the very high prices for printing and publishing material and labor, will, we trust, make our friends thoughtful of our enterprise. It is at much personal sacrifice that we keep our terms so favorable for our readers; and we could wish, as a kindly return, that each would add at least one from his friends to our list of subscribers. Our arrangements for the coming year are such as to insure a far better volume than any one of its predecessors.

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. All loyal hearts will rejoice in the wasting resources and assurance of the rebellion. Since our November number went to press General Sherman has made his "agreeable" march through Georgia, a feat almost without parallel in military exploits; and already has his first in the series of chaplets in the surrender of Savannah. Hood's army has been whirled and scattered as by a tornado in its rash enterprise of invasion. The nation has again exercised its sovereignty at the polls, and true to its republican instincts it has divided earnestly and manfully on the question of administration, and the struggle over, has united indissolubly and invincibly on the question of sustaining the government. In all this we are a wonder and a mystery to foreign nations. The sight is sublime beyond their comprehension, that twenty millions of people should peacefully contend in two parties so nearly equal, for the direction of governmental affairs, and then, the election being over, consolidate in a unit heartily to carry out the will of the majority and carry on the government. When we do this, all the while successfully handling such a huge rebellion as the old world never saw and has not room for, their wonder becomes a confusion of thoughts.

The

Never before has the rebellion shown itself so monstrous. story of our captive men will fill such a dark page in history as was never before written for any civilized nation. Urged on in the interests of slavery it has dug the grave of the same.

But its end hastens, and before many months we must be able to. apply to it the words of Cicero on another conspiracy: tantam in omnibus bonis fore consensionem, ut Catilinæ profectione omnia patefacta, illustrata, oppressa, vindicata esse videatis.

VIA MEDIA. The in medio tutissimus ibis of the old Latin writer has reached a notoriety in theological discussion which he little anticipated. It has very commonly been used as the motto of attempts to bring together essentially unlike ideas in religious philosophy and doctrine; to strike a middle line between contrary systems; sometimes it has served simply as a covert from faithfulness to truth and God. One of our articles, in this number, shows how it figured

d

in the hands of an English Romanizing churchman. In these mischievous alliances, it has deservedly acquired a bad name; and its mention awakens our instinctive distrust. But it has a good and true meaning, which should be fairly accorded it. We find this stated so clearly in Hagenbach's Church History of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, that we are glad to transfer the paragraph to our pages.

"The true medium

differs from the false medium, which of course often calls itself the right and true medium, in this, that it does not vacillate without principle and character between the extremes, but that it holds a firm, definite position above the extremes; that it moves neither to the right nor the left; that it does not reject every means of reconciliation harshly and peremptorily, but yields where it ought to yield, and clings at the peril of life to what it ought to hold; and that it is conscious of what it does, and with all apparent inclination in this or that direction, neither loses sight of its object, nor its centre of gravity."

For ourselves, we much prefer this kind of a Via Media with a clean cut, to a broader track with an omnibus load of express packages for the world at large.

DR. LANGE, in his notes on the thirteenth of Matthew, says the words, "While men slept," refer "to the weakness of men, through which the enemy succeeds in mixing up errors with saving truth, without this being perceived. Or perhaps it may denote, that professors of religion too frequently seek exclusively their personal comfort, without seriously reflecting upon, or being earnest for the truth of the doctrines propounded."

This hits the nail on the head. It is the weakness of good men, the lack of Puritan sturdiness of character, the goodish weakness in the back and knees, which allows the skilful enemy to mix errors with saving truth. It requires courage, heroism, self-sacrifice, in order to be zealous for the doctrines. These qualifications have never been abundant in any age. Hence the decided and bold defenders of the truth have been in the minority. Tares (literally darnel) are very deceitful until the harvest. The rabbinical name for them is bastard wheat. It is so dangerous to root out the tares when they have been sowed, that our wisdom, consists in being very careful to prevent their being sown; that is, we should not be so weak. For weakness is the source of tares and all consequent divisions and troubles.

