The Atonement Understood
(An Address Given Before the Boston Class of 1918 by Annie Rix Militz)
The absolute truth is, that there is but One Being in the universe, and that one is God; that man is nothing of himself, separate from God; that it is a delusion, a false belief, that there is any separation that is real.
There is but one Man, and that Man is God. There is but one God of the whole earth, the God if all nations, and it shall be proven as it is prophesied: " And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." - Zech. 14:19.
According to appearances, there have been many gods as well as many men - many things and men separate from God. And the great delusion of mankind consists in this belief, that there is another being besides God, "man," quite separate from God; another substance besides God called "matter" and another power besides God the good, called "evil."
The doctrine that destroys this delusion of separateness and proves the unity between God and Man; between God and His world; between God and the one Power, Good, is that called The Atonement. The word atonement defines itself, when it is divided into its syllables: the first syllable is "at," the second is "one," the last syllable is "ment," this Latin ending meaning "state of being." The whole word means "the state of being at one." This is the simple, direct definition of the word "atonement"-the state of being at one. The same state in which Jesus Christ was when he said, "I and the Father are one."
The Atonement is the process and the truth and the state of being ("the Way, the Truth and the Life") that heal the sense of separation such as belief in the first place, that man is separate from God; in the second place, that man is separate from his fellow-beings; and third, that man can be separate from himself. All three of these are healed by the Way, the Truth and the Life, Jesus Christ, who came walking the Way, announcing the Truth and living the Life that heals every sense of separation. |
