namely, the repetition of the Lord's Prayer, and singing Newman's "Lead, kindly light." Multitudes of every creed, and multitudes without creed, joined with great heartiness in singing this song-prayer for light and direction.

Some time ago, when The Sunday at Home requested its readers to name the best hymns now in use among the churches, Toplady's "Rock of Ages was with practical unanimity accorded the first place. Out of 3,500 votes, 3,215 gave the palm to this now worldfamous hymn. It is generally conceded that the hymn was composed and published in a spirit of bitter opposition to the Arminianism of the Wesleys. The Rev. Augustus Montague Toplady, Calvinistic rector of a Devonshire parish, was the son of a soldier, and the martial spirit dominated the spirit of the divine. He was the most brilliant as well as the most bitter opponent of the Wesleyan doctrine of sanctification. Many controversial pamphlets were published by this militant preacher during those troublous times. But those witty philippics which afforded their author so much selfgratulation at the time, are now forgotten or unknown. To-day the world knows Toplady only as the author of " Rock of Ages," and this one hymn has made his name immortal.

In all stations in life, and by all classes of people, the prayer of this hymn has been breathed into the ear of One who is our "refuge and strength." Over and over again were its words repeated by the illustrious consort of our gracious Queen, as he was going down into the shadowy vale. 'For," said he, "if in this hour I only had my worldly honours and dignities to depend upon I should be poor indeed."

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On the 11th of January, 1866,

the steamer London foundered in the Bay of Biscay. The last sound that fell upon the ears of those who made their escape from that doomed vessel, was the voice of the imprisoned passengers singing, while sinking

"Rock of ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee."

A few years ago a crowded steamer was entering New York harbour. Eager eyes were peering through the darkness to catch the forms of loved ones on the shore. Suddenly a sheet of flame issued from the hold, near the prow, and sweeping aft, forced many of the passengers into the sea. On that ill-fated vessel was a noted singer and his wife. While he was in the act of fastening upon her a life-preserver, a man crazed with fear snatched it from his hand and leaped overboard. The famous singer was also an excellent swimmer, and assuring his wife that he could bear her safely to land, together they dropped into the waters, and soon were battling with the waves. A little while sufficed to exhaust the wife's strength, and she said to her husband, "I can hold on no longer." In that moment of supreme agony, he said, "Let us sing," and began : Rock of Ages." His wife joined him, and gathered strength as she sang. All around them, scores of fellow-passengers were struggling in the waters, while the flames of the burning craft cast their mocking glare upon that midnight scene. Voice after voice, caught up the hope-inspiring strain, until a great multitude were singing,

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hope were inspired, while they sang Toplady's immortal hymn :

"Rock of ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee." Among the many hymns that have won their way into worldwide usage, is that majestic lyric, whose opening stanza is a clarion call to earth's redeemed hosts, and heaven's unfallen angels, to join in the coronation of their King.

"All hail the power of Jesus' name."

This famous hymn was written in 1779, by Edward Perronet, son of the Vicar of Shoreham, in Kent. In his young manhood Mr. Perronet was a friend and helper of the Wesleys. But when the question of separation from the Anglican Church was under discussion, the founder of Methodism and the author of this hymn were SO strongly opposed to each other that the separation between them. became complete, and Mr. Perronet accepted the pastorate of a dissenting congregation in Canterbury.

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'Billy Dawson," though a plain Yorkshire farmer, was one of the most powerful and popular preachers in Methodism less than a hun

dred years ago. On one occasion he was preaching in London on the divine offices of Christ. This theme afforded full scope for his descriptive genius. In the most hope-inspiring manner he set forth our Saviour as our prophet and

priest, then proceeded to speak of His exaltation and glory as sovereign Ruler of men and angels. His regal imagination kindled with his lofty theme, and with a marvellous wealth of imagery and forceful diction, he sketched the picture of a coronation pageant. Patriarch's, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and a countless multitude of redeemed mankind, moved forward in processional array. Into the temple, and up to the throne of the conquering King they were triumphantly marshalled. Reaching this glorious climax, when every eye was fixed upon him, and every soul stirred to its deepest depth, the preacher suddenly broke from the graphic portraiture of the coronation scene, and sang :

"All hail the power of Jesus' name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown Him Lord of all."

