Chapter XVI: Part 16

We have bracketed these two volumes together, not simply because they are alike in theme, but because by a peculiar coincidence they are complementary of each other. Written as we need scarcely say, altogether independently, they yet arrive by opposite methods at similar conclusions. From Scotland and from America come the same earnest, forcible national testimony to the truth of Christianity. There are both likeness and unlikeness. Each author treats his subject in a clear, attractive, popular manner, candidly confessing difficulties where such exist, yet carrying the reader forward by the almost irresistible power of his reasoning to the most decided conviction. The literary style is eminently different, as is to be expected when two diverse thinkers express themselves on a common topic. This, however, arises not only from the individuality of the writers, but also from the very circumstances in which their works were produced. Mr. Gilbert Wardlaw has been 'secluded, during the later years of life, from other opportunities of service to the cause of truth,' and his book therefore bears the impress of a thoughtful mind evolving for itself arguments in support of a faith in which has been found the truest consolation during years of retirement. We imagine that his very seclusion from active life has compelled him to re-examine in the light of modern scepticism the foundations of his belief. His work is characterized by a calmness and quiet force which we cannot too highly admire, and which must be productive of the happiest results upon the minds of sincere doubters. Mr. Barnes's volume, on the other hand, had a different origin. It consists of a series of Lectures in a Theological Seminary, which are somewhat elaborate, diffuse, and theoretical, and were evidently intended to produce an immediate impression on an audience by their style as well as their matter. Yet each work is admirable. Both should be studied together, since they look at the argument from diverse stand-points. Their methods of treatment, not only in manner but substance, are in harmony with the circumstances in which these volumes originated. The one may be described as the subjective, the other the objective method. Mr. Wardlaw, believing that the moral aspect of the Christian revelation and the attitude of the inquirer are the most important preliminary questions in determining the truth of Christianity, commences with the internal and experimental evidences; while Mr. Barnes deals with external proofs, looking at the Bible as a book to be accounted for on historical grounds. It has been a real mental gratification to study these diverse methods, and to watch how, though travelling by distinct lines of thought, both authors arrive at the conviction that Christianity is from God. The volumes are in many ways helpful to each other, for if Mr. Wardlaw's seems to suffer from condensation, leaving too much to his readers' minds, the same points are often elaborated by Mr. Barnes with abundance of detail. It would have been an improvement if, in 'The Leading Christian Evidences,' italics or some other form had been adopted by which the successive stages of the argument would have been indicated, so that we could at a glance gather up the main points discussed. We do not venture on any criticism of positions which we consider weak or unsound, as our space is limited, and therefore content ourselves with congratulating these authors on their well-reasoned additions to our apologetic literature.

_The Brahmo Somaj._ Lectures and Tracts. By KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. First and Second Series. Edited by SOPHIA DOBSON COLLETT. Strahan and Co.

We have on previous occasions given considerable space to the remarkable movement in Hindu thought which is known to us under the above title. Some of these lectures, notably that on 'Jesus Christ--Europe and Asia,' have long been before us, and offer a remarkable sign of the effect produced on Indian society, by the truth of Christ's life, and its sublime ideal of conformity with the will of God enshrined in the Gospels. The lack, the negation, the blank in the theology of Mr. Sen need not be wondered at. This is a very different phenomenon from a similar mental position when adopted by a professedly Christian teacher. These lectures and tracts will receive special attention in consequence of the recent visit to England of this remarkable man, whose obvious earnestness and passionate yearnings after the regeneration of India have produced so deep an impression. We do not in the least sympathize with the hasty disposition shown by some to accept Mr. Sen as a prophet of an undogmatic theism, nor with his somewhat arrogant address to English Christians from certainly very small acquaintance with them and their work. All that he knows of the higher life of faith and true holiness, and all the stimulus that his own moral nature and Hindu society have received of late years, are so conspicuously due to the indirect effects of missionary labour and Christian teaching, that his disposition to ignore the source of the new light that has flooded his soul is unsatisfactory in the extreme. At the same time, we do rejoice at the moral dignity and spiritual ideal and religious exercise which he is proclaiming to his countrymen. His protest against Pantheism, his grasp of the idea of 'the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man,' of man's sin, and need of regeneration, of man's dependence, and need of faith and resignation, of self-sacrifice and prayer, are very instructive. But let us clearly recognise the position assumed by him, that Hinduism and Mahometanism are themselves, in some purified form, to 'harmonize and form the future Church of India.' The words of Jesus or His Apostles are often quoted by him with respect, as something 'excellently and wisely said,' but there is no acknowledgment of fealty to the Lord, no Gospel but what he calls 'the Gospel of Divine mercy,' based upon his own intuitions and experiences.

'The true faith,' which is expounded in a series of apothegms arranged under a variety of headings, is intended to appeal to those who are accustomed to the style of some of the best of the sacred books. There is much that is most excellent and Christian in its tone of feeling, beautiful and attractive in form, lofty in conception and ideal, as were the meditations of Antoninus. He and his friends reveal the potent influence, the pungent leaven, the grain of mustard seed, that has been cast into the Oriental mind. They are feeling after God and finding Him. God has given them by His Spirit some faith. May it daily grow to more and more!

_Christus Consolator._ The Pulpit in Relation to Social Life. By ALEXANDER MACLEOD, D. D. Hodder and Stoughton.

_Ad Clerum._ Advices to a Young Preacher. By JOSEPH PARKER, D.D. Hodder and Stoughton.

