Expositions. By the Rev. Samuel Cox, D.D. Vol. IV. (T.
Fisher Unwin.)—This is the fourth, and, we are sorry to say, the last, of Mr. Cox's admirable Expositions. They have certainly had a succds d'estime, and that of no common kind. Indeed, they seem to have had a fair circulation, for the first series has reached a third, and the second and third a second edition. Still, the pre- face tolls us that the publisher is " out of pocket ;" and it is only left to us to regret that, thanks to human caprice and blindness, the law of the "survival of the fittest" has so imperfect an applica- tion to books. " This must be the biographical volume of the series," says the author ; and certainly some of the personal sketches are particularly excellent. Dr. Cox takes a name about which there seems to be said almost nothing, and by a happy use of illustrative analogy, and now and then conjecture, makes a picture that is full of at least probable details. "Jesus who is called Justus," is a specimen of this kind of "exposition." We venture to say that there are very few readers of the Bible who would not have their views enlarged by this excellent essay. " The Man with a Pitcher" is not a biography, but is a happy illustration of a remarkable incident drawn from the habits of Jewish life. Of others of the same kind, we may mention " Demetrius," " Diotrephes," and " Gains." On more general subjects, we have " The Inequalities of Life a Warrant of Im- mortality," " The Gospel of Retribution," " The Quickening of the Soul," and "The Self-Sacrifice of Christ."—A somewhat similar volume of essays is Christianity According to Christ, by John Monro Gilson, M.A., D.D. (J. Nisbet and Co.)—Dr. Gilson deals with many subjects, apologetic, dogmatic, and practical. As specimens of these three kinds of papers, we may mention, "The Trinity as Taught by Christ," " Evangelical Apologetics," and " The Soul of Business ; or, the Law of Christ as Applied to Trade and Commerce," this last being a particularly able essay. " Christ," says Dr. Gilson, " instead of treating business relations on the lower ground of fair and honest dealing, always tries to lift men up to the higher ground." Or, as he puts the same thing in another way,—" The Tenth Commandment gives a far stronger leverage than the Eighth." And, indeed, it is true that if "a man could thoroughly keep the Tenth Commandment, he fulfils by implication the four that go before it.—Christ and His People (Hodder and Stoughton) is a volume containing thirteen sermons and addresses published in the Record during the years 1887 and 1888. These are by various prominent members of the party commonly described by the word Evangelical. In the first, "Christ our Propitiation," Canon Hoare sets forth the substitution theory in the familiar terms. There was a conflict, he tells us, in the mind of Brutus when his sons had conspired against the Republic. "Law said, 'Condemn;' and Love must have said, ' Have mercy.' It is perfectly easy to understand the awful conflict that must have raged in the father's heart, and the terrible struggle when he ordered their execution." And then he goes on, —" Now, cannot we believe in exactly the same conflict between law and love in the mind of a perfectly holy God?" Canon Hoare finds no difficulty in entertaining this strange conception, and we suppose there are many like him. Still, it sounds a httle strange, after all that has been written and said during the last twenty years, to find this crude dogmatism still as vigorous as ever.
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