which language, as such, exercises over our thoughts. It is of course impossible here to give a synopsis of even one of his Lectures. The work will receive the attention of scholarly and thinking men. In the extreme care with which he examines details, in the candor and caution with which he draws his conclusions, and in the clearness and skill with which he presents the important subject before his readers, the work is worthy of the distinguished author.

A HISTORY OF THE WORLD, from the earliest Records to the Present time. By PHILIP SMITH, B. A., one of the principal contributors to the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Biography and Geography. Vol. I. Ancient History, from the Creation of the World to the Accession of Philip of Macedon. Illustrated by Maps, Plans and Engravings. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 443 and 445 Broadway. 1865. 8vo. pp. 562.

We welcome this first volume of a complete History of the World as "God's World," written by one who, while he is thoroughly master of all the latest attainments in human science, is nevertheless a profound believer in Revelation still, with unqualified, and, we had almost said, unmeasured delight. The plan is admirable; and if the execution of the remaining seven volumes, of which the work, when it shall have been completed, will consist, is equal to the sample we have in this, it will leave nothing to be desired in the way of a History of the World. The author begins by recognizing the Bible as the Word of God, and not only a Revelation of His Will in matters pertaining to life and salvation, but as being also one only source of historical knowledge in regard to some part of man's history, and our surest guide in relation to all those things of which it speaks at all. It is a book that every clergyman will be glad to have, and one which every sincere believer will thank the author for having written. The undertaking is a great one; and if the author should no more than finish the first part (Vols I and II, reaching down to the downfall of the Roman Empire in the West,) in the style and with the completeness which characterizes the volume before us, he will have done enough to satisfy the reasonable ambition of almost any man. We propose to discuss the merits of the work more fully, when the second volume shall have been received, and therefore forbear saying anything more at present.

MEMOIRS OF REV. BENJAMIN C. CUTLER, D. D., late Rector of St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. By Rev. HORATIO GRAY, A. M. New York: A. D. F. Randolph. 1865. 12mo. pp. 439. The late Rev. Dr. Cutler had the privilege of being born and nurtured in the Church. His religious character was early developed; there seems to have been with him no self-conscious line of transition from the condition of the worldling to that of the sincere believer and follower; his affections were fastened firmly on CHRIST, and as he grew in years he grew in grace and the knowledge of God. The question, which so many of our clergy have been obliged to ask, and to answer too: "Why am I a Churchman ?" was already settled for

him; nor, in our judgment, was his position such as to enable him to look at the subject of organic Christianity, especially in this country, where universal chaos so alarmingly threatens utter ruin to Christianity, as it presents itself to many who have sought refuge within the Church. In the confidence of private letters, and his own private journal, he expressed himself without reserve; and as these are given in the biography freely, and sometimes, we think, indiscreetly, we have several old Ecclesiastical Trials, and personal animosities, and doctrinal controversies recalled to remembrance. One of these dates back as far as 1836, and of its details some of our readers have a lively recollection. We more than doubt the propriety of reviving the memory of those old criminations and recriminations; it is better for all parties, that the whole be forgotten. Dr. Cutler was a devout man. None can read the record of his inner life, without feeling that in him the Gospel was indeed the power of God unto salvation. In one of his letters he says, "It would take one sting from death, for me to know, that when I am gone, there will be men left who will defend the Gospel in the Church; and the Church, for the Gospel's sake; and both, because of that glorious Saviour whom they ought to hold forth and hold up." Near the close of his life, in his private Journal, he makes the following confession respecting that habit of attempt at spiritual anatomy, or introversion, which his earlier life most strikingly exhibits: "I have discontinued set self-examinations; for, after proceeding in the same way for forty years, I found myself no better, but rather worse." It was as a faithful Pastor that Dr. Cutler was most successful; and thirty years of such labor in Brooklyn had given him a degree of influence among all classes of people, such as few men ever attain.

