3. An injury to ourselves, by putting us away from God, the source of life, and alienating us from him. Now, it is true that the New Testament says, “Repent, and be converted, and your sins shall be blotted out;” “Believe, and be saved.” It is true that if we will believe ourselves forgiven, we shall be forgiven. But how can we believe it, when the inward voice of conscience is always saying that God ought not to forgive us without some reparation made for the injury done to himself, to the universe, and to ourselves? We need something to believe in—some manifestation, some object. Something we need done by God to assure us that he is in earnest in desiring us to come and be reconciled to him. Now, the _sufferings and death_ of Christ seem to be this object: they enable us to believe in forgiveness, and so to be forgiven; they meet the difficulty of the conscience, and relieve it of its threefold embarrassment. For, in regard to the injury done to God, Christ’s sufferings are substitution, or vicarious suffering. I do not say vicarious _punishment_. The innocent cannot be _punished_ in the place of the guilty; but he can suffer, and constantly _does_ suffer, in the place of the guilty. These two laws are announced in the Old Testament: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die;” “The wickedness of parents shall be on the children.” If a man is alone, he must bear _all_ the consequences of his sins; but if he have friends and children, they will relieve him of some by their self-sacrificing kindness: their _sufferings_ take the place of his _punishment_. How often a wife does this!—interposing her sufferings between her husband’s sins and their penalty. And what a profound impression is made by it of the evil of sin! It torments innocent women and children; it shipwrecks the peace of a family. What an effect is produced on the man himself! What a reproach and tender rebuke to him is this! The sufferings of Christ are _substituted_ in this way for ours, according to this law; and this divine substitution is continued in the sacrifices of Christians. Missionaries and martyrs, by their zeal, patience, and generosity, carry out the sacrifice of Christ. This is God in Christ working in us and in the Church, and working for sinners.