ARTICLE XI.-NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

The

THE BOOK OF THE BEGINNINGS.* It is a broad church that can find standing-ground among its clergy for the author of this little book. Let this be said to the honor of that church. It justifies its claim to Christian Catholicity. The church that will not tolerate a free and candid investigation of the Biblical documents, within the limits of a cordial acceptance of the evangelical testimony, will find itself unable to meet the moral and religious wants of a critical age. The Christian public of this country, and especially the clerical portion of it, has not yet adjusted itself to the free spirit of modern Biblical criticism. Dr. Newton will doubtless hold his ecclesiastical position, thanks to the controlling influences of his church, but it will be, as it has already been, at considerable cost of personal comfort. He has been, and will be, subjected to severe and sometimes coarse censure. scribe, who is supposed to be instructed in the "things new and old" of the kingdom, and yet can trace the Genesis of this intelligent and honest book to a freak of insanity in its author, succeeds, if in nothing else, in displaying, on his own part, a touch of the insanity of bigotry and ignorance. The clerical commotion stirred by the presentation of Dr. Newton's critical views, whatever our opinion of their correctness, is certainly illustrative, not so much of clerical piety, as of clerical intolerance and incapacity for intelligent judgment upon the grave questions at issue. The Episcopal Church is not the only one that is sometimes served by the devil's attorney, and Dr. Newton is not the only one who has been summoned before the august court of the religious editor or the secular reporter. The Congregational churches have made for themselves an honorable record of devotion to Christian freedom in the discussion of theological questions. But there is an effort to dishonor the record and to lift the standard of an ignorant and intolerant revolt. The appearance of the Doctrine of Sacred Scripture by Prof. Ladd, a work alike honorable to

* The Book of the Beginnings. A study of Genesis, with an introduction to the Pentateuch. By R. HEBER NEWTON, Rector of All Souls' Protestant Episcopal Church, New York City. G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York, 27 and 29 West 23d street. London: 18 Henrietta street, Covent Garden. 1884.

American scholarship and to Christian reverence and faith, a work notable for the judiciousness of its critical methods and results and for its conservative and constructive character, has proved to be the signal for a campaign of caricature and detraction, on the part of some of the so-called religious newspapers and periodicals connected with the Congregational churches. Prof. Ladd and Dr. Newton have both made the acquaintance of a class of men whose chief characteristic seems to be How not to understand it, and whose vocation, How not to state it fairly when they do understand it. But in their work they part company. Their work is not to be named here in close connection. Those who would see the difference between conservative and radical criticism and between thorough and hasty work may profitably compare "The Doctrine of Second Scripture" and "The Book of the Beginnings." It must be said, however, that the work before us does not claim to be a thorough discussion of its own limited topic. Its contents originally appeared in the form of popular lectures, delivered on Sabbath afternoon in the regular course of professional duties. We have here a discussion of the unity, composite character, and gradual growth of the Pentateuch. It takes positive ground with respect to its variety of sources, its mythical elements, its contradictory traditions, its non-Mosaic authorship, and it advocates the view that the patriarchal traditions are rather tribal than personal, although not without a personal nucleus. The work bears the marks of investigation but of hasty conclusion. Its material is ill-digested. We find no self-assertion nor arrogance here, but a very guileless Omniscience. The author undertakes, after the manner of the critical school which he follows, to know more than he or any other man, at the present stage of Biblical science, is able to know. One is obliged to wonder at this tranquil sense of infallibility and at the inadequate basis of this prodigious wisdom. There is no doubt a critical sense. It finds what the ordinary student does not and cannot. But it is likely to make itself ridiculous with its capricious assumptions and inadequate generalizations. Let it be true that the Pentateuch is a composite work, that it is a historic growth, that this at once involves and explains many repetitions, confusions, and contradictions, and that in its present form it is of non-Mosaic authorship. It is difficult to see how any well-informed and candid person can question this. Let it be true that criticism hits here and there upon original sources in this composite work. Let it be true that myth sometimes gives

itself out as history, and that fragments of tribal legend and tradition emerge sometimes in the form of personal histories. It does not follow, however, that we know all about the Genesis of the records, that we can explain just how they grew, or out of what material, under what hands, or from what age or ages they emerged. Myth, as Rothe maintains, may be a necessary stage in the development of religion, but genuine history also is necessary to genuine revelation, and he who finds more myth than history in the early Hebrew records does not adequately understand them nor the Hebrew religion. The simple realism of the Patriarchal traditions forbids their identification with tribal myths and traditions. We have no criticism with respect to the honesty, the freedom, and the respectfulness of Dr. Newton's work, we criticise rather its assumptions and generalizations; we may question also his wisdom in not proceeding with greater caution in the discussions of grave, critical, ethical, and religious questions in the presence of a promiscuous audience.

