SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading We notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.] Jonathan Edwards : a Retrospect. Edited by H. Norman Gar- diner. (Gay and Bird. 5s. net.)—In June, 1750, Jonathan Edwards was dismissed from his pastoral charge in Northampton, Mass., U.S.A. Last June—i.e , one hundred and fifty years after his dismissal—a memorial in the church whence be was banished was unveiled, the representatives of various religious bodies in the States taking part in the ceremony. An Episco- palian Professor from Harvard spoke of "The Place of Edwards in History," while the present pastor of the Northampton church delivered an address on "Edwards in Northampton." These and the other discourses are by no means unmixed panegyric. Edwards's faults are not slurred over. On the contrary, they are pointed out with much candour. But his great gifts and noble qualities are also dwelt upon in a way that will give a new idea of the man to many readers. The resemblance between him and Dante is curiously interesting. He, too, had his Beatrice, but his love found an "earthly close" in a singularly happy union. The cause of his expulsion was an action that has become the rule of all " free " Churches. He refused the Sacra- ment of Holy Communion to all who would not make a confession of religion. But in his days the situation was com- plicated by the law which made Church membership (i.e., the status of communicant) a qualification for citizenship. Apart from this, Edwards's theology had a forbidding aspect, which could not but act adversely on his hearers. Here is a sample
which is scarcely encouraging to Christian effort :—" You must undertake the business of seeking salvation with no other ex- pectation than this, that if ever God bestows mercy, it will be in His own time, and not only so, but also when you have done all, God will not hold Himself obliged to show you mercy at the last."
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