and will not be wanted. The earth is not to be finally destroyed,— it is to endure for ever. And yet one more astounding conceit, which we shall give in the writer's own words:"Men in the flesh may live, and by them human generations may proceed to all eternity, or may not: we cannot tell." To this choice topic three pages are devoted, and Mr. Smith becomes quite rapturous over the idea of the beauty and innocence of " the pretty prattlers pure of, say, the year 1869,000,000 after the doom of Satan and the death of Death." He dilates with much unction on "their lively, lovely little gambols," and so forth. There might be nothing at all in Scripture about that world where " they neither marry, nor are given in marriage !" In chapter XX. of his book the author sees his way to the conclusion, that about 18,000,000,000 will be the number of mankind to be dealt with at the last judgment. Altogether, the reviewer's task in dealing with such a book as the present is alike melancholy and mirth-provoking. The work itself may answer the same purpose for the student of prophecy that the antics of the intoxicated Helots did for the children of Sparta. It can hardly serve them in any other way. The Gospel according to Matthew. A Revised Translation by Robert Young, LL.D. Edinburgh: George Adam Young and Co. 1873.-Dr. Young is a prodigy of linguistic acquisition and literary achievement. He announces himself on the title-page of this pamphlet as the "author of numerous Biblical and Oriental works;" and the list of these which is appended thereto is enough to make the unlettered reader wonder whether the primitive confusion of tongues is ever repeated on a smaller scale in the brain which is laden with Syriac and Dutch, with Gaelic and Sanscrit, with Gujarati and Finnish, and almost any other language that will occur to the mind. The learned author's plan in the present tract is to present the Authorized Version and his own revision in parallel columns without note or comment. The result is, to our mind, eminently favourable to the former, our time-honoured English Bible. A rigidly literal rendering of the Greek text is Dr. Young's cherished aim; but the result is such a transformation of the familiar sacred teachings, that they are at once divested of a certain charm which is by no means to be despised. We think that few readers of the Bible would like to have the parable of the tares altered in this wise:-" The darnels are the sons of evil, and the enemy that sowed them is the slanderer, and the reaping is the full end of the age, and the reapers are the messengers." A curious instance this of how litterateurs may become a positive evil. To attempt to follow the course of Dr. Young's alterations, or fully to illustrate their character, would require a long treatise instead of a brief critique. The author of the "Ten Thousand Marginal Readings" can easily keep the Reviewers employed; indeed, it may seem almost presumptuous to attempt to criticise such manifold learning. Yet dealing with the results alone, we incline, after all that this versatile scholar can do for us, to the work of the men whom he calls King James' Revisers." Traits of Character and Notes "Massah and Meribah;' or, "Is the Lord among us or not?" A Sermon by the Rev. W. Roberts. London: Elliot Stock.-This is a very sensible and seasonable appeal on the question of the presence of God in the Churches of our time; in which discouraging complainers are justly rebuked. The want of spiritual results is no doubt everywhere apparent; but there is no cause for an unbelieving utterance of this inquiry. It is here shown that God's people may well believe that He is among them, by the fact of the Divine Covenant; by previous evidences of the Divine faithfulness; by those "moral conditions" which indicate His presence; and by the spiritual apprehensions of the more enlightened among Christians. It is further maintained that "sensual perceptions of difficult Providences" are the influences which lead men to doubt the presence of God in His Church. Let Christian professors renew their personal consecration to God, free themselves from the spirit of the world, and seek a revived condition of spiritual life; and we shall not long have to lament the absence of those marks of prosperity in the Church in which our fathers rejoiced. of Incident in Bible Story. By The printing and binding are Francis Jacox. London: Hodder excellent. and Stoughton.-The plan of this work is to take some Scriptural incident as a text, and then heap on it all the illustrations which the author's discursive reading has supplied. We can conceive a design like this carried out in a way that shall be both pleasing and useful. But in order to this two conditions are essential. The illustrations must be from real life, and such as are worth preserving. We cannot imagine the use of parallels taken for the most part from the chaos of modern fiction. What light or confirmation can real incidents and characters receive from characters that never lived, incidents that never happened, and speeches that were never spoken? Then, again, the illustrations should be intrinsically interesting, real historical parallels, curious, rare, or wise. The present work is not compiled on these