CURRENT LITERATURE.

PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE OF MORALITY.*-The design of this book is stated by the author in his preface as follows: "A new text-book on morals may justly be challenged to prove its right to appear in an already over-crowded community of similar treatises. The only answer that in this case can be given is, that the book has been made for a service which no one of its predecessors could be persuaded to render. It embodies the lectures its author has given to his classes in Ethics, and is, what it purports to be, distinctly a text-book. It touches existing controversies only so far as is necessary for the elucidation or defence of its positions. The aim has been to condense rather than to expand its discussions, and to diminish rather than multiply its pages.

"The extent of the discussion has been determined by the supposed need in each case. The need will doubtless be differently estimated by different writers. In the author's estimation no questions in the whole range of ethical discussions, and specially at the present stage of these discussions, are so fundamental as those of conscience, inclusive of the moral judgments, and the ultimate ground of moral obligation. All ethical questions resolve themselves, in the last analysis, into the question of conscience and the final ground of its decisions."

The book is divided into three parts: (1) The ascertainment and distribution of the essential principles of ethics; (2) A discussion of these principles, under the general name of Theoretic Morality; (3) Practical Morality. The second part is divided into four parts: (a) The Moral Faculty or Conscience; (b) Moral Law; (c) The Will; (d) Virtue and Theories of Virtue. The third part, as usual, is divided into three parts: (a) Duties to God; (b) Duties to One's self; (c) Duties to Fellow Beings.

(a) The author defines the moral faculty as "that rational power of the soul by which all distinctions of whatever kind are * Principle and Practice of Morality; or, Ethical Principles Discussed and Applied. By EZEKIEL GILMAN ROBINSON, D.D., LL.D., President of Brown University. Boston: Silver, Rogers & Co., 1888.

perceived and judgments pronounced, and which is properly called moral only when the distinctions perceived are moral, and the judgments rendered are according to some recognized moral standard. It is the reason or whole rational being occupied with moral questions and giving some kind of moral decisions" (p. 29). Dr. Robinson makes a distinction between moral faculty and conscience. The term moral faculty denotes "the soul's power to judge all kinds of moral acts, by whomsoever performed; conscience, the soul's power to judge its own acts and itself as the doer of them" (p. 31).

"Conscience is an original endowment of human nature--is an essential and constitutional part of personal being " (p. 54).

(b) He defines moral law as "that requirement or series of requirements in the moral nature of man which he must comply with or there can be for him no realization of the moral and ideal perfection of his being" (p. 83). It is not merely external statute. "As internal principle its (moral law) scope is in the very nature of rational being as such" (p. 91). And the design of moral law, as subjective requirement, is identical with the design or final cause of man's existence and as formal precept, is "to make known to man the constitutional principle of his moral being" (p. 97-8).

(c) "Will, as a faculty, may be defined as the soul's power to determine the extent and kind of its own action; as a function, it is the soul in movement" (p. 111). "By Freedom of the Will is meant the freedom of the personal being, or of the individual soul in the exercise of its volitional energy" (p. 122).

(d) "Virtue is the soul's or the will's persistency of compliance-its energy in complying with moral law; it is an acquired power of habitual conformity to all right and law" (p. 138). "As the terms are now commonly used morality relates rather to what man does than to what he in himself is; and virtue relates more to what he in himself is than to his outward acts; while righteousness covers the ground of both morality and virtue" (p. 139). The ultimate ground of obligation the author finds in the eternal nature of a Supreme Being (pp. 172-180).

The book is written in a clear, strong, and compact style. It can be read with benefit by those who are beginning the study of ethics. The author belongs to what is commonly known in ethics as the Intuitional School.

RIKIZO NAKASHIMA.

BENNETT'S CHRISTIAN ARCHÆOLOGY.*—In the modest Preface to his work, Professor Bennett expresses his obligations to Dr. Piper, the veteran Berlin Professor in the branch to which the volume relates. Then follows an Introduction from the pen of Dr. Piper himself, which explains the design and scope of the science, and touches on its sources and advantages. The body of the volume is divided into four books. The First treats of the Archæology of Christian Art; the Second, of the Constitution and Government of the Early Christian Church; the Third, of the Sacraments and Worship of the Early Church; and the Fourth, of the Archæology of Christian Life. Church history, like secular history, has derived great profit of late from the investigation of monumental remains of antiquity. The results of these researches are embodied, in a lucid and methodical manner, in the volume before us. It does not confine itself to the information gained from visible monuments, such as coins, paintings, sculptures, edifices, etc. The literature of Christian antiquity has been explored and made to yield its treasures of knowledge on the many topics to which the volume relates. The pictorial illustrations elucidate the text. They include a map of Ancient Rome and of its environs. A catalogue of authorities and a good index are subjoined. Students of Church history have to thank Professor Bennett for the production of so instructive, interesting and-considering its limits-complete a survey of Christian antiquities. He writes with the candor that becomes a true scholar. On disputed points he expresses himself with due caution and with judicial fairness.

