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The following works our space does not allow us to notice in full: Historical Pictures Retouched; a Volume of Miscellanies. In Two Parts. Part I. Studies. Part II. Fancies. By Mrs. DALL, Author of "Woman's Right to Labor." 12mo., pp. 402. Boston: Walker, Wise, & Co. 1860. The Cottages of the Alps; or, Life and Manners in Switzerland. By the Author of "Peasant Life in Germany." 12mo., pp. 422. New York: Charles Scribner. 1860.

Sermons on some of the Fundamental Principles of the Gospel. By Rev. GEORGE B. MILLER, D. D., Professor of Theology in the Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Hartwick, Otsego. With an Introduction by Rev. WILLIAM D. STOEBEL, D. D. 12mo., pp. 374. New York: N. Tibbals & Co. 1860.

Cicero on Oratory and Orators. Translated or Edited by J. S. WATSON. 12mo., pp. 379. 1860.

Lessons at the Cross; or, Spiritual Truths familiarly exhibited in their Relations to Christ. By SAMUEL HOPKINS. With an Introduction by Rev. GEORGE W. BLAGDEN, D. D. 12mo., pp. 274. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. The Beautiful and the King of Glory. By WOODBURY DAVIS. 12mo., pp. 254. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. 1860.

Louie's Last Term at St. Mary's. 12mo., pp. 239. New York: Derby & Jackson. 1860.

The Signet Ring, and other Gems.

From the Dutch of the Rev. J. DE LIEFDE. 12mo., pp. 362. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1860.

The Five Senses; or, Gateways to Knowledge. By GEORGE WILSON, M. D., Regius Professor in the University of Edinburgh, etc. 12mo., pp. 139. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. 1860.

Stories of Scotland and its Adjacent Islands. By Mrs. THOMAS Geldart, Author of "Truth is Everything." 16mo., pp. 180. New York: Sheldon & Co. 1861.

The History of Ghengis Khan. By JACOB ABBOTT. With Engravings. 16mo., pp. 335. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1860.

The Oakland Stories. Claiborne. By GEORGE B. Taylor, of Virginia. 12mo., pp. 180. New York: Sheldon & Co. 1860.

The Melodeon; a Collection of Hymns and Tunes, with Original and Selected Music. Adapted to all occasions of Social Worship. By Rev. J. W. DADMUN, Author of "Revival Melodies," etc. 12mo., pp. 128. Boston: J. P. Magee. 1860.

Music Hall Discourses, Miscellaneous Sketches, Ministerial Notes, and Prison Incidents; also, Song of Creation. A Poem. By Rev. HENRY MORGAN, Pastor of the Boston Union Mission Society. To which is added a Sketch of his Life. Second enlarged Edition. 12mo., pp. 356. Boston: H. P. Degen & Son. 1860. Natural History. For the Use of Schools and Families. By WORTHINGTON HOOKER, M. D., Professor of the Theory and Practice in Yale College, Author of "Human Physiology," "Child's Book of Nature," etc., etc. Illustrated with nearly 300 Engravings. 12mo., pp. 312. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1860.

Reasons for My Faith. By Rev. F. H. MARLING. 12mo.. pp. 41. New York: Phinney, Blakeman, & Mason. 1860.

The Glaciers of the Alps. Being a Narrative of Excursions and Ascents, and Accounts of the Origin and Phenomena of Glaciers, and an Exposition of the Physical Principles to which they are related. By JOHN Tyndall, F. R. S. With Illustrations. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1860.

The Lake Regions of Central Africa. A Picture of Exploration. By RICHARD F. BURTON, Captain H. M. I. Army, Fellow and Gold Medallist of the Royal Geographical Society. 8vo., pp. 572. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1860. [This work will be made the subject of a future article.] The following are works of fiction:

Wheat and Tares. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1860.

The Household of Bouverie; or, The Elixir of Gold. A Romance. By a Southern Lady. In Two Volumes. 12mo., pp. 373, 413. New York: Derby & Jackson. 1860.

"My Novel." By PISISTRATUS CAXTON. Library Edition. In Two Volumes. 12mo., pp. 589, 581. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1860.

Miss Gilbert's Career; an American Story. By J. G. HOLLAND, Author of "The Bay Path," ," "Bitter Sweet," etc. 12mo., pp. 476. New York: Charles Scribner. 1860.

Pamphlets.

The Haven and the Home. By the Author of "Captain Hedley Vicars " and "English Hearts and Hands." 16mo., pp. 64. New York: R. Carter & Brother. 1860.

The Death Threatened to Adam; with its Bearing on the Annihilation of the Wicked. By J. NEWTON BROWN, D. D. 16mo., pp. 29. Philadelphia: Smith, English, & Co. 1860.

Tom Brown at Oxford. Part Eighth. A sequel to "School Days at Rugby." By THOMAS HUGHES, Author of "School Days at Rugby," etc. 16mo., pp. 388. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1859.

The Relation of the Sunday-school to the Church. A Review of Dr. Huntington's Address before the State of Massachusett's Sunday-school Teachers at Worcester, June 13, 1860.

