ARTICLE X.

THE ROUND TABLE.

CRUMBS and half-loaves, bits and pieces, odds and ends, this and that, and some other things, seeds and fruits, scions, prunings, and dead sticks, multa et alia, et cetera, will accumulate on an Editorial Table.

We propose to clear and dust ours with the issue of each number of the "REVIEW." This little corner is reserved, in which we may shake hands all round, with or without gauntlet, as others may incline. We mean well, shall try to do well, and only ask a hearing before a verdict.

INFORMATION has been given to some extent in this region that "the anxious friends of some theology in New England, that is older than any now extant, are about to issue a new Boston Review.'

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"Older,” very like than any extant in certain limited circles, and so not known to him who has thus kindly volunteered to advertise for us gratuitously. Yet we cannot reconcile this saying with a newspaper campaign of many years against a theology in New England now assumed to be dead and gone. However, we must not probably always put this and that very close together, even when taken from the same religious sheet. If we publish nothing older than the times of the Apostles, we hope to be pardoned of good men, even if what we present is new to them in their circle.

We have it on the authority of a deacon that a young minister, fresh from seminary lore, being much averse to the preaching of doctrines or principles, soon found it difficult to know what to preach; subjects grew scarce. He finally commenced a course of sermons on Mark 1: 30. "But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever," &c. 1st sermon, Who was Simon? 2d sermon, Simon had a wife. 3d Who was Simon's wife's mother? 4th sermon, Simon's wife's mother lay sick. 5th sermon, Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever.

sermon,

At the close of the fifth sermon, as he was walking out of the church with one of his good old deacons, the bell unexpectedly struck. Upon the minister's asking the cause, the deacon quietly replied that he did not exactly know, but guessed that Peter's wife's mother was dead, as she had been sick now for several weeks.

WE feel grateful for an unsolicited, though not unexpected, and quite Independent advertisement of our doings and purposes. We feel much inclined to pay the usual price for this more than column of helpful notice, and think another such would put in funds to do it.

Though we were not conscious of conspiring for a "division movement" among the Churches, we doubt not this Religious Journal is right in divining our unborn motives. We receive humbly the rebuke from so peaceful and devout a sheet.

We are also kindly shown by it our wrongdoing in presuming to own and publish a Review in Boston. "There is to be a new Review, and Boston is to be its centre." We confess it, we had forgotten that New England is provincial, and only reserved to produce men and manuscripts and funds to be manifested elsewhere. We ought to have taken counsel, if not permission, of those whose readers and admirers are as numerous as the legions of Titus that beleaguered the Holy City. But we promise to remember.

The only thing in this long advertisement of our doings and plans that calls forth an exclamation-point, is, that there should be any difference of opinion between brethren in "reference to a publication which never yielded any remuneration to its proprietor!" And so it seems strange to some that Christian men should struggle for anything that does not pay in "current money with the merchant." Well, it is a provincial notion, still extant in some parts of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, that some things, as moral and religious principles for example, are worth an effort, even if the labor does not pay in federal currency.

It is news in this out-of-the-way place that "a few years ago" an Independent "appeal to the Churches against a divisive theological controversy, and the exposure of the secret plot, paralyzed the movement" to establish the American Theological Review. For that Review was established here, and those who did it do not now recollect the reception of any paralytic shock at the time, though doubtless many shocking things were then done in some places.

We have peculiar, perhaps improper, views and feelings, in being thus judged and condemned in advance of publication. Yet we have always thought much of that profound practical remark of Sidney Smith, that he never read a book before reviewing it, because it prejudices one so.

The Round Table is dusted.

BOSTON REVIEW:

VOL. I.-MARCH, 1861.-No. 2.

ARTICLE I.

THEOLOGY, OLD AND NEW.

"Nulla novitas absque injuria; nam præsentia convellit.” "Every novelty does some hurt, for it unsettles what is established." Bacon.

BUNYAN, at the opening of his "Pilgrim's Progress," has crayoned for all time the outlines of the Old and New Theologies. Evangelist, in the old way of the apostles, points the conscience-stricken pilgrim to the wicket-gate and the shining light, putting the parchment-roll into his hand. But after travelling a little way, Christian is met by a Mr. Worldly Wiseman, from the very great town of Carnal Policy, who tells him of a new and pleasanter way.

