HUMAN NATURE A REVELATION OF THE DIVINE.
Human Nature a Revelation of the Divine. By Charles Henry' Robinson, M.A., Canon Missioner of Ripon. (Longreans and Co. 6s.)—The Canon Missioner of Ripon is a distinctly attractive writer. He possesses knowledge of the world, and is widely read in modern literature, of which he makes a very happy use in his addresses. As an apologist for Christianity he speaks as a Broad Churchman, and is disposed to see good in everything, and to recognise as Christian whatever bears the stamp of goodness and truth. He welcomes with enthusiasm the results of the higher criticism of the Old Testament, which he would like to see taught to young people. The time, he thinks, has come when all reserve should be thrown aside, and children taught what scholars have discovered. "The day has passed when knowledge of the results of Old Testament criticism can be confined to serious students or to teachers. Any one who is in doubt on this point has only to attempt to teach one of the upper classes in a Sunday-school the story of the Garden of Eden, or that of Balaam, or of Jonah. It is unlikely that he will get through his lesson, provided that his scholars are of average intelligence and more than twelve years old, without being asked to say whether it was an ordinary ser- pent that spoke to Eve, or whether Balsam's ass actually spoke with a man's voice, or whether Jonah was really swallowed by a fish. There are still a few teachers who would be prepared to answer an unhesitating Yes' to all such questions, but the number of scholars who would be satisfied with the answer is steadily decreasing." Canon Robinson would set aside the traditional doctrine of the Atonement as a misinterpretation of Scripture which has arisen from the legal atmosphere in which much of the Christian theology of the West was developed. He would substitute for it some such teaching as that contained in Archdeacon Wilson's " Gospel of the Atonement." There is much that is excellent in the chapters on "The Unity of God" and "Morality a Necessary Characteristic of God." The studies in the character of Christ, in which the author resumes a theme treated of in a former volume, contain a great deal that will appeal strongly to young and enthusiastic thinkers. It must be added, however, that in his eagerness to harmonise faith, Nature, and life, the author does not always keep himself within the rules of a severe logic ; and when he repeats the Persian lernd about Christ which Goethe has made familiar, and says that it is hard to believe that the story can be other than true, one is disposed to exclaim, Levis est corde qui cito credit !
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