to explain. It is not distrust of reason, but the confidence of intelligent faith whicli, the more surely it realizes the reasonableness of the evan- gelical doctrine of the Atonement, will the more readily make tlie words of Bp. Butler its own : ' Some have endeavoured to explain the efficacy of what Christ has done and suflered for us, be- yond what the Scripture has authorized ; others, probably because they could not explain it, have been for taking it away, and confining His office as Kedeemer of the world to His instruction, example, and government of the Church. Whereas the doc- trine of the (;.i>inl appears to be . . . not only that He revrali.l i.i miiiiiis that they were in a capacityof sahii inii . . . hut . . . that He put them into this oapanty "t sal\ation l)y what He did and suffered for thciii. . . . And it is our wisdom thankfully to accept the benefit, by performing the conditions upon which it is offeree!, on our part, without disputing how it was procured on His' (Analogy, pt. ii. cli. v.).
I sh works J M Leod Campbell,
t H N Oxenhnn rcithol <• Doc-
Th At t } M W Ison,
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ed A Rltschl,
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I 1 2''0ff) A.
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.11 a t r Dex'i Homo are
J G Simpson
ATONEMENT, DAY OF.-See Day of Atone- ment.
ATTRACTION.— Under this head we shall con- sider the attraction possessed and exerted by the character and tlie teaching of Christ as portrayed and expressed in the four Gospels. That character and that teaching are, of course, inseparable ; for the work and tlie message of Christ are vitally and absolutely a personal work and a personal message. Thus the supreme appeal of the gracious invitation is : 'Coine unto Me' (Mt 11^). Christ's character and teaching have an attraction, both extensive and iiitnixivr, wliich goes far beyond the merely asthetic ; it is a dynamical and spiritual attraction imhuling ami inonieating man's person- ality. On the one hand, there is the uniqueness of the message (Jn T") ; on the other, the beauty of tlie character (Jn 1'^) ; and yet the attraction of Christ for all men is something deeper than ex- pression or aiial\M-, lln- altractiuii of One lifted ■up from the ^.nth, ,!,.iir,iiij nH im-n, to Himself (Jn 123-). Till-. Ill 1,1, I hill i- I lie niiitinual directed pressure of His llnly Spiiil, in the hearts of men, and its reality is suggested by Ignatius' compari- son of the Cross to a crane of which the Holy Spirit is the rone to draw mankind upwards to the Father in heaven (Eph. 9). Tluj universality of this attraction is exeiiiplilii'il Iti I Im- ( wispi-l recurds. Jesus was the centre of ,ili lari ion loi imiliitudes, men and women and c liil.ln n |.\1L I -j , Lk 19** etc.); andZacchseus (Lk IJ'), .Nituileiuus (Jii 3=), the 'Greeks' (Jn 12"') are only instances of this attractive power which had its culmination in the response of the Apostles to their Master's call. In these cases tlie attraction was visibly, audibly.
ATTRIBUTES OF CHRIST
ATTRIBUTES OF CHRIST 139
and sensibly personal ; the objects of it saw, heard, and often felt the Man that is called JESUS (Jn 9", 1 Jn V).
To-day, the attraction of the teaching mast be held to "be jicrsonal still, through that action of the Holy Spirit which is implied in the inspiration of the Gospels. Tliis attniction may also be said to have its seat in the fact of the revelation of God- in-man vouchsafed to the race of men fashioned in the likeness of God. Thus no limits can be set to the efficacy of the attraction of Christ which starts from such a source : witness the unfailing attractiveness of the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7) and the last discourses (Jn 13-17). The attraction, too, increases many-fold as it takes effect in drawing us nearer to the Master. One feature of this will be the more easy and quick perception of fresh beauties and glories in the four- fold Gospel of Christ, the acquisition of grace upon grace (Mt 11, Mk 10, Lk 15, Jn 9).
More difficult of expression, and intertwined with this attraction of the teaching, is the at- traction of the character. Christ appealed to it. 'Me ye have not always' is the pathetic appeal He made as man (Mt 26"); 'I am with you all the days ' is the glorious promise He makes as God (Mt 28™). Above all, however, it is the work of Christ in the sacrifice of self for love of others that draws the heart of man with cords stronger and surer than any variable and uncertain attractions. ' Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end' (to the uttermost, els tAo!, Jn 13'). It is the Cross of Christ which is the supreme instrument of the attraction, the Cross on which He was lifted up in glory and in shame.
LiTBEATURE.— Seeley, Ecce Honw 15, p. 166 f. ; Bruce, Galilean
rospel, p. 30 ff. and ' ~ " " ' -• ■
Atonement^t p. 438 f,