strated that it was his purpose to distinguish sharply between religion and law and to give each its due honor. By this concession Sieffert appears to avoid the thought of a conflicting tendency of these two forces. But in reality the fact of such a conflict was evident to the mind of Jesus, and it is one of the deepest facts of Christianity that he proposed to make law unnecessary by the introduction of the true spirit of religion and morals into the hearts of men. The law of the statute books is at best but an expedient rendered necessary by the incapacity and immorality of mankind. Given a perfect wisdom and a perfect ethical purpose in all individuals, no law would be needful for the government either of communities or of nations. Every man would do that which is right in his own eyes, which is the ideal condition as long as what is right in every man's eyes corresponds to the perfect ideal of right in the mind of God. In no respect does the ideal character of Christianity come out more clearly than in this particular. It is a system almost infinitely in advance of present human attainment. Possibly humanity will never become so perfect upon earth as to be able to be governed alone from the law written within. Yet certain it is that many individuals have come close to the ideal; and the Christian method is not only that which alone can produce the noblest types of character, but it is constantly enlarging the number of those who need no outward restraints, and has proved itself well adapted to all classes. Still it appears that Jesus did not altogether, nor indeed in any considerable degree, discourage the employment of law under given circumstances. Paul sanctioned, as did the other apostles, the most complete submission to the laws and rulers of the land on the part of the disciples. And Jesus gave directions as to the mode of procedure in case of an offending brother in the church. True, he presupposed action limited to the Christian community, as Paul afterward sought to have legal action confined to Christian judges; but both plainly saw that until the world is wholly Christianized law is a necessity.

RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL.

European Christian Sentiment relative to Oberammergau. While thousands of Europeans and Americans have been visiting the scene of the celebrated Passion Play, many thoughtful students of the same have raised questions as to the propriety of encouraging those presentations. The principal objections of thoughtful Europeans without regard to theological tendencies are as follows: (1) The alleged religious influence is deceptive, and, instead of being what it seems, is nothing but an undue nervous excitement. (2) The presentation attracts not alone nor chiefly those who are profoundly Christian, but Jews, the religiously indifferent, and especially those who seek for novelty and the spectacular. (3) So far from making a religious impression, some scenes produce laughter, as the crowing cock. (4) Other parts desecrate the sacred history of the

Lord's passion, as the prayer in Gethsemane. (5) An apparently financial motive actuates the participants. (6) Some of the participants in the play receive attentions which are inconsistent with the claim of special sanctity. For these and similar reasons many have declined to go to Oberammergau this year; while others, having gone, have advised that, however much the play might have deserved admiration in times past, as it is now conducted no evangelical Christian should attend it—for his own sake and even for the sake of the people of Oberammergau themselves. Nevertheless, so great a thinker as Professor Paulsen defends the Passion Play in a recent contribution to Die Christliche Welt. He denies that the play is, in any objectionable sense, "Catholic," declaring that it brings before the observer in most effective form the great facts of the life and death of Christ common to Romanism and Protestantism. He sees in the play an appeal to all the best religious instincts in Christians, and thinks it impossible for anyone to sit almost uninterruptedly for ten hours watching the scenes unless as a result of a profound religious impression. This estimate is probably that of the majority.

A Layman's View of the Kirchennot in Berlin. "Kirchennot " is a word which denotes a scarcity of church edifices, of which, in connection with Berlin, so much has been said in recent years. This particular layman is a woman. She claims that the churches there are almost never filled with worshipers. This cannot be answered by saying that more would attend the services if the churches were more numerous, and hence more accessible; for in the immediate vicinity of each church there are far more than enough to fill it at each service, and on holy days these churches are generally filled. Hence she claims, and, we think, rightly, that the chief need at present is not more church edifices, but more immediate pastoral oversight. She seems inclined to censure the pastors for their neglect in this respect; but we do not think she is quite just in this. The parishes often contain as many as ten thousand souls, and not infrequently fifty thousand or upward. Supposing three pastors to a parish, it would be impossible to give the minute pastoral care needful, even in the parishes with the smallest number named, when it is considered that these same pastors have much to do besides visit the members of their flocks; and especially would it be impossible for the pastors to do this work properly in the more populous parishes. The writer referred to seems to think that the pastors should employ lay assistance more frequently, and she may be right in this. Still this would not completely remedy the difficulty; for it is a visit from the pastor, not from a lay member, that is wanted. The whole difficulty lies in the fact that Church and State are united, and the people do not feel themselves directly responsible for the prosperity of the Church. Let the State give the Church over to the fostering care of the people, and in a little while, if pastors are faithful and efficient, there will be found a solution of the church problem, not only in Berlin but elsewhere.

