Church Doctrine and Spiritual Life.

Sermons Preached in the Chapel of Lincoln's Inn. By F. C. Cook, M.A., Canon of Exeter. (London: Rivingtons, 1879.)

A COLLECTION of twenty-five thoughtful, original, and orthodox sermons. We are glad to think that the Preacher of Lincoln's Inn has not shrunk from dealing with such questions as the Intermediate State, the Ministry of Angels, the Athanasian Creed, and the witness. to the Faith, the Eucharistic Worship, and the Eucharistic Doctrine of the Catholic Church, afforded by S. Clement of Rome, S. Justin Martyr, S. Athanasius, and S. Hilary.

Sermons on Missions and other Subjects. THOMAS BULLOCK, M.A., Secretary to pagation of the Gospel, Chaplain in Palace, and Prebendary of S. Paul's. and Sons, 1879.)

By the late Rev. WILLIAM the Society for the ProOrdinary to Kensington (London: George Bell

To that large number of persons who knew the late Prebendary Bullock personally, and to that very much larger number who knew him from correspondence in the discharge of his official duties, this little volume will be a valued memorial of a man who, though quiet and unassuming in the extreme, exerted a good deal of influence over Church extension in his unpretending way. The growth and prosperity of the Anglican Church, in its colonial and missionary dioceses, during the time that he held the helm of the great Society for the Propagation of the Gopsel, is his best memorial. But nevertheless we are unfeignedly glad that these sermons have been published, not only for the author's sake, but also because the volume has really a character of its own, and will not be without its special usefulness, especially to readers among the clergy. We refer to the missionary purpose with which a considerable number of them were written. Mr. Bullock was, from his position, naturally often called upon to preach on behalf of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. A number of these sermons are those which he delivered on such occasions, and they contain numerous facts and statistics bearing on the subject of missionary enterprise, of no very recondite character, indeed, but such as may be very useful again under conceivable circumstances. We will give a brief specimen :

'Europe is the great depository of the Christian Faith; Europe is greatest in influence and prestige of all people. Europeans, imbued with knowledge and invested with power, are through God's Providence dispersed for various reasons throughout all regions of the heathen world, and the methods of communication between the heathen world and Christendom are now marvellously quickened and multiplied. Thus Europe seems prepared, as God's instrument, to carry Christianity far and wide. . . . And now let us glance at the work to the performance of which He is calling us. In Asia there are China and Japan, with their 400,000,000 of pagans; there is India, with its 240,000,000. These are surely enough to contemplate. And yet there remains Africa, with its dark interior swarming with unnumbered tribes, all waiting for the footsteps of the messenger of salvation. There are the islands of the sea.

Out of the whole population of the globe, it is reckoned that not

much more than one person out of three has yet taken up the profession of Christianity. In this nineteenth century of the Christian religion, there are, it is said, about 7,000,000 out of 11,000,000,1 who are still strangers to the knowledge of the true God, and the consolations and hopes of the true Faith'-(p. 74).

Oxford Sermons, preached before the University. By the Rev. EDWIN A. ABBOTT, D.D.. formerly Fellow of S. John's College, Cambridge. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1879.)

We do not usually expect open and unmistakable scepticism from a Doctor of Divinity; still less in a volume of Sermons preached before the University. It is very clear that the Gospel according to Dr. Abbott is very different from the Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John; and even the widely-tolerant S. Paul would, we fear, have launched against the views contained in these pages the anathema of Gal. i. 8. It is not so much the sermons indeed in which Dr. Abbott's repov evayyéλor appears, as in the Introduction which is prefixed to them, and which for us, at all events, has been very sad reading. He divides all theologians into The Destructive Party,' The Conservative Party,' and the 'Party of Growth.' The former he blames-will our readers imagine why? Because it rejects every narrative of miracle, modern or ancient, without attempting to discriminate'—not, as a believer would have said, between true narratives of miraculous occurrences and false ones—but between three varieties of what is false, and the fourth, 'what is true, but not miraculous, except in appearance; that is to say, exceptional, but not unnatural.' The inference intended to be drawn is not stated in so many words, but it is plain enough. Next as to the party which he calls Conservative, and describes thus: "These admitting no growth in our knowledge of God, deny that we can learn anything new about Him from His newly discovered works, that is, from poetry, history, and science.' Without denying that there may be here and there individuals to whom such a description may apply, we utterly deny that any such party exists. Dr. Abbott, no doubt, wanted somebody at whom to direct his sarcasms; but here he has set up not a man, but a scarecrow; and if he thinks that they will apply to any number of persons considerable enough to form a type among practical divines, he is much mistaken. The animus of the charge is clear enough. He goes on to make other charges, that Conservatives refuse to admit the discovery of errors and interpolations in the books of the Old and New Testaments,' and that they refuse to 'interpret more truly an euphemism for to deny the miraculous narratives in the Scriptures.

