292 
I shall not undertake a regular and complete review of the 
work of Mr. Reynolds ; but, as of most importance, take first 
his remarks (p. 499) on The Character of Christ : — 
“ The Holy Personality was not the slow combined product of a world- 
spirit, stirring, with high culture, a greatly-gifted race ; nor a moral develop- 
ment equipped in the school and cultured in the palace. Jesus, the child of 
poor parents, educated as a carpenter’s son, nurtured in Nazareth, of almost 
homeless poverty ; was it possible for such a child, if but a child, to become 
that God-Man of work so mighty ? Contrast his humility with Jewish 
pride, his charity with their fanaticism, his expansiveness with their narrow- 
ness : you will say that he is one whom they could neither produce nor 
invent. The prophesied of, yet secret One,— ever hidden from their eyes ; 
their honour and their shame ; inextricably woven into their history, yet 
always nationally refused. For nineteen hundred years he has been the 
centre and cause of all moral and spiritual development amongst the wisest 
nations, outside of these nations exists little knowledge .... yet, except in 
early childhood, he never stepped beyond the confines of Palestine. 
Time chronicles centuries, myriads die; Jesus, imperishable as gold, lives 
for ever ; binds the heart of the world to Himself with electric chains ; tells 
how the soul, weak and wandering like a storm-driven bird, may nestle in 
the bosom of our Holy Father. In the spirits of men, where sin has opened 
an unfathomable depth of anguish, he causes streams of consolation to flow, 
and fill that depth. He makes our eye to sparkle wdth light, and our cheek 
to glow with the strangely sweet aspect of those who look into far-off worlds, 
and gladly hasten thither.” 
This, then, is the highest supernatural in Nature, Gocl^ 
manifest in the Flesh, — altogether miraculous and yet alto- 
gether fore-ordained by God, and the result of his purpose 
from the beginning ; the unfolding of the hidden nature of 
God, for God is love. If this be indeed true, then it follows 
that in a divine sense it is most natural that his love should 
have found out this stupendous plan to save a lost world. 
How naturally, in this sense, does Jesus teach us about it 
all in that beautiful parable in Luke xv. respecting the lost 
sheep and the shepherd ! Was it not the self-same one who 
made this enigmatic world who gave the parabolic explanation? 
II. — Need of Definition in the Terms employed.-^ 
I could have wished that the author, whose works I 
am considering, had given us in the first instance a clear 
* For this as the true reading, see the Quarterly Review, October, 1881. 
f I think that as a Philosophical Society we should endeavour to establish 
a more accurate style of phraseology than that which we meet with in 
popular language. 
As regards the two words, Nature and Supernatural, I have followed out 
