I have spoken of that which I cannot believe; let me speak to you now
of that which I do believe, of that which I hold to be a faith, the
faith, the only faith for mankind. Do not turn from it because it seems
to be egotistic. I can only speak for myself, for what I know in my own
heart and conscience. While I keep to this, I can speak positively, and
I wish above all things to speak positively.
I was bred as a child and as a boy to look upon Christ as the true
and rightful King and Head of our race, the Son of God and the Son of
man. When I came to think for myself I found the want, the longing
for a perfectly righteous king and head, the deepest of which I was
conscious—for a being in whom I could rest, who was in perfect sympathy
with me and all men. “Like as the hart panteth after the water-brooks,
so longeth my soul after thee, O God. My soul is athirst for God, yea,
even for the living God,”—these, and the like sayings of the Psalmist,
began to have a meaning for me.
Then the teaching which had sunk into me unconsciously rose up and
seemed to meet this longing. If that teaching were true, here was He
for whom I was in search. I turned to the records of His life and
death. I read and considered as well as I could, the character of
Christ, what he said of himself and his work; his teachings, his acts,
his sufferings. Then I found that this was indeed He. Here was the
Head, the King, for whom I had longed. The more I read and thought the
more absolutely sure I became of it. This is He. I wanted no other
then, I have never wanted another since. Him I can look up to and
acknowledge with the most perfect loyalty. He satisfies me wholly.
There is no recorded thought, word or deed of his that I would wish to
change—that I do not recognize and rejoice in as those of my rightful
and righteous King and Head. He has claimed for me, for you, for every
man, all that we can ask for or dream of, for He has claimed every one
of us for his soldiers and brethren, the acknowledged children of his
and our Father and God.
But this loyalty I could never have rendered, no man can ever render,
I believe, except to a Son of man. He must be perfect man as well as
perfect God to satisfy us—must have dwelt in a body like ours, have
felt our sorrows, pains, temptations, weaknesses. He was incarnate
by the Spirit of God of the Virgin. In this way I can see how he was
indeed perfect God and perfect Man. I can conceive of no other in which
he could have been so. The Incarnation is for me the support of all
personal holiness, and the key to human history.
What was Christ’s work on earth? He came to make manifest, to make
clear to us, the will and nature of this Father, our God. He made that
will and nature clear to us as the perfectly loving and long-suffering
and righteous will and nature. He came to lead us men, his brethren,
back into perfect understanding of and submission to that will—to
make us at one with it; and this he did triumphantly by his own
perfect obedience to that will, by sacrificing himself even to death
for us, because it was the will of his and our Father that he should
give himself up wholly and unreservedly; thus, by his one sacrifice,
redeeming us and leaving us an example that we too should sacrifice
ourselves to Him for our brethren. Thus I believe in the Atonement.