselves poor, empty, 
 naked, and blind. His invitation was to those 
 who were weary and heavy laden. His in- 
 tercourse was with the publican and sinner. 
 
102 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 And wherever he went, he found the penitent 
 to whom he could say, " Thy sins are forgiven 
 thee : go in peace." Those who hated him, 
 and sought to kill him, were the objects of his 
 especial interest. And his last words were 
 those of forgiveness for his ignorant tormen- 
 tors. Thus the whole spirit of his life was 
 a manifestation of the principle of Forgiving 
 love. We see that there is such a thing by 
 his example ; we see it, not as a theory, but 
 realized in action. We are thus enabled 
 to have faith in it. And when we come to 
 know, that this principle, shown in the life 
 of Jesus, is the same principle in God, we are 
 able to have faith in God's forgiving love. 
 Thus Christ's Life, in its totality, helps us to 
 behold and rejoice in this Divine Love, as an 
 actual spiritual reality ; helps us to take hold 
 of it by Faith, and feed on it in the heart 
 with thanksgiving. 
 
 § 44. And by his Death. Principal Texts. 
 
 We now approach a more difficult ques- 
 tion, — difficult on many accounts, but espe- 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 103 
 
 cially because it has been the theme of so 
 much controversy. It is difficult to look at 
 any question which has been the subject of 
 continued controversy, except from the point 
 of view of the disputants of either side. We 
 allow no text to make its natural impression 
 on our mind, but only inquire, as regards 
 each, how it bears upon the old dispute. So 
 far as possible, we will endeavor to avoid this 
 narrowness, while inquiring how the death 
 of Jesus bears upon the Forgiveness of sin. 
 Many passages in the New Testament indi- 
 cate a connection between these two. First, 
 we have the words of Jesus in instituting the 
 Lord's supper, — " This is my blood of the 
 New Covenant, which is shed for many for 
 the remission of sins " (Matt. xxvi. 28). Next 
 to this come several passages in the Epistles 
 of Paul, and especially the famous passage 
 (Rom. iii. 25), where he says that " God has 
 set forth Jesus to be a propitiation or mercy- 
 seat, through faith in his blood, to declare, 
 or manifest, his mode of forgiving past and 
 
104 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 present sins." There are other passages 
 which teach that Jesus was "delivered for 
 our offences," or on account of them ; that he 
 " died for the ungodly," and that he " died 
 for us while we were yet sinners," and that, 
 " being now justified by his blood, we shall 
 be saved from wrath through him." " For 
 if," continues the apostle (Rom. v. 10), " when 
 we were enemies, we were reconciled to God 
 by the death of his Son ; much more, being 
 reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." 
 These are the principal passages bearing on 
 the subject in the Epistle to the Romans, 
 and are of the first importance as regards the 
 present question. In the two Epistles to 
 the Corinthians, Christ is called " our pass- 
 over," — is said to have " died for our sins," 
 and that " he died for all ; " but no connection 
 is indicated between his death and our for- 
 giveness. In the Epistle to the Ephesians 
 we find many more passages indicating this 
 connection. We have " Redemption through 
 his blood, even forgiveness of sin " (Eph. i. 7). 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 105 
 
 " But now in Christ Jesus, ye, who sometime 
 were far off, are made nigh by the blood of 
 Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made 
 both Jew and Gentile one, that he might 
 reconcile both unto God in one body by the 
 cross" (Eph. ii. 13, 16). In Eph. iv. 32, we 
 read, " Forgive one another, even as God in 
 Christ hath forgiven you." Similar passages 
 are found in Col. i. 20, ii. 13 ; 1 Tim. ii. 6 ; 
 Tit. ii. 14, iii. 4. The Epistle to the Hebrews 
 teaches that Christ made " a sacrifice of him- 
 self for sins," and to "bear the sins of many;" 
 and that, " his blood may purge our conscience 
 from dead works." The last passage, indeed, 
 seems to imply a moral influence in the death 
 of Jesus to reform the character, as do other 
 passages like these : — (1 Peter, ii. 24) " Who 
 his own self bore our sins in his own body on 
 the tree, that ive, being dead to sins, should live 
 unto righteousness ; hy whose stripes ye were 
 healed:' (1 John, i. 7) " The blood of Jesus 
 Christ cleanses us from all sin." (Rev. i. 5) 
 " Who has washed us from our sins in his 
 
106 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 blood." (Titus, ii. 14) "Who gave himself 
 for us, that he might redeem us from all iu' 
 iquity^ and purify unto himself a peculiar 
 people, zealous of good works,^^ From all 
 these passages, we see plainly that the doc- 
 trine of the New Testament is, that the death 
 of Christ has an intimate connection with the 
 forgiveness of sin. But it is equally plain, 
 that these passages do not clearly teach what 
 this connection is. They assert that the 
 death of Christ is a means of our forgiveness ; 
 but they do not at all teach how it is the 
 means. 
 
 § 45. Various Theories concerning the Effect of Christ's Death. 
 
 The nearest approach to a theory on this 
 subject in the New Testament is to be found 
 in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The writer 
 asserts that the Death of Christ was necessary 
 to the perfection of his character, and that 
 this perfection of Christ's character was ne- 
 cessary for our salvation. But this theory is 
 merely indicated, not elaborated. The next 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 107 
 
 theory which attempted to explain the way in 
 which the death of Christ procured our for- 
 giveness was that of the early Church. The 
 Greek and Latin fathers, during many centu- 
 ries, taught that the death of Christ was a 
 ransom paid to the Devil to redeem from his 
 power the souls which had legally fallen into 
 his hands, and become his property in conse- 
 quence of their sins. The next theory was 
 that of Anselm, who taught that the death 
 of Christ was an equivalent for the debt due 
 to God on account of human transgression ; 
 and that, the debt being paid, the debtors 
 might be forgiven. This view also prevailed 
 for many hundred years. The next theory 
 was that of Grotius, who taught that the 
 death of Christ was a manifestation of God's 
 displeasure against sin, and was necessary to 
 enable God, as a moral governor, to forgive 
 the sinner, without impairing the respect due 
 to the moral law. This opinion is held more 
 extensively than any other among the Ortho- 
 dox of the present time. A fourth theory, 
 
108 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 which has prevailed more extensively among 
 a certain school of Unitarians, is, that the 
 death of Christ is a moral influence exerted 
 upon men to produce repentance and reforma- 
 tion by the power of its example of generous 
 self-sacrifice. For as, according to the view 
 of this school, the only forgiveness possible is 
 that which follows reformation, the death of 
 Christ can only procure our forgiveness by 
 producing reformation. 
 
 § 46. All Matters of Theology not of Keligion. 
 
 It is not our purpose at this time to enter 
 into a critical examination of these theories ; 
 against all of which, however, grave objec- 
 tions seem to lie. We will proceed positively, 
 rather than negatively, by examining anew, 
 and as if for the first time, this question, 
 without further reference to previous theories 
 on the subject. The New Testament de- 
 clares, as we have seen, that we are forgiven 
 by means of the death of Christ. It applies 
 to his death many of the sacrificial figures of 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 109 
 
 the Jewish ritual, making him sometimes the 
 sin-offering of the new covenant, sometimes 
 the covenant-victim of the new covenant, and 
 again the Christian Paschal Lamb. But as 
 the New Testament says nothing, beyond the 
 use of these various and conflicting images, 
 to point out how it was that the death of 
 Jesus removed the difliculties in the way of 
 human forgiveness, we may safely conclude, 
 that all speculations on this subject are not 
 matters of faith, but only matters of belief 
 and opinion ; that they belong to the domain 
 of Theology, not to that of Religion. And, 
 secondly, we may be sure that the most cor- 
 rect theory on this subject must come after 
 each school of thought shall have contributed 
 its own solution of the problem. We there- 
 fore proceed to our own explanation. 
 
 § 47. How the Death of Christ may produce Faith in Forgiving 
 Love. 
 
