Elijah: Four University Sermons. By W. W. Shirley, Professor of
Ecclesiastical History, Oxford. (Macmillan and Co.)—Those earnest and eloquent discourses are a strong protest against certain forms of thought prevalent at the present day. He finds now the same worship of material prosperity which led Ahab into the alliance with the Tyrian Jezebel and Israel into the service of Baal ; and the discredit in which dogmatic theology is involved compels him to ask as Elijah asked, "How long hilt ye between two opinions?" Mr. Shirley seems to think that dogmatic theology is necessary as a safeguard against intellectual sins, and is not startled to find Christianity not in harmony with modern thought, as he considers that it has never been in harmony with the thought of any generation of men. The same line of argument is to be found in the third sermon, where ho examines the question of toleration. He boldly
justifies the slaughter of the priests of Baal as in conformity with the Mosaic law, which everywhere regards departure from the worship of Jehovah as treason against the theocracy it founded. And he expressly says that the Gospel " does not declare that under all possible circum- stances persecution must be wrong," but only suggests a spirit which abolishes it like slavery and bigamy. This kind of reasoning seems to us narrow and dangerous. Mr. Shirley certainly would not persecute, he is far too deeply imbued with the spirit of the Now Testament ; but we are not sure that he would not stand by while others did without feeling called on to interfere.
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