Seeking for Light : Sermons. By the Rev. Alexander H.
Crattfurd. (C. Kegan Paul and Co.)—Mr. Craufurd belongs to the liberal section of Christian thinkers, and his book is a not unwelcome addition to the theological literature of our day. It will supply some needed help to those perplexed souls who, while drawn by their yearning after the spiritual life within the sphere of Christian influences, are in danger of drifting away into a sea of doubt or disbelief. They cannot help revolting from the dogmas which distort and misrepresent the teach- ing of Christ and his Apostles, from the formulas into which some of the beliefs of the Church have stiffened, and out of which all vitality has passed. How is it that the progressive character of the Divine revelation is so little understood by a large section of the reli- gious teachers of our day ? Why are doctrine and exhortation from our pulpits so tinctured with Judaic narrowness that, with many, fossil creeds have taken the place of a living, growing religions faith ? It is admitted that much that was inculcated by the earlier revelations has bad to be modified, expanded, rewritten. Why, then, has this fact been so greatly left out of view ? In the sermon on childish and manly religion, the reader will find some valuable thought on this subject :— " In his childhood man could not understand his Father, but in his maturity he surely ought to do so a little." Judaism was a sort of half-way house between the darkness of Paganism and the full light of Christianity ; it was a sort of spiritual twilight. Men were being trained by it to higher things ; like the philosophy of the "Greeks, it was preparing the way for Christianity. We ought to have outgrown ordinary Judaism completely, that is, to have absorbed and assimi- lated its imperishable truths, and cast aside its transitory busk." We recommend the reader not to skip the preface to Mr. Craufurd's volume.
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