Worldly Wiseman. But why wilt thou seek for ease this way, seeing so many dangers attend it? Especially since (hadst thou but patience to hear me) I could direct thee to the obtaining of what thou desirest, without the dangers that thou in this way wilt run thyself into. Yea, and the remedy is at hand. Besides, I will add, that instead of those dangers, thou shalt meet with much safety, friendship, and content.

Christian. Sir, I pray open this secret to me.

Worldly Wiseman. Why, in yonder village (the village is named Morality) there dwells a gentleman whose name is Le

gality, a very judicious man, and a man of a very good name, that has skill to help men off with such burdens as thine is from their shoulders; yea, to my knowledge, he hath done a great deal of good this way; aye, and besides, he hath skill to cure those that are somewhat crazed in their wits with their burdens. To`him, as I said, thou mayest go, and be helped presently. His house is not quite a mile from this place; and if he should not be at home himself, he hath a pretty young man to his son, whose name is Civility, that can do it (to speak on) as well as the old gentleman himself; there, I say, thou mayest be eased of thy burden; and if thou art not minded to go back to thy former habitation, (as indeed I would not wish thee,) thou mayest send for thy wife and children to this village, where there are houses now standing empty, one of which thou mayest have at a reasonable rate; provision is there also cheap and good; and that which will make thy life the more happy is, to be sure there thou shalt live by honest neighbors, in credit and good fashion.

Here are the two theologies, the Old and the New, standing out on opposite headlands. But it is a great and common mistake to suppose that the difference between them is always so distant and apparent. If it were, the peril to voyagers would be vastly diminished. They approach each other by a thousand almost imperceptible changes and interwinding channels. It often requires considerable time to tell on which side of the fatal boundary certain small crafts, drawing shallow water, are sailing. The deep, safe channel is wholly upon one side, and is straight and narrow. Beyond it is a broad bay, filled with moving, drifting quicksands.

The Old theology is God-given, apostolic, and ever the same. The New is always changing. It is Arian, Pelagian, Socinian, Arminian, in ever varying composition, according to times and circumstances, constant only in its carnal policy. It came to be called Heresy, from its constantly choosing its way. The primary signification of aperis being option, choice. It always seeks to cover and deny its real nature, and claims to be the Old in a little pleasanter dress. For a time it may employ the language and symbols of truth with mental reservations or cautious modifications. It is this its chameleon adaptability which gives

it its greatest power to mislead. And the chief and most difficult work of the guides of the Church, in every age, is to discover it through its new dress and behind its new combinations, so stripping and exposing it as that all real Christians may see its deceptions and deformity, and turn away with abhorrence and fear. Robust and keen-sighted heresy-hunters are needed, not more because there are wolves in the mountains than that there are wolves in sheep's clothing secreted in the folds of the flock.

In every age, the doctrinal investigations and discussions of the great men of the Church (and it was chiefly this that made them great and greatly useful) accomplished the desired end for their respective times. But as vanquished error continually puts on new phases and comes back into the bosom of the Church to renew its gradual perversions and divisive work, there arises constant necessity for new and varied applications of the same unchangeable principles of the Gospel, which, like Ithureal's spear, quickly unmask the old deceiver.

Church history shows that no defences and demonstrations of truth, however amply they may avail for one age, are sufficient for the ages that follow. It was not enough for the Reformers to point their contemporaries to the writings of the Christian Fathers. It would not answer for the Puritans to rest in the works of the Reformers for the purity and power of religion. No more shall we be safe in this age by simply republishing and gathering into our libraries the invaluable. writings of the theological giants of a century ago. Timid reviews which simply reproduce the long and heavy, though strong and learned arguments of the previous century, have little point or interest for our times. They do not meet the skilful dodges of the present. As plausible rogues succeed in counterfeiting every successive vignette of the best banks, so the language and symbols of genuine religion may be copied, and come to represent only a new, bankrupt, and ruinous theology. There must be for every generation of Christians a fresh brightening of the links of the irrefragable chain that anchors the Church to the cross of Christ. And for this necessity we shall find the fullest reason in the apostate character of the race.