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The danger of pursuing this style of reasoning too far is, that one will work himself into a state of pure skepticism, and be paralyzed by doubts concerning everything. It was the study of Butler's "Analogy" to which John Mill attributed his atheism. Butler had made so strong a case against the wisdom and benevolence of nature, that Mill rejected the God of nature as well as the God of the Bible. But this effect is not likely to be produced except in highly speculative minds. Our belief in the realities of the material world rests upon so secure a basis that there is not much practical danger of its being disturbed. Our author may show that so simple a sentence as the following: "We are, each of us, situ ated at any given moment in some particular portion of space, surrounded by a multitude of material things, which are constantly acting upon us and upon each other" is "clear only until it is examined, is certain only until it is questioned; while almost every word in it suggests, and has long suggested, perplexing problems to all who are prepared to consider them" (p. 289); but there will be little danger that people in gen eral will have their faith in the order of nature seriously disturbed by the subtleties of metaphysical reasoning which can be thrown around such a proposition.

Few, however, are aware of the number of steps intervening between their perceiving minds and the objects of perception about which they

are most sure.

"Take, for example, an ordinary case of vision. What are the causes that ultimately produce the apparently immediate experience of (for example) a green tree standing in the next field? There are, first, (to go no further back), the vibrations among the particles of the source of light, say the sun. Consequent on them are the ethereal undulations between the sun and the objects seen, namely, the green tree. Then follows the absorption of most of these undulations by the object; the reflection of the 'green' residue; the incidence of a small fraction of these on the lens of the eye; their arrangement on the retina of the eye; the stimulation of the optic nerve; and, finally, the molecular change in a certain tract of the cerebral hemispheres by which, in some way or other wholly unknown, through predispositions in part acquired by the individual, but chiefly inherited through countless generations of ancestors, is produced the complex mental fact which we describe by saying that 'we have an immediate experience of a tree about fifty yards off.'

"Now the experience, the causes and conditions of which I have thus rudely outlined, is typical of all the experiences, without exception, on which is based our knowledge of the material universe. Some of these experiences, no doubt, are incorrect. The 'evidence of the senses,' as the phrase goes, proves now and then to be fallacious. But it is proved to be fallacious by other evidence of precisely the same kind; and if we take the trouble to trace back far enough our reasons for believing any

scientific truth whatever, they always end in some 'immediate expenence' or experiences of the type described above" (pp. 108, 109).

The object of thus dwelling upon the uncertainties of commonly received truths is not to foster universal skepticism, but to put the mind at rest in religious matters, where the evidence is reasonably sufficient, yet open to many puzzling doubts. If we are called upon to prove anything beyond possibility of criticism, the task will be so great as to paralyze all effort. In any sphere of life there is practical necessity that we act on evidence which is far short of demonstrative. Mr. Balfour brings his readers around to this important conclusion by a road which is without a break and that leads through green pastures from beginning to end. The book is Butler's "Analogy" clothed in nineteenth-century language and made to scintillate on every page with bright turns of thought and unexpected humor.

THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. By the late George John Romanes, M. A., LL. D., F. R. S. Edited by Charles Gore, M. A., Canon of Westminster. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company. 1895. (Pp. 184. 534x3'4.) $1.25.

A touching interest, and at the same time very great significance, attaches to this little volume. Since Darwin's death, Mr. Romanes has been the best-recognized exponent and defender of the Darwinian theory, and a volume written by the author in 1878, entitled “A Candid Examination of Theism" by Physicus, has been generally recognized as one of the most subtle critiques of the theistic hypothesis which has ever appeared.

Mr. Romanes was a graduate of Cambridge University, England, where in 1873 he gained the Burney Prize for an essay on “Christian Prayer considered in relation to the belief that the Almighty governs the world by general laws." The volume published five years later, signed Physicus, combats the position of this earlier essay, and maintains that there is no sufficient evidence, for either the existence of a personal God in the universe or of an immortal soul in man. His numerous subsequent publications endeavoring to extend the theory of development so as to cover that of human intelligence from animal life have attracted wide attention and had great influence.

Personally Mr. Romanes was a most courteous, cultivated, and candid gentleman, intimate with all the leading thinkers of England, the most of whom, he had to confess, maintained their Christian faith unshaken by their scientific investigations. Among such associated with him in Cambridge were Sir William Thomson, Sir George Stokes, Professors Tait, Adams, Clerk Maxwell, and Cayley,-- a galaxy of genius, especially in mathematical studies, such as had never before emanated from that ancient seat of learning.

After twenty-five years of unrest in his life of unbelief, Mr. Romanes

came back again to the light, and clearly discerned that in the eagerness of his scientific investigations he had been led to overlook the most important premises from which correct conclusions can be drawn concerning the unseen world. His testimony concerning the emptiness of life without religion is most touching and important. Agreeing with Pascal, that the nature of man without God is thoroughly miserable, he remarks as follows:

"Some men are not conscious of the cause of this misery: this, however, does not prevent the fact of their being miserable. For the most part they conceal the fact as well as possible from themselves, by occupying their minds with society, sport, frivolity of all kinds, or, if intellectually disposed, with science, art, literature, business, etc. This however is but to fill the starving belly with husks. I know from experience the intellectual distractions of scientific research, philosophical speculation, and artistic pleasures; but am also well aware that even when all are taken together and well sweetened to taste, in respect of consequent rep. utation, means, social position, etc., the whole concoction is but as high confectionary to a starving man. He may cheat himself for a time—especially if he be a strong man-into the belief that he is nourishing himself by denying his natural appetite; but soon finds that he was made for some altogether different kind of food, even though of much less tastefulness as far as the palate is concerned.