SUMMARY OF THE REVIEWS AND MAGAZINES.

WITH natural ability presupposed, "the qualities necessary for an historian are diligence, accuracy, love of truth, impartiality, the thorough digestion of his materials by careful selection and long meditating, and the compression of his narrative into the smallest compass consistent with the life of his story." So said James Ford Rhodes in his late inaugural as president of the American Historical Association; and with these words as a starting point, Professor A. B. Hart, of Harvard University, aims to show the progress of American writers toward this standard —his article in the September International Monthly (Burlington, Vt.) being entitled "The American School of Historians." The first discoverers and explorers, he begins, "left us narratives which, in directness, simplicity, and elevation of thought make them comparable with Herodotus and the Venerable Bede." Thus, the letters of Columbus, notwithstanding some boasting and sordidness, "were memorials of a splendid achievement worthy of handing down to his children's children;" the narratives of Gomara and Pizarro concerning the conquest of Peru and Mexico "give an unfading picture of the harsh, conquering race;" Sir Francis Drake, among English explorers, has left an entertaining story of his "rollicking voyage to the Pacific, with its store of unctuous enumerations of plunder; " while "men like Champlain could with equal ease explore, fight, found communities, and write the most engaging narrative; [and] heroes like Father Jogues have left us not only a most complete account of the natives of America, but an imperishable record of the superiority of soul over such accidents as tomahawks and bonebreaking gauntlets and red-hot coals." After the beginning of English colonization comes a second group of writers, in the first half of the seventeenth century. Among them Bradford and Winthrop "stand preeminent." The opening words in the account of the Plymouth foundation, by the former, "seem like the stately gateway to an epic." Winthrop, while "far less systematic and argumentative," is "possessed of a keen sense of selection." The third school is composed of "local historians and annalists." Cotton Mather is the first and worst of these. Nothing came amiss to him-"tradition, rumor, gossip, memory, experience, everyday facts." Beverly's History of Virginia, published about 1705, was really the first example of an American history," while Thomas Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay is valuable as recording the experience of a trained public man. After the Revolution came a new school of historians, among them being Proud, Trumbull, Burke, Belknap, Gordon, and Ramsay. In 1836 Sparks published his Writ ings of Washington, his editions overlaying "the originals with a literary shellac and varnish," while he "does not conceal the original grain." Then came Bancroft with his colossal work, and Hildreth, and

Tucker. But the greatest of all writers who have made America their theme is Francis Parkman, and back of his work was the romance of his life in acute physical suffering. He also forms " a kind of bridge between the older and the newer school," and has furnished an impetus for Henry Adams, McMaster, Winsor, Rhodes, and others. Passing by the analysis of the work done by these many modern writers, however, from the necessities of the case, there is only room for Professor Hart's estimate of their ability, as follows: "The impression made upon the observer of historical writing is hopeful. Our greatest historian, Parkman, lives only in his imperishable books; but, leaving him out, there has never been an American historian equal to the best living writers in training, in conception of what historical research means, in discrimination, in insight, or in genuine historical style. Where are the poets to replace Lowell and Longfellow and Whittier? Where are the essayists to equal Emerson? Where the novelists to measure height with Hawthorne? Yet in historical writing the authors of the golden age give way to the present American school in popularity among readers and in usefulness to scholars; and perhaps some day a new generation of authors may arise to whom the historians of this quarter century will give Godspeed."

