Sacrifice and burnt offerings Thou wouldst not" (Ps. xl, 6),
and on Jesus' own explanation of his death, that He offered himself in
testimony to the Truth--that is, that the Eternal Life will no more
exercise a retrospective vengeance upon us for our past misunderstanding
of It, than would electricity or any other force. We may explain the
_modus operandi_ of the great offering in any of these ways, for the
Scripture presents it in all of them--but the great thing is to accept
it; for by the nature of our mental constitution, such an acceptance,
whether with or without an intellectual explanation, affords the
assurance which we stand in need of; and building upon the Foundation we
can safely rear the edifice of our future development.

Also it affords us a continual safeguard in all the further stages of
our evolution. As our psychic consciousness increases, we become more
and more responsive to psychic stimulus whether that stimulus proceed
from a good or evil influence; and therefore the recognition of our
Redemption in Christ surrounds us with a protecting barrier, through
which no evil spirit or malign influence can pass; so that, resting upon
this Truth, we need never be in fear of any such invasion, but shall at
all times be clothed with the whole armour of God (Eph. vi, 11).

From whatever point of view we regard it, we therefore find in the One
Offering once made for the sin of the whole world, a standpoint such as
is provided by no other teaching, whether religious or philosophical;
and we shall see on examination that it is not an arbitrary decree for
which we can give no account, but that it is based on the psychological
constitution of man--a provision so perfectly adapted to our
requirements at every stage of our evolution, that we can only attribute
it to the Divine Wisdom acting through One, who by Perfect Love, thus
willingly offered himself, in order to provide the Foundation of
complete assurance for all who recognize their need of it.

On this basis, then, of reunion with the Eternal Source of Life, all the
Promises of the Bible are found to be according to Law--that is,
according to the inherent Law of our Being; so that, in the laying of
this Foundation, we find the supreme manifestation of the interaction
between the Law and the Word, which, when its significance is
apprehended, opens out vistas of limitless possibilities to the
individual and to the race.

But the race, as a whole, is yet very