principles. A large proportion of the illustrations is taken from modern fiction and poetry: Charles Reade, Trollope, Dickens, and Thackeray figure largely as Scripture commentators! We confess we do not like to see Scripture thus expounded. Again, discrimination seems sadly wanting. Many of the illustrations were worthless originally what are they at second hand? Surely the mere fact of their bearing on a subject is not enough to entitle them to the honour of quotation. We are happy to acknowledge that some of the articles are attractive. Readers of the author's former works will be pleased to learn that in the present book there is "something more like unity in the design and method in the arrangement." But to the work as a whole the old proverb applies,-Dimidium plus toto. The Women of Methodism. By Abel Stevens, LL.D. Crown 8vo. Pp. 291. London: William Tegg. Doubtless many of our readers have already seen this interesting and well-known volume. For the sake of those who have not, we may say that it is a piece of very condensed biography. Dr. Stevens, however, modestly entitles his notices of many of the "elect ladies" of whom he writes, gelistic and educational means in "sketches." He rather excels in operation for its" [query, their] compiling and compressing, and "improvement." This, of course, some of his pages are decidedly gives a peculiar interest to his graphic. The names of those pleasant pages. It is a melancholy whom he has delighted to honour thing that so many well-written are indeed worthy of remembrance. and valuable volumes of travels In most of them Divine grace was either ignore religion entirely, or manifested with illustrious attract- misunderstand and even sneer at iveness and force-" the beauty of the efforts of Christian missionholiness." Surely such a volume as aries. this is well adapted to make the reader desire a deeper and fuller acquaintance with the biography which can furnish such choice and wonderful characters. We must not omit to add that Mr. Tegg's truly elegant reprint of this American work is very moderate in price. It will nevertheless be quite in its place on the drawing-room table, and is exactly suitable for a present or a prize. We can express no better wish for the rising generation of young women in Methodism than that they may drink into the spirit of those whom this book portrays. Wanderings in Scripture Lands. By Thomas Robinson, D.D. Pp. 423. London: R. D. Dickinson. 1873.A truly interesting and instructive volume. Dr. Robinson travelled for nine months in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, and Greece. He describes vividly, and is so far from saying too much, that probably most of his readers will wish the book had been longer. For notwithstanding all that has been written on the East, oriental life is a subject so large and so full of interest that there is still room for a traveller who is not a mere book-maker. Moreover, Dr. Robinson had a special object-" to afford as correct and extensive information as possible as to the spiritual condition of the countries and places he visited, as well as to the evan Here, the writer, while keenly enjoying the loveliness of nature, has an eye to the higher interests of the people among whom he wanders. We have only to add that, though evidently in the humour to be pleased, not trading in cynical bitterness, "as the manner of some is," Dr. Robinson is not wholly blind to the pitiable state of many Eastern populations, and the flagrant wickedness too often to be met with in earth's fairest scenes. If another edition of this book is called for, we hope the quotations of Holy Scripture will be carefully revised. A doctor of divinity-and а commentator, . withal-ought to quote with literal accuracy. Phases of Belief. By the Rev. James Walker. Pp. 300. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. 1873. This writer has but few qualifications for the work he has undertaken. Authorship is a mistaken vocation in his case. He is impatient of the restraints of systematic theology, especially Calvinistic theology; but his desire for more freedom-even though it is to be freedom from harsh and narrow views of sacred things-has gone to a dangerous extent when it leads him to speak of the Apostles in such language as the following: -"Being Jews already inflated with notions of favouritism excessively wild, we cannot wonder that His they dressed their new ideas to some extent in the old clothes of Judaism." (Page 3.) And there is, unhappily, more to the same effect. In our day, we cannot but feel, serious and wide-spread mischief is likely to result from talking in such a strain as this. And the same remark applies emphatically to these expressions, "Truth must have a freer platform;" "The men who possess the strongest minds and the largest sympathies are steadily outgrowing the accepted theological tenets of the present age." We would entreat the author of such deliverances to consider that they may easily be applied by his readers more widely, and with even less discrimination, than they are by himself. earnest aversion to fatalism grafted upon Christianity, may perhaps excuse some of his own vehemence and want of caution. But if his teachings and his influence should play