struction for his people from all that his ear is told, or his eye may look upon. A minister such as this, is indeed one who watches for souls; and though he earns the outcry of the shallow and the impious, radicals and tractarians, let him not be ashamed. Whilst we say this in regard to the object of Mr M'Neile's discourse, it is but fair to add that it is by no means a production that is worthy of the circulation which, through adventitious causes, it will now command. As a sermon it contains nothing new, or striking, or adhesive. It is poor.

Voices of the Church, in reply to Dr D. F. Strauss, Author of "Das Leben Jesu." By the Rev. J. R. BEARD, D.D. London: 1845. We earnestly recommend this volume to our students of divinity-for unquestionably it is of use to those who will afterwards be called to mould the intellect of their own country, to know well the contortions of the human mind, along with its achievements-its feats of madness, equally with its efforts of power, in other places. It is not long since when, as a part of our own theological training, we had to deal with the shameless impudence of Paulus. But already our youth in preparation for the ministry must grapple with the exuberant yet compact hallucinations of Strauss. Rationalism gives way to mythology—and a theory of naturalist infidelity is nearly superseded by a theory of transcendental infidelity. In both cases the object aimed at is the same-to evacuate Christianity of Christ -to take the steel out of the sword-to purge the sun from the firmament. Very different, however, are the courses pursued, with a view to reach this end-and not only different but antagonist. Strauss exterminates Paulus. Rationalism bleeds at every pore from the cruel wounds of mythology. Each, indeed, commences his assault with miracles, as the citadel of Christian evidence. But whilst the one denies that the apostles ever meant those facts we call miracles to be regarded in this light, the other insists that they who recorded them must have attached the same idea to them as we do. In other words, rationalism says the apostles ascribed no miracles to Christ, and Straussism says the apostles ascribed the very miracles to Christ that he has generally received credit for. There is, then, nothing in common between the two systems; but what the one affirms the other rejects. Yet are they both systems of deadly unbelief and the latter, perhaps, the more malignant of the two. Paulus, at all events, admits that whether a miracle was a miracle or no, there was an actual reality which corresponded to it, and on which it was made to rest. Briefly, rationalism maintained that a miracle was an exaggerated fact. On the other hand, mythology asserts that a miracle is no more than a legend of enthusiasm and Strauss bases his whole structure on this position, that miracles were the after-thought of fond and hyperbolical partisanship. Suppose that there arose two thousand years after this another Hegel, and that he falls in with Alison's History of Europe. What would he say of Wellington? "I admit," he says, "that such a person as Wellington lived and died. There is evidence for all that, and there is every reason to believe that his historians credited all that they relate of him. But when the superhuman energy of Napoleon is taken into account, we conclude with the most perfect confidence that all we find narrated of Torres Vedras, and Salamanca, and Waterloo, are

just the embellishments of national ardour, and should be set down not as victories but myths." We are guilty of no exaggeration when we say that this is an exact parallel to Strauss's "Life of Jesus," and illustrates his whole theory. The philosopher consents that Jesus lived and died. He also grants that his biographers impute miracles to him, and do so in the full persuasion that they were miracles. But a miracle, he adds, "is an impossibility"-" the philosophy of the absolute" precludes it-it will not stand with the demonstrated pantheism of Hegel. The truth then is, that besides his having once lived, and at last died, nothing of all that is commonly believed in regard to Jesus is historical; all the rest are but the subsequent additions of earnest partisans, who borrowed right and left every idea that might exalt their leader, and whose ardent "myths" came in due time to be viewed as miracles. To most minds of reflecting power it would appear "more easy to understand," as Dr Beard remarks, "how Jesus created the church, than how the church created Jesus." But it is the latter horn of the dilemma Strauss accepts, and he hopes to be admired and followed when he propounds as the germ and gist of his insane theory, "that Jesus is not an historical person, but a philosophical conception; and whatever excellence may be ascribed to the man Christ, it is not an actual reality possessed by the Son of Mary, but a notion formed of him after he was dead, during the lapse of years by the Christian church so that, whilst Christ may be said to have some influence on the church, the church may be said to have produced Christ, such as we read of him in the Gospels." But for ample information upon the whole subject we would refer to the volume at the head of this notice. Dr Beard seems, at an early period of the controversy which Strauss's work occasioned, to have made himself acquainted with it; and in the present work he has collected a few of those tracts which arose out of the discussion, adding two pieces of his own. We feel indebted to him for the pains he has taken, and the materials he has amassed. There are a few things with which we might find fanlt, were it Dr Beard we had to deal with, and not Strauss. But passing these by in the meanwhile, we commend these Collected Essays on Transcendentalism as applied to Theology, to the studious perusal of all who are preparing for the ministry. "Strauss, Hegel, and their opinions, by Beard," is a good summary of the main points in discussion. "Review of Strauss's Life of Jesus,' from the French of Professor Quinet," is acute, comprehensive, and extremely valuable. "Reply to Strauss, from the French of Pasteur A. Coquerel," is elaborate but heavy. "The Credibility of the Evangelical History illustrated, from the German of Dr A. Tholuck," contains a conclusive vindication of Luke's writings, but with some unguarded statements. "The Theory of Myths in its application to the Gospel History, examined and confuted by Dr Julius Müller," is replete with that kind of thought which the subject demands, and is worthy of earnest study. "The Moral Argument for the Gospels, by Beard," with some good reasoning, is inappropriately long, and in regard to "the character of Jesus," vitally defective. The Fallacy of the Mythical Theory, illustrated from the History of Martin Luther," is an ingenious piece by Professor Wurm, founded on the model of Archbishop

