then seen the work in question, I received a letter from a friend-of whose judgment I entertain great respect-an elderly Evangelical clergyman, who had taken a high degree at Oxford half a century ago, and whose opinion of the work in question was thus expressed-"I have read with interest and pleasure Drummond's Natural Law, &c., and think the chapters on Biogenesis, Environment, Semi-Parasitism and Parasitism, suggestive of much truth and practical instruction."

Ten days later I received unexpectedly from a stranger the present of a small work, entitled, Remarks on Drummond's "Natural Law," by Benjamin Wills Newton, who was formerly a "Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford." The kind donor, after eulogising the Remarks as containing "a clearer exposition of Scripture than any work with which he was acquainted," warns me not "to be prejudiced by the dogmatic tone of the author, which is sometimes apt to excite a feeling of opposition to the view he advocates."

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The first thing which struck me on looking into the Remarks was, that though at the commencement Mr. Newton avowed his intention of not giving analysis of Mr. Drummond's book, or to argue philosophically against it, but simply to quote certain passages, and ask you (the reader) to test them by the Word of God, and so form your own judgment "—he expresses his great surprise at Mr. Drummond's work having been "widely circulated and widely welcomed, even by Evangelical Christians" (pp. 3, 4).

Moreover, Mr. Newton quotes, with apparent pleasure, an extract from the Guardian review of Natural Law in the Spiritual World, to the following effect"The extravagant praises which have been lavished on this book have blinded to the fact that the Christianity which fits in so conveniently with Mr. Drummond's scientific framework, is not the Christianity of the Bible or of the Catholic Church." To make this closing sentence objectively true, the Guardian

reviewer should have prefixed "Christianity" by the term "Sacerdotal," and "Catholic" by the distinctive epithet "Roman." For it must be manifest to all that the Christianity of the New Testament, as explained by St Paul, and that taught by the Church of Rome during the last thirteen centuries, is as distinct as the Catholicity of the primitive Christians differs from that of the Papal Church in the present day.

That Professor Drummond rates the Church of Rome at its proper value may be inferred from the following passage:"No more perfect or more sad example," he says, "of semi-parasitism exists, than in the case of those illiterate thousands who, scattered everywhere throughout the habitable globe, swell the lower ranks of the Church of Rome. Had an organisation been specially designed, indeed, to induce the parasitic habit in the souls of men, nothing better to its disastrous end could be established than the system of Roman Catholicism. Roman Catho

licism offers to the masses a molluscan shell............. An assurance of salvation at the smallest possible cost forms the tempting bait held out to a consciencestricken world by the Romish Church. Thousands, therefore, who have never been taught to use their faculties in 'working out their own salvation,' thousands who will not exercise themselves religiously, and who yet cannot be without the exercises of religion, entrust themselves in idle faith to that venerable house of refuge which for centuries has stood between God and man" (pp. 327-8).

Again, Mr. Newton quotes approvingly the assertion of the Guardian reviewer, when he says, "Mr. Drummond does not seem aware of all that his theory implies. For all the unregenerate it necessarily implies annihilation." To which Mr. Newton adds "The reviewer rightly says that Mr. Drummond's book teaches the annihilation of the unregenerate" (p. 172). In opposition to these unjust conclusions of the Guardian and Mr. Newton, let us

hear what Professor Drummond really teaches on this subject "Should any one object, that from this scientific standpoint the opposite of salvation is annihilation, the answer is at hand. From this standpoint there is no such word. Each man in the silence of his own soul must work out this salvation for himself with fear and trembling '—with fear, realizing the momentous issues of his task; with trembling, lest before the tardy work be done, the voice of Death should summon him to stop" (pp. 118, 119).

Again, hear Professor Drummond declaring

"Hitherto the Christian philosopher has remained content with the Scientific Evidence against Annihilation...... For the first time Science touches Christianity positively on the doctrine of Immortality. It confronts us with an actual definition of Eternal Life, based on a full and rigidly accurate examination of the necessary conditions. Science does not pretend that it can fulfil these conditions. Its votaries