CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 129, 4 June 1927, Page 21

CHRISTIAN RELIGION

SOME MODERN THOUGHT

"British/Preachers" (third series). Edited by Sir James Marehant. :.... K.B.E.,LL.D. , London: G. P. Put- ;: nam's.Sons, Ltd.

"Through Creative Evolution to In- ; , carnation and the Goal of Humanity." : By I. Gurnhill. London: Longmans, Green and Co.

. The third volume of "British Preachers"; has. made its appearance, and bids 'fair to be as popular,a publication as its two predecessors, each of which has Required reprinting. , The present series of sermons delivered by eminent living, preachers maintains the same high standard as the previous series. Straight;from:the-shoulder sermons will always find plenty of readers, in spite of what one hears from various sources about the decline, of religion, and these twenty-three:V sermons cover a wide enough field of topics to appeal to everyone. Obviously the present generation of preachers in these unsettled times has a difficult task, but that they \are aware of their opportunities" and capable of the task of uniting followers of the Faith into a common fellowship and into a desire for common-worship is very; evident, from, this collection of sermohsjl for the collecting of which Sir, James Marchant . is to bo commended. .

Canon Gurnhill endeavours in "Through Creative, Evolution to Incarnation" to show that the theory and doctrine of evolution are not, after all, so greatly, at variance x with the fundamentals of - the Christian religion as many people (by ho means all thinkirag alike) appear to be disposed to boHove. The writer holds that the range a.nd significance of evolution have not yet been fully grasped and realised. Man is the very apex of creative evolution, he believes. Therefore, it is mail 'a. great concern, here and hereafter, to strive to' Jive for himself and :Epr his brethren up to the ideal set by ■Jesus' Christ. Creative evolution; the ■canon holds, was the method "chosen by the Almighty for so developing and preparing the human race that they might be capable of receiving a further and fuller manifestation of the Divine purpose and will concerning mankind by the Incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ." Creative evolution has raised mankind to the topmost pinnacle of intellectual, moral, social, and spiritual development, and made the human race supremo over all orders of terrestrial life. So regarded, it is the expression of the Love of God "who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but havo .everlasting life.-*' And so to the Fourth Gospel' the writer remarks that its wide difference between the other three is attributable to the fact that St. John was actually the. ''beloved disciple" and therefore may have had many op* portunities of learning from the lips of Jesus more than the other three evangelists of the Divine mysteries. Broadminded theological and general roadors will find this, a most helpful work in endeavouring to harmonise present-day views -with those of the so-called fundamentalists. Canon Gurnhill has a scholarly style of- writing, but ho never writes ; over the head 3of his readers.