of his fellow-men in respect and honor, is just that which finds its necessary completion in God. It lies at the basis of all prayer for forgiveness when the soul has sinned; it is the root out of which spring the blossoms of praise and adoration, when its monitions have been followed to the freedom of the soul. Those who have followed it most faithfully and attained its supreme heights; who stand to the rest of us as inspirations, and lift our souls by the magnetism of their holiness into a nearer communion with God, are yet just those who are the least selfassuming in their perfection, who are the most conscious that the life has come forth from God.

In confutation of Materialism, Mr. Tiffany's reasoning is clear and decisive:

The argument of the Materialists is, that as the brain is the organ of thought; that as the healthful thought depends on the healthful brain; as an injury to the one is the injury to the other; therefore, in substance, they are identical. They illustrate this by the production of music from physical causes, an effect, they say, as different from the strings of a violin and the pipes of an organ as thought is from the tissues of the brain. But, we answer, sound is merely an aerial vibration, and there is no difficulty in tracing it to its material origin. But when we speak of music, we get to something beyond mere sound. We get to that orderly arrangement and combination of aerial vibrations which is not the product of matter, but of mind, which conceives the thought and uses the material to express it. The organ which produces the music of the church service is indeed a chest of wood, inclosing pipes of metal, which is the physical cause of all the sounds we hear, and which, by their effect upon our minds, aids our worship and stimulates a spiritual act. But the harmony and progression of sound is possible to the organ only as the thought of the composer, who of sound made music, is conveyed through its pipes by the action of the organist, whose muscles are acted on by the nerves, while the nerves are acted on by the will, which will is guided by the intelligent perception of an intelligent musical idea. Music has its spiritual origin as well as its spiritual appeal. It is the mind using aerial vibration to convey emotion, as words are the mind using aerial vibration to express thought. The fallacy of the Materialist is that of a man who, standing amid the ceaseless shuttles of one of our factories, and beholding the orderly progression of the movement, and seeing the cotton cloth coming forth, should assert that the machine furnished the cotton; because, forsooth, if the machine is injured, the cloth is uneven, and if the machine is broken down, no cloth at all is manufactured. That is, overlooking the immense difference between the product and the organ it uses, they confound the one with the other.

Says Professor Tyndall, "The passage from the physics of the brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness is unthinkable. They appear together, but we do not know why. Let the consciousness of love, for example, be associated with the right-handed spiral motion of the molecules of the brain, and the consciousness of hate with the left-handed spiral motion; we should then know, when we love, that the motion is in one direction, and that, when we hate, the motion is in the other-but the why would still remain unanswered. The Materialist, granting the correlation of thought with the physics of the brain, is not entitled to say that his molecular grouping and motion explain anything; in fact, they explain nothing."

If we know anything at all-if we can trust the impressions made upon our senses as we dissect the brain, we can trust still more the intuitive consciousness that we are not the body we act in; or, to reduce it to a concrete example, that an anxious mind is not merely a bad headache, or a perturbed conscience a nervous irritation. And should the Materialists be able hereafter to prove as their boast is that they will-that vital force is the mere correlation of other forces; that there is in it nothing essentially distinctive from heat or electricity; they would only move on one step farther in the physical explanation of the physical organ. They would not then have touched the spiritual power. That is, not the vitality which dwells in the tree or in the body, but something which uses the lower force for its higher purpose. Said Schleiermacher long ago of the efforts of the Rationalists to explain away spiritual truths by their materialistic interpretations: "The clearing out of a subject is not its clearing up."

Still the heart and the mind cry out for God, for the Living God; and so those who deny God, must satisfy the craving for religion. Comte, with his Positive Philosophy, professes the worship of humanity, and decrees a hierarchy and an ecclesiasticism which shall find in the devout commemoration of the world's heroes the satisfaction of its craving. Mill derides this, but confesses that, after his wife's death, her memory was a religion to him, and Strauss, who is so jubilant in his assertion that science has destroyed religion by first revealing an infinite Cosmos, which deprives God of a special habitation above the firmament; next by depriving Him of His special retinue of attendant angels (for, as Büchner remarks, the telescope does not reach or discover any region where angels dwell); and lastly, by excluding His personality, since personality is but a phantom of the brain; Strauss himself, after disparaging the longing for immortality as a childish cry, and asserting that we exhaust our being here, tries to find, in the cultivation of poetry and music, the true satisfaction for the so-called religious nature. His ritual is the true order of progression in musical authors at quartette concerts, where, and in what proportion, Haydn, and Mozart, and Beethoven should come in; and Lessing's Poem of "Nathan the Wise" stands to him, he says, as their scriptures do to Christians, Mohammedans, and Buddhists.

We have made large extracts from this admirable discourse, but have had more trouble in deciding what to leave out, so condensed and satisfactory is the entire discussion.

GRACE FOR GRACE.*-We predict for this book, what indeed it has already begun to receive, a hearty welcome among devout and cultivated readers. As much might be expected by the many admirers of Mr. James, as one of the most fascinating preachers of his time. He died in 1868, at the age of seventy-one. Though a pastor for a few years in Rochester, N. Y., he spent most of his life in preaching here or there, as occasion offered, and always acceptably to intelligent hearers, and doing good otherwise with his ample means. While having time to elaborate most effective

* Grace for Grace. Letters of Rev. WILLIAM JAMES. New York: Dodd & Mead, Publishers. 12mo, pp. 341.

