view we are bound to abhor and despise him. And this is the judgment which must in the end be pronounced upon all Protestant intolerance.

Protestantism stands for freedom of thought and of conscience. In the exercise of such freedom it had its origin. And when it denies the right of such freedom within its own communion, it becomes untrue and unfaithful to itself, and, in fact, labors to destroy the foundation on which it itself stands. We know what may be said in reply to this. It will be said that there must be order and law and obedience to authority. Protestantism must exercise authority over the faith of its members, and must be able to free itself from heresy. In one sense this is true. Religion cannot exist without authority. But the only authority to which religious faith and reason can bow is the authority of the truth. When this authority is placed in an outward association and enforced by violence, then we are on the ground of Romanism, and the cause of Protestantism is betrayed into the hands of its enemies. How freedom of religious thought may be rec onciled with peace and order and mutual forbearance in a religious community is a question which we do not propose here to discuss. We content ourselves merely with saying that the problem is not solved by putting faith and thought and conscience under the control of an external power, and securing uniformity by the exercise of either physical or spiritual violence. Protestantism has often done this in the past, but in doing so it has always been inconsistent with itself. All Protestant communions have been guilty, more or less, of this inconsistency. But, thank God! such inconsistencies do not now occur frequently. And it is devoutly to be hoped that the sense of the wrong of them and of the shame of them may ere long prevail to abolish them altogether. A Protestant "assembly," posing as a "court of Jesus Christ" and, after the manner of a conclave of Roman inquisitors, sitting in judgment on the faith of one of its members, and convicting him of heresy, while in the same breath disclaiming any pretense to infallibility, is such an absurdity that it may be hoped that the good sense of mankind may soon laugh the thing out of countenance as well as out of existence.

VIII.

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

[Any books noticed in this REVIEW will be furnished, at the lowest prices, by the Reformed Church Publication Board, 1306 Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa.] FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES. By Stephen L. Baldwin, D.D. Pages 272. Price $1.00. Eaton & Mains, New York, 1900. "The object of this work," as stated in the preface, "is to present some of the principles which underlie the missionary work of Protestantism, to discriminate between conceptions of missions and missionary work that are true and those that are false, to consider the call and the qualifications of missionaries, briefly to treat of some of the methods by which the missionary work of the churches is managed from the home side and some that are employed in the work of the various fields, and to give brief outline summaries of the work of the numerous societies engaged in it." The first six chapters accordingly treat in order of the following subjects: Nature and Scope of Christian Missions; False and True Conceptions of Missions and Missionary Work; The Call and Qualifications of Missionaries; Home Organizations and Methods; Methods and Administration in the Foreign Field; and Origin and Growth of Foreign Missions. The subjects of the remaining chapters are: Formation of British Missionary Societies; Continental Missionary Societies; American Missionary Socities; Women's Missionary Societies; Mission Fields of the World; Progress at Home and Abroad; The Outlook; Statistics.

From this outline of subjects treated the reader will be able to get some idea of the variety and interest belonging to the contents of this book. The subject of missions is always an interesting one, and has never been more so than at the present moment. The nineteenth century has been in a preeminent sense the century of missions. Never since the close of the Apostolic age has there been so much interest manifested in missions as during the past century. Has the result corresponded with the degree of interest displayed and the amount of money expended? The reading of a volume like the one before us may put one in a position, to some extent at least, to answer that question; although it should be remembered that the results of this century of missionary work are not yet fully apparent. Much of this work was only preparatory. It was the sowing of seed; but the harvest has not yet come. Doubtless other centuries will have to pass before the work commenced during the present will have borne its full fruit. And those who expect the whole world to be Christianized during the twentieth century, and grow nervous over the possibility of this expectation not being realized, seem to forget that God

takes ages for the accomplishment of his purposes. We believe that the reading of a book like the present, or any other of the many excellent works on the subject, will have a sobering as well as a stimulating effect. It will show us that the necessity for earnest and persistent work will probably continue to exist for ages to come. It will also show that no prophecies as to the future can safely be indulged. Such prophecies may all be brought to naught in a very brief moment. The following sentences of the book under consideration are curious reading in view of the events of the last few months: "In China the haughty exclusion of everything foreign with which the century began first gave place to the opening of treaty ports, and the privilege of travel within thirty miles of them. From this condition of things to the recent proclamation of the Emperor that Christianity is good, teaching men to do to others as they would others should do to them, and declaring toleration for it and protection for its professors throughout the Empire, is a long step in the way of progress," p. 249.