The effect was overwhelming. The vast congregation sprang to their feet, and joined in this song of exulting triumph. Feeling and power became more intense as each successive verse was sung, until it seemed as if the material structure around them had vanished, and they were transported to the upper sanctuary-and

"Now with yonder sacred throng

They at His feet did fall;
Joined in the everlasting throng,
And crowned Him Lord of all!"
Brooklin, Ont.

-Alfred Tennyson.

Shortly after the appearance of Mr. Selby's volume of sermons, "The Imperfect Angel," the present occupant of the presidential chair of the Wesleyan Conference, England, said "that Methodism had now in her midst one of the best sermon-makers in modern Christendom." The logical argument, thorough analysis, and felicitous illustration apparent in that volume and subsequent work, fully justify the praise given, not by Mr. Watkinson alone, but the religious press generally.

It was conceded that when Mr. Selby was apointed to deliver the twenty-sixth Fernley lecture at Liverpool, on "The Theology of Modern Fiction," that the choice was a wise one, and that the subject chosen would receive careful and thorough handling from one who is attaining a distinguished place in the world of letters. The work under discussion shows how well grounded was the anticipation. It indicates wide reading, and a keen insight into the problems that modern fiction pre

sents.

how character modifies circumstances. It takes a bit out of the world's life, and, clothing it in a drapery of imagination, sets it in a framework of language. It is. or ought to be, a poem of life, moving us to laughter or to tears, because it is akin to poetry, in that it is a creation of the im

agination. Its theme is man; its aim to show us the throbbing life of humanity. I take it that the novel must be a novel, not an essay, historical, political, or theological, with a thin disguise of story, a species of literary jam by means of which the manyheaded public may be induced to swallow the intellectual pill.

The true novel is a story, a work of the imagination. The story must not be a peg on which to hang history or theology. Yet this is just what is being done by a large number of fiction-writers who are making theology the mainspring of their books, setting it in a very thin casing of story.

In the limits of such a paper as this there is not time to enter into a lengthy criticism of this species of literature, but this perhaps ought to be said, that on the ethical side the theological novelwriter has no justification for the manner in which he appeals for votes and seeks disciples among those who are neither entitled to vote or qualified to make a decision. For the public, for whom the novel is written, is, for the most part, profoundly ignorant of even the A B C of theology, while of higher criticism it knows little and cares less.

Now, thanks to the theological novel, this has become the small talk of the drawing-room, the babble of the street corners, the

The theological novel has not erred on the side of orthodoxy, it has been the champion of a "God without religion," or a "religion without God," or else it has caricatured where it should have expounded. It has awakened doubt in the minds of those who, while they may question, have not the means or time for the research necessary to a full and proper answer. It asserts without proving, it gives forth as an ascertained result what is tentative only. It brings forward the doubts of one school without suggesting how these have been met by another.

The novelist is not an equipped theologian, therefore his work will necessarily be rather criticism than construction. The facility with which he raises doubts is equalled only by his inability to lay them. The doubts that are laid by any amount of novels are necessarily small, but it by no means follows that the faith of many in the eternal verities is strengthened by a reading of such works. There is thus created a cheap scepticism in some, and a real and sorrowful incertitude in others, both alike without the foundation of real study and research, and none the less dangerous for that. Such books are generally short-lived. On the other side, as Mr. Selby points out, "The books which with due care and comprehensiveness portray human character and its issues will live, and in proportion to their truth to fact must surely illustrate some of those great principles of religious faith. which are bound up with the constitution of man and the history to which he contributes.