QUIET UNDER REPUBLICANISM. Some of our European uncles and Provincial cousins are disposed to make light of our form of government because of the rebellion. They affect to believe that

Republicanism can not insure peace and quiet to a people, for want of power. If the populace make their own laws and rulers, keeping the sources of power in their own hands, our monarchical friends think that the public safety and the security of the government must be in constant danger, and they exultingly point to the rebellion as proof. But are monarchy and stability synonymous terms among them? Let one fact be noted. In 1788, the year following the adoption of our democratic constitution, fifteen monarchs held their thrones in Europe. How quietly their several governments proceeded may be judged from a view of the fifteen in 1810. Then George the Third only wore his crown. Of the others, five had been deposed, two poisoned, one murdered, one assassinated, one expatriated, one died suddenly and strangely, one died a lunatic, one a natural death, and one abdicated. A sad record.

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

How far the people are easier than their kings these facts may testify. No very strong argument, surely, can be drawn from them against the stability and quiet of republican governments.

PINT CUPS. In one of our juvenile play-days we were once inclined to abuse this tin toy for not holding more than its measure. The laconic suggestion was volunteered for our filial study, that a pint cup may not be ill-treated for not holding a quart. This is indeed a new measure for moral obligation. The man underrates your argument, project, or improvement, because he can not contain it. He does not report you correctly, because he can not carry all your idea. He is a pint cup. Your friend betrays your secret. It is your own fault. You put too much in a small vessel, and it slops Your neighbor has narrow views, feelings and policies, and they do not enlarge. Be gentle towards him, for small measures can not afford to be very liberal, and pint cups come to their growth early. They are required to hold but a pint. A hearty, practical belief of this will make us much more pleasant and patient toward many persons.

over.

BOSTON REVIEW.

VOL. V.-MARCH, 1865.-No. 26.

ARTICLE I.

REGENERATION NOT DEVELOPMENT.

BY LEWIS SABIN, D.D., TEMPLETON, MASS.

Ir is a fundamental question in religion, whether Christianity is a development of human nature only, or whether it reaches, further and deeper, and is a regeneration of sinful man to a new spiritual life. By regeneration is meant the producing of holy affections in the human heart by supernatural grace. It is a change of the soul's love by the entering in of God and his love into the soul's faith. It supposes a loss of that love out of the human soul, and hence arises the necessity of a gracious recovery and renovation by the Spirit of God, in order to give a right direction to man's understanding, desires, pursuits and conduct. It harmonizes with the responsibility of man, and allows full play to the constitution, attributes, freedom and activity of his soul. With evangelical Christians, it is a settled and central doctrine held with some shades of difference among them, that the religion of the Bible is a redemption of the lost, a spiritual renovation of sinners and aliens to the love and service of God.

The doctrine of regeneration, as now defined, is held in unmerited distrust and unbelief by various classes of men. It was to be expected that this doctrine, however distinctly declared in the Scriptures, would have its claims to acceptance contested. For it carries with it an implication with regard to

man's moral condition which is humbling and unwelcome; and at the same time it lays men under a necessity of deliverance, which casts them, unworthy and dependent, on the mercy of God. Men do not need to possess great powers of mind in order to perceive this bearing of the doctrine of regeneration, and be conscious of a desire to supplant it or explain it away.

Superficial thinkers may strive to satisfy themselves with works of outward morality, as embracing all that is properly meant by regeneration. This is shallow and irrational. For it is attempting to build up a character with the good things done, such as men call good, according to the common standard of ethics or human custom which is the world's law of virtue; whereas even the pagan philosophy penetrated deeper than this gospel of moralists and men of the world, and saw that it is right principle from which things are done which makes the things good. It is true that men may do many comely things which may be properly commended and called virtue in common speech, though they are not done from any principle of real goodness. If the seed-principle of obedience to God is wanting, there is a radical defect of character lying back of the particular actions or items of the so called virtue, and there is need of a radical change in the man's life.

Nearly allied to this notion of moralists, there is a vague idea of a balance of good and bad actions, which is rashly taken up by many people as a substitute for regeneration. They tell us that there is much good as well as evil in all men; that much as there is of wickedness and vice, there is far more of virtue and goodness; and that even in the worst men, good feelings and principles are predominant, and that they probably perform in the course of their lives many more good than bad actions; as the greatest liar by the constitution of his nature, doubtless speaks many truths to every lie he utters. Now this may be true according to the world's standard of ethics. It is a very charitable way for us to judge of men's characters. But it is not the way in which God judges of them. It is certain that the Bible gives no intimation that God ever estimates character in this manner. He looks upon the heart, and pronounces men friends or foes, according as that heart is subject or disloyal to his law and government.