The Master of Balliol, Professor Jowett, has quite a remarkable
faculty of preaching what one may fairly call suspensive Christ- ianity. That is, he combines a curiously profound vein of Christian sentiment with a somewhat morbid respect for the achievements of modern criticism in the way of throwing an atmosphere of doubt over the authenticity of the Christian story. In a sermon preached in London last Sunday, at the Church of St. Lawrence in Gresham Street, he took his subject from the story of the Passion,—the prayer of Christ that if it were possible the cup might pass from him,—but even so, he was absolutely unable to get into his subject without enlarging anxiously on the discrepancies between the various Gospels, the comparatively late date at which they were all recognisedin their present forma in the Church, and the obstruction this causes to any unhesitating belief in the supernatural facts of the Gospel story. Still, said Professor Jowett, we cannot suspend the great duties of life, while we suspend our judgment on the ques- tions thus raised ; and in the meantime, we may actually accept as certain that Christ went about doing good, and suffered both nental and bodily anguish -for men's sake. And so, at last, he reathed his subject, though not, we suspect, without a doubt in his twn mind as to the probably baneful results, even upon Christian sentiment and practice, of any judicial decision which may ultimately be passed on the theological demurrer the scope of which he had thus indicated.
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