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Then follows what he calls the 'Party of Growth,' with which we must infer the writer agrees, though, as he puts forth views in this impersonal way, no one can charge him with any expressions of personal opinion. This 'Party at all events finds 'some errors in the text of the Old

1 There must have been some error in Mr. Bullock's MS. here. More accurately stated, the proportions would be :-Idolaters 665,500,000 out of a total population of 1,375,000,000.

and New Testaments,' which it is its duty to remove. It rejects the worship of Christ for the reason that He is God, and substitutes (as we are here told) because our spirits place Him, and cannot but place Him, by the side of the Majesty on high.' That is true enough, no doubt, of those who have been brought up under more religious, i.e. more believing influences; but in the case of persons who had been shaped under other influences, the answer might be altogether different: the recognition of the ideal character of Christ might not come; and there appears no substantial argument to fall back upon when it does not. In chap. ii. he goes on with more of the same kind. We' (he says now) shall note the gradual amplification of the miraculous element in the narrative of the Incarnation and the Resurrection' (p. 36). . . . ‘This analysis, by enabling us to detach later accretions from the living words of the Lord Himself,' &c. 'These late additions to the Gospel, though possibly or probably not historical, nevertheless represent spiritual truths.' So again, on p. 39, he declares of those who believe that 'Jesus is, spiritually, the only begotten Son of God,' that He healed the souls of men, that He rose from death, and so on, and that the accounts are 'historically' true; and those other persons who regard them as 'not historical'-i.e. in plain words, as false--that we are spiritually agreed; the difference between us and them is merely an intellectual one.' But we take leave to say that it is more than this; nor do we see how spiritual agreement, that is, in spiritual truth, can arise out of what is materially false; for with things and concerns that are material, i.e. which have to do with matter, the material truth, as truth of fact, lies at the root, and is the necessary condition of what shall be spiritually true. And we do not think that exceptions are producible to this canon.

But we have devoted as much space as we can spare to a book which may have the praise of good intentions, but which we can approve in no other way whatsoever.

ARTHUR RAWSON ASHWELL.

En Memoriam.

On the 23rd of October, only eight days after the publication of the last number of the Church Quarterly Review, Canon Ashwell, who had edited it without assistance, and written one of its articles, entered into his rest. About a month previously he had returned from a holiday in Switzerland, with, as all his friends hoped, renewed health. But he was attacked with congestion of the lungs, and, with a constitution impaired by excessive work, he had no power of rallying, and so. in his fifty-fifth year, his valuable life was lost to the Church Militant.

For three years we have had the great advantage of his learning and energy in conducting this Review, and it is with most unfeigned sorrow, and with great admiration for his brilliant talents, religious consistency, and indomitable industry, that we mourn his removal from amongst us. He possessed in a remarkable degree the power of rapidly grasping a subject in all its bearings, and of placing it clearly and forcibly before others, so that he could convincingly set forth the views which he approved, and smite with keen satire and happy retort those in which he detected errors or sophistries. Some of the ablest papers which have adorned this Review proceeded from his pen; and two articles of his in the Quarterly, one on Education, and the other on Bishop Wilberforce, attracted a large amount of attention. We believe it was the appearance of the article last named, which led to his being selected to write the Life of that great Bishop; and all will regret that he lived to complete only the first portion of that important biography.

