justed to the race as a brotherhood, and also to a possible future over which a good being rules. The second part of the argument shows that in Christianity there is a central principle of love to God and man, which as a germinant, vital force, will produce this perfect manhood and elevate humanity to its highest possible condition, individually, socially, morally, and eternally. Assuming that this is the goal to be reached, it is important to know that Confucianism, Brahmanism, and the other great religions, while saying many excellent and true things, have each a widely different central idea and aim. The scientific and philosophic substitutes for Christianity are equally defective. But Christianity, and it alone, appeals to love-the one universal, governing principle of humanity-and claims a power of taking man as he is and raising him to a conformity to its own perfect ideal as shown in Jesus. It must, therefore, be the true religion, whatever be the fate of the questions of criticism respecting the Christian records. Such is Mr. Savage's argument: it waives the skeptic's questions, and takes him on his own ground. The conclusion is irresistible; surely that system which lifts up, advances, and perfects man, must be true. But our author's success is really but half achieved. If Christianity is love, as he says, and only that, the Boston Radicals will at once claim to become good converts. To us Christianity is a body of facts, and of doctrines based upon those facts. The questions which are waived inevitably come up again and must be settled. We do, indeed, understand that that love which is the essence of the Gospel system is consequent upon an acceptance of an incarnate, atoning Christ; and so, doubtless, does Mr. Savage, but he leaves his converted skeptic in ignorance of it, and in utter doubt whether he may put faith in the records which alone tell of that Christ.

Walks and Words of Jesus. A' Paragraph Harmony of the Four Evangelists. By Rev. M. N. OLMSTEAD. With an Introduction by Rev. R. S. FOSTER, D.D. Third Edition. 12mo., pp. 400. New York: Nelson & Phillips. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden.

Mr. Olmstead's purpose in the preparation of this volume is worthy of all praise. He has sought to construct from the four Gospels a single narrative of the life of Jesus, employing "every word" of the Evangelists, and arranging the events of their records in their proper chronological order. This is undoubtedly the true method of study of the life of our Lord. He has also, by means of a larger type, brought into a special prominence the

words of Jesus himself, whether in set discourses or in casual conversations, so that at a glance his utterances may be distinguished from those of other persons or of the writer's. This is a valuable feature of the book. We dissent from some of the arrangements of passages. It seems not likely, for instance, that the incidents recorded in Matt. viii, 19-22, and Luke ix, 57–62, occurred twice, and yet Mr. Olmstead so reckons them, and puts them eighty pages apart. It cannot be that Peter's denial of his Lord was more than once predicted; but Mr. Olmstead represents it as foretold three times, twice at the passover-table, and once after the crossing over the Kedron. Not a few similar instances occur where an event which clearly, as we think, occurred but once, appears twice in the narrative. This is, to say the least, a very easy way of constructing a harmony, and equally unsatisfactory. And why place the resurrection of Lazarus before the mission of the seventy-four months too early? Or the interview with the Greeks, which, according to John, was immediately followed by the final departure from the temple, before the cursing of the fig-tree and the cleansing of the temple? Or the selection of the twelve half a dozen chapters after the Sermon on the Mount, which it really preceded? All these are important points in a harmonized narrative of our Lord's life. These points, however, to which most scholars would object, do not obscure the divine lessons of the book. It may be recommended to the people as a striking and instructive exhibition of Jesus speaking to the people.

Apologetic Lectures on the Moral Truths, of Christianity. Delivered in Leipsic in the Winter of 1872. By CHR. ERNST LUTHARDT, Doctor and Professor of Theology. Translated from the German by Sophia Taylor. Crown 8vo., pp. 405. Edinburgh T. & T. Clark. 1873.

These lectures properly constitute the Third Part of the author's Apology for Christianity. The first course, on the Fundamental Truths of Christianity, was delivered in 1864; the second, on the Saving Truths of Christianity, in 1867; and they are now supplemented by the ten lectures in the present volume on the Moral Truths of Christianity. Indeed, the defense would have been incomplete without them, for, as Dr. Luthardt well observes, "unless Christianity can prove itself to be the moral power of public and private life, all other proofs will be in vain." Theology teaches what is matter of faith, but the world to-day demands that what is thus taught shall be made evident in the lives and

actions of men. This volume undertakes, therefore, the unfolding of the system of Christian ethics, basing it firmly upon the teachings of Holy Scripture. The necessity of this basis for the best life of the individual, of society, and of the State, appears in the first lecture, on the Nature of Christian Morality. But such a morality "presupposes the Christian, and the Christian presupposes the man." Man as he is exhibited in the second lecture, and the Christian, or man truly such, renewed by a new birth, in the third. Virtue lies in the disposition of the heart; its essence is love, the ideal of true morality, out of which all the other virtues grow. The ground is thus laid for a beautiful elucidation of Christian relations and duties in accordance with the inculcations of the New Testament. The work is not then to take rank with the mass of our deistic text-books on moral science. Written from the Lutheran stand-point, it is neither Augustinian nor Pelagian, nor yet is it Wesleyan. Less profoundly scientific than Wuttke's, it is more thoroughly practical, while its clear style and elegant diction at once take the reader captive.

