Mr. Maurice was holding a position as preacher, but it is especially as a writer that he exerted liis influence, and secured a reputation, and, as a proper estimate of
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this man is impossible without a glance at his works, we proceed to a hastj' consideration of his written pro- ductions in the field of theology and philosophy. Omit- ting numerous separate sermons and occasional tracts, Ave note his Doctfiiie of Sacrifice deduced from the Scriptures: — Lectures on the Ecclesiastical History of the First and Second Centuries: — Theological Essays: — Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testanient: — Prophats and Kings of the Old Testament: — The Unify of the Neiu Testament: — Christmas Day and other Ser- mons:— On the Religions of the World: — On the Prayer- hooh:—The Church a Family: — On the Lord's Prayer: — On the Sabbath; and Law on the Fable of the Bees. To the " Encyclopedia Britannica" he contributed His- tory of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, in ancient and in medieval times, which was afterwards collected into book form and republished (2 vols. 8vo). He also published a reply to Hansel's Hampton Lectures in 1859. Particularly noteworthy among all these productions are his Theological Essays (Lond. 1853, 8vo ; N. Y. 1854:). A Unitarian by birth and education, Mr. JIaurice had im- bibed much of the humanitarian principles. In these essaj's he proposed for himself the task of influencing the general religious thought of England, determined, as a faitliful ambassador of his Saviour, to meet the actual wants of the disturbed and reluctantly sceptical age in which he lived. Unfortunately, however, Mr.lMaurice had failed to make due allowance for the moderate de- gree of toleration that was in vogue twenty years ago, when he came forward to act as a religious and theo- logical reformer, and for the ignorance that prevailed among his feUow-men concerning the man who sought to do this work. Now that careful inquiry and inves- tigation have clearly revealed his character, even tlie most orthodox of all orthodox Christians need not hesi- tate to speak in terms of highest commendation of the labors and services of Frederick Dcnison Blaurice. But not so in the daj's of his travail. " It was the specialty of his position," says a writer in the British Quart. Rev. (Jan. 1873, p. 30), " that he stood midway, as it were, be- tween the professors of the Christian faith, as commonly received, and the modern sceptical and rationalizing spirit which attracted his sympathies, in so far as it was a spirit of free and earnest inquirj', aiming sincerely at the attainment of the truth. Thus he came to be con- sidered by many as affording a sort of half-waj- house of shelter to those who did not or could not accept the or- dinary orthodoxy, and who were yet too much in earnest about life and destiny to be satisfied with the cheerless negations of atheism or the cold comforts of a provis- ional scepticism. It was natural that he should meet the fate of those who strive to reconcile contraries. Dis- owned by orthodoxy — which is no matter for wonder — he was rejected and often also despised by scepticism. By the one party he was charged with unsettling the faith of ingenuous youth, while the others accused him of paltering with words in a double sense, and seeking to reconcile things really irreconcilable." The Lessing of the English Church, he lield many views akin with the great German writer. Seeking, like the latter, to spread truth by giving it a fair test, Mr. Maurice often went beyond reasonable limits, and unknowinglj' en- dangered the interests of the cause he so unhesitatingly served ; his language respecting both the atonement and the question of eternal punishment was maile the text of many attacks, the most noted of which was that by Dr. Candlish of the Scottish Church, in a sermon en- titled Examination of Mr. Maurice's " Theological Es- says."
Starling from the divine centre as the root and source of all. religion is to Mr. Maurice a mode of life condi- tioned and determined on all sides by dependence upon God — the human personality upon the divine Person. "As a life it is a series of experiences through and in which man is acted upon by God, so as to be filled full out of the Infinite fulness. But how shall there be a commiuiion between God and man? In order to the