The atonement is so closely related to Jesus Christ, so allied to
His work, as set forth in the Scriptures, that it is absolutely
inseparable from it. Christ was not primarily a religious teacher,
a philanthropist, an ethical example; He was all these, yea, and much
more--He was first and foremost the world's Saviour and Redeemer.
Other great men have been valued for their lives; He, above all,
for His death, around which God and man are reconciled. The Cross
is the magnet which sends the electric current through the telegraph
between earth and heaven, and makes both Testaments thrill,
through the ages of the past and future, with living, harmonious,
and saving truth. Other men have said: "If I could only live, I
would establish and perpetuate an empire." The Christ of Galilee
said: "My death shall do it." Let us understand that the power
of Christianity lies, not in hazy indefiniteness, not in shadowy
forms, not so much even in definite truths and doctrines, but in
_the_ truth, and in _the_ doctrine of Christ crucified
and risen from the dead. Unless Christianity be more tnan ethical,
it is not, nor can it really be ethical at all. It is redemptive,
dynamic through that redemption, and ethical withal.