It seems almost invidious to find fault with so fascinating a volume, but we cannot help wondering why a picture of St. Christopher is chosen to adorn the outside of a book which does not contain his history. Mrs. Molesworth confines herself to writing about the Black Letter Saints of our Calendar, among whom the legendary St. Christopher has no place. She arranges the Saints in order of time, and not of the Calendar, and gives an excellent chronological table at the beginning. The most frivolous nineteenth century child could not find this book dull, for Mrs. Molesworth's style is peculiarly attractive, and she writes as if thoroughly in love with her subject. She has, however, fallen into a curious error in describing St. Saturus, the companion of St. Perpetua, as her brother. There is, indeed, a little uncertainty about the number of St. Perpetua's brothers, as it is not quite plain whether she had two besides the child Dinocrates, who died of cancer in his face. But Saturus is called by St. Perpetua her father in the faith,' probably because he baptized her; and it does not appear that he stood in any other relation to her. Mrs. Molesworth advises her little readers to learn Latin, that they may be able to read the Saint's 'very own original words.' She is evidently unaware of the recent discussion as to the priority of the Greek or Latin Acts of St. Perpetua. In telling the story of St. Alban Mrs. Molesworth gives the information that the priest's cloak in which he disguised himself was called in Latin 'caracalla.' It would have been more interesting if she had said it was also called 'amphibalus,' as that would have reminded us of the twelfth century legend which gives the name of Amphibalus to the priest whom St. Alban sheltered. This legend appears to have obtained much favour, and a beautiful shrine of St. Amphibalus has lately been discovered and restored in St. Alban's Cathedral.

7. In this book nine representative 'Saints of the fourth century' are chosen from among those in our Calendar, including St. Helena, who may be said to be commemorated on the Feast of the Invocation of the Cross. The compiler's name is not given, but the stories are well, though briefly, told; and the illustrations, which are very pretty and graceful, are evidently by Mr. Wyndham Hughes. The book well deserves a better binding than the limp paper wrapper in which it is enclosed. This is the sixth book among those we have noticed which gives the story of the popular St. Nicolas; but it is the only one which reminds us that his three purses are represented by the familiar three golden balls of the pawnbroker. On the other hand, the writer surely makes a curious mistake in speaking of pictures of St. Nicolas baptizing three children in a font. This well-known subject in art really represents St. Nicolas in the act of restoring to life the children who had been cut up and pickled in a tub of brine by a cruel landlord.

8. This last book on our list has also a paper cover, though a stiff one. Why are Messrs. Mowbray so fond of paper covers? Several of their books for children have lately been reissued in this form, and we think it a most unfortunate departure. To the little dwellers in our grimy cities a paper-covered book soon ceases to be

a thing of beauty; and we doubt whether even in a cleaner atmosphere it can long resist the sticky fingers of childhood. It is true that paper-covered books are cheap, but we believe that most people would agree with us in being willing to pay more for a more durable possession.

The English Saints of the English Calendar has a Preface by Prebendary Oldham, but we do not know whether 'Frank A. Smallpeice has drawn the pictures with pen as well as with pencil. The former are rather lacking in interest, and the latter in individuality. The word 'English' must be taken in a liberal sense, as it is made to include not only the Welsh David but also the Italian Augustine.

THE

CHURCH QUARTERLY REVIEW. No LXXIV. JANUARY 1894.

Some Lights of Science on the Faith. By ALFRED BARRY, D.D., D.C.L., Canon of Windsor, late Primate of Australia. (London, 1892.)

BISHOP BARRY'S Bampton Lectures form a welcome contribution to the apologetic side of theology. They are the work of an older theologian who has passed through, not unobservantly, the various movements and contests of the last halfcentury, and who thus brings to the consideration of present problems a large experience gained in the past. The calm and measured judgments which the Bishop passes may well arrest the attention of younger men. Experience may well be set over against impetuosity and confidence; for it is, in truth, a potent factor in these matters. New theories, often of a revolutionary character, come into vogue, and younger men get attracted by them. They embrace them, and believe in them with all their hearts, and look forward to the time when they must universally prevail. Older men, who have come through a similar experience themselves, or have witnessed it in others, know better. They know by experience that such theories, however plausible, are founded on a partial and one-sided view of things. They have seen in their own case this one-sidedness corrected, and their favourite dogmas much modified, if not altogether destroyed. The truth is that in the intellectual and spiritual worlds thoroughgoing revolutions have no place. Revolutionary movements are with the progress of time dissipated and lost: they pass away like a

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ripple on the surface of a far broader and deeper movement. All that they accomplish is that details elicited by them, which have a solid and permanent character, are absorbed in and enrich the onward movement of things.

