The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-04-25
SUBSTITUTION AND SALIVA
TON.
BY ERMINA G. STRAY.


not make us children of God; it only
rouses our dormant faculties to the
knowledge that we are already the
offspring of the Creator. Believing
that we are the children of God does
not make us so. 1t would not make
me the daughter of Mary Lincoln,
if should go on believing and af-
firming it all my life, and trying to
make myself believe it. But the fact
remains and always will remain that
we are sons and daughters of God in
Christ Jesus, and it is fact that is
brought before us as matter of re-
joicing and belief. Believing that
Christ is our Saviour does not make
it so; the fact remains and always
will remain that Christ is our Saviour,
and the Father gave the Son for the
salvation of the world. tits necessary
for us to believe in him, however, be-
fore we can receive the spiritual life.
1t is this believing in Christ which
quickens the spirit, makes us at one
with him. And in order that all shall
come to knowledge of the truth, it
is morally and spiritually certain that
all must sometime or other accept
Christ as a divine Saviour. There
fore it becomes reasonably certain
that those who do not have an oppor
tunity to accept Christ here, must
have one hereafter, or the promise of
God that Every knee shall bow and
every tongue confess, and the earth
shall be full of the knowledge of the
Lord" would be null and void. So we
can plainly see that believing thing
does not make it true; neither does
disbelieving a fact make it untrue.
But no one can know the quickening
influence that comes through the
faith of being child of God until he
does believe. Neither can any one
experience the uplifting influence of
Christ as a divine Saviour, until he
does believe.
Now as regards the atonement; the
majority of Christian churches hold
to the view of substitutional atone
ment. They teach that Christ was a
substitute for us, for man, for the
world, and then emphatically deny
their own teaching. The
man who teaches substitution might
possibly declares Universal sal
walton, but upon a different plan
from what the Universalists declare it.
But the substitutionist is not consist
emit. He teaches substitutional atone
ment and at the same time limited
salvation. If Christ died as a substi-
tute for the world, the world is for
ever free. 1t has nothing to do either
in moral or religious point of view.
The whole mass of humanity was
included. They do not even need to
believe on Christ 1t is not even nee
essary to reverence God. Ii war
stalks abroad in the land, and man
hires substitute to go in his place,
that man is free; but the substitute
must stand for him and fight for him.
If bullet strikes him down, or a sa-
Der lays him low, or shell mutilates
him beyond recognition, it is just the
same to his country as though it was
the man who sent him for a substi-
tute. He was there to fight and die
in his place, which he did, and his
enduring the horrors of war has
saved the man for whom he went.
Now if Jesus was our substitute and
died upon the Roman cross that the
world might have everlasting life, it
is the height of inconsistency to
preach it, and at the same time tell
us that his death will not affect our
salvation in the least, unless we be-
lieve it.
There is another view which some
writer's call the moral view, and en-
phasize the fact that man is sinner,
and has wandered away from God
and needs reconciling, which is a
very good view SO far as it goes, much
better and more correct than the sub
stitutional view, but in our mind it
doesn't go far enough, despite the
fact that some of our friends tell us
that it is the view which Universal
lists hold to, and while we thank
them very cordially for telling us
what Universalists believe, we are
positive enough to think that we
know little something about the
matter ourselves. The moral view
of the atonement does not answer the
spiritual necessities of the case. And
we get at the spirituality of it when
we look at the atonement as a repre-
sentative atonement, which makes
Christ our representative, our exam
pie, and also our Saviour.
Christ suffered for us, and we are
to followhis steps. In what way7 Why