The Fatherhood of God. "But in my spirit will I dwell, And dream my dream, and hold it true; I cannot think the thing farewell." 753 (cxxii.) How wise to throw us thus upon our inner nature for assurance and calm! Not in what is outward, not in what concerns the senses, does the poet ask us to rest, for well he knows that all this is fleeting like a dream; but in what is affectionate, spiritual, and palpable to faith. indicates, the feeling of the heart leads us Fatherhood of God, the doctrine that crowns the theology of sentiment: And, as he now right up to the 66 I found Him not in world or sun: The petty cobwebs we have spun : "If e'er when faith had fallen asleep, And like a man in wrath, the heart "No, like a child in doubt and fear: But that blind clamour made me wise: But, crying, knows his father near; "And what I am beheld again What is, and no man understands; And out of darkness came the hands That reach through nature, moulding men." (cxxiii.) Love leads the poet thus to absolute rest in the Divine Fatherhood; and in the light of such an assurance he can think calmly and hopefully of his departed friend, for he knows that all must be well : "Love is and was my lord and king, And in his presence I attend, To hear the tidings of my friend, VOL. XXII.-NO. LXXXVI. K "Love is and was my king and lord, And will be, though as yet I keep "And hear at times a sentinel, Who moves about from place to place, And whispers to the worlds of space (cxxv.) Now it is just this love which gives clearness to the vision of faith, and enables it to discern in the toiling and moiling of the world something "co-operant to an end" (exxvii.). Hence the poet looks in the conclusion of his poem to his bereavement as his salvation. It was this which led him to consider what feeling has to give to faith, and how it sheds new light upon the mystery of the world: "Behold I dream a dream of good, And mingle all the world with thee." (cxxviii.) The last section sheds a light upon the entire poem; it sums up its philosophy-the philosophy of feeling-and marks the "spiritual Rock" out of which all refreshment flows for weary, loving men: "O LIVING Will, that shalt endure When all that seems shall suffer shock, Rise in the spiritual rock, Flow through our deeds and make them pure, "That we may lift from out of dust A voice as unto Him that hears, "With faith that comes of self-control, (cxxx.) The truths that never can be proved Until we close with all we loved, And all we flow from, soul in soul." What, then, have we found in In Memoriam? We have found a treatise upon the Affections more interesting than that of Jonathan Edwards; a work upon the mind's Intuitions more inspiriting than that of Dr M'Cosh; a monograph upon internal evidences more refreshing than Paley; a chapter of autobiography more important than Mr Gladstone's; and a theology of sentiment more powerful than that of Mr Maurice. To use the language of Rev. F. W. Robertson: The Poem as answering Scepticism. 755 "In his In Memoriam, he (Mr Tennyson) has grappled with the scepticism of his age; not like the school-divine, but like a poet; not as a priest, with the thunder of the pulpit, or the ban of the conventicle, but as a man-a man of large human heart, who feels that not doubt but faith is greatness and blessedness, yet that doubt must not be put down by force or terror, nor silenced by logic, but pass into belief through sorrow, and by appeal to the intuitions of the soul."-(Lectures and Addresses, p. 152.) It has been lately said regarding the poet's friend, Professor Maurice," that the spectacle of a man who shrank from no test to which the Christian faith can be put, who advocated and displayed an absolute freedom of thought, and yet maintained to the end and increasingly his faith in God and in Christ, has saved many others from infidelity, and forced the acknowledgment that Christianity in some form or other is true." Similar language may be employed regarding Mr Tennyson. In Memoriam is the struggle of a sincere yet free inquirer, who has fought his doubts and gathered strength, and reached his rest in the assurances of the Christian faith. Many a theological treatise has served its hour in the wavering battle, and fallen like cartridge-paper upon the field of conflict; but In Memoriam, like the Excalibur of the Idylls, is a sword "Rich With jewels, elfin Urim, on the hilt, Bewildering heart and eye-the blade so bright and in the battle against unbelief, "this last dim weird battle of the west," it shall be found dealing deadly strokes, and subduing the King's enemies, until such time as the poetry of earth shall be cast aside for the poetry of heaven. Then possibly some Sir Belvidere shall strongly wheel, and throw it into the sea of forgetfulness. Yet even then, it may be written of it: -"The