our endeavors.

He does not will for us; He does not act for us;

we will and act for ourselves" (p. 123).

There is a racy use of old Saxon bordering on the homely, perhaps coarse, but in his strongest invective he does not grow bitter, sarcastic, unloving. He gives the opposer and the old Pharisee, with his sour visage and long robes, a headlong fall, that must make their bones ache, but he helps them up again with all kindness and puts salve on their wounds, not forgetting human brotherhood, not forgetting that even the mean man, and the vile man, has a soul that Christ loves, and that he should love. Mr. Murray believes in preaching, and seems to be filled with the spirit and power of the truth he preaches.

To compare him as a preacher with Henry Ward Beecher, as is sometimes done, is getting on rather too fast, and is slightly significant of Bostonian self-consciousness of impossible inferiority in any thing; but that, somewhat in the same line of preaching as Mr. Beecher's, though without awakening suspicion of imitation, the young orator of "Park Street Pulpit " is manifesting a remarkable degree of popular power and genuine eloquence, cannot be denied, We wish him all success, and an increasing influence and sway in a community whose ear he seems to have caught, and where his loyalty to Biblical truth, and his positive faith, cannot but be greatly serviceable.

Carelessness sometimes in the use of inelegant words and phrases is a fault of Mr. Murray's style. Such expressions as "directly he was convicted," p. 109; "capable to advise," p. 113; "off of him," p. 117; "Adam was ejected Eden," p. 169; "vast a remove," p. 170; "all hail to Christianity, who came," p. 149; and the use of such common colloquialisms as "well," "I say," and of words like "betterment," "contestant," "professor," in the sense of a Churchmember, these are inexcusable faults because so easily remedied.

We would commend for beauty of style and thought the two sermons on "Death a Gain," and the last of them for its exquisite conclusion; while, at the same time, these two sermons contain some of the most pronounced illustrations of an ambitious style of poetic and over-brilliant prose writing.

THE BIBLE A MIRACLE.*-This volume handles two general topics, the supernatural origin of the Bible as indicated by its unapproachable excellence, and the infidel doctrine of the incredi

* The Bible a Miracle; or the Word of God its own witness: by DAVID MAEDILL. Philadelphia: Wm. S. Rentine.

bility of miracles, which is met by the proposition that the Bible itself is a production which can be explained only on the hypothesis of a miracle, or a miraculous origin. There are five parts or divisions in the book, viz: the literary excellence of the Bible, the theological excellence of the Bible, the moral excellence of the Bible, the political excellence of the Bible, and the modes of accounting for the origin of the Bible. Neither in the arrangement of the work, nor in its propositions and arguments, has the author slavishly followed previous writers on these old themes; but he has evinced a more than common originality in his treatment of them, both in the positive part of his discussion and in his negative confutation of skeptical and infidel positions. There is a sincerity throughout, as if the author were writing from a full conviction of the truth of his statements. There is, also, a commendable vigor in the style, which in some other respects may be occasionally open to criticism. We meet in his pages, now and then, an instance of overstatement; but, on the whole, his work is a meritorious and useful one, and is adapted to the times.

A RATIONALE OF THE CHURCH'S LITURGIC WORSHIP.*—An elegant little volume, the first thirty pages (after the preface) filled with a sermon from 1 Cor. 14: 15, and the rest with notes in smaller type. The design is to foster reverent esteem for the Book of Common Prayer now used in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and guard against radical, factious, or hasty changes. A more Saxon title might have comported better with the subject. The sermon is considerate and in good temper, on the origin and nature of public Christian worship, as springing from the emotions and the understanding, traced to the instincts of humanity and social life, and shaped and directed by revealed truth. We agree with the writer when he insists on the importance of Christian doctrine in true and acceptable worship, and also on such worship as being the highest form of the doctrine. He makes much account also of the historic and organic quality of the forms of worship, holding that a true liturgy grows instead of being manufactured at once, and alleging the failures of various attempts to supplant received forms. There is a truth here, but it holds not of prescribed or written forms exclusively. All forms of worship

* A Rationale of the Church's Liturgic Worship. By the Rev. WILLIAM RUDDER, D.D., Rector of St. Stephen's Church, Philadelphia. Philadelphia; J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1871. 12mo, pp. 65.

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recoil from sudden reckless innovations. In a Presbyterian congregation in Scotland, the English liturgy can no more be planted to-day and take root and thrive, than the usages of the Scotch Kirk in an Episcopal congregation in England. The writer admits that the most ancient liturgies (as he calls the forms used in the first ages) were not "any of them committed to writing' "until the end of the second century" (p. 26). It does not appear how far they were fixed forms. Still less can they be traced, as he assumes, to apostolic authorship. Of course the author commends warmly the liturgy used in his communion; but holding as he does that it may be properly changed from time to time (under "authority"), he and others of his brethren would make their testimony worth more if they would openly acknowledge some of its imperfections and do what in them lies for its amendment.

