MR CLARICE AND "CIVIS."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14359, 31 October 1908, Page 13

MR CLARICE AND "CIVIS."

Sm,—-I observe that Mr Clarke has found it worth his while to have a tilt, at tho invisible person of " Civis," and in doing so reminds "Civis" that he ought not to charge him with saying what ho only quotes from my review of "The Christ of the Cross." So far, well: only the quotation is correct much as it is correct to say that in the Scriptures it is written, "hang tho law and the prophets": and ihat such words arc written no one can deny. I feel prompted to put myeclf right. I did use tho perhaps overcharged language that Mr Smith " pursues tho doctrine of expiation with fire and sword and gives it no quarter." I thought, however, that I made it plain that Mr Smith was slaying rbn slain, and pursuing with his sword ii <i] of doctrine now no longer generally ..hi in any church, not even by Mr Clarke: that .in the prosecution of his work he adii'ins quite clearly the essential ti-uth_ concealed in the retributive-forensic doctrine, the truth for which it is really valued; and that this affirmation of his is not the less real and sinccro notwithstanding the defects of his own positive presentation.

I hope that this short statement will effectively save me from any complicity in the mild hysteria of the Oamaru Presbytery. If these gentlemen will only sit down and deliberately formulate their doctrine of the Atonement, not the traditional phrase.'-, but in their own words, trying also to get inside the words they use, tho®' will perhaps make some remarkable dhcovories in regard both to themselves and the. doctrine of the Atonement.—l am, etc., William Salmond.