4

Hamilton Thom, Dr. G. Vance Smith," Dr. Jas. Drummond, and the Rev. Chas. Beard,' at once claim mention. Three qualities, not always found in conjunction, are conspicuous in the writings of each of these men,—an intrepid boldness in critical inquiry, a minute and careful exactness in statement, an absolute and overmastering conviction of the reality of spiritual things. It is this combination which Manchester New College has ever cherished, and would fain find characterising the whole area of the higher thought of the coming time.

The fragment from a lecture by the Rev. Robert Wallace, included in the present volume, illustrates with how open a mind the conductors of the College regarded the German critical Theology as much as half a century ago. It has been too generally held that there is some quarrel between spiritual religion and the bold investigation typified in successive eras by such names as those of Semler, Baur, and Pfleiderer: that as this prevailed, that must decline. On the other hand, it has been held by Manchester New College that the most vigorous criticism must tend to establish the most lively faith; that the errors of the critics are best eliminated by further criticism; that criticism can ultimately serve the cause of truth alone; and that, all truth being correlated and interdependent, the wider the conquests of literary and historical research, the clearer will be the title of that spiritual truth in which

4 "Christ the Revealer." "Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ." "St. Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians, an attempt to convey their spirit and significance." "The Memoirs of Joseph Blanco White."

"The Bible and Popular Theology." "The Spirit and the Word of Christ," &c. "Spiritual Religion." "The Messianic Idea." "An Introduction to the

Study of Theology.' "Philo Judæus," &c.

7" Port Royal." "The Soul's Way to God." "The Universal Christ." "The Reformation of the 16th Century, in its relation to Modern Thought and Knowledge." "Martin Luther," &c.

the higher welfare of the human race is inseparably bound up.

The attitude thus assumed towards the investigation of the Christian Origins has been repeated in regard to all scientific and philosophical speculation. While many gentle souls, touched with the divine spirit, have viewed with apprehension or repulsion the cosmological and psychological inquiries of German and English students, the temper of Manchester New College has rather been marked by a persistent confidence that such studies also must, in the end, bring out in more brilliant relief the reality of God, and fan to a purer flame the religious life in Man.

It is, indeed, the essential condition of the life of Manchester New College that spiritual life and living piety (though often found with purest sanctity and most effective force in many churches under very hard formularies and often in intimate association with Ecclesiastical pretensions and regulations of all kinds) can rise, blossom, and bear fruit freely only in the open field of free teaching and free learning, to the cultivation of which the College has been dedicated.

It is not claimed that the men whose spiritual progeny now seek to dwell in the midst of the Colleges of Oxford were uniformly in advance of their own times in theological conception,-only that they consistently kept the way clear for their own advance and that of their pupils. Their Theology may often retain the impress of what is popularly called Orthodox faith, but it is ever accompanied by the plea for freedom of research and expression. How many occupants of theological chairs have charged their students in such

language as that of Dr. John Taylor, tutor at Warrington from 1757 to 1761? These are the maxims with which he always greeted his catechumens:-"I. I do solemnly charge you, in the name of the God of Truth and of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, and before whose judgment seat you must in no long time appear, that in all your studies and inquiries of a religious nature, present or future, you do constantly, carefully, impartially, and conscientiously attend to evidence, as it lies in the Holy Scriptures or in the nature of things and the dictates of reason; cautiously guarding against the sallies of imagination and the fallacy of ill-grounded conjecture. II. That you

admit, embrace, or assent to no principle, or sentiment, by me taught or advanced, but only so far as it shall appear to you to be supported and justified by proper evidence from revelation or the reason of things. III. That, if at any time hereafter, any principle or sentiment, by me taught or advanced, or by you admitted or embraced, shall upon impartial and faithful examination appear to you to be dubious or false, you either suspect or totally reject such principle or sentiment. IV. That you keep your mind always open to evidence; that you labour to banish from your breast all prejudice, prepossession, and party zeal; that you study to live in peace and love with all your fellowChristians, and that you steadily assert for yourself and freely allow to others the inalienable rights of judgment and conscience."

It is in no boastful spirit that the principle characterising Manchester New College and the Academies

1 See "The Teaching of Theology," by R. Wallace, p. 39.

from which it sprang is here propounded and illustrated. It is rather in reverent gratitude to the faithful dead and loving sympathy with those who yet speak amongst us, and under a grave sense of the responsibility resting on those to whom such messages have been delivered. While pledged to the faithful conservation of their own treasure in their eyes a pearl of great price,—the friends of this little College eagerly desire for their students a share in the intellectual and spiritual riches which, accumulating with the centuries, have rendered Oxford, in many respects, the noblest school for the training of Divines within the United Kingdom,perhaps the noblest in the world.

In the recent expansion of the University in many directions; in its growing eagerness to abandon the exclusiveness of aristocratic privilege and serve the weal of the English people, stirring religious life in its waxing spirit of generous liberalism; in the laurels which it has recently placed on the brow of her own most distinguished son and servant, Manchester New College ventures to read the promise of that kindly welcome, which those who are secure in the enjoyment of universal recognition and splendid traditions can always afford to extend to humbler fellow-workers who seek the same ends and love the same ideals.

The Addresses which follow have been selected from among a great number in the archives of the College, which would equally well have served the purpose in view, with the addition of two chapters from Rev. C. Beard's "The Reformation in its Relation to Modern Thought and Knowledge." Their Their purpose is to illustrate the methods, the principles, the ideals which have been

interwoven with the life of Manchester New College throughout her existence. They are interspersed with many references and allusions germane to the passing occasion of their delivery; but it has been thought well to present them almost intact, lest their spirit should be lost in the process of paring down.

The Manchester Academy was founded at Manchester in 1786; it was transferred, as Manchester College, to York in 1803; restored to the city of its birth, as Manchester New College, in 1840; carried to London in 1853, and is now removed to Oxford in 1889. Quae futura haec figura obumbravit, reserabit Deus.

The day may come when its characteristic principle shall, without its aid, so have permeated the theological world that its specific function will be at an end. To none more than to its friends and supporters, its teachers and students, will such a consummation be welcome. To none is it even now more assured. A hundred years ago, Dr. Barnes closed his dedicatory address with the prayer that the College might last for ever. We are satisfied to know that its cause will never die.

*

"And the Angel shewed me that great City, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God. And I saw no Temple therein, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple thereof. And the City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb."