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Odysseus, The Dominicn of, and the Island Group of the Odyssey. By the RIGHT
HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P..

Oera Linda Book, The. A Postscript. By the REV. W. BARNES

Oxford, The Ancient Organization of the University of. By T. E. HOLLAND
Party Government, The Decline of. By PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH

Pessimism and its Antidote. By CHARLES NISBET

Popes and Cardinals. By CHARLES PEBODY.

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'Restoration, Thorough." By the Rev. W. J. LOFTIE.

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Ships of War, Recent Designs for. By THOMAS BRASSEY, M.P.
Smile, The, and the Sigh

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Contributors to this Volume.

BARNES, REV. W.

BRASSEY, THOMAS.

CADOGAN, LADY AUGUSTA L.

DUFF-GORDON, LADY.

ELLIOT, HON. HUGH F.

ESCOTT, T. H. S.

EVANS, SEBASTIAN.

FITZMAURICE, LORD EDMOND.

FLEAY, REV. F. G.

FREEMAN, EDWARD A.

FYFE, J. HAMILTON.

GLADSTONE, RIGHT HON. W. E.

HOLLAND, T. E.

HUEFFER, FRANCIS.

JACOBS, JOSEPH.

LOFTIE, REV. W. J.

MACQUOID, MRS.

MAHAFFY, PROFESSOR.

MAURICE, C. E.

MYERS, FREDERIC W. H.

NISBET, CHARLES.

OLIPHANT, MRS.

PEBODY, CHARLES.

PERRY, WALTER C.

PHILLIMORE, MISS.

SCOTT, SIR G. GILBERT.

SEELEY, PROFESSOR.

SERVICE, REV. JOHN.

SMITH, PROFESSOR GOLDWIN.

STATHAM, H. HEATHCOTE.

STRACHEY, ST. LOE.

THORDÈN, K. M.

WALLACE, A. R.

WAVELL, MAJOR A. H.

WESTMINSTER, THE DEAN OF.

WILLIAMS, T. K.

MACMILLAN'S MAGAZINE.

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MACMILLAN'S MAGAZINE.

MAY, 1877.

THE HOPES OF THEOLOGY.1

On the occasion of my former address at St. Andrews, the Principal of St. Mary's College asked me to speak 'a few words to the theological students under his charge. It was not within my power to comply with his request at that moment. But now that the time draws near to take farewell of an office which I have valued so highly, I have thought that I might properly touch on some subject which, though of general interest, had special reference to theology. When I spoke to you before, I appealed to the motto which is written over this ancient hall

*Αιὲν ἀριστεύειν

-and dwelling on the inspiring force of the contemplation of GREATNESS in all its forms, I endeavoured to show how bright was the sunshine which such a thought throws on all your present duties and studies. That brightness I would still wish to maintain, though within a more definite range, and in a humbler and graver tone, more suited to the altered circumstances both of him who speaks and of you who listen.

The topic which I propose to take is one at which I slightly hinted in the conclusion of my last words to you, and which was suggested to me afresh by the instructive address delivered, in the course of the late winter, to the

1 Address to the Students of St. Andrews, by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Lord Rector of the University.

No. 211.-VOL. XXXVI.

students of Aberdeen by an eminent statesman-one of the foremost of our time. He, speaking with the fulness of his varied experience, and with the strength of true humility and moderation, chose as his theme, "The Rocks Ahead," in the political and social world, indicated some years ago by a distinguished publicist. But besides the political and the economical rocks, there was a third rock, which the prophet of ill had pointed out, the religious or theological rock-namely, the danger arising to religion from the apparently increasing divergence between the intelligence and the faith of our time. It is this topic-touched for a moment by Mr. Forster; handled more fully, but still in a rapid survey, by an accomplished countryman of your own, Mr. Grant Duff, at Edinburgh— on which I propose to insist more at length on the present occasion. know the story of the Inchcape Rock, almost within sight of these shores; how for many years it was the terror of mariners until an enterprising Abbot of Aberbrothock ventured to fasten a bell upon the sunken reef. Will you permit the successor of the Abbots of Westminster, after the fashion of the Douglas of your own Scottish history, to attempt to "bell this rock"? The waves of controversy and alarm will still doubtless dash over it; but, perchance, if my advice contains any truth, you will catch from time to time henceforth, amidst the roar of the billows, faint chimes of a more

B

You

cheering music; and even if some rash rover shall tear off the signal of warning and encouragement, yet the rude shifts of the Abbot may suggest to some wiser and more scientific inventor to build on the rock a lighthouse which will more effectually defy the storm, and more extensively illuminate the darkness of the time to come. I propose, then, to speak to you of the grounds of hope for the religion and theology of the future.

1

I do not deny that the forebodings of Mr. Greg have some foundation. It was one of the last anxious aspirations of Dean Milman, that some means might be found to avert the wide and widening breach which he seemed to see between the thought and the religion of England. There has been an increasing suspicion between the fiercer factions of the ecclesiastical and the scientific worldcach rejoicing to push the statements of its rival to the extremest consequences, and to place on them the worst possible construction. There have arisen new questions, which ancient theology has for the most part not even considered. There is an impetuosity on both sides, which to the sober sense of the preceding century was unknown, and which threatens to precipitate conflicts, once cautiously avoided or quietly surmounted. There are also indications that we are passing through one of those periods of partial eclipse which from time to time retard the healthy progress of mankind. In the place of the abundant harvest of statesmanlike and poetic genius with which the nineteenth century opened, there have sprung up too often the lean and puny stalks blighted with the east wind. Of this wasting, withering influence modern theology has had its full share. Superstitions which seemed to have died away have returned with redoubled force; fantastic ideas of divine and human things, which the calm judgment of the last century, 1 History of the Jews, 3rd edition, vol. i., P. xxxiv.

the Heaven-inspired insight of the dawn of this, would have scattered like chaff, seem to reign supreme in large sections of the religious world. And this calamity has overtaken us in the presence of the vast, perhaps disproportionate, advance of scientific knowledge, which feels most keenly and presses most heavily the weaknesses of a credulous or ceremonial form of belief. It is, no doubt, conceivable that these dreadful forms and "fiery faces" might portend for England the same overthrow of faith that has overtaken other countries. If such a separation were indeed universally impending between the religion of the coming age and the progress of knowledge, between the permanent interests of the Christian Churches and the interests of the European States, then there would be a cause for alarm more serious than the panics of religious journals or the assaults of enraged critics. It would be the "ingens motus excedentium numinum”—the tread of departing deity—

"Non me tua fervida terrent

Dicta, ferox; sed Di terrent et Jupiter hostis."

But behind those outward manifestations of danger, there is a higher Christianity, which neither assailants nor defenders have fully exhausted. We cannot believe that the inexorable hour has struck. There is good ground for hoping that the difficulties of religion, national religion, Christian religion, are but the results of passing maladies, either in its professed friends or supposed foes. We may fairly say, with the first Napoleon "We have perhaps gone a little too fast; but we have reason on our side, and when one has reason on one's side, one should have the courage to run some risks." The Evening star, according to the fine image of the poet, which is the accompaniment of the setting day, may be one and the same with the Morning star, the harbinger of sunrise.

1 Matthew Arnold, Popular Education in France.

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