THEOLOGY. —Si: Lectures on the Oxford Movement. By C. T.
Cruttwell, M.A. (Skeilington and Son. 3s. 6d.)—Mr. Cruttwell has delivered these lectures at various meetings of Churchmen, and now publishes them by request. They give a very fair review of the religious movement of the last three-quarters of a century. The writer is a just, clear-sighted observer and student, and a devoted adherent of the Anglican policy of com- prehension. Both sides will probably find something to criticise in his language and in the position which he takes up. We cannot discuss the questions which he raises, for it would be to revive all the controversies of the year, but we can give the highest commendation to his treatment of them.—One of these ques- tions is discussed very temperately and wisely in The Church's Mind on Fasting Communion, by the Rev. E. F. Wayne, MA. (same publishers, Is.) There surely can be bat one absolutely acceptable condition, that the Communion should be reeeived when the worshipper is spiritually and bodily in the best frame to take it. If the body is clamorous from weakness or hunger, how can that tend to edification P—In the seciee of " Little Books on Religion" we have The Four Gospels, by R. H. Fisher, B.D. (Hodder and Stoughton, is. 6d.), in which the different characteristics of the four Evangelists are treated, with a view, it may be said, to personal edification, rather than to critical study.--In the same series we have Aids to Belief, by the Right Rev. G. A. Chadwick, a popular exposition of the great considerations, moral and spiritual, which work for faith.—The Heart's Counsel, and other Sermons. By John Huntley Skrine. (Skeffington and Son. 3s. 6d.)—This is a remarkably eloquent and attractive volume of sermons. The preacher is, we think, 4 not always judicious. His first sermon, for instance, is not pre- possessing. Among the "false advents" which he denounces is that of "a confident philosophy" which "gathers its first battalions toward the foot of Belief's very stronghold." Good; some of the critics boast overmuch.' But they teach us many things, among them what Mr. Skrine of course knows, and might have said in half-adozen words, but does not, that Rabshakeh is the name of an officer, not of a man. Surely, too, in XVII. he is a little hard on Dionysius the Areopagite. "Our conjec- ture is that not a very great deal came of his belief." Because he did not "forsake his heritage of learning, &c." But did not the Master bid one who would fain have followed Him stay at home and bear witness to Him there? Still, the sermons are full of thought, finely expressed.—New Sermons for a New Century. By the Rev. S. G. Cottam. (Same publishers. 3s. 6c1.)—Dryden once spoke of a certain critic as an honest man because, after blaming what he disliked, he showed how it ought to be done. Mr. Cottam reproves in his preface the common dullness and vagueness of sermons, and then proceeds to show how a sermon may be lively and direct. His ideal is admirable, though some- times a little naïf. At some places, he says, "the evil custom prevails of the same man, say the vicar, preaching year after year." Mr. Cottam is not a vicar. These discourses are some- times really excellent. They have perhaps " the defects of their virtues." On pp. 76-77, for instance, he is somewhat peremptory in connecting cause and effect, and his denunciation of the sects on pp. 13'7.38 is violent. Among them "there is nothing left to believe in, except a man believes in himself alone." He goes on to "thank God" that there is, besides other Churches, "a Church of Rome." Had Baxter, and Milton, and Calamy, and Howe, and Wesley, and Livingstone, and Moffat nothing to believe in P—The Gospel of the Future, by a Parish Priest (same publishers), is a volume on the topic of unfulfilled prophecy, a subject which theologians are com- monly disposed to leave alone.---The Keswick Week, 1899, edited by the Rev. Evan Hopkins (Marshall Brothers, 2s. 6d.), is a report of the twenty-fifth Convention, held at Keswick, of Christians belonging to various Communions who seek a bond of union in loyalty to one Master and one rule of life.—Those who will read Bishop Sandford's Pastoral Letter to the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of Gibraltar (J. Parker and Co.), will find a very interesting record of Christian work.—Another side of Christian thought and life is represented by Archdeacon Wilson's elm sermons on the Mutual Influences of Theology and the Natural Sciences (Macmillan and Co., 6d. net).—The Religion of Time and of Eternity. By Philip H. Wicksteeel, M.A. (Philip Green. la.)—The modest preface in which Mr. Wicksteed asks the indulgence of his readers will favourably impress every one. His little book contains the "Essex Hall Lecture" for the current year, and is a striking example of the breadth and sympathy with which a genuinely historical mind can regard the controversies of the day. Mr. Wieksteed's standpoint in theology is not ours ; but the temper in which he approaches religious questions is all that we could desire.—The Ceremonial of the Church. By the Rev. Vernon Staley. (A. R. Mowbray and Co. 3s.)—Mr. Staley presents his side of the question of Anglican ritual in considerable detail. A note, added while the book was in the press, laments the Arch- bishops' decision—" unspeakable regret" is his phrase—but announces the writer's resolution to obey,—obedience he regards, to quote again, as "an imperative duty."—The Unity of the Book of Isaiah. By Letitia D. Jeffreys. (Deighton, Bell, and Co. 25. 6d.)— Miss Jeffreys marshals in this volume various arguments, linguistic a, and other, for the "undivided authorship" of the prophecies • called by the name of Isaiah. Dr. Sinker contributes a preface. On the linguistic evidence he does not put much weight one way or the other. There we agree. The question must be argued on broader grounds, chiefly this,—Was the prophet's function to enunciate principles or to predict facts ?--Judaism and /slam. By Abraham Geiger. Translated by a Member of the Ladies' League in Aid of the Delhi Mission. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 4s. net.)—This is a learned account of the relations of Mahomet (" Muhammad" is Rabbi Geiger's spelling) to the Jews and of the debt which the Koran (Quriin) owes to the Jewish writing..
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