by the instincts of his own religious nature and by the authority of the Word of God. He says, " In the facts [of our Lord's pas- sion], outwardly regarded, there is no sacrifice, or oblation, or atonement, or propitiation, but simply a living and dying thus and thus. The facts are impressive ; the person is clad in a wonderful dignity and beauty ; the agony is eloquent of love ; and the cross a very shocking murder triumphantly met. And if then the ques- tion arises, how we are to use such a history so as to be reconciled by it, we hardly know in what way to begin. How shall we come unto God by help of this martyrdom ? How shall we turn it, or turn ourselves under it, so as to be justified and set in peace with God ? Plainly there is a want here, and this want is met by giv- ing a thouo;ht-form to the facts which is not in the facts themselves. They are put directly into the moulds of the altar, and we are called to accept the crucified God-man as our sacrifice, an offering or oblation for us, our propitiation ; so as to be sprinkled from our evil conscience, washed, purged, purified, cleansed from our sin. Instead of leaving the matter of the facts just as they occurred, there is a reverting to familiar forms of thought, made familiar partly for this purpose ; 'and we are told, in brief, to use the facts just as we would the sin-offerings of the altar, and make an altar grace of them, only a grace complete and perfect, an offering
once for all So much is there in this that, without these
forms of the altar, we should be utterly at a loss in making any use of the Christian facts, that woiald set us in a condition of practical reconciliation with God. Christ is good, beautiful, wonderful, his disinterested love is a picture by itself, his forgiving patience melts into my feeling, his passion rends open my heart, but what is He for, and how shall He be made unto me the salvation I want ? One word — He is my sacrifice — opens all to me, and beholding Him, with all my sin upon Him, I count Him my offering, I come unto God by Him and enter into the holiest by his blood." " We want to use these altar terms just as freely as they are used by those who accept the formula of expiation or judicial satisfaction for sin ; in just their manner too, when they are using them most practically." " We cannot afford to lose these sacred forms of the altar. They fill an office w^hich nothing else can fill, and serve a use wdiich cannot be served without them." ^
1 Bushnell On Vicarious Sacrifice, edit. New York, 1866, pp. 534, 535 ; p. 537 ; p. 545.