i have spoken of that which i cannot believe; let me speak to you now of that which i do believe, of that which i hold to be a faith, the faith, the only faith for mankind. do not turn from it because it seems to be egotistic. i can only speak for myself, for what i know in my own heart and conscience. while i keep to this, i can speak positively, and i wish above all things to speak positively.

i was bred as a child and as a boy to look upon christ as the true and rightful king and head of our race, the son of god and the son of man. when i came to think for myself i found the want, the longing for a perfectly righteous king and head, the deepest of which i was conscious—for a being in whom i could rest, who was in perfect sympathy with me and all men.[225] “like as the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, o god. my soul is athirst for god, yea, even for the living god,”—these, and the like sayings of the psalmist, began to have a meaning for me.

then the teaching which had sunk into me unconsciously rose up and seemed to meet this longing. if that teaching were true, here was he for whom i was in search. i turned to the records of his life and death. i read and considered as well as i could, the character of christ, what he said of himself and his work; his teachings, his acts, his sufferings. then i found that this was indeed he. here was the head, the king, for whom i had longed. the more i read and thought the more absolutely sure i became of it. this is he. i wanted no other then, i have never wanted another since. him i can look up to and acknowledge with the most perfect loyalty. he satisfies me wholly. there is no recorded thought, word or deed of his that i would wish to change—that i do not recognize and rejoice in as those of my rightful and righteous king and head. he has claimed for me, for you, for every man, all that we can ask for or dream of, for he has claimed every one of us for his soldiers and brethren, the acknowledged children of his and our father and god.

but this loyalty i could never have rendered, no man can ever render, i believe, except to a son of man. he must be perfect man as well as perfect god to satisfy[226] us—must have dwelt in a body like ours, have felt our sorrows, pains, temptations, weaknesses. he was incarnate by the spirit of god of the virgin. in this way i can see how he was indeed perfect god and perfect man. i can conceive of no other in which he could have been so. the incarnation is for me the support of all personal holiness, and the key to human history.

what was christ’s work on earth? he came to make manifest, to make clear to us, the will and nature of this father, our god. he made that will and nature clear to us as the perfectly loving and long-suffering and righteous will and nature. he came to lead us men, his brethren, back into perfect understanding of and submission to that will—to make us at one with it; and this he did triumphantly by his own perfect obedience to that will, by sacrificing himself even to death for us, because it was the will of his and our father that he should give himself up wholly and unreservedly; thus, by his one sacrifice, redeeming us and leaving us an example that we too should sacrifice ourselves to him for our brethren. thus i believe in the atonement.