THEOLOGY.—Lectures on Ecclesiastes. By the Dean of Westminster. (Clarendon Press.)—These
lectures, ten in number, delivered on Saturday afternoons in Westminster Abbey, are admirable examples of their kind. The writer begins by a candid examination of the theories which have been started as to the time when Ecclesiastes was written, and its author. His own belief is that the language of the book points to an evil time, when "Persian, or Syrian, or Egyptian kings ruled over the laud of David as a province of their kingdom, and the hopes of Israel seemed dead and gone." From this point of view he regards the preacher's utterances, though he never strains the language. His interpretation is always as fair and honest as it is carefully considered and suggestive, full not only of intellectual, but also of moral interest. We give an extract from the concluding lecture :- "'But the spirit,' he adds, the spirit of which he spoke so doubt-
ingly before, will mount upward to the God who gave it.' It was a gift from Him, that spirit. To him it will return. More he says not. Its absorption, the re-entering of the human spirit into the eternal and unknown spirit, would be a thought, it would seem, alien to the Hebrew. But we must not press his words too far. As just now he spoke of a judgment, but gave us no picture of the sheep on the right hand, the goats on the left, so here he has no more to say, no clear and dogmatic assertion of a conscious and separate future life. Into thy hands I commend my spirit,' said the trustful Psalmist. 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,' said He who bowed His head upon the Cross, who tasted death for our sakes. Our Preacher leaves the spirit with its God, that is all,—and that is much."
—Christ and Christianity. By Philip Schaff. (Nisbet and Co.)—Professor Schaff has collected in this volume a number of lectures, addresses, and essays, delivered or published during the last thirteen years. He is, we think, at his best when he is most historical. The most important paper in the volume, "Christ in Theology "—occupying, as it does, about a fourth of the whole—is of this character. The student would find it a very convenient sum- mary of the theories, orthodox and heterodox, which have been held inside and outside the Church. With this may be mentioned " Creeds and Confessions of Faith." The paper on the " Christian Sabbath" would be more useful if it condescended more to details. We have a general sympathy with Dr. Schaff's admiration of what he calls the "Anglo-American," as opposed to the " European-Continental " view ; but we cannot forget that there is a wide difference between English and Scotch practice, and that the latter is a terrible burden,—on some consciences at least.—The Biblical Scheme of Nature and Man, by Alexander MacKennal, B.A. (Brook and Chrystal, Manchester), is a thoughtful effort to reconcile revealed truth with scientific thought, and to reconcile without minimising the superficial divergences. Mr. MacKennal does not hesitate to speak of the " Creation Legends," though surely, in doing so, he ignores the definitely Divine teaching and inspiration which governed the spiritual drift of the psalm of Creation. He is too wise, indeed, to hamper himself with untenable theories ; but he is all the more free to hold and state a very definite and positive belief in the Divine purposes for man as revealed in Christ. Of the person of Christ he seems to have a different conception from that which we should formulate for our- selves ; but we gladly acknowledge the depth as well as the breadth of his teaching.—The Reality of Faith. By Newman Smyth. (Ward, Lock, and Co.)—Mr. Smyth is a well-known teacher of the liberal orthodox kind. This volume of sermons will be found not unworthy of his reputation, rhetorical, it might almost be said highly rhetorical, in form, but at the same time full of thought. Here is a passage in which he touches on a very difficult question, and it is a fair specimen of his manner :—
" The old troth, the permanent truth, the substance of the truth, which needs to be preached to every generation of selfish worldlinga with prophetic power, is not to pass away—the truth of the eternal laws of retribution, of the deadly consequences of sin, of the peril of trifling now with a gift of God so precious as the life of a soul. The words of Jesus do not pass away, although we are learning to confess that we do not find in this Scripture an unreserved revelation either of the strange beginnings or the possible endings of sin, and Christ has many things to say to us which we cannot bear now ; while, in the silence of our own confused echoes of the Lord's words, we may hear a fuller, sweeter revelation than before of the glory which remaineth, the glory which excelleth, even the eternal love of God."
