are by nature hungry for knowledge, but none is naturally hungry for holiness. This is God's teaching, and is it not our own experience and observation?" own. SIN AS IT IS. Sin is the blackest fact of human history, and of human life. It darkens the moral world as with the great shadow of an eclipse. It shuts out much of the light of God, and truth, and hope, and heaven. Men fail to recognize great spiritual verities simply because of sin. Their understandings are darkened, and they lack spiritual discernment. Speculate as they please, and deny the fact of depravity as they may, the record is there the great fact confronts them at every turn. They are sinners-many of them unpardoned, unreconciled, hopeless, persistent sinners; willfully, or at least voluntarily, violating God's law, and refusing conformity to God's holy will. This sin is their own. It is not Adam's, though Adam sinned, but their Men inherit depravity, but they do not inherit sin. The depravity may be the occasion of sin, but it is not the cause of it. Adam was not guilty of our sin, nor are we guilty of Adam's sin. We are guilty for our sinful state, as well as sinful life. Sin is more than the outward violation of law. Sin is the willing tendency of the heart toward wrong. Guilt may exist without open transgression. He that would murder his brother if he could, and fails to do so only for lack of opportunity or strength or skill, is a murderer in the sight of God. All evil desires which are not gratified simply for want of opportunity are guilt-incurring. They render the soul as guilty before Heaven as if the acts were committed. Sin is more than an act. It is the assent of the mind to do wrong, the yielding of the will to accept the propositions of Satan. A sinful life is Satanic bondage. The mind is ever thralled by evil tendency and aversion to purity" a soul that, struggling to be free, is more enthralled." The sinful soul can not liberate itself. Like the vine that withers in the furrow where it grows, unable to build a trellis for itself on which to leap up, so the soul is helpless in its downward bent, each sinful act adding to the momentum of its swift career toward the pit. 'They talk of the dignity of human nature. Alas! there is no such thing! There once was, when the nature was stainless; but they forget that the blight has marred its beauty, and has stricken its strength, and that the only moral dignity it can boast of now is the dignity of the criminal saved, by the monarch's clemency, from the doom of the headsman or the gallows. You may try the experiment in its varied aspects for yourselves. "You may take a child in what you call its innocence and its sensibility, and deeming, with some among us, that all children are born good, you may assiduously instruct it in the principles of morals, and you may carefully exclude it from the contagion of evil example, and you may write upon its fresh young heart the benevolent affec tions and the holy name of God; and then you may watch gradually for the development of the nature that you have thus started and trained. Ah! but you were too late in the field. "You deemed that your inscription was the first that was written there, but the enemy has been at work before you; the heart had been over-written before you had got to it. Let the passions play upon the opening mind, hold it up to the lamp of opportunity, and, in hell's dark cipher, you can trace the blurred and misshapen characters of crime; in the failure of your cherished experiment you discover that even prime ministers, however cleverly they may wield the destinies of empires, are but clumsy theologians, and that there is another attestation to the truth of the declaration of the Bible, that man goeth astray even from the womb, and that every imagination of the heart is only evil continually." (William Morley Punshon, LL. D.) But there is hope. Christ lives to save. From the downward tendency and despairing thralldom of a sinful life he is able to deliver. He alone can save. And he will save abundantly. All who have sought deliverance through him have found the freedom they craved. It was Wm. Wilberforce who, at the close of one of his busiest years, recorded in his journal this secret meditation: "If I have made any progress, it is in the clearer discovery of my own exceeding sinfulness and weakness. Yet I am convinced it is my own fault. Let me not acquiesce, then, in my sinful state, as if it were not to be escaped from. Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Yes, we may, I may, become holy. Push forward, then, O my soul! strive more vigorously; God and Christ will not refuse their help." This is true in every case. God and Christ are pledged to save seeking souls. They that seek shall find. Those that find not seek not. The finding is as certain as the earnest seeking. Let us seek freedom from the sin that enslaves us, that drags us downward, that robs of peace and happiness and heaven. Let us get on the upward grade, if we are not there now. Let us lay aside every weight, and with cleansed, sanctified souls make rapid progress toward the sinless land of heaven. THE ATONEMENT. We must give earnest thought to the doctrine of the atonement. It is the central idea of the sacred Scriptures, the corner-stone of the Christian edifice. No other doctrine is so connected with the types, prophecies, promises, and declarations of the Old and New Testaments, and also with the experience and practice of the Christian believer in every age of the world. Without it the light of ancient truth is clouded, the glory of actual religious experience shadowed, and the hope of immortality and eternal life placed upon a slender foundation. We shall not be able to comprehend every why and wherefore of this great doctrine. It has bearings that extend beyond man's power of understanding. Its truth we may know, and its power we may feel. It is with the heart that man believeth unto righteousness. The mind apprehends the truth, is impressed with the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the