"Some men indeed never acknowledge this articulately or distinctly, even to themselves, yet always show it plainly enough to others. Take, for example, 'that last infirmity of noble minds.' I suppose the most exalted and least 'carnal' of worldly joys consists in the adequate recognition by the world of high achievement by ourselves. Yet it is notorious that

"It is by God decreed

Fame shall not satisfy the highest need.'

"It has been my lot to know not a few of the famous men of our generation, and I have always observed that this is profoundly true. Like all other 'moral' satisfactions, this soon palls by custom, and as soon as one end of distinction is reached another is pined for. There is no finality to rest in, while disease and death are always standing in the background. Custom may even blind men to their own misery, so far as not to make them realize what is wanting; yet the want is there" (pp. 150, 151).

The position to which Mr. Romanes had come at the time of writing these notes is the true one to which the majority of students are led by the study of Butler's "Analogy." From being an agnostic who does not believe the Bible true because he does not know it to be true, he came to be what he calls a pure agnostic, who can believe the biblical doctrines on a reasonable amount of evidence because he does not know but they are true. Though the volume consists merely of notes, which it was the design of the author to expand into a book, this will be an advantage to

many busy readers, enabling them to get the ideas by less expenditure of time than if compelled to follow the argument into all the details of discussion.

THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY LAND, especially in Relation to the History of Israel in the Early Church. By George Adam Smith, D. D., Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis, Free Church College, Glasgow. With six maps. New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son. 1895. (Pp. xxiv, 692. 6x358.) $4.50.

This elegantly printed volume supplies a want that has long been felt, and the work is executed in a manner which is above criticism. It is divided into three books. The first contains a general description of the whole land and of its historical relations. In this part are discussed, "The Place of Syria in the World's History," "The Form of the Land and its Historical Consequences," "The Climate and Fertility of the Land, with their Effects on its Religion," "The Scenery of the Land, with its Reflections in the Poetry of the Old Testament," and "The Land and Questions of Faith." In the second book, Western Palestine is described in detail, including the Lake of Galilee, the Jordan Valley, and the Dead Sea. The third part is devoted to Eastern Palestine, including the Hauran and Damascus. To this are added five appendices, and six carefully prepared maps, showing the contours of the land with a clearness that has never before been presented. Both the maps and the texts incorporate the latest information, making the volume in all respects the most valuable summary upon the subject yet published.

Space will not permit us to enter into details of so vast a subject. Suffice it to say, that the reader can have no better commentary on considerable portions of the Bible than such a geographical and historical handbook as this is; while the accuracy of the geographical references in the Bible as they are brought out in this careful discussion can but serve greatly to increase one's faith in the truthfulness of the record; for though, as the author remarks, geographical accuracy is not positive proof of historical accuracy, it does furnish an important line of confirmatory evidence. With reference to Deuteronomy and the prophets, for example, our author writes:

"To whatever date we assign the Book of Deuteronomy, no one who knows the physical constitution of Palestine, and her relation to the great desert, can fail to feel the essential truthfulness of the conception, which rules in that book, of Israel's entrance into the land as at once a rise in civilisation from the nomadic to the agricultural stage of life, and a fall in religion from a faith which the desert kept simple to the rank and sensuous polytheism that was provoked by the natural variety of the Paradise west of Jordan" (p. 111).

The bearing of these discussions upon certain critical questions concerning the New Testament is thus stated by the author:—

... Take the case of the Gospel of St. John. It has been held that

the writer could not have been a native of Palestine, because of certain errors that are alleged to occur in his description of places. I have shown in a chapter on the Question of Sychar, that this opinion finds no support in the passage most loudly quoted in its defence. And, again, the silence of the Synoptic Gospels concerning cities on the Lake of Galilee, like Tiberias and Taricheae, which became known all over the Roman world in the next generation, and their mention of places not so known, has a certain weight in the argument for the early date of the Gospels, and for the authorship of these by contemporaries of Christ's ministry" (p. 110).

A perusal of this volume can but deepen the impression that the "land" and the "book" are alike providential preparations and fitted to each other. There was a Providence no less in preparing the field for the display of the sacred history of the Jews than in directing the forces of actual history when the time for their display had arrived. In the words of Carl Ritter, "Nature and the course of history show that here from the beginning onwards there cannot be talk of any chance."

THE PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS PROGRESS. By Daniel Dorchester, D.D. Revised edition, with new tables and colored diagrams. New York: Hunt & Eaton; Cincinnati: Cranston & Curts. 1895. (Pp. 768. 54x34). $2.75.

Dr. Dorchester's convenient and useful volume has been largely rewritten, and completely revised up to date. In its present form it furnishes the best handbook which has ever been published on the subject treated. The statistics are remarkably varied and full, are arranged in natural order, and discussed with rare wisdom. No better answer can be given to pessimistic views concerning the world's progress than is furnished by the facts themselves whose statement comprises the body of this volume. We have space to mention only a few of the most salient.

So far from there being any signs of decadence in the Christian. forces of the nineteenth century, there are indubitable evidences of its remarkable rejuvenating power. This appears in a simple statement of the facts concerning the growth of the evangelical population in the United States, from which it appears that the increase of the enrolled communicants in these churches between 1800 and 1890 was more than 13,000,000, representing a population of nearly 50,000,000. But the total population usually classed as Christian at the end of the eighth century is only 30,000,000. The actual increase of enrolled church members in the United states during the first nine decades of this century is nearly equal to the total Christian population at the end of the fifth century. The figures are equally encouraging when the membership in the evangelical churches of the United States is compared both with that in the Roman Catholic Church and with the non-Christian population of the country. In 1870 the evangelical population was a little over sixty per cent of the whole, while the Catholic population was a little less

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