Contemporary Literature [pp. 729-761]

740
CONTEMIPORIARY LITERATURE.
[Oct.
perfect obedience which does this, where it-if so it must be-subjects itself
also to the punishment/" (p. 603), the difference between him and the real
meaning of those who say Christ's sufferings were truly penal, is scarcely
a hair's breadthl, if it is anything.
In regard to perseverance, he says, p. 664:
"It ahleady al)ppears on which side we range ourselves in the strife on
this point, whic the Reformed Church has waged since the seventeenth
century against the Romish and Lutheran, and which has also been the
cause of the separation between the Rtetmonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants.
It is the question, whether there is reason to expect that the Christian will
really, throun,h Godcl's grace, persevere in the faith, or whether it is possible
that tile redeemed of the Lord may still entirely fall away, and consequently
perish finally. This q-lesti-on must, according to our sincerest conviction,
be affi-rmatively anisweared, not in the latter, but in the former sense. It is
entirely in un-isoin with Scripture and experience, when the believer confesses that'hle is a living member of the Church of Christ, and will also
cotiiznue so forever' (Heid. Cat., Ans. 54); and not without reason was the
fifth article of the Perseverance of the Saints, defended at the Synod of
Dort w,ith sclah warmthl against the Arminians."
In regard to Eschatology, he guardedly but decidedly rejects every form
of Universalismi, whether of Restoration or Annihilation, and says:
"WIe distrust every mnode of regarding the doctrine of salvation, which
in its foundation ard tendency fails to do justice to the seriousness of the
conception of an evellasting Too lote, and of the holiness of a grace which
cannot indeed be exhausted, but can just as little be mocked," p. 809.
We earnestly hope that the publishers and editors of this Philosophical
and Theological Library may meet with a patronage which will encourage
them to go forward to the completion of their enterprise. L. H. A.
BIBLICAL LITERATURE.
The Life of Christ. By FREDERIC W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S. 2 vols.
8e-o. Dutton & Co.: N. Y. The author of this new Life of Christ, Chap lain in Ordinary to the Queen, is already well known by his Hulsean Lec tures, I870, entitled The Witlless of History to Christ, and also by a later
volume of sermons, The Silenice ancid Voices of God, which have been widely
read and admired. He has also written on philological subjects, and is well
versed in the literature of his present theme, having made use throughout of
all the later German, French, and English authors, as well as the older
treatises. His acquaintance with the Jewish literature adds much to the value
of the work. Of some of the later Jewish writers he says, that "their re searches have thrown a flood of light on some parts of the gospels, and have
led me to some conclusions which, so far as I am aware, are new. I have,
indeed, in the second excursus of the appendix, shown that nothing of the
slightest importance can be gleaned from the Talmudists about the Lord
himself. The real value of the Rabbinic writings in illustrating the gospels is
indirect, not direct-archeological, not controversial. The light which they
throw on the fidelity of the Evangelists is all the more valuable because it is
derived from a source so unsuspected and so hostile."
In addition to this, he also visited, in I870, the scenes of the gospel narra tive, fully prepared to examine and verify many of the details, which, he says,