208 THE EXPOSITORY TIMES. Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness? represented ·by law. Mankind learns the need Remember that the goodness of God leadeth thee for higher things. He tries to struggle upwards ; to inheritance. Be. careful. Thou art treasuring he fails : not necessarily indeed, absolutely and up for thyself wratli in the day of wrath, and completely, but, as compared with the ideal, very revelation of the righteous judgment of God.' If definitely. Typically these stages are illustrated there is one temper which is definitely condemned, by the history of the Jewish· race; with its period it is this. For the most sin-stained of men there of ignorance or imperfect knowledge, from Adam may be mercy, for the most hardened blasphemer to Moses, and its revelation of the law, from Moses there may be mercy, for the atheist there may be to Christ. And the same stages may be traced in mercy; but for the man who presumes on God's other nations and peoples. Not indeed in such a ·mercy there will be none. clear cut away. The stages of history are indeed Sin, law, judgment-these are the three facts not actuallv marked in such a definite way, even in involved in the .revelation of God's justice, and it the Jewish race. There was knowledge of right is on account of these facts that the revelation of and wrong before Moses; there was 'growth in God's mercy in the gospel was necessary for men. knowledge after Moses. But looking broadly at St. Paul's theory of human history and of human human history, there are two great stages-an nature then is as follows. It is a theory which is original period of degradation and ignorance, and equally true both for the race and the individual, the gradual development and realisation in men's just as the doctrine of evolution and the study of minds of the great facts of law; of the distinctions development teaches us that each individual must of right and wrong. go through in its life's history the whole process So in the individual. Ignorance is his first which its ancestors have experienced 'during count­ stage; a knowledge of right and wrong the second, less generations. a knowledge capable of continuous growth and Man is created with a nature ' in the image of development ; knowledge .implies a struggle for Goq,' but from the beginning of history he has attainment; and the struggle reveals the weakness been in the power of an alien and destructive and imperfections of human nature. principle, sin; that is, he has been incapable of In both nations and individuals, in both history attaining to the aim and purpose for which he was and personal development, there is the preparation created. The first stage is one of ignorance and for and the need of a higher revelation, and th:at sinfulness, but not of guilt. The next is that higher revelation is the Gospel. · ------·•·------ THE BOOKS OF THE MONTH. (The Prices of the Books mentioned below will generally be found in the A.dvertisement pages.) I. GOD'S WORLD. BY B. FAY MILLS. (Allen­ it with this popular American preacher. As son. Crown 8vo, pp. 322.) Other things being literature, as matter, as qnarry, they are naught j equal, the less there is in a ~ermon the more as inspiration, as electric spark, in short, as ser.mons, successful it will be. Take the sermons of the they are everything. most powerful preachers ; take the sermons of even the most permanently popular ·preachers ; take A SERVICE OF ANGELS. BY THE REV. Spurgeon's own, you are disappointed when you HENRY LATHAM, M~A. (Cambridge: Dez'ghton, read them : ' there is so little in them ! ' They Bell, & Co. ; London: Bell & Sons. Crown 8vo, were not prepared to be read, but only to be pp. xv, 223.) 'Heaven lies about us in our heard, and the preacher's first care was just infancy,' and especially the angels of heaven: that there should not be much in them. So is But when 'at length the man perceives it die THE EXPOSITORY TIMES. away and fade into the light of common day,' it is which he was reckoned incapable of deeper the angels that are the first to go. In these days thought or more robust· morality than of unsentimental (and unscriptural) manhood, to It was the schooner Hesperus acknowledge a belief in· angels is almost to say That sailed the wintry sea. that we have been unable to put away childish things with our childhood. So it has been with But that was a libel on the schoolboy, and a great the Master of Trinity Hall; but so it is not now. educational blunder. Carlyle may be a .little above At first he goes no further and is no bolder than to his attainment yet; but surely that is what a.