While in a sense men will become all of them redeemers one of another, behind them all will ever lie the unique sacrifice of Jesus.  The singularity of that sacrifice lies not in the act but in the Actor:  “He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.”  Every member of the redeemed society, however much he may owe to the sacrificial service of his brethren, will feel himself personally indebted to Christ, who loved him and gave Himself up for him.  As the Originator of the redemptive fellowship, the Creator of the new conscience, the Captain of our salvation who opened up the way through His death into the holiest of all, we give to Jesus and to no other the title, “The Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.”

CHAPTER VI

THE NEW LIFE—­INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL

The health department of a modern city is charged with a double duty:  it has to care for cases of disease, and it has to suggest and enforce laws to keep the city sanitary.  The former task—­the treatment of sickness—­is much more widely recognized as the proper function of the medical profession; the latter—­the prevention of the causes of illness—­is a newer, but a more far-reaching, undertaking.  When Pasteur was carrying on his investigations into the origins of certain diseases, most of the leading physicians and surgeons made light of his work:  “How should this chemist, who cannot treat the simplest case of sickness nor perform the most trifling operation, have anything to contribute to medical science?” But Pasteur’s discovery of the part played by bacilli not only altered profoundly the work of physicians and surgeons, but opened up the larger task of preventive medicine.

The Gospel of Christ, in its endeavor to make and keep men whole, faces a similarly double labor.  It has its ministry of rescue and healing for sinning men and women; it has its plan of spiritual health for society.  It comes to every man with its offer of rebirth into newness of life:  “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.”  It comes to society with its offer of a regenesis, a paradise of love on earth.  The life of God enters our world by two paths—­personally, through individuals whom it recreates, and by whom it remakes society; socially, through a new communal order which reshapes the men and women who live under it.  The New Testament speaks of both entrances of the Spirit of God into human life:  it pictures “one born from above,” and “the holy city coming down from God out of heaven.”  The two processes supplement each other.  Consecrated man and wife make their home Christian; a Christian home renders the conversion of its children unnecessary; they know themselves children of God as soon as they know themselves anything at all.  Saved souls save society, and a saved society saves souls.