 The death of Christ must procure forgive- 
 ness of sin by removing the difficulties in the 
 way of that forgiveness. In the course of 
 
110 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 thought we have pursued, we have seen that 
 these difficulties were twofold, arising from 
 the nature of man and from the nature of 
 God. The subjective difficulty^ or that arising 
 from the nature of man, is the difficulty of 
 believing in the forgiving love of God, be- 
 cause man's conscience shows him that a 
 holy being must necessarily be estranged 
 from an unholy being; and that, in the na- 
 ture of things, there is a great gulf fixed 
 between righteousness and iniquity. The ob- 
 jective diffi^culty^ or that arising from the na- 
 ture of God, is that this law really exists, and 
 that God really is and must be alienated 
 from every unholy being. These are the two 
 difficulties in the way of human forgiveness, 
 one or both of which must have been re- 
 moved by the death of Christ. Taking first 
 the subjective difficulty, we see how that may 
 be, in a great measure, removed by the teach- 
 ing and life of Jesus, both of which we have 
 seen to be a manifestation of the forgiving 
 love of God. We can believe a thing when 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. Ill 
 
 we see it, the reasons of which we cannot 
 understand. We may not understand how 
 God can forgive us until we are perfectly- 
 holy; and yet, if we actually see his forgiv- 
 ing love manifested in the words and life of 
 Jesus, we may be enabled to believe in it. 
 But still more is this manifested in the death 
 of Jesus. When this death is regarded as 
 part of the plan of Divine Providence for the 
 forgiveness and redemption of the sinner, we 
 say, " He who spared not his own Son, but 
 freely gave him up for us all, how shall he 
 not with hiij^i freely give us all things ? " " If, 
 while we were sinners, Christ died for us," 
 it proves, more than any thing else can, the 
 love which God has even for sinners. If he 
 permits the good, whom he loves as belong- 
 ing to himself, to suffer for the sinners who 
 are estranged from him, it shows that they 
 also are in some way dear to him. K he not 
 only permits, but decrees, that Jesus, his well- 
 beloved Son, a being of perfect holiness and 
 purity, therefore perfectly united with himself. 
 
112 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 shall suffer and die in his work of saving sin- 
 ners, it proves conclusively the yearning of 
 His soul for their redemption. 
 
 § 48. As, in fact, it has actually done. 
 
 That, as a matter of fact, the death of Je- 
 sus has been the highest manifestation to the 
 world of God's forgiving love, all history 
 proves. Here also the theory is one thing, 
 and may be questioned : the fact is quite an- 
 other, and is unquestionable. The story of 
 the death of Jesus has touched the human 
 heart, and awakened a faith in ^he fatherly 
 goodness of God; has produced penitence 
 for sin; has awakened hopes of pardon and 
 salvation, and been the beginning of a new 
 life to tens of thousands. Jesus, being lifted 
 up, has drawn all men unto him. That his 
 death has been a great means of reconciling 
 sinners to God, and removing the subjective 
 difficulty on the side of man, in the way of 
 redemption, no one acquainted with the facts 
 of history will deny. 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 113 
 
 § 49. How Christ's Death may have satisfied the Divine Holiness. 
 
 But what did the death of Jesus do to re- 
 move the Objective difficulty^ or that on the 
 side of the Deity ? His death reconciled man 
 to God: did it also reconcile God to man? 
 The scriptures do not positively assert this; 
 but they indicate it in one or two passages. 
 The difficulties connected with this question 
 are greater than most others, and fortunately 
 their solution is not so necessary to our peace 
 of mind as has commonly been supposed. 
 Since God has positively taught and shown 
 us that he is ready to forgive our sins, if we 
 will have faith to believe it, we may be satis- 
 fied with this assurance, and not insist upon 
 understanding exactly how it can be done. 
 Here, as elsewhere, we must walk by faith, 
 and not sight. No greater error has evei 
 been committed by Theologians, than when 
 they have made their own theories of the 
 atonement, instead of God himself, the object 
 of faith. God's manifestation of himself in 
 8 
 
J 14 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 Christ, as a forgiving God, is the only true 
 object of faith ; and any theory which ex- 
 plains the method of this forgiveness can be 
 only an object of belief. The New Testa- 
 ment itself gives us no theory, but at best 
 only hints and intimations upon which one 
 may be founded. The difficulty on the side 
 of God, lying in the way of human forgive- 
 ness, has commonly been supposed to pro- 
 ceed from his attribute of Justice. But the 
 Justice of God is but the Holiness of God 
 manifesting itself in action ; and the real and 
 only difficulty (as we have before seen) on 
 the side of the Deity, respecting human for- 
 giveness, arises from the essential repugnance 
 between a holy being and those who are un- 
 holy. Forgiveness implies the union of the 
 soul with God. It implies a partaking of 
 the Divine nature. It implies God dwelling 
 in us and we in God, or the most perfect 
 union which language is capable of express- 
 ing. But the most sincerely penitent have 
 yet much of impurity connected with their 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 115 
 
 character. How, then, can they be forgiven 
 in any such sense as this ? None of the Or- 
 thodox theories of the atonement have met 
 this difficulty. They have said that Christ 
 has suffered the penalty due to our sins. 
 But a criminal who has endured the penalty 
 of his crime is not necessarily made holy 
 thereby. If we had endured the penalty our- 
 selves due to our sins, this would not have 
 made us holy. Supposing that Christ has 
 endured the penalty due to human sin, all 
 that logically follows from this is, that men 
 are released thereby from suffering this pen- 
 alty themselves. They escape from Hell; 
 but escape from Hell is no preparation for 
 Heaven. Therefore a deeper difficulty re- 
 mains, which this theory cannot remove. 
 Aware of this, the older and more logical 
 Orthodox theologians added a second part to 
 their theory of the atoning work of Christ. 
 By his passive obedience, they said, he paid 
 the penalty due to our sins; and his active 
 obedience, or holiness, was transferred or im- 
 
116 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 puted to us, and becomes ours. We become 
 holy by means of the righteousness of Christ 
 which is imputed to us. But, beside other 
 difficulties which lie against this scheme, 
 there is this, which is a fatal one, that what 
 we need is not imputed righteousness, but 
 real righteousness. The difficulty in the way 
 of our forgiveness is not a technical one, but 
 a real one. It does not come from any out- 
 ward law, but from the holy nature of the 
 Deity himself. We are, then, irresistibly 
 brought to this conclusion, — that, if there be 
 any objective difficulty in the way of human 
 forgiveness, it must be from the essential hos- 
 tility of the Holy character of God to all un- 
 holiness. And again, that, if Christ's death 
 removes this difficulty, it must be by commu- 
 nicating to the sinner his own perfect holiness, 
 — by removing from his soul the essential 
 nature of sin, and by making him really, not 
 legally, holy in the sight of God. 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 117 
 
 § 50. By communicating Actual Holiness. 
 
