ABSTRACT
We have found that the end of the path on which we were started by ethics is a doctrine of Atonement. In other words, we have found that the commands of ethics imply a personal relation; that conquest over evil can only be secured by reconciliation; and that reconciliation, in its complete form, is only possible through the suffering of one who is distinct from the wrong-doer and yet has identified himself with him. For goodness consists in a personal relation; that relation, once broken, is unattainable without reconciliation; and that reconciliation, consummated, is atonement. Goodness is impossible apart from atonement made on behalf of the race, and such atonement must also be atonement made by the race, that is to say, by one who holds a special relation of personal unity both with the race and with God, the source and the law of all goodness.