What is the proper motive for missionary activity? The Apostle Paul seems to have made it to consist in the love of Christ. "The love of Christ constraineth us," he says, 2 Cor. 5:14. According to Dr. Baldwin, however, the true motive is the command of Christ. This reminds us of the answer which the Duke of Welington is said once to have given to the question whether Christians should engage in missions: What are the orders of your Captain? That answer is doubtless true; but after all it is not the whole truth, and is not quite satisfactory. Why does Christ give that command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature? There must be a reason for that, for Christ does nothing without good reasons. That reason used to be found in the fact that all men who do not get the gospel in this world perish everlastingly. This view our author is not prepared to adopt. But we are asked," he writes, p. 21, "Does not the Master say, 'He that believeth shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned'? Yes; but nobody construes this language to imply that literally everyone who does not believe personally on Christ must be eternally lost." The author, then, would not urge missionary effort on the ground that in every second of time a soul drops into hell because the church has failed to bring the gospel to it. But he has no other theory than that it is the will of Christ that the gospel should be preached. As to the field within which missionary work should be done he makes a remark, whose full bearing perhaps he does not perceive, but which is somewhat uncomplimentary at least to some of our fellow Christians. In defending foreign missionary work against objections, he says: "We are told, This is the great gathering place of all nations; here are Swedes and Germans and Italians and Chinese and Japanese, let us stay here and evangelize our own country; we can convert Germans and Scandinavians and Chinese faster here than we can in their native lands.'" It is true this is a quotation from

a supposed opponent of missions in foreign fields; but the author objects to it, not on the ground that Germans and Scandinavians, all good Lutherans, are already Christians, and need no conversion, but rather on the ground that we can better convert them in their own country than here. What will Lutherans say to that? But while there are a few defects of that kind in the volume before us, it will prove a valuable help to any minister in the study of the subject of missions, a subject which is in special need of careful and intelligent study at the present time. Pastors who want to deliver missionary addresses to their people, and ministers who are requested to deliver addresses at missionary conventions or Synodical and Classical assemblies, would do well to get this volume as a help to their preparation. The chapters treating of the history of missionary societies, and the organization of missionary movements will be found to be of special interest.

HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. By John Fletcher Hurst, D.D., LL.D. Volume II. Pages, xxvi +957. Price, $5.00. Eaton and Mains, New York; Jennings and Pye, Cincinnati, 1900.

66

The first volume of this History of the Christian Church was published some time ago. The present volume, embracing the history of the modern church, from the Reformation down to the present time, completes the work of which it forms a part. This work is published as a part of the Library of Biblical and Theological Literature, edited by George R. Crooks, D.D., and John F. Hurst, D.D. Of this library, we are told, in the Publishers' announcement, that the design of the Publishers and Editors was declared, before either volume of the series had appeared, to be the furnishing of ministers and laymen with a series of works which should constitute a compendious apparatus for advanced study on the great fundamental themes of Christian Theology. While the doctrinal spirit of the separate works was pledged to be in harmony with the accepted standards of the Methodist Episcopal Church, it was promised that the aim should be to make the entire Library acceptable to Christians of all Evangelical Churches." This pledge and this promise have been well kept in the several works of the series which have thus far been issued. They are scholarly productions, without any sectarian bias, such as can be commended to clergymen and theological students of all denominations.

Dr. Hurst has long been known to the theological public of this country as an historical scholar and writer of more then common ability. His work on the History of Rationalism, published thirtyfive years ago, served to establish his reputation as a Church historian, and perhaps also helped to advance him to a seat on the Episcopal bench of the Methodist Church. In the two volumes on the History of the Christian Church which he has now given to the public, he has fulfilled the expectations which his friends doubtless entertained in regard to him, and has put under obliga

tion all students of Church history. The volume now before us treats of the Modern Church. It is divided into four general Parts. The first Part, in eleven sections, extending over 125 pages, treats of the preparation for the Reformation, or of the "Heralds of the Better Church." Here we have accounts of such men as William of Accam, John Wyclif, John Hus, Savanarola, John Wessel, Reuchlin, Erasmus, and others, whose work and suffering served to prepare the way for Luther. Zwingli, and Calvin and their coworkers in various parts of Christendom. The second part treats of the Reformation, first on the Continent, and secondly, in the British Isles. The third part contains the History of the Intermediate Period, from the establishment of Protestantism to the beginning of the present century. The fourth part, finally contains the history of the recent period, first on the continent, secondly in Great Britain, and thirdly in America.

One of the merits of this general history of the Christian Church consists in its moderate dimensions coupled with a comparative fullness of details. It is intermediate between the extended histories of many volumes, which few busy ministers and scarcely any laymen have time to read, and the brief manuals which contain little more than dry catalogues of names and dates, which nobody wants to read. In a work of two large volumes, like those of Dr. Hurst, it is possible to present persons and events with some definiteness and fullness of outline, to present pictures that shall impress the imagination, and so make the study of history a pleasure instead of an irksome task. Of course no historian, in such limits, will do equal justice to all events and persons which he may have occasion to portray. We notice something of this inequality in the work before us. Luther and Wesley, for instance, are treated at a length and with a fullness that could not be accorded to many other characters, of whom one would naturally like to know more. Of course this is inevitable. And yet, generally, Dr. Hurst discriminates well and proportions his material fairly according to the merits of the subjects treated. If Luther gets more attention than Zwingli, it must be remembered that he filled an incomparably larger place in the actual history of the world. Much as we admire Zwingli and believe that his merits, especially in a theological point of view, have never yet been fully appreciated, we are yet bound to agree with Dr. Hurst when he says that, without Luther, Zwingli would have been impossible. Naturally Dr. Hurst devotes more space to English and American history than we are accustomed to in works of European, especially German, origin; but this is a feature which the American student must view with approbation rather than otherwise.

Agreeably to his plan and the limits of his work Dr. Hurst does not follow the method of classifying and dividing the historical material to which we are accustomed in larger works. He does not devote separate sections or "books" to the history of