 It is with a feeling of awe and adoring 
 reverence that we are brought to this great 
 conclusion, — a conclusion justified by the 
 language of the New Testament throughout. 
 Shall we believe then, that, when we are horn 
 of Godf we do not and cannot commit sin, for 
 that his seed remains in us ; and that we cannot 
 sin because we are born of God ? Is it true 
 that Christ's death was necessary to his own 
 perfection, so " that, being perfect, he might be- 
 come the author of eternal salvation to those 
 who obey him " ? Is it true that faith in Christ 
 so unites us with him, that the germ of his 
 perfect righteousness is planted within our 
 souls, not being merely imputed, but actually 
 imparted, to us? So the scriptures plainly 
 teach, asserting that the new life within us is 
 the life of Christ as to its principle ; and that 
 the life we live, we live by faith in the Son of 
 God. They teach that we become dead to sin, 
 and alive to righteousness; and that, being 
 
118 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 sometime alienated and enemies in our mind 
 by wicked works, we have been reconciled by 
 the death of Christ, that we might be presented 
 holy, blameless, and without fault, before the 
 eye of God (Col. i. 22). The evil which re- 
 mains connected with the soul is no more 
 part of it. It is external to it. The centre 
 of the soul is Loye, which is pure and perfect. 
 Christ dwells in the heart by faith, and the 
 root and ground of the soul is Love (Eph. iii. 
 17). The soul, inwardly renewed, is toward 
 God created anew in righteousness and pure 
 holiness (Eph. iv. 24). Sin, therefore, has no 
 more dominion over us. It is not our master ; 
 for we do not submit to it nor love it. It may 
 sometime overpower us ; but we are not its 
 slave. For morally we are only the servants 
 of that to which we yield ourselves to obey. 
 The mind serves the law of God; and if, 
 through weakness or error, we do any evil, it 
 is not we that do it, but the evil habit external 
 to the soul which has not yet been wholly 
 cast off by the power of the new principle. 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 119 
 
 We are not in the flesh, but in the spirit ; for 
 the spirit of God dwells in us. And if Christ 
 be in us, the body indeed may still have some 
 of the death of sin adhering to it; but the 
 spirit is filled with the life of righteousness 
 (Rom. viii. 10). That is to say, that, when a 
 man is able to believe in God's forgiving love 
 through Christ, the inmost principle of his 
 nature, being united with Christ, becomes 
 wholly pure, and all unholiness is rooted out 
 of it. Any evil that remains is external 
 to the soul, and belongs to the body. But 
 that, too, shall be purified and cast out by the 
 operation of this new principle. Even, as 
 the apostle goes on to say (Rom. viii. 11), 
 that, if the Divine Spirit dwell within us, it 
 will make alive our bodies also, and make 
 them spiritual too. This doctrine, however 
 will not encourage presumption, or enable us 
 to continue contented in sin; for the only 
 evidence which we can have of being thus 
 inwardly pure is that we abhor all evil, 
 and, by the help of the spirit, do mortify 
 
120 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 (or kill out) the deeds of 'the body. While 
 we are loving God and holiness, and only 
 so long, are we inwardly free from the power 
 of sin. 
 
 § 51. The Work of Man in his own Forgiveness. 
 
 Having considered the work of God and 
 of Christ, we now ask what man himself has 
 to do in order to be forgiven. The condition 
 on his part, as we have seen, is faith alone. 
 But we have also seen, that this faith is by 
 no means a barren intellectual principle, but 
 an active reliance on the Divine mercy ; and 
 that it implies, as its own necessary condition, 
 certain antecedents. It implies a sense of sin; 
 for, unless we perceive the reality of sin, we 
 can by no means perceive the reality of par- 
 don. It is plainly impossible for one who is 
 not conscious of his sinfulness to feel the 
 deep meaning of forgiveness. In some form 
 or other, therefore, the feeling of alienation 
 must precede that of reconciliation. The 
 sense of estrangement and opposition must 
 
OP THR " 
 
 OBSTACLES AND 
 
 go before that of union. Those who, with 
 the deepest humility, are most profoundly- 
 sensible of their own moral weakness, ^who 
 are most crushed by the sense of unworthi- 
 ness, whose conscience is most painfully alive 
 to every omission of duty, — are prepared, so 
 far, for the most exulting happiness, the most 
 rejoicing faith in Divine mercy. Where sin 
 abounds, there grace may much more abound. 
 But this sense of sin is awakened by the 
 Law; and the more high and pure the law, 
 the more thorough is the work of preparation 
 which it accomplishes. Hence, in the nature 
 of things, the Law must precede the Gospel 
 with every individual, as in the order of his- 
 tory, the Mosaic law prepared the Jewish 
 nation for the coming of Christ. But, since 
 the coming of Christ, the Gospel itself per- 
 forms also the work of the Law. Christi- 
 anity sets before men the highest standard 
 of duty; gives them a moral ideal so lofty, 
 pure, and spiritual, that nothing can more 
 thoroughly reveal the difference between what 
 
122 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 they ought to be, and what they are. By 
 exciting to moral effort, it makes clear to us 
 this difference. Thus the Gospel, the chief 
 work of which is to make man one with 
 God, has a subordinate and preparatory 
 work to do in showing him his separation 
 from God. For not till the contradiction 
 is clearly revealed can the agreement be 
 effected. Not till the antithesis is brought 
 out can the synthesis be accomplished. 
 
 § 62. His Efforts to do Right prepare him for Forgiveness. 
 
 We see, therefore, that faith in God's for- 
 giving love, which is the one condition of 
 forgiveness, is nevertheless itself conditioned 
 by the sense of sin. But this sense of sin has 
 also its own condition, which is the desire 
 and the effort to attain goodness. Nothing 
 but a sincere desire and earnest effort to be 
 and do right will produce a real conviction 
 of our deficiencies. Any conviction of sin, 
 not based on this, must be transient, because 
 superficial. The conscience may be moment- 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 123 
 
 arily roused by descriptions of an offended 
 G'od and an impending doom. But when 
 thus awakened, unless a genuine desire foi 
 goodness on its own account succeed, the 
 sense of sin will prove itself a shallow im- 
 pression, not a permanent conviction. But 
 every sincere wish and prayer for goodness, 
 every earnest attempt to fulfil difficult duty, 
 is sure to help on our spiritual progress, either 
 directly or indirectly. By one road or an- 
 other, every such effort brings us nearer to 
 God. If the effort to do right succeeds, it 
 goes to form a righteous habit of mind, in- 
 creases our moral purity, and so brings us 
 nearer to God by the direct road of moral 
 likeness to him. K the effort fails, it shows 
 us our own weakness, marks the amount of 
 separation between the soul and God, pro- 
 duces a conviction of sin, and so prepares for 
 our union with God by the indirect road of 
 faith and forgiveness. Hence it is that purity 
 of heart is made the blessed condition of the 
 sight of God. Hence the hunger and thirst 
 
124 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 after righteousness is blessed with the promise 
 of satisfaction. Faith, therefore, is the only- 
 condition of forgiveness ; but it implies a 
 true humility, and a sincere desire for good- 
 ness. 
 
 § 53. Repentance : its relation to Faith. 
 
 It will be asked. Is not Repentance also a 
 condition of Forgiveness? Unquestionably 
 it is ; but it need not be mentioned separately, 
 since our description of faith includes it. 
 Repentance is simply turning from sin to 
 God. But he who comes to God in trusting 
 reliance, humbly conscious of his sin, earnestly 
 desiring goodness, has evidently, in this act 
 of faith, also performed the act of repentance. 
 Repentance and faith thus appear to be the 
 two sides of the same act of the soul in turn- 
 ing to God. Considered in relation to sin, 
 it is repentance. Considered in relation to 
 God and the good, it is faith. Like the mag- 
 net, the soul is repelled on the one side arid 
 attracted on the other at the same moment ; 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 125 
 
 repelled from evil, and attracted by goodness. 
 But it is one and the same polar force which 
 acts in both directions, and we may describe 
 it either by the name of repentance, or by the 
 name of faith. 
 
 § 54. Is Faith Man's Work or God's Gift? 
 
 But we have now reached a difficult point 
 of inquiry. This act of faith — is it the work 
 of man, or the work of God? Is it in our 
 power to have faith, if we will ? or must God 
 help us to it by a divine influence ? The 
 scriptures command us to have faith. Jesus 
 says, ^^ Have faith in God;^^ condemns its 
 absence, rewards its presence. On the other 
 hand, Paul says expressly, that it is " by 
 grace " we " are saved through faith, and that 
 not of ourselves^ hut it is the gift of Gody 
 Yet Paul himself commanded the jailer at 
 Philippi to " believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 And, in our experience, faith, when we exer- 
 cise it, seems to be our own act ; and yet it 
 often seems to be more difficult than any 
 
126 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 thing else. There are times, which all Chris- 
 tians have experienced, in which faith becomes 
 almost an impossibility ; in which we can 
 only say, " Help our unbelief;" in which God 
 seems to have withdrawn that love which is 
 the object of faith, so that we can no longer 
 behold it or lean upon it. But, at such times 
 as these, we usually feel that we can only 
 wait on the Lord, wait his time, be not weary 
 of waiting, and cherish and hold fast the little 
 faith that we have, until he shall give us 
 more. Scripture, therefore, and experience 
 both ascribe Faith to man's effort and to 
 God's gift; and both seem necessary to its 
 production. 
 
