h the undeveloped germ exists already.

Now the difference between those trees seen in themselves, and seen in
the conception of their nature's perfectness which has been previously
realized, is the difference between man seen in himself and seen in
Christ. We are feeble, dwarfish, stunted specimens of Humanity. Our
best resolves are but withered branches, our holiest deeds unripe and
blighted fruit; but to the Infinite Eye, who sees in the perfect One
the type and assurance of that which shall be, this dwindled Humanity
of ours is divine and glorious. Such are we in the sight of God the
Father as is the very Son of God Himself. This is what theologians, at
least the wisest of them, meant by "imputed righteousness." I do not
mean that all who have written or spoken on the subject had this
conception of it, but I believe they who thought truly meant this;
they did not suppose that in imputing righteousness there was a kind
of figment, a self-deception in the mind of God; they did not mean
that by an act of will He chose to consider that every act which
Christ did was done by us; that He imputed or reckoned to us the
baptism in Jordan and the victory in the wilderness, and the agony in
the garden, or that He believed, or acted as if He believed, that when
Christ died, each one of us died: but He saw Humanity submitted to the
law of self-sacrifice; in the light of that idea He beholds us as
perfect, and is satisfied. In this sense the apostle speaks of those
that are imperfect, yet "by one offering He hath perfected for ever
them that are sanctified." It is true again, that He died for us, in
that we present His sacrifice as ours. The value of the death of
Christ consisted in the surrender of self-will. In the fortieth Psalm,
the value of every other kind of sacrifice being first denied, the
words follow, "then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." The
profound idea contained, therefore, in the death of Christ is the duty
of self-surrender.

But in _us_ that surrender scarcely deserves the name; even to use the
word self-sacrifice covers us with a kind of shame. Then it is that
there is an almost boundless joy in acquiescing in the life and death
of Christ, recognizing it as ours, and representing it to ourselves
and God as what we aim at. If we cannot understand how in this sense
it can be a sacrifice for us, we may partly realize it by remembering
the joy of feeling how art and n