its shaping contact on every-day life. In Ecclesiastes we find the same inspiration sympathizing with the perplexities of Rationalism, and gently guiding it to the fear of God. In the Songs we have a type of a future in which this practical Ethic is to be inspired, and this Rationalism is to be illumined with the power and presence of a divine love. Essays on the Supernatural Origin of Christianity, with Special Reference to the Theories of Renan, Strauss, and the Tübinger School. By GEORGE P. FISHER, Professor in Yale College. New and enlarged Edition. 8vo., pp. 620. New York: Scribner & Co. 1870. This is a new edition of a work which we have already noticed with high commendation. The skeptical theories of Baur and the other Tübingen divines are counteracted by Neander and Schaff in their apostolic histories, by a counter statement of the facts, with sidelong argumentative replies; but there is no formal answer in our language so full and complete as this. The Life of St. Paul by Renan, lately republished in this country, is to a great degree a transformation of the theories of Baur into factitious history, and so far these Essays are a refutation of this book, In the present edition Professor Fisher has added an Introduction and Notes, bringing the discussion to the present hour. They materially increase the value of the work. The Apostolical and Primitive Church Popular in its Government, Informal in its Worship. A Manual on Prelacy and Ritualism. Carefully Revised and adapted to these Discussions. By LYMAN COLEMAN, D. D., Professor in Lafayette College, author of "Ancient Christianity Exemplified," etc. 12mo., pp. 413. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1869. Dr. Coleman was a personal friend of Neander's; and as Neander's Introduction, written for the book, evinces, the views of the eminent German are in general by him well represented. Dr. Coleman conclusively shows that no proof whatever exists that a successional triad of orders was ever established by divine authority as the test or condition of the reality of a Church. He does not disprove that the Church is entitled to shape herself to such organic form as enables her to be most effective in spreading the knowledge of Christ. Ordination is the test that authenticates the rank of the individual in his particular Church, not the test that authenticates the validity of a Church itself. We are obliged to Dr. Coleman for an able and learned work. Immortality. Four Sermons, preached before the University of Cambridge, being the Hulsean Lectures for 1868. By J. J. STEWART PEROWNE, B. D., Vice-Principal, and Professor of Hebrew, in St. David's College, Lampeter Prebendary of St. David's, etc. 16mo., pp. 153. New York: A. D. F. Randolph. 1870. Professor Perowne has produced thoughts somewhat fresh upon an old subject. He belongs to the most modern evangelical school of Christian thought, and his work retraces the old argument in view of the effronteries of the modern Materialism and Atheism. The Hebrew Bible. Revised and Carefully Examined. By MYER LEVI LETTERIS. Music-Hall Sermons. By WILLIAM H. H. MURRAY, Pastor of Park-street Church, Boston. 12mo., pp. 276. Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co. 1870. The pastor of Park-street Church wields a keen and glittering blade. He has home truths to tell, and he tells them with a homecoming power. Foreign Theological Publications. Apologetische Beiträge. I. Die Wunderthaten des Herrn, II. Die Leidensgeschichte des Herrn. (Apologetical Contributions. I. The Miracles of our Lord. II. The History of our Lord's Passion.) By F. L. STEINMEYER. 8vo., pp. 254, 253. Berlin: Wiegandt & Greben. 1866. Dr. Steinmeyer is one of the most earnest and evangelical theologians of Northern Germany, and his course of lectures on Pastoral Theology has made his room one of the most frequented in the Berlin University. That he is well able to perform good service in the apologetical field, now better and more largely cultivated than ever before, is abundantly proved in the present work. He directs his attention specially to the question of Christ's miracles and death, and shows that, internally, they are neither impossible nor improbable, but, on the contrary, that the accounts of his miracles, as furnished by the Gospels, are highly probable; nay, that their non-occurrence would have been most unlikely. They are more than a proof of Christ's divinity, because they are an essential part of his system for restoring man to his lost unity with God. There is a distinction between Christ's miracles as performed by his hand and word, and those performed by the glory of the Father upon the Son. Among the latter belong Christ's miraculous birth and resurrection. In order to prove the credibility of the Gospel narratives, it must be shown, first, that Christ possessed miraculous power; and, second, that he performed those miracles which the Evangelists report. Now, according to Prophecy, the Gospels and the Epistles-the united testimony of the whole Bible-Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God; and if he were this, it would be impossible that he should not have the power of performing miracles. Twesten says: "The greatest miracle of the Scriptures is the origin of God's kingdom in its twofold evolution, the preparatory Israelitish Theocracy, and its definitive form in the origin of Christianity; all other miracles are grouped around this as accompanying phenomena." In this sentiment Dr. Steinmeyer heartily coincides. In weighing the worth of Christ's miracles, we must not regard them as a mere triumph over nature, but must look at the meaning of them, which was the triumph over sin. They were signs of the coming kingdom of God, symbols of the blessings contained in God's kingdom, proofs of the effective power of God's kingdom, and prophecies of its future glory. In studying the miracles of Christ, we fail to catch their meaning unless we look clearly at God's kingdom, and observe them as being designed for it. Taking these thoughts as a basis, all of Christ's miracles fall into four groups: miracles as symptoms; miracles as symbols; miracles as proofs; miracles as prophecies. In