 § 55. God and Man concur in each Act of Faith. 
 
 Christian experience and the New Testa- 
 ment seem, then, to bring us to the conclu- 
 sion, that faith is an act of the soul in which 
 God and man concur; God manifesting his 
 love, and man relying upon it. The holy 
 spirit, or that inward influence which is rep- 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 127 
 
 resented as coming from God through Christ, 
 to form Christ within us, shows to the heart 
 the forgiving love of God. Our work is to 
 open our heart to receive this influence, thank- 
 fully to accept it, firmly to repose upon it. 
 The act of faith, therefore, is a concurrent act 
 of God and man: the objective side, or the 
 object of faith, being a gift of God's spirit; 
 the subjective side, or the reception of this 
 love, being man's work. 
 
 § 56. What Man can do for himself, and where he must stop. 
 
 Still the question recurs, What, and how 
 much, can man do ? Let us suppose a case 
 in order to make this point clear, and such an 
 one as continually occurs in the intercourse 
 ' of every Christian minister with the members 
 of his society. A young man or a young 
 woman comes to him, and says, " I wish to 
 be better than I am ; I feel that I ought to be ; 
 I wish to be a Christian; I have tried to 
 be one; I have endeavored to do my daily 
 duties in a Christian spirit. But I seem to 
 
128 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 make no progress ; I feel as far from God as 
 ever ; my heart is cold ; I have not the love 
 for God which I wish I had, nor the happi- 
 ness in my duties which I ought to have." 
 Now, if what we have thus far said be true, 
 a person in this state of mind has the con- 
 viction of sin of which we have spoken, and 
 needs the sense of forgiveness. He needs to 
 be reconciled to God by the reception of 
 God's forgiving love. Say this to him, there- 
 fore, and convince him of it, — convince him 
 that Christ came to bring pardon to those in 
 just his state of mind, and that in this pardon 
 he will find both the love, the joy, and the 
 strength he needs. Let us suppose him to 
 be convinced of this, and he says, " How shall 
 I obtain this forgiveness?" You answer, 
 " By Faith. That is the whole. Have faith 
 in God's forgiving love." But he answers 
 again, " This is the very diificulty. I have 
 no faith. I cannot exercise it, because 1 do 
 not possess it. This is just what I want." 
 The minister naturally replies to this, " Then 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 129 
 
 pray for it," and quotes the promises of Christ 
 to show that God will always give his holy 
 spirit to those who ask him. He answers, 
 "But, to pray aright, I must pray in faith; 
 and, when you tell me to pray, you suppose 
 me already to possess that which I am seek- 
 ing." Now, the minister may properly and 
 justly encourage this inquirer to believe that 
 he has some faith at least, if it be only like 
 a grain of mustard-seed, and by means of this 
 he may obtain more. But the minister may 
 do something more than this. He may con- 
 tinue to press upon the inquirer all the pas- 
 sages of Scripture and all the facts which his 
 experience has made him acquainted with, by 
 which to enable this Seeker to believe in 
 God's present forgiving love. He will be to 
 him what Ambrose was to Augustine, what 
 Staupitz was to Luther, what Peter Bohler 
 and the Moravians were to Wesley,- — he 
 will be a mediator, by means of the faith 
 which he has himself received, to produce a 
 like faith in the mind of the other. When he 
 
 9 
 
130 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 can do nothing else, he can kneel down, and 
 pray with him and for him, and thus may be 
 the means of increasing his faith, and enabling 
 him to pray himself. 
 
 § 57. The Work of the Christian Church. 
 
 Now this account illustrates the work which 
 THE Christian Church has to do with for- 
 giveness. The Christian Church may be 
 regarded as the body of Christy by which his 
 spirit still acts upon the earth to create faith 
 in human souls ; or it may be regarded as the 
 channel through which that principle of life 
 which entered the world with Christ has con- 
 tinued to flow on from age to age. The 
 Church, in its ideal character, is thus the 
 medium by which Christ communicates him- 
 self to the world. And all actual churches 
 are living and true churches, just in propor- 
 tion as they approximate to this ideal. The 
 Church has a twofold work; first, to the 
 "World; and, second, to its own members. 
 In relation to the World, its work is Evan- 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 131 
 
 gelical and Missionary; and its object is to 
 convert it and to humanize it. In relation 
 to its own members, its duty is edification 
 and consolation, — to make them strong and 
 to make them happy. Now, the means by 
 which it accomplishes these objects are not 
 exhausted when we have named Preaching 
 and Teaching, Public Worship, Prayer and 
 Praise, Social meetings, and Meetings for 
 active benevolence. Its chief means and its 
 highest prerogative remain unspoken ; for 
 these are both to be found in its own living 
 faith. It is faith which produces faith. There 
 is a text in the New Testament long perverted 
 to the support of outward Church authority 
 and formal ecclesiastical pretensions, which 
 in its true sense shows us wherein consists 
 the essential power and real authority of the 
 Christian Church. We read (Matt. xvi. 13), 
 that Jesus on one occasion asked one of his 
 disciples what was said of him; and when 
 Peter gave as his own testimony this declara- 
 tion, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
 
132 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 living God," Jesus answered, "Blessed art 
 thou, Simon Barjonah ; for flesh and blood 
 have not revealed this to thee, but my Father 
 who is in Heaven." He had not been taught 
 it by man, but by God. It was not a hearsay 
 opinion, but a personal conviction. It was 
 not a Belief resting on the testimony of 
 others, but a Faith, the object of which was 
 a divine revelation to his soul. So likewise 
 Paul says (Gal. i. 16), " When it pleased God 
 to reveal his Son in me, I conferred not with 
 flesh and blood." Then Jesus, proceeding, 
 declares that upon this rock-like faith in 
 Peter, and in the other apostles, he would 
 build his Church; digging deep through the 
 soil of opinion, and the shifting sand of a 
 hearsay belief, down to a solid, God-inspired 
 faith. Then he adds, " I will give to thee the 
 Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven ; and what- 
 soever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound 
 in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose 
 on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Tiie 
 promise here made to Peter is repeated (Matt, 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 183 
 
 xviii. 18) to all the disciples. What, then, is 
 this power ? It is the power which faith has 
 of creating faith. It is itself the key to the 
 kingdom of heaven, by which the door may 
 be bound or loosed ; that is, opened or shut. 
 In the order of Providence, it depends upon 
 him to whom God has given faith, whether 
 others around him shall have faith or be with- 
 out it. If he is true to his faith, if his life is 
 rooted in it, if his words are colored by it, if 
 his tone and temper are constantly informed 
 by this pure and subtle spirit, then he carries 
 with him a sphere of influence by which to 
 produce a like faith in all who are prepared 
 to receive it. God to him is no name, but 
 a reality; Christ, not an historical Messiah, 
 but a present Saviour ; eternal life, no future, 
 but a present immortality. By the contagion 
 of this faith, he awakens like convictions in 
 other minds; and to them also God in the 
 Soul, Righteousness, Eternity, and Heaven 
 come forth from the region of abstractions 
 into that of realities. This is the true key to 
 