infinite condescension of God's love in devising the means of pardon, but the heart is chiefly affected in the work of salvation. Let us seek to understand the facts of redemption. Let us study them in the light of God's truth, and strive to appreciate their importance. The English word "atonement" is supposably derived from "atone-ment," primarily signifying "reconciliation." As generally used, the word involves the idea of "expiation," "propitiation," "satisfaction," "price of redemption." In the Old Testament it is "the cover over" sin, or ground of reconciliation between God and man. It conveys the idea of value received, or satisfaction rendered. Under the Mosaic economy atonement was provided by purchase, the price being the same to all. (Ex. xxx, 15, 16.) Other contributions were voluntary, according to the ability or liberality of the offerer, but this one offering to the Lord" was the "ransom" of their souls, and was one sum for all above twenty years of age. Those who refused it had no interest in the sacrifice, and were liable to visitation by the "plague." (Ex. xxx, 12.) In the Christian dispensation the blood of Christ avails as the purchase price of the soul's redemption. (1 Cor. vi, 20; Rev. v, 9.) This price is more precious than material offerings. (1 Pet. i, 18, 19.) It is more efficacious than the blood of ancient sacrifices. (Heb. ix, 11-14.) As a "ransom' or "propitiation" it avails for all mankind. He is the propitiation for our sins: for the sins of the whole world." and not for ours only, but also 66 (1 John ii, 2.) As a result of it, all men may be delivered from the plague" of sin, and restored to the Divine favor. The word atonement" occurs but once in the New Testament (Rom. v, 2), and the Revised Version substitutes for this the word "reconciliation." This does not change the force in any respect, for all the passages of the Bible which refer to the subject convey the central idea of “a change, that is, of state between parties previously at variance." "Reconciliation and atonement," says Dr. Angus, "are in all the New Testament, except Heb. ii, 17, translations of the same word, and mean the state of friendship and acceptance into which the Gospel introduces us." "Our Lord Jesus Christ," says Prof. James T. Hyde, "of his own free will, and in obedience to his Father's will, suffered and died as a sacrifice for sin; by his precious blood fulfilling the Jewish sacrifices, bearing our sin as if it were his own, with a perfect love, sympathy, and patience, that he might redeem us from sin and misery, save us from wrath, vindicate God's justice in showing mercy, and reconcile us unto God." 66 But how did Christ become our ransom?" We know that "Our sins on Christ were laid; He bore the mighty load; In groans, and tears, and blood." But how? This question brings forward the idea of "substitution." "He took the dying traitor's place, And suffered in his stead; For sinful man-0 wondrous grace!- The word "substitution" is not to be found in the Bible, but the idea is very prominent. "We find it," says Rev. Jesse Bird, "impressively represented in Abraham's offering of his son Isaac. The son was demanded. The wood, the fire, the knife were ready, the victim bound, the hand raised-when the stroke was arrested. The substitute was ready, offered, and accepted, and Isaac went free. So the life of man was demanded by the law. All was ready for its execution, when the Son of God stands forth, saying: 'Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.' I will meet the demands of thy justice, and in due time I will go and die to recover the lost, and bring back to our love and embrace them that are adjudged to death. The Father accepts the Son, and man goes free. He is ransomed, redeemed." In Leviticus i, 4, we read: "He shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him." In 1 John iii, 16, we read again: "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us." In these representative passages the doctrine of substitution is plainly taught. The general tenor of numberless texts sets forth the truth that Christ was made a curse for us; that he gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins; and that he laid down his life for ours. This is the procuring cause of redemption. "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus ; who gave himself a ransom for all." (1 Tim. ii, 5, 6.) Back of this is the moving cause, the love of God. "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John iv, 9, 10.) For us he was made a curse, that we might be redeemed from the curse. (Gal. iii, 13.) For us who were under the law, and had incurred the law's awful penalty, he became man, and was made under the law to redeem us, and confer upon us the adoption of sons. (Gal. iv, 5, 6.) But did Christ's death satisfy offended justice, and pay the penalty due to our transgressions? Yes, and no. The word "satisfaction" is a much abused term. Some see in this the "sole cause of our present and eternal salvation." Their theory is that Christ died instead of them, whereas he died for them, that through his stripes they might be healed. He suffered his blood to be shed, not unconditionally to buy the pardon of our guilt, but that God might freely and graciously pardon us if we accept his salvation freely offered. "On the principle that there must be satisfaction," says Lindesie, "the question arises, To what extent, and for whom? And another question is raised, Is it for all, or only for some? This one question divided the Reformation into two great sections, and has been, and remains to this day, a source of hatred and alienation between those who bear the Christian name, and in other respects are nearly one. One section sing: The other: 'For us his vital blood was spilt, "Thou hast for all a ransom paid, Yet we believe the fact involved in both couplets; viz., that Christ died a ransom for all. Our Savior's words at the Last Supper were: "For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for |