_A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons._ By JOHN A. BROADUS, D.D., Philadelphia. Smith, Elder, and Co.

The literature of homiletics is becoming almost redundant. It is singular that every man whose business it is to teach this difficult science is dissatisfied with the text-books and manuals that his well-meaning predecessors have prepared for him, and tries his hand at a new one. We cannot see any very sufficient reason for the work of Dr. Broadus. It is neither better nor more comprehensive nor more helpful than the well-known treatises of Vinet, Kidder, and Shedd. It is not so philosophical as M. Vinet's, nor so erudite as Dr. Kidder's, nor so rich and suggestive as Dr. Shedd's. It goes over the old ground in very much the old way, and tells some of the old stories, and gives much the same old advice. Those who can work by rule, and who thoroughly trust the rule-maker, will find the subject carefully and exhaustively but not energetically treated by Dr. Broadus. The contrast between Dr. Broadus and Dr. Parker is great. The 'Advices to a Young Preacher' are racy, caustic, and stimulating. They are not confined to the great theme, but wisely condescend to give useful hints on little things. The personal allusions to living men, the astounding eulogiums passed by Dr. Parker on some of his brethren, the withering satire pronounced on others, the conversational criticism on certain printed sermons, and the familiar epistolary offer to all and sundry to send the respected author a sermon to criticise, almost take the breath out of one's mouth, and certainly remove the volume from the range of ordinary literature. The specimen prayers introduced by the author, though very excellent in their way, appear out of place. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, the book is full of strong and wise advice. Here is caricature and broad farce, and extreme exaggeration and violent personal attack under assumed or blank names, all of which are strangely out of tune with the manly and reverent tone of the author when he touches the deepest themes. A preacher of such high reputation and undoubted success must be listened to by young preachers with great interest. Dr. MacLeod's volume has greatly delighted us. Seldom have the high functions of Christian truth, and the possibilities of the pulpit, been more powerfully or more candidly put. We wish that some of the unsuccessful men whom Dr. Parker grinds to powder, would ponder with the aid of this volume the sublime work which may even now be within their reach. Dr. MacLeod has described with singular power and freshness 'the preacher as an _Elevator_, as a _Healer_, as a _Reconciler_, as an _Educator_, as a _Liberator_, and _Regenerator_.' Under these several headings he has touched the sorest places in our social life, has carried a torch into some of the darkest chambers of human sorrow and need, and has shown the mission of Christianity and the function of its minister with conspicuous success. Dr. MacLeod is wise and stringent, moreover, in his condemnation of those who only preach fragments of the truth of God. His rebuke has a loving, helpful peal in it, which makes the heart soft, and calls aloud for higher effort and more consecrated zeal. There is neither common-place exaggeration nor rasping personality; it is full of wisdom, strong sense, and earnestness.

_Culture and Religion in some of their Relations._ By J. C. SHAIRP, Principal of the United Colleges of St. Salvator and St. Leonard, St. Andrew's. Edinburgh; Edmonston and Douglas.

The volume before us consists of five lectures delivered by the principal of the United Colleges of St. Leonard and St. Salvator, on a theme of high interest, at a time when the elevating process indicated by the rather vague term 'culture' bids high to supersede the divine claim and authoritative sway of religion. Professor Shairp, though dealing with the relations of culture and religion in a vein and manner suited to popular address, reveals on every page his own deep sympathy with the paramount claims of religious truth and the spiritual life of man, and a large-hearted appreciation of those aspects of 'culture,' which its exclusive advocates imagine never to have shed their light on deeply religious minds. With great dexterity, if, in the present case, such a term is applicable, our author shows that starting from a fair definition of 'culture,' 'it must embrace religion and end in it;' and on the other side, that Christianity is the great harmonizing principle of human affairs, bringing one region of human cultivation after another under its sanctifying influence 'to reconcile all true human learning not less than human hearts to God.' In lecturing on the 'scientific theory of culture,' our author exhibits the ideally educated man on Professor Huxley's theory, and quotes and criticises the celebrated comparison drawn by him between the liberal education he demands, and the acquaintance which an imaginary chess-player should possess with the laws of the mighty game with nature, on the success of which his fortune and his life depend. Mr. Shairp has shown with great beauty and force of expression, that if there were no other than the fixed laws of this game determined by scientific investigation, 'men would be more than ever driven inward, and their natural selfishness be tenfold concentrated and intensified;' that for the 'tender conscience' which Mr. Huxley postulates as an element in wisely playing this great game of life the 'theory' makes no provision; and indeed that such conscience, though the highest part of a man's nature, would be no help, but a hindrance, to any successful issue of the struggle. The scientific theory of culture leaves out facts of our nature which are as certain, though not so apparent, as any fact which science registers. With fine appreciation of all the excellencies of Mr. Arnold's theory of culture, which he designates as literary or æsthetic, Mr. Shairp contends that Mr. Arnold has erred in his estimate of what the spiritual energy really is in which our highest good is to be sought, 'has made that primary which is secondary and subordinate, and made that secondary which by right ought to be supreme.' He argues with much force, that the first great commandment 'cannot be made subservient to any ulterior purpose;' that religion is either a good in itself or it is not a good at all. We have not space to describe the remaining lectures on 'Hindrances to Spiritual Growth' and 'Combinations of Religion and Culture.' The volume is charged with weighty suggestions.