134 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 the kingdom of Heaven ; and, in the famous 
 passage to which we give this interpretation, 
 Jesus is impressing the responsibility which 
 rests upon those who have this key of faith 
 in their possession. So surely as they neglect 
 to use it, the door of heaven remains closed. 
 And those who, by the sight of their faith, 
 might have been quickened into a new life, 
 remain, through their negligence, where they 
 were before. This responsibility and privilege 
 belongs not to Peter alone, nor to the Apos- 
 tles alone j nor to bishops, priests, and preach- 
 ers alone, but to every man to whose heart, 
 as to that of Peter, God has made a revelation 
 of the reality of spiritual things. But, with 
 regard to forgiveness of sins, the sphere, duty, 
 and work of the living Church is declared in 
 that other famous passage (John, xx. 22, 23), 
 where we read that Jesus after his resurrection 
 said to his disciples, " As my Father hath 
 sent me, even so send I you;" and then, 
 breathing on them, added, " Receive the Holy 
 Ghost. Whose sins ye remit, they are remit- 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 135 
 
 ted; and whose sins ye retain, they are 
 retained." It is evident that Jesus could not 
 have intended to give to his disciples the 
 power of deciding arbitrarily whose sins 
 should be forgiven, and whose not. So evi- 
 dent indeed is this, that even the Church of 
 Rome has never ventured to claim for its 
 priesthood any such power. The priestly 
 absolution depends for its efficacy, according 
 to the Roman Catholic doctrine, upon the 
 state of mind of the penitent. If the peni- 
 tence is not sincere, the absolution goes for 
 nothing.* Accordingly, the power to for- 
 give sins claimed by the Roman priesthood 
 amounts only to this, that they may tell a 
 man who confesses his sins, that, if his peni- 
 tence is sincere, his sin is forgiven. But the 
 words of Christ seem to imply more than 
 this.' They seem to imply, that as Christ 
 
 * The sacrament of Penance, according to the Council of 
 Trent (fourteenth Session), has, on the part of the penitent, three 
 essential acts, namely, of Contrition, Confession, and Satisfac- 
 tion; and, on the part of the Priest, the absolving words, 
 "I absolve thee." 
 
136 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 was the medium by whom God has commu- 
 nicated to the world forgiveness ; so, too, his 
 disciples are the media through whom Christ 
 communicates forgiveness Now, we see that 
 this is actually the fact, if the condition 
 of forgiveness be faith, and if the faith of 
 one be the means of producing faith in 
 another. This being so, the words of Christ 
 must be understood as teaching the great 
 privilege and responsibility of those who 
 thus become, in the order of Providence, 
 the necessary instruments and agencies for 
 communicating to others the forgiving love 
 of God. 
 
 § 58. The Twofold Work of the Church in Forgiveness. 
 
 The work of the Church in the Forgive- 
 ness of Sin is twofold. First, by preaching 
 the Law to awaken the desire for goodness, 
 the effort for obedience, and the sense of 
 separation from God ; and, secondly, by 
 preaching the Gospel, to produce the knowl- 
 edge of forgiveness, and to communicate, 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 137 
 
 through its own faith, that faith which will 
 bring pardon. To those who are already- 
 seeking for pardon and faith, the Church 
 should feel itself to be the appointed and 
 natural agency by which pardon is to be ob- 
 tained. When the seeker is unable to have 
 faith for himself, the Church should have faith 
 for him. When he is discouraged, the Church 
 should have courage for him. When he 
 would despair, the Church should hope for 
 him. When he cannot pray for himself, the 
 Church should pray for him. For if the Church 
 has faith in forgiveness and in the power of 
 prayer, it should exercise that faith on behalf 
 of those who are unable to exercise it for 
 themselves. And, in point of fact, this is 
 what all sincere and practical Christians 
 actually endeavor to do. In all churches 
 there are those who, by their words and their 
 prayers, endeavor to bring faith to those who 
 need it ; and A* / thus become in reality the 
 means by whic!^ it is obtained. But what is 
 wanted is, that the whole Christian Church 
 
138 OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 
 
 should understand that these efforts are its 
 legitimate work, and that it should reverently 
 and joyfully accept the great privilege to 
 which its Master has called it. And also that 
 it should do its work, not occasionally as a 
 doubtful experiment, but in the conviction 
 that it has been made the certain and ap- 
 pointed channel through which faith and 
 forgiveness shall come. When the Christian 
 Church has learned its duties and privileges, 
 it will be able to show to each seeking soul 
 the way of Salvation, and enable him to 
 enter it. It will be able to remove all doubt 
 and all uncertainty as to what each one must 
 do to be saved. As the types and shadows 
 of the Jewish ritual were fulfilled by the 
 realities of the Gospel, so will the Roman 
 Catholic sacrament of confession and absolu- 
 tion be fulfilled by the Church, which has 
 become the medium of communicating, not 
 an external and formal Remission of Sins, 
 bat an inward and real Sense of Pardon. 
 For this sacrament, which has come down 
 
OBSTACLES AND HELPS. 139 
 
 from the middle ages, will stand as a symbol 
 till it is replaced by the reality, — will remain 
 as a promise till it is removed by the fulfil- 
 ment of the promise. Men go to the Catho- 
 lic Church because it seems to offer them a 
 surer outward aid and help. But this help 
 is formal, technical, not living and human. 
 Something greater and better is needed; 
 and something better, as God lives, shall 
 yet come. 
 
PART V. 
 
 RESULTS OF FORGITENESS. 
 
 § 59. The New Life growing out of Forgiven Sin. 
 
 "We next pass on to consider the nature of 
 the new life growing out of forgiveness. For 
 Christianity in the soul is, in the strict and 
 literal sense, a new life. And by this we 
 mean, not merely a new course of action and 
 conduct, but the formation of a new vital 
 principle. As the temporal life of man or 
 animal consists, not merely in outward ac- 
 tions, but also in an invisible principle by 
 which those actions are prompted ; so the 
 spiritual life consists, not merely in new ef- 
 forts and actions, but in the possession of a 
 new principle, out of which these actions nat- 
 urally flow. Therefore Christianity, as to its 
 [140] 
 
RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 141 
 
 inward principle in the soul, is constantly 
 described in the New Testament as a life,. 
 This eternal life is not merely immortality in 
 the future world, for it is spoken of as a gift 
 specially bestowed wpon Christians as the 
 consequence of their faith (John, iii. 15, vi. 
 47) ; nor is it the future happiness of the good 
 hereafter alone, for it is spoken of as some- 
 thing abiding in the soul here (John, vi. 54, 
 47, V. 24). The analogy of the spiritual life 
 to temporal life appears in many particulars. 
 As temporal life begins with our birth, so the 
 spiritual life begins with the new birth. As 
 the temporal life is supported by food, so the 
 spiritual life has its food also, which is the 
 body and blood of Christ ; in other words, his 
 whole human history, his active and passive 
 virtue, his energy to do, and his patience to 
 bear; which must be not merely looked at, 
 thought about, and remembered, but, like the 
 food which we take into the body, become a 
 part of ourselves. As our earthly existence 
 is divided Into rest and labor, repose and ac- 
 
142 RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 tion, night and day ; so the spiritual life con- 
 sists of alternations of faith and works, trust 
 and obedience, prayer and labor, quiet wait- 
 ing and active obedience. In our temporal 
 life we are surrounded by Nature ; by sky 
 and earth ; mountain, forest, and ocean ; drift- 
 ing clouds, falling rains, the vegetable and 
 animal worlds ; and the speaking face of man 
 and woman. In our spiritual life we are sur- 
 rounded by a Spiritual World of holy truths, 
 gentle affections, far-reaching hopes, noble 
 aims, and sympathies wide as the world. As 
 the vital principle of plant or bird shows 
 itself especially in the fact of growth, so one 
 characteristic of the spiritual life is develop- 
 ment and progress. The largest definition, 
 perhaps, which can be given of the term life, 
 is DEVELOPMENT. All life is the development, 
 unfolding, growth, of a germ ; and life is thus 
 the perpetual unfolding of the hidden princi- 
 ple of each seed, according to its own laws, 
 under certain external influences. These in- 
 fluences are all attractions: the seed of the 
 
RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 143 
 
 plant is developed by the attractions of light, 
 heat, air, water, earth. The life of the animal 
 is developed by the attractions of food, the 
 joy of muscular motion, and similar pleas- 
 ures. Man's soul is developed, as regards this 
 life, by the various objects which attract his 
 desires and passions. The law of life, there- 
 fore, is development ; and development takes 
 place under the influence of those external 
 objects whose attractions awaken the latent 
 appetite. Just so the spiritual life is the de- 
 velopment of the spirit by the attractions of 
 eternal things, which awaken love, "All life," 
 says Fichte, "is love. He who loves most, 
 lives most." And love, therefore, in the New 
 Testament, is justly made the essence of the 
 spiritual life. We have, then, this correspon- 
 dence complete thus far between the temporal 
 and spiritual life. Each has a principle which 
 is to develop and grow. In each this growth 
 is produced by the attraction of external ob- 
 jects, which awakens Desire in the one case, 
 and in the other desire in the higher form of 
 
144 RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 Love. The organ by which these external, 
 objects are perceived, in the one case, is the 
 body with its senses ; in the other, that 
 intuition which we have called Faith. If it 
 be said that we have described Faith as an 
 act rather than as a sights as reliance on love 
 rather than as the perception of it, — we may 
 reply that the correspondence holds good even 
 here ; for we perceive the external world by 
 an active sensation, just as we exercise faith 
 in unseen things by an active intuition. 
 
 § 60. The Twofold Character of this Life, and of Goodness 
 generally. 
 
 This new Life in the Soul is, in its essence. 
 Love ; and, by means of its organ Faith, re- 
 news itself continually from on High. But 
 this Life in the Soul has a two: i character, 
 and acts in a twofold direction. It alternates 
 between labor and rest, effort and repose, 
 activity and receptivity, obedience to the law 
 and trust in the gospel. Christian Goodness, 
 therefore, differs from the Goodness of Na- 
 ture in being principle^ and from the Good- 
 
RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 145 
 
 ness of Morality in being spontaneous ; and is 
 the purest union and harmony of both kinds. 
 For Goodness in general is of these two 
 kinds, consisting of Intention on the one side, 
 and Character on the other. The Goodness 
 of Morality or Intention consists in effort, 
 struggle, and conflict; and is esteemed great 
 in proportion to the temptation resisted, the 
 trial borne, the obstacle encountered, the diffi- 
 culty overcome. The Goodness of Nature or 
 Character is not conffict, but harmony; not 
 struggle, but attainment. It consists in nat- 
 ural good tendencies and pure tastes, or in 
 acquired habits of goodness. The Goodness 
 of Intention is meritorious ; the Goodness of 
 Attainment is beautiful. We respect the 
 first; we love the second. The absence of 
 one implies guilt; the absence of the other 
 implies depravity. He who does not try to 
 do right and to become good is guilty. He 
 who has no love for goodness, no true, kind, 
 and noble tendencies, is depraved. The seat 
 of the one is the conscience or will; the 
 10 
 
146 RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 seat of the other is the instinct or natural 
 tendencies. Now, the will is determined to- 
 ward goodness through the conscience. We 
 choose goodness because we feel that we 
 ought to do so. The heart is determined to- 
 ward goodness by its perception of moral 
 duty. We love goodness because it appears 
 to us beautiful. The conscience is com- 
 manded ; the desires, instincts, tendencies, 
 are attracted. All which commands the will 
 through the conscience, we may call the Law; 
 and all which attracts the Affections toward 
 goodness by a manifestation of its Beauty, 
 we may call the Gospel. 
 
 That this distinction is real, and no mere 
 distinction of words, will appear if we con- 
 sider how often these two kinds of Goodness 
 are found separate. Many good men have 
 no beauty in their goodness ; and many beau- 
 tiful characters have no strength with their 
 beauty. We esteem the first, but are unable 
 to love them; we are attracted toward the 
 last, but cannot esteem them. 
 
RESULTS OP FORGIYENESS. 147 
 
 Now, it has been a usual fault, both with 
 moral and religious teachers, first, not to no- 
 tice and distinguish these two different kinds 
 of goodness ; or, secondly, to undervalue the 
 Goodness of Nature and tendency, when com- 
 pared with that of Resolve and effort. As, in 
 the fable of " The Lion and the Painter," the 
 Lion was always represented as conquered 
 by the man, because the man was always the 
 painter; so here it has happened, that the 
 Moralist has always overestimated the good- 
 ness of morality. The Instincts and the Af- 
 fections do not write moral treatises. The 
 conscious, intelligent, deliberate purpose of 
 Right-doing is more apt to appear in our 
 ethical writings than the spontaneous and 
 unpremeditated goodness which never thinks 
 of composing its own biography. Some Mor- 
 alists and Theologians even go so far as to 
 make all goodness to consist in conscious, 
 deliberate effort and struggle. But not only 
 is this palpably false, but it is also evident 
 that the Goodness of Intention is by no 
 
148 BESULTS OP FORGIVENESS. 
 
 means superior to the Goodness of Ten* 
 dency. For, if it were, it would follow that 
 a sinner struggling against his sin, struggling 
 against foul habits and depraved appetites, is 
 better than that soul, angel-born and angel- 
 bred, which knows no such struggle, because 
 its tastes are all pure, and its appetites not 
 depraved. Moreover, it would follow that the 
 worst of sinners, provided he was struggling 
 against his sin, is better than the highest 
 saint or angel nearest God's throne, whose 
 soul tends steadily towards truth and good- 
 ness ; 
 
 " Whose love is an unerring light, 
 Whose joy, its own security." 
 
 Further still, we must ask what struggle 
 and conflict there can be in the Goodness of 
 God. His Goodness, doubtless, is conscious 
 and deliberate; but he is not tempted with 
 evil, and can have no conflicts with himself. 
 The Goodness of God, toward which good 
 men aim, is not a goodness of conflict and 
 struggle. And, further still, if we say that 
 
BESULTS OP PORGIYENBSS. 149 
 
 the goodness of effort is higher than that of 
 tendency, we are brought to the paradoxical 
 conclusion that a man grows worse as he 
 grows better. For, as he grows better, he 
 finds it easier to do right, his moral tastes be- 
 come stronger, his evil appetites weaker, he 
 is attracted more and more toward all things 
 excellent, and consequently there is less of 
 effort, and more of impulse, in his goodness. 
 The probable result, therefore, of these con- 
 siderations is, that there are these two kinds 
 of goodness, and that they are equally ven- 
 erable and holy. 
 
 § 61. The Christian Life the Synthesis of both kinds of Goodness. 
 
 The essential peculiarity of the Christian 
 Life is, that it is the complete harmony, the 
 
 ABSOLUTE SYNTHESIS OF BOTH KINDS OP GOOD- 
 NESS. It distinguishes them, in order that it 
 may unite them. It is able to unite them, be- 
 cause it has first distinguished them. Chris- 
 tian faith, revealing the high Law of God^ 
 awakens the conscience, and rouses the wiU 
 
150 RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 to effort to overcome all evil. Christian faith, 
 revealing the abounding Love of God^ creates 
 new affections, and attracts the soul upward, 
 ascending by its proper motion. The love of 
 God moves us to effort ; the effort enables us 
 more entirely to rely upon and realize His 
 love. Faith and Works ; Love and Labor ; 
 Prayer and Action; the Reception of the 
 Holy Spirit, and the Endeavor to impart it, 
 — these follow each other like Day and Night ; 
 repose preparing us for labor, and labor for 
 repose. In the Lord's prayer, the clause, 
 " Thy will be done," has in all ages received 
 a double interpretation ; as being either a 
 prayer for all men, that they may obey God ; 
 or as being an act of personal submission. 
 Probably it includes both meanings; and so 
 the Christian, in every moment of his Chris- 
 tian life, may unite the sense of responsibility 
 and the sense of dependence, obedience, and 
 love. His aim is, by his every act and his 
 total influence, to advance the kingdom of 
 Christ ; but to do this by becoming, in every 
 
RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 151 
 
 act, and in his total influence, the organ by 
 which Christ shall act, the channel through 
 which Christ's influence shall flow. 
 
