Biblical Criticism and Modern Thought. By W. G. Jordan, D.D.
(T. and T. Clark. 7s. 6d. net.)—The main purpose of this book is to show that the acceptance of the conclusions of criticism is not inconsistent with belief, and, further, that these conclusions make the belief more vivid and reaL So in dealing with what is called "The Documentary Theory" we read : " The attempt to place each sermon or song, each piece of history or each body of laws into relation with the original life out of which it sprang and to
which it appealed may be carried on with the clear, firm conviction that in every part of it the living God is revealing Himself." If we have this conviction we have the. "root of the
matter." A purpose of Revelation—we may add a special purpose worked out through the Hebrew race, which had an ethical and religious mission of its own—is the great truth to which we must cling, and this or that detail of history, this or that document, can be but of secondary importance. We commend to our readers Dr. Jordan's book., first given to the world in lectures delivered at the Queen's University, Toronto. It will repay a careful and detailed study.—Something of the same line of thought and argument is followed in The Witnesses of Israel, by W. J. Moulton, M.A. (Robert Colley, 35. 6d.) The volume (portions of which formed the thirty-ninth " Fernley Lecture") consists of three parts. The first deals with the early history of Israel, beginning with an account of Babylonia as the birth- place of the race, following this up with an account of Abraham and his descendants, as showing the earliest development of the race, and carrying it on down to the beginning of the Prophetical era. The second is the most important as it is the largest. It takes in the whole of the Prophetic age, and also the post-Exilic period down to the time of the Maccabees. Part ILL gives under the title of "Realization" a summary of New Testament teaching as setting forth the " Message " in its fullness. Mr. Moulton is one of the teachers, at once cautious and enlightened, to whom the training of the Congregational ministers of the future is entrusted. The outlook, as indicated by this volume, is most hopeful.
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