No. 8. . VOL. VI.
RATIONALITY OF THE ATONEMENT.
A Pamphlet has lately made its appearance in Glasgow, published by a member
of our church holding the office of priest, containing 28 pages, headed "A Treatise
on the Atonement, proving the necessity of Christ's Death for Man's Redemption
neither scriptural nor reasonable. By T. S. Barr."
We are sorry to be under the necessity of occupying our time and pages in noti-
cing a pamphlet bearing such an introduction, as the production of a member of the
Church of Christ; or that any man, bearing any portion of the authority of the
holy priesthood, should have his mind so much overcome by the powers of darkness,
as to stray so widely from the order and counsel of the kingdom of God, in pre-
senting for the investigation of the public a heresy so much opposed to the revela-
tions of God and every principle of holiness.
Our object in the present article will not be so much to refute the heretical doc-
trine advanced, as to introduce a portion of the testimony in favour of the principle
of redemption through the blood of Christ, with which the revelations of God so
much abound, in order that our views on the subject may be rightly understood by
all, and that the Saints of God may be prepared to withstand the assaults of the
grand enemy of man's salvation, as well as to set the matter for ever at rest in the
minds of those who believe in the revelations of God.
We had fully anticipated that our repeated cautions against individuals publish-
ing without our sanction, would have been sufficient, and saved us the trouble of
having to recur to the subject again. The neglect of adherence to this on the part
of the author, causes him to forfeit his authority and standing in the Church of God,
until, at least, he has repented of his error.
In our perusal of the pamphlet, we endeavoured to find out the object of the
author, and the only reasonable conclusion we could arrive at was, that it was a
strained attempt on his part at a display of talent and learning, from his being able
to make quotations from history, heathen mythology, and Hebrew. But it would
be far better for a man to be entirely divested of talents, than to use them in en-
deavouring to prove the inefficacy of the atonement of Christ, and striking at the
fundamental principle of salvation as he has done.
The author introduces himself to his readers by lamenting because of having "to
labour under great disadvantages while propounding what he conscientiously believes
to be a correct solution of this very important subject, as the views which he holds
are diametrically opposed to those entertained by Christians of almost all denomi-
nations; at least (he says) since the foundation of the Romish Church until now,
the belief has been tenaciously adhered to amongst professors of religion, that Jesus
Christ came into the world to suffer an ignominious death for, or instead of, Adam
and his posterity."
We would remark that he would have laboured under equal disadvantages, as
far as professors of the religion of heaven were concerned, had he lived cotemporary
with the Messiah himself and his apostles, or at any period, however remote, subse-
quent to that time; and that this doctrine was not one of the many false fabrications
or dogmas of men introduced to make void the designs of God, or lead the minds of
the people away "after seducing fables and doctrines of devils;" but that it was, not