 § 62. The Evil of Cultivating exclusively the Goodness of Effort. 
 
 Now, what is the harm of aiming exclu- 
 sively or chiefly at working out our own salva- 
 tion^ that is, of cultivating exclusively the 
 goodness of Intention or Eflbrt? 
 
 The first evil is, that we are led to . look at 
 ourselves, instead of looking at God. Our 
 own duties, our own responsibilities, our own 
 sins, our own virtues, fill our mind. There is 
 nothing in the sight of these things to ani- 
 mate us; all are discouraging and gloomy 
 subjects of thought. They shut us up in a 
 very narrow circle. They produce a morbid 
 anxiety about our condition; a spiritual hy- 
 pochondria. They produce a refined selfish- 
 ness. We become the centre and pivot of all 
 transactions and events ; we are of the great- 
 est consequence in our own eyes ; we are 
 perpetually contemplating ourselves. There 
 
152 RESULTS OP FORGIVENESS. 
 
 is a spiritual egotism, and a religious selfish- 
 ness, which is almost as bad as the selfishness 
 of the worldling. To think of our own soul 
 continually is perhaps better than not to think 
 of it at all, but only somewhat better. 
 
 Again : By aiming exclusively at , working 
 for God and earning our own salvation, we 
 accustom ourselves to regard God in one of 
 his attributes exclusively, — that of Justice. 
 He becomes to us an inexorable Law; and 
 an inexorable Law is only a little better than 
 a merciless Fate. This is the great evil of 
 Calvinism. It sees God as Law, and not as 
 Love ; it regards all goodness as in the mo- 
 tive, none as in the character. It cannot rec- 
 ognize goodness as beauty: it recognizes it 
 only as intention. But what an immense in- 
 jury is it to the human heart to see God 
 habitually as a Judge, and not as a Father! 
 For all the best affections are frozen at their 
 source, when we fail to see that his essential 
 Being is based in Love, — free, unlimited, 
 ever-active Love. But not only Calvinism, 
 
RESULTS OP FORGIYENESS. 153 
 
 but also its opposite, Unitarianism, often fails 
 in this same point. The idea of Justice eclip- 
 ses that of Love in the view of both systems. 
 Both tend to separate from God, and to de- 
 stroy the habit of filial affection, by seeing 
 him too exclusively as the supporter of a 
 Moral Order, and the avenger of the broken 
 law. 
 
 For these and other reasons, we see that 
 the effort to do right does not necessarily lead 
 to the happy, spontaneous, and loving prac- 
 tice of goodness. This is to be found, not in 
 the Law, but in the Gospel ; not in the sight 
 of Duty, but in the sight of Love. It is 
 aff*ectionate, filial gratitude for unbought, un- 
 earned mercy. It is the great love of him who 
 has been forgiven much. It is the overflow- 
 ing affection of the Prodigal, whose Father 
 has received him on his return, not with se- 
 verity, but with rejoicing. It comes from the 
 sight of the infinite beauty scattered through 
 the world, the blessed face of nature, the 
 warm and glowing heart of humanity, the 
 
154 RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 infinite adaptations throughout the universe 
 for the comfort, education, and blessing of 
 God's creatures. To look out of ourselves 
 and away from ourselves ; away from our 
 narrow virtues and our small attainments; 
 away from our dangers, our sinfulness, our 
 folly ; to look wholly away from ourselves, and 
 to gaze constantly at the fulness of beauty 
 and goodness in the creation and providence 
 of God, — will not this touch the cold heart, 
 and moisten the dry eye, with an humble and 
 grateful tear ? " If," says a recent author, " if, 
 for every rebuke we utter of men's vices, we 
 put forth a claim upon their hearts; if, for 
 every assertion of God's demands from them, 
 we could substitute a display of his kindness 
 to them ; if, side by side with every warning 
 of death, we could exhibit proofs and promi- 
 ses of immortality ; if, in fine, instead of as- 
 suming the being of an awful Deity, which 
 men, though they cannot and dare not deny, 
 are always unwilling, sometimes unable, to 
 conceive, we were to show them a near, visi- 
 
EESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 155 
 
 ble, inevitable, but all-beneficent Deity, whose 
 presence makes the earth itself a heaven, I 
 think there would be fewer deaf children sit- 
 ting in the market-place." • 
 
 § 63. Forgiveness the Practical Solution of the Problem of 
 Evil. 
 
 The Doctrine of Forgiveness, as stated in 
 this essay, is the practical solution of the 
 great problem of moral evil. The question, 
 " How can the existence of evil be reconciled 
 with the perfections of the Deity ? " is a ques- 
 tion to which no intellectual theory can fur- 
 nish any adequate reply. Every Theodicee, 
 from that of Leibnitz to the last Essay on 
 Moral Evil in our theological journals, makes 
 out its explanation, either by explaining away 
 the Reality of Evil, or by explaining away the 
 Perfections of the Deity. But, though no 
 speculative solution of this problem can be 
 offered to the intellect, a practical solution 
 is offered to the moral nature in the doctrine 
 of forgiven sin. For sin, when forgiven, pro- 
 duces a deeper and more ardent love to God 
 
156 BESULTS OP FORGIVENESS. 
 
 than would have existed if there had been no 
 sin. As charcoal, the darkest substance in 
 nature, is the basis of the diamond, which is 
 the most brilliant; so Sin is the base and 
 dark material which, by the power of God's 
 forgiving love, is transformed into the bright- 
 est jewel of the Heavenly World. Sin thus 
 becomes the occasion of developing a divine 
 perfection which otherwise would never have 
 been known, and a human virtue which with- 
 out it would never have existed. This is no 
 answer to the speculative difficulty; for the 
 inquiry may always still be made, " Why 
 could not the same end have been reached by 
 a perfect being in some other way?" But 
 the heart which perceives that by this myste- 
 rious alchemy all its evil has been swallowed 
 up in good, and its sins made the Substance 
 of holiness, can rest well satisfied here. The 
 difficulty which perplexed the heart is gone, 
 and there only remain admiring Wonder and 
 grateful Joy. 
 
RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 157 
 
 § 64. And of the Problem of Human Freedom and Divine 
 Providence. 
 
 And the Doctrine of Grace, of which the 
 Doctrine of Forgiveness is a part, contains 
 also the practical solution of the problem of 
 the Divine Providence as in conflict with 
 Human Freedom. This problem also arises 
 from the fact that man's mind can see at 
 once truths of eternity and facts of time, and 
 is therefore incapable of speculative solution. 
 Every attempt must fail; because, as finite 
 beings, we cannot comprehend that which, as 
 connected with the infinite world, we are able 
 to see and know. Therefore, all attempts at 
 a theoretical solution of the difficulty end 
 either in denying the Divine Providence, or 
 in denying the Freedom of man. But the 
 practical solution is obtained, when we per- 
 ceive that while man is allowed freelv to 
 choose evil, and to obey unrighteousness, the 
 Divine purpose, which is his sanctification 
 and redemption, is obtained at last even by 
 means of that very unrighteousness and evil. 
 
158 RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 The Divine Providence which chooses man 
 for goodness before the foundation of the 
 world, and determines his happiness, is mag- 
 nified when we see how all paths, however 
 circuitous, tend to the same end. In every 
 moment of time, man is free by nature to 
 obey or to disobey; to choose the right or 
 the wrong ; to go toward God or from Him. 
 But, while the right choice brings the soul 
 immediately and directly to God, the wrong 
 choice tends the same way, though mediately 
 and indirectly. The circling line, sooner or 
 later, must return into itself And our natu- 
 ral freedom consists in being able indefinitely, 
 but not infinitely, to enlarge the circle, and 
 postpone its return. In the fact of forgiven 
 sin we discover the returning bend of the 
 circle, and see the certainty of the apostolic 
 declaration, that " Every knee shall bow," and 
 that ^'in the dispensation, of the fulness of 
 times God will gather in one all things in 
 Christ, in heaven and on earth." But this 
 Divine Decree, in its triumph, also exalts 
 
RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 159 
 
 human freedom by changing natural liberty 
 (which is only the power of choice) into 
 spiritual liberty, which includes both choice 
 and action. The glorious liberty of the sons 
 of God is the liberty both to will and to 
 do of his good pleasure. It is the fulness of 
 life, — the harmonious activity of all the 
 powers of the soul, which no longer, by mu- 
 tual conflict, check and restrain each other. 
 It is the change of wilfulness^ which is as the 
 freedom of the bird pecking at the bars of its 
 cage, into th-e will, made free by the power 
 of truth and the law of liberty, — which is like 
 the unhindered flight of the eagle, who ^ails 
 with supreme dominion through the depths 
 of air, in a direct course to his everlasting 
 mountain-home. 
 