_The Witness of St. John to Christ; being the Boyle Lecture for 1870; with an Appendix on the Authorship and Integrity of St. John's Gospel, and the Unity of Johannine Writings._ By the Rev. STANLEY LEATHES, M.A. Rivingtons.

This is the third series of Boyle Lectures delivered by the Rev. Stanley Leathes. In the first and second series, the author dealt with the witness of the Old Testament, and that of St. Paul to Christ. In the volume before us, he pursues a similar method; and taking nothing for granted, not even the genuineness of the fourth Gospel, nor the inspiration of this, or of other portions of the New Testament, 'he does not assume that its conception is true, but he does affirm that if its message is fraught with substantial truth, certain results will follow, and--do follow.' In the appendix, there is an effort made to grapple with the question of the genuineness of the fourth Gospel, and to meet the difficulties raised by Dr. Davidson, the Rev. J. J. Tayler, and others. There is nothing special or peculiar in this argument, with the exception of the detailed effort which Mr. Leathes has made to show the abundant similarity of theme, doctrine, historical fact, and even form of expression between the three Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John. We have never seen this point so well elaborated elsewhere, and the obvious conclusion is that much too great a stress has been laid upon the supposed discrepancy of subject-matter and ethical tone discernible between these documents. We think that both Dr. Hengstenberg and the Rev. John Godwin have handled the Paschal difficulty more successfully than Mr. Leathes, but few writers have shown with more sufficiency and clearness the unity of the Johannine writings. In fact, everything turns in this discussion on satisfactorily showing the possibility, from a literary standpoint, of the identity of authorship of the Apocalypse and the fourth Gospel. The Tübingen school, Dr. Davidson, J. J. Tayler, and the most thorough-going opponents of the genuineness of the Gospel, admit, nay contend for the Johannine authorship of the Apocalypse. They uphold the external evidence for it against Lücke and others; they establish the relations between the John of the Synoptists and the Apocalyptist. If, then, by accumulation of independent evidence, the identity of the author of the fourth Gospel with the Apocalyptist is established, or a belief in it is shown to be perfectly rational, a great victory is won for the faith of Christ. We commend Mr. Leathes' argument to the profound consideration of students. The eight lectures deal with the credibility of the witnesses, the characteristics of John's teaching, the essentials of this teaching, John's appeal to the inward witness, the unity of John's writings, their authority, John's message to the age, and John's place in Holy Scripture. There is much fine and strong, though rather cold and artificial reasoning in these lectures. The reader feels a little too much as though he were under the authoritative commands of a drill-sergeant, or rather of a too officious guide, who tells him exactly where he must stand, or where he must not stand, in order to see some glorious panoramic landscape. The hand of the critic and the logician is always on the shoulder, and forcing head and heart into the appropriate and rational conclusion. Yet, with this drawback, every lecture leaves a healthy impression; and the testimony of the beloved disciple to our Divine Lord seems at length to be so strong and self-evidencing, that it matters comparatively little when, where, or by whom the testimony is given.

_Secular Annotations on Scripture Texts._ By FRANCIS JACOX. Hodder and Stoughton.

This volume is the result of very extensive and discursive reading. Sixty or seventy passages of Scripture have been annotated by the author from the copious stores of his secular erudition. Choice fragments of poetry, philosophy, and history, the analogies of life and thought, with the high themes suggested by the sacred text, are heaped in almost prodigal affluence of illustration upon the foundation of each text. Thus, on 'the Tempter's it is written,' our author quotes in illustrative vein not only Bunyan, and the criticism on the Dublin Synod of Irish Catholics, but Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice,' Gray, Coleridge, Burns, Diderot, Thomas Carlyle, and Charles Dickens. In his beautiful comment on 'Consider the lilies,' we have Tennyson, and Justice Shallow, Leigh Hunt and Mr. Proctor, Bishop Copleston, Isaac Taylor, Shenstone, and Dr. Croly's Salathiel, Mr. Hannay, and Mrs. Browning, all laid under contribution, and a very charming mosaic is the result. We might imagine the book to be the work of a life-time, or the hobby of a highly-cultured and devout man. Many a sermon and many a platform-speech may hereafter benefit by Mr. Jacox's labour of love; but none will take the pure delight in it which it must have given to the author in his quiet hours. The annotations of the words 'Strangers and Pilgrims,' 1 Peter ii. 11, are peculiarly rich and beautiful.

_Rain upon the Mown Grass, and other Sermons, 1842--1870._ By SAMUEL MARTIN, Minister of Westminster Chapel. Hodder and Stoughton.

