St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-11-25

Saving men Is Oy Jnelf repentance.
''Men are saved from sin by repent
ance." Repentance alone is effica-
cious.n "GOd fOrgives sin upon the
simple condition of repentance and ref
ormatiOn." Having cast contempt up
on the writings of Moses and Paul, you
proceed to quote extensively from the
Prophets and the Gospels passages in
which men are called upon to repent
with promises of forgiveness, and
think you have proved your point,
whereas you have not touched it at all.
The great question is irhy can God for
give the sinner ut all. If repentance
alone is efficacious, then there was no
need of the death of Christ. As says
Paul, eff righteousness come by the
law, then Christ is dead in vain" The
simple fact of Christ's death refutes
your Gospel of repentance" theory.
There must first be an dtORemeRt for
sin, satisfaction of the claims of Gods
violated law, then comes the offer of
forgiveness upon the condition of re-
pentance.
The necessity of an atonement in or
der to forgiveness runs through the
whole Bible from the sacrifice of Abel
to the chorus in heaven, Redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb" Moses de-
clared, at is the blood that maketh an
atonement for the SOUL" and Paul sums
up the whole Jewish ritual, in the
words, ''Without the shedding of blood
is no remission" The daily sin offer
ing proclaimed the same truth. And
the annual day of atonement embodied
the gospel plan of salvation. First
they must "affiict their souls" This
is repentance. But this is not sutfi-
cient. The High Priest must make an
atonement by offering up the sin offer
ing. Then their sins are confessed
and borne away by the scapegoat into
the land of forgetfulness, symbolizing
the putting away or the forgiveness of
sin. The Prophets teach the same.
| The tiftythird chapter of Isaiah is full
of it. ''He was wounded for our trans
gressions, the chastisement of our
peace was upon him and with his
stripes we are healed" Peter quotes
these words as proving that Christ
bore our sins in his own body upon
the tree. "The Lord placed on him
the iniquity of us ALL" and ''made his
soul an offering for SIM "'He shall
Dtdl lntll III DV
ginning of his ministry, proclaimed the
same doctrine. "BehOld the Lamb OF
God which taketh away the sin of the
wOrld.n Christ is a lamb, and like the
scapegOat, he bears or taketh away sin.
''Tu bear SIM" is the classic phrase OF
the Old Testament for "vicariOus
atonement." Christ, whom you think
gives "no word or hint" of his atone
ment, says, "He came to give his life a
ransom for many" and ''his flesh fOr
the life of the world" He instituted
his supper as perpetual memorial of
the efficacy of his atoning blood. "This
is my blood, shed for the remission OF
sins" And in his final instructions he
said, sought not Christ to have suffer
ed" ''Thus it behOOUed Christ to suffer
and rise again, that repentance and
remission of sins should he preached
in his name among all nations" "TO
suffer- shows the atOnement, the
fought" and "behooved" show the
moral necessity of the suffering i'll order
to forgiveness. Then comes the offer
of pardon upon the condition of re-
pentance.
We can only summarize the numer-
Gus passages from the Epistles. ale
died for our SINS" suffered for our
SINS" ''gave himself for us an offer
ing and sacrifice to God" "He is the
Precipitation for our sins" "Shed his
blood for the remission of SINS" ere
deemed us to God by his blood" sin
whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness Of SINS" ''by
whom we have now received the atone
ment," "propitiation through faith in
his blood - ''the blood of Jesus Christ,
his Son, cleanseth us from all sim
There is not Unitarian repentance the
DRY here. 1t is the blood that cleanseth
the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of
God. In your repentance theory you
say repentance alone is et1icacious.'
Thus you set aside entirely ''the blood
of his Son. This is to cast contempt
upon it." BY your theory the blood OF
Jesus Christ, and by which we are Gre
deemed" is no longer precious" but
of no value. This is to cast contempt
upon it, Therefore the resolutions of
the church, instead of being "gratui
tously and wickedly false" and ''much
blacker than the lie for which Ananias
and Sapphira were smitten dead" are
strictly true, and the church and pastor
are to be commended for their fidelity.
Surely they cannot be reckoned as
among "enemies of the cross of Christ,
nor be said to count the blood of the
covenant an unholy thing"
Dear Sir, have been deeply panied
in reading your discourse and letter.
Contempt is poured upon the Bible, the
blood of Christ, creeds, ministers and
Gods protesting people. You say
some beautiful things in regard to re-
pentance and the forsaking of sin. An
atonement having been made, and
Jesus being able to save to the utter
most, we atfectionately entreat you to
repent and seek forgiveness through
the atoning blood of Christ.
Sincerely,
| ONE OF THE NEIGHBORING MINISTER'S.