could never have been lifted up in steadfast worship to the One supremely good; and the intellect could never have been carried upward, step by step, to the infinite and incomprehensible One. But after this faith, necessary in its time, had served its purpose, it must necessarily be outgrown and abandoned; and he, who by the eye of Faith, had been owned as God, must, under the critical eye of Reason, shrink to his real proportions, and be admired henceforward simply as the divinest of men.

Most marvelous of all, Paul himself, according to Dr. Hedge, foresaw and prophesied these developed varieties and transmutations of doctrine concerning the person of the Lord—declaring that Christ at first must, in the view of faith, be worshiped as God, and his name be exalted above every name; and afterwards surrender this honor before the judgment seat of a rationalizing theology, when "the Son himself" should "be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all."

Query-could the mystic Paul be capable of this marvelous, prophetic foresight concerning the fortunes of opinions or doctrines in regard to the person of Christ-running through so many centuries, and yet could he be only partially informed concerning the real nature and limits of that personality? Verily, the clearly expressed Christology of the logical and positive Paul, with all the incomprehensibilities of the incarnation and double nature, is vastly more satisfactory to our reason, than the hazy impossibilities of the author's theory, "Culmination of Personality in the Christ of the Church," however tinged with the gorgeous purple of his fine imaginings, and glowing with rosy radiance borrowed from the sunlight of revealed truth.

HAGUE'S CHRISTIANITY AND STATESMANSHIP.*-These papers have all been previously published separately, and several of them collected in a volume. They are now issued in a new edition, with many valuable and interesting notes, constituting copious appendixes. The contents are as follows: Christianity and Statesmanship; Christianity and the Turkish Power; Christianity and Traditionism; Christian Greatness in the Apostle; Christian Greatness in the Missionary; Christian Greatness in the States

* Christianity and Statesmanship, with kindred topics. By WILLIAM HAgur, D.D. A new, revised, enlarged, and improved edition. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1865. 12mo., pp. 414.

man; Christian Greatness in the Citizen; Christianity and Pauperism; Christianity and Liberal Giving; Christian Union; Christianity and Slavery. These are the titles of the papers. The notes are valuable and interesting additions.

The paper on Christianity and Slavery is a review of the controversy, celebrated in its day, between Drs. Wayland and Fuller. It will be read with great interest at the present time, now that slavery is a thing of the past. It does great honor to the author's fidelity to his convictions, as well as to the sagacity with which he penetrated to some, we dare not say to all of the principles essential to the right interpretation of the doctrine of the New Testament, respecting slavery.

The volume is worthy of the distinguished reputation of the author as a popular and instructive writer, and will be welcomed by his numerous friends in the Baptist and other denominations.

SPENCER'S SOCIAL STATICS.*-This is a reprint of the first of the many volumes which Mr. Spencer has given to the public. By republishing this, the Messrs. Appletons have reproduced all his works except the parts of his incomplete System of Philosophy. The subject, as the title indicates, is Ethical and Social Philosophy. It is founded upon the same general principles on which his system is constructed, viz. the system of necessary Evolution, though it has this advantage over his other treatises, that the fundamental principle is not offensively obtruded upon the attention of the reader, and that the language is more conformed to that of ordinary usage.

It is defective in that it fails to recognize freedom as the ground of moral action, and the condition of responsibility; and also that it seems to evolve the moral law entirely from the relations of man to man in society. It is of course, as would be expected, limited in its application, almost entirely to these external relations. Those which are nobler and finer, and which exist in man's interior nature, as of feeling, desire, intention, and char

Social Statics; or the Conditions Essential to Human Happiness specified, and the first of them developed. By HERBERT SPENCER, &c., &c., with a notice of the Author, and a steel portrait. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1865. 12mo. pp. 523. New Haven: H. C. Peck. Price $2.

acter, though not entirely overlooked, are yet imperfectly considered and inadequately provided for.

But though this treatise is deficient in the ground work which it provides for moral distinctions, it is very valuable for its treatment of many of the questions of external morality, and for its discussion of some of the more important topics which pertain to the rights and social relations of man.

Many of the subjects which are now so earnestly discussed in all civilized countries, in their bearings upon questions of reform, are treated with rare ability. The lucid style, and the copious and pertinent illustrations which abound in all the productions of this very able writer, are conspicuous in this volume.

We have only to renew our regret that his fundamental positions should be so defective, and that his attitude, with respect to revealed religion and the Christian church, should be so antagonistic.

It is only over superficial thinkers that so defective and partial a system can have much influence. But such thinkers are in this country more numerous than we could wish, and they are readily imposed on by the manifest acuteness and the impressive array of positive knowledge which Mr. Spencer exhibits in all his writings.