—St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, for English. Readers. By C. J. Vaughan, D.D. (Macmillan.)—We have here Dean Vaughan's own version, with the Greek on the opposite page, and a fall annotation, so that the " English reader" will appreciate the help given him if he understands a little of the original language. Still, without this, he will get great good from the book, which, indeed, will be found to contain all that he wants to know.—The Evening of Our Lord's Ministry. By Charles Stanford, D.D. (Religious Tract Society.)— This is a volume of posthumous sermons. (It has suffered from want of competent revision ; the Greek is fall of mistakes which the Religions Tract Society might have found some one to correct.) Dr. Stanford has carefully studied his subject, and has made himself acquainted with much of its literature. His sermons are good examples of Evangelical theology, tinged with a learning which that school does not always possess.—From the same publishers we also receive The Background of the Sacred Story. By Frederick Hastings. The subject of the volume is described by the second title, "Life-Lessons from the Less-Known Characters of the Bible." Some of the names will probably be strange to many readers. It is not every one who knows where to look for Jezrahiah and Mesta:111am, and who will at once identify the Man of Kerioth. Subjects of this kind often give an opportunity for ingenious comment, which does not miss being instructive, if the ingenuity is not overstrained. The present writer remembers an admirable discourse which had for its text the seemingly unpromising words, " Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch." Mr. Hastings, who has already worked in this mine in his book, " Obscure and Minor Characters," has produced a volume which is likely to be useful.--A third volume from the same source is The Life of Lives; or, The Story of Jesus of Nazareth in its Earliest Form. By the Rev. W. S. Lewis, M.A. This " earliest form " Mr. Lewis finds in the Gospel of St. Matthew. He is, of course, aware that there is some reason for believing,—indeed, that the tendency of modern thought is to find it in St. Mark, and that a German theologian of great weight has argued with much force that St. John is the only really Apostolic Gospel. This, however, is an objection to the title that the author has chosen (and, indeed, it is difficult to see the raison d'être of St. Mark if it was not the earliest) ; it does not affect the value of his comment and exposi- tion.—The Parables of Our Lord. Second Series. By Marcus Dods, M.A. (Hodder and Stoughton.)—In this volume Dr. Dods treats of " The Parables recorded by St. Luke." He does not attempt
to do again the work which Dr. Trench did so admirably in his " Notes on the Parables." His object is more directly practical. He sets forth the moral teaching which these portions of the Scriptures con- tain, not forgetting to point the applications of it with a special reference to the needs of the time. Here is a passage which exhibits the practical force of Dr. Dols' homiletics :— " It is startling, too, to find that the destiny of Dives was determined by his conduct towards this one poor man. Little as he thought of him, it was this powerless creature who could not even crawl into his path and force attention, who was exercising a more determining influence on his future than any of those who thronged his banqueting-rooms and discussed with him all his plane and new devices of money-making or money-spending. What one person is it who holds this relation to our life ? perhaps as little thought of by us as by Dives, and yet truly determining what we are to be and to have in eternity ? The man whose wants you relieve sullenly, almost angrily ; the man whose too frequently recurring necessities you resent and spurn ; the person who crossed your path when you were too much occupied with your own joys to observe his face of starva- tion or disease ; such persons, and they whose claims you now refuse to look at for a moment, are determining your eternal con- dition."
—The Abiding Christ. By the Rev. W. M. Statham. (Elliot Stock.)—This is a collection of short, vigorous sermons. They would occupy, we should say, something less than twenty minutes each in delivery ; but then, a man may say a good deal in twenty minutes, if he will do without prefaces and introductions and the like. This is one of Mr. Statham's merits. He goes at once to the point, and speaks plainly.—Owr Eternal Life Here, by the Rev. A. H. Powell, M.A. (T. Vickers Wood), contains some sound doctrine, based on the true meaning of the word " eternal," as signifying the unseen realities. The writer combats vigorously the heresy that eternal life is a life hereafter, and applies to practical use the true teaching that it is a possibility, nay, a necessity here.—World Without End. By Samuel Garrett, M.A. (W. Hunt and Co.)—Here we have some somewhat startling speculations. We cannot pretend to do justice to them in any space that we can give, bat we may point to such arguments as that on the " moral cause of the Great Ice Age " as examples of what we mean. The great carnivore of the early geological periods had their instincts perverted by the great enemy of righteousness, and had to be swept away. We may say that Mr. Garrett here, as in all that he writes, is eminently readable. As to the truth of' his theories, we must decline to express an opinion. Medical Missions : their Place and Power. By John Lowe. (T. Fisher 17nwin.)—This work, to which Sir William Muir has written a short introduction, after a brief defence of the theory of " medical missions," proceeds to deal with the practical aspects of the subject. The writer gives an account of the successes which they have had, and of the yet larger prospects of work which are opening out before them. Both in China and in India, they are doing what could hardly be done in any other way. In India espe- cially, the " Zenana Missions" seem to have a great career in the future. Mr. Lowe does not forget to give a judicious word of caution about sending out imperfectly trained persons. The medical mis- sionary must not be half one thing, half the other.—Bible Work at Home and Abroad, Vol. II. (Cassell and Co.), is the annual volume of a periodical publication which describes the "Work of Bible-women and Nurses."—We have also received The Christian Church in Relation to Human Experience, by Thomas Dykes, D.D. (Maclehose and Sons, Glasgow).—Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Rochester, by Anthony W. Thorold, D.D. (Murray).—Familiar Instructions on the Church Catechism, by the Rev. Charles R. Ball, M.A. (S.P.C.K.)- Till the Day Break : the Story of a Canadian Mission, by Fred. Travers (S.P.C.K.)—Evening Chimes, by G. R. Winne, M.A. (S.P.C.K.), a book of simple religious teaching for children.—The Devotional Service and Chant-Book (B. Whittingham).—The True Vine, by the Author of "The Schonberg-Cotta Family." (S.P.C.B.)—Lessons on the Children of the Bible, by the Rev. T. H. Barnett (Church of England Sunday-School Institute) ; and from the same publishers, Twelve Lessons on the Church Catechism, by Thomas Rutt ; The Teacher's Gradual Lessons on the Church Catechism, by the Rev. Louis Stokes.
Previous page
