_Revealed Characteristics of God: in a Series of Essays._ By G. BARROW
KIDD, Minister of Roe Street, Macclesfield.--Westley and Davis.
Who Mr. Kidd is we know not, but we have read his eighteen essays with
great satisfaction; and we shall be greatly surprised if they do not
contribute to make him far more widely known than he has been. The
subjects are as follow: "On the Divine nature--On the Eternity of God,
in contrast with the Duration of Man--On the Act of Concealment, as
containing the Divine Glory--On God, as the Dwelling-place of his
People--On Ezekiel's Vision of the Divine Glory--On the Equality of all
Periods in the Sight of God--On the Divinity [Deity] of Jesus Christ--On
the Revealed Representation of Jesus Christ's two Natures--On the
Incarnation of the Word of God--On the Design of the Death of Christ--On
the Atonement of Jesus Christ--On God, as the Original of Man's Love to
his Maker--On the Supremacy of Jesus Christ--On the Deity as in Jesus
Christ, and in him alone--On the Deity as in Jesus Christ, and in all
believers--On the Extent and Surrender of Jesus Christ's
Administration--On the Blessedness of Jesus Christ--On the Worship of
Heaven." All these subjects are, it is obvious, important, evangelical,
and interesting, in a very high degree, to those who believe in a divine
revelation.
The _spirit_ of these essays is eminently devotional; every essay is
full of Christ, and he is "all in all." The writer believes all the
great articles of the gospel system, as they are commonly held by
evangelical Christians. Nor does he make any affectation of novelty or
paradox, though, probably while unconscious of it himself, he has given
us many original and uncommon thoughts. There is no pompous announcement
of something to be expected very new, and recondite, and far removed
from the beaten track. A holy unction from above seems to have rested on
the writer; and though he is very grave and serious throughout, the
reader will find some lively and tender appeals to his conscience and to
his heart, mixed with long trains of elevated sentiment, and chains of
reasoning very close and compact.
The _method_ is admirable for its simplicity. The _lucidus ordo_, which
Horace prescribes, he has uniformly observed. Always anxious, first, to
investigate the true sense of the scripture which he has selected for
the foundation of his essay, some of his elucidations, without any
display of critical apparatus, are singularly happy.
As to _style_, we think his _forte_ is in strength and vigour. Some long
sentences (with parenthesis after parenthesis) involving thought within
thought, have reminded us of the essays of our celebrated friend John
Foster. We have observed many passages of great sublimity and splendour;
and there are many of great depth, in which he finds "fountains below
fountains," to borrow his own words, when traversing the ocean of "the
unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ."
Where Mr. Kidd studied, or to what school he belongs, we have never
heard; but he is evidently a profound, original, independent thinker,
writing out of his own mind. He has taken the thoughts, he says, "out of
the mine of revealed truth." At the same time, it is pleasant to observe
that he every where discovers a deep reverence for scripture authority.
He is penetrated too with a strong conviction of the limits of all
created minds. With chastened feelings he delights to soar aloft. He
spreads his wings, and pursues a well-sustained upward flight, gazing
with a strong and steady eye on the Sun of righteousness, as the proper
object of all human and all angelic contemplation.
A few words from the "advertisement" may be acceptable to our readers.
The author mentions "the fact, that no two persons in any world
entertain precisely the same intellectual views; and that, consequently,
every sincere contemplator of revealed beauty, whatever may be his
capacity, has it in his power to make broader the reflected light of
God's word; and that the utmost efforts of human beings on earth,
however diversified, and however harmonious in their diversity, will be
no more than an approximation to the revealed mind of God."
The volume is neatly got up, and printed with remarkable care and
accuracy. Our limits will permit only a few extracts.
"If nothing were forgotten, if a distinct impression were
retained of all the words which he had ever spoken; of all the
deeds which he had ever done; of all the thoughts which he had
ever entertained; of all the places in which he had ever been;
of all the persons whom he had at any time seen and conversed
with; of all the words which he had ever heard; of all the
pleasures which he had ever tasted and enjoyed; of every
remonstrance from conscience; of every warning or invitation
from God or man; and could he, moreover, have continually in
his view these things in the precise order in which they all
occurred; could he behold every cause and every effect; and
every thing which he had been invisibly operating so as to
prevent a manifest cause from producing the effect which might
have been looked for as the usual one; and every thing, on the
other hand, which had secretly assisted a cause apparently
inadequate to produce a greater effect than could have been
anticipated; how very different a thing from what it is would
be human life! Now, although this accurate remembrance from
vivid impressions of the past is not man's prerogative on
earth, yet it is easily conceivable that he might attain to
this in a purer and brighter world. It cannot, indeed, be
imagined that the angels do not remember every thing which has
occurred during the whole of their wakeful being." pp. 28, 29.