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15. CONCERNING ATONEMENT (1)

            “ONLY where love is perfect is sympathy perfect, and only where sympathy is perfect can one die for another.

            Wherefore the Son of God says, “The wrongs of others wound me and the stripes of others fall upon my flesh. I am smitten with the pains of all creatures, and my heart is pierced with their hearts. There is no offence done and I suffer not. Nor any wrong and I am not hurt thereby. For my heart is in the breast of every creature, and my blood is in the veins of all flesh. I am wounded in my right hand for man, and in my left hand for woman – in my right and left feet for the beasts of the earth and the creatures of the deep, and in my heart for all.” The Crucifix, then, is the

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divinest of symbols, because it is the emblem of Christ and token of God with man. It is the allegory of the doctrine of Pantheism that man becomes perfect – the soul becomes God – through suffering. He who is wise understands; and he who understands is initiated; and he who is initiated loves; and he who loves knows, and he who knows is purified. And the pure behold God and comprehend the Divine with the mystery of pain and of death. And because the Son of God loves he is powerful, and the power of love redeems. He being lifted up draws all men unto him.”

            “And this is the Atonement of Christ and perpetual sacrifice of the Son of God. Believe and thou shalt be saved; for he that believeth is changed from the image of death to life. And he that believeth sinneth no more and oppresseth no more. For he loveth as Christ hath loved, and is in God and God in him. The

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blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin, not by the purchase of pardon with another’s gold, but because the love of God hath changed the life of the sinner. The penitent saves himself by suffering, sorrow, and amendment. By these he rises and his life is redeemed. And it is the Christ that redeems him by giving his heart’s blood for him. It is Christ in him who takes his infirmities and bears his sorrows in his own body on the tree. And the same which was true of old is true to-day, and forever. Christ Jesus is crucified continually in each one until the Kingdom of God come. For wherever is sin are suffering, death and oppression; and where these are, the Christ shall be manifest, and by love shall labour and die and redeem.”

NOTE

(73:1) Clothed with the Sun. Part I, Nº. 29.

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