Contemporary Literature [pp. 541-573]

i 874 ] CONTEMPORkRtY LITERATURE. 549
3. from the limited extent of their disclosures; 4. from their apparent inconsistency with other doctrines; 5 from the inadequacy of human language to
-xpress revealed truth; 6. from the incapacity of fallen man to discern spiritual
things. Some particular doctrines are then stated and defended in six lectures, viz. The Trinity; the UTnion of Divine and Human Nature in the
PIerson of Christ; the Atonement; the Work of the Holy Ghost; the Purposes
of God (thle last in two excellent lectures). TIhe twelfth and last lecture suggests pertinent cautions against prying into things unrevealed.
WVe wish that we had space to quote Dr. Crawford's statements on some of
these questions, but are obliged to content ourselves with a strong recomme ndation of this able volume. In the existing state of opinions and controversies in this country it will be helpful to many minds. It may also serve to
.ebuke the ignorance and sciolism of those who seem to think that the profound doctrines and mysteries of our faith can be dismissed with a captious
sneer or an insolent misrepresentation.
Delivery a7;n D -'vz/W,l.z/ f of Christla;l Doctrine. The Fifth Series of
the Cunningh'am Lectures. By ROBERT RAINY, D.D., Prof. of Divinity and
Church History, New College, Edinburgh. T. & T. Clark. Scribner,
Welford & Co., New York. pp. 409. Dr. Rainy subjects the whole question
of the origin and growxth of Christian Doctrine to a new, impartial and thorough
examination-probably the most comprehensive of any survey yet attempted
inT the Presbyterian Church. In the midst of so many fixed and unfixed utterances on this weighty subject, from both the ultra-conservative and the radical
extremes, it is instructive to read so wise a survey of the principles and
difficulties of the subject by a competent teacher-holding fast to all
truth in the past, with no "anxious and fretful longing for originality," yet
having also "independence, for we are the servants of a living and a present
Lord. Therefore, also, the attitude towards the Scriptures will be that of
trust and expectancy."... "For there is more in the Scriptures than
man's teachling has unfolded, even as there is correction in the Scriptures, it
mnay be on points in which all schools have erred and failed." (pp. 23I-2.)
The course of discussion is as follows: Lecture I. is preliminary, defining
doctrine, and its organization in the Fathlers, the Schoolmen and at the Reformation period, and exhibiting the correct view of Development against the
Romishl view (Dr. Newman, too) and the rationalistic. The second lecture
is on the Delivery of Doctrine in the Old Testament; the third on the New
Testament. The fourth discusses the Function of Christian Mind with
Reference to Doctrine. The Fifth is on the Development of Doctrine; and
the sixth and last applies the whole subject to the question of Creeds, their
origin, value and revision.
The last point, the possible revision of the Confession, is just now receiving
a good deal of attention in Scotland; and Dr. Rainy examines it with care
and discrimination. He defends the necessity of creeds and of their being
applied to the office-bearers, so as to exclude heresy. But still he claims, that
as Protestants, holding to the Scriptures as the only rule of faith, "we assert
not the right only, but the duty of the Church, and every branch of it, to
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