The principle does not hold in the ordinary judicial proceedings of this world: a robber or a murderer is not and cannot be pardoned because another member of the community, or of his family, is a good and righteous man. We must therefore look elsewhere for the origin of the principle, and we find it in the revealed will of God. We see it in the appointment of sacrifice and atonement, according to which a guilty man was pardoned by the suffering of an innocent animal. Here is at once the principle of substitution of the innocent for the guilty; and human reason, when it once has the substratum, can easily proceed to erect the superstructure. In the present case it naturally argued, if the death of one of the brute creation could effect so much, how much more would the merits of a righteous man avail, if such an one could be found? The error, then, is not in the principle, but in its application. According to the Scripture, it is true that the innocent may be substituted for the guilty; but the rabbies were wrong in applying this truth to the case of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and other men, who were only sinners as themselves. The Word of God, which gave the principle, also directs us to the right application. It tells us of one for whose righteousness’ sake the Lord will forgive sin:— ה׳ חפץ למען צדקו יגדיל תורה ויאדיר ׃ “The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law and make it honourable.” (Isa. xlii. 21.) Who, then, is this person? The preceding verses tell us that it is the servant of the Lord. Who, then, is the servant of the Lord? Kimchi says, on this verse, that the servant of the Lord is the prophet; but this cannot possibly be true, for the prophet was not righteous, but a sinner, as he himself tells us in the sixth chapter—“I am a man of unclean lips.” The servant mentioned in the nineteenth verse is the same person as he who is called “My servant,” in the first verse of the chapter—“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth: I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” But here Kimchi says,— זה הוא מלך המשיח כמו שפירשנו ׃ “This is the King Messiah, as we have interpreted.” If then, in the first verse, “The servant of the Lord” means the Messiah, it must mean the same through the chapter, and the Messiah is the person for whose righteousness’ sake the Lord is well pleased. This same prophet tells us again, concerning this servant,— בדעתו יצדיק צדיק עבדי לרבים ועונותם הוא יסבול ׃