and from St. Paul we hear, 'Hold fast the form of sound words;'
and James' admonition, 'Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only,'
show that both considered it necessary to speak the word if they would
manifest its power.

"But there is another and a holier office given to the word and that is
the office of atonement. The original meaning of atone was to 'make
at-one, to agree, to be in accordance, to accord.' To be at-one with a
person is to be in such perfect sympathy that the thoughts of both are
the thoughts and feelings of one.

"Another illustration would be to say of a chip thrown into the river,
it is at-one with the current. In this sense we should aim to be so
at-one with the divine Principle that we may say with Jesus, 'I am one
with the Father,' for did he not say: 'They are not of this world even
as I am not of this world,' and 'That they may be one even we are one.'

"To speak absolute Truth is to come into the true at-one-ment, to be at
one with the divine Mind, to realize that Christ the Truth is the
atoning power. The Christ is the impersonal Word of Truth which we are
to speak, for 'unto us hath been committed the word of reconciliation'
or atonement.

"When we think true thoughts and catch true ideas, when we understand
true meanings and love true knowledge, we are sustained by the living
word which sustains all who speak and live it, because we are truly at
one with the divine Word.

"Knowing the meaning of Christ to be Truth, blood to be life or word,
and sin to be error, we catch the spiritual meaning of the phrase 'sins
washed away by the blood of Christ,' which is, sins or errors washed
away by the word of Truth.

"In that wonderful sermon in the sixth chapter of John, Jesus used the
term blood as a symbol of his words, and emphatically told his
disciples, when they persisted in taking his sayings literally, 'the
flesh profiteth nothing, the _words_ that I speak unto you, they are
spirit and they are life.'

"That the Bible writers used the figurative language of those times,
must be taken into account when reading points that have been made
foundation doctrines. Owing to the ancient custom of sacrificing animals
to appease the wrath of God, whom they regarded as subject to anger,
jealousy or any human passion, they used figurative language when
describing Jesus as the Lamb sacrificed for the sins of the world.

"In one of the inspired moments of the prophet, when he apprehended God