Short Sermons on Consecration and Kindred Themes: for the Closet, the Fireside, and the Lecture-room. By Rev. A. C. GEORGE, D.D., of the Central New York Conference, Author of "Counsels to Converts," "The Satisfactory Portion," etc. 12mo., pp. 306. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. 1873.

New York: Nelson & Phillips.

These," as the author says in his preface, "are not elaborate sermons, but simply suggestions toward discourses bearing some relation to the great theme of Christian consecration." They are thirty-four in number, some discussing themes as fully and at as great length as befits an ordinary sermon, others containing only the material of a five minutes' exhortation. A third of them, perhaps, bear directly upon the subject of holiness, and almost all the others discuss cognate topics. The subjects of the sketches are well selected-" Consecration: its Nature and Obligation," "Consecration a Constant Service," "The Separating Power of the Divine Presence," "The Inspiration of a Great Presence," "A Drift or a Voyage," "Life, Capital for Immortality," "The Eternity of Character," etc.

It is a good book. The "Sermon " is indeed very short, ofttimes, but clear, to the point, and strong. The style is correct, forcible, and often eloquent; the spirit is devout, the whole tendency purifying and elevating. The work abounds in illus

trations, sometimes original, sometimes cited and the authors named, but all apt and interesting, and frequently very striking and beautiful. The very brevity of the several discourses, while it precludes exhaustive discussion, makes the volume more available for the purposes of that wise economy which gathers up fragments of time, "that nothing be lost."

Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Epistle to the Galatians. By HEINRICH AUGUST, WILHELM MEYER, Th. D., Oberconsistorialrath, Hanover. Translated from the fifth edition of the German by G. H. VENABLES. 8vo., pp. 354. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. New York: Scribner, Welford, & Armstrong. 1873.

This is the first installment we have received of the English translation of Dr. Meyer's very able commentary on the New Testament, now being issued from the press of the Clarks. The entire work will be heartily welcomed by our scholarly ministers and biblical students. It annotates, of course, the Greek text very thoroughly and accurately. Meyer's first principle is that the true commentator, as such, owes no allegiance to creeds or churchly confessions. His single work is to find the true intentional meaning of the sacred writer. In his independence we think him sometimes erratic; but in general his insight and power of unfolding the true vein of sacred thought is rarely, if ever, surpassed. We have used his volumes upon previous Epistles to great advantage, and can, therefore, speak from some experience.

The first volume of Romans has also been issued. The publishers announce that two volumes more of the work may be issued by next spring; but so great care has to be taken to secure accuracy, as well as to obtain the author's latest corrections, that the issue of the volumes may be somewhat delayed.

Foreign Theological Publications.

Die Geheimnisse des Glaubens, (The Mysteries of Faith, etc.) Von LUDWIG SCHÖBERLEIN, Dr. der Philosophie und Theologie. Heidelberg, 1872.

Dr. Schöberlein has earned the reputation of an able and orthodox Lutheran theologian. Some of his monographs are' classic pieces of theological speculation. The present work is an effort to help the devout thinker to the fullest practicable comprehension

of the more mysterious of the doctrines of Christianity. It consists of ten essays (422 octavo pages) on the subjects: "The Essence and Certainty of Faith," "The Trinity," "The Unity of God and Man in Christ," "The Atonement," "Miracles," "The Eucharist," "Time and Eternity," "Heaven and Earth," "The Essence of the Spiritual Nature and Corporeality," "Christianity the Truth and Completion of the Human." Though written independently, they yet stand in close relation to each other, and rest upon a common theological ground-view. The key note to the whole is faithfaith in its deepest and broadest sense as the unity of knowing, feeling, and willing, that is, as the most central activity of the soul. Under the guidance of this faith the regenerated Christian mind goes out in never-satiated thirst after the deep significance of the truths of revelation. The ancient Church creeds, venerable as they are, are not the highest attainable expression of the deep things of God; on the contrary, the mind of the Church may and should, in every age, aspire to a deeper and higher comprehension and construction of revealed theology. Otherwise the life of the Church is in danger of declining into an idolization of the latter, and into a shallow practicism. Dr. Schöberlein has directed his faith-guided speculations chiefly in two directions-to "the highest heights and the deepest depths of the kingdom of God." The highest factor is the Divine love, and the lowest the corporeality of the creature. The innermost center and the outermost periphery of the Divine kingdom are the spheres of Christian mystery proper. As a whole, the book offers much stimulating food for Christian thought. It will fully satisfy very few, even of the author's own Church; for it insists that even the Lutheran symbols largely need reconstruction. A redeeming feature of it is that it every-where bases itself closely upon the plain word of God. The question is, however, whether it does not in some points elicit from the sacred texts other doctrines than their true implications.

A very interesting feature of the work is its discussion of the unity of the Divine and the human in Christ. The author is not only dissatisfied with the view common in Anglo-Saxon theology, but also with the modern German idea of a kévwotę, a temporary selfdivestment on the part of the Son of God of his divine attributes, or, at least, of their activity. But the view which he proposes in their stead, and which is too complicated to be stated here, seems to us to involve even more difficulties than the others. It agrees with the Kévwo theory in discarding any thing like a double personality and a twofold consciousness in Christ, and insists that