Should we meet Rationalism half way?

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Consider the difficulties with which those Scriptures had to contend, the condition of mankind to whom they were addressed. Polytheism was enthroned in the high places of the earth, and the world was one great pantheon of idol-worship. Every nation had its numerous priesthood, generally the influential, cultivated, noble class of the people. Every city had its splendid temples and its complicated ritual. Every tree and fountain had its peculiar divinity. Art and science, education and refinement, culture and influence, power, civil and military, all were arrayed on the side of idolatry. Whereever there was any philosophy or literature, it was the handmaid of this all-prevalent system of gods many and lords many. It was completely inwrought into the very national life of every people upon the face of the earth excepting only a nation of liberated slaves. The Bible coming into such a world, encountering such opposing influences and prejudices, without one word of argument, apology, compromise, or conciliation, contradicts the universal sentiment of mankind by opening with the sublime declaration, "In the beginning GOD created the heaven and the earth." And the rest of it is consistent with its opening sentence. We find no argument, no compromise, no conciliation in it from beginning to end. It lays down truths, inculcates doctrines, and states as facts mysteries which mock the profoundest intellect with its inability to comprehend them. Yet wherever it has gone, men have acknowledged its authority and bowed beneath its sway. Sadduceeism was rampant in Christ's day, and repeatedly plied him with its difficulties; on what occasion did he ever manifest the slightest deference to its rationalism? His own disciples came to him more than once with questions of curious, interesting speculation, such as, "Are there few that be saved?" When did he ever fail to turn their attention from such topics to the practical concerns of religion by such replies as, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate"?

May not the defenders of the faith learn a lesson from the structure of the Scriptures and the example of the Founder of the religion which they essay to defend? Perhaps the cause would be benefited by a little more of the fortiter in re and a little less of the suaviter in modo. If the Bible is the Word of God, the Christian can afford to stand by it from beginning to

end; indeed, he cannot afford to do less. If, however, it is not the Word of God, the more quickly it is thrown entirely overboard the better. In either case, half-way allegiance is the poorest policy.

There are some minds for whom this species of speculation. has peculiar fascination. Before becoming intoxicated with it, it is well to look ahead and see the terminus of the path which seems so inviting and innocent in the beginning.

If the reader will consult the practical issue of the various popular and apparently plausible theories, he will discover that however innocuous their beginnings appear, their issues are perilous. However compromising they are, logic is uncompromising; these unguarded conciliations so heedlessly given and so laboriously defended, are the beginnings of a course of reasoning the end of which is oftentimes fatal. They are but the premises of conclusions from which the devout believer would shrink in horror. The enemies of the faith are not slow to perceive this, and to press such conclusions to the detriment of the cause. Theoretical and harmless as they seem, they soon become intensely practical. He who accepts their guidance may find, alas, too late! that they lead him to an empty grave, and can but exclaim in the anguish of despair, "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." SAMUEL M. SMITH.

THE

ARTICLE IX.-Current Literature.-Notices of Books.

HE seventh series of the Cunningham Lectures (1) is a singularly fair and judicious examination of the Biblical doctrine of man. There is evidence on every page of solid scholarship and impartial investigation. Mr. Laidlaw has taken pains to make himself familiar both with recent and more remote discussions of the doctrine, and he proves his competency to enter the lists in support of what may be fairly termed the Catholic and orthodox belief.

(1) The Bible Doctrine of Man. The Seventh Series of the Cunningham Lectures. By John Laidlaw, M.A., Aberdeen. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark.

The Bible doctrine of Man.

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In the first lecture the Bible account of man's origin is stated clearly and carefully, the evolution theory is also described and criticised, and both statements are so placed as to exhibit an instructive contrast. The second lecture treats of man's nature, and enters with some fulness into psychological questions, assigning cautiously to such terms as "flesh," "heart," etc., their exact meaning. In the third lecture we have an excellent and suggestive study of man's primitive state, including an estimate of what is implied in the fact that he was created "in the divine image." Our attention is here called, and called justly, to what has been generally overlooked and often denied, that "the true idea of human greatness we owe, not to modern thought, but to the primary axioms of revelation" (p. 122). Naturally there follows, in the fourth lecture, a statement of the Bible doctrine on the origin of evil, and an examination of man's nature under sin and death, followed in the fifth by a discussion of the psychology of the new life, in which of necessity special prominence is given to regeneration and sanctification. The last lecture is occupied with the "Bible view of man's nature in its bearing on a future In this connection the doctrines of immortality and the resurrection of the body are stated, and effectively vindicated against current objections. In the appendix a valuable series of notes contributes materially to the elucidation of the subject and the value of the volume.