The ministry of the Rev. Samuel Martin has now for nearly thirty years exerted a spiritual force upon an ever widening circle. Westminster Chapel has constituted a focus of holy influence, where his varied, thoughtful, continuous instructions have not only gathered around him one of the largest congregations in England, but have conferred upon it a character for wise effort, liberal sympathies, and Christian devotedness. It would be impossible to measure the circumference of that influence. Few nonconforming churches in the kingdom have failed at least to seek Mr. Martin's presence and assistance when any great thing was to be done; when any difficult enterprise needed a special consecration, when a young pastor at his ordination, or a church entering on a new career of usefulness, craved sanctifying counsel and tender sympathy. It would be difficult to convey to a stranger, or to an unsympathizing critic, any conception of the strange fascination, the deep thrill of holy excitement, the solemn hush of spirit which the spoken words of Samuel Martin have produced on susceptible minds. It is quite beyond our power to analyze or account for the overwhelming impression we have known him produce by his mode of quoting some well-known words of Holy Scripture, or by iterating and reiterating in a manner almost unique, the key-word or clause of some discourse on which he has put forth all his strength. His sermons are often characterized by an exceeding quaintness which from any other lips than his might provoke a smile; by a subtle ingenuity of illustration which reminds one of Brooks, or Sibbes, or even of Thomas Adams; by an elaboration of argument which seems to throw a disproportionate weight on some minor truth of God's word; by a fulness of illustration bordering on the efflorescent; and by a tone of meditation, fitted, as it might seem, to the cloister or some learned leisure rather than to this busy, world-harassed, distracted age: yet it is almost impossible to listen to one of those exceptional discourses without an intense desire for a higher, more beautiful, more self-sacrificing life. The exquisite sensitiveness of the preacher to all the sorrows of men, his obvious personal distress over the breaking heart of suffering humanity, his quivering sympathy with the weak and diseased, the poor, the out cast, the prisoner, 'the publican and the sinner,' the old man and the little child, make almost every sermon a lesson in the 'enthusiasm of humanity.' Much of every good sermon, is beyond the power of reproduction by the press; and this noble volume of Mr. Martin's discourses has to some extent the effect upon the reader which a volume of Beethoven's symphonies might have upon a musical student who had lost the power of hearing. Notwithstanding this necessary peculiarity disparaging the printed and revised report of all the noblest productions of the pulpit, we render Mr. Martin our unfeigned thanks for the volume. It contains thirty-two discourses. Many of them have been preached on special occasions, and demand a little imagination from the reader before he can understand their full significance. Take, for instance, the sermon preached at the opening of the new church at Halifax on the text, 'Then the king said unto Nathan the Prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.' The three sacred places, 'the home,' 'the grave,' 'the sanctuary of God,' have never been more admirably described, and the sketch given of 'the history of places of true worship' has never been drawn with more graphic force or spiritual beauty; but all the circumstances of the day and the place of that discourse gave it tenfold meaning. It would be well for those who disparage the Puritan theology and its professors, to understand that the high strain with which the volume opens on the genial influence and character of the Gospel, was preached with electrifying power to one of the great gatherings of Nonconformist ministers and churches in the North of England.

The sermons on 'The Saving Name,' 'The Precious Blood of Christ,' 'The Fulness of God,' show how Mr. Martin handles some of the great theological problems, and there is hardly one which is not charged with deep emotion, with carefully expressed thought, and spiritual force. This last element is the distinctive virtue of a volume which can scarcely be touched without perceiving some electric flash of light, some new pulsation of holy, Christ-like feeling.

_The Shepherd of Hermas._ Translated into English, with an Introduction and Notes. By CHARLES H. HOOLE, M.A., Senior Student of Christ Church, Oxford. Rivingtons.

It is not long since we called the attention of our readers to the admirable translation, from the Greek test, of the 'Shepherd of Hermas,' which was published, together with other writings of the so-called Apostolic Fathers in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library. The Greek text of this ancient Christian allegory or romance was found, together with the epistle of Barnabas, attached to the Codex Sinaiticus of the New Testament; and this may account in part for the revival of interest among the students of ecclesiastical history in this once popular but long-neglected fragment of antiquity. Mr. Hoole has executed his task with great care and painstaking, and has given in his 'introduction and notes' some very valuable information bearing on its interpretation, and on its reception by the Ante-Nicene Fathers of the Church. We are brought by it 'into the earliest period of Christian antiquity.' It was doubtless quoted by Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Eusebius, with a decreasing respect; and we can only admire the fine tact and good sense which ultimately led the later writers and the Church Councils unequivocally to exclude it from the Canon of the New Testament. The question of the authorship is enveloped in great obscurity, and the apparently explicit statements are easily refutable. It is not even certain, but indeed very doubtful, whether the author was an ecclesiastical officer of any kind. The supposed Ebionitic tendencies of his doctrine have been maintained strongly by Hilgenfeld, but refuted by Dörner and Donaldson. We are surprised that in virtue of the non-appearance in Latin translations of the main passage on which this charge rests, Mr. Hoole has thought fit to omit it. Dr. Donaldson shows at length that there is 'nothing in the teaching of Hermas with regard to God, Christ, the Church, or the work of salvation, which is contrary to the truths or spirit of Christianity.' It is interesting also to observe from various passages, that Hermas identified the office of bishop and presbyter, and makes no reference to the Eucharist.

_Ante-Nicene Christian Library._ Vols. XVII. and XVIII. Edited by Rev. A. ROBERTS, D.D., and JAMES DONALDSON, LL.D. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.

These two volumes are extremely valuable; one is the third and last volume of Tertullian, and the other contains 'The Clementine Homilies' and 'The Apostolical Constitutions.' The Homilies are a translation by the Rev. Thomas Smith, D.D., by Peter Peterson, M.A., and Dr. James Donaldson, and the 'Constitutions' have been carefully revised from Whiston's translation. If Bunsen's theory be correct, that they take us into the end of the second century or beginning of the third, and can be almost conclusively shown to be the work of one to whom the interpolations of the Ignatian literature were familiarly known, we obtain a valuable additional test of the quality of second century literature, and another assurance that the Gospel of John must have preceded them by more than a generation. It is not merely the abundant quotation from the fourth Gospel, but the profound difference of tone between these documents, that is so remarkable. If this is the second century theology and ecclesiasticism, how comes it that an author living in that century could rise such an untold height above them and omit what unfortunately had become the chief features of his time? Krabbe, in his elaborate work on the Apostolical Constitutions, concludes that the eighth book could not have been written before the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth century. Bunsen thinks that the law of interpolation may account for the several references to later customs and offices which are to be found there. At all events, throughout the earlier books, we hear nothing or next to nothing of the sacerdotal order, and no other officer is mentioned intermediate to bishop or deacon. In the eighth book we have full-blown sacerdotalism and episcopacy, and the several apostles are made responsible for all the innovations. We owe a great debt of obligation to the careful editors of these translations now approaching their term. The admirable indices of all kinds greatly enhance the value of the work thus accomplished.

