ment to be effective has to
be repeated on the altar of human hearts, and so it is, to a far
greater extent than most people stop to think. The same spirit that
was in Jesus and governed His whole career was the spirit of the true
humanity, "The light that lighteth every man that cometh into the
world." The spirit of Jesus was the spirit of Christ, the ideal or
divine manhood as it exists eternally in God. But that ideal or divine
manhood, that Christ nature, is also potentially present in every human
being. What needs to be done is to get it manifested or brought forth
into conscious activity. The immediate effect of the life and death of
Jesus upon His followers was to make them more or less like Him, and to
fill them with a similar desire to get men to live the life of love
which is the life of God. They felt themselves inspired by the same
spirit, the Holy Spirit of truth and love, and exalted above all fear
for their own safety and all desire to live for themselves alone. They
loved their Lord so much that their lives became one with His in the
work of saving the world. They could see no difference between serving
their Master and serving mankind. This love force of theirs, this
intense loyalty to Jesus, was, and still is, the redeeming thing in the
life of mankind. There is not and never has been any other Atonement.
The divine power that is breaking down selfishness, and transforming
human desires in accordance with the eternal truth of things, is the
spirit of self-sacrificing love. It is but a step from sinner to
saviour. To cease to be a sinner is perforce to be a saviour. To
escape from the dominion of selfishness is forthwith to become a power
in the hand of God for the uplifting and ingathering of mankind to
Himself; this is the Atonement.

Ask yourself whether this is not so. What other force for good is
there in the world to-day than the spirit which governed the whole life
of Jesus and rendered Him willing to brave the worst that evil could do
in His desire to get men to realise the true life? There is no other.
If you want to see the Atonement at work, go wherever love is
ministering to human necessity and you see the very same spirit which
was in Jesus, the spirit which heals and saves. Dogma is doing nothing
to save the world; the gospel of self-sacrifice is doing everything.
Show me a Christlike life and I will show you a part of the Atonement
of Christ. Show me a noble deed and I wi