no blemish. As the conscience was awakened by God's teaching more and more clearly to perceive that all resistance to God lies in the setting up of self--that this is the great barrier between Him and His revolted creatures--it began to be understood that the atonement of man with man must have its basis in an atonement of God with man, and that the same sacrifice was needed for both. One thing yet remained to be learnt, the most wonderful lesson of all; and yet of which God had been giving the elements, line upon line, precept upon precept, from the beginning. Could sacrifice originate in God? Could it be made, not first _to_ Him, but first _by_ Him? Could the sacrifices of men be the effect, not the cause, of His love and free grace to them? All our Lord's discourses concerning Himself and His Father,--concerning His own acts as being merely the fulfilment of His Father's will,--concerning the love which the Father had to Him because He laid down His life for the sheep,--had been bringing these mysteries to light; had been preparing the humble and meek to confess, with wonder and contrition, that in every selfish act they had been fighting against the unselfish God,--that in every self-sacrificing act they had been merely yielding to Him,--merely submitting to die, according to the law of His Eternal Being, which He had created men to show forth. And so far as they had any glimpses of the accomplishment of God's promises,--that He would bring all into one,--that the Gentiles should wait for His law,--that He would be a Father of all the families of the earth, and that they should be His children,--so far they had the vision of a transcendent and Divine sacrifice.