sermons-of which others, we hope, may yet be published, besides the two printed with a "memorial," soon after his death-he was more industriously occupied than could be then generally understood in religious correspondence, indulging ardent devotion to his friends and an impassioned desire for their spiritual advancement. Hence this compilation, or rather, as we suppose, selection from his letters. No dates, nor names of correspondents, are given, as we could wish. An index, too, might have been added with advantage. The brief, appropriate preface we take to be from the pen of one of his most estimable friends, though signed only by the writer's initials. The last eleven pages are filled with extracts from the "view of Mr. James' character and life," by Rev. Henry Neill, an affectionate and eloquent tribute to his personal and Christian endowments. The matter of the letters may be characterized by the titles given to the three sections under which they are distributed :-" the Gift of Grace," or "free justification and full salvation for the soul through Christ the Redeemer;" "Growth in Grace, promoted in the soul through the ministry of trial;" and "Fruits of Grace," or "the response of the soul in voluntary self-sacrifice." The key-note of the whole is God's love in Christ, and the sinner's justification, and his sanctification too, by faith; or more distinctly, the prime office of faith in Christ's work, or of the reception of him as God's free gift, in order as well to deliverance from sin as to the forgiveness of sin. The view adopted and eloquently urged, especially in connection with the author's own experience, goes far, some will say to an extreme, in the direction of passivity. A peculiarity and charm of the book is in the combination of what is technically called orthodoxy with catholicity toward other theological views. His warm sympathies are not only with Edwards and Goulburn, but with Faber and Manning (before his perversion) and Robertson, and both Ecce Homo and Ecce Deus. In magnifying faith as related to sanctification, he goes as far as the "Higher Life" school, yet qualifies his approval of their writings, especially as to the suddenness and completeness of the results they describe. The reader cannot but be attracted by his fervor, candor, high aspirations, and most profound and tender sense of the grace of the gospel. We cordially commend the book to the many who are now seeking higher attainments in the Christian life.

MANNING'S HELPS TO A LIFE OF PRAYER.*-The ranks of unbelief might congratulate themselves on the formidableness of the "prayer gauge" proposed under Tyndall's auspices, when at once it drew so much of the enemy's fire. Indeed, we have felt ashamed to see the anxious attention bestowed on that challenge, especially from the pulpit, when nine-tenths of the hearers knew little and cared less about the cavils of scientists, whether old or newly vamped. In at least one instance a pastor, in a noted watering place, was sensibly relieved to find that a brother engaged to preach for him was not going to hammer on the objections to prayer, as they had been the theme of so many foregoing discourses, and particularly of one from an eminent clergyman, who had made the objections seem more telling than his answers. There have been defences that sound more like the cry of vexation or alarm than the shout of faith. The same difficulty does not lie so much against arguments in print, which may be passed over by those who feel no need of them and who can turn to more suitable food, yet in this form, too, their frequency and apologetic tone have sometimes done more to suggest and spread than to counteract unbelief. There is not the less need, however, of good essays and sermons on the subject of prayer-not to call up and argue against all possible objections to its validity, but to animate and guide all classes of minds in this great department of spiritual life. And such is the little treatise before us by Dr. Manning, appropriately entitled "Helps." A guaranty for its quality may be found in the brief preface, which tells us that his own study of this subject, "some of the results of which are here gathered up," has brought to him "a fuller experience of the nearness and love of God" than he "once had." The successive chapters treat of the "Nature of Prayer," its "Forms," "Objects," "Fruits," "Power," and the "Hour of Prayer." The course of thought shows a devout spirit, careful discrimination, and acquaintance with the experience and needs of the soul in relation to communion with God. Without ignoring the controversies of the day, the author does not exaggerate their merits or influence, nor suffer himself to be warped by them from the practical helpfulness which he proposes to individual minds. The brief extracts from the book which have already found their way into religious papers may have prepared our readers to appreciate the value of its sug

* Helps to a Life of Prayer. By Rev. J. M. MANNING, D.D., Pastor of the Old South Church, Boston. Boston: Lee & Shepard. 12mo, pp. 159.

gestions. It occurs to us that as in most treatises on devotional themes, there may be here something of the tendency, which in a greater degree was pointed out as impairing the usefulness of Prof. Phelps' popular work, "The Quiet Hour," to make prayer seem a more formal or formidable if not mysterious business than it should be considered, or than the author would intend to have but we lay no stress on the suggestion. The work cannot fail to be largely acceptable and useful. Moreover, by its elegance in every point of mechanical execution it may adorn the parlor as well as befit the closet.-The omission, by misprint, of the word are on p. 22, 10th line from the foot, leaves the word "like" to be hastily construed as a verb.

it;

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL.

ALZOG'S CHURCH HISTORY.*-Dr. Alzog, the author of the work of which we have here the first volume in a translation, belongs to a school of learned German Catholics, who, while loyal to their own church, are familiar with the researches of Protestant scholars, and bring to the study of ecclesiastical history a good degree of thoroughness and impartiality. The work, as to size, is intermediate between the dimensions of an ordinary manual and of a copious history like that of Neander. The translation appears to be free, yet to represent correctly the sense of the original. The work is a valuable one to Protestant students, as presenting the views of history entertained by an enlightened adversary.

THE MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.-The fourth volume of this work covers the period of Mr. Adams's service as Secretary of State during the first term of Monroe. The steady advance of Mr. Adams from one political station to another, until he finally reached the presidential office, is a noteworthy fact in our history. The narrative becomes more and more important from an historical point of view, although it is less interesting than it would be if the diary contained a larger infusion of gossip. As we approach more recent times, interesting characters with whose names the present generation is familiar-Webster, Clay, Jackson, Calhoun, &c.-come upon the stage.

* Manual of Universal Church History. By the Rev. Dr. JOHN ALZOG, Professor of Theology at the University of Freiburg. Translated by F. J. PALISCH, Doctor of Theology, etc., and Rev. THOMAS S. BYRNE. Volume I. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co. 1874.