The Thirty-Nine Articles have been very properly abandoned by the
Oxford Congregation as a subject of examination for the ordinary degree. Candidates arc to be examined in them for the future only in the honour schools of theology. A book of Scrip- ture or a period of ecclesiastical history is to be made a special subject of examination in their plan. Dr. Liddon was much opposed to this change, arguing that it would make the teaching of Christian doctrine a strictly optional matter, since the Bible and ecclesiastical history were neither of them suitable bases for Christian doctrine, as they could be handled from so many points of view. No doubt, and that is precisely the reason why in an examination open to men of so many different points of view, they are much more suitable subjects than the Thirty-Nine 'Articles. The Guardian grieves with Dr. Liddon. "It is idle," it says, "to regard it as other than a blow to the recogni- tion of dogmatic theology." Certainly, and how can a national University recognize in a public examination dogmas which only some of the examinees profess to accept ? To the Church herself, we are disposed to think the shelving of the Articles as the text-book of her theology ought to be a great relief. They were very moderate terms of compromise, but they are about as scientific as Mr. Scott Russell's seven articles of social reform.
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