CHAP. CONTENTS 1. Religion in the Bible not opposed to Morality. 2. Morality in the New Testament as Self-Renunciation 3. Its Foundation in the Covenant 4. The Covenant both an Agreement and a Gift 5. Hence, the Importance of the Three "Theological' 1. Divorce between Ethics and Religion in Ethical Writings 3. Sin in the Bible; the Old Testament and Sacrifice 6. Contrition and its Awakening CHAP. V. MEDIATION. PAGE 5. The Two-fold Attitude to Sacrifice in the Bible 6. The Permanent and Universal Significance of Sacrifice 3. Faith in Christ as Dependent on Human Presentation. A FRESCO IN SAN MARCO Oh ancient mystery of love unknown! We, with the saint, would kneel and here adore, For this dear love that left us not alone. We wandered 'mid the thorns that made His crown; He sought us in the wild; with travail sore, Yet laid aside, for our dark sin to atone. Our spirits find a home beneath His gaze, Weary, estranged, and with much wandering blind, Lost in the night till He had brought us thence. Men's searching only led us to a maze, Darker for subtleties of human mind; Here we but love, and know our impotence. K. L. L. ETHICS AND ATONEMENT I. CHAPTER I ETHICS IN THE BIBLE NE of the distinctions oftenest made at the ON present day is between religion and morality. There never was a time when the authority of morality was more readily acknowledged, at least in theory; there never was a time when religion was called more frequently and imperiously to stand on the defensive. We turn to the poets or philosophers for moral inspiration: we leave the Bible unread. It is seldom recognised that there is one ideal common to all the Biblical writings; that ideal is Righteousness. In Biblical language, Righteousness is, broadly speaking, right conduct in the eyes of God; hence we can speak of the Righteousness of God himself, as well as of the Righteousness of man. Righteousness is indeed ordinarily associated with the Old rather than the New Testament; but neither Amos nor Isaiah is a more passionate exponent of the nature and obligation of Righteousness than is S. Paul; there is hardly a page of S. Paul's writings but glows with some vindication, some enforcement, of its claims. And S. Paul only echoes the spirit of the teaching of Jesus. In the discourses reported in the Gospels there is far more of the proclamation of sheer morality than is often supposed. From the Sermon on the Mount, with its detailed duties, and its emphasis on motive, A T |