[Footnote A: Lesson XVI.]
[Footnote B: Ibid, p.— and note —]
On the influence of pain and suffering Baring-Gould has the following fine passage:
"There was no necessity, some theologians have taught, for Christ to have died but as S. Bernard says, "perhaps that method is best, whereby in a land of forgetfulness and sloth we might be more powerfully and vividly reminded of our fall, through the so great and so manifold sufferings of Him who repaired it." Then quoting Oxenham:
"'Pain is one of the deepest and truest things in our nature; we feel instinctively that it is so, even before we can tell why. Pain is what binds us most closely to one another and to God. It appeals most directly to our sympathies, as the very structure of our language indicates. To go no further than our own, we have English words, such as condolence, to express sympathy with grief; we have no one word to express sympathy with joy. So, again, it is a common remark that, if a funeral and wedding procession were to meet, something of the shadow of death would be cast over the bridal train, but no reflection of bridal happiness would pass into the mourners' hearts. Scripture itself has been not inaptly called 'a record of human sorrow.' The same name might be given to history. Friendship is scarcely sure till it has been proved in suffering, but the chains of an affection riveted in the fiery furnace are not easily broken. So much, then, at least, is clear, that the Passion of Jesus was the greatest revelation of sympathy: 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' And hence fathers and schoolmen alike conspire to teach, that one reason why he chose the road of suffering was to knit us more closely to himself. For this he exalted his head, not on a throne of earthly glory, but on the cross of death. It is, indeed, no accident of the few, but a law of our present being, which the poet's words express:
'That to the Cross the mourner's eve should turn
Sooner than where the stars of Christmas burn.'
For in all, in their several ways and degrees, are mourners. The dark threads are woven more thickly than the bright ones into the tangled skein of human life; and as time passes on, the conviction that it is so is brought home to us with increasing force.' I (Oxenham: "Doctrine of the Atonement, 1869, pp. 290-292.)
"The Incarnation is the manifestation of perfect love, but perfect love cannot halt at anything short of the extreme disintegration wrought by the fall. Christ must sacrifice Himself wholly to man, or his love is not sufficient to draw man to him. He must enter into man's joys and man's woes, to meet him at every turn of the winding lane of life. Love is not satisfied till it has made every sacrifice that is in its power to make and no more complete sacrifice can be imagined than that of honor, ease, and finally life.
The narrative of Christ's life is, therefore, one of continuous sacrifice, of emptying himself of everything in the overflowing Passion of his love, counting all as nought if only he might catch man's eye and draw him towards himself.
"He came to seek and to save that which was lost. Such is reported by the Evangelist to be the account he gave of his mission." * * * "Pain is the deepest thing we have in our nature, and union through pain has always seemed more real and more holy than any other.[A]
[Footnote A: "Origin and Development of Religious Beliefs," Vol. II, pp, 305, 307, 330.]
4. The Severity of the Atonement Justified from the Value of Things Purchased by It: The severity of the Atonement may be justified if viewed with reference to what it purchased for man, and the effect it was doubtless designed to have in forever fixing the values upon certain great things, in the mind of man. When the plan of redemption is contemplated with reference to what it cost the Christ, then we must have exalted notions ever after of the majesty and Justice of God, for it was to make ample satisfaction to that majesty and Justice of God that the Christ suffered and died; we must have exalted conceptions of the value of that stately fabric known as the moral government of the world, for it was for the preservation of its integrity that the Christ suffered and died; we must hence forth have a higher regard for God's attribute of Mercy, for it was that Mercy might be brought into the earth-scheme of things, and claim her own, that the Christ suffered and died; we must set a higher value even upon physical life hereafter, for it was in order to bring to pass the resurrection of man to physical life, and to make that life immortal, that the Christ suffered and died; new glory must attach hereafter to spiritual life,—perpetual union between soul of man and soul of God,—for to bring to pass that spiritual life, that indissoluble union with God on which it depends for existence, that the Christ suffered and died; we must henceforth have a deeper reverence for the Love of God and the Love of the Christ for man,—and a higher regard for man himself since God so loved him—for it was to give a manifestation of that Love, that the Christ suffered and died.
If it be true, and it is, that men value things in proportion to what they cost, then how dear to them must be the Atonement, since it cost the Christ so much in suffering that he may be said to have been baptized by blood-sweat in Gethsemane, before he reached the climax of his passion, on calvary. "Behold he suffereth the pains of all men; yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam;"[A] "surely every man must repent or suffer [i. e., the eternal consequences of sin]. * * * For behold, I God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent, but if they would not repent, they must suffer even as I, which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit, and would that I might not drink the bitter cup."[B] Advantages to be realized in eternal life purchased at such a cost as this, should indeed be regarded by men as pearls of great price, to obtain which a man would be justified in selling all that he hath, that he might buy them.
[Footnote A: II Nephi ix:21.]