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Vincent Henry Stanton, D.D., Fellow of Trinity College, and Ely Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. THE PLACE OF AUTHORITY IN MATTERS OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF. (London: Longmans, Green and Co.) 6s.

Dr. Stanton has already won his spurs. His Jewish and Christian Messiah is a solid and notable production. We are not so sure about his new book being quite so satisfactory. For one thing, the subject is a vastly different one, and one upon which men will never yield to logic. Then, the foundations upon which all constructive work must be laid are just now in a rather liquid condition. When one remembers these things this little work gains rapidly upon one's estimation. Dr. Stanton acknowledges that he has been in some degree moved to write upon this subject by the issue of Dr. Martineau's book on the same subject, and some others that led his thoughts in the same direction; but he claims that the subject had an independent attraction for him before he noticed the fresh interest which it is awakening. The book consists of four chapters, the titles of which are: 1. The importance and interest of the subject; II. General principles; III. The authority of the Bible; IV. The authority of the Church. He points out three purposes which scientific authority fulfils. (1) It gives us knowledge of past honest work. (2) It marks out the directions in which research is most needed. (3) It has a right to control the opinions of those who cannot understand the grounds of its assertions. He labours very hard and very ably to convince us that we are, whether we will or no, under the influence of authority in the matters of religion. Even the force of the Bible, as a ruling power, depends much on the religious consciousness. We begin to obey its high precepts because of testimony. When he comes to the authority of the Church, he tells us that the Church of England has from the first held a position of her own: "Its governing principle is, that the guidance which the individual cannot find in reason or in Scripture alone, is to be sought in the consent of Catholic antiquity." He holds, that while, on the one hand, "no definition of the English Church is given which would expressly exclude from it all bodies that have not an historic episcopate," yet, on the other hand, the principle is maintained "That the Christians of the same place, the same race, the same nation, ought not to be divided among themselves; and this is the Church of the English nation." But we recommend all who are interested in the subject to read the treatise for themselves. It is full of careful thought, keen analysis, philosophic grip and clearness.

W. J. Knox Little, M.A. LIGHT AND LIFE, SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW, and MANCHESTER SERMONS. 3 vols., cloth, 8vo. (London: Longmans, Green and Co.) 3s. 6d. per vol.

It is not necessary to commend these three volumes, which are now brought out in a cheap edition to our readers. Canon Knox Little has long taken rank as one of the most eloquent preachers of the Anglican Communion. These volumes contain some of his most eloquent discourses delivered in London and Manchester, and we are sure will be welcomed by a wide circle of readers.

H. Scott Holland. CREED AND CHARACTER, On Behalf OF BELIEF, and LOGIC AND LIFE. 3 vols., cloth, 8vo. (London: Longmans, Green and Co.) 3s. 6d. per vol.

Like the three volumes just noticed, these volumes constitute a new and cheaper edition of the sermons of a great Anglican preacher. The first volume is an attempt to embody in one book a number of sermons claiming to suggest the paramount idea that, apart from faith in Christ, the Christian character is impossible and must cease out of the earth. The second volume is an attempt to complete the pleas begun in the first volume for that necessary correspondence between faith and the church which is universally assumed in the apostolic writings. The last of the series deals with the conditions under which the intellectual approaches to a creed must be made.

Mowbray Morris. ENGLISH MEN OF ACTION: MONTROSE. (London: Macmillan and Co.) 2s. 6d.

This charming series seems to be drawing to a close, and the best is coming last. We have read this short biography of the great Marquis with great delight. It is a candid, balanced history and estimate of a man who had many sides, and all of them more or less perplexing. As an epitome of the small library that has been written about Montrose, it is a capital piece of work, and has the true flavour of true literature.

R. W. Church, M.A., D.C.L. THE OXFORD MOVEMENT, TWELVE YEARS, 1833-1845. (London: Macmillan and Co.) Third edition, crown 8vo, 5s.

This cheap edition of the late Dean Church's admirable sketch of the Oxford movement is sure to be heartily welcome. Dr. Church had many qualifications specially marking him out for the task which he undertook. He had a clear and sympathetic understanding of the movement. He was familiar with many of the chief actors in that movement, and at the same time he had allowed a sufficient period to elapse to be able to look back upon the movement with something like a clear historical perspective.

Randall Thomas Davidson, D.D., and William Benham, B.D. LIFE OF ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL TAIT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. Third edition, two vols. (London: Macmillan and Co.) Cloth 8vo, Ios.