reference to the question of Christ's death, and its relation to all mankind, Dr. Steinmeyer makes no concession whatever, save, perhaps, on the score of God's wrath, but contends that the history of the suffering Saviour, as the Evangelists relate, presupposes that he was designed by the Father as a propitiation for human sin; that the sin of the world was, so to speak, exhausted by the suffering of the Saviour. Too much praise cannot be awarded the author for the pains with which he has examined the entire literature of the subject, though, if he can be said to err at all, it is in too frequently cutting the thread of his argument by citation. Yet it would be difficult to find a writer who demeans himself more independently amid such an array of excellent company. He follows every stage of Christ's arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death, in minute detail, explaining all apparent or alleged discrepancies between the Gospels, meeting every natural theory started by the sleptics of all classes by the acuteness of his reasoning, constantly ap pealing to the meaning of the original text, examining the deep psychological causes controlling the actions of both Christ's enemies and disciples, and unfolding the great purpose of God ignorantly subserved by the Jews, until their guilt reached its climax at the same moment that the redemption of man became an historical fact. Der Kampf der Lutherischen Kirche um Luthers Lehre vom Abendmahl im Reformationszeitalter. Im Zusammenhang mit der gesammten Lehrentwicklung dieser Zeit dargestellt. (The Conflict of the Lutheran Church on Luther's Doctrine of the Lord's Supper, in the Time of the Reformation, in Connection with the whole Doctrinal Development of this Period.) Von DR. HEINRICH SCHMID. 8vo., pp. xxiv, 344. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs. 1868. . From the stand-point of the "straightest sect" of the Lutherans. The author seems to be alarmed that, amid the general restlessness under the old theological restraints of Lutheranism, the doctrine of the Lord's Supper is coming in for its share of criticism, if not of actual change. Let us recall just what Luther held on this point: 1. That in the Lord's Supper there is such a union of the bread with the body of Christ, and of the wine with the blood of Christ, that the one is presented in, with, and by the other, (in, cum, et sub pane et vino ;) 2. The mouth is the organ by which the one is received as well as the other, (manducatio oralis ;) 3. That the body and blood are communicated to all who receive it, whether believers or unbelievers. Dr. Schmid aims to show that Luther never changed this view of the doctrine of the Lord's Supper-which we think a very doubtful compliment-and that therefore the Lutheran Church of the present day will prove false to its principles, and must necessarily decline, if it renounce one iota of Luther's opinion on this point. To carry out this object it was necessary to travel over the whole field of agitation on the doctrine from the time of the Wittenberg Concord to the adoption of the Form of Concord, and he does this with critical care and historical fidelity. The work is introduced by a statement of its general object. The principal divisions are: The Wittenberg Concord; Has Luther's Doctrine of the Lord's Supper been expressed in the Confessional Writings of the Lutheran Church? Has the Confessional Position of the Lutheran Church been changed by the Transformations which Melanchthon introduced into the Augustana? The Westphalian Controversy; The Bremen Controversy; The Controversy in the Palatinate; The Entrance of the Würtemberg Theologians into the Controversy; The Drama in Electoral Saxony; The Efforts of the Princes for attaining Ecclesiastical Peace. The account of Luther's controversy with Zwingli (pp. 29–55) on the Lord's Supper, which Dr. Schmid clothes with really dramatic interest, strikes us as the best part of his book. His description of Luther's wrath when Froschauer, a bookseller of Zurich, sent him Leo Judæ's Latin translation of the Bible, is a picture of itself. He even has the frankness to tell us what Luther said, after indignantly sending the book back, that he wanted Froschauer to send him no more books, that he would have no share in the blasphemous teaching of the Swiss Reformers, whom it would be a blessing to the Church to get rid of as soon as possible, and that the judgment of Zwingli would certainly overtake his followers if they kept on in that way. Bullinger's remark on reading Luther's letter is well known: "May God pardon his great sin!" Luther's case, as might be expected, is defended with all the devotion of a disciple. But, as a clear historical statement of the controversy on the doctrine in question during the period of the Reformation, we doubt whether this work has its superior in German theology. It merits a place, on this special doctrine, beside Planck's History of Protestant Theology from Luther's Death to the Introduction of the Form of Concord, and Heppe's History of German Protestantism, to both of which works it may be regarded as an indispensable supplement. Lehrbuch der Biblischen Theologie des Neuen Testaments. (Manual of the Biblical The starting-point for biblical theology, according to Dr. Weiss, is not the life of Jesus in itself, in its historical course, but the ideas which were based on the earliest tradition by the New Testament writers. These ideas were conditioned first by the doctrine of Jesus himself, so far as it explained his person and his appearance. In this sense a representation of the doctrines of Jesus forms the fundamental section of biblical theology, while the facts of his life can only be considered so far as they are assumed in this doctrine, or made the standard for understanding it. Professor Weiss first gives an introduction on the biblical theology of the New Testament, in which he traces the growth of the separation of ecclesiastical from New Testament theology; how the Reformation produced a return to the New Testament standard; how the systematic attempt was again made, through Sebastian Schmidt, Hülsemann, Baier, Weissmann, and Zickler, |