The Religion of Jesus, compared with the Christianity of To - day.
By F. A, Binney. (E. W. Allen.)—We cannot say that Mr. Binney seems to us properly qualified to write either upon the "Religion of Jesus" or "The Christianity of To-day," his knowledge of either being exceed- ingly limited. One piece of information which he gives us in his pre- face, namely, that he does not understand the original Greek of the New Testament, is entirely superfluous. Mr. Matthew Arnold will be gratified to learn from Mr. Bitting that his book, "Literature and Dogma," "ably prepares the way" for the present work. We entirely agree with Mr. Binney's modest estimate of himself, when he says that Mr. Arnold is superior to himself in style and argument. The hopeless woodenness of this writer's mind is well illustrated by this discovery whioh he makes of a startling contradiction between the teaching of St. Paul and St. James :—" Whilst St. Paul says Rejoice evermore,' St. James, on the contrary, writes, 'Be afflicted, and mourn and weep.'" No further witness is required of Mr. Ilinney's incom- petency for the task which be has undertaken. As for the Christianity of to-morrow, be seems to expect that it will consist of a selection from the moral maxims of Christ, supplemented by imitations from, and to be given by," the Spritualists." In an appendix, Mr. Binney gives a long list of works in which such imitations are to be found ; but the examples of them which he himself gives seem for the most part to be taken from that very remarkable book, Swedenborg's "Heaven and Hell," a store- house of ideas from 'which modern Spiritualists seem to borrow freely, without the excuse of any real kinship with the author of them. This religion of the future moms to us, it need hardly be said, to offer anything but a pleasant prospect. We must notice an incon- sistency of Mr. Bieney's which seems to us very inexcusable. Ho comments severely on the presumption of the Twenty-second Article, which "is an express deolaration of dissent from the interpretation which the Roman Catholic Church—comprising about twelve times as many Christians as the Church of England—conscien- tiously puts upon certain passages of Scripture." But when Mr. Binney comes to connect himself with the Church of Rome in reference to this mattes-of the invocation of the Virgin Mary and the saints, he maks, " Of what possible use can any such assistance be ?" One would have thought that, according to his own principles, it would be the most reasonable thing for a man in a difficulty to invoke the aid of the most good-natured spirit, saint or otherwise, that might happen to be about.
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