58 



THE REV. H. J. R. MARSTON, M.A.^ ON 



Divine Mystery. But there has been, and unfortunately there is 

 still, a tendency to represent human explanations of Divine facts as 

 the only ones possible, and to insist on the whole Christian Church 

 accepting them as a condition of salvation. 



The Eev. Dr. Irving : The mention of McLeod Campbell might 

 have suggested the desirability of a short critical analysis of his 

 book. The Nature of the Atonement. No one work has perhaps done 

 more, if so much, in the last half-century to lift the minds of 

 students of theology above the low, carnal, and materialistic notions 

 of " sacrifice " found in pagan cults, and even in the Hebrew religion 

 in its decadence. 



The New Testament certainly lifts the idea to that higher plane of 

 thought everywhere, as the author contends. With St. Paul, 

 " Christ crucified " is " the wisdom of God in a mystery," to be 

 experimentally unfolded in the sacramental life of the Church. 

 St, Peter tells us that " Christ suffered once for sins, the just 

 for the unjust, that he might bring us to God"; and this is in 

 harmony with the Pauline idea of " reconciliation." With St. John 

 the contextual setting of the " propitiation " lifts it altogether 

 above the mere carnal elements of "sacrifice " to a revelation of the 

 love of God, calling to a life of Sonship ; and with the author of the 

 Epistle to the Hebrews, chap, x (Ep. for Good Friday), it is 

 essentially the perfect surrender of a perfect will ; a perfect 

 response to the mind of God towards sin, revealing to man, at the 

 same time, his own dire spiritual needs, while it awakens resentment 

 in the carnal mind of the un regenerate man (rf. p. 47). 



As the freedom from condemnation enables the spirit of th 

 believer to " walk after the spirit," according to the law of the 

 spirit of the life "in Christ Jesus"; as "the blood of Christ purges 

 the conscience from dead works," (ix, 14) and sets free all the powers 

 of the soul "to serve the living God," it is seen (in the light of 

 Christian experience) that "A moral and spiritual atonement stands 

 in direct relation to a moral and spiritual salvation, Christ giving' 

 Himself for our sins to our having in Him the life of Sonship." 



Mr. Wm. Woods Smyth : Apart from modern science we have 

 no rational interpretation of the Atonement. Mr. Marston confesses 

 that he offers no theory of the Atonement. In this he is supported 

 by the following high authorites. The Hon. and Rev. Arthur 

 Lyttelton in Lux Mandi says : "The central mystery of the Cross 



