istic or Puritanic saintship. He deserves to enjoy a more expansive Christian spirit, and his book would then be a more acceptable present to a wide Christian public.

Notes, Critical and Explanatory, on the Book of Genesis, from the Creation to the Covenant. By MELANCTHON W. JACOBUS, Professor of Biblical Literature and Exegesis in the Theological Seminary at Alleghany, Pa. 12mo., pp. 304. New York: Carter & Brothers. 1865.

The commentary of Professor Jacobus on the Gospels indicated an eminent fitness for that department of labor. The present volume, in a more untried field, will add to his reputation. It admirably supplies a great want of the present hour. It embraces the first fourteen chapters of Genesis. His introduction presents a review of the great issues which modern science has raised with the sacred record. Having disposed of these discussions, with much erudition and skill and a firm adherence to orthodox views, in the introductory part, he conducts the discussions of the text as pure exegesis, undisturbed by extraneous topics. Another volume is to complete Genesis.

The Martyrs of Spain and the Liberators of Holland. By the author of the Schönberg-Cotta Family. 24mo., pp. 400. New York: Carter & Broth1865.

ers.

Tales and Sketches of Christian Life in Different Lands and Ages. Same author. 24mo., pp. 173. New York: Carter & Brothers. 1865. The fact that these are the productions of the unknown but talented authoress of the Schönberg-Cotta family will attract many readers. They are narratives of events of thrilling interest, and protraitures of characters of exalted worth. Let our youthful readers be trained and strengthened in heroic piety by such models.

Christ and his Salvation: in Sermons variously related thereto. By HORACE BUSHNELL. 12mo., pp. 456. New York: Chas. Scribner. 1864. The thoughtful Christian public will with pleasure accept a new volume of sermons by Dr. Bushnell. Those of the present issue are characterized by his usual independent thought, in terse, sententious style.

Foreign Theological Publications.

Dr. A. Neander's Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Christlichen Ethik. Herausgegeben von Dr. DAVID ERDMANN, General-Superintendent der 2 Provinz Schlesien. 8vo., pp. 304. Berlin: Weigant & Grieben. 1864. The History of Christian Ethics sustains the same relation to the science of Christian Ethics as Doctrine-history does to Systematic

Theology as usually treated. This comparison suggests at once the importance of the branch. The valuable results which have accrued on the one hand to Church history, and on the other to systematic theology, from an independent cultivation of doctrinehistory, are well known and universally acknowledged; a similar cultivation of the history of ethical opinions, systems, schools, and methods in the Church, is destined to bear not less important fruits. This new volume of Neander's posthumously-published lectures is therefore doubly welcome: first, for its author's sake; and secondly, because it is a contribution from the hand of a master toward a science destined at no distant day to hold an important place in the theological curriculum. An exhibit of the contents and plan of the lectures will doubtless prove the best recommendation of the work we could give.

In the introduction of thirteen pages the author defines, 1. The Idea of the History of Christian Ethics; 2. Its Relation to the History of Christian Doctrine; 3. Its Relation to the History of Philosophical or Natural Ethics; and, 4. The Purpose of this Science, and its Importance to Theology and the Church. The work covers the history of Christian ethics only down to about the close of the thirteenth century. It divides the entire development into four periods. The first extends from the founding of the Church to Constantine; the second follows the development down to the beginning of the seventh century, (time of Gregory the Great;) the third brings us to the beginning of the scholastic theology, (twelfth century;) the fourth to the close of the thirteenth century. Under each period we find, as in most text-books of Doctrine-history, a "general" and a "special" section. In the former the general character, tendencies, and remarkable controversies of the period are discussed; in the latter the history of the particular ethical doctrines specially traced out. A glance at Dr. Erdmann's analysis, especially in the first and second periods, shows that the plan of the work is all that could be wished.

The chief defects of the book are, first, its incompleteness. Not only does it fail to reach down to the grand revolutions wrought in the domain of ethics by the Reformation and by the successive forms of modern speculation, but even a portion of the development covered by the work is very superficially treated. The third and fourth periods compare very poorly with the first two. Indeed, the portraiture of the two last periods taken together does not fill fifty pages. Another defect is its form. A work on the history of Christian ethics needs a heavy annotation of the sources. Otherwise we get nothing more than the bare assertions of our

author, with no means of judging whether the sources warrant them or not. In this case the name of NEANDER is of course a high security for the correctness of every representation purporting to rest upon historical testimonies; still most students prefer to see the premises from which the conclusions offered them are drawn, and to judge for themselves of the correctness of the deduction.

But however far the work may be from realizing the ideal of a thorough, complete, impartial portraiture of the history of Christian ethics, it has nevertheless, as a legacy of the lamented Neander, and as a record of his interpretation of ancient ethical writers in the Church, a permanent value. In the lack of works equally good in its department, it will find a warm welcome among historical students in all lands. Especial thanks are due to Dr. Erdmann for the loving, conscientious labor by which he has slowly reproduced from the copy-books of Neander's disciples, only aided by a few disjointed notes of the great master, a textus receptus of so important a lecture-course, thus saving from oblivion one of Neander's favorite works, a product of his mental prime.

Handbuch der Christlichen Sittenlehre, von ADOLF WUTTKE. Second Enlarged and Improved Edition. Vol. I. 8vo., pp. xii, 567. Berlin. 1864.

