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Nº. XXIX
CONCERNING VICARIOUS ATONEMENT (1)
I STOOD in my sleep on the balcony of a house. It was
night, and so dense and dark and impenetrable that neither earth nor star, nor
any object, could be distinguished. Nevertheless, though not knowing where I
was, I was conscious of being in or very near to a city.
And I beheld floating about in the
darkness, small tongues of
flame exactly resembling in appearance the flame of a
candle. They moved of themselves as if they were living creatures who, directed
their motions with intelligence and will. They sank and rose and passed through
the air in all directions, and nothing but them was visible, so intense was the
darkness.
And as I watched the flames, two of
them came floating towards me, and entering the house, glided round the room,
and then returned to me on the balcony, and stopped and alighted, one on each of
my hands, and there remained awhile. And then the whole scene passed away and
the following succeeded.
I saw a child, a boy at school, who
thought himself unjustly treated by the woman who kept the school, and sorely
oppressed and persecuted. And he went into the room where she sat, and in a fury
broke and destroyed everything upon which he could lay his hands. And the
paroxysm of his anger made him appear as one possessed. He dashed beautiful
vases to the floor, and trampled flowers under his feet, and tore to pieces rich
draperies, for the room was furnished and decorated in a very costly and
splendid fashion. And then he suddenly turned on the woman, and seizing her by
the hair, beat her and tore her garments, and scratched her hands and face. And
all the defence she made was a few words of remonstrance. And I was shocked and
terrified, thinking she was dead, and wondered what would become of the child
who had the fury of a wild beast and the strength of a man.
Then, after an interval, I saw a
young girl, the daughter of the woman who had been thus assaulted. She was
kneeling before a furnace and watching something in the flames. And she turned
and looked at me and said, “The punishment due to the child is a terrible one,
and cannot be escaped. He is condemned to be branded with a red-hot iron on the
palm of each hand, and then to be expelled from the school. The brands are now
beating in the furnace.”
Saying this, she turned again to the
furnace, and then with a rod drew out the iron and branded herself on each hand.
And I saw the flesh shrivel up with the heat. Then she held up her palms towards
me, and said, “See and read what is written on them.” And I read on each hand
the word, burnt into the flesh, “Guilty.”
“And now,” she added, “I am going to quit this house my home, as I am banished.”
“You!” I cried. “You are not the guilty one! What have you done to
deserve this? I do not understand.”
And she answered, “I told you the
punishment due to the child
cannot be escaped. And I have taken it upon
myself of my own free will, although I am innocent, and the beloved daughter of
her who has been so grievously offended and injured. As he would have been
branded, I am branded. And as he would have been expelled, I am expelled. Thus
have I redeemed him. I suffer for him. Justice is
satisfied, and he is pardoned. This is Vicarious Atonement.”
Then, as she spoke these words, a
wind blew in my face, and I breathed it in, and being inspired, spoke thus, with
a loud voice: –
“O fool, to
imagine that justice can be satisfied by the punishment of the innocent for the
guilty! Rather is it doubly outraged. How can your
being branded on the hands save the child? Hath not the Word of God declared,
‘No man shall take the sin of another, nor shall any make atonement for his
brother’s trespass; but every one shall bear his own sin, and be purified by his
own chastisement.’ And again, is it not written, ‘Be ye perfect’?
