to modern theological discussion, so very large, and so very valuable, as to claim our deepest gratitude; which we now most cordially express.

The Modern Theory of a Limited Deluge shewn to be contrary to Scripture, and without support from Science. By the Rev. THOMAS MANSON. Perth: Sidey. 1864.

Mr Manson seeks to rescue the universal deluge from the scepticism of modern science. His object is to shew that the universality of the deluge is taught in Scripture in the clearest terms which language could furnish; and as there can be no collision between the works and the word of God, so any apparent difficulties arising from our imperfect knowledge should not shake our faith in the truth of the Bible; and as a consequence a local deluge can have no foundation in science, as it has none in revelation. He then shews, as he believes, from the testimony of scientific men, that the facts of science do not require a local deluge. From the standpoint of the theologian, Mr Manson's is a careful and elaborate treatise: he puts clearly and forcibly all that can be said for the view he advocates. The argument, from the oftrepeated universal terms applied in the narrative of the flood to its extent, and to the destruction of animal life, is clearly stated; but the author forgets that such universal terms are occasionally used in the Scriptures, not in an absolute but in a relative sense. The exegetical remarks on the "resting of the ark deserve attention, irrespective of the view the reader takes of the extent of the flood. The notion that the ark grounded on the summit of Ararat, and that the animals, as well as Noah and his family, made the descent of its precipitous sides is rightly ridiculed. The translation of the preposition al as over or above" in the sentence, "The ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat," gives a meaning more in keeping with the context than the ordinary one. The ark rested, i.e. floated quietly over the mountains, and as the waters assuaged it gradually descended with them until it at last grounded at their base. The lengthened investigation as to the extent of the population at the time of the flood is more to the purpose of his argument. Indeed, if it could be proved to demonstration that man had so increased as to have peopled even Australia and the two Americas, the local deluge would be given up by its advocates. For the universal terms of the sacred narrative are held by them as universal in their relation to man. If, then, man covered the earth, so must also the deluge. But this is a matter resting on the weight of evidence, and Mr Manson must not be surprised though some of his readers prefer the calculations of Hugh Miller to his own. It is unfortunate that contributions to the division of apologetics, which treats of the difficulties that appear to exist between science and Scripture, should be the work of men who are the masters of one side only of the subject. He alone can produce a treatise really satisfactory who is able to look on both sides with an intelligent eye. Geologists may give the scientific aspect, and the theologian the Bible aspect, but it requires one whose acquaintance with science and exegesis gives him a standpoint from which he can survey, both with equal power, to bring the facts and arguments of both sides fully out. Mr Manson is on sure ground when he is dealing with the argument from the Bible, but it is different when he seeks to establish the second part of his position. He is evidently an intelligent, though not an accurate naturalist. He accepts the statements of the noisy modern school of development when they favour his views, without seeing to what they lead. It is nothing for Professor Huxley to state that he believes mankind sprung originally from one pair, for he has affirmed that, going a little farther back, he does not doubt that man and the apes sprang originally from a single pair; and tracing the line of living organisms still higher, that all of them were descended from the one protoplast. Darwinism at once, and from its very nature, sets aside centres of creation. But it is far from satisfactory to knock down one error