_The Miracles of Our Lord._ By GEORGE MAC DONALD. Straham and Co.

Mr. Mac Donald is well known in the circles of the Church, for the ministry of which he was educated, as a preacher of remarkable freshness and power. Whatever judgment may be passed upon some points of his theology, there are few living men whose words are fuller of high religious inspiration, and indicate a more reverent and intense love for the Lord Jesus. This is his distinctive claim as a religious teacher. He disregards the conventionalities of sermon-structure, and of sermon-speech, and brings to bear upon his themes the fresh thought of a man of genius, and the penetrating spiritual insight of a man of fervent piety. Whether any of these papers have been preached as sermons we do not know; thousands of readers have become acquainted with them in the pages of the _Sunday Magazine_, to which they were contributed. Mr. Mac Donald has no difficulty in accepting the miraculous; nay, he justly says that if the Supreme Being 'be a God worthy of being God, yea (his metaphysics even may show the seeker), if He is a God capable of being God, He will speak the clearest, grandest word of guidance which He can utter intelligible to His creatures.' 'The miracles are mightier far than any goings on of nature, as beheld by common eyes, dissociating them from a living will; but the miracles are surely less than those mighty goings on of nature with God, beheld at their heart. In the name of Him who delighted to say, "My Father is greater than I," I will say that His miracles in bread and in wine were far less grand and less beautiful than the works of the Father they represented, in making the corn to grow in the valleys, and the grapes to drink the sunlight on the hill-sides of the world, with all their infinitudes of tender gradation and delicate mystery of birth.' Whether we agree with every minute interpretation or not, this little volume, precious as fine gold, is full of penetrating spiritual insight, of fine spiritual sympathy, and of suggestions and inspirations greatly helpful to the noblest spiritual life.

_Saint Paul: his Life, Labours, and Epistles._ A Narrative and an Argument. By FELIX BUNGENER. Translated from the French. Religious Tract Society.

M. Bungener's is one of the numerous books elicited by M. Rénan's assaults upon Christianity. Such have always produced the effect of multiplying defensive exposition and arguments. They are therefore not to be regretted; their resultant good is much greater than their incidental evil. Untenable positions are tested and abandoned, and valued defences are strengthened. M. Bungener's argument is the narrative. He goes steadily through the incidents of the Apostle's history, parrying attacks, and setting forth evidences and arguments as he goes. His French brevity and his religious earnestness give a great charm to the volume.

_History and Revelation: the Correspondence of the Predictions of the Apocalypse with the marked Events of the Christian Era._ By JAMES H. BRAUND. Two vols. Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday.

In the exposition of the Apocalypse, literally everything depends upon a right principle of interpretation. Whether the symbolism of the book has its solution in historic facts or in spiritual principles, determines everything that a writer has to say respecting it. Into these two schools all interpreters of the Apocalypse may be divided. Of the former, Mr. Elliott is the modern Coryphæus, and he has found in Mr. Braund a laborious disciple. 'The Horæ Apocalypticæ,' he says, 'will be found, perhaps, the nearest to perfection of its kind extant;' and these two volumes are devoted to a patient working out of historical coincidences and congruities. Mr. Braund confidently trusts that the proof from such congruity will be so self-evident that it will be impossible to doubt. But clearly it must depend very largely upon the historical knowledge and imaginative ingenuity of the interpreter, whether a fulfilment can be demonstrated or not. For instance, there is much more of ingenuity than of demonstration in the fancy of Mr. Elliott adopted by Mr. Braund, that the white horse of the first seal is the Roman Empire, that the rider is Nerva, and that the bow in his hand is the symbol of his Cretan origin--the Cretans being great votaries of Apollo. It may be so; but the mere statement of it does not, in virtue of its congruity, carry with it demonstrative proof. It is a mere piece of _ipse dixitism_, which might find a hundred parallels of equally ingenious suppositions. On what authority, again, does Mr. Braund affirm that the 'seven horns of the Lamb symbolize his atoning work, because the blood of the sin offering was sprinkled on the horns of the altar, and the seven eyes, his mediatorial character between God and men'? Horns are usually the symbol of power, and eyes of wisdom. The statement of Mr. Braund, so far from being self-evidencing, provokes our incredulity.

For ourselves, we hold to the opposite principle of interpretation, as substantially adopted by Hengstenberg, Godwin, and others, viz., that the rise, progress, and overthrow of antichristian principles--Jewish, pagan, infidel, worldly and ecclesiastical--are symbolized in the Apocalypse, and that with the development of these, national events have to do in only a very subordinate way. Then much of the symbolism takes its place as mere parabolic drapery. Whether any specific historical event find its type in an Apocalyptic symbol or not, we cannot err seriously if we lay hold upon a great principle; certain it is that every antichristian power in the history of the world has had its strength in the domain of superstition, rather than in mere historic incident; and to be assured of the destruction of this is to be assured of the main thing. We cannot help thinking that such laborious demonstrations as Mr. Braund's are, comparatively speaking, exercises of painful and wasted ingenuity.

