ATONEMENT.
As he hath done this day, so the Lord hath commanded to do, to make an atonement for you.—Leviticus, viii. 34.
Wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord?—II. Samuel, xxi. 3.
We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.—Romans, v. 11.
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past.—Romans, iii. 25.
He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.—I. John, ii. 2.
Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.—I. Peter, ii. 24.
So Man, as is most just,
Shall satisfy for man, be judged and die,
And dying, rise, and rising, with Him raise
His brethren, ransomed with His own dear life.
*****
Nor can this be,
But by fulfilling that which Thou didst want,
Obedience to the law of God, imposed
On penalty of death, and suffering death,
The penalty to Thy transgression due:
So only can high justice rest appaid.
Milton.
’Tis nothing thou hast given; then add thy tears
For a long race of unrepenting years;
’Tis nothing yet, yet all thou hast to give;
Then add those may-be years thou hast to live;
Yet nothing still; then poor and naked come;
Thy Father will receive his unthrift home,
And thy blest Saviour’s blood discharge the mighty sum.
Dryden.
Look humbly upward, see His will disclose
The forfeit first, and then the fine impose;
A mulct thy poverty could never pay,
Had not eternal wisdom found the way,
And with celestial wealth supplied thy store;
His justice makes the fine, His mercy quits the score.
See God descending in the human frame;
The offended suffering in the offender’s name:
All thy misdeeds to Him imputed see,
And all his righteousness devolved on thee.
Dryden.
Thou, rather than thy justice should be stained,
Did stain the cross.
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O, what a groan was there! a groan not His.
He seized our dreadful right; the load sustained,
And heaved the mountain from a guilty world.
Young.
What needs my blood, since thine will do,
To pay the debt to justice due?
O, tender mercy’s art divine!
Thy sorrow proves the cure of mine!
Thy dropping wounds, thy woeful smart,
Allay the bleedings of my heart:
Thy death, in death’s extreme of pain,
Restores my soul to life again!
Parnell.
The Son of God
Only begotten, and well-beloved, between
Men and His Father’s justice interposed;
Put human nature on, His wrath sustained,
And in their name suffered, obeyed, and died;
Making His soul an offering for sin,
Just for unjust, and innocence for guilt.
*****
Thus Truth with Mercy met, and Righteousness,
Stooping from highest heaven, embraced fair Peace,
That walked the earth in fellowship and love.
Pollok.
God’s own son, unblemished victim, gave
Himself a sacrifice, and by His blood,
Upon the cross poured forth, washed out the stain
Of primal sin.
Samuel Hayes.
And shall the sinful heart, alone,
Behold, unmoved, the atoning hour,
When Nature trembles on her throne,
And death resigns his iron power?
O, shall the heart,—whose sinfulness
Gave keenness to His sore distress,
And added to His tears of blood—
Refuse its trembling gratitude?
Whittier.
Jesus, thy name beyond all nature loud,
Peals like the trumpet of eternity,
Through all the chambers of responsive faith,
Making them echo with the name of Christ!
Nature was forfeit when the first man fell
To sin, and whatsoe’er in nature lives,
In reason, morals, or in mind enacts
Dominion, from His vast atonement flows.
R. Montgomery.
Advance, O hopeless mortal, steeled in guilt,
Behold, and if thou canst, forbear to melt!
Shall Jesus die, thy freedom to regain,
And wilt thou drag the voluntary chain?
Wilt thou refuse thy kind assent to give,
When, dying, He looks down to bid thee live?
Perverse, wilt thou reject the proffered good,
Bought with His life, and streaming in His blood?
Whose virtue can thy deepest crimes efface,
Re-heal thy nature, and confirm thy peace!
Can all the errors of thy life atone,
And raise thee from a rebel to a son.
Boyse.
Lamb of God! Our Priest and Pastor,
Who canst bid all evil cease,
Ever dear and holy Master,
Make our feeble love increase!
So that when we seek Thee, owning
That Thy wrath is our deserts,
Thou, blest Lord, at whose atonement
All iniquity departs,
Mayest speak forth from Thine enthronement,
To our rent and wearied hearts,
“Sinner, go in peace!”
C. D. Mc’ Leod.
Tune your harps anew, ye seraphs,
Join to sing the pleasing theme;
All on earth and all in heaven
Join to praise Immanuel’s name!
Hallelujah!
Glory to the bleeding Lamb!
J. Evans.