sufferings and death, in order to inspire the people with a fidelity to God like that which had been illustrated in the martyrdom of their great leader; and the Church might have made a similar use of the crucifixion of Christ. It has made a similar use of His crucifixion. But what we have to account for is the universal prevalence of the idea that, while those whoput Christ to death committed the greatest of human crimes, His Death was the Propitiation for the sins of the world. I can account for the prevalence of that idea in one way, and only in one way. It was a great and essential element in the original gospel which the Apostles were charged to preach to all nations.. The Church received it from the Apostles. The Apostles. received it from Christ. LECTURE VIII. THE REMISSION OF SINS. I N the preceding Lectures I have endeavoured to prove that the sins of men were the cause of the Death of Christ in a sense in which they were not the cause of the death of those whose fidelity to truth and to conscience, to the highest welfare of mankind and to the authority of God, has provoked the intolerance and the vengeance of wicked men, and won for them the glories of martyrdom; and that on the ground of His Death the sins of men are forgiven. The proof has been derived from the history and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and from the testimony of His Apostles, who upon this point, if upon no other, may be supposed to have known His mind. It being assumed that adequate evidence has been alleged of the existence of a direct relation between the Death of Christ and the Remission of sins, we have now to investigate that relation, and to discover, if we can, the principles and laws which it illustrates. The FACT that Christ died to make Atonement for sin having been established, is it possible to construct a THEORY of the Atonement ? The inquiry upon which we are about to enter is |