and, rising again, became the Head of a new creation. And thus only can we interpret that definition of the Church which makes it His Body, 'the fulness of Him that filleth all in all' (Eph. i. 23).

In this purposed restoration, therefore, we repeat, is to be found that legitimate enlargement of S. Anselm's answer to the inquiry Cur Deus Homo? in a subjective as distinct from an objective direction, to which we alluded as desirable in our opening remarks—an extension which meets all the requirements of proportion between means and end, and satisfies the most exacting jealousy for the honour of God.

For here, at least, are an occasion and an object worthy of Divine intervention—a demand and a purpose not unfitting the Incarnation of the co-eternal Son of God; namely, an entire race of intelligent and responsible creatures, once radiant in moral, spiritual, and intellectual endowments akin to the attributes of their Creator-sinless and immortal 1-but now subjected to sin and death, enslaved by Satan, clouded in mind, depraved in heart, and from its Maker alienated—to be redeemed and rescued, cleansed, reconciled, and restored to favour, to be gifted with new and everlasting life, accepted in the righteousness of faith, brought back into the liberty of the sons of God, re-endued with the Divine Spirit, restamped with the Divine image, and made meet for the glorious inheritance of saints in light; and, as if this were not enough, to be moreover the subjects of such manifestation of the wisdom of God, as shall enlarge the knowledge of 'principalities and powers in heavenly places.'

We may be permitted to close this argument with a word as to the effect of its acceptance on the tone and character of the individual Christian, and on the ministry of the Word.2

The effect of having ever before us, and in view of the eye of faith, an entire restoration to God's image, commencing here, constantly progressing, and hereafter consummated, is at once elevating and inspiring in the highest degree. It lifts men above their earthly surroundings, and makes them live as

1 Certain evolutionists are pleased to deny this; but it is de fide with the Christian. For, except on the ground of the common origin of the whole human race, and of its fall under evil influence (as revealed in Scripture, illustrated by scientific research, and confirmed by the most ancient traditions of pagan systems) the Gospel is unintelligible, and the Incarnation of a 'Second Man' unmeaning. See Canon Cook's Origins of Religion and Language.

2 The effect on the subject matter and fervency of prayer, and on the appreciation of all the means of grace, is equally deserving of remark, but our limits preclude our entering on it.

citizens of heaven.' It suggests an ideal, to approach which every nerve must be strained, every resource exhausted, every grace cultivated. It imparts to them a far deeper interest in the care of their souls, and a more intense admiration of the goodness of God. It raises them in the scale of being to a prospective level with the unfallen angels. It renders them independent of the fashions of this world. And it sets before them an end, with power to attain it, which, besides making the most painful life worth living, interprets its mysteries, and 'rejoices even in tribulation,' as a means of more entire conformity to the Divine will.

But this is not all. The entertainment of this hope, and its very gradual realization, are happily fatal to selfcomplacency. In contradiction to the charge of self-dependence falsely levelled against all who press sanctification and good works, they add enormously to the appreciation of salvation by grace, and are a death-blow alike to spiritual pride, to a barren orthodoxy, and to solifidianism. They leave no room for false confidence in the absence of efforts to be conformed to Christ; and no room for presumptuous assurance when the standard proposed, and the example copied, are the perfection of wisdom and of goodness; and when the copy made is ever marred by the 'infection of sin remaining even in the regenerate.' Ör, to state the case somewhat differently: Whilst they who resolve all Christianity into justification by faith, who fail to see that God chooses to salvation through 'sanctification of the Spirit' equally with 'belief of the truth,' who think 'once converted' and 'saved for ever' are synonymous terms, and appropriate to themselves all the promises made to heathens who never before heard the Word, or resisted the Holy Ghost-whilst these men will necessarily have low aims, will soon be satisfied, and, under pretence of leaving all to Christ, will neither strive to honour Him by self-denial, nor to purify themselves as He is pure-they, on the contrary, who labour to be conformed to the image of their Lord, can be tempted to no such selfdeception; but finding themselves evermore far behind Him,

1 Philip. iii. 20. So long as baptized children are not taught that they are to be restored to God's likeness, and have power within reach to stand upright, and to walk before God with a perfect heart, they will continue to look down, rather than to look up; and to grovel in the lusts of the flesh and of the eye, and in the pride of life, instead of keeping the body under and bringing it into subjection. For sad experience tells us that nothing is more depressing and degrading than to be without high aims and holy aspirations.

2 'Ioáyyeλoi, S. Luke xx. 36.

will grow more humble as they grow in spiritual stature and perception, and will the more abjure all trust in self as they really advance towards perfection.1

And the effect of interpreting the Incarnation in the sense here advocated upon the ministry of the Word, is scarcely less marked than that on the individual Christian. It may be described by the difference of motive power between one who regards himself as sent only to proclaim pardon to the penitent, and one who knows himself sent also to offer transformation to the pardoned; between one who goes forth only to palliate disease and one whose commission it is to apply a cure; or between one whose monotone for ever runs on S. Paul's answer to the jailor (and that misapplied) and one whose varied teaching aims at 'perfecting the saints and edifying the body of Christ, till we all come, in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.'