CONGREGATIONALISM.*-This handsome volume is the fruit of great industry and extensive research, applied perseveringly for several years. It is most creditable to the zeal and fidelity of its very enterprising and diligent author. Though somewhat fragmentary in its character and abrupt in its style of composition, it is not for that reason less fitted for general usefulness. We think it at once the most comprehensive and particular book on the subject with which we are acquainted. Without endorsing all the doctrines which it teaches, we can very cordially recommend it as better fitted than any single volume with which we are acquainted, to answer the ends both of a Thesaurus and Manual of Congregational Principles and the Congregational Polity.

*Congregationalism: What is it; Whence is it; How it works; Why it is better than any other form of Church government, and its consequent demand. By HENRY M. DEXTER, Pastor of the Berkeley Street Church, &c. &c. Boston: Nichols & Noyes. 1865. 8vo. pp. 306.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL.

MERIVALE'S HISTORY OF THE ROMANS UNDER THE EMPIRE. Vol VII.-We have nothing to add to the judgment expressed in a previous number of this Quarterly, respecting this work. The present volume completes the handsome reprint of the Messrs. Appleton. It comprises the period of the Antonines, from Vespasian to Marcus Aurelius, a period of comparative rest and prosperity. Mr. Merivale modestly concludes his labor as follows: "The work I now offer as completed, embraces what may be loosely designated the constitutional period of the Roman monarchy, extending from the graceful primacy of Pompeius to the barbarian despotism of the son of Aurelius. That it should be permanently accepted as the English History of the Upper Empire, is more than I venture to anticipate; but I shall not regret its being in due season supplanted, if I lead a successor of firmer grasp and wider vision to sift our records in a critical and independent spirit."

MERIVALE'S CONVERSION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.*-The principal difficulty in writing a history of the Conversion of the Roman Empire, is the deficiency of specific information as to the way in which this great revolution was effected. If a heathen nation were to be won to the Christian faith at the present day, we should have in the records of missionaries a full picture of the agencies employed, and of the successive steps through which the transformation was produced. This advantage we are for the most part deprived of, in the case of that earliest and grandest triumph of the Christian cause, by which a persecuted, obscure sect, expanded to the proportions of a dominant and world-ruling religion. The tremendous movement went forward to a large extent, as far as we are concerned, in the dark. The mighty resalt confronts us, exciting a feeling akin to surprise, so silent and unperceived has been the powerful operation of the means employed. This peculiarity will partly account for the dearth of precise information and the absence of details in this work of Mr.

* The Conversion of the Roman Empire. The Boyle Lectures for the year 1864. By CHARLES MERIVALE, B. D., &c. &c. New York: Appleton & Co. 1865. New Haven: Judd & White. Price $2.

Merivale; though we think that it would have been improved by the introduction of more of the facts which are really known. The historian confines himself to a description of the preparation in the Græco-Roman world for the Gospel, and of the points of contact between the previously existing state of things and the Christian system. On this topic, his observations are generally just and eloquent. It is gratifying to find one English historian of the first rank, who heartily believes in supernatural Christianity.

Mr. Merivale's book comprises eight Lectures. Lecture I. contrasts the unbelief of the heathen, with the Christian doctrine of immortality. Here the author's expressions, perhaps, imply that the amount of belief in this great truth among the Greeks and Romans, was somewhat less than it really was The debate in the Senate on the case of Cataline is, indeed, very significant; yet the conclusion drawn from it may be too sweeping. Lecture III. on the Expansion of Heathen Belief by the teaching of the Philosophers, exhibits finely the glimpses of the idea of humanity which had been gained in the philosophical schools. A like effect flowing from the ideas of Roman jurisprudence, is discussed in Lecture IV.; the text being Galatians iii., 24, The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. We should have been pleased to find under this text a definite and emphatical discourse upon the influence of the sense of personal condemnation in bringing souls to Christ and to the faith of the Gospel. This great topic is, to be sure, elsewhere touched upon; yet we do not think that full justice is done to it. The final Lecture on the effect of the godly example of the Christians, is a good treatment of a very important topic. It would be profitable to read this little work of Merivale in connection with the famous fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of Gibbon, in which the same theme is handled,-we need not say, in a very different spirit, yet instructively and with marvelous erudition.

FROUDE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.*-Whatever judgment may be pronounced respecting the opinions expressed in this history, there can be but one sentiment concerning the rare ability and in

* History of England, from the Fall of Woolsey to the death of Elizabeth. By JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, M. A., late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford Volumes first and second. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1865. New Haven: Judd & White. Price $5.