We published in our December number a striking criticism of Archbishop Tait, from the High Church standpoint, by Mr. G. W. E. Russell. That article was in reality a reply to Archbishop Tait's life, by the Bishop of Rochester and Canon Beaham. We are glad to welcome a comparatively cheap edition of this most interesting life of one whom even Mr. Russell will admit to be a very great ecclesiastical leader.

Mrs. G. S. Reaney. OUR MOTHERS AND DAUghters. (London: John Haddon and Co.) Id., monthly.

This is a new magazine which promises very well. The idea of the competition for the funny sayings of children is exceedingly ingenious, though some of the specimens given have rather an adult air about them. The magazine is lively and interesting from cover to cover, and ought to succeed.

William Alexander, D.D., D.C.L., Lord Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. THE LEADING IDEAS OF THE GOSPELS. A new edition, revised and greatly enlarged. (London: Macmillan and Co.) 6s.

This volume, in its present shape, is rather a new book than a new edition. The germ from which it grew was originally presented to the public in some sermons preached before the University of Oxford in 1870-71 by the author as select preacher. Dr. Alexander has very wisely run his pen through much that he printed in his first edition. The sermons were preached just about the time of the overthrow of the Irish Establishment, and very naturally they bore some traces of that bitter controversy. In this second edition all that is gone, and we have in its place much that is exceedingly valuable and very beautiful. Each Gospel is now carefully gone through, its distinctive characteristics pointed out, and their practical significance expounded. Of course this has been done before, but nowhere with such grace and profusion of illustration. It is marvellous what wealth of suggestion the author finds in words that we have all read before, but with purblind eyes. The second part of the treatise takes us through the Evangelists once again, for an exposition of their leading ideas in the narrative of the Passion. It is indeed a very delightful book, instinct with life on every page, written by the hand of a master and from the soul of a Christian poet.

Ven. Joshua Hughes-Games, D.C.L., Archdeacon of Man, and Rector of Andreas. THE ONE BOOK: A TREATISE ON THE UNIQUE CHARACTER OF THE BIBLE. (London: William Hunt and Co.) 3s. 6d.

In the preface to his estimable little volume, the author rather offends against good taste. He writes as follows: " In truth the main questions at issue call for the exercise of those valuable qualities (ordinary intelligence and enlightened common-sense) much more than for an acquaintance with what is called-inappropriately enough, and almost with a touch of pleasantry-the higher criticism, though, indeed, it is far from being elevating in its character." The book goes through all the old arguments in the old way, and is calculated to do good to those who have never heard of anything else. But for the other part of mankind it is fully fifty years behind the times.

Rev. W. J. Townsend. LIFE OF THE REV. JAMES STACEY, D.D. (Hodder and Stoughton.) Price 5s.

Disappointment was our first feeling on putting down this book; for, though the writing is never dry, but indeed bright and lively, strangely little of it sticks in the memory. The explanation is that the life and scenes described are unknown and yet not sufficiently extraordinary to compel attention. With those who have known the doctor, and lived amongst the people, and walked amongst the scenes of the book the case will be very different. For them the book is evidently full of life and pleasure, just suited to call up old familiar faces and make them live again the hours that are gone. But for the outsider there is very little to attract. He has to read about half the book before he learns the name of the religious body to which Dr. Stacey belonged. This is surely a remarkable omission, but there is another equally strange. Though Dr. Stacey was in many ways "a man of parts," there is surprisingly little of his own individuality in the book.

Lever Brothers. THE STORY OF THE SUNLIGHT SOAP WORKS.

The very enterprising firm, Messrs. Lever Brothers, of Warrington, are just about to issue a well illustrated account of the growth of their works. There are few firms whose dealings with their employés are more commendable than the makers of this admirable household requisite. By model artisans' dwellings, an excellent library, and in many other ways, Messrs. Lever do their best to render the lives of their workpeople happy and prosperous. This book should be of interest to all social workers.

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(Specially photographed for THE REVIEW OF THE CHURCHES by Fradelle and Young, 246, Regent Strect, W.)

OUR EDITORIAL STAFF.-VI.

THE PROGRESS OF THE CHURCHES.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND NOTES.