Whately's celebrated pamphlet, "Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Bonaparte." "Extracts from Neander's Leben Jesu," an erudite and searching exposure of Strauss, and a successful attempt to show that a history of Jesus may be drawn from the four Evangelists, without involving any contradiction that ought to impair their credit.

Discourses and Essays. By J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE, D.D. With an Introduction by ROBERT BAIRD, D.D. Glasgow: W. Collins.

The

Mr Collins has done a real service to the church of Christ, in collecting and publishing in this cheap series a volume containing such a mass of what is truly valuable in thought as well as in piety. The Discourses and Essays are worthy of their author. We see in them the faithful minister of the cross and the able historian of the Reformation. exceeding cheapness of its price, added to its own value, will, we are sure, not only extend but accelerate very greatly the circulation of the volume. The following extract from Dr Baird's introduction may be interesting.

"Dr Merle D'Aubigne, though born in Geneva, is, like many of the inhabitants of that City of Refuge,' of French origin.

"His great grandfather, John Louis Merle, emigrated, for the sake of his religion, from Nismes to Geneva, about the epoch of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. His son, Francis Merle, in the year 1743, married Elizabeth D'Aubigne, a daughter of Baron George D'Aubigne, a Protestant nobleman who resided in that city, and who was a descendant of the celebrated Chevalier Theodore Agrippa D'Aubigne, whose memoirs have been recently published in this country; a faithful but poorly rewarded adherent of Henry IV., a decided Protestant, a brave cavalier, a prolific author; the grandfather of Madame de Maintenon, mistress and wife of Louis XIV.; and in his own age was exiled to Geneva for his religion by the ungrateful race for whose elevation to the throne of France he had spent twenty long years and more in the camp It is from his paternal grandmother that Dr Merle derives the addition of D'Aubigné to

his name.

The immediate progenitor of our author was Aimé Robert Merle D'Aubigne, born in 1755. He was the father of three sons, the eldest and the youngest of whom are respectable merchants in our country, one in New York, the other in New Orleans. The death of this excellent man was most deplorable; for he was murdered by the Austrians and Russians near Zurich, in the autumn of 1799, as he was returning from a commercial mission to Constantinople and Vienna. Falling in with these infuriated troops a day or two after the decisive defeat which the French under Massena had given them, he was inhumanly slain. He left a widow, who with faith and courage contended against adversity, brought up well her three sons, gave them all a liberal education in the city of their birth, lived to see them far advanced in their various careers, and died in peace on the 11th of January last, at an age exceeding four

score.

Dr Merle D'Aubigne was born in the year 1794; he is, therefore, in his 52d year at present. He is a tall, erect, fine looking man, of dark

complexion, black eyes, and commanding mien. His health is by no means good; but his energy is indomitable. He has just published the fourth volume of his admirable History of the Reformation; to complete this work will require at least two if not three or four volumes more.

