the same government-the civil law, with its penalties, to be inflicted in time only, and the moral, with its moral influences, addressing the moral in the human constitution. In the Kingdom of Heaven, the administration of the Messiah is purely moral."

These statements, drawn from the introductory pages of the volume, will give the reader the outline of the author's work, so far as its main design is concerned. The limits of this brief notice will not allow us to set forth, in any extended way, the mode in which he carries out his purpose. He believes that all the plan of God's government is, as he says, "purely moral;" that the atonement is to be explained with reference to this fact; that the reach of this moral plan is far beyond this life, so that men may have opportunities of reformation hereafter who have neglected them. here; that the idea of eternal punishment, as commonly held, is a false one; that if there be any such thing, in any sense, it will be only because of a perpetual rejection of perpetually repeated offers and opportunities, and that, with regard to this, the Scriptures leave us in uncertainty.

Mr. Lee carries the Love side of the Gospel to its extremest bounds. His views with regard to judgment and the future are governed and modified, in considerable degree, by the theory which he presented in his earlier work, entitled "Eschatology." Many persons, especially among those most attached to "the form of sound words" and those who give their lives to standing upon the "watch towers of Zion," will think that, so far from regaining the Bible, Mr. Lee has lost it altogether. We do not hold this opinion ourselves, for we see evidences in many places that he holds fast to it and is only revolting against the harshness of views which are, perhaps, no nearer the Bible than his own. But whether all his readers, especially among the less thoughtful or less educated portion, would, after the perusal of his book, be as near the truth as they were under the guidance of their old teachers, we think may be seriously questioned. We are always a little doubtful about books which propose to "regain the Bible," because they almost uniformly, as we said at the beginning, go too far, and because they are founded, often, on what is purely subjective to the writer. But, if they are read for the good there is in them, and for assisting the mind in a fair and honest investigation of the truth on all sides, such books may be not hindrances but helps towards the attainment of the truth. We think Mr. Lee has pointed out some errors in the views of

those from whom he most earnestly differs, but he has fallen into equally great or greater ones of his own.

McCoSH'S REPLY TO TYNDALL.*This little book originated in an Introductory Lecture delivered in Princeton College to the Class in the History of Philosophy. This was afterwards written out and published in the International Review. This paper, with some additions, now appears in this book. President McCosh, in following Dr. Tyndall's course of thought, points out his remarkable blunders in his historical sketch, and criticizes his positions and arguments. He then considers "great principles overlooked by Tyndall, but having a deep foundation in nature," which are presented under the several heads of Intelligence, Final Cause, Laws and Types, Life, Mind in Man, A Personal God.

In discussing the present tendency of scientists "to fall back on the picturing power of the mind," and the rash "hypotheses about the origin of things, about world-making and world-ending," to which it has led, he says, "Mr. Mill is partly responsible for this." Yet Mill, in his Logic, prescribes severe principles regulating the use of hypotheses, which, if observed, would exclude these extravagances of the scientific imagination. For instance, he allows the use of hypothesis to aid in discovering an unknown law, and admits that in that case the hypothesis is proved to be a law of nature if "it explains the phenomena." But if the hypothesis is used to discover an unknown cause, it is not to "be received as true merely because it explains the phenomena." As an instance of the "legitimate employment of the hypothetical method," he mentions Newton's determination of the law of gravitation. In exemplifying the illegitimate use of the method, he says: "The hypothesis (of the vortices of Descartes) was vicious simply because it could not lead to any course of investigation capable of converting it from an hypothesis into a proved fact. The prevailing hypothesis of a luminiferous ether I cannot but consider, with M. Comte, to be tainted with the same vice. It can never be brought to the test of observation, because the ether is supposed wanting in all the properties by means of which our senses take cognizance of external phenomena. It can neither be seen, heard, smelt, tasted, nor touched. The pos

*Ideas in Nature Overlooked by Dr. Tyndall. Being an examination of Dr. Tyndall's Belfast Address. By JAMES MCCOSH, D.D., LL.D., President of Princeton College. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1875. 12mo, pp. v and 50.

sibility of deducing from its supposed laws a considerable number of the phenomena of light, is the sole evidence of its existence we have ever to hope for; and this evidence cannot be of the smallest value, because we cannot have, in the case of such an hypothesis, the assurance that, if the hypothesis be false, it must lead to results at variance with the true facts." (Mill's Logic, B. III, chap. 14, §§ 4, 6.) The current hypothesis of molecules and atoms evidently falls under the same condemnation.

