God in Christ. By Horace Bushnell. Second Edition. (Triibner and
Co.)—This is a new edition of a very remarkable book, which con-
tains one of the most able attempts that we have ever met with at thinking out an intelligible idea of the nature of Christ. It consists of three discourses, on the "Divinity of Christ," the "Atonement," and "Dogma, and Spirit," to which is prefixed an introductory assay, in which
Dr. Bushnell works out, with great ability and clearness, his views res- pecting the nature and object of language. Words, he says, aro origi-
nally signs of physical phenomena, and, as long as they remain in this
stage, their meaning can always be accurately ascertained by a reference to the phenomena which they represent. When, however, they come to be used to represent thoughts or feelings, they are more figurative
expressions, the precise meaning of which there are no means whatever of ascertaining ; whence it follows that we cannot arrive at such accu-
racy in the use of words as would alone make religious dogmatism possible. We cannot even attempt to reproduce Dr. Bushnell's views respecting the nature of Christ, and we must content ourselves with
referring the reader to the volume itself. We may notice, however, that he regards the Trinity as a necessary result of the revelation of God to man, and points out that an Infinite Being, in order to generate in us any knowledge of himself, must produce himself in finite forms.
Previous page