"In the autumn of 1817 or 1818, our author, having completed his studies at the Academy or University of Geneva, went to Berlin, where he spent some time engaged in theological and historical pursuits under the guidance of the celebrated Neander, and other distinguished professors of the University in that city. On his way thither he visited the Castle of Wartburg, near Eisenach; and while standing in the room in which Luther spent almost a year as a sort of prisoner, the thought came into his mind to write the History of the Reformation. That thought soon became a settled purpose; it gave direction to all his subsequent feelings, studies, and aims.

"From Berlin he went to Hamburgh, where he preached for five years and more to a small French Protestant church. It was there he preached and published the first six sermons which are contained in this volume.

"From Hamburgh he removed to Brussels, where he preached to a Protestant church until the Revolution of September 1830, which severed Belgium from Holland. As he was a great favourite with the late king of Holland, who heard him with much regularity when he came to the Belgian capital of his kingdom, he was not likely to meet with favour from the revolutionary party. In fact he narrowly escaped death on that occasion. Returning to his native city soon afterward, he took up his abode there, and was appointed President of the new Theological Seminary, which was founded by the Geneva Evangelical Society in the year following. There he has resided ever

since."

We add also the conclusion of D'Aubigne's essay on the character essential to the theologian-an essay which should be in the hands of all our students, nay, of all our ministers also.

"Brethren, I have done. Such is the theological and Christian character which you ought to make your own.

"I will add but a few words. If this character be necessary at all times, it is particularly necessary in these days, which are so exciting and critical, in which all things are fermenting, and during which the church of God is to arise out of an immense chaos. The enemy is at work, and is sowing many tares in the field where the Lord has sown his word. Every where, among the ministers as well as among the members of the church, there are souls who have had enough of Jesus Christ, enough of his grace, enough of his Cross, enough of his Spirit of Life. They want something new, something which has a peculiar relish; old things have grown wearisome to them. Scarcely has some meteor appeared on the horizon, when, turning away from the Sun of Righteousness, they hasten into the marshes toward which that deceitful light leads them. As there are bodies which are susceptible of receiving all diseases, so also there are minds which imbibe all errors. One day you will see them rushing into the arms of the prophets and apostles of Irvingism; on the next into the radical ideas of Plymouthism; on the next, into the pretensions of

Ecclesiastical Hierarchism, of which Puseyism and Popery are the finest expressions, but which finds among us a great number of transformations, modified and corrected, but by that very modification and correction made still more dangerous. So, if there appears any palpable folly, or any error like those which are discussed in the taverns, you will find minds that will adopt, imbibe, and proclaim them. This has always held

true.

"Thus, my brethren, we will close with the words we heard at the outset: Perilous times have come.' There is need, then, of strong men, created and renewed by the hand of God, who will come up to the breach for the sake of his cause.

"Lord! create unto thyself, in holy pomp, that army covered with the armour of thy word; and do thou soon possess dominion over thine enemies."

Six Discourses on the Prophecies relating to Antichrist, &c. By J. H. TODD, D.D. Dublin: Hodges and Smith, 1846.

There are not a few points in which we differ much from this writer ; but still we can bear witness to his learning and ability. That he exposes and clears away many false interpretations we are willing to admit; but that he establishes his own satisfactorily, we are not willing to allow. Yet the discourses are valuable, containing much that is new, and much that may be helpful in the study of the Apocalypse. The motto on his title page from Augustine is rather a good one, and worth the citing:In hoc autem tractatu, non solum pium lectorem sed etiam liberum correctorem desidero: maxime ubi profunda versatur veritatis quæstio; quæ utinam tot haberet inventores quot habet contradictores.

Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, translated from the Greek, &c. By H. BROWN. Cambridge, 1846.

This is a reprint, not a new translation, but that does not detract from its value. It was originally published in 1745, and is now republished for the benefit of the unlearned. Justin's Dialogue is a very noted one, and worth some study. Those whose facility in Greek is not great, will be glad of the help which this translation gives of becoming acquainted with a treatise, of whose contents no scholar should be ignorant. It forms a handsome octavo volume, and is worth the purchase of those who can afford it.

Traditions of the Covenanters; or, Gleanings among the Mountains. By the Rev. R. SIMPSON. Edinburgh: J. Johnstone, 1846.

This is a new edition of a work already well known and widely circulated. It contains gleanings of the most valuable kind,-gleanings which may be profitable to our children, and our children's children. The interest of the book is great, its value no less. It deserves a place upon the peasant's shelf, and is worthy to form his nightly reading round his winter's hearth.