IN the London Quarterly (London) for October, Professor James Orr, D.D., of the United Presbyterian Church, and Professor James Denney, D.D., of the Free Church of Scotland, discourse upon "The Union of the Free Church of Scotland and the United Presbyterian Church." Though they write independently of one another, they agree that this union is greatly to be desired. Dr. Orr holds that "only on some such lines can we look for a speedy reconstruction of our Scottish Church," and expresses the prayer that God "in his marvelous providence" may "open the way;" Dr. Denney sees in the Union a farreaching result, and affirms that in it "a great step forward will be taken in the reorganization of the Christianity of Scotland." In the second article John Telford writes of "Picturesque Yorkshire," reviewing the work of J. S. Fletcher upon that subject. Seven different books, more or less recent, form the basis of the third article on "The Present Position of the Revised Version of the New Testament." Its writer, J. H. Moulton, shows what has been gained from the new version, and argues for its value. In the fourth article Frederic Platt writes of "Pusey as a Devotional Writer," and in the fifth U. A. Forbes reviews the competition which England must meet in the world's markets, under the title of "Our Commercial Rivals." Principal S. D. F. Salmond, D.D., follows with an article on "Horace Bushnell," which is based upon Dr. T. T. Munger's recent biography of that great divine, and which recalls his vigorous personality, his varied endowments, and his influence upon the theological thought of his times. The concluding articles are entitled "Practicable Idealism," by Arthur Boutwood, and "Friedrich Nietzsche

-His Life and Teaching," by Bennet Hume. From "the chaff of speculations" of the German philosopher upon ethics and philosophy Mr. Hume affirms that "the practical English mind has small inclination to extract the grain of value." Yet the review of Nietzsche's theories is here most entertaining. During his later years "he was haunted by the idea of eternal recurrence, the theory that existence is a series of age-long cycles in which everything repeats itself." Yet he did not covet a reincarnation, having "no wish to repeat a life in which he suffered so much." The closing department of this Review, on "The World of Books," concludes a number at once strong, instructive, and fascinating.

A REMARKABLE issue is the August number of The Christian Student, a new quarterly publication by the Board of Education, Dr. McDowell, Secretary. Not often has a periodical put into twenty-eight pages more of strong, stimulating stuff. The educational motto for the Twentieth Century-"More students in our schools, more money for our schools, more young people in our churches, more conversions in our schools and churches, more Christ everywhere;" a model prayer; a wise saying of Professor Jowett's; the masterly statement of Methodism's fundamental doctrines which Bishop Andrews put into the Episcopal Address to the General Conference of 1900; an article, “Under the Hood of Dante," by Professor R. T. Stevenson; a quotation from President Patton of Princeton as to the object of college education and of all true training; an extract from Dr. Charles H. Payne's tract, "The Christian College a Necessity;" Grover Cleveland's answer to the question "Does a College Education Pay?" Dr. D. J. Burrell's answer to "Who Should Go to College;" "The College in America," by Andrew Fleming West; "Statistics of Public Education," by Nicholas Murray Butler: all this richness and ten pages left for Bishop Warren's radiant and ringing article, "Should Ethics and Religion be Taught in Institutions for Higher Education?" Inevitably the bishop's article recalls to us a similar periodical, The Study, which was issued quarterly by the faculty of Iliff School of Theology in the University of Denver. It was discontinued last December, just before The Christian Student made its first appearance. Twenty of the twenty-four pages of that final number were occupied by a matriculation-day address by the resident bishop, entitled "Alliance with the Highest." Thus with garlands and singing robes about it, clothed with the glory of that address, The Study ascended as from a mountain top, and a cloud received it out of our sight. May it come again, shining with similar glory!

IN the Lutheran Quarterly (Gettysburg, Pa.) for October is an article by F. M. Porch, D.D., on "Discouragements and Encouragements of a City Pastorate." Dr. Porch finds more work, greater difficulty, and more exacting demands in the city than in the country, while the financial support is less in proportion to expense of living.