Liter Librorum: its Structure, Limitations, and Purpose. A Friendly Communication
to a Reluctant Sceptic. (Longman.)—This new vindica- tion of the Bible is written from the point of view of liberal Chris- tianity, which neither abandons all that is assailed, nor upholds all that most invites attack. The writer does not agree with some of the- extremely orthodox that even mere catalogues of names in the Bible are full of edification, and the driest details full of God ; or that the list of the Dukes of Edom is as much inspired, and in the same sense, as every other part of the Bible. He asserts that the Song of Deborah by no means -carries with it any evidence that what Jael did had the divine approval. He argues that even if Abraham was directed to offer up his son, it does not follow that he was ordered to slay him. And of the Mosaic laws he says that Moses was probably left to judge and act in many matters of detail as he thought best for the people he had to. govern ; "it by no means follows that because God governed Judea theocratically He is, so to speak, to be made responsible for every enact- ment found in the laws of Moses."
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