to embody something the true significance of which had been missed in the volume of talk about reunion which had been going on for some time.

Then, again, the active propaganda throughout the country as the result of the first Congress and the missionary campaign for Anglo-Catholicism carried out in the Midlands and in the north, the strongholds of Protestantism, forced conservative English clergy to face their own position and to ask themselves in all seriousness where they stood. It was one thing to acquiesce with mild and charitable toleration in the efforts to force on reunion by admitting Nonconformist ministers to preach (and therefore incidentally to teach) in Anglican pulpits; it was quite another thing to contemplate the possibility of those same Nonconformists celebrating at Anglican altars. Preaching was a question pertaining to the functions of the laity. The administration of the Sacraments clearly cut at the whole problem of the priesthood. Even those most ardent for reunion had to face this in the light of the newly revealed Catholic consciousness within the Anglican Church. With such a powerful body within the Church itself, and now conscious of its strength and enthusiastic in its new missionary activity, the future was by no means clear. Reunion by compromise was impossible with such a force as that to be reckoned with and prepared to fight for its principles.

Again, the Anglo-Catholic propaganda in some directions, under the inspiration of extremists, not only cut the ground from beneath the old-fashioned Protestantism which had persistently shut its eyes and ignored the presence of Catholic teaching and practice in the Book of Common Prayer; it also revealed plain indications that reunion with Rome was a desirable object. It went further, and in the teaching of some of its exponents, and openly in practice in some churches, it advocated the Roman Catholic as opposed to the English Catholic type of Christianity. The inevitable consequence was to kindle the spirit of opposition on the part of all those who were still alive to the dangers of Rome unreformed and aware of the disastrous consequence to English Christianity once the principles of the Reformation were abandoned.

We have indicated one or two of the factors which have caused a new accentuation of the group-consciousness in the Anglican Church.

This is now shewing itself in efforts to influence opinion by the publication of volumes of essays. We have before us two

such-Anglican Essays and Liberal Evangelicalism. The first is a collective review of the principles and special opportunities of the Anglican Communion as Catholic and Reformed, and its object is to explain anew what Anglicanism stands for in reference to the controversies of the past and the problems of the future.

The writers point out that amid much conflict of opinion of late the main body of Anglicans have been very reticent, though others of their fellow-Churchpeople have not, and though the Roman Catholics have been carrying on an active propaganda. The consequence is that there has grown up in this country a generation less accurately informed than any that has preceded it about the great religious issues which were at stake in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries.

The book is thus an attempt to recall us to a sense of what we stand for and, by an historical review, to refresh our minds as to the principles which formed the basis of the Reformation Settlement in England, and consequently to help us to see more clearly the opportunities of extended influence which lie before. the Anglican Communion as Catholic and Reformed. There is a fine essay on Christian Liberty' by the Archbishop of Armagh, and a scholarly review by Dr. R. H. Murray on 'Aspects of the English Reformation.' Then we pass to polemics-and very stale polemics at that. Dr. G. G. Coulton, the well-known scholar and ardent Protestant, gives us a vivid and trenchant essay on Rome as Unreformed.' The Archdeacon of Chester follows with an attack on the Roman Mass; the Archdeacon of Macclesfield deals with the Cultus of St. Mary the Virgin'; Mr. C. E. Raven, under the title of 'The New Reformation,' appears to talk about everything in general and nothing in particular; and, finally, we have a lovable essay by the former Archbishop of Melbourne (Dr. H. Lowther Clarke) on the Lambeth Appeal and its results.

The second volume before us deals with Liberal Evangelicalism -an interpretation by several members of the Church of England. It is an attempt to produce a reasoned and coherent statement of the theological position of the people within the Church of England known as Liberal Evangelicals. It is in no sense, we are told, a collection of miscellaneous essays, but the work of a group of friends, who have collaborated together for this purpose. The writers claim continuity with the past. The ' heredity' of their Liberal Evangelicalism is rooted in the great Evangelical Revival; the environment' in which the writers.

VOL. XCVII.-NO. CXCIV.

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are at home is the modern world. The object of the work is to interpret the Evangelical message in terms, not of the Eighteenth century in which it had its home, but in the changed world of to-day. Restatement has become essential. If the Evangelical message is still to be operative in a world so changed from that of the Eighteenth century, it must shew that it can outgrow the scholasticism' of that century and manifest itself anew in terms of life.