We have been specially interested in the arguments adduced in favour of the twofold division of human nature as against the threefold, or what is known now-a-days as the "tripartite theory." On this subject Mr. Laidlaw's reasoning is at least fitted to give pause to those who are inclined to commit themselves to the superficial trichotomic distinction, "Body, Soul, and Spirit." The truth is that both in the interpretation of nature and the Bible, we are inclined to accept theories that are sharply cut and clearly defined; indeed we are disposed to force our modes of thought upon the facts rather than to permit the facts to modify our thinking, and in our eagerness for definitions we do injustice to the indefiniteness of the Infinite. We must learn, and contentedly recognise, that there is a vagueness of boundary both in the works and word of God that may be

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unsatisfactory to our minds, but that is none the less real and important.

We would also call attention to Mr. Laidlaw's interpretation of Rom. vii. and viii. (p. 199 et seq.) In the former of these chapters there is a description of an inward conflict which has proved a most fruitful theme of controversy in recent times. We have been accustomed to speak of this description as diagrammatic. It is impossible to accept the terms in which the conflict is described as applicable throughout either to man fallen or to man renewed. Mr. Laidlaw's exposition, which we have not space to indicate, fully and fairly removes the difficulty.

As an illustration of our author's method, and as bearing upon one of the more interesting details, we subjoin an extract from note F, p. 315 :—

"This dormant existence of the veÙμa in the natural man is further insisted on as giving us assurance of the possibility of regeneration or conversion, and insight into its method. Were the veûμa in man supreme, as by his constitution it ought to be, there would be no need of regeneration. As Butler says of it under the name of conscience, 'had it power, as it had manifest authority, it would absolutely govern the world;' on the other hand, were it wholly obliterated, regeneration would be impossible. Men would be beyond the reach of redemption, as devils are with reason supposed to be. Thus the rudimentary existence of the veμa in all men in their unconverted state is the ground of the possibility of their recovery by grace. In the same way this theory suggests the possibility and mode of sanctification. The Evangelical view of fallen human nature is said to land in a dilemma those who hold man as a compound of soul and body only. For if the immaterial nature of man is wholly corrupt, desperately wicked, and that nature is a unit, no nidus in human nature is reserved into which the Divine Spirit can descend and purify all within. How can a good thing come out of an evil? Upon this view the heart is desperately wicked, and remains so, even in the regenerate, who nevertheless are led by the Spirit of God, and walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. How this can be is as unexplained as how a deaf man can hear, or a lame man can walk. Let but the distinction between Vuxn and veûμа be seen, and all is clear and consistent. The vx is like the flesh, prone to evil, and remains so even in the regenerate. But the veûμa-the God-like in manis not prone to evil, indeed it cannot sin. Its tendency is naturally upwards to God. Regeneration, then, is the quickening of this pneuma. Sanctification is the carrying on of that which conversion began. Conversion, or the first quickening of the pneuma, may be dated either from the first moment of conviction by the law (Rom. vii. 9), or from the time when the pneuma is practically acknowledged to be the master principle, and our

Savonarola and his times.

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members are yielded as instruments of righteousness unto God. The gradual character of sanctification and the conflict implied in it thus explains itself. It is the working out of that which was begun at conversion. The seminal principle, then quickened, grows and asserts its presence by asserting its mastery over the lower part of our nature, until the true harmony of man's constitution, spirit, soul, and body, overturned by the fall, is completely restored.

"Besides the groundless and unscriptural assumption that there is any part or faculty in fallen man which is not prone to evil and cannot sin,' this whole theory of regeneration and sanctification differs from that of the Bible as being almost purely naturalistic. With the exception of once bringing in the supernatural in the regenerating or reawakening act, it makes the whole a natural process, whereas the Scriptural view of the renewed life is that it is a standing miracle, a supernatural life. It is a miracle to begin with, and precisely such a miracle as is here disparaged, 'bringing a clean thing out of an unclean.' And it is a continuous miracle; exactly such a miracle too as was shadowed forth in the healing works of Him who made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk.' Were this tripartite theory correct, theology must be recast, and so also must Christian preaching. Evangelical teachers must change their note (as Mr. Heard's critic in the London Quarterly puts it), and, instead of calling men to repentance, must say, Develop your pneumata.”

In these times of minute critical dissection it is a relief both to mind and heart to contemplate a broad pictorial representation either of a life or of an era. We are somewhat wearied of Dr. Dryasdust and the archives from which he elaborates numberless details, significant enough perchance, but sadly lacking in meaning and momentum. We seek to be brought face to face with the stirring energies of history, and are il content to waste our time in merely sifting and analysing the materials from which, at some distant date, construction may be possible. And we are unfeignedly grateful when, in such a volume as Times before the Reformation (2), we are presented with a complete picture, at once interesting and accurate, of one of the formative epochs in the development of Christian thought and character. Mr. Dinwiddie, in telling the story of Savonarola and his times, proves that he possesses nicety of touch and vigorousness of execution. The surroundings are grouped with ease and naturalness, and the central figure. stands out in happy relations both of likeness and contrast.

(2) Times before the Reformation, with an account of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, the Friar of Florence. By William Dinwiddie, LL.B. London: James Nisbet and Co.