Before proceeding to remark on certain points raised by the Bishop, we will give some account of his Lectures. Their real, though not their explicit, aim is towards the rehabilitation of natural theology viewed as a theological discipline. The Lectures, in truth, form one of many indications that the tide is turning in this direction. The form under which the Bishop has shaped his Lectures is quaint but not ineffective. It is derived from his leading text, 'The Law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith,' and the scope of the work is to show that, just as the Law of Sinai, which St. Paul contemplated, when properly understood, had this effect, so the same thing is also true of the reign of Law in nature which is preached to us by science. The first Lecture is orientative. It emphasizes the fact that laws of nature are not ultimate, that they cannot stand alone, but are necessarily dependent on something else; that, in fact, just as the Law of Sinai proceeded from and was dependent upon God, and was an expression of His Righteousness, so the laws that rule in nature must be understood as proceeding from the Creator and as being an expression of His Will and Purpose. The laws of nature thus point upwards to God, and are a schoolmaster to lead our reason up to God. It is true that in the present day this is not always admitted; it is true that there is a section of opinion which looks upon Law as ultimate and absolute, as that beyond which we cannot go. Such a view we have in Agnosticism. Like the Jew, the Agnostic emphatically rests in the Law, and denies to human reason its grandest and ultimate step. But this mode of viewing the matter the Bishop regards as really retrograde, and he quotes St. Paul in support of his contention. It is a view also which is out of harmony with the real tendency of science. Everything in science seems to point upwards and to justify the step by which human reason rises to God. Science in manifold ways bears witness to a unity in the ultimate Source of all being. It thus creates an expectancy which can only be satisfied by Theism.

Having thus vindicated the function of Law as leading to Christ, the remainder of the first Lecture is devoted to a statement of the various ways in which the function is performed. It acts in three ways: first, by way of confirming the faith; secondly, by way of elucidation of the faith; and, thirdly, by

way of correction and criticism of the faith. The treatment of these three heads gives the subject of the different Lectures, a certain number of Lectures being devoted to each head. Under the first head the confirmatory two subjects emerge, the principle of heredity and the principle of evolution, to which two Lectures, the second and the third, are respectively devoted. In treating of the principle of heredity in the second Lecture, the author shows how it confirms in a remarkable manner the great theological principle of mediation. For the principle of heredity manifests the solidarity of mankind, and emphasizes inheritance from forefathers. It thus illustrates and confirms the mediatorial office assigned by theology to Christ, and shows how He can be viewed as the Second Adam, the representative and redeemer of humanity. Analogically, also, it illustrates the doctrine of Original Sin viewed as a transmission, as also the sacramental inheritance of the new nature of the Second Adam. In addition to this the same principle brushes away many difficulties connected with individualism as opposed to solidarity which perplexed the Church in times of old, and enables us to assign to each of these its proper place. In the third Lecture the doctrine of evolution is taken up, as illustrating the progress in all creation to a higher perfection'; and it is shown how the doctrine of the Incarnation dovetails into this progress. The Incarnation is a grand step in advance within the sphere of humanity, just as there have been similar steps in the previous history of things. It is the planting of a germ of new life in the human sphere--a germ which is destined to perfect itself under the providence and grace of God till the end of this dispensation.

The second head under which the author classes the function of Law as leading to Christ is that of elucidation, and here he finds a subject for two more Lectures, the fourth and the fifth. The fourth Lecture has for its title 'Christ and all Creation,' and its purport is to bring out the infinite enlargement of our scientific conception of the universe as one great whole, in which the earth with all its inhabitants is but a speck. This yields an elucidation of Christian doctrine of a character little dreamt of in days of old. The Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians define the Dominion of Christ as extending not only over the Church, not only over humanity at large, but over all created being gathered up in Himself; and the Church in days of old formed a grand idea of the Dominion of Christ. But it is now shown by the advance of science how inadequate that idea was as compared with the reality. By