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phets. The glowing pages of Pater Mundi teach impressively that the God of Revelation is the God of Nature as well.

The title sufficiently indicates the general scope and object of the work. There are eight lectures in this volume. Having heard most of them as delivered, and since read them with added interest, we can cordially reccommend the work as one that will be found both interesting and instructive. Its general boldness and originality of style may be inferred from its striking dedication: -"To the HEAVENLY FATHER to whom we dedicate our Sabbaths, our Sanctuaries, and ourselves, THESE VOLUMES, in illustration of his being and greatness, are reverently inscribed."

IMMORTALITY.-Perowne's Four Sermons on Immortality treat the subject within narrow limits in a far more comprehensive and many-sided way than is common even with theological lecturers. The Lectures are entitled-The Future Life. The Hope of the Gentile. The Hope of the Jew. The Hope of the Christian. In the first, the modern theories are satisfactorily, though, of necessity, not very exhaustively discussed, in the three forms of scientific materialism, philosophical pantheism, and necromantic spiritualism. In the second, are expounded the conceptions of the future life which were taught and held respectively by the Egyp tian, the Greek, and the Oriental. In the third, the Hope of the Jew is discussed at length, and in this is examined with some care and scholarship the oft mooted questions, how far a tuture life was revealed to the Hebrews by their prophets and inspired teachers, and how fully and distinctly they recognized such a life in their practical faith. We cannot say these questions are as sharply discriminated as we fancy they might and ought to be, but we find some very good thoughts upon each. The Hope of the Christian, or the Christian doctrine of the future life, is the theme of the last lecture. This hope is made to rest on two facts, the Resurrection of Christ and the inner life of the spirit, and is confirmed by the consideration of the analogies of Nature. The discussions of all these topics indicate a mind fully alive to the questions of the times, and accustomed to thorough and independent investigation. While, as we have said, they are neither

* Immortality. Four Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge. Being the Hulsean Lectures for 1868. By J. J. STEWART PEROWNE, B. D., VicePrincipal and Professor of Hebrew in St. Davids College, Lampeter, etc., etc New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Co. 1870.

so profound nor so exhaustive as might be conceived to be possible, they are sufficiently so for the majority of readers, and they are written in a lucid and pleasing style. The preface notices Mr. Huxley's much talked of paper on the Physical Basis of Life, and the Appendix No. I. is an extract from Professor Tyndall's address before the British Association at Norwich. No. II. discusses Job xix, 24-26. No. III. treats, a little more critically than the text, of the Jewish doctrine of the Future Life. No. IV. cites a fine passage from Nitszch on the Christian doctrine. This little volume, as will be inferred from this criticism of its contents, is very timely, and it deserves general circulation.

MR. MURRAY'S MUSIC HALL SERMONS.*-Mr. Murray having turned from deer-stalking and trout fishing to his genuine avocation as a preacher, shows that the qualities which made him successful among the Adirondac hills and ponds may be turned to good account in some other ways. A bold hand and quick eye, art in throwing the bait, tenacity in holding on to the prey, a little rashness in shooting the rapids of argument, and a dash too much of foam in the rhetoric, but a knack at coming out high and dry, safe and sound, and a real love and tender charity for the victims of his skill-these qualities have not deserted him when he has followed higher game. We have read this comfortable little volume of twelve sermons with much pleasure and profit. The style is graphic and the thought fresh. There is considerable power exhibited in picturesque and moral word-painting. The sermons have point, speak right out, and do not hesitate to cut right and left on occasions. Often they have beauty of illustration drawn from pure nature. The element of Christian hope runs through them. The discourse on the "Divine Friendship" is a fine and brave discourse. The last sermon on "The Moral Condition of Boston and How to Improve it," treats a difficult subject with delicacy, sagacity, and honesty. That system which educates highly, and yet which affords no corresponding means of gratifying the newly refined tastes which it originates, is justly and temperately criticised. Some passages of this sermon have an incisive and vigorous style promising good things in the future, when a sobered strength shall have taught the preacher to repress exuberance without destroying individuality.

*Music Hall Sermons. By WILLIAM H. H. Church. Boston. Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co.

MURRAY, Pastor of Park Street 1870.

ARCHBISHOP WHATELY'S ESSAYS.*Archbishop Whately's well known Essays, and his "Historic Doubts," are reprinted by Mr. Warren F. Draper, of Andover, in a neat and careful manner, and are bound in the same volume. The subjects of the Essays are as follows. Revelation of a future state. On the Declaration of God in His Son. On Love towards Christ as a motive to obedience. On the Practical Character of Revelation. On the Example of Children as proposed to Christians. On the Omission of a system of articles of Faith, Liturgies, and Ecclesiastical Canons, To these is added an appendix on the Absence of a Priesthood. Of these essays, the first and the fourth have attracted the most attention, and have elicited an active discussion as to their soundness. In the first, the author asserts, more positively than most modern Christian writers, that the wisest and the most thoughtful of the ancients did not believe in a future state. He also insists that the Mosaic Revelation neither made known nor recognized a happy future state as the reward of human virtue, but that it is in Christianity alone that such a hope is warranted. The Essay on the practical character of Revelation has been criticised very sharply as opening the way to latitudinarian sentiments, and, when taken with two or three passages in the appendix to the author's Logic, as teaching Sabellian views of the Trinity. Whatever may be thought of Whately's views on particular doctrines of the Christian system, no one can question his sturdy good sense, his discriminating judgment, and his largehearted catholicity. In some respects it might seem that, perhaps, his views have been outgrown by the new forms of infidelity and of orthodoxy which have come into being since his time. It will be found, however, that his deliberate opinion upon any fundamental question is always worth considering, and often contains more weighty thought than the unpretending manner of stating it would indicate.