GEORGE P. FISHER.

It treats the

HUMPHREY'S "SACRED HISTORY."-This posthumous volume, based upon the author's lectures upon Sacred History, but fully written out in its present form by himself, will be welcomed by the many pupils and friends of this eminent divine. successive chapters of Genesis and Exodus with abundant learning, and in a conservative spirit which shows no taint from modern critical opinions. The merits of the book are to be estimated from the standpoint which it represents. The author's investiga

* Christian Archæology. By CHARLES W. BENNETT, D.D., Professor of Historical Theology in Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, Illinois. With an Introduction by Dr. F. Piper. New York: Phillips & Hunt. 1888.

+ Sacred History from the Creation to the Giving of the Law; by PROF. HUMPHREY, formerly of the Danville Theological Seminary. A. C. Armstrong & Son. New York, 1888. pp. 540.

tions do not go behind the popular views regarding the Pentateuchal literature. The book will, therefore, have little interest for those who are concerned with the critical literary problems which underlie the narratives with which Dr. Humphrey has dealt. But for those whose purpose is to make the acquaintance of early sacred history on its practical and theological side, this book will doubtless prove helpful and instructive.

GEO. B. STEVENS.

METHODS OF CHURCH WORK.*-There are undoubtedly many pastors who lack the ability or genius to devise methods by which to carry on the various work of a church; hence their ministry fails of the success which they covet. For all such this book will prove a desideratum. It covers comprehensively and thoroughly the entire field of church work, religious, social, and financial. The author has made use of the working plans of the most practical and successful pastors, some of them being given in detail. It is a book that every pastor and church officer would do well to examine.

THE BOOK OF GENESIS.t-This seems to be the first volume of a series to be called the "Expositor's Bible." The author, Dr. Dodds is a Presbyterian minister, of Glasgow, who recently presented a paper on "The duty of the Church toward the higher intellectual tendencies of the age" at the Pan-Presbyterian council, in which he favored meeting the intellectual demands of the higher educated classes.

In this book he has tried to do that, and is to be congratulated for the measure of success he has attained. His aim is thoroughly evangelical. He wishes to make a deep religious impression. To do this he unfolds the great truths found in Genesis, disentangling them from their form in the narrative and from the prejudice which has obscured them, and showing them in their purity and power. Each of the thirty-one chapters, covering the essential points of the book of Genesis, is really a complete sermon in itself and could have been delivered in any church with profit.

It is extraordinary to find an orthodox Presbyterian clergyman handling the account of creation in so free and confident a *Methods of Church Work. By Rev. SYLVANUS STALL, A.M. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

The Book of Genesis: by MARCUS DODDS, D.D. New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son.

manner as Dr. Dodds, who makes what some would call large concessions. He regards the author of Genesis as a compiler who "lays side by side two accounts of man's creation which no ingenuity can reconcile." He says "there is no evidence that inspired men were in advance of their age in the knowledge of physical facts and laws." So far as physical knowledge went, he finds little in the first two chapters which was new to the contemporaries of the writer. He believes the word "day" means twenty-four hours, and freely admits that the account of the order of creation" is irreconcilable with the teachings of science." But he believes the author was really inspired by the Holy Spirit in reference to spiritual knowledge, and that his knowledge of God's unity, creative power and connection with man, reacted upon his physical knowledge and prevented him from presenting an account unworthy of the supreme God, as the polytheists have done. God's connection with the universe and the place of man in creation are the two essential truths found in these early accounts. The account of the Fall he regards as a pictorial representation which is instructive to the wisest to-day, embodying as it does all the elements necessary to make the story complete. The Flood is supposed to be confined to the great plain of the Euphrates and Tigris. In the chapter on the Call of Abraham we find these pregnant words: "How he became aware that a divine command lay upon him we do not know. Nothing could persuade him that he was not commanded. Under the simple statement 'The Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country,' there are probably hidden years of questioning and meditation."

"God's revelation of himself to Abram in all probability did not take the determinate form of articulate command without having passed through many preliminary stages of surmise, doubt, and mental conflict." Abram was taught, in common with others, Sabbath observation, and was not the only one who had monotheistic ideas. "It was the heathen monarch, Pharaoh, who taught the father of the faithful his first lesson in God's holiness." Throughout the eighteenth chapter of Genesis "there is betrayed an inadequate conception of God." Dr. Dodds is, however, a strong supernaturalist and does not hesitate to express himself where it is demanded. The appearance of the angel at Mamre was God in

human form.

That which characterizes the book and makes it especially interesting is the following: