the maxim of Horace, "Græcia capta ferum victorem cepit." The early Roman Church was but a colony of Greek Christians, or Grecized Jews. The earliest Fathers of the Western Church, Clemens, Irenæus, Hermas, Hippolytus, wrote in Greek. The early popes were not Italians, but Greeks. The name of "Pope" is not Latin, but Greek-the common and now despised name of every pastor in the Eastern Church. The humblest peasant, who reads his Septuagint or Greek Testament in his own mother tongue, on the hills of Boeotia, may proudly feel that he has an access to the original oracles of Divine truth, which pope and cardinal reach by a barbarous and imperfect translation; that he has a key of knowledge, which in the West is only to be found in the hands of the learned classes. Text-Book of Church History. By Dr. JOHN HENRY KURTZ, Professor of Theology in the University of Dorpat, Author of a "Manual of Sacred History," "The Bible and Astronomy," etc. Volume II. From the Reformation to the Present Time. 12mo., pp. 454. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, Smith, English, & Co. 1862. Dr. Kurtz is eminent among the leading theologians of the day for originality of thought and vigor of style. To the old story of the Reformation he gives a freshness which renders it readable anew. The "Germanic developments" of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, brought down to the time of the formation of Mormondom, present some fields less trodden by the historian, and Dr. Kurtz's pages give a very clear and comprehensive view of the whole in a bold and living spirit. We like decisiveness of thought and character even where we cannot agree with the utterances it gives forth. Like Dr. Emmons, we "hate to be somethingish ;" and so we like Dr. Kurtz without conceding his uniform accuracy in matters of fact or the uniform guardedness of his manner or spirit. In matters of fact we can hardly agree that James Arminius "wandered into Pelagian paths."-P. 210. Nor do we quite see the accuracy (same page) of the phrase "latitudinarianism, or, still worse, deism." It is new to us that Dr. Thomas Brown, author of the "Religio Medici," was a deist. (P. 226.) Nor does it seem to convey an accurate shade of truth (same page) to say simply that Dr. Samuel Clarke "was charged with Arian views," since he was their bold and able advocate for years. It is new to us that the Methodist Episcopal Church “are decided abolitionists, and excommunicate every slaveholder as an unbeliever." Whenever the noble doctor comes within the reach of "revivals," "new measures," and "Methodists," there is a free swing in his language which is quite taking. The German does not seem to us always elegantly Anglicised. Note these two successive sentences: "The German emigration to North America began already in Penn's time. In 1742 there were already one hundred thousand Germans in Pennsylvania."-P. 349. It is in a perfectly friendly spirit that we say that these and other minute fly-specks should have disappeared under the revision of the able translator. With such revision we doubt whether a more readable compression of "Ecclesiastical History" could elsewhere be found. A Text-Book of Church History. By Dr. JOHN C. L. GIESELER. Translated and edited by HENRY B. SMITH, Professor in Union Theological Seminary, New York. Vol. IV. A. D. 1517-1648. New York: Har•per & Brothers. 1862. This final volume of Gieseler makes its appearance, for good and sufficient causes, after a lengthy interval. So far as the translator's work is concerned it bears the stamp of the most careful study and criticism. It is indeed refreshing, after reading some of the hastily prepared translations from the German in Clark's library, to peruse such a masterpiece of rendering as is here presented to us. The two great excellencies of Gieseler's history are, first, his exposition of the doctrinal development in the period of the Reformation to the Peace of Westphalia; and, secondly, his accurate and unstinted citations from the original authorities. The American editor has given the notes, not in German, or in translations from the German, but in condensed statements of the main points in English. From the Reformation to the present time constitutes the fourth period of Church history. Its first division is from the Reformation to the Peace of Westphalia. Part first treats of the history of the Reformation in Germany, Switzerland, England, and other lands; part second discusses the internal history of the evangelical churches, embracing the formation of the doctrinal system in the evangelical churches, history of the external order and worship of the evangelical churches, and the theological and religious culture in the evangelical churches. The English Reformation is sketched briefly, but so truthfully that we have not the slightest ground of complaint. Gieseler has evidently aimed at narrating the most facts with the fewest words. Politics, Law, and General Morals. ה The Present Attempt to Dissolve the American Union-a British Aristocratic Plot. By B. 12mo., pp. 42. New York: printed for the Author. J. F. Trow, printer. 1862. That the English aristocracy and nation have desired the dissolution of the American Union and the humbling of American power we suppose is notorious, having been proclaimed by the leading organs of British opinion. That the southern oligarchy looked to foreign intervention in the contest, and that both France and England, since its commencement, have proceeded as far as they dared in encouraging the rebellion, and are thereby to a great degree responsible for its protracted existence, with the sufferings it has entailed upon their own population, is equally notorious. That the foreign agents of the rebel government have freely offered to emancipate their slaves to obtain that intervention is a further and very important piece of notoriety. The rebel leaders, the representatives of the southern oligarchy, thereby proclaim themselves " emancipationists" and "radical abolitionists." With these notorieties before the public mind, we are unable to see the need of the labors of B. in peering into private conversations, and turning up old histories to show that there is a collusion between the treason of the south and some of the European interests. As to the proposition of his title, however, that the attempt at dissolution is a British aristocratic plot, we suppose all the world, save B., knows that nobody was more taken by surprise, or in a completer state of unpreparedness, (unless we except the vaults of our Western banks,) by that event than the English nation, whether government, aristocracy, or manufacturing interests. To purchase foreign intervention the leaders of the southern rebellion offered to emancipate their slaves. This is a most telling fact, upon which the public attention has not fully rested. What wonder that foreign antislavery men have looked with favor upon the severance of slavery from the protection of the American Constitution! Cut the slave power from its connection with the mighty north, say they, and we can easily give it a dispatching blow. Nothing but the mighty armaments of the free states prevents that consummation. The Union leaders in the Border States are seen advocating the perpetuity of the Union as the best security for their institution. At this point, then, we behold the free north in the attitude of the great conservator of slavery. Europe is against it; the slaveholding rebels give it up; but the national power, influenced by the adhering but not loyal slaveholders, maintains its existence with a mighty arm. Our free-born sons, marching to the battle-field, are pouring forth their filial blood to maintain that system whose treason is the cause of all our troubles. They are fighting the battles of the essential enemy. Surely nothing but a bold emancipation policy can relieve this anomaly. The true object of this rebellion is the establishment of a great tropical slave empire. While there was a hope indeed of transforming the Union from a Republic to a slave oligarchy, its bonds would have been unbroken. While there was a hope, by fillibuster, by Cuban purchase, by forcible obtrusion of slavery into the terri tories, by Dred Scott decisions, to render the slave power supreme over the whole, there was no inducement to strike the severing blow. When these hopes went down, then rose the visions of separation, independence, Mexican and South American conquest. A great despotic oligarchy was to be based on slavery, warlike and conquering in its temper, chivalrous and aspiring to a higher civilization than the world has yet seen, purposing by means of cotton to be masters of the situation, lords of the continent, and dictators of the globe. These are the Arabesque entrancements which the rude, realistic hand of Abraham Lincoln has demolished. An aristocratic plot that rebellion is; but its aristocracy lies this side the ocean. Periodicals. The Continental Monthly-Devoted to Literature and National Policy. Boston: J. R. Gilmore. New York: H. Dexter & Co., and Ross & Tousey. We are gratified to learn, by announcement on its cover, that this vigorous young periodical has passed its period of experiment, and may be reckoned among our permanent "institutions." Its editor, Mr. Leland, wields an able pen; and among its contributors are enumerated Bayard Taylor, Horace Greeley, Oakey Hall, and G. P. Disosway. Its literary articles are excellent. Its views of public affairs are bold and are expressed in language suited to the times, and calculated to tell upon the public mind. 12mo., pp. 418. 1862. 12mo., pp. 373. The Bay-Path. A Tale of New England Colonial Life. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1862. Appleton's American Cyclopedia. Vol. XIV. Reed-Spire. 8vo., pp. 850. Agnes of Sorrento. By Mrs. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, author of "Uncle 12mo., pp. 412. Boston: The Pearl of Orr's Island. A Story of the Coast of Maine. By HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "The Minister's Wooing," etc. 12mo., pp. 437. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1862. Several books received have been postponed for want of room. THE METHODIST QUARTERLY REVIEW. OCTOBER, 1862. ART. I. THE TENDENCY OF SCIENTIFIC MEN TO SKEPTICISM. THE fact that there is a growing tendency among scientific men to skepticism with reference to the divine origin of the Christian religion, the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and even the immortality of the soul and the existence of God, needs little proof. It is equally the lamentation of the believer and the boast of the infidel. Not that Christianity lacks among its defenders some of the proudest names on the roll of science, in each of its departments; not that the majority of scientific men have avowed themselves to be skeptics; not that the well-settled and generally-accepted conclusions of natural historians and philosophers are such as to convict the Bible of falsehood; not that the Bible has failed to derive abundant corroboration of many of its truths from the discoveries of science. We are not called upon to make any such concessions to the vaunting skeptic. But a few eminent devotees of science are avowed infidels; a multitude of youthful scholars are adopting their opinions; in learned volumes and able essays and reviews in the quarterlies, as well as in popular books, magazines, and newspapers, the ilea is industriously circulated, and with a specious show of support, that science is necessarily hostile to the claims of the Bible as an inspired volume; and the doctrines of modern science show an increasing proclivity toward positions seemingly antagonistic to those of the Bible on topics FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XIV.-35 |