Christian Missions and Social Progress. By the Rev. James S.
Dennis, D.D. Vol. III. (Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier. 10s. net.)—Dr. Dennis has now brought to a conclusion this vast work, developed, we may remind our readers, from a course of six lectures, which, as originally delivered, would have made a volume of some two hundred pages. It is a great vindication of the splendid service which missionary effort has rendered in the elevation of mankind Two mistakes are often made by those who take it upon themselves to pronounce judgment in this matter. Some are impatient, and expect too much. They forget that the raising of moral standards, the elevation, so to speak, of the plane of life, is a work in which it takes not so much years or generations as millenniums to make visible progress. Others are simply in- competent to form opinions. They dogmatise about comparative morality when they are themselves content with the lowest ethical standards, and about religious feelings with which they have themselves no sympathy. Apart from these general con- siderations, let any fair-minded person reflect what has been done, to take an instance, in India. They must compare the country and the people, not with ideals which have never been found in either East or West, but with historical facts, with the India of a century ago. The Government, it is true, has striven to be neutral, but it has been, by compulsion, it may be, Christian, and so far reforming.
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