Here, then, we have an attempt, shall we say, on the part of those with modernist' sympathies to commend the truth of Evangelicalism to the modern mind and to allay the suspicions aroused amongst the orthodox by, for example, the Girton Conference.

Other volumes ought to follow these two, and no doubt will in due course. Other groups within and without the Church will feel the need to speak. We may look forward with confidence to a volume of essays by Anglo-Catholics. Once the groupconsciousness is accentuated, and party divisions are more clearly felt and differences emphasized, we must expect in the modern world efforts at propaganda by means of published works. All to the good. What ought we to do? Surely make the attempt to read as much as we can from every quarter. Nobody will regret time and careful attention devoted to the arguments contained in either Liberal Evangelicalism or Anglican Essays. We may learn from both.

If we are in our day and generation to hand on the great tradition of the Anglican Church and to secure that it, under the Providence of God, may play its destined part in the future as the meeting-ground for the reunion of Christendom, it is imperative that we seek diligently to understand what Anglicanism has stood for in the past, what new forces are at work to-day both for constructive and destructive purposes in the history of the Anglican Church, and what part we ought to play and what policy we ought to pursue if we are to prove ourselves loyal sons and daughters with a goodly heritage.

We come then, in conclusion, to say a word of hearty praise and welcome to Dr. Carey's little book on Conversion, Catholicism and the English Church. In the absence of a volume of essays by Anglo-Catholics we gladly let the Bishop of Bloemfontein have the last word. And it is a word of hope and encouragement. It breathes the very spirit of sane Catholicism. In invigorating and stimulating phraseology, in clear and incisive thought, the Bishop puts before us the essence of the whole matter. He

taught us afresh the fundamentals in his little book on Have you understood Christianity? Here he forces us to appreciate what the real basis of the English Church is as against sectarian Protestantism on the one side and Romanism on the other. We could quote passage after passage by way of illustration as to what the Bishop means by Scriptural Catholicity,' the distinctive note of the English type of Christianity for which we stand. Let this suffice:

'The Catholic Church is not an unlimited spiritual autocracy. It is a spiritual monarchy constitutionalized by a continuous and specific reference to Scripture as a final and permanent standard laid down by the Holy Spirit. Take away this scriptural standard and there is nothing to prevent the Roman Church from making it obligatory on all Christians to believe in the corporal Assumption of our Lady or the Temporal Power.

'The whole foundation of the English Church is laid on these two principles, Catholic and scriptural: and I would sum up the real religion of the English Church by this one pregnant phrase, Scriptural Catholicity." It is a Catholicism older than the modern Roman or the modern Protestant: it carries us back in principle to the glorious days of the Early Church.'

"

Clearly, then, a volume of essays on 'Scriptural Catholicity' is needed. Who will supply it?

H. MAURICE RELTON.

SHORT NOTICES.

BIBLICAL STUDIES.

A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament. By G. ABBOTTSMITH, D.D., D.C.L., Professor of New Testament Literature in the Montreal Diocesan Theological College and Assistant Professor in the Oriental Department in McGill University. First edition, 1922. Second edition, 1923. (T. and T. Clark.) 21. net.

THERE are some works with which it is difficult for a reviewer to deal, even though he may have some considerable experience in such work. It is necessary that he should use them for himself and compare notes with others who have done so before he can say not merely what the writer or editor has set himself to do but how far the work when tested in actual practice has been found to fulfil its purpose. An example which readily suggests itself is Dr. Hastings' monumental Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. It occupies a large amount of space, and it makes a demand upon a student's slender purse which means that he must be content to forgo many other books. But if he finds, as he will do, that he is referring to it again and again, and very seldom without discovering what he wants, he will regard himself as having made one of the best possible investments. Dr. Abbott-Smith's book is one which needs to be treated in the same way. It is a single volume of 512 pages, and it costs a guinea, which to a young theological student is a more considerable sum than would perhaps be thought by those who simply do not understand how narrow is the margin with which the budget of some of the best students is calculated. He may look forward, if he wish to be a specialist, to being able to see some time upon his shelves Hatch and Redpath Concordance to the LXX, Moulton and Geden Concordance to the Greek Testament, and Moulton and Milligan Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, even at the cost of a good deal of sacrifice. In the meantime he has to learn his craft, and he will not always have access to a great library. Dr. Abbott-Smith's aim has been