Our lecturer's aim is not to in

vest modern fiction writers with cap and gown and give them a chair of systematic theology; but rather to put them in the witness box, and receive their testimony to the existence of those truths which are fundamental in the Christian religion. George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and the Scottish school, are examined, and their conclusions on human depravity, the distinction between vice and virtue, and the reward for good and the punishment for evil are noted. The key-note of Mr. Selby's work is in the following paragraph:

"A writer may chance to be without fixed religious belief, and the theology which pervades his chapters will be identical with an inevitable theology in his own sub-consciousness, which he cannot cast off or ignore. In some respects, especially, when days of questioning and controversy are upon us, literature of this type may be of a higher religious value than that which is conceived with the direct object of pointing a pious moral or advocating some formulated scheme of This belief and church government. theology in solution, which is diffused through all the higher literature of fiction, has evidential force about it of no mean order, inasmuch as it shows that man is religious in spite of himself, and that even in the writer who has repudiated dogma there is an irreducible minimum of theology out of which some of the cardinal articles of the faith may be built up in new forms."

With this aim of finding "theology in solution," Mr. Selby takes a number of representative writers, goes through their work carefully, and gives us results. There is searching, trenchant criticism, and just, candid appreciation of those under review.

of George Henry Lewes turned her into a nominal agnostic not altogether content with her role."

A brooding, reflective temperament was the characteristic of George Eliot. She is the philosopher in fiction, portraying in most sympathetic fashion country life and scenes, but at heart never entirely losing the Christian sympathies of her girlhood. Essen

tially she was a believer without a creed, a mystic without faith, and withal "in some attenuated sense an illustration of the doctrine of final perseverance."

In all her books, from "Scenes From Clerical Life," to "Daniel Deronda," there is an undercurrent of religion, indeed more than an undercurrent; for they force us to the conclusion that her prime force after all was spiritual. She thought well to put away from her the Christian religion as undeserving of her acceptance, and yet there is not one of her writings in which there may not be found many illustrations of principles that are precise parallels and analogies of the faith she rejected. These illustrations of a repudiated belief suggest what she might have done had her lot been different, if she had kept her faith. instead of losing it, if she had never met George H. Lewes; in a word, had she remained Marion Evans, how much happier had she been, and how much richer we!

She gives us a number of clerical portraits; a study of them furnishes us with her standpoint. "She has no over-weening fondness for parsons who either magnify their office or burn with zeal for special dogmas." Her clergymen of the Established Church are generally surpliced Laodiceans; given either to mild betting, or to graceful indolence, or to swearing round oaths on fitting occasions.

In a number of quotations Mr.

Selby shows how George Eliot taught the trustworthiness of the moral instincts; though the light of heaven may seem to have been hidden from her vision, there was vouchsafed an inner light which gave a genuine guidance in practical affairs that could not betray the dutiful soul.

It is pointed out that the author under review declares with no uncertain sound the fact of moral responsibility and a day of grace. Fate and heredity are not the only factors that make up human life. She has nothing but scorn for those who would "tell a story of tragic shame and then describe it as the history of a pure woman."

The story of Tito in Romola is of terrible significance. Here again it is the spiritual tragedy of the two main characters of the book that make it great and memorable. The sinning youth, with the best opportunities before him, flinging aside duty and honour, finds punishment follows quickly and surely on the heels of sin. "In George Eliot's pages those who go down into the pit go with their eyes open and after due admonition. The doctrine of retribution is preached with such iteration in her pages as would wreck a modern pulpit."

However severe and caustic George Eliot may be in her criticisms of evangelical theology, she recognizes the need of burdened hearts for help-" for a wise, holy personality on which to lean." Mr. Selby points out how Methodist doctrine is spared in her satire, giving as the reason that the theology of Dinah Morris had to bear the stigma of unduly emphasizing good works. Ceasing to believe in divine mediation. she sought the best human substitute for it which her imagination could devise. Most of the mediators she sends to those whose lives are blighted with sin