The day is gone-and we trust, with M. de Montalembert, gone for ever-when heresy was included among those faults which the State was called upon to punish with fire and sword. And just because we rejoice at the existence of that comparative secular impunity, the more needful do we esteem it to be, that organs of opinion should speak their sentiments plainly and fearlessly, at the risk of all those hard words (bigotry, intolerance, and the like) which are showered so lavishly by the so-called 'votaries of free thought' upon all who display their freedom, by venturing to dissent from those conclusions of scepticism which are most in fashion for the hour. เ Not forgetting then, we trust, that we are fellow-sinners; not wishing to thrust aside as nothing such palliation as may arise from the mental condition of Europe, and especially of France; not ignoring the virtues of M. Renan and his capacity for sympathy with much that is good-a capacity which may even yet, by Divine mercy, be permitted to guide homeward that wandering heart and will-we yet feel compelled to say what we think, and commit it to the Judgment that is above all. 'If we are to excuse all the moral evil that we can account for, and 'abstain from judging all of which we can suppose that there is some adequate explanation, where are we to stop in our 'absolutions?'1 Be it avowed, then, that we know not how the author of such a publication as this Vie de Jésus' can be acquitted of having wrought a crime against God and man. A crime against the Father, the denial of whose first attribute of Almightiness is the key-note of the entire strain of the work, its first and last falsehood and fallacy; a crime against the Son, whom it again, as has well been said, betrays with a kiss; in that professing to honour Him and to say Hail, Master,' it in reality represents Him as a sinner and as a deceiver of the fallen race He came to save; a crime against the Spirit, in that it treats as legends replete with falsities, the ever-blessed fourfold record which He inspired to be the everlasting Gospel of our salvation. And surely, too, a crime against man. Humanity, even among the very heathen, has been wont to hold, that not all of man's saddening tale of crime and woe had its source in the depths of our own nature, perverted, corrupted though it be; but that evil angels from without had conspired with man's passions and worldliness to produce these miserable results. M. Renan, without one line that attempts to disprove the existence of the rebellious spirits whom Satan leads, or their influence upon the human mind, simply denies that influence, denies their very 1 Hy. Taylor. Notes on Life,' pp. 46, 47. being, and thus tears away from man an excuse which, in so far as it affects the case-and it is revealed that it does affect it-is certain of acceptance at the mercy-seat of Him who 'was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil.' And further, Christendom, amidst all its differences, has been wont, with singular unanimity, to teach that the human race has one great glory, one sole hope of salvation; that glory and that hope consisting in the fact that the Eternal Son has condescended to become partaker of flesh and blood; to die for the sons of men, to win for them gifts of the Spirit, and to plead their cause in heaven. To the denial of the Incarnation and Atonement, M. Renan has dedicated those powers of heart and head with which his Maker has endowed him. Assuredly those who join with us in the decision which we have-we earnestly trust not lightly nor uncharitably-formed upon his book, must also feel it to be a duty to breathe one devout and heartfelt prayer that 'the thought of his heart may be forgiven him.' While the world lasts, some form of unbelief or misbelief will be rife, and have its day. Pharaoh and Jezebel, Antiochus and Herod, Julian and Porphyry, Arius and Spinoza, Socinus and Strauss; each has his hour and passes on. And the servants of Christ, they too go their way and commit His enemies to the All-merciful Judge, who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,' who knows all the temptations and excuses of each, and the unceasing malice of the Evil One. Even those who believe in Him and try to obey His righteous laws, have broken them so often, that their first and last cry must be for mercy. And yet they know that where He bestows pardon, that great gift cannot stand alone; no, not even in this life, far, far less in the world to come. Even the least serious of heathen lyrists could feel the propriety of asking from an object of his misdirected worship, on the dedication of a temple, something better than Sardinian corn and Calabrian wine, than gold and ivory, or fertile lands; and some of the nobler-minded among the pagans have risen to a far loftier standard of desire and prayer. But Christians supplicate their Lord and Master for something higher than the heathen's most exalted aspirations ever soared to in their fondest dreams. With a daring, only not presumptuous because warranted by His own gracious promises, they press forward to a prize transcending all the choicest glories of the very courts of heaven; they look beyond the gifts for the Giver; the reward which they hope by His mercy to attain-it is no merely created thing, it is Himself. 249 Note to CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER, vol. xlvi. p. 395. [We have received the following communication, which refers to the Article on Bishop Blomfield, in our last Volume, p. 395.] SIR, To the Editor of the CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER. CRAYKE, NEAR EASINGWOLD, In the number of the Christian Remembrancer published this month, you quote, at p. 395, a passage from the Memoir of Bishop Blomfield, by his Son,' which professes to copy some words of mine, but which are not mine. The writer of the 'Memoir of Bishop Blomfield' has introduced some words of mine in that passage, but not exactly as they appear in the Review. There is no error in his quotation of my words, however they are associated with uncongenial matter. In the Review I am represented as having ascribed the following words to a justly venerated friend of mine, the late Rev. H. H. Norris, speaking of the English clergy as they were forty years ago: They were eager politicians, or amateur farmers, deep in the antiquities of signs of inns, speculations 'of [as to] what becomes of swallows in the winter, and whether hedgehogs or other urchins are most justly accused of sucking 'milch-cows dry at night.' 