Rudiments of Theology. By T. P. Norris, Canon of Bristol.
(Rivingtons.) —We can recommend this book to theological students as a useful and compendious manual. It is clear, and well arranged. There is an appendix of considerable length, intended to illustrate the teaching of the book by extracts from the early fathers. Canon Norris's views are those of a moderate Churchman. Speaking of that vexata weak), "the power of the keys," he is most careful to maintain that the Church teaches that the forgiveness of sin belongs to God, and to doll only. "Remitting and retaining sin " is, in fact, equivalent to " binding and loosing Church membership," and Christ's ministers, while they admit and reject from Church communion, " never confuse this power with the power of actually forgiving sin." So, again, in dealing with the Eucharist, he differs altogether from the distinctly Romanising clergy of the Church. The Consecration Prayer, he says, denies emphatically that there is in the Eucharist any propitiatory sacrifice. The whole service, he adds, implies that it is the memorial of Christ's sacrifice. And by " the real presence " he understands a specially effectual presence, not different in kind from Christ's perpetual presence with his people. It is quite possible that the more advanced Ritualists will look upon Canon Norris as little better than a Rationalist, but we venture to be- lieve that, on the-whole, he is a very fair exponent of the teaching of the English Church, and that his book may bo profitably used by those for whom it is chiefly intended,—that is, candidates for ordination.
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