The first volume of this Manual of Christian Ethics appeared in 1861, the second the following year. The warm welcome with which it was immediately received has already rendered a second edition necessary, notwithstanding the competition of several other new and able works in the same department. It is beyond question the best treatise of its kind in the German language, unless one be disposed to except Harless's "Christliche Ethik," (sixth edition, 1864.) We recommend its study to American theologians with decided emphasis. They will learn from it the vital connection which subsists between sound ethics and sound theology; the influence which the successive systems of modern philosophy have exerted upon the development of ethical science; the falsity of every ethical system which ignores the grand central facts of the fall and redemption; the relation of heathen morality to Christian; and by means of these and similar learnings, the utter poverty and superficiality of our current American treatises in this department. The author, formerly professor in the University of Berlin, since 1861 in Halle, achieved his literary reputation while at the former university by the publication of the ablest "History of Heathenism" yet produced. The studies necessary to such a work were

a very fine preparation for the career in which he is now distinguishing himself.

The introduction to the work before us fills three hundred pages, and contains, I. The definition of ethics in general, of philosophical ethics, and of Christian ethics. II. A discussion of the different methods of treating the science, (empirical, philosophical, and theological methods.) III. The history of ethics and of the moral consciousness in general; (A,) among the heathen, (nearly one hundred pages ;) (B,) Old Testament or Jewish ethics; (C) Christian ethics, 1, in the ancient Church; 2, in the middle ages; 3, in modern times. This historical section is exceedingly valuable, and furnishes perhaps the best complement of Neander's history of Christian ethics (elsewhere mentioned) which we possess. The system, which our author then proceeds to set forth, comprises three parts: Part I, treating of absolute morality without regard to sin-morality in its original or ideal form, that which God the holy wills; Part II, apostasy from absolute morality-sin, the guilty perversion of the moral idea in reality, that which man as unholy wills; Part III, morality in its renewal by redemption-the re-birth of moral rectitude out of sinful corruption, that which God as merciful, and man as penitent, will. Part I fills the remainder of the volume before us, and is subdivided into six sections: 1, The Moral Subject; 2, God as Ultimate Ground and Antetype of Moral Life, and as Author of the Law; 3, The Object of Moral Action, (God and the Creature ;) 4, Ethical Motive; 5, Moral Action, (its Kinds, Objects; that is, God, Self, Neighbor, Things ;) 6, Fruits of Moral Life as Moral Aim, (Perfection of the Individual; the Family; Moral and Social Order.) In the former edition the second part was divided into seven sections, several of which corresponded with those of Part II. They were: 1, Essence and Origin of Sin; 2, God over against Sinful Man; 3, The Moral Consciousness in a State of Sin; 4, The Object of Sinful Action; 5, The Sinful Motive; 6, Sinful Action; 7, Fruit and Aim of Sinful Action. Part III contained six sections, the first entitled, "God the Redeemer, and his Will as Regards the Redeemed; the second. "The Redeemed Man;" the remaining four corresponding with the last four of Part I. Even from this meager exhibit of the outlines of the treatise the reader can see what fundamental and farreaching problems are opened up to discussion and wrought into a homogeneous evangelical system. But let him not imagine that he is proffered a book of abstractions, for in few works will he find a more constant or instructive reference to concrete cases in life and in history. He will find, for instance, at the proper place the

Moravian use of sortilege, freemasonry, the deaconess institute in the Evangelical Church; in fact, the propriety of raising money for charitable or religious purposes by means of fairs, festivals, etc., ethically discussed and pronounced upon.

The work is arranged in paragraphs or sections, with a thesis in larger type at the head of each, the contents of which is then proven, illustrated, or more fully explained in the body of the section. The literary apparatus is amply sufficient, and particularly valuable by reason of its recentness. In these days references to old literature are of small worth. In style our author is perhaps a little too dogmatic, and this may be the reason why here and there his definitions are a little indistinct, and the proof of certain theses not so thorough as one could wish. Still this fault is so vastly overweighed by the many positive merits of the work that one has no heart to dwell upon it. It would be easy, especially for an American or a Methodist, to find other things to except to; but where does one expect to find a human composition with which one is perfectly satisfied? Enough that it is one of the best productions of the age in its department. The second volume will have appeared before this notice reaches the reader.

Philosophy, Metaphysics, and General Science.

Religion and Chemistry; or, Proofs of God's Plan in the Atmosphere and its Elements. Ten Lectures Delivered at the Brooklyn Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y., on the Graham Foundation. By JOSIAH P. COOKE, Jr., Erving Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Harvard University. 8vo., pp. 348. New York: Charles Scribner. 1864.

Our Harvard professor has furnished in the volume before us a very timely exhibition of the proofs furnished by Chemistry of the being and attributes of God. It is a new, impressive, and growing chapter in what is called, with no great propriety, Natural Theology. His work is clearly, ably, and elegantly performed. His style is occasionally over rhetorical, yet he so spreads out his subject as to render its development suitably popular. His spirit is devout toward God and reverent to the Scriptures as his authorized word. He adduces, in six lectures, the "testimony" of the Atmosphere, of Oxygen, of Water, of Carbonic Acid, and of Nitrogen to the existence of a supreme design in nature. The three concluding lectures discuss the argument from Special Adaptations, the argument from General Plan, and the Limitations of Religious and Scientific Thought. The subject, though extensive,