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this experience, then, there is no need that we should make a vain effort to exhibit to them the excellencies of these inspiring discourses. All that it is necessary for us to say is, Here are two volumes of Chapin's sermons Read them. You will miss the magnetism of his personal presence, his earnest sincerity of manner and feeling, his magnificent voice but the faith, the piety, the soul of the great preacher is in them. The publisher says very truly, "What legacy would be more appropriate to leave the rising generation than these sermons, that they may continue to preach to them, and to their children's children?" One thing the reader will realize from these sermons that it was the faith of Dr. Chapin, his Universalism, which gave such elevation and fervency to his thought, and put such warmth and inspiration into all his preaching.

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10. The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism described and compared with Christianity. By James Legge, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature in the University of Oxford. Charles Scribner's Sons. $150.

China does not owe its religion to Confucius, who was born B.C. 551. He received it from pre-historic times. Five thousand years ago the national religion was pure monotheism. The name Ti was to the early Chinese exactly what God is to Jews and Christians. They believed in a revelation, or communication between God and men. They worshipped one God only, but mixed with this a kind of worship of superior spirits, who were never regarded as "equal or second to Shang Ti." They sacrificed also to the spirits of their ancestors.

God, Tî, governs the world, and watches over mankind with special care. He punishes disobedience and wickedness, but only to lead to repentance. He hates nothing He has made. "The heavens show His more than paternal authority; the earth His more than maternal love." The sacrifices to Him are not vicarious, but expressions of dependance and gratitude. The idea of substitution does not enter into religious rites. "Confucianism gives no explicit information respecting the condition of man after death." Virtue and vice are followed by their legitimate consequences, either in the life of the individual, or of his posterity. "We find rewards and dignity for the good after death, but nothing is said of any punishment of the bad."

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Taoism is both a religion and a philosophy. As a religion it had no existence until after Christ. It is a grotesque polytheism, with a multitude of "gods," "supreme gods," "celestial gods," "great gods," vine rulers," &c. Before Buddhism appeared in China (A.D. 65), it was a mass of gross superstitions, but through the influence of Buddhism it was greatly changed. After the death of Confucius the nation fell away into all sorts of superstitions, and a degeneracy of intellectual, social and religious life followed.

During this period Taoism had the field to itself, though as yet it was only a philosophy, without temples, liturgies or forms of worship. But when Buddhism began to make progress, Taoism borrowed largely from it in order to maintain its hold on the people, while at the same time it was opposed to it; and so between them both idol-deities were multiplied indefinitely. In addition, Taoism taught that millions of evil and malevolent spirits are all about us, causing all manner of troubles, afflictions, misfortunes; taking demoniac possession of men's bodies, tempting and tormenting them "with pining sickness, mooning melancholy, and wild frenzy." "The dread of spirits is the nightmare of the Chinaman's life."

Taoism originally agreed with Confucianism regarding rewards and!! punishments, but since the advent of Buddhism it has stolen its purga tory and hell. And its descriptions of the torments inflicted upon the damned in the sixteen wards of Hell, are fully equal in loathsome horrors to the Buddhistic original, and rival in their satanic malignity and. cruelty even Pollock's lurid pictures of the Calvinistic hell.

The third lecture compares Confucianism and Taoism with Christianity as a religion and a system of morals. Of course the orthodox dogmas are Christianity to the author, but though he accepts the doctrine of endless punishment, it is not because he likes it, but because he thinks it Bible teaching. Nevertheless he says, frankly, "If the resources of the Almighty Father shall hereafter develop a scheme of universal restoration, I shall be prepared, and have reason, with all the redeemed in heaven, to hail it as worthy of its Author"

This book of Mr. Legge is deserving special attention to all students of comparative theology. He has studied the subject for more than forty years, with the advantage of a thorough knowledge of the Chinese language and people. Though not a Presbyterian, these lectures were delivered at the request of "The Presbyterian College," England, The Notes are learned, and very valuable.

11. The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal. January, 1881. Edited by Rev. Stephen D. Peet. Jameson & Morse. Chicago. $3.00.

We are glad to see that the union of the two magazines named in this title has been accomplished; and we wish renewedly to commend the work in its present form to all who are engaged in Archæological or Biblical studies, both of which are ably represented in its pages. Clergymen will find it exceedingly useful and instructive reading, and it can not fail to interest them in the fresh and often surprising discoveries made in the explorations going on now everywhere in Classical, Historical and Bible lands. The rich table of contents in this number will show what a wide field it cultivates, and what ample harvests it gathers.

BOOK NOTES.

Minutes of the Woman's National Christian Temperance Union at the Seventh An. nual Meeting in Boston, Oct. 27-30, 1880. With Reports and Constitution. A noble proof of the earnest and successful work of Woman in this righteous and humane cause. The Union "deserves the active sympathy of women throughout our entire country.

The Chaldæan Account of Genesis, by George Smith, a new edition, thoroughly revised and corrected, with additions by Prof. A. H. Sayce, issued by Charles Scribner's Sons, we are compelled to put over to our next issue, for the reason that we have not the space to which it is entitled in this.

Motherhood: A Poem. Lee & Shepard. A pleasing and delicate expression of sentiments, emotions and experiences, which only the most refined and exalted feeling, and the most skilful hand, may safely venture to portray.

Lenox Dare. By Virginia F. Townsend. Lee & Shepard. $1.50. We seldom read fiction, but this book we have read, and can truly say that its aim is good, its tone thoroughly healthy, and by a very neatly constructed plot, it holds the reader interested to the end.

We are obliged to leave out several "Book Notices," and the whole of the "Religious World."

ARTICLE XV.

The Origin, History and Doctrines of the Ancient Jewish Sects.

