ment of literature that is rather apt to be overstocked with matter of inferior worth. This book is in every way well worthy of a place among the records of missionary labour. It is most creditable both to the subject and to the author of it. Mr Mitchell has executed his labour of love with much judgment and good taste, and the materials for an interesting and useful life of Mr Nesbit have proved more abundant than could have reasonably been expected. Mr Nesbit, though not distinguished for those brilliant qualities which secure a wide general reputation, was a really remarkable man, and, in conjunction with Dr Wilson and others, rendered most important services as a pioneer of the missionary cause in Western India. He was twenty-eight years-more than half his life-in the mission field. He did much good in his day and generation, and he sowed much good seed, yet, we trust, to spring up and bear much fruit. He rests from his labours, and his works do follow him. He has found a congenial and accomplished biographer, who has made so good a selection and application of his materials, as to keep up the interest unbroken through the volume. Mr Nesbit's excellent qualities and valuable services, embalmed in such a Memoir, will secure him a permanently honourable place among the benefactors of India.

The Indian Rebellion; its Causes and Results. In a Series of Letters from the Rev. ALEXANDER DUFF, D.D., LL.D., Calcutta. London J. Nisbet & Co., 1858.

Missionary Sketches in North India, with references to recent events. By Mrs WEITBRECHT, London: J. Nisbet & Co., 1858. THESE two works have been occasioned or suggested by the late fearful crisis in the condition of India, and they both have their own use and value, though they are of very different orders, and fitted to serve very different purposes. Dr Duff has been long universally recognised as one of the most distinguished missionaries of modern times, having brought to bear upon missionary work, along with other qualifications of the highest order, an extraordinary combination of elevated enthusiasm and great practical sagacity. These remarkable letters, which were despatched from Calcutta by each successive mail immediately after the occurrence of the fearful events which they record, originally appeared in the Witness newspaper, and have now been most properly collected into a volume. They are thoroughly worthy of Dr Duff, displaying all the highest qualities he was previously known to possess, and, in addition to all these, a statesman-like penetration and foresight, which he had not before much opportunity of evincing. The views which he expressed were on several important points most remarkably confirmed by events which subsequently occurred. This work must always continue to occupy a most important place among the memoires pour servir à l'histoire of the great Indian rebellion.

Mrs Weitbrecht's work is a series of unpretending but very pleasing sketches, derived from personal observation and other sources, of the labours of missionaries, especially those connected with the Church Missionary Society, at different places in Northern India, ex

tending from the commencement of missionary work in that country down to this present time, including even the incidents connected with missionaries and mission stations that formed part of the history of the recent rebellion. These sketches are peculiarly fitted to bring before the minds of young people, in an attractive and improving way, a view of what missionaries in India have been, and done, and suffered.

The Tongue of Fire, or the True Power of Christianity. By WILLIAM ARTHUR, A.M., author of "A Mission to the Mysore," "The Successful Merchant," &c. London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., and John Mason. 1856.

WE regret that we were not led earlier to peruse this work of Mr Arthur. It is truly admirable, singularly powerful and impressive, peculiarly adapted by God's blessing to call forth and to cherish that state of mind and heart, and those modes and habits of acting, with which the highest Christian efforts and usefulness are ordinarily connected. There has been no work so well fitted to impress and to edify those who are attempting something for the spiritual welfare of others, since the publication of the "Earnest Ministry" of the venerable John Angel James. We heartily wish we could help towards procuring for it a wide circulation.

Evangelical Meditations. By the late Rev. ALEXANDER VINET, D.D., Professor of Theology in Lausanne, Switzerland, translated from the French by Professor Edward Masson. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1858.

THIS is, perhaps, a more miscellaneous and less elaborate work than any other production of Professor Vinet that has yet been given to the English public. But it is quite worthy of its distinguished author, and contains a great deal of edifying matter, presented in a very beautiful and striking way.

The Law of the Bible as to the Prohibited Decrees of Marriage: A Letter to Lord Bury, M.P. By GEORGE C. M. DOUGLAS, Professor of Hebrew in the Free Church College, Glasgow. Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black. 1858.

THIS is an admirable summary, in a pamphlet of thirty pages, of the scriptural arguments on the important subject to which it relates. It is eminently distinguished for sound judgment, accurate logic, correct scholarship, and clearness and concentration of style. In short, the argument could not have been better put in so short a compass. The pamphlet is perfectly conclusive, it is greatly needed, and will, we trust, be extensively circulated.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN

EVANGELICAL REVIEW.

OCTOBER 1858.

ART. I.-The Sabbath Controversy.*

THE importance of the views entertained by the Christian world concerning the obligation to observe the Lord's day, or Christian Sabbath, is perpetual. But circumstances occasionally give this subject a temporary prominence before the public mind. Such circumstances were found in the recent agitation of the question of Sabbath amusements in Great Britain, and in the British Parliament. The victory gained there by Christianity encourages us to hope that this is a season not unpropitious to recall this great subject before the attention of our readers, in order to review the grounds on which, as Presbyterians, we assert the strict and proper consecration of the first day of the week. We have declined to place, at the head of this article, a list of the leading publications lately issued on this subject in Great Britain, simply referring the reader to such notices of them as have met the eye of all intelligent persons.