· say that 'I have now come to think that the belief schoolbook always ought to be, not miserably in Heavenly Witnesses round about.us may have a below. And Mr. Leask has gone through Carlyle solid groundwork of truth.' And from the be­ from beginning to end and chosen the best-clear ginning to the end he is most anxiou"s not to thought, sound ethic; living language. load our belief with burdens too heavy to be borne, and not to bind the Bible down to too OLAF THE GLORIOUS. Bv ROBERT rigid a literality. Nevertheless, after a clear and LEIGHTON. (Blackie & Son. Crown Svo, popularly written account of what Scripture reveals, pp. 35i.) It scarce needs the sub-title to tell us and what may be legitimately drawn from the that it is a story of the Viking Age. There are revelation, he ends by a firm acceptance of the Olafs in Norway now, no doubt, Olafs in plenty; reality of angels and their present delightful but Olaf the Glorious has not been seen since the interference in our affairs. day upon which Olaf the King of All Norway swam under his shield and passed to where PARABLES FROM NATURE. Bv beyond these voices there is peace. It is a tale MARGARET GATTY. (Bell. Crown Svo, pp. 492.) of war and wickedness ; and yet there was virtue This is a reprint of the handiest and most useful too, the virtue of rude bravery in abundance. edition of the Parables, and it is very cheap. Now Boys will relish it no doubt, and find a royal let nothing come between us and them, let road to solid history in it. nothing come between our little ones and them, for there is a blessing in them. BLACKIE'S SCHOOL AND HOME LIBRARY. THE LAMPLIGHTER ANI:1- RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD IN RELA­ 'i'HE PATHFINDER. (Blackie & Son. Crown TION TO CHRISTIANITY. Bv G. M. GRANT, Svo, pp. 256 each.) Messrs. Blackie & Son of D.D. (A. & C. Black. 16mo, pp. x, 137.) In Glasgow and London are at present issuing a the latest of the 'Guild Text-Books' the Principal series of cheap 'classics, to which they give the of Queen's University, Canada, has accomplished title of the 'School and Home Library.' The a feat that would have been called impossible books are for boys and girls, well chosen and. before he accomplished it. In less than 150 very . worth buring. small pages he has given a perfectly clear and even literary account of the four great systematised THE LITERATURE OF THE GEORGIAN religions of the world,-Mohammedanism, Con­ ERA. Bv THE LATE WILLIAM MINTO, LL.D. fuc,ianis.m, Hinduism, and Buddhism,-so that we (Blackwood. Crown. Svo, pp. 1, 315.) It is actually know their leading characteristics, their probable that this .will. be the most widely read strength and their weakness, and have all the of Professor Minto's works. It certainly makes. materials before us for a fair comparison with appeal to· the widest circle of readers. There is Christianity. This tiny volume will win for the subject proper,-the Georgian Era of Literature, Principal Grant th'e admiration of book lovers and touching on Pope, V\T ordsworth, Scott, Byron, students of religion everywhere. Shelley, Keats,-the period that is still the most attractive for the average student of literature. READINGS FROM CARLYLE. Bv W. Was not Minto himself most at home there also?· KEITH LEASK, M.A. (Blackie. Crown Svo, And these .are not academical but popular lectures, pp. 270.) Carlyle as a schoolbook! How has delivered to a large general audience and written the schoolboy ma,de progress since the days in to suit it. But besides the subject of the book,. 14 210 THE EXPOSITORY TIMES. there are many things that reach out widely. since it is the price that liberty-loving men seem There is the Appendix, with its three masterly always to pay for their liberty. No doubt the essays, on Mr. Courthope's Biography of Pope, book is worthy of its great subject : it certainly the Supposed Tyranny of Pope, and the His­ makes us feel that its subject is great. torical Relationships of Burns. And above all, there is the long Biographical Introduction SYNTAX OF THE MOODS AND TENSES which Professor Knight is responsible for, but IN NEW TESTAMENT GREEK. BY EKNEST to which many hands, whose touch is very sym­ DE \VITT BURTON. (T. & T. Clark. Post Svo, pathetic, have made contribution.. Taken together pp. xxii, 215.) This book has been expected for then it is the easiest to read of all Professor Minto's some time in our country, but Professor Burton books, and for how much does that count in these held it back till the new edition with its corrections days wherein no one·will take literature except as and additions was ready.