into the hands of the opponents of all doctrinal beliefs, who will be gainer then? However, our uneasiness is somewhat modified by the pervading feebleness of the volume, and the carelessness-if not ignorance-at times apparent. Thus on page 13 we read, "Man is the arbiter of his own destiny, the choser of his own fate." And on page 147 we are told of a period "in which the promises and affirmations touching the protective action of God is little thought of." Were we Calvinists, instead of evangelical Arminians, it would be quite to our mind to see our views assailed in a work which is itself in so many ways liable to attack. Our "enemy" would have "written a book "-to some purpose. Rides in the Mission Field of South Africa, between the Kei and Bashee Rivers, Kaffraria. Also a Visit to the Missionary Colleges of Lovedale and Heald Town, in British Kaffraria. By C. H. Malan, then Major in the 75th Regiment. London: Morgan and Scott.-This little volume presents the surface impressions produced upon an intelligent and earnest Christian man by a rapid survey of missionary labour in a part of the world which the great Head of the Church is blessing in a remarkable manner. The author was an officer in the army, but found it impossible to submit to regulations which, as he thought, unfairly interfered with his burning desire to witness for Christ. He therefore resigned his commission, and expresses his wish, should the way open, to devote himself to direct mission-work in the field which he has visited; a sphere of duty for which he apparently possesses peculiar adaptation. Although, in our opinion, he betrays some grossly exaggerated views as to the evils of "Denominationalism," he displays thoroughly catholic sympathies with genuine Christian work, wherever he finds it. His pages disarm criticism; they supply an artless, loving, and unvarnished statement of some of the good which God is doing by means of missions, our own included, in Kaffraria. 461 PRUSSIA AND THE ULTRAMONTANES. THE Prussian House of Lords, under threats of being again packed or remodeled, has finally adopted the Constitutional amendment requisite for the enactment of the new Ecclesiastical Bills.** The fifteenth article of the Constitution contains the following provision: "The Evangelical [National Protestant] and the Roman Catholic Churches, as well as all the other Religious Societies, manage their affairs independently. Every Religious Society remains in the possession of its institutions and property provided for religious service, instruction, and charity." Instead of this it is proposed, in accordance with a suggestion of a committee of the Lower House, to add, after the word "independently," the words, "but remains subjected to the laws of the country and to the supervision of the State. With this modification, every" etc. The eighteenth Article of the Constitution says, further, "The right of the State to nominate, elect, or confirm with reference to Ecclesiastical appointments, is abolished:" a clause which, taken with the provision just quoted from the fifteenth Article, has been hitherto regarded as the bulwark of religious liberty in Prussia. It is now, however, proposed to add, "But the law regulates the rights of the State with reference to the training, appointment, and dismissal of ministers of religion, and fixes the limits of Ecclesiastical discipline." The change in the relations of the Church to the State in Germany thus indicated is momentous, for good or ill,-is, in fact, a sweeping revolution. Prussia, which in con sequence of the advancement made towards German civil unity may here be taken as interchangeable with Germany, has accepted the challenge of Rome in good earnest, and is fighting the Papacy with its own wellworn weapons. Nor will the new Articles of the Constitution remain a dead letter: the rights of the Civil Power, thus defined, fortified, and asserted, will doubtless be strictly enforced: the jealousy of parties will compel a common control. It is therefore no exaggeration to say, that the new Ecclesiastical laws, now likely to pass the German Parliament without serious modifications, "amount to a secular organization, so complete as not to leave the Pope a soul, a place, an hour that he can call entirely his own.......Henceforth there is to be neither priest, nor Bishop, nor Cardinal, nor teacher, nor preacher, nor proclamation, nor act, nor penalty, nor anything that man can be, or do, or say for the soul's good of man in Germany without the proper authorization of the EMPEROR." An inexorable State logic demands the enforcement of the rule, "What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander:" not only are all religious Communities placed on a footing of equality, but the Civil Power is henceforth to regulate, that is, to control, "the training, appointment, and dismissal of ministers of religion," and "the limits of Ecclesiastical discipline for all alike." It is not surprising that many German Protestants, thorough opponents of Rome, see in the steps recently taken against her pretensions and machinations a serious curtailment of their own religious liberties. Why, they ask, should • A sketch of these Bills was given in this Magazine for March, 1873, pp. 277-9. |