There is, perhaps, no subject of Christian practice on which there is, among sincere Christians, more practical diversity and laxity of conscience than the duty of Sabbath observance. We find that, in theory, almost all Protestants now profess the views once peculiar to Presbyterians and other Puritans ; but, in actual life, there is, among good people, a complete jumble

This article is the production of Dr Dabney, Professor of Theology in the Old School Union Seminary, in Virginia. It presents some departments of the argument upon the subject of the Sabbath in a fresh and vigorous way. The historical notices are not very complete, and in particular, the account of the views of the Reformers is somewhat defective, and is fitted to give the impression that their testimony is more anti-sabbatarian, than a full view of the facts of the case would warrant us to believe. For a fuller view of the materials bearing upon this point, see Walæus, De Sabbato, Opera, tom i. p. 275; Dr Fairbairn's Real Opinions of the most Eminent Reformers regarding the Sabbath; Hill's Prize Essay on the Sabbath, chap. x.

VOL. VII.-NO. XXVI.

ら

૩

of usages, from a laxity which would almost have satisfied the party of Archbishop Laud, up to the sacred strictness of the "Sabbatarians" whom he and his adherents reviled and persecuted. It is a curious question, how it has come about that the consciences of devout and sincere persons have allowed them such licence of disobedience to a duty acknowledged and important; while on the other points of obligation equally undisputed, the Christian world endeavours, at least, to maintain the appearance of uniform obedience. The solution is probably to be found, in part, in the historical fact of which many intelligent Christians are not aware that the communions founded, at the Reformation, were widely and avowedly divided in opinion as to the perpetuity of the Sabbath obligation. A number of the reformation churches, including some of the purest, professed that they saw no obligation in the Scriptures to any peculiar Sabbath observance; and the neglect of every thing except attendance on the public exercises of Christianity, and that cessation of secular labour required by secular statutes, was, in them, at least consistent. Now the descendants of these communions, in this mixed country, live dispersed among the descendants of Presbyterians and Puritans; and while they no longer defend the looser theory of their forefathers, they retain the traditionary practices and customs in their use of the sacred day. Thus, by example and the general intermingling of religions, a remiss usage is propagated, which is far beneath the present professed theory of Protestant Christendom. And hence, we conceive that it will be interesting and profitable to give a history of opinions on this subject, before we proceed to that full discussion of the whole grounds of our belief and practice, which we shall attempt.

I. It may be stated then, in general terms, that since the primitive times of Christianity two diverse opinions have prevailed in the Christian world. The first is that adopted by the Romish, Lutheran, and most of the continental communions in Europe, including, it must be confessed, those founded by Calvin. This theory teaches that the proper sanctification of one day from every seven was a ceremonial, typical, and Jewish custom, established when the Levitical institutions were introduced; and, of course, abrogated by the better dispensation, along with the rest of the typical shadows. The Lord's day is, indeed, worthy of observance as a Christian festival, because it is the weekly memorial of the blessed resurrection, and the example of the primitive Church commends it; not because its obligation is now jure divino. The cessation of our worldly labours is a beneficent and commendable civil institution; and while the magistrates enjoin it, is, for

this reason, of course to be practised by all good citizens. Public and associated worship is also a duty of Christians; and, in order that it may be associated, it must be upon a stated day and hour; and what day so appropriate as this, already famous for the great event of the new dispensation; and set apart by civil laws from the purposes of business. But this is all. To observe the whole day as a religious rest, under the supposition of a religious obligation, would be to judaize, to remand ourselves to the bondage of the old and darker dispensation.

The second opinion, is that embodied in the Westminster symbols, and, to the honour of Puritanism be it said, first avowed in modern times, even among Protestants, by the Puritans of England. This is, that the setting apart of some stated portion of our time to the special and exclusive worship of God, is a duty of perpetual and moral obligation, (as distinguished from positive or ceremonial,) and that our Maker has, from the creation, and again on Sinai, appointed for all races and ages, that this portion shall be one day out of seven. But when the ceremonial dispensation of Levi was superadded to this and the other institutions of the original patriarchal religion, the seventh day did, in addition, become a type and a Levitical holy-day; and the theory admits that this feature has passed away with the Jewish ceremonial. After the resurrection of Christ, the perpetual Divine obligation of a religious rest was transferred to the first day of the week, and thence to the end of the world. The Lord's day is the Christian's Sabbath, by Divine and apostolic appointment, and is to be observed with the same religious spirit enjoined upon the patriarchs, and the Israelites, abating those features which proceeded from its ceremorial use among the latter, and from their theocratic government.

Among the advocates of the first opinion is to be adduced first the Roman Catholic communion. This statement must, however, be made with qualification; for the "Romish Catechism" of Pope Pius V., embodying the opinions of the Council of Trent, (p. III., ch. iv.), treats of the Lord's day more scripturally, in some respects, than many Protestants. But this correctness of opinion is grievously marred by the doctrine that the other church holidays are sustained by equal authority with the Lord's day, the authoritative tradition of the church. Bellarmine also argues, that it must be allowable to the true church to make the observance of sacred days of human appointment binding on the conscience; because, otherwise, the church would have no sacred days at all, since none whatever are enjoined in the New Testament. This reasoning obviously proceeds upon the assumption that there is no other