Not

by that which the author elsewhere affirms to be only another. So in the use of the terms variety and species, Mr Manson is somewhat at sea. withstanding the remarkable differences which separate the Asiatic from the African elephant, he laughs at the notion of their being different species, and sees in the characteristics which distinguish the varieties of domestic cattle as marked differences as those which separate the two elephants! In the matter of the geographical distribution of organic beings, Mr Manson's notions are also somewhat crude. This forms really the great difficulty with the naturalist. The advocates of a local and of a universal deluge both agree in the total destruction of sinning man, with the exception of the remnant in the ark. The object of the flood was a moral one-the punishment of sin by the destruction of the sinner-and all hold that this was accomplished. The sacred narrative hints at natural cause employed by the Almighty to produce the flood. And when science inquires into these, she is not going beyond her province, as even Mr Manson allows by his inquiry into the sources from which so much water was obtained. Science has demonstrated that there are over the earth distinct biological provinces, each containing a fauna and flora remarkably different from those of the others. At no period of the earth's history have the marsupials of Australia, the wingless birds of New Zealand, or the sloths of South America existed in any region different from those they now occupy. Mr Manson may satisfy himself by imagining a postdiluvian creation, but there is certainly no support either in the Scriptures or in science for such a dream; and his notion that some of these animals may have been carried to their present localities by the early settlers without leaving a trace behind them in their original habitation, cannot be entertained. Much, indeed, may be said on both sides of the question. We fear, however, that Mr Manson, in the scientific portion of his inquiry, has not helped to clear the way to a satisfactory conclusion.

We must, in a concluding sentence, condemn the way in which Mr Manson characterises the arguments of those opposed to him. It is always an indication of weakness when recourse is had to strong epithets; and it is particularly to be deplored when they are used regarding one who deservedly stands so high in the opinion of all right-thinking men as does the late Hugh Miller. That the argument of a man who was specially characterised by his undaunted maintenance and defence of the right, should be spoken of once and again as “a kind of ruse in which the author excels," is to be regretted. And we regret still more to find Mr Manson thrusting into his pages an insinuation for which there is no foundation in fact, and which, were it true, would not in any way benefit his argument, like that contained in the sentence "With all deference to a man of great talent, and we are willing to think also of moral worth, this is an utterly unwarranted and preposterous supposition." With such an insinuation of what we believe to be false, and even with such strong language, the best of advocates would spoil a good cause,they are greater blemishes on Mr Manson's pages than even his misapprehension of scientific facts.

Harmonic Maxims of Science and Religion. By the Rev. WILLIAM Baker, M.A., Vicar of Crambe, near York. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green. 1864.

Our author, addressing himself to the great problem, how to harmonise Scripture and science, thinks he has found its solution in a new scheme of Bible-hermeneutics. Butler and others have employed the argument from analogy with triumphant success for the defence of natural and revealed religion. Mr Baker believes that the same principle of analogy carried to its legitimate results would work a revolution in the science of biblical interpretation, and that the new views of Scripture doctrine which would thus bo obtained would be found in perfect harmony with the teaching of science. Or to be more specific, our author is of opinion that the same methods of in

vestigation should be adopted in secular and in sacred studies, which he complains is at present far from being the case. He enumerates eight maxims, which, from the aid they afford in reconciling Scripture and science, he terms "harmonic," all of which are accepted by philosophers, but more or less neglected by theologians

First, No truth or law of nature is essentially hurtful.

Second, Divine laws are immutable.

Third, Appearances are deceptive, or apparent is not identical with scientific truth.

Fourth, Divine works consist of complex related groups or systems.

Fifth, In practical sciences, or those which economise means and power for the attainment of some practical end, the qualities and the potential laws of the means must be studied.

Sixth, Division and definition of labour must be regulated by the wants of mankind.

Seventh, Scientific discovery demands classification, and, consequently, the alternate use of induction and deduction.

Eighth, Progressive growth must not be denied, or a stationary character attributed to any branch of art or science.

The mere statement of these propositions will be enough to shew that we are in contact with a mind of no slight power, which, if it attain to truth, will, with the divine blessing, be sure to exert a great and beneficial influence, and, if it err, will be likely to carry other minds with it from the right path. We fear the influence which this volume will exert will prove to be of a very chequered kind. In applying some of his maxims, the author renders undeniable service to the Christian faith. Thus his first is directed with much effect against those who deny the existence of a future world. If no truth or law of nature can be hurtful, and if the acceptance of the creed that there is no hereafter would make men, with a few exceptions cast off the restraints of moral obligation, then the argument seems irrefragable that those have entirely wandered from the truth who deny the existence of a future world. His second maxim is directed with some effect against those who hold that it is possible, in the lapse of time, to wear out guilt by means of suffering; in other words, who deny that the punishment of the lost is eternal. But the inferences drawn from some of the remaining maxims are so much opposed to ordinary Christian beliefs that one naturally looks with keen eye at the successive links in the chain of reasoning to make sure that some faulty one does not escape his notice. Selecting for examination the maxim from which perhaps the most startling inference in the volume is drawn, the third, we find it runs thus :-" Appearances are deceptive, or apparent is not identical with scientific truth." The arguments in favour of this proposition are thus powerfully stated:

