Christ's Dying for our Sins.

Is not this doctrine an insult to our intelligence ? We are each responsible to our Creator for our own sins. It is only religious hysteria which causes us to look to any human saviour, in place of throwing ourselves completely upon God, whose forgiveness, like a mother's, is always with us, directly "we say we are really sorry for wrong doing.

A man is responsible for his sins—(1) To himself in the first place, as he suffers the most; (2) To his wife, children, and family; (3) To the community in which he resides; and (4) to God, who, condemning no one, requires no Meditator or Saviour. It is utterly beyond our Creator to be angry with us, as He is always merciful; regretting perhaps when the working of His laws bears hard upon us. (If we do not wire or clamp our houses against earthquake damage, surely we ought not to blame Him.) The idea of a poor Jewish peasant, dying nineteen centuries ago, as a human blood sacrifice, must be highly repellent to God, who, in a thousand ways, tells us not to kill each other, and to be responsible for our own sins. (The Jews themselves had to punish him for claiming to be their King and God, but they should not have killed him.) God is not a God of Wrath or Pardon. His forgiveness is not a distant thing; it is always ready for anyone asking it, who quietly says to himself or herself, "I am really sorry for wrong doing, and will try to avoid it in future." Forgiveness absolutely follows true contrition. It is as certain as the air we breathe, so good is God to us. Let anyone try it. It is the saving grace of God that enters our hearts, when we think and do what is right. Christ has nothing to do with that great moral law, which has existed from the Creation of man, and will always exist. It is one of the Natural Laws of God.^*