As to the efficacy of the Atonement for the redeemed, no statement framed by grateful and enthusiastic Christian hearts can surpass or even equal the reality. The redeemed by Christ are on earth, as John exultantly says (I. John iii. 2), “already sons of God," while "it does not yet appear what we shall be" since "when he," our Redeemer, “shall appear, we shall be like him;" while, moreover, they who "receive him" receive also from him "power to become the sons of God." Paul, too, exhausts the vocabulary of the most expressive terms, when he says that the redeemed are "sons of God," not by nature, but by the higher and most appreciative relationship, that of "adoption;" that this sonship by adoption makes us "heirs of God," in the double sense of being" glorified" in personal character, and of being blessed with every outward relationship that can exalt. Most of all, Paul teaches that we were "predestinated" by God "to be conformed to the image of his Son," who is exalted "above the angels," and that thus we are "joint heirs with Christ to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Yet more, in view partly of this future exaltation, but more in view of the natural interest which a redeemed spirit awakens, and of the personal joy which a saving change begets, Christ and his inspired Apostles enumerate as present and earthly blessings bestowed on the redeemed." "They already rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of

glory." They "have a hundred-fold" of every earthly comfort. "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents more than over ninety and nine just beings that need no repentance." In the songs, too, of the upper world there is a strain, "Thou hast redeemed us unto God," which only the saints of earth can utter; while the angelic choir listens and waits to join in the chorus, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing."

They are right, then, who place stress on these declarations; for they are statements of fact. They certainly err who, from these and such like statements, infer that Christ's Atonement has efficacy only for the redeemed. These are strong statements, indeed: "Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it" (Eph. v. 25); "He loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal. ii. 20); but they are not statements which exclude an efficacy that reaches another end in another class. There are other declarations that assert a positive efficacy, though not a redeeming power, over others than the redeemed. Such are the declarations of Christ and of Paul and of John to this effect. Christ declares (Matt. xx. 28), "The Son of Man came to give his life a ransom for many," which the Apostle Paul makes synonymous with the declaration (I. Tim. ii. 6), "He gave himself a ransom for all." Again Paul (Heb. ii. 9), "We see

Jesus, made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man." Yet again, John (I. John ii. 2), "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world;" in which expression the word rendered "world" is, in the Greek, "kosmos," or universe. It is impossible to suppose that Paul and John used, without special design, these expressions of an influence exerted by Christ's Atonement which reaches beyond the redeemed. They are right, indeed, who seek, in the connection of the statements just quoted for proofs that the redemption secured by the Atonement is limited to those who accept it; and yet the form of language chosen by the inspired writers is not by this qualification of the context made of no account in the writer's design.

Perhaps a harmonizing of important distinctions made in our study of the nature and ground of the Atonement may here prove an aid to reach the divine thought. In its nature, the Divine Atonement includes three elements, reconciliation, propitiation and expiation, their combined result securing justification. Of course no "expiation" is required for angels who have not sinned; and no expiation is made for those who have sinned but are not redeemed. There may, however, be "reconciliation" secured for sinless angels, and "propitiation" for unredeemed men. Yet, again: the ground of the

Atonement has appeared from our survey to be rather moral than material; not so much the fact that Christ's bodily agony and mental anguish was a measured equivalent for that which would have been endured by the precise numbers who are to be redeemed if they had been unredeemed. But Christ's sacrifice is a moral equivalent, in its united human and divine impression made on the universe of intelligent beings, which infinitely surpasses the impression which would have been made had all mankind been left to bear themselves the penalty of their own sin. Not detracting, therefore, in the least from the strongest possible statement as to the divine purpose and the divine accomplishment in the efficacy of Christ's Atonement for the redeemed, we should be prepared to receive the divine declaration as to another influence of the Atonement on beings not redeemed.

The case of infants, next after mature believers, demands consideration. That they are born with a sinful nature, Greeks, like Socrates, and Romans, like Cicero, without revelation, declare; while Virgil pictures that they need expiation, though among the nearest to the heavenly entrance. David, in the strongest terms, declares their depravity (Ps. li. 5); and yet his confidence in their redemption is as clear (II. Sam. xii. 23). Christ, in the last of his life, three times (Matt. xviii. 3-10; xix. 13-15; xxi. 15, 16) teaches that children, even infants, are to be saved; yet he

accords with their parents that "prayer" for the Divine "blessing" is essential if they "enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. xix. 13, 15; Mark x. 16). So John records (I. John ii. 12): "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake." It is natural to suppose that, as the Divine Spirit acts directly on the mature mind in regeneration, so it may act on the undeveloped infant spirit. It is rational to conclude that, as those who can exercise personal faith are called to that exercise; while at the same time the faith of the weakest intellect is as acceptable as that of the profoundest thinker (I. Cor. i. 27), so “out of the mouth of babes and sucklings" God may "perfect praise." The Atonement of Christ to such may not bring conscious "reconciliation;" while it does provide for their "expiation" and "propitiation."

The interest of angels, both in man who is redeemed and the divine purpose accomplished by it, is the theme of frequent statement by Christ and his Apostles. Christ says that "there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repents;" his words justifying, doubtless, Watts' interpretation in his hymn, "Who can describe the joy?" etc., that it is the Divine Being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who manifests the greatness of joy, while, however, "saints and angels join" in its expression. Christ again says of his "little ones" (Matt. xviii. 10), "Their angels do always behold the face of my Father which