"That sensible phenomena of nature are to an immense extent illusory is well known. Day unto day utters speech to illustrate it.

"When we exclaim

'See yonder comes the powerful king of day,'

the majestic light which appears to rise is still several degrees below the horizon. The apparent course from east to west is delusive. The white or purple, the crimson or gold-tinted clouds which attend him, and

'By some soft touch invisible

Around his path are taught to swell,'

are not coloured, but colourless watery particles. The sapphire firmament, which seems strong like a molten looking-glass,' is fluid. The stedfast earth has three motions. The fixed stars are not fixed. Mountains as to their height deceive us; water as to its depth, colours, weights, distances, deceives. The immense overwhelming distances of the stars would not have been imagined before the discoveries of astronomy, yet possibly the relative

Critical Notices.

439

distances of atoms in a grain of sand are not less amazing. 'We recoil with surprise,' says Sir J. Herschel, when asked why we cannot conceive the atoms in a grain of sand to be as remote from each other (proportionally to their sizes) as the stars of the firmament; and why there may not be going on in that little microcosm processes as complicated and wonderful as those of the great world around us.' Weights again are not less fallacious. The feather and guinea fall in a vacuum with equal velocity. Light as air' really signifies a pressure of 15 lbs. on every square inch. In short, deceptions are everywhere. Our bodies and souls conspire in them. We touch marble or steel, as we suppose, but in reality a pellicle of air intervenes. We see clearly, as we think, but the conclusions of our sight are proved again and again to be erroneous. Everywhere the impressions of sense vanish at the touch of science, like the unreal dreams and visions raised by the spell of a magician. We become daily more and more imbued with the conviction that appearances are deceptive."

On studying the proposition just stated, it is seen to be ambiguous. It may mean all appearances, or only a considerable number. In which sense does the author use it? Manifestly in the latter, for he says, "That sensible phenomena of nature are to an immense extent illusory is well known." If so, then the inference drawn in regard to the Bible, viz., that "the entire range and totality of Scripture is illusory," is beyond what correct analogical reasoning warrants. We believe that the author, disgusted with the Colenso method of interpreting metaphorical language with the most rigid literality, has been driven to the opposite extreme. We go thoroughly with him when he shews that the all-perfect One cannot, in the ordinary sense of the words, feel grief, or anger, or repent; we entertain no alarm when he states that the language describing the extent of the deluge may not imply absolute universality; we can even conceive it possible that the penal inflictions on the lost may be mental torture and self-reproach rather than material fire; but when we find it asserted, as it is at p. 40, that the fall of man may be in some sense illusory, we enter a most serious protest. If there be any want of reality about man's sin, there must almost necessarily be a similar uncertainty about salvation, and Christ may not after all have died an atoning death, and the faith of prophets, apostles, and martyrs may have rested on an insecure foundation. Admitting, as we cheerfully do, Mr Baker's great powers of mind, the purity of his intentions, and the services rendered to truth in many parts of his work, we still fear that certain passages in his volume may prove hurtful rather than helpful to the evangelical cause which he seeks to defend.

A Faithful Ministry: Discourses by the late Rev. JOHN WALKER, NewtonStewart. With a Memoir by the Rev. JAMES DODDS, Dunbar. Second Edition. Edinburgh: John Maclaren.

