ll show you something worthy
of Jesus. His self-offering, and the love and devotion it awoke in
human hearts, are a perpetual sacrifice, a cumulative assertion that in
the presence of need love can never do anything other than give itself
until the need is supplied and love is all in all. There is even a
possibility of substitution here. Vicarious suffering willingly
accepted becomes irresistible in the long run as a means of lifting a
transgressor out of the mire of selfishness. Many a noble wife has
saved her husband by remaining at his side and patiently accepting the
disabilities caused by his wrong-doing. It is even possible in such a
case for the saviour to bear more than the sinner, and for the sinner
to be relieved of some of the consequences of his sin; he would have to
suffer more if there were no loving helper to stand by him. But to
speak of one as bearing another's punishment is untrue; such a thing
cannot be. All that love can do is to share to the uttermost in the
painful consequences of sin and by so doing break their power What
other Atonement is needed than this? It requires no defence, and a
child could understand it. Everyone already believes in it, whether he
stops to think about it or not. While I am writing these words a
fierce storm is raging outside. This is the second day we have had of
it, and there seems likely to be some loss of life on the dangerous
rocks outside the bar which forms the entrance to the bay below. A
visitor has just been telling me of a wilder storm in this same bay
some years ago, and of which he says to-day's gale reminds him. On
that previous occasion three ships were wrecked together within a few
yards of this house. It must have been a dreadful, awe-inspiring
scene. No boat could live on the surf, so every survivor had to be
dragged ashore with ropes fastened to the cliffs and hauled by willing
hands. Hundreds of townspeople and fisher folk came pouring over from
St. Ives and all the hamlets round about in order to take part in the
work of rescue. According to my informant the scene was enough to stir
any heart, and even grown men were crying with excitement and
compassion as some of the poor fellows in the rigging of the doomed
vessels were washed away before they could be got ashore. The few who
were actually snatched from the jaws of death found no lack of willing
helpers as one by one they were passed insensible into the kind keeping
of the many wh