EVANGELICAL,    SCIENTIFIC,    AND    CRITICAL         167

theme  of  his  inaugural  address,  as  lecturer  on  Natural
Science,  the  contribution  of  Science  to  Christianity,
and  spoke  of  a  loan  of  instruments  as  forming  the
initial  contribution.  So  far  as  he  was  concerned  the
loan  was  repaid  with  compound  interest.  Leaving  it
to  scientists  to  discover  slight  errors  of  statement  and
critics  to  lay  the  ringer  upon  flaws  in  the  reasoning,
unprofessional  and  unprejudiced  readers  will  regard
the  teaching  of  Natural  Law  and  the  Ascent  of  Man
as  forming  a  splendid  contribution  of  Christianity  to
Science,  and  as  doing  not  a  little  to  differentiate  the
conception  of  Creation  of  the  twentieth-century
naturalist  from  that  of  the  seventeenth- century  divines
of  Westminster.
III.  Criticism.
In  his  History  of  Protestant  Theology  1  Professor
Dorner  traces  with  fine  insight  and  masterly  handling
the  treatment  of  the  Evangelical  Principle  by  the
Churches  of  the  Keformation.  Luther,  he  shows,
clearly  discerned  and  developed  both  sides  of  the
Principle,  first  the  material  or  subjective,  and  then
the  formal  or  objective  side.  The  Principle  is  de-
veloped on  its  material  side  in  his  doctrine  of  justifica-
tion only  by  faith  in  Christ ;  on  its  formal  side  by
his  assertion  of  the  sole  authority  of  the  Scriptures.
The  order  of  evolution  in  the  case  of  the  German
Reformer  was  determined  by  his  inward  development

1  History  of  Protestant  Theology,  particularly  in  Germany.  Viewed
according  to  its  Fundamental  Movement  and  in  connection  with  the
Religious,  Moral,  and  Intellectual  Life.  By  Dr  J.  A.  Dorner.  Trans-
lated by  Dr  George  Robson  and  Sophia  Taylor.     1871.
