We may now proceed a step farther.

This redemption of Israel from Egypt was a type of the redemption of mankind from bondage to the Evil One.

And as in the case of Israel, so in the case of mankind, God alone could effect it. And as in the case of Israel, so in the case of mankind, God required as the condition the homage of this self-surrender. And as Israel, so mankind were unable to fulfil the condition. What then? As in the case of Israel God" gave them the blood on the altar to make atonement for the soul" (Lev. xvii. 11), so in the case of mankind God gave the blood of Christ upon the Cross to make an atonement for our soul.

And this blood or life or soul of Christ, poured forth in perfect self-surrender unto His Father on behalf of all mankind, is mankind's λύτρον, the λύτρον of which Christ spake when He said that He came "to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. xx. 28; Mark x. 45) ;— "a ransom," for we cannot avoid using the word,—“ a ransom," inasmuch as it was the necessary condition of our deliverance from the bondage of Satan,—but not for one moment in the sense of being a compensation either to Satan or to His Father, but simply that expiation of sin, that dying unto sin, which (as we have seen) the eternal law of holiness required.

Thus we see in our conclusion, as we saw in our outset, how the idea of Redemption, as well as the idea of Reconciliation, has its root in the deeper mystery of the Propitiation.

There is yet one further mystery in Christ's Passion. It was a personal victory over the common enemy of the race, thereby benefiting the race for ever. For the champion who maims and weakens the foe with whom all are struggling, is the benefactor of all. And Scripture reveals not obscurely that this was a part of Christ's achievement.

How the defeat of Satan was accomplished is not equally clear.

It may have been that the expiation of sin weakened the power which sin had given him.

It may have been that in cleaving a way through the dark valley and issuing unto light, and leaving that way —a living way-open to all believers, Christ virtually "destroyed him that had the power of death."

It may have been that in that garden of agony, and on that Cross of shame, there was a yet more direct and personal conflict with the Prince of this world, whose hour it was,—too mysterious to be further revealed to us.

Whatever be the explanation, the fact of such a victory over the Evil One is declared in Scripture with abundant clearness: and the price of the victory no less clearly, our Champion's life-blood. "The Good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep."

But this idea of Christ's championship and conflict with the Evil One lies apart from the doctrine of the Atonement, and is only introduced here by way of supplement, because no account of the mysterious efficacy of Christ's death is complete without it.

The main purpose of this chapter has been to set forth the doctrine of the Atonement in harmony with the teaching of the first four centuries; in harmony with the instincts of a healthy conscience; and, above all, in harmony with the teaching of Holy Scripture.

The deep comfort of the doctrine who can tell? But it is not the comfort of sin being made less penal, it is not the comfort of being accounted righteous when we are unrighteous, it is not the comfort of being told that Another has borne for us the punishment that we deserved.

Infinitely deeper is the comfort of the Cross of Christ to those who know its power. It is the comfort of having our sense of sin so deepened that we learn to hate it with a perfect hatred. It is the comfort of a new hope and power within us, enabling us to crush and mortify sin more and more in all our members. Above all, it is the comfort of believing that however imperfect our dying unto sin may be, yet in Christ sin hath been altogether crucified; and the law of holiness being thus satisfied, if we are in Him, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin now, and sanctify us perfectly hereafter.

CHAPTER IV.

The Doctrine of the Third Person of the Trinity.

WE have been meditating in the two preceding chap

ters on the Person and work of our Blessed Lord, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, in His Incarnation.

In this chapter let us fix our attention prayerfully and reverently on the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.

Clear and distinct thought in matters of religion is a very great help to devotion. Devotion, by which we mean the soul's communion with God, is the all-important thing, and He that is thus in communion with God, knows God with the best kind of knowledge; for, as has been before observed, knowing God is an infinitely better thing than knowing about God.

Still, knowledge about God-having clear and distinct ideas about God,-in a word theology, is a great help, and therefore of much secondary importance.

Let our prayer be that our present meditation on the nature of God the Holy Ghost, as revealed in Scripture, may help us to enter into communion with Him, and know Him personally as our Friend and Comforter.

All do not so know Him. Christ said, "The world

knoweth Him not ;" and He gave the reason, the world seeth Him not " (John xiv. 17).

"Because

There are even professing Christians who do not realise to themselves His personality; who have never got beyond the notion that by "the Spirit of God" the Bible means merely God's energy or influence upon the heart of man; merely a quality, or attribute, or power of God; just as we speak of the spirit of a man, saying, "He is a man of high spirit," or "He is a man of very

humble spirit."

Now let us take the doctrine of the Holy Ghost as briefly laid down in the Nicene Creed, or rather in the Constantinopolitan Creed; for it was at the Council of Constantinople (A.D. 381) that this clause was thus enlarged. The Nicene Creed, as originally published at the Council of Nicæa (A.D. 325), had ended with the words, "And I believe in the Holy Ghost."

It was to refute the erroneous teaching of Macedonius' that the doctrine of the Holy Ghost was added in the words which are to be the text of this chapter:

"I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father [and the Son], who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the Prophets."

Observe how clearly we have here laid down—

1 Macedonius fell into grievous error owing to his confusion of procession and generation. He denied the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. εἰ μὲν ἀγέννητον, δύο τὰ ἄναρχα· εἰ δὲ γεννητὸν, ἢ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἢ ἐκ τοῦ Υἱοῦ. Εἰ μὲν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς, δύο υἱοί· εἰ δὲ ἐκ τοῦ Υἱοῦ υἱωνός OTI.-Greg. Naz. Or. xxxvii. From such impiety the doctrine of

the Procession saves us.