If, then, "all things must be fulfilled" which are written in Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning Christ; and if it "_behoved Christ thus to suffer and to rise from the dead_ * * that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations;" then it would seem that there must have been absolute necessity for that order of procedure followed in the events which make up and attend upon the Atonement as we now know it. To this evidence there must be added the thrice repeated, agonized prayer of the Christ, in Gethsemane, when contemplating the approaching climax of his passion:[A] "O, my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me! nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."[B] [Footnote A: Passion--Any suffering or endurance of imposed or inflicted pain * * especially the suffering of Christ between the time of the last supper and his death--especially in the garden and on the cross. (Webster.)] [Footnote B: Matt. xxvi:39.] The silence of God in the presence of that prayer tells us that it was not possible for other means to be devised for man's salvation. And when the officers and the rabble led by Judas came upon Jesus and his friends in the garden and Peter drew the sword in defense of the Master, the latter said: "Put up thy sword into its place; * * thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, _that thus it must be?_"[A] [Footnote A: Ibid, verses 52-54.] "_Thus it must be_," confirms again the absolute necessity of the Atonement as the Christ made it. _3. (b). Evidence of Necessity from the Fact that God Instituted It:_ The opinions of some of the early Christian fathers upon the possibility of other and perhaps milder means being used to save men than the Atonement, have already been considered, as connected with the suggestion that God might arbitrarily forgive sin by the virtue of his Omnipotence. Also a list was given of both the principal early Christian fathers and the medieval Christian doctors and the views they respectively supported;[A] and from the necessity of the principles involved, the conclusion was reached that the Atonement as made by Christ was absolutely necessary. It might be argued with great force that since God instituted the Atonement it must have been necessary or it would never have been ordained; especially if milder means could have been made to answer or the satisfaction to justice could have been set aside, and man's reconciliation with God brought about by an act of pure benevolence; for it is inconceivable that either God's Justice or his Mercy[B] would require or permit more suffering on the part of the Redeemer than was absolutely necessary to accomplish the end proposed. [Footnote A: Lesson XVI.] [Footnote A: Ibid, p.-- and note --]