to the first transgression of man, and extends forward to the end of
time; the hour when, from the cross, as from a high altar, the blood
was flowing which washed away the guilt of the nations.

This awful dispensation of the Almighty contains mysteries which are
beyond the discovery of man. It is one of those things into which "the
angels desire to look." What has been revealed to us is, that the
death of Christ was the interposition of heaven for preventing the
ruin of human kind. We know that under the government of God misery
is the natural consequence of guilt. After rational creatures had, by
their criminal conduct, introduced disorder into the divine kingdom,
there was no ground to believe that by their penitence and prayers
alone they could prevent the destruction which threatened them. The
prevalence of propitiatory sacrifices throughout the earth proclaims
it to be the general sense of mankind that mere repentance was not of
sufficient avail to expiate sin or to stop its penal effects. By the
constant allusions which are carried on in the New Testament to the
sacrifices under the law, as pre-signifying a great atonement made by
Christ, and by the strong expressions which are used in describing the
effects of His death, the sacred writers show, as plainly as language
allows, that there was an efficacy in His sufferings far beyond
that of mere example and instruction. The nature and extent of that
efficacy we are unable as yet fully to trace. Part we are capable of
beholding; and the wisdom of what we behold we have reason to adore.
We discern, in this plan of redemption, the evil of sin strongly
exhibited and the justice of the divine government awfully
exemplified, in Christ suffering for sinners. But let us not imagine
that our present discoveries unfold the whole influence of the
death of Christ. It is connected with causes into which we can not
penetrate. It produces consequences too extensive for us to explore.