THE MYSTERY OF THE DOCTRINE OF SACRIFICE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOE."1
Sia,—I find myself in such hearty general agreement with you on this subject that I feel constrained to point out what seems to me a serious omission in your statement that "that mystery consists in the infinite sacrifice needed to bring hatred of sin home to the hearts of men, not in the infinite magnitude of the obstacle presented by the Divine mind to the forgiveness of evil, in cases where it had once been so brought home to the heart, and hated as it deserved to be." There is a persistent vitality in that theory of sacrifice which you—in my humble opinion, rightly—repudiate, which has a cause. The cause of this per- sistent vitality seems to me the abiding conviction in the heart of man that sacrifice has its Godward aspect, and the attempt to translate that conviction into terms of consciousness. If this be true, there is a still deeper mystery in the doctrine of sacrifice than that which you mention—a mystery which we cannot grasp, even which we must not ignore, if we do not wish to open wide the door to the very error that you combat.—I am, Sir, zic., Oldbury Rectory, Bridgnorth, June 22nd.
jOHN P. WRIGHT.
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