Now, would not a plain, a simple statement, be apt to press the metaphor
too far, and attempt to put into words one aspect of the truth as though
it were the whole? Such a reverent mind as Bishop Butler's reproved the
curiosity which sought to find out the manner of the atonement. "I do
not find," he said, "that it is declared in the Scriptures." And yet the
atonement is only _one_, though perhaps the _chief_, of the many points
of which a true and simple statement must take cognizance. It would be
comparatively easy for the private clergyman to put into words his
thoughts on this subject or that, but then he would be continually
liable to have it urged against him that he had not sufficiently
considered some given point--had not walked round it, and seen it in all
its bearings; that his view was inadequate and incomplete; and, being
fallible and human, some of the objections would doubtless be true, and
the simple and plain statement be, in that respect at least,
misguiding.
_From the Rev._ G. W. WALL, _Bickerstaffe_.