If it be true, and it is, that men value things in proportion to what they cost, then how dear to them must be the Atonement, since it cost the Christ so much in suffering that he may be said to have been baptized by blood-sweat in Gethsemane, before he reached the climax of his passion, on calvary. "Behold he suffereth the pains of all men; yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam;"[A] "surely every man must repent or suffer [i. e., the eternal consequences of sin]. * * * For behold, I God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent, but if they would not repent, they must suffer even as I, which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit, and would that I might not drink the bitter cup."[B] Advantages to be realized in eternal life purchased at such a cost as this, should indeed be regarded by men as pearls of great price, to obtain which a man would be justified in selling all that he hath, that he might buy them. [Footnote A: II Nephi ix:21.] [Footnote B: Doc. & Cov. Sec. xix:4, 16-18.] But on the other hand if high values for the great and important things enumerated above could only be secured by the severity of suffering that attended upon the Atonement made by the Christ, then, I say, and I trust with becoming reverence, that they were worth all that even the Christ by his blessed suffering paid for them. _5. The Atonement a Voluntary Offering:_ Another thing may be urged in justification of the severity of the plan of redemption through the Atonement--it was a voluntary act; and no one was compelled to undertake the terrible mission unless he himself elected to do so. "Whom shall I send," asked God the Father, after he had explained the necessity of a Redeemer for man in the earth-scheme of things.[A] "Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of man, saying, 'Here am I, send me.'" The act was voluntary. Indeed the glory of the Atonement as well as the justification for its severity depend upon its being so. "Therefore doth my father love me," said the Christ, "because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. _No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself._ I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."[B] And when one would have defended him by physical force the Christ bade him put up his sword, saying, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father and he shall give me more than twelve legions of angels?" That is, to deliver him from his captors. "But," he added, after declaring the possibility of his deliverance by legions of angels, "how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that _thus it must be?_"[C] [Footnote A: See Lesson VI.] [Footnote B: John x:17, 18.] [Footnote C: Matt. xxvi:53, 54.]