_Moses, the Man of God._ A Course of Lectures. By the late JAMES HAMILTON, D.D., F.L.S. James Nisbet.

These lectures have been selected for separate publication from Dr. Hamilton's MSS. They have all the fascinating characteristics of his pen--graceful description, imaginative reconstruction, unconventional, and often very ingenious, sometimes learned, disquisition, with the light, graceful touch of poetic style and delicate fancy which ally all his productions with general rather than with sermon literature. As sermons they seem to us to want point and cogency: they read rather like chapters of a book; but it is a sufficient commendation to say they are James Hamilton's.

_Memories of Patmos; or, some of the Great Words and Visions of the Apocalypse._ By J. R. MACDUFF, D.D. James Nisbet and Co.

Dr. Macduff disavows all pretensions to be a hierophant of the mysteries of the Apocalypse. We are left to gather incidentally that he himself inclines to what may be called the spiritualistic, as distinguished from the historic school of interpreters. His object in this volume, however, is to present those 'manifold isolated passages of transcendent grandeur, beauty, and comfort ... which can be see by the naked eye, without the aid of the prophetic lens or telescope.' His selections are made chiefly from the opening and closing chapters. Dr. Macduff's manner of discoursing is too well known to need characterizing; it is enough to say that in these glorious manifestations of the exalted Christ, he has, with due regard to exegesis, indulged, wisely and profitably, in the unction of description and application which have made his books so popular. No man may discourse of the new heavens and the new earth without palpable shortcoming, but he has given to devout readers a wise and edifying book.

_Hours of Christian Devotion._ Translated from the German of A. THOLUCK, D.D., Professor of Theology in the University of Halle. By ROBERT MENZIES, D.D. Blackwood and Sons.

This excellent manual of devotional thought, the work of one of the greatest Biblical scholars that Germany has produced, has passed through many editions, and has been translated into several different languages with more or less of abridgment. Dr. Menzies has accomplished the difficult task not only of translating the prose meditations, but the numerous poetical effusions that enrich and pervade the volume. Seventy-six brief meditations on personal, experimental, and practical religion, are of course very varied in their character. Thus one of them is a running comment of extreme beauty on Psalm xxiii., followed by a poetical rendering of the spirit of the Psalm, which, even in Dr. Menzies' translation, is of a high order, as thus--

'I strayed a wild tumultuous road along,
My mind not less tumultuous than the way;'--

And a few verses later on--

'Rich is the banquet both for heart and eye,
As varying still their hues by night and day,
A world of flowers, like sparkling jewelry,
Their opening loveliness around display.

'When shines the sun aloft without a cloud,
His smile evokes a pomp of colour bright;
Or if in gloom his radiant face he shroud,
Sweet violets shed their perfume thro' the night.'

We are tempted somewhat profanely to ask, however, whether the perfume of the violet quite carries out the idea of flowery beauty as a banquet for the _eye_ through the night? To many of these meditations four or five great texts are prefixed, and the reader feels that the gentle pressure of a powerful hand has crushed these sacred fruits, and handed him the fragrant wine of the kingdom in a golden goblet. The writer seems to blend his own spiritual history with his exposition in such a way as to aid the reader to make such experience his own. Reading between the lines it is easy to perceive the philosophic dissertant, the accomplished Biblical scholar, the learned theologian, but all is subdued to the language of simple, earnest piety and profound devotion. Some of the deepest mysteries of the kingdom of God are made more comprehensible when thus brought into the light and glory of the Most Holy Place. We note particularly the meditations on 'Drawing nigh to God,' and on 'By grace made free from sin.' Thus, 'If peace have departed from thy heart, build upon the vacant spot a penitential altar, and peace will again return, for the Lord Himself will place upon it the atoning sacrifice. Can any suppose that a servant who has transgressed his Lord's will, and then with anxiety in his heart sets about amending his ways, is as well qualified to do good works as the child who has wept repentant tears upon his Father's bosom, and has had his faults forgiven? Oh, no; the future cannot be made better until the evil be made good.' The abundance and variety of the material furnished in this volume for quiet pondering render further characterization difficult. We are thankful for the introduction of this wise, thoughtful, helpful book in this dark, sad season.

_The Holy Bible, according to the Authorized Version, arranged in Paragraphs and Sections; with Emendations of the Text, also with Maps, Chronological Tables, &c._ The New Testament. Religious Tract Society.

It is very difficult to amend the authorized version without proceeding to a thorough revision which again would necessitate a revision of the _textus receptus_ of the Greek. There is no intelligible principle to guide an editor in pursuing a middle course. Dr. Jacob has improved the renderings in the _more important instances_ in which the labours of later critics have shown that the translators to whom we owe our justly venerated English version were in fault. We are too thankful to have errors removed in any degree to demur. The truth is, that a false superstition for the authorized version, like all false things, is permitted to suppress true reverence for the Divine Word as God gave it. It will soon cease to be a question of the excellencies or defects of the authorized version, and will become the imperative duty of all who reverence that which is the truest and most perfect record of revelation, to protest against its usurpation of a reverence due only to the original text. Another bondage from which the editors of this admirable edition are helping to deliver us is that of chapters. The arrangement of the text in paragraphs according to the sense, and its division into sections corresponding thereto, is a much greater service in interpretation than many might suppose. This beautiful, clearly printed, and carefully edited volume deserves very high praise.