* Essays on Some of the Peculiarities of the Christian Religion. By RICHARD WHATELY, D. D., Archbishop of Dublin. From the Seventh London Edition. Andover: Warren F. Draper. 1870.

Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Buonaparte. From the Eleventh London Edition. Andover: Warren F. Draper. 1870.

THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.*-This book is modestly put forth without the sanction of any name, the compilers choosing to style themselves "A Committee of the Session of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York." The design expressed in its title and preface is to present a selection of the best Hymns to the exclusion of a large number of the less effective. In England public taste has demanded works of this kind, in lieu of the multitudinous hymns and centos, good, bad, and indifferent, which had swelled collections there, as they had here, up to twelve or fifteen hundred. The public is beginning to see that very short hymns are a mistake as well as very long ones A congregation has no time to draw spiritual nourishment from a hymn of two or three verses, and the tendency now in England is to take a smaller number of hymns, and these more perfect in character.

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Hymns, Ancient and Modern," the most popular of English hymn-books, contains 386 Hymns; Lyra Brittanica, London, 1867, 660 Hymns; The Scottish Hymnal, 1868, 200 Hymns; The Peoples' Hymnal, 1868, 600 Hymns; The United Presbyterian, 468 Hymns; The Congregational Union, 748 Hymns.

The Sacrifice of Praise, designed for private devotion as well as public worship, and containing Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, is limited to 616 Lyrics. The principle of giving the text of the hymns, as originally written, is quite faithfully adhered to. The greatest variety of opinion has been expressed as to what constitutes a good hymn. Didactic hymns have been condemned because "if the sermon preaches, and the hymn also, the monotony of the service will occasion uneasiness." Subjective hymns have been objected to as unfit for the united worship of a congregation. Watts's lines, "When I can read my title clear," are omnitted by one compiler because he thinks them "gravely wrong in doctrine," and "There is a land of pure delight," because "seriously faultly in style." The well-known hymn of Montgomery, "Prayer is the soul's sincere desire," is claimed to be inadmissible because it is merely a definition of prayer. Other critics have deemed it important to tone down the originally fervent utterances of Wesley and Heber, though far less fervent than their inspired model, the Psalms. Men in their enthusiastic devo

*The Sacrifice of Praise, Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, designed for public worship and private devotion, with notes on the origin of Hymns. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1870.

tion to the true doctrine, have forgotten that in hymns, truth is necessarily presented "poetically, not dogmatically, to the adoring gaze of faith and love, not to the discriminating survey of the intellect." Some, desiring to improve on Toplady and Cowper, have recast their hymns, diminishing by a verse or two, "Rock of Ages," dropping out therefrom the idea that the blood of Christ. cleanses from the guilt and power of sin, and in the hymn, "There is a fountain filled with blood," destroying the immediate effect of the antithesis in the last two verses. The full effect of the last line of each verse of Charlotte Elliott's exquisite hymn, "My God is any hour so sweet," has been destroyed by the addition of adjectives in order to suit the tune! Sir John Bowring's admirable hymn, "God is love, his mercy brightens," has been objected to as too full of aspirates and sibilants. These are samples of that variety of opinion which brings home the question whether our rule should be to prove faithful to the poet's text, or whether our hymns shall be mutilated, recast, and their appeals to the intellect and the affections be sacrificed in order to subordinate them to the tune or to the views of every new compiler.

The Committee of the Brick Church appear to have entirely disregarded such criticisms as we have referred to. Betaking themselves to the Word of God for their guidance, they have, in their preface, vindicated the bold and unqualified presentation of different aspects of the truth. They also say: "In preparing the present selection of hymns, those passages of Scripture have been kept in view which teach that the object of praise is to glorify God (Ps. 1., 23) that the understanding and spirit are to be exercised in worship (1 Cor. xiv., 15) and that Christians should teach and admonish one another in Psalms, and Hymns, and Spiritual Songs," (Col. iii., 16). A sermon preached by the Chairman of the Committee, Rev. Dr. James O. Murray (which has been published by C. Scribner & Co.) on the subject of Christian Hymnology, shows that the questions of merit on which they formed their opinions were, Is the hymn based on Scriptural truth? Does it bear the Scriptural test of ministering to the intellect and the heart, and is it lyrical?

The result of their labors, based on these principles, is a collection distinguished by literary excellence and spiritual power, which represents the various phases of Christian feeling and experience in different souls and under varying circumstances. The hymns are chiefly those of writers of celebrity, like Watts, Dodd

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