BRAHMOISM.*—A Christian Hindoo has here given us his view of the theistic movement in India. That movement has been watched, by the Christian world, with considerable curiosity as well as interest and hope. The possibility of a development from Theism to Christianity and of the re-appearance, on oriental soil, of an oriental type of Christianity has been contemplated, by the western world, with lively satisfaction. But if we accept Mr. Bose's view of the development of Brahmoism as the true one we shall be drearily disenchanted. And there seems to be no good reason for doubting that his view is in the main, the correct one. He is a native Hindoo and a man of training and cultivation. He knows the old religions of India. He is able to estimate them from the Christian point of view. He has knowledge of Brahmoism at first hand. He evidently has the requisite furnishing to grapple with its problems and pretensions. He writes as a Christian, indeed, but with no evidence of defective sympathy with what is good and true in it. He gratefully acknowledges its ethical purity and its influence in counter

* Brahmoism or History of Reformed Hinduism. From its origin in 1830, under Rajah Mohun Roy, to the Present time, with a particular account of Babu Kesub Chunder Sen's connection with the movement. By RAM CHANDRA BOSE, M.A. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 10 and 12 Dey street. London: 44 Fleet.

working polytheism, idolatry, and atheism, in making the name of Christ honorable, in inculcating personal righteousness and moral earnestness, and in furthering many important social reforms. But he shows also that it carries the taint of its origin, its semi-pantheistic spirit, its defective sense of sin, its failure to apprehend the necessity of sacrificial mediation between God and man, its want of intellectual consistency, its tendency to ritual and rhapsody, its lack of clearly defined principles, and its constant tendency to drift into contradiction and schism. Its latest development, in the Sadharan Bromo Somaj, seems to be its purest form ethically considered, and yet it is its most barren form in respect of theological principles, and in emotional fervor, and is as far removed as its earlier forms from all that is most distinctive of Christianity. It is certainly a somewhat amazing effort for any man or set of men to undertake to introduce a New Dispensation of universal religious unity by an artificial combination of all that is supposed to be true in the great religions of the world and to effect this by instrumentalities so inadequate. The history of Brahmoism illustrates this danger to which a subjective religion is exposed, and it emphasizes by contrast the need of an objective historic revelation and one in which redemption is its central fact. But after all that may be said against Brahmoism the Christian world will not cease to look with interest to its future and to hope that it may yet become an agency of spiritual blessing to the people of India.

MEYER'S COMMENTARY ON JOHN'S GOSPEL.* — Dr. Kendrick introduces this volume with remarks on the distinctive merit and charm of John's Gospel. He speaks of the persistency of the attack made on its genuineness. This attack, though plausible, is untenable. Not only is it overthrown in the field of argument; it flies in the face of "the instinct of the Church." The excellences of Meyer as a critic are duly stated, but the American editor might have refrained from reflections on what he calls Meyer's "loose notions of inspiration so prevalent in Germany." "Loose" is a term of disparagement, rather than of description. Dr. Kendrick can differ from Meyer on these points, but he should

* Critical and Exegetical Hand-Book to the Gospel of John. By H. A. W. MEYER, Ph.D., etc. Edited-from the English translation of Rev. W. Urwick, revised by Frederic Crombie, D.D.-by A. C. Kendrick, D.D., Greek Professor in the University of Rochester. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 10 and 12 Dey street, New York.

abstain from language which assumes, on his part, superiority of judgment. This whole paragraph of the American editor's preface might better have been omitted. It is easy to see that Dr. Kendrick is afflicted with the harmonistic mania, or, rather, is not yet fully cured of it. In other respects his editorial labor appears to have been well done. Even when exerting himself to correct Meyer's supposed mistakes-as in the discussion of the question as to the day of crucifixion-his remarks are worthy of attention.

DE PRESSENSE'S STUDY OF ORIGINS.*-M. De Pressensé is well known as the author of important works on the history of the Church, including a Life of Jesus, which have found many appreciative readers in England and in America. He has, also, been active and useful, both as a preacher and in political life. In the volume before us he takes up "the burning questions pertaining to the foundations of religion and ethics, and, in an elaborate discussion, subjects them to a careful scrutiny. The theories of Atheists, Materialists, and Agnostics are reviewed and criticised with fairness and with acumen. The English and German authors, as Spencer and Stuart Mill, and the German naturalists and philosophers are not in the least neglected, but are fully examined. But one of the attractions of the work to us is in the incidental treatment of French writers and schools of opinion, which are less familiar to most readers. It is a book which deserves to be read by those who are interested in this class of inquiries. The lucid style, the vivacity and the keen logic, as well as excellent moral spirit that belong to it are worthy of high praise.

TRAVELS IN FAITH.t-It is not unfair to the author of this book to state at once and frankly that we have found it painful and unprofitable reading. It tells the story of how the son of an eminent and pious pastor, after many years of groping experience, passed over, not from a hard and high Calvinism to the Christianity of the New Testament, but from Christianity itself to Herbert Spencer's views about God and immortality, and to Voltaire's views of the Bible and of the morality of the Christian * A Study of Origins; or, The Problems of Knowledge, of Being, and of Duty. By E. DE PRESSENSÉ, D.D., author of "Jesus Christ, His Times, Life and Work," etc. New York: James Pott & Co., 1884.

Travels in Faith, from Tradition to Reason. By ROBERT C. ADAMS. G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York, 1884.