6 On this supposed quotation from my Memoir of Joshua Watson' you make your own comments, on which I make no remark. What I complain of is, that by the prefix of the two first clauses, They were eager politicians, or amateur farmers,' the whole passage is made to bear a different meaning from anything which I ever wrote or thought, or which Mr. Norris uttered. You are not altogether unconcerned in this; for the passage relates to the reasons given by Mr. Norris for starting the Christian Remembrancer. He expressed his regret, as he well might previously to 1818, that the clergy had scarcely any journal of sacred literature; consequently they most of them confined their literary correspondence to the Gentleman's Magazine, in which there was more of antiquarian lore and questions relating to natural history, than of theology or Church polity. It was no more in his mind, than it was in my intention, to accuse the clergy of that period of laxity or a low standard of acquirements. Far less would he have backed by his sanction the mawkish charge, seldom made but by people who have no decided principles of their own, that the clergy of his time were eager politicians.' How is it possible he should have sanctioned it, when all who knew him know that his political opinions were sufficiently pronounced whenever they were called for, and that, next to theology, he thought, as most wise men do, the science of good government most worthy of his earnest thoughts? Again, I never heard him speak with contempt or dislike of any clergyman, who might employ his rural leisure in agriculture or horticulture. He was himself a good landlord, and was not likely to have been ignorant how Bishop Wilson was a benefactor to his islanders in Man in this as in other ways, by teaching them to plant their hill-sides, and to marl their sandy soil, as his kinsman did in Cheshire. You can easily satisfy yourself, by a reference to the 'Memoir of Joshua Watson,' last edition, page 156, how entirely different a purport is given to the words, by the prefix of these two clauses, and the association in which they are placed. But I think you will understand that I am not so much concerned for anything else, as to vindicate the memory of the father of the Christian Remembrancer. The candour of H. H. Norris would be wronged by any one who should attribute to him an opinion derogatory to the character of his brethren in the sacred ministry. I am, SIR, 251 NOTICE S. THE Completion of Smith's Dictionary of the Bible' (Murray) may be mentioned as an era in our theological acquisitions: not that the work is—or rather it was not intended to be-theological, its avowed aim being only to give exegetical and practical information. We may reasonably congratulate the publisher and editor on having produced a manual of information and a body of recorded facts of immense value. With so large a staff of contributors a certain amount of compromise and reticence was necessary, both in the conception and execution of the plan. There is little to offend, though much to suggest to, the various schools of thought among us. Occasionally, as was of course unavoidable, the limits which separate theological discussion from historical inquiry have been passed over; but either this must have happened, or such subjects as the Church, Miracles, &c. must have been imperfectly treated. But the various contributors have known both how to give and how to take; and we must make up our minds to a tone of occasional indecision and uncertainty in so large a miscellany. As the work at present stands it has a fragmentary look. Its progress involved an Appendix, and some very important articles are not to be found in the first alphabetical arrangement. A second edition, which must soon be called for, will remedy the technical deficiencies of the Dictionary, and it will then stand a creditable monument of the scholarship and learning of the Church of England. The Messrs. Clark, of Edinburgh, have, it is well known, been engaged for many years in the publication of a series of works, of various degrees of excellence, which have done much to mould the mind of the Church. Few will be insensible of the value of the works of Hengstenberg, Stier, and Olshausen; and without endorsing all their opinions, and with protest against their verbosity, it is impossible not to gain something both from their spirit and their literature. A large and exhaustive work by Mr. George Steward, a Presbyterian mininister, on the 'Mediatorial Sovereignty,' has just been issued by these enterprising publishers, and it affords a good specimen of the old and somewhat dry style of theological writing, but with great fulness of argument. In the discussions on the Church, it is not to be expected that teaching from the other side the Tweed will be in all respects acceptable to ourselves; but the work, in plan and execution, is such as to command our respect. In the concluding chapter, on the Eternal Sabbath, we thought we caught an echo of some Oriental speculations appertaining to the doctrine of absorption. Mr. T. W. Marshall has reprinted his 'Christian Missions' (Longman). The title is a misnomer. It is a satirical and cynical account of all the failures, real and imaginary, of the Non-Romanist Missions. We are by no means prepared to say that there is not truth in too many of the insulting pictures which Mr. Marshall draws of 'Protestant'. shortcomings and |