God's mercy, and unto the righteousness of faith. III. How the forgiveness of our sins, our justification, and our salvation, depend upon Jesus Christ. IV. Of the effects of lively faith, and of the union of man's soul with Jesus Christ. V. In what wise the Christian is clothed with Jesus Christ. VI. Certain remedies against dis

trust.

In the Introduction we read: "Many are of opinion," says Vergerio, "that there is scarcely a book of this age, or, at least, in the Italian language, so sweet, so pious, so simple, and so well fitted to instruct the ignorant and weak, especially in the doctrine of Justification. . . . So great was its popularity, that forty thousand copies are said to have been sold in six years; and it was translated into several other languages." For being the author of this book he was seized by the Inquisition, conveyed to Rome, and after more than three years close confinement, he was condemned "to be suspended on a gibbet, and his body committed to the flames; though, according to some authorities, he was buried alive."

One of the charges on which he was tried was "that he ascribed justification solely to faith in the mercy of God forgiving our sins through Jesus Christ."

We think great good would be accomplished if this little volume were put into the hands of every member of our churches.

The Pulpit of the American Revolution; or the Political Sermons of the Period of 1776. With a Historical Introduction. Notes and Illustrations. By JOHN WINGATE THORNTON, A. M. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1860. pp. 537.

THE sermons are nine in number, between 1750 and 1783, and well selected. The publication is a lively illustration of the political preaching of those times. We commend to such as would know the tone of those days and of the volume, a passage in Mr. Mayhew's Preface to his Sermon of 1750, on "Unlimited Submission to the Higher Powers." "God be thanked, one may in any part of the British dominions speak freely, . . . . . both of government and religion, and even give some broad hints that he is engaged on the side of liberty, the Bible, and common sense, in opposition to tyranny, priestcraft, and nonsense, without being in danger either of the Bastile or the Inquisition, though there will always be some interested politicians, contracted bigots, and hypocritical zealots for a party, to take offence at such freedoms. Their censure is praise; their praise is infamy." The volume is a mirror of the Revolution, set in the pulpit. It shows

the causes, forces, and policies of the Revolution from a moral and religious stand-point, and so reveals the real secret of its success.

The value of the discourses is enhanced immensely by the introduction and notes of Mr. Thornton. The Sermons are a luxury and a lesson. We thank the compiler, annotator, and publishers for them most cordially.

Twelve Discourses. By HENRY MARTYN DEXTER. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, Lee & Co. 1861. pp. 219.

THESE are plain, earnest, godly sermons on the most practical themes of the Gospel. There is a simplicity and directness of style, and an easy, familiar, off-hand illustration, that must catch the popular ear. Compactness, terse logic, and demonstration do not here repel audience or reader who weary of much thinking. A living, every-day spirit animates each discourse. Popular objections are met by popular arguments, and the home-drift at the conscience and feelings is often powerful, or must prove so, if the hearer be previously well indoctrinated. The type, paper, etc., are admirable. The book tempts the eye and the hand, and no discourse in it is truer or better set forth than the portrait of the author on the opening page.

A Commentary, Critical and Grammatical, on Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. With a Revised Translation. By CHARLES J. ELLICOTT, B. D., &c., &c. And an Introductory Notice, by C. E. STOWE, D. D. Andover: Warren F. Draper. Boston. New York. Philadelphia. 1860. pp. 183.

THIS thin and elegant octavo is another "proof and illustration" of the great strides which Scriptural exposition has made, in our language, since the days of Macknight and Doddridge. Like Bloomfield's and Alford's New Testament Commentaries, it gives the Greek text at the top of the page, with various readings where they can be of service; does not give the interminable and exhaustive (in more senses than one) prolegomena of some of the late expounders; and concludes the volume with a neat and beautifully chaste retranslation of the Epistle, by no means à la Sawyer. The notes are a fine specimen of the multum in parvo style of explanation; learned, ample, condensed, lucid.

Having had recent occasion to re-study a difficult portion of the

Galatians, we speak with the more confidence of this new arrival upon our table as a real helper of these investigations of the ever-living Word. We are glad to know that other volumes upon the apostolic epistles are to follow from the same accomplished hand. And especially are we pleased to find, that, while availing himself of whatever is good in German critical researches upon his subject, this author has not been poisoned by the lettered scepticism of that great laboratory of infidelity. We give an instance. Commenting on ch. 4, v. 24, he thus meets the attempts of "Meyer, De Wette, Jowett, to represent this as a subjective, that is, (to speak plainly,) an erroneous interpretation of St. Paul arising from his Rabbinical education." "It would be well for such writers to remember that St. Paul is here declaring, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, that the passage he has cited has a second and deeper meaning than it appears to have; that it has that meaning, then, is a positive, objective, and indisputable truth." We are grateful to our commentator for allowing the Holy Spirit to give testimony as to what He really intended to say, while so many of these gentlemen seem to be very much in the condition of "certain disciples" who had "not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost."