ART. VI.-EDNA LYALL'S NOVELS.

1. Contemporary Socialism. By JOHN RAE, M.A. (London, 1884.)

2. Donovan, a Modern Englishman. A Novel. By EDNA LYALL. Third edition. (London, 1886.)

3. We Two. A Novel.

A Novel. By EDNA LYALL, Author of Dono(Third edition: London, 1886.)

OUR readers, as they scan the titles of the books prefixed to this article, may not unnaturally ask what there can be in common between literature so light and imaginative as a young lady's novel and a history of the stern, hard doctrines of Democratic Socialism. Vet, in fact, the connexion is neither unreal nor very remote, for the authoress who has adopted the nom de plume of Edna Lyall has employed a facile and by no means feeble pen in defending, we will not say Democratic Socialism, 1 This truth finds meet expression in the following lines of Henry Twells's Evening Hymn :

'And none, O Lord, have perfect rest,

For none are wholly free from sin;

And they who fain would serve Thee best,
Are conscious most of wrong within.'

but that bitter tone of scepticism and unbelief with which socialist principles seem naturally to enter into combination. Let it, however, be clearly understood, that we do not for a moment imply that the amiable authoress of Donovan and We Two has the remotest sympathy with atheism itself. That would be a very unfair inference, and we do not hesitate most emphatically to disclaim it; but she has a strong and generous sympathy with the atheist in his supposed isolation and social persecution; and the one great purpose of her novels seems to be to bespeak for him a fair and candid reception, and indeed something more than toleration. Edna Lyall's novels. have achieved very considerable popularity, especially with readers of her own sex, and of the like generous sympathies. There is much in their style and in the delicate drawing of the feminine characters which would in itself go a long way to account for this popularity; and we are far from withholding all assent to her 'plea for toleration.' At the same time it strikes us that her works may cause some minds considerable perplexity as to the attitude to be observed in dealing with avowed enemies of the Faith; and we confess that we do think that her pictures are, in many respects, exaggerated and overdrawn.

With the social theories of Luke Raeburn, or whoever may be the prototype of that interesting ideal, we do not suppose that our authoress has much acquaintance, and probably she would protest that they do not fairly come within the scope of her stories; but the whole subject is of such extreme importance at the present time, and Edna Lyall's novels so obviously mark a rising current in popular opinion, that we offer no apology for bringing the matter before our readers in one or two of its more interesting aspects.

The first question which it occurs to us to ask is, why, in the nature of things, Socialist or Liberal principles of an advanced character should necessarily be allied with those of an avowed and unqualified denial of God and of religion. Yet that this is so, witness the following extract from W. Marr's book on Secret Societies in Switzerland, which is given by Mr. Rae in his interesting account of Karl Marx:

'We are content to lay down the foundation of the revolution. We shall have deserved well of it, if we stir hatred and contempt of all existing institutions. We make war against all prevailing ideas of religion, of the state, of country, of patriotism. The idea of God is the keystone of a perverted civilization. It must be destroyed. The true root of liberty, of equality, of culture, is atheism. Nothing must restrain the spontaneity of the human mind' (p. 127).

If from the Socialism of Western Europe we turn to the Nihilism of the East, we find the same bitter denunciation of religion in common with the same hostility to the whole constitution of modern society.

'We wish,' says Bachunin, in the programme of the Alliance of Social Democracy, we wish to destroy all states and all churches, with all their institutions and laws, political, religious, juridical, financial, police, academical, economical, and social, in order that all those millions of poor human beings deceived, enslaved, tormented, exploited, may at length breathe with perfect freedom, being delivered from all their directors and benefactors, whether official or officious, whether associations or individuals. THE ALLIANCE DECLARES ITSELF ATHEISTIC' (ibid. p. 298).

We are far from underrating the difficulties which the existing conditions of society present to every reflecting mind. The rich so exceedingly rich; the poor so exceedingly poor; the rich in some cases so rich that their wealth has long passed the limit where it contributed to their happiness; the poor in too many instances arrived at that degree of poverty in which happiness is impossible. There are few who have not contemplated the difficulties of this problem; still fewer who have not found those difficulties insoluble. Yet we would ask how does the denial of a God and of His Providence relieve us of the difficulty? or, what is perhaps yet more to the point, how will it remedy the evils which we lament? So long as we believe in a God, there is still an infinite power in reserve which can rectify the inequalities which we feel to be, not apparent only, but painfully real. And not only is there in reserve an infinite power, but there is an infinite time as well; for the belief in an eternal God leads instinctively to the belief in an immortal soul. It is the notion that this world is all, and this fleeting scene the last, which makes the spectacle of suffering or degraded humanity so terrible. It is when the feeling of utter hopelessness is added to that of utter helplessness that one falls back into despair. But faith in God does give both hope, and, in a measure, help in dealing with the problem of man's miseries; and we know that in the past there has been no factor so powerful in alleviating them as this faith. In the tender light and warmth of Christianity slavery has melted away, the atrocities of war have been softened, the brotherhood of mankind has been established.

Imperfect as has been the work of religion, and narrow and perplexing as are still the conditions under which she works, yet the believer in God and in His Providence has this great advantage over the sceptic, that he hears from the voice of