J. Cohen. Les Pharisiens. 2 vols. 8 vo.

Paris. 1877.

S. Munk. Palestine. Description Geographique, Historique et Archéologique. 8 vo. Paris. 1845.

Josephus. Works. Whiston's Trans.

Lipsius. Essäer oder Essener. In Schenkel's Bibel Lexikon. B. II. pp. 181-192.
Hausrath. Pharisäer und Sadducäer. Ibid. B. IV. pp. 518–529.

H. Prideaux. Connections, etc. Vol. I. p. 409. II. pp. 52, 53; 219-240.
D. Jennings. Jewish Antiquities. 8 vo. London. 1837. pp. 252-290.

UNTIL recently the chief sources for the ordinary student, respecting the ancient Jewish sects, were the works of Josephus and Philo, among the Hebrews, Drs. Prideaux, Jennings, and a few other writers, among the moderns. But since the opening of the era of modern criticism, several of the most learned Jews of Germany, France and England, and many eminent critics of the Christian Church, have thoroughly studied the entire body of the ancient Rabbinical Literature, with the view to develop the exact truth, and all the essential facts, relating to the origin, history, and opinions of the Jewish sects, especially those of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. Among the more critical and exhaustive treatises, to which these researches have given birth, the one first noticed in the foregoing list is the most recent which has come under our notice; and, in point of scholarly ability, it is inferior to none it will constitute our chief guide in the following investigations. Besides the numerous works recently published, based upon the Rabbinical sources, which M. Cohen had at command, he exhibits himself a great familiarity with these sources; and the same is to be said of Munk, Lipsius, and Hausrath. Aside from his frequent citations of modern authorities, M. Cohen quotes voluminously from the Rabbinical Literature, thus enabling his readers to control generally the views put forth. Although the writer's principal aim is,

1 M. Cohen's principal modern authorites are: Grætz. Geschichte der Juden, eto, Jost. Geschichte des Judenthums und Seiner Secten. Geiger. Urschrift und Uebersetzungen der Bibel. Munk. Palestine, etc.; and other treatises by Frank, Salvador. Derenbourg, Weill, Klein, etc.; all of them critics of the first rank.

NEW SERIES. VOL. XVIII

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to correct the usual impressions respecting the Pharisaic sect, and to set forth their true history and character; he presents a vast amount of material, also, relating to the Sadducees and Essenes. So, too, while the author would seem to be himself an Israelite and a Pharisee, the abundance of proof collected from the original sources of Jewish history, as well as from the works of other recent critics, renders his treatise an unusually safe guide upon all the essential points of the investigation; especially when confirmed by the other writers named in our list.

The aim in the following pages will be, beside enabling the readers of the QUARTERLY to correct certain erroneous impressions relative to the Pharisaic sect, which have prevailed almost universally in the Christian Church; to supplement some remarkable studies upon the opinions of the ancient Hebrews, which appeared in the early numbers of this journal; especially the one by Dr. H. Ballou, 2nd, in The Expositor for 1834.2 While Dr. Ballou's researches, in point of critical power and ability, were equal to the best; and, in respect to reliability, were worthy of the utmost confidence; more recent investigations, by leading scholars in Europe, have added much to our information touching these subjects, and rendered it necessary to modify some opinions formerly held by writers. We have believed that a careful presentation of the facts newly developed, respecting the ancient Jewish sects, would not be unacceptable as a contribution to Universalist Literature. Our method will be, then, to epitomize the main points, as brought out by M. Cohen, confirming them by frequent reference to the other writers named in the foregoing list.

I. Character especially of the Pharisaic Party, according to the notices of the Evangelists, and the descriptions of Josephus. It is evident. from the information which we now possess, that our Saviour's severe denunciations of the hypocrites of his times, so far as they applied to the Pharisaic sect, have been almost wholly misunderstood, and that by nearly all 2 See 66 Opinions and Phraseology of the Jews concerning the Future State," etc. By H. Ballou D.D. In The Expositor for 1834.

Christian writers; and thus, that a great injustice has been done to the most popular, the most influential, and the most highly and generally respected party of ancient Judea. It is equally obvious, from the facts now known, that Josephus' descriptions of the Jewish sects of his time are quite unreliable, in several important particulars, and hence that such writers as Prideaux and Jennings and others of former periods have been in some respects misled by this Jewish historian. We quote here at length from M. Cohen's introduction which opens as follows:

"I undertake the correction of an error of history, to which an unfortunate misunderstanding has given rise, which a hostile predisposition has propagated, and which many writers have adopted without deigning to correct it, or, perhaps, without having the means of correcting it. The study which I present to-day to the appreciation of impartial spirits, has for its object the demonstration that the Pharisees very little resembled the character, which has been generally attributed to them by reason of the passages in the Evangelists, where they are so severely treated, and the brief indications of Josephus respecting the Jewish sects, where they are so incompletely described. I hope to establish in an irrefutable manner that Pharisaism was a moral, social and religious revolution, the most important and the most liberal that it is possible to imagine; that it effected a reform of an extent and weight really astonishing; that it was the precursor of all those movements of later periods which have founded upon pure reason the edifices of belief, and that it involves to-day many solutions of problems in advance even of modern society."

"The error of the historians who have treated upon the Pharisees and their doctrines proceeds from the fact, that they have based their opinions exclusively upon the words of the Evangelists and the descriptions of Josephus. Some, inspired only by the celebrated and magnificent apostrophe of Jesus addressed to the hypocrites of his time, have seen in the Pharisees only the false devotees sacrificing to the minutiae of external practices and to a narrow formalism, the great essentials of the divine law, justice, faith and charity; have seen, in fact, only the comedians of religion capturing the public confidence, by a semblance of purity and an exaggeration of asceticism seeking thus to dupe both man and God."

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