CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Face. Church Principle : its Character and History. By Sir Henry Welwood Moncrieff, Bart., D.D. (Blacniven and Wallace, Edinburgh ; Hodder and Stoughton, London.)—Mr. Robert Macfie in 1880 founded a lectureship called the "Chalmers Lectureship," the topic for the lectures being "The Headship of Christ over His Church, and its Independent Spiritual Jurisdiction." The first holder was the veteran Free-Church leader Sir Henry Moucrieff, who, by the instructions of the Free General Assembly, took for his first subject "The Principles of the Free Church in Connection with the Writings and Expressed Views of Dr. Chalmers." This special subject is dis- posed of in three introductory lectures, which deal with Dr. Chalmers's action and utterances from 1813 down to the time of the Disruption. He then deals with the general question. We are tainted, we suppose, in Sir H. Moncrieff's view, with what he calls "the Disease of English Erastianism," and shall not discuss the views set forth in this volume. Let it suffice to say that they could not have found a more able and thorough-going advocate. In this volume the most interesting section, to our mind, is the last, "The Clear Differ- ence between Our Claim and Any Popish One." Here is a significant sentence,—" What we ask for, therefore, and have all along asked for, is a recognition of the principle set forth by Lord Kames,—the principle that tbe formation or dissolution of a spiritual relationship belongs exclusively to the Church Courts, even though the effect should be to separate that relationship from the civil advantages which the State intended to accompany it." A minister, therefore, can be deprived by the Church Courts of his spiritual status, while the Civil Courts uphold his rights to his temporalities. How long will the principle of Establishment survive this difficulty ? There is, indeed, an interesting speculation in the question, "When will the Free Church become Voluntary in theory, as it is already in fact ?"
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