Christianity and Recent Speculations. Six Lectures. By Ministers of the
Free Church. With a preface by R. S. Candlish, D.D. (Maclaren, Edinburgh.)—The dripping of modern thought is visibly telling upon the solid rock of Scotch prejudice. With the exception of Dr. Candlish, who writes in the old-fashioned way` about the Sabbath, but ii3 so hard put to it for an argument, as to have rename to what the Church at Jerusalem might have ordained; if it nod not failed, the gentlemen who have contributed to the able manifesto Mere- us concede almost all that the liberal mind is in'clined to demand. It is true; that after the approved modern litsgon t'&ey otject to most applications of the prin- ciples that they allow, and treating as sciolists the men of science whoa differ from them, reserve their- admiration for the writers of acknow- ledged eminence who have succeeded in satisfying themselves that there' 1k no inconsistency between- modern discoveries and the Jewish notion of the Kosmos. Sir Mules Lyall's assumptions are "-purely gratuitous, and several are notoriously and demonstrably false," whilst 3E. Farrar may be surprised' to hear "that Bopp and Max Muller have established on a demonstrative basis that the languages of men were originally one, and that they broke into several by a violent and sudden cause." Still, for fairness, temper, and liberality, the volume is a great improvement on what has proceeded in times past from the same quarter, and as it is characterised by the ability that is seldom wanting in Scotch argumentative treatises, we should be inclined to hope that it will exercise considerable and beneficial influence in enlarging the basin upon which is erected the very solid edifice of trans-Tweedian theology.
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