The Disestab- The Bill for the Disestablishment of lishment Battle the Welsh Church has again been

in Wales. thrown out, and that Church has been relieved by a majority of forty-seven from immediate peril. Every postponement of the proposed measure will be in favour of the Establishment. It is admitted on all hands that the Episcopal Church in Wales is no longer liable to the just and overwhelming reproaches to which she was obnoxious during the scandalous neglect of the eighteenth century. She is gaining daily in energy and faithfulness. It is disastrous for her that all the thirty Welsh members except three are against her; but it is at least possible that in the next election she may succeed in winning some seats. Meanwhile she has completely overthrown the baseless contention that she is an "alien" Church imposed by force upon the people; and she has severely shaken the statistical argument. The allegation in the resolution proposed by Mr. S. Smith that she "ministers only to a small minority of the population" is, to say the least, extremely questionable; and it is the less believed because the Welsh Nonconformists so strenuously resisted the religious census, which they might have obtained, and for which the members of the Established Church were sincerely anxious. A religious census might very probably demonstrate that fully a half, if not two-thirds, of the population did not belong to the Dissenting bodies. Nor again can it be regarded as a fact that "the Church of England in Wales has failed to fulfil its professed object as a means of promoting the religious interests of the Welsh people." She is engaged in many noble works which are of the highest advantage to multitudes, and are intended to benefit all who will avail themselves of them. It is a matter of historic notoriety that the sins of the fathers are visited, in their earthly consequences, upon the children. The guillotine fell on the neck of poor innocent Louis XVI., not on the guilty Louis XV. or Louis XIV. So the Church in Wales may cease to be the Established Church exactly at the time when she is most awake to her duties and responsibilities, and is rising to their fulfilment. Whether she be destined to disestablishment or not depends largely on this year's elections; and on her fate ultimately depends that of the Church of England. Disestablishment will mean serious trial and difficulty, but happily does not mean destruction or irremediable disaster. No one would establish any one Church in days like these; but this does not prove that it would not be a calamity to disestablish a Church which has existed for a thousand years as the Church of the nation. I have always thought that the nation would suffer from such a measure far more than the Church

itself. The more faithfully a Church is doing her duty-as the Church of Wales is now doing it—the more impregnable is her security, the more certain her ultimate success, not indeed as an Establishment, but as a living branch of the eternal Church of Christ.

Strife.

Meanwhile, as a sincere Church Incidents of the man, who has yet always recognised that all true Christians are "very members incorporate of the mystical body of Christ, which is the blessed company of all faithful people," may I be humbly permitted to offer a word of counsel to the combatants on both sides? To the Nonconformists I would say that they entirely discredit their own cause, and even lay themselves open to the taunt levelled at them in Mr. Balfour's speech-" that they really desire not reform but plunder, envy and not piety being the motive of their action"-when they allow themselves to conduct the battle either with accusations so entirely baseless as that of charging the Church Congress with promoting for its own profit the sale of liquor, or with language so rancorous and unworthy as the passages quoted from the vernacular press by Mr. Byron Reed. Surely if the motives of the Dissenters be pure and honourable, they can only be disgraced by malignant and railing accusations. Thersites makes much noise, but he is a bad fighter and he invariably injures the cause which resorts to his besmirching tongue. And to my brother Churchmen I would say that it is a fatal error constantly to preach-as I fear some of them do-against the Dissenters. Opposition will be more likely to be disarmed by manly generosity and loving forbearance, than by adopting the narrow tone of arrogant exclusiveness which only grudgingly allows to Dissenters their full right to be regarded as brothers in the household of God, sheep of the one flock of Christ, though they may never in this world be gathered into one fold.

The Dublin Ordination.

The gravamina introduced into the Lower Houses of Convocation, both in the Northern and Southern Provinces, in which an attempt was made to censure the Archbishop of Dublin for his recent ordination of a deacon for the Reformed Church in Spain, were an unwarrantable interference with a closely allied and independent Church. In the Southern House, regarding the resolution as ultra vires and ultra crepidam, I did my best to oppose it. The Dean of Windsor moved, and I seconded, as an amendment, "the previous question," and the same amendment was moved in the Northern House by Canon Tristram and the Bishop of Hull. This, as might have been expected beforehand, was defeated in both Houses. In the

III. That we have received with satisfaction his Grace's assurance that when carrying that purpose into effect he will confine his ministrations within the limits of those countries, and use during the laying on of hands the words