 § 65. Conclusion. 
 
 "We have thus completed our survey of the 
 doctrine of Forgiveness. We first showed 
 how important a position it occupies in the 
 New Testament and in Christian experience. 
 
160 RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 We next pointed out the difficulties arising 
 from the fact, that it appeared to contradict 
 the doctrine of Retribution; a doctrine which, 
 as we saw, also holds a most important place 
 in the New Testament and in Christian 
 experience. We then attempted to reconcile 
 this contradiction, and to show that these 
 two great doctrines were not contradictory, 
 but antagonist ; and that on the basis of this 
 very antagonism depends the higher life of 
 the soul. We showed that God reveals him- 
 self on one side as Law, and on the other 
 side as Love ; and that the sight of Law and 
 Love are both necessary for the Christian 
 Life, — the sight of law awakening the sense 
 of responsibility, and the sight of love awaken- 
 ing the sense of dependence. We showed 
 the place of faith and of works, of activity 
 and receptivity, of energetic obedience and 
 quiet waiting, in the Christian Life. After 
 this we considered the objections to the doc- 
 trine of forgiveness ; saw how far it was a 
 work of God, of Christ, of man, and of the 
 
RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 161 
 
 Church ; and lastly, considered the nature of 
 the New Life flowing out of it. And now it 
 would be profitable, had we space in this 
 essay, to consider at length the History of 
 the Doctrine. We should find in the Sacri- 
 fices, Priesthood, and Ritual of all religions, 
 how deeply such a doctrine is needed by the 
 human soul, — reading in all these the con- 
 fession, that man feels himself estranged from 
 God by sin, and is always seeking for some 
 mode of Reconciliation. We should see this 
 need fully expressed, but only partially re- 
 lieved, by the Sacrifices and Ritual of the 
 Jewish law, which were a shadow of good 
 things to come, but which did not fully relieve 
 the conscience, or take away the sense of sin 
 (Heb. X. 2). Yet even in Judaism we should 
 see how much of ardent piety and holy effort 
 resulted from the partial manifestation made 
 of God's pardoning mercy by means of that 
 ritual. In the life of Jesus we should find 
 the full manifestation of Divine Grace; we 
 should see therein a love irrespective of the 
 11 
 
162 RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 merit of its object; a love which makes no 
 condition, except that its offers should be 
 accepted; a love proportioned, not to the 
 deserts, but to the necessities, of man. In 
 the epistles of Paul we should find the first 
 doctrinal statement of this great fact, and 
 this doctrinal statement made the central 
 point of his Doctrinal System. By this doc- 
 trine of Grace, Paul brought the Gentile 
 world to the feet of Jesus, and* planted in 
 Europe the Seeds of all our spiritual and 
 moral culture, and of all Modern Civilization, 
 Literature, Art, and Science. This doctrine 
 of Grace, having been lost sight of, was re- 
 vived by the great Aurelius Augustine at the 
 end of the Fourth Century. His soul of fire, 
 penetrated to its lowest depths by the living 
 conviction of God's free love, gave a new 
 and vast impulse to the human mind. But it 
 is the nature of our human life to allow the 
 forms in which a creative spirit has embodied 
 itself finally to cover, conceal, and destroy the 
 spirit itself. The vital impulse given by such 
 
RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 163 
 
 men as Paul and Augustine embodies itself 
 in institutions; expresses itself by symbolic 
 ceremonies, and a rich worship ; excites a 
 vast amount of laborious outward activity; 
 speaks in words of burning force and sharp- 
 est precision ; and then the spirit which has 
 produced all this is lost sight of in the rever- 
 ence paid to its own work. Then men 
 reverence forms, ceremonies, creeds, outward 
 institutions; and seek to be saved by a pe- 
 dantic observation of this routine of works, 
 rather than by the faith which first produced 
 them. So it was that the doctrines of Grace 
 first taught by Paul, ,then lost sight of and 
 revived by Augustine, were once more lost 
 sight of, and again revived by Luther. The 
 doctrine of justification by faith, proclaimed 
 by Luther, was the vital principle of the 
 reformation of the Sixteenth Century, and 
 again became a new impulse of life to the 
 human race. Its negative work, its work of 
 denial, conflict, and overthrow, is easily seen 
 and measured; but the positive result ol 
 
164 RESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 Luther's Reformation was faith in the un- 
 bought love of God to the human soul ; and 
 there is no modern reform, nothing which 
 diffuses comfort, intelligence, power, among 
 the millions, but may be traced to this great 
 spiritual movement of the Sixteenth Century. 
 But now, standing in the midst of the Nine- 
 teenth Century, we may ask, " Is not a new 
 
 REVIVAL OF THIS GREAT DOCTRINE NEEDED BY 
 
 THE Church and by the world?" Have 
 not the works of the reformation once more 
 eclipsed its interior principle? One party 
 supposes that the essential principle of the 
 reformation consists in the creeds and opinions 
 held by the Reformers; and another party 
 supposes that it consists in their assertion of 
 the Sufficiency of the Scriptures, and the 
 Right of Private Judgment. Consequently 
 we have a new idolatry of forms; and we 
 worship, in our day. Creeds, the Letter of the 
 Bible, and self-formed Opinions. And so 
 again we cut ourselves off from the current 
 of that inspiring Life which creates creeds, 
 
RESULTS OF FORGIYENESS. 165 
 
 scriptures, and opinions, but is never created 
 by them. Once more we need to go behind 
 all these works of our own hands and minds, 
 back to God's free love, which can again 
 make all things new. As, when the Holy- 
 Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost, a 
 rushing and mighty wind filled all the house 
 where they were sitting; so the houses of 
 doctrine and form must be j511ed by a new 
 inspiration, and God once more shake not 
 the Earth only, but the Heavens; not the 
 world only, but the Church. The new Revival 
 of the doctrine of Grace will by no means 
 express itself in the old language; for each 
 age has a new form of application for the 
 same truth. The language of Luther differed 
 from that of Augustine. The language of 
 Augustine differed from that of Paul. The 
 human race repeats evermore the same expe- 
 riences, and passes through the same errors ; 
 yet the truth each time is attained in a larger 
 and higher form. The human race does not 
 revolve in a circle, but ascends in a spiral; 
 
166 BESULTS OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 passing, indeed, again and again through the 
 same errors to the same truths, but passing 
 through them each time on a higher plane. 
 Thus, though no man can predict what form 
 the doctrines of Grace will take in that new 
 manifestation for which our century is wait- 
 ing, we may be sure that such a manifestation 
 must come. And among its negative results 
 we may expect to see the destruction of Sec- 
 tarian ramparts, the breaking down of narrow 
 Creeds, the overthrow of a merely polemic 
 Theology, and a merely ecclesiastic Ritual; 
 while among its positive results we may ex- 
 pect the foundation of a new Church collected 
 out of all sects under heaven ; a Church not 
 of the Priesthood nor the Clergy, but of the 
 People, whose ritual shall consist of action 
 as well as of prayer, of humanity as well 
 as piety; and the central points of whose 
 creed shall be, that God is the universal 
 Father and that all Mankind are Breth- 
 ren. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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