So

Mr Dodds has done a very good service by this publication. Without concealing the warmth of his private attachment to his friend, he has not allowed it in any measure to disqualify him for writing his Memoir. manifestly has it qualified, without at all disqualifying, that we do not wonder that this has been pronounced a model of what such Memoirs ought to be. It contains none of that protrusion and multiplicity of utterly unremarkable details of incident and feeling, of which religious literature has presented the public with greatly more than enough. Mr Dodds has acted too much on his own good sense, and too truly honoured the memory of his departed friend, to fall into this serious error. The Memoir is succinct, written with simplicity, good taste, and good feeling. It photographs for us a man of a very excellent stamp of character-of robust and admirably trained intellect, far above the average-of deep and unaffected spirituality, far removed from pietistic indolent reflectiveness, girt up rather for devoted continual laboriousness in the service of a Christian congregation. The

sermons are truly valuable Christian writings. We would particularly specify that on "The blood of the Covenant," and that on "A People near to God," as remarkable for their rich and accurate presentation, and powerful application, of great gospel truths. Mr Walker's preaching was characterised very eminently by its searching power, as this volume witnesses; and his deep sense of the evil of sin, and his consciousness of power in pourtraying it, evidently wrought on his affection as a pastor in constraining him, as by a gracious necessity, to set forth the fulness and riches of evangelical doctrine. These eighteen sermons fully bear out Mr Dodds's estimate of his friend as a preacher, when he says:-" Mr Walker's pulpit oratory was indeed of a high order. His discourses uniformly displayed great grasp of mind, a deep acquaintance with scriptural truth, and intense earnestness of application. He was at once a highly intellectual, spiritual, and practical preacher. To great fulness and breadth of doctrinal statement, he added a wonderful searching power." We trust this new edition will have a large circulation.

The Lord's Supper: its Significance, Obligations, and Benefits. A new edition, with numerous additions and improvements. By JAMES GRIERSON, D.D., Errol. Edinburgh: John Maclaren.

We are glad to see this new edition of a valuable and instructive book. Like all that Dr Grierson has written, it is characterised by great good sense, incontrovertible soundness in doctrine, simplicity and directness of style, and important practical applications of truth. Without entering very profoundly into the theology or the doctrine of sacraments-which perhaps might have been inconsistent with the general purport of the volume-the author gives a very satisfactory view of the nature and design of the ordinance, the obligation of observing it, the preparation necessary for its acceptable and profitable observance, the advantages to be derived from observing it and observing it frequently, and the duties which its observance entails. These topics are all very fully and very intelligibly discussed; the author keeping constantly in view the twofold object of instructing the minds and impressing the hearts of his readers. Accordingly, the volume is admirably fitted for well-educated young communicants, and for all who, under increase of spiritual earnestness, are desirous of more worthily and beneficially partaking of the Lord's Supper.

Discourses by the late Reverend Duncan Macnab, Renfield Free Church, Glasgow. Glasgow: Thomas Murray & Son. 1864.

This is a book which must be read, and read again, in order to appreciate its value duly. We are prepared deliberately to say that we have not for many a day read anything in the same field at all comparable to it, either in freshness or in power. Whoever reads these discourses will see what a glorious thing the good old Puritan theology is in the hands of a master in Israel, who can bring the light of a lively fancy to play upon the large deep views of divine truth, which he proclaims with wondrous force and fire.

And yet with all this there mingles a feeling of disappointment with our admiration as we lay aside the book. There are not lacking abundant tokens of the author's learning, his habits of profound thinking, and his distinguishing attribute of power; but many of the discourses can be regarded only as incomplete productions, and scarcely fair specimens of the preaching qualities of a man, some of whose discourses were elaborated, by repeated revisals, into a very high state of finish. The editor furnishes an explanation which partly accounts for this defect; but we may be forgiven for suspecting that those who made the selection of discourses for the volume before us were desirous, as was very natural, of securing discourses in a series, and that these having been written in the course of ordinary pulpit preparation, perhaps amid the interruptions of a city ministry, had never been put into that form