great brand Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon, And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an arch, Shot like a streamer of the northern morn, Seen where the moving isles of winter shock By night, with noises of the northern sea. So flash'd and fell the brand Excalibur ; Such a fame, such a service, and some such glorious fate do I take leave in conclusion to prophesy for In Memoriam. ROB. M'CHEYNE EDGAR. ART. VII-Creeds; their Advantages and Defects, as Illustrated by the History and Present Condition of English Dissent. THER HE article on Creeds, which appeared in the January No. of this Review, concluded with these words: "It is a contribution to a subject which will require many contributions before it is ripe for adjustment." While treating the subject in the following pages in the modest spirit of this remark, the writer does not propose to discuss the position taken up by the author of that article (with whom, perhaps, in the main he agrees), but would rather add his contribution to the general discussion, by giving views and impressions derived from a ministry of some duration amongst the English Dissenters. The observations which follow relate more particularly to the position occupied on this matter by the English Independents and Baptists. The writer had the opportunity of seeing some strictures on Dr Blaikie's article in one of the newspaper organs of English Dissent,' which he could not but regard as one-sided, inasmuch as they left out of account, as it seemed, the existence of evils, and these, as it appeared to the writer, by no means of a light character, arising from the want of an authoritative standard of doctrine amongst the bodies referred to. He hopes to be able to shew, in the following pages, that if there be evils arising from the length, doctrinal fulness, and excessive minuteness of some existing creeds, or from their overpassing the limits justly laid down by the author of the article already referred to, there are also evils of an opposite character, arising from the absence of any authoritative, or commonly agreed upon standard of doctrine, which are by no means insignificant. It has already been mentioned that in the positions taken up in the former article, the present writer substantially conThe English Independent. Cases of Heresy in English Dissent. 757 curs; although he would perhaps desiderate, in the event of a work of revision being undertaken, a greater simplicity and thoroughness than Dr Blaikie appears to be ready to concede. Surely, if such a revision were undertaken, it would be well to do the work, as far as it could be done, at once, and not run the risk of successive amendments, which might perhaps be called for if the subject were once opened up and entered upon. At the same time, experience has made him chary of entering upon rash changes; and much less disposed to take up, as an alternative to the evils of a too extensive and minute creed, the still greater evils attendant upon the non-existence of any authoritative standard of doctrine at all. In the course of this article the writer will refer, from time to time, to historical notices of the state of matters as to these points which prevails amongst English Evangelical Dissenters, and at the same time will examine their traditional and actual doctrinal stand-points, with the bearing of these upon their Church life, and finally deduce some practical conclusions bearing upon the subject. It might be argued at the outset, that since there only emerges in the Church life of English Dissent a very small number of cases having reference to heresy, fewer still of these ending in exclusion of the offender through the action of the Church, therefore the system shews itself to work sufficiently well in practice. That this is so, however, arises from the excessively conservative habits of the English people, and especially of the middle classes, and their extreme slowness in logically apprehending, much less prosecuting, cases of heresy. There can be no greater contrast imagined than the difference of attitude between an ordinary English congregation and a Scottish one as to doctrinal variations. The case of the old lady who habitually slept through the ministrations of her own pastor, because she could trust his soundness, while she was all ears when a stranger occupied the pulpit, is only an exaggerated way of putting the habitual regard of the ordinary Scottish congregation to the "form of sound words" to which they have been accustomed; while the English hearer, who is equally if not more alive to the practical bearing of the sermon and its emotional or æsthetic effects, is at the same time almost apathetic to anything but the gravest forms of heresy. In noticing this difference, from the Scottish point of view, it |