14 FEBRUARY 1863, Page 20

The New Theology. By John Smart. (Glasgow : David Bryce,

1863.)—The author of this little book was head master of an im- portant elementary school in Paisley, and it was originally written in the form of lectures delivered by him in that town in the spring of 1862. These lectures were his last public effort. Laymen interest themselves too little in theological controversies. The pro- fessional student is always likely to approach his subject with some prejudices and to move with mannerism, at least among questions which have become familiar enough, by their continual closeness, to make him fancy that he has conquered their secret. From these restraints the layman is delivered. We see the fruit of this freedom in books such as the present. The author is perfectly reverent and sin- cerely Christian, but he restates the questions of what he calls "the New Theology" with an openness which few clerical writers (in Scot- land, at least) could risk. He gives us nothing new, except a somewhat rugged style, and plenty of illustrations occasionally felicitous. But he frankly says, in the plainest words he can find, what thousands of young men think, and attempts with a refreshing honesty to guide them right. He sees the true centre of spiritual life in man neither in the Bible, nor in the Church, but in God and Christ only. He is puzzled about many things, but never about this principal thing of all. He sees the difficul- ties which surround the question of miracles, but he believes in the re- surrection. His theory about inspiration is rather negative than positive, but he finds that a Divine Spirit utters Himself to man through the Bible. But to him, as indeed to all men, its most valuable pages are those which narrate the life of Christ. These are, at all events, authen- tic, for no tradition, or myth-forming, or fabrication, could have created Him. And it is in Him that he sees the life of man. The book, though rather crude, cannot fail to be of service. It is well for both the Church and the world that laymen should sometimes speak what they believe. There are books, in spite of Mr. Matthew Arnold, which will neither edify the very ignorant, nor instruct the very learned, which it may be well to write and profitable to read. Mr. Smart's is one of them. The style of the short memoir which is prefixed to it is, unfortunately, in the last degree difficult.