The Miracles of Unbelief. By Frank Ballard, M.A. (T. and
T. Clark. Gs.)—This is a book of Christian apologetics, which follows in the main, with the differences due to modern methods and ways of thought, the line of Paley's great argument. Unbelief makes a greater "demand upon faith" than belief, for, as the author puts it, "Christian facts being what they are, we are helplessly shut up to the miraculous." We cannot follow the reasoning with the detailed attention which it deserves, but we may express our general assent with its purpose.—Another volume which we must be content to notice in general terms is Lines of Defence of the Biblical Revelation, by D. S. Margoliouth (Hodder and Stoughton, Cs.) Professor Margoliouth takes up the cause of conservative criticism. He pleads, for instance, for the unity of the Book of Isaiah. His argument is largely founded on linguistic considerations which we do not profess to be able to estimate. Far more convincing to the average student of the Bible is the difference of spirit between the earlier and the later chapters of the book. The writer of the later seems to stand on a different plane of thought. When we come to the mention of the name of Cyrus the Professor says that it "involves questions concerning the power of God which are scarcely worth discussing because agreement is not likely to be arrived at." That God could have put into the mouth of a prophet of the eighth century the name of a great conqueror of the sixth one is not disposed either to affirm or deny. We can only judge of God's methods, and it seems to ns that it has not been His method ; and there is some- thing in the thought which seems to lower the whole idea of prophecy. That Professor Margoliouth is a very able reasoner on the conservative side, and that his book will have to be weighed, it is scarcely necessary to say.
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