Notices of the following books, already in type, are postponed for want of sufficient space:

Law and Penalty. By J. P. Thompson, D. D.
Reason and the Bible. By Miles P. Squier, D. D.

Hints on the formation of Religious Opinions. By Ray Palmer, D. D.

The Benefit of Christ's Death. By Aonio Palerio.

Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical. By Herbert Spencer.
Odd People. By Captain Mayne Reid.

Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. By T. Babington Macaulay.
Memoirials of Thomas Hood.

THE

METHODIST QUARTERLY REVIEW.

APRIL, 1861.

ART. I.-THE ORDER OF NATURE AND MIRACLES.

The Order of Nature considered in Reference to the Claims of Revelation. A Third Series of Essays, by the Rev. BADEN POWELL, M.A., Savilian Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford. London: Longman & Co.

Av impression extensively prevails that some new adjustment of the facts of physical science to those of Christianity is imperatively called for. The intellect of Christendom has for some time been turned with intense eagerness to the study of nature, and we need not be surprised that honest misunderstandings and dishonest misrepresentations of both sciences should have sprung up. From the difficulty of construing the ancient languages and history of the Bible, and from the immaturity of many scientific investigations, apparent contradictions have been discovered, where, if the Bible be true, there can be none. Men of sceptical predilections have made the most of these, and so pressed the friends of Christianity that the latter have sometimes been confused, and made injudicious concessions.. To the credit of those who have been most distinguished for their knowledge of natural science, they have seldom countenanced such efforts. They are too well aware of the uncertainty of many of their theories, and they are too familiar with numerous instances in which the interpretations of the two books of nature and of revelation have so corrected each other as to stand in mutual support. The same cautious spirit which FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XIII.-12

has made them eminent as inductive philosophers, prevents their premature application of principles to subjects beyond their special province. Many of them have written in defense of the Christian records; and while some have contended earnestly for a modification of inferences commonly derived from the Scriptures, with singular uniformity the attempts to discredit revelation, at the present time, may be traced to the friends of metaphysical rather than of physical study.

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A careful observer of the spirit in which thoughtful minds are "guessing at truth" has assured us, that "the great problem of the present age is to reconcile faith with knowledge, philosophy with religion;" and another, skilled equally in the Testimony of the Rocks," and in the Scriptures, has left us his assurance that "the battle of the Christian evidences for the present day must be fought on the field of natural science." This may be so; at least it must be shown that the Bible is not in conflict with nature; and yet we suspect that Christianity must gain its victory here by removing the conflict from the field of natural science, and showing that the doubts which philosophy has raised belong really to the region of metaphysical investigations, and depend upon ideas logically prior to all inductive reasoning. In the mean time much mutual benefit would be gained if these students of nature and of the Bible were better acquainted with each other, and were better aware of the real issues between them. The speculative and conservative tendencies of the one, the purely inductive and progressive spirit of the other, and the vast extent of their respective departments of study, in which a mutual correspondence becomes infrequent, render an estrangement from one another, if not a jealousy of each other, almost a matter of course. They are apt to forget that they are studying only different volumes of the same Author, and in the interest of the same humanity. No well-ascertained principle of either book should be impeached or denied, and a contradiction between them should be confessed by no one who has confidence in both. No friend of Christianity, at least, can safely admit that a distinct announcement of the Bible is inconsistent with an unquestionable fact of nature; for no historical assertion can be substantiated against a matter of plain observation and experience.

The author of the work before us has, however, done this

without reserve, and sometimes, as we think, with gratuitous forwardness. He belongs to a class which make concessions from the side of an evangelical faith much more cheerfully than from that of naturalism. Facts which tend to remove God from direct intercourse are much more easily admitted than those which seem to bring him into affectionate communion with men. A reference to the author's previous works is sufficient to show that in this we do him no injustice. We often find in them, that of two equally probable hypotheses he invariably chooses that which removes God to a distance, and that he usually favors any suggestion, however paradoxical, when it looks to the independence of natural laws. Scarcely any plausible theory of this kind which has gained notoriety during the last twenty years has failed to receive his countenance. This is due not so much to his liberality and candor, great as these unquestionably are, (for such qualities, when genuine, are not confined to opponents of a single class,) but to a predilection for a peculiar kind of speculation. He alleges, indeed, that he favored these merely as "professedly hypothetical yet legitimate conjectures," and not as "scientific conclusions;" but why has he not only given them all the validity in his power, but shown a peculiar partiality for those which looked in a particular direction? Is it a matter of accident that he should have seen successively nothing incredible in "the broad scientific principle" of what he now calls "the philosophical romance of the Vestiges of Creation," in " the spontaneous generation of organic life under the galvanic current," in "the transformation of species from one original type to another," in "the independent origin of various races of men," in "the complete rejection of the doctrine of final causes, and of all knowledge of a Creator from inductive science," and yet "the probable resolution of all force into one primary unity," and in “the settled and no longer to be disputed fact that human remains are to be found in primitive rocks?" Why has he never discovered anything plausible in the statements of men who, on his own principles, may have had spiritual intercourse with God, and remarkable answers to prayer? We are the more interested in drawing attention to this uniform bias, because in this he is a representative of the general class who favor the conclusions of his book.

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