92 MODERNISM AND TRADITIONAL CHRISTIANITY. 



On p. 61, there is a reference to the large-minded and most 

 valuable Commonitorium of Vincentius Lerinensis, wherein he lays 

 down that the germ of truth is essential and unchangeable, bub its- 

 explanation and application are gradual and progressive. The 

 Modernist view mentioned on p. 67 is not altogether wrong ; where 

 it fails is that it often tries to evaporate the germ on which faith 

 must rest. Bishop Hampden and Charles Kingsley did a good work 

 when they reminded us that the Christian religion rested on a 

 foundation not of theories, but of facts ; facts which can be 

 recognized and assimilated even by children and the most ignorant 

 of adults. 



On p. 72, it is curious to note how Mr. Thompson sets aside all 

 the evidence for miracles, but expects men to believe J esus Christ to 

 be Divine without any external evidence at all. Mr. W. EL 

 Moberly's article on "God and the Absolute" is mentioned on p. 79. 

 In a paper I read before the Institute in February, 1883, I 

 endeavoured to show that the God in Whom Christians believe was 

 neither the "Absolute," nor the "Infinite," nor the "Uncon- 

 ditioned"; these were mere intellectual formulae, whereas we 

 Christians believe in a Living Being, — no abstract category of the 

 metaphysician, but One Who is all Life, all Truth, all Love. 



On pp. 81-85, we have a presentation of Canon Charles's analysis 

 of the dates and contents of the various books of Apocalyptic 

 literature which have come down to us. For the most part, critics 

 do not break up these into infinitesimal fragments, assigned to 

 different dates, in the way in which they break up the Old and 

 New Testaments, so that the Germanizing critics would have 

 us believe that Christianity, which all admit to be the best and 

 purest of all religions, rests upon unauthorized and unsatisfactory 

 accounts of its Founder, clumsily embodied in an extraordinary and 

 inexplicable mosaic. If this were so, it would be the clearest 

 possible proof that the religion resting on such a basis was simply 

 an imposture and delusion. If God came down from heaven 

 to enlighten and to save mankind, we may be sure that He would 

 have taken care that His Message to man would have been properly 

 and accurately transmitted, even as His Church has always believed 

 it to have been. 