C. P. MEATH.
C. LIMERICK.
M. F. CASHEL.
R. S. CORK.
W. P. OSSORY.
W. B. KILLALOE.
S. KILMORE.
C. M. CLOGHER.
J. TUAM.

Southern House, however, the gravamen, which was
really due, as the debate proved, to dislike of the
Reformers, was reduced to very small and com-
paratively innocuous proportions. It appealed to enjoined in the services of our own Church.
the Upper House to protect the Church of England
from the wholly imaginary, and in any case entirely
microscopical and infinitesimal danger, of some
Spanish Reformer being admitted to an English
benefice! The mountain laboured, and there came
forth this ridiculous little mouse! It is difficult to
conceive that any one who voted for this eviscerated
gravamen really supposed that any such danger was
imminent. In the first place it is most doubtful
whether the ordination of a deacon in and for the
Spanish Church could be regarded as valid for admis-
sion into an English benefice. But, even if it were,
no English Bishop would or could introduce such a
Spanish deacon unless he gave satisfactory proofs that
his ordination was perfectly regular, and his views
were those of the English Church. The insinuation
of the gravamen in the Northern House, that the Arch-
bishop had not been loyal to the decision of the
Lambeth Conference, was entirely baseless, as was the
assertion, so completely disproved in the Southern
House, that the Spanish Reformers "had not shown
themselves to be in accord with certain Catholic doc-
trines dear to the Church of England." In the
Canterbury Convocation, at any rate, some sympathy
was shown with these poor Reformers, who have faced
social ostracism and bitter persecution in order to obey
their consciences, and to shake themselves free from
the trammels of the most stagnant Church in the
world. These poor and persecuted Reformers, who
in obedience to their conscience have done exactly
what we and our fathers have done in refusing
allegiance to what our Article calls "blasphemous
fables and dangerous deceits," ought not to be treated
as heretical schismatics. The attitude taken to the
Archbishop of Dublin by the advanced High Church
party in both Houses will do him no sort of harm.
It was a gratuitous interference with the action of a
large-minded and loving Prelate, against whom
neither Bishop nor Synod in his own Church has
breathed one word of censure. It has caused excus-
able irritation in the Irish Church, which is not in the
least amenable to any fault-finding or heresy-hunting
censures of English presbyters. It has indeed had the
natural result of strengthening the Archbishop's hands,
for it has evoked the following declaration signed by
the large majority of the Irish Bishops :-

The needless gravamen has thus defeated itself in
two ways. It has given the Archbishop the sympathy
and support which was most grateful to his heart, and
it has led to the conclusive proof that the Spanish
Reformers not only accept the Three Catholic
Creeds of Christendom, and our own Thirty-nine
Articles, but that their doctrines do not differ in any
demonstrable respect from those maintained in the
English Prayer Book.

I. That we express hereby our sympathy with the Reformers in Spain and Portugal who, under many exceptional difficulties, are struggling to free themselves from the burden of unlawful terms of communion.

II. That regarding their case as having become one of extreme necessity, and recognising the rights of Bishops of the Catholic Church to interpose in such cases, we do not feel called upon to protest against the action contemplated by his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin, who has announced his purpose of holding Ordinations on behalf of the Reformers in Spain and Portugal in the course of the ensuing year.

Proposals for an increase of the Increase of Episcopate seem to be in the air. the Episcopate. Besides the Bishoprics for Bristol and for Birmingham, there is now a scheme for founding a Bishopric of Lancaster to relieve the congested work of the large dioceses of Manchester and Carlisle. The new diocese would be quite large enough with 210 benefices, and would relieve Manchester of 101, and Carlisle of 90. Bishoprics are also suggested for the counties of Suffolk and Surrey, and a desire is expressed for a new diocese in South Wales. If the work of the

existing dioceses be indeed greater than the present Bishops can fulfil, the creation of new Sees is preferable to the indefinite multiplication of Suffragan Bishops with their uncertain status and ill-defined spheres of labour. Perhaps the Church will not be the loser if something of the glamour of "lordship" and palaces

"Status, entourage, worldly circumstance ❞— be dissipated. The gulf between Bishop and Presbyter ought not to be so immense as some make it, nor does spiritual authority depend in the least on the wealth or social elevation of the Bishops to such a height above all their brethren. The Lord of Time and all the worlds said, "I am among you as he that serveth;" and the primus inter pares of the Apostles wrote the memorable words, ἐγκομβώσασθε τὴν ταπεινοφροσύνην, "tie humility around you like a knotted apron."

Deacons.

The Archbishop of York has always interested himself in the welfare and training of Deacons. In his new Diocese he has issued injunctions which must be regarded as exceedingly stringent, as indeed they were regarded in the Diocese of Lichfield. Here are some of his rules:

1. In ordaining a deacon the Archbishop is under no pledge to admit him to the Order of Priesthood at the end

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