carious atonement of a
Saviour.

Christ's Atonement, or any other person's atonement, cannot _justly_
be accepted. For the fact that Christ is willing to suffer for another
man's sin only counts to the merit of Christ, and does not in any way
diminish the offence of the sinner. If I am bad, does it make my offence
the less that another man is so much better?

If a just man had two servants, and one of them did wrong, and if the
other offered to endure a flogging in expiation of his fault, what would
the just man do?

To flog John for the fault of James would be to punish John for being
better than James. To forgive James because John had been unjustly
flogged would be to assert that because John was good, and because the
master had acted unjustly, James the guilty deserved to be forgiven.

This is not only contrary to reason and to justice: it is also a very
false sentiment.

DETERMINISM

CAN MAN SIN AGAINST GOD?

I have said several times that Man could not and cannot sin against God.

This is the theory of Determinism, and I will now explain it.

_If God is responsible for Man's existence, God is responsible for Man's
acts._

The Christian says God is our Maker. God _made_ Man.

Who is responsible for the quality or powers of a thing that is made?

The thing that is made cannot be responsible, for it did not make
itself. But the maker is responsible, for he _made_ it.

As Man did not make himself, and had neither act, nor voice, nor
suggestion, nor choice in the creation of his own nature, Man cannot be
held answerable for the qualities or powers of his nature, and therefore
cannot be held responsible for his acts.

If God made Man, God is responsible for the qualities and powers of
Man's nature, and therefore God is responsible for Man's acts.

Christian theology is built upon the sandy foundation of the doctrine of
Free Will. The Christian theory may be thus expressed:

God gave Man a will to choose. Man chose evil, therefore Man is wicked,
and deserves punishment.

The Christian says God _gave_ Man a will. The will, then, came from God,
and was not made nor selected by Man.

And this Will, the Christian says, is the "power to choose."

Then, this "power to choose" is of God's making and of God's gift.

Man has only one will, therefore he has only one "power of choice."
Therefore he has no power of choice but the power God gave him. Then,
Man can only choose by means of that power wh