_Night unto Night._ A Selection of Bible Scenes. By the Rev. DANIEL MARCH, D.D. Hamilton, Adams, and Co.

Certain well-known night-scenes of Scripture are here sketched with a vividness and graphic force which make us spectators of the varied incidents, while the lessons that are drawn from them of warning, of hope, or of duty, are brought home to the heart and conscience with tenderness and power.

_Bible Lessons._ By the Rev. EDWIN A. ABBOTT, M.A., Head Master of the City of London School. Part II., New Testament. Macmillan and Co.

Mr. Abbott has very opportunely published the substance of the Bible lessons which he gives to his fifth and sixth forms, thereby demonstrating how practicable it is to give to pupils the very highest form of religious teaching, without any ecclesiastical or even dogmatic sectarianism. He must be a fanatical theorist indeed who can take exception to the contents of this volume; and yet pupils receiving them would be possessed of all that the most exigeant need care for in religious teaching. It is not every teacher who can inculcate religious truth with such penetrating wisdom and catholic breadth of sympathy as characterize Mr. Abbott; but it is almost certain that, practically, he must be an ingenious fanatic indeed, who, with the Bible alone in his hand, can do much in sectarian teaching; at any rate if he do, he will do it wilfully, and the remedy will neither be far to seek, nor slow of application. Mr. Abbott has done good practical service--over and above the intrinsic value of his book, which is great--by this timely publication.

_The Pulpit Analyst._ Vol. V. Hodder and Stoughton.

The 'Analyst' has completed the fifth year of its existence, and has, we think, continued to grow from the beginning. The present volume is a rich and valuable one. A course of sermons by Alford 'On the Parable of the Ten Virgins,' a very valuable series of discourses by Mr. Baldwin Brown 'On Misread Passages of Scripture,' a miscellaneous series of fresh and vigorous sketches by Mr. Watson Smith, and a short series by the Editor on the life of Jacob, constitute a homiletical department of unusual excellence. Dr. Parker's odd concatenation of wise, clever, and incongruous advices to a young preacher, of which we have spoken elsewhere, run through the volume under the title 'Ad Clerum.' Mr. Godwin contributes two or three able discourses on 'Proving Knowledge,' and a new translation, with notes, on the Epistle to the Galatians. The 'Analyst' again changes hands. It comes with the new year under the editorial control of Mr. Paxton Hood. It enlarges its dimensions, and changes its name to 'The Preacher's Lantern.'

JUVENILE BOOKS.

At Christmas time all pleasant things abound:--from turkeys to pantomimes, from oysters to gift books, from staid family gatherings to snapdragon and hunt the slipper; all domestic and social charities are in highest exercise, as if the carol of the angel, and the blessed advent of the Holy child inspired all forms of brightest joy and most loving thought. Not least among the blessings which Christmas pours from her cornucopia are her gift-books. If we welcome with satisfaction the higher works of art which Christmas brings, and which, ministering to the sense of the beautiful, elevate and refine the entire man, moral and intellectual, as well as æsthetical, we welcome still more heartily the affluent Christmas supply of books which more especially address themselves to the young. Artistic excellence, romantic adventure, fairy imagination, natural phenomena, the wonders of travel and of science, creations of fiction and fancies of poetry, are all brought under requisition--and their very highest products consecrated to the nurture of youthful imagination and fancy, mind and heart. This is one of our distinctive glories, and, we will venture to say, a mark of distinctive wisdom, that our literature for the young is so rich in quality and so affluent in quantity. Few nations possess a juvenile literature--France has no children's books; neither has Spain, nor Italy. Even our American cousins have a very meagre native supply. Only Germany can make any pretence to a comparison with us. Month by month books for the young are produced, and at Christmas-tide they are poured forth in bewildering profusion; publishers of gravest repute lay themselves out for them; the staidest literary journals review them. We have come to understand that no service to a people can be greater or more momentous than to supply a pure, bright, merry-hearted literature for the young, which shall wisely minister to their imaginations, and in pleasant ways sow the seeds of good things in their hearts. Happy are the children of these days compared with those of the days of 'Goody Two Shoes' and 'Sandford and Merton.' What a small British-Museum-library a child of twelve would possess who should have, from its birth, acquired and retained the hundreds of juvenile publications of each year; and what is more, how intelligent, if it had imbibed all their instructions, how good if it had embodied all their lessons. Tales of fairies and genii abound, as is fitting and wise; but it is no less a national blessing that our juvenile literature is so wholesome. We can speak only of a very few of the books which, in every variety of form and character, seek to brighten the nursery and the fire-side.