The distinguishing characteristic of Canon Ashwell's life was his power of work. His life may be said to have been devoted to two pursuits, either of which, prosecuted as he prosecuted it, would have formed ample employment for a man endowed with ordinary energy. After graduating as fifteenth wrangler at Cambridge, and filling for a short time the curacy of Speldhurst, in Kent, and studying theology for two years under Professor Blunt, at Cambridge, he devoted himself, with only one short interval, to education, whilst at the same time he laboured hard at literary work. At S. Mark's College, Chelsea, as Vice-Principal, at Culham and Durham as Principal, he trained schoolmasters for their important duties; and in 1870 he was selected by the present Bishop of Chichester, though personally unknown to him, on account of the skill and efficiency with which he had fulfilled the offices just named, for the important position of Principal of the Chichester Theological College, joined with a Canonry in the Cathedral. Whether as an educator of schoolmasters or of clergymen, his distinguishing characteristic was the same: he compelled his students to work by his own restless activity; they were ashamed to be idle when they saw how much he did; whilst his powers of lucid exposition, clear analysis, and vigorous utterance interested them in their work.

In addition to this arduous and weary task, he was a diligent student and a constant writer. In 1864 he became editor of the Literary Churchman, to which he was also a regular contributor: this office he held till 1876, when he became editor of this Review, but he had undertaken it anew immediately before his death. He also wrote for the Quarterly and other Reviews, and some of his articles were afterwards published separately at the request of friends. One or two volumes of sermons were his only independent works; and those who knew him well and appreciated his ability looked upon his authorship of Bishop Wilberforce's Life as a probable turning point in his literary career, and as the possible commencement of extended efforts in the field of Literature.

But amid the diligent discharge of his duties as a teacher, VOL. IX.-NO. XVIII.

and unwearied labours as a student and writer, Canon Ashwell never forgot the higher calls of his profession. Earnest and popular as a preacher, he never refused to assist those who claimed his help when it was possible to comply. In many important churches in London and elsewhere, as well as in his own Cathedral, he was a frequent and acceptable preacher; perpetually depriving himself of all rest in order to accomplish what he had promised. Of few men could it be so truly said that in change of work he found his only recreation. An earnest and devoted Churchman, he sought to further the truths he dearly loved by every means in his power. And so, to the great grief of all who knew him, his strength was overtaxed and prematurely exhausted, and he was called away at a time when his great powers were beginning to be generally recognized and fully appreciated. In his removal from their midst his friends seem to see the fulfilment of those words of the Book of Wisdom: 'He being made perfect in a short time fulfilled a long time.’

THE RETROSPECT OF 1879.

I.

THE great ecclesiastical event of the past year, the conclusion of the debates in the Convocation of Canterbury over the Rubrics, under the Royal Letters of Business, has been so fully discussed in an article on 'The Situation,' which we gave in July, and in the first article of the present number, that we decline to offer another continuous history of this interesting episode. But we will record a few undoubted facts which must be accepted as rules of action in further proceedings. 1. The Convocation of York has shown its perfect independence and equality by, dissenting from all the principal conclusions which its sister of Canterbury reached. 2. Therefore, for

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the purpose of approaching the State, nothing yet has been decided on by Convocation taken as a whole. 3. In accepting the Bishops' addition to the Ornaments Rubric in lieu of its own, the Lower House of Canterbury believed that it was accepting something which conceded a modus vivendi for the distinctive Eucharistic vesture. Both Houses of Canterbury pledged themselves not to resort to Parliament for legislation upon the Rubrics, until a certain proposed Bill had passed, and then only according to the provisions of that Bill. This Bill, which was, in its general outlines, originally introduced by the Bishop of London into the House of Lords in 1874, and again by the Bishop of Carlisle during the last Session, proposes that rubrical legislation, to which it is limited, shall not be by way of Act of Parliament, but by that of Convocational schemes, which shall lie for forty days on the table of both Houses of Parliament, and shall then, if not objected to in either one by an address to the Crown, become law. Those who are sanguine over the prospects