To read DR. BARTOL'S RADICAL PROBLEMS* is like walking beneath an arcade of rainbows, or gazing on sky and earth when clad in the many colored lights which flash from a brilliant display of the weird Aurora. The eye is first stimulated and delighted. It passes alternately from rainbow or Aurora to the objects to which either lends its reflected coloring. Exclamations of wonder and surprise break from the lips of admiring lookers on-one calling to the other, "Lo here or Lo there! Wonderful, brilliant, beautifully entrancing." But the eye is soon wearied by the excess of brilliancy, and the mind is confused and sated with the varied disturbing and stimulating colors. Here and there a familiar object stands forth in unwonted relief as a stray beam of pure white light falls out upon it from the magic spectrum. Not unfrequently an object that is homely and offensive is gilded and glorified with its aureole of many colors. Perhaps a splendid tree, a lofty precipice, a varied meadow, or a shorn lawn, is transfigured with celestial beauty. But the lights, though glorious and glorifying, are still unnatural, and the eye turns away from the scene, sated with the splendid vision, even before it is withdrawn from the gaze. Such is this brilliant volume when soberly estimated by the critic, who would be tolerant and sympathising even for moonshine, when its effects are glorious. It casts a splendid and impressive light upon many truths that are overlooked for their familiar triteness and their constant applications. Theism is worthily and impressively contrasted with Pantheism, the

* Radical Problems. By C. A. BARTOL. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1872.

spiritual capacities of our higher nature and its exhaustless resources, are made to stand forth in impressive relief and to glow with etherial splendor, under the touch of this enchanter's wand. Other truths, none the less important, are wholly overlooked or strangely denied, under the bewildering brilliancy of his rainbow lights, such as the fact of sin, with the weakness and needs and degradation and hopelessness which sin involves. It is an easy thing to spirit the foul fiend out of notice and apparently out of existence by a holiday paper for a holiday session of the Radical Club, over which this nimble prestidigitator presides; but it is not so easy to deny its existence in the world of facts, or to drive it out from actual reality. We would not fail to recognize the ringing earnestness with which he attests many of the most important moral truths, nor the sharp and penetrating strokes which he deals at many of the superficial sophisms which many of his associates accept; but with all his moral energy and spiritual penetration, he seems to us to fail to do justice to the dimensions and the corruption of sin and the extremity of man's consequent need.

The foul and fetid swamp becomes an object of special brilliancy under the rainbow that spans it with its glowing arch; but the beauty of the rainbow can neither suck out nor transmute its miasms of death. Other truths, manifold and persistent, our imaginative and quickwitted illuminator thinks to dispose of by a brilliant analogy, or by the cool steadiness with which he declares that they are outgrown. The truthful narratives of the Evangelists, the development of Christian theology, the historic faith and love of believing souls, as circumspect, as sagacious, as wide-minded, as learned, and as critical as the score of accomplished dilettanti, who call themselves Radicals, are problems too real and serene to be disposed of for the present or coming generations by the decisive word of such a writer as Dr. Bartol, who, with all his genius, lays himself open to the charge of a certain flippancy of thought, which the splendor of his imagination can neither disguise nor excuse. The rainbow lights may by their brilliancy seem to wrap in illusion the solid earth; but when the rainbow lights are withdrawn the solid earth asserts its claims to faith and a potent reality. The Christian history, the Christian doctrine, and the Christian life will survive the splendid funeral eulogiums which are so often pronounced over their imagined demise by the author of Radical Problems and his associates.

LOUIS FIGUIER'S SPECULATIONS UPON DEATH,* and the condition into which it introduces man, purports to be founded upon the facts of science and the analogies which these facts suggest. The science is none of the soundest, and the analogies are most of them as fanciful as could easily be devised. A man must be at a loss for attractive or instructive reading who can find much amusement or instruction from a book like this.

THESE FOR THOSE. This work is designed to show the benefits to our people resulting from foreign missions. These benefits are grouped under six topics, viz., our indebtedness to foreign missions as a race; as a nation; as a government; as profitable pecuniarily; as aids to science and literature; as churches and Christians. The reactionary influence of foreign missions has been often alluded to, but this is the first attempt, so far as we know, to present the subject comprehensively and systematically. The treatment of each topic is mainly by the presentation of facts. These are gathered from a wide range of study of missionary enterprises and their results, are numerous and valuable, and many of them very striking. In illustrating the benefits of missions to us as a nation, the author narrates the action of Dr. Whitman of the Oregon Mission in securing that territory to this nation and Protestantism; and the facts cited prove that his action was decisive in the case. This work of Dr. Warren is one of great value, and must do excellent service for missions in convincing the doubtful and awakening the interest of the indifferent.

FRESH LEAVES IN THE BOOK AND ITS STORY.-The design and character of this book are properly set forth in the preface, where it is said to be "intended to convey information in a clear and simple way, which in these days every Bible reader should possess, and to lead to further search of the Holy Scriptures for

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* The To-morrow of Death; or, the Future Life according to Science. By LOUIS FIGUIER, author of "Primitive Man," Earth and Sea," etc. Translated from the French by S. R. CROCKER. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1872.

These for Those. Our indebtedness to Foreign Missions; or, what we get for what we give. By WILLIAM WARREN. Hoyt, Fogg, & Breed, Portlaud, Maine. 16mo, pp. 417.

Fresh Leaves in the Book and its Story. By L. N. R., Author of "The Book and its Story," "Missing Link," "Life Work," &c., with more than fifty illustrations. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1871. 12mo, pp. 500.