And as no one can become perfect save through suffering, how can any become
perfect if another bear his suffering for him? To take away his suffering is to
take away his means of redemption, and rob him of his crown of perfection. The
child cannot be pardoned through your assumption of his chastisement. Only if
through suffering himself he repent, can he receive
forgiveness. And so with the man who sins against the Creator by outraging his
intuition and defiling the
“This is that Mystery. There is no
such thing as Vicarious Atonement; for none can redeem another by shedding
innocent blood. The Crucifix is the emblem and symbol of the Son of God, not
because Jesus shed his blood upon the cross for the sins of man, but because the
Christ is crucified perpetually so long as sin remains. The saying, ‘I am
resolved to know nothing save this one mystery, Christ Jesus and Him crucified,’
is the doctrine of Pantheism. For it means that God is in all
creatures, and they are of God, and God as Adonai suffers in them. (1)
“Who, then, is Adonai? Adonai is the
Dual Word, the manifestation of God in Substance, who manifests himself as
incarnated
Spirit, and so manifesting
himself, by love redeems the world. He is the Lord who, crucified from
the beginning, finds his full manifestation in the true Son of God. And
therefore is it written that the Son of God, who is Christ, is crucified. Only
where Love is perfect is Sympathy perfect, and only where sympathy is perfect
can one die for another. Wherefore the Son of God says, ‘The wrongs of others
wound me, and the stripes of others fall on my flesh. I am smitten with the
pains of all creatures, and my heart is pierced with their hearts. There is no
offence done and I suffer not, nor any wrong and I am not hurt thereby.
For my heart is in the breast of every creature, and my blood is in the veins of
all flesh. I am wounded in my right hand for man,
and in my left hand for woman; in my right and left feet for the beasts of the
earth and the creatures of the deep; and in my heart for all.’
“The Crucifix, then, is the divinest of symbols because it is the emblem of Christ and
token of God with man. It is the allegory of the doctrine of Pantheism that man
becomes perfect – the soul becomes God – through suffering. He who is wise, understands; and he who understands is
initiated; and he who is initiated loves; and he who loves knows; and he who
knows is purified. And the pure behold God and comprehend the Divine, with the
mystery of pain and of death. And because the Son of God loves, he is powerful,
and the power of love redeems. He being lifted up,
draws all men unto him. This is the mystery of the Seven Steps of the Throne of
the Lord. And the Throne itself is of white, a glory dazzling to look upon. And
in the midst of that Light is one whose appearance is that of a lamb that hath
been slain. And he is Christ our Lord, the manifestation of Adonai, whose love
hath thrust him through and through. And to him is given all power to redeem in
heaven and on earth. For he opened his heart to all creatures,
and gave himself freely for them. And because he loved, he laboured and
grudged not, even to death. And because he laboured he was strong, for love
laboured in him. And being strong he conquered, and redeemed them from death.
They were not forgiven because Christ died; they were changed because he loved.
For he washeth their souls white with his doctrine,
and purifieth them with his deeds. And these
are his heart’s blood, even the word of God and the pure life. This is the
atonement of Christ and perpetual sacrifice of the son of God. Believe and thou
shalt be saved: for he that believeth is changed from the image of death
to life. And he that believeth sinneth no more, and oppresseth no more. For he loveth
as Christ hath
loved, and is in God and God in him. The blood of
Christ cleanseth from all sin, not by the purchase of
pardon with another’s gold, but because the love of God hath changed the life of
the sinner. The penitent saves himself by suffering, sorrow, and amendment. By
these he rises and his life is redeemed. And it is the Christ that redeems him
by giving his heart’s blood for him. It is Christ in him who takes his
infirmities and bears his sorrows in his own body on the tree. And the same
which was true of old is true to-day, and for ever. Christ Jesus is crucified
continually in each one until the
Here the sound of my voice woke me,
and the vision ended. But presently I slept again, and beheld an infinite
expanse of sky, open and clear and blue and sunlit, all in the most intense
degree. And across it and upwards flew an eagle like a flash of lightning before
me, and I knew that it was intended to signify that with the reproach of
innocent blood removed from God, and the Divine character vindicated, there is
nought to check the soul’s aspiration. (1)
Footnotes
(73:1)
(75:1) See note (4) on p. 68.
(77:1) Another
meaning was, subsequently, shown to Anna Kingsford as the one intended:
“Representing the return of the inspiring spirit to God, the apparition of the
eagle was (...) an emphatic declaration of the divinity of the utterance” (Life of Anna Kingsford, vol. i, p.
325). S.H.H.
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