AUTO-BIOGRAPHY, Correspondence, etc., of LYMAN BEECHER, D. D. Edited by CHArles BeecheR. With Illustrations. In two volumes. Vol. II. 1865. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 587. When Bishop Burgess published his "Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England during the century between 1740 and 1840," he gave the history of New England Congregationalism as it appears outwardly, and as it is a matter of record; and so accurately did he draw the picture of the Unitarian Controversy, that the Editor of the work before us has quoted freely from his pages. But there is always an unwritten history, which is the true history; an esoteric as opposed to the exoteric; as the kernel is opposed to the shell; or the reality to the sham. That secret history of New England Congregationalism, and, to a considerable extent, of New School Presbyterianism, is disclosed in this second volume of Dr. Lyman Beecher's Auto-biography. The Editor, the Rev. Charles Beecher, evidently has no sympathy with, and little respect for, the old fashioned "orthodoxy" of New England; and the ecclesiastical troubles with which he has been harrassed have evidently emboldened him to throw wide open the inner temple of Puritanism. And what a prospect! Up to 1818, the "Standing Order" of Connecticut had a bond of Union, in their com

mon hatred of Episcopacy, and in their combined efforts to crush or maim it; efforts which are frequently alluded to in the volume before us. But when Toleration was declared, and these "freedom-of-conscience" men lost their political power, they at once set to fighting each other. The very persons whose subjectivism and emotionalism were so demonstrative, and withal so vituperative, that half the world really believed that what they said was true, that there was "no religion" in the Episcopal Church, these very men now charged each other, not only with the most awful heresies, but the most malignant motives. The very same men, Tyler, and Taylor, and Nettleton, who in 1819 put their heads together to prepare that infamous lampoon against the Church, "A Serious Call," afterwards were so bitter against each other, that Dr. Beecher, because he would not join Tyler against Taylor, says, "they took burning arrows dipped in gall, and shot them over into the Presbyterian camp. They rifled the graves of my dead friends, out of their ashes to evoke spectral accusations against me." This quarrel among the "orthodox" Puritans began in Connecticut, and led to the establishment of the East Windsor Seminary; it was carried into the Presbyterian ranks, and resulted in the trial of Dr. Beecher at the West, and of Dr. Barnes at Philadelphia; it finally led to the entire disruption of the Presbyterian body in 1837. A son of Dr. Beecher, in describing the bitterness of this odium theologicum, says, "for a combination of meanness, and guilt, and demoralizing power, in equal degrees of intensity, I have never known anything to exceed the conspiracy in New England and the Presbyterian Church to crush, by open falsehood and secret whisperings, my father and others whom they have in vain tried to silence by argument, or to condemn in the courts of the Church." And yet, these are the men who for a half century have been so noisy in decrying "the Episcopal Church" because it is lacking in vital piety! The volume before us, while it is interesting and valuable as the Auto-biography of in many respects a remarkable man, is, as we have said, exceedingly rich in its disclosures of the real history of one of the most important theological movements of modern times. Dr. Beecher was evidently a "Taylorite;" yet neither he nor Taylor seems to have appreciated the true character of that system as a Philosophy, which is the merest Empyricism; and neither of them seems to have known that it was nothing more than an old heresy in a new garb. The private letters of such men as Drs. Tyler, and Taylor, and Nettleton, and Goodrich, and Woods, and Porter, and Barnes, are curiosities in their way. The real secret of this perpetual warfare in the ranks of Puritanism is to be found in the system itself. That system began with setting Private Judgment against Catholic Tradition, in matters both of Doctrine and Organization; it is ending in sweeping away Doctrine and Organization altogether. The Human Reason, the Moral Sense, revolts against the horrible dogmas of Puritanism; and here is the fountain of all the isms of New England, from the days of Edwards to the last ravings of Theodore Parker.

In examining this volume, the conviction forces itself upon us, again and again, that the Church has been most recreant to her duty, in that

she has not met the real spiritual wants of the age, with a bolder, manlier front. She has crouched, and hesitated, and apologized, only to be laughed at. It is perhaps not too late yet for the Church to show that she has a more excellent way.

ESSAYS, Historical and Biographical, Political, Social, Literary and Scientific. By HUGH MILLER, Author of the "Old Red Sandstone," etc. Edited, with a Preface, by PETER BAYNE. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1865. 12mo. pp. 501.

When Hugh Miller became Editor of "The Witness" (newspaper) he was in the full maturity of his intellectual powers; and during the sixteen years that he conducted that paper, he called into requisition his large stores of literary and scientific information. Sturdy Scotchman as he was, he did not sit down to snivel, like our modern Miss Nancys, at the assaults of noisy blasphemers, and beg to apologize for the liberty of differing. He believed in Christianity, and had faith in it. Blustering infidels and charlatans found that there were blows to take, as well as blows to give. We confess we like the man's loyalty to the Gospel; and wish there was more of it in the world and in the Church. In these days of Colensos and Renans, when the old landmarks of the Faith are being obliterated, would to God the American Church had a few Hugh Millers to set the seal upon moral sycophancy and time serving treachery. What the age demands, is Christian manliness.

HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH in the United States of America. By ABEL STEVENS, LL. D. Author of "The History of the Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century, called Methodism," etc. New York: Carlton & Porter. 1864. 12mo. 2 Vols. pp. 423, 511.

The consistency of John Wesley's conduct as a Churchman, the true position of Methodism in this country as a System, and the radical changes which it is constantly undergoing, and its probable destiny, are points which we have discussed in previous Numbers of the Review. Dr. Stevens, in the volume before us, vindicates Methodist Episcopacy, on the ground that its establishment was "providential," and "expedient." As the Christian Ministry was a Divine Institution, such a method of argument is, of course, inadmissible; and if carried out, as it ought to be if sound, and as it is in fact, is at once thoroughly destructive of Primitive Faith, as well as Order. Multitudes of Methodists are seeing and feeling this; and hence are returning to the Church of the Wesleys, where they are finding rest, as well as a field of great usefulness. Mr. Stevens is an excellent writer; he thinks clearly, and writes strongly. He makes all of Methodism that can be made of it, and the field is a fruitful one. His delineation of the spiritual life, and character, and of the labors, of John Wesley, and of the Methodist pioneers in this country, is admirable. His History of Methodism is brought down to the First Regular General Conference, in 1792.

HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH in the United States of America. By E. H. GILLETT. Author of "The Life and Times of John Huss." Two Volumes. 1865. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Publication Committee. 12mo. pp. 576, 605.

If the "Presbyterian Church" are satisfied with this work, as a trust-worthy history of that denomination, we certainly are not disposed to find fault with it. But the Author does not tell us what Presbyterianism is; where, and when it originated; what its Ecclesiastical organization is; or what its Doctrines are. He seems to maintain that the Brownists who landed at Plymouth Rock were Presbyterians; and that the Say-Brook Platform was a Presbyterian standard. Now, as there are some half-dozen distinct bodies in this country, each claiming to be Presbyterian; and as many more, insisting on the most ultra and unshackeled Independency, and as some of the leaders of this latter class are reported at length in this history of Presbyterianism, we confess we do not know what to make of the work. It is evident enough that Mr. Gillett, if he has any definite ideas as to either organization or doctrine, is in thorough sympathy with the broadest laditudinarianism. For example, in the "Plan of Union," of 1801, by which Presbyterians and Congregationalists agreed to merge doctrinal and ecclesiastical differences, and unite upon missionary work in a common field,-a Plan which led to the severest denunciations, the criminations and recriminations, the formal excisions and schisms, the Ecclesiastical Trials, and the litigations of 1837, and a later date,-in all this, the writer, if he has any fixed opinion of his own, which is doubtful, evidently leans towards the loosest notions. Perhaps this is all Presbyterianism, of the most genuine kind. If it be so, the charges of radical heresy touching the most fundamendal doctrines of the Gospel, which such men as Dr. Junkin, Dr. Green, Dr. Wilson, Dr. Miller, and others, brought against leading men in the Presbyterian ranks, we think need a little explanation. There is one subject on which Dr. Gillett is sufficiently positive; and that is in his hostility to Episcopacy. He tells us, what we knew before, that the "Convention of Congregational, Consociated, and Presbyterian Churches, which began its annual meeting in 1766," had its origin in a determined opposition to the introduction of Episcopacy into this country; but when he says, "the opposition was not to Bishops vested only with spiritual powers;" we reply, distinctly, after a most thorough examination of all the facts upon that subject, that the opposition was to Bishops, though stripped of every vestige of political power. It sprang from a bitter, intolerant hatred of Episcopacy itself. The author also gives, and with evident gusto, a labored description of a disgraceful picture, or vile caricature, gotten up in Boston at that same period, exhibiting the landing of a Bishop, amidst the fiercest opposition; in which, singularly enough, a monkey! is displayed as taking a leading part. The picture was well calculated to inflame the passions of a mob, and to lead to physical violence. Mr. Gillett's volumes are a massive collection of ill-digested "facts" and details, brought together without much order or method.