BROCKHAUS of Leipzic has just issued a fac-simile page of the Sinaitic Codex, found by Tischendorf in 1859 in the Convent of St. Catharine at Mount Sinai. This contains the most of the Septuagint, and the New Testament, and is placed as early as the fourth century. It is the most ancient Codex known of the New Testament. It was presented by the Convent to their patron-head, the Emperor of Russia, and will be issued by him in four vols. in 1862. Tischendorf is now superintending the cutting of its uncial type at Leipzic. This Codex is without II John 5: 7, (the record of the three,) and agrees with the Codex Vaticanus in wanting Mark 16: 9-20 inclusive.

A LETTER in the London Athenæum, dated Jerusalem, Nov. 17, announces an important discovery, if true, of a very ancient MS. of the Pentateuch. It was found at Nablus, by Dr. Basilius Livishon of the Russian Episcopate at Jerusalem. He assigns it to the time of the First Temple.

If this be so, it will prove by many centuries the oldest known MS. of the Books of Moses, and its publication will be looked for with intense interest.

ARTICLE X.

THE ROUND TABLE.

OURSELVES. The success of our enterprise and first number is beyond all expectation. Evidently we have come to the time and place for The Boston Review. This new candidate for theological and literary favor has met with a patronage and good will rarely equalled in the first issue of a Review. The voice of the Press and of the Church is emphatic and highly encouraging, specially when we remember that the theology of the Review is "antique," "fossil," "old fogy," "no longer extant," "behind the times," &c.

The Church of Christ welcomes this work; and laying aside any supposed modesty we may have as its managers, we offer a sample of the unsolicited commendations of it that we have received.

Says the Congregational Herald, of Chicago:-"A neater design for the outside title-page of a periodical than is presented on the cover, we have never seen; and the paper and print within correspond. To our great surprise we like the contents, abating a rather sour sentence here and there. The tone is more moderate, the style more racy, and the subjects more varied, than we had anticipated. In fact, it is quite a credit to those who issued it. It stands up manfully for true doctrinal preaching, as the staple of pulpit-instruction, and shows the danger of the ephemeral, sentimental, moralizing, lax, and miscalled practical preaching, now so popular in the churches, and so current in the newspapers. Go on, brethren, you have our best wishes," &c. This is "good news from a far country," and so the more grateful.

Passing to the other side of the Union, the Christian Mirror, of Portland, says: "This first number gives good promise." The Congregational Journal, of Concord, also gives us invigorating and encouraging words.

A venerable father in the Church, and who has done great service in the theological and educational world, writes to us: "I heartily approve of your timely essay to do good, and encourage the older theology of New England, and infuse into the moral and social discussions of the day a more Scriptural element by the establishment of a Review," &c. My old pen is nearly worn out, but I am yours with all good wishes."

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Another writes us: "I go in for sustaining, and handing down to posterity, the old apostolic faith.' I do not believe in any newfangled theology. There is more difference between the new and the

old than between new and old wine, and I have it on pretty good authority that the old is better.'"

And yet another, among many comforting things, says: "I like your first number very much."

The New York Observer, we are aware, is not supposed by some to have been started by Paul, or to be now edited by Timothy, though it dates back earlier than those Christian fathers, Eusebius and Irenæus. It speaks of the Boston Review as "orthodox, manly, Christian, valiant and good-looking." "The initial number has much of the right kind of thinking and speaking." It is a "spirited and trenchant Review." "It sets out with an array of facts to prove that it is high time the friends of sound doctrine are aroused to action."

One of the leading laymen in the centre of Maine, in a businessnote, says: "I have received the first number of the Review, and read the first Article, and think that alone is worth the cost of the Review. So I enclose," &c.

We hesitate much to add to these evidences of good will that the Church is volunteering, but must give a passage or two from a long and discriminating letter from one of the best divines in New England: "I have just finished the reading, &c. It more than answers my high expectations. Perhaps my attachment to the old theology of the Apostles, as expounded by Calvin, the Westminster Divines, and Edwards, may render me unduly favorable in my estimate of a periodical whose pages, from beginning to the end, are pervaded with the savor of the faith once delivered to the saints.' The first article is worth a year's subscription," &c. "I am glad to see the Review make its first appearance, not only in a beautiful form as to mechanical execution, but in a style of literary taste not surpassed by any of our Quarterlies." "Some timid men may be sensitive about divisions that are to appear as the effect of such a Review. But I can see no reason to fear in this direction. I am led rather to hope that the free and faithful discussion of the Christian doctrines, in the manner to be expected in your Review, will promote harmony of views, and so cement the union of brethren in Christ."

The Boston Journal is so courteous that we must insert a word of theirs : "It is got up in very beautiful style. It shows ability. The article about Theodore Parker is a model article. It will be all spicy, no doubt, possibly peppery. The Review will have a character, and a pretty decided one. Its utterances will be positive, and to the point. It will give no uncertain sound. We are glad of this, and the public will be glad of it too, for they have been hungering for something of the kind for a long time. We welcome it into the literary field, and wish it all success."