5 OCTOBER 1889, Page 26

The Gospel According to St. Paul. By the Rev. J.

Oswald Dykes. (Nisbet and Co.)—This volume, partly reprinted from the Homiletic Magazine, is a study of Romans i.-viii. The limitation• excludes the most difficult part of the Pauline theology. In the eighth chapter we have words which point to election ; in the ninth we have what certainly looks like the doctrine of repro- bation. Of course, this must be read and interpreted by the great "Jew v. Gentile" controversy, with which the mind of St. Paul was so much occupied. Still, a very serious difficulty remains, and Dr. Dykes's plan does not bring him beyond the fringe of it. In dealing with the eighth chapter, he is quite right, we think, in insisting on the " fatal' significance of an evil will " in connection with what he calls the " slipshod theory of all for the best all round.' " There is a vague universalism which is scarcely less mischievous than the opposite extreme. We may commend Dr- Dykes's volume to the attention of our readers.