In the very foremost rank, whether in respect of artistic attractiveness or of literary excellency, we must place the dainty publications of Messrs. Nelson. _In the Eastern Seas; or, The Regions of the Bird of Paradise._ A Tale for Boys. By W. H. G. KINGSTON. _In the Wilds of Africa._ A Tale for Boys. By W. H. G. KINGSTON. Two books of imaginative travel, in the style that Mr. Kingston has made his own, full of descriptive information carefully compiled, and of adventurous incidents well imagined. Mr. Kingston wraps the pill of useful information in the jam of romantic adventure so deftly that young patients will scarcely be conscious of the physic--only of the gratification of their intellectual palate. In the first of these works Mr. Kingston carries his young friends to fresh scenes and pastures new, and opens out to them the tropical wonders of the Malay Archipelago. Walter Heathfield, the hero of these adventures, is a fatherless boy, who, with his sister, are taken to the East by Captain Davenport. The voyage is, of course, full of adventure and peril, and all the phenomena of Eastern seas and skies are observed. Singapore and Nagasaki open to the young travellers the worlds of China and Japan. Walter, with a companion, is washed overboard in a typhoon, and, of course, is cast upon a desolate island; after hair-breadth escapes he returns to England, as the heir and successor of his relative, Lord Heatherley; the personal story being cleverly interwoven with the useful knowledge. In the second book named, Andrew Crawford is sent to sea, in consequence of the mercantile reverses of his father, with a due charge of good advice from the latter. The captain dies, and the ignorant mate permits the ship to be stranded on the coast of Africa. A slaver picks up Andrew, and part of the crew getting on shore, they resolve to journey inland to the Crystal Mountains, through the gorilla district, the wonders of which are described. On the river, among the mountains, through the wilderness, they wander, until all the marvels of Central Africa are described. These two books will be prime favourites with boys. They are worthy of Mayne Reid.--_The Sea and its Wonders._ By MARY and ELIZABETH KIRBY. This is a companion volume to 'The World at Home,' published last year, of which it is in every way a worthy successor. Both books are beautifully got up as to paper, type, and binding, and are most profusely illustrated with steel engravings. The wonders of the sea itself, and of its productions, are described in a clear and simple style, and in short chapters, with paragraphs and words equally short, so that the book has a most inviting look to even an inexperienced reader. It would be difficult to find a more interesting as well as instructive book for children from seven to fourteen, while to many beyond that age, its facts will be new and interesting.--_The Fall of Jerusalem and Roman Conquest of Judea._ A condensed account of the 'Fall of the Sacred City,' and a summary of the events that led to it; followed by a vivid narrative of the final subjugation of Judea. The last chapter gives us the characters which Dean Milman introduces in the 'Fall of Jerusalem,' and quotations from it. It is an interesting and valuable little book, well furnished with engravings.--_Lighthouses and Lightships._ By W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS. A very complete and readable account of the ancient Pharos and of our modern lighthouses, with their principles of construction; together with a correct list of those that guard the dangerous coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. A chapter is given to French lighthouses, and to the manner of life of those who spend their days in tending these safeguards for our sailors. As a book of reference it will be very useful, but it will repay a careful reading before being consigned to the reference shelf. The illustrations, over sixty in number, give life and interest to the little volume, which is intended for no especial class of readers, but for both young and old who care for the welfare of humanity.--_Cyril Ashley._ A Tale. By A.L.O.E. Another of A.L.O.E.'s instructive stories for young people, which the authoress, in a touching preface, 'thinks will be the last time she may be permitted to bring her pitcher from the well-spring in which she has so often dipped it.' Cyril Ashley is a young man of singular prudence and goodness, who has thrust upon him by stern duty the reformation of a weak, selfish step-father, and a number of unruly half-brothers and sisters. The history of Jonah is the stimulus and deeply pondered lesson which gives him the resolution to carry that trying task to a satisfactory issue.--_Birds and Flowers._ By MARY HOWITT. A volume of verses on birds and flowers, enlarging the latter term, that is, so as to include orchard and forest trees; written on that high level of excellence which makes Mrs. Howitt's poetry so pleasant and readable, although there are not many pieces of it that abide in the memory, or will take their place in our permanent poetical literature. The illustrations by M. Giacomelli, the French artist who illustrated 'the Bird' of M. Michelet, are very beautiful. They are all vignettes, or initial letters, or chapter headings, but they are done with great artistic skill and delicacy. Altogether this is one of the most beautiful of smaller Christmas books. Graceful song and artistic picture together will charm young readers, and supply a very choice gift-book for them.--_The Spanish Brothers._ A Tale of the Sixteenth Century. By the Author of 'The Dark Year of Dundee,' &c. The author of the series, of which this is one volume, has much of the careful skill and fascination of the author of the Schönberg-Cotta series. Many suspected her first work to be from the pen of the latter. The 'Spanish Brothers' contains a vivid picture of the horrors of the Inquisition, and of the heroism with which many of the early Protestants in Spain endured its inflictions--life-long incarcerations, and _auto-dá-fé's_, at which men, and even women of gentle birth were burned to death before crowds of exulting spectators. Such things are strange to read of in these our 'soft times,' but there is abundant evidence to prove that both the cruelty and the heroism in their extremest forms were real facts. The fictitious part of the book is a story (interesting, but rather too long) of two brothers devoted to each other, and to the idea of a father whom they had never seen, until one of them comes accidentally to share his prison. The two then remain together till the death of the father and the martyrdom of the son.--_The Story of our Doll._ By Mrs. GEORGE CUPPLES. The adventures of little Maggie's foundling doll will appeal very successfully to the make-believe imagination of little children, and greatly delight them.--_Wonders of the Plant World; or, Curiosities of Vegetable Life._--_Useful Plants. Plants adapted for the Food of Man, Described and Illustrated._--_Walter in the Woods; or, Trees and Common Objects of the Forest Described and Illustrated._ Three little books designed to give young people popular botanical knowledge. The first is the more scientific in form. The last two have recourse to that kind of conversational incident and illustration which children will listen to for hours. All three may be commended.--_Pictures and Stories of Natural History._ A series of short sketches of different animals, with very effective coloured plates of each animal described. Admirable for juveniles.