THE SOCIAL LAW OF GOD.*-This book is an indication of a feeling that exists in the minds of many that there is peculiar need, at the present day, of a distinct and emphatic preaching of the laws of righteousness. The impression is prevalent that the principles of truth, justice, honesty, integrity, and chastity have not that hold upon social life which they once had. "I have long thought it the pressing need of our time," says Dr. Washburn, in his preface, "to know the unity of Christian faith with the simplest laws of ethics." And again, in his first sermon, he says, "If there be a truth which needs to be preached in a time when our Christianity has become too often a theological opinion, or a ritual of the fancy, it is that the gospel is a law in its noblest sense; a law that rebukes the real sins of the household, the church, the social life, and demands of us a real righteousness; a law as rigid as the tables of stone, yet large as the mind of Christ."

We think that Dr. Washburn has done a good service in calling attention to this subject, and in discussing practical ethics on the basis of the Ten Commandments.

The sermons are written with clearness and force, with originality of thought and beauty of language.

CHRISTIC AND PATRISTIC BAPTISM.t-This is the fourth and concluding volume of Dr. Dale's Series on Baptism. In the preceding volumes he has treated successively Classic, Judaic, and

*The Social Law of God. Sermons on the Ten Commandments. By E. A. WASHBURN, D.D., Rector of Calvary Church, New York. New York: T. Whittaker, 2 Bible House. pp. 212.

+ An Inquiry into the Usage of Barrisw, and the Nature of Christic and Patristic Baptism, as Exhibited in the Holy Scriptures and Patristic Writings. By JAMES W. DALE, D.D., Pastor of Wayne Presbyterian Church, Delaware County, Pa. Philadelphia: Wm. Rutter & Co. 1874. 8vo, pp. 630. Price $5.00; to clergymen, $4.00.

Johannic Baptism. The volume before us is really two volumes in one. In Christic Baptism, he treats the teachings of the New Testament respecting Baptism. His definition is: "REAL Christic Baptism is a thorough change in the moral condition of the soul effected by the Holy Ghost and uniting to Christ by repentance and faith, and through Christ reestablishing filial and everlasting relation with the living God-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. RITUAL Christic Baptism is not another and diverse baptism, but is one and the same baptism declared by word and exhibited (as to its purifying nature) by pure water applied to the body; symbolizing the cleansing of the soul through the atoning blood of Christ by the Holy Ghost." Patristic Baptism is an investigation of Christic Baptism as exhibited in the truth and error of patristic writers.

The volume exhibits the elaborate and thorough investigation characteristic of the preceding volumes. Whatever dissent there may be from the author's interpretation of particular texts, the series is a remarkably full thesaurus of information on the subject which it treats.

THE SECRET OF CHRISTIANITY.*" This little book," as the author himself calls it, startles one by the audacity of its undertaking the freedom of its generalizations, and the positiveness of its conclusions. Yet the reader is presently reconciled to the seeming presumption by the mature reflection, manly style, and ample information that pervade its pages. We hardly find in any new book, within the same compass, more suggestiveness, or larger results of thought and reading. Our curiosity is piqued to learn something more of the author, who gives us only his name. In these respects it reminds us of Ecce Homo, though not so remarkable as that work for beauty of composition. It makes a greater show of learning by frequent references to authorities not generally known or accessible. In the outset the writer says:"This little book, it is easy to see, is one of grand pretensions. It promises to show the essential difference between Christianity and all other religions,-to describe the causes of that modern progress which has raised our life so far above that of antiquity." The "secret," as he regards it, we may briefly indicate as the many-sidedness of Christianity, by which it always opposes itself

*The Secret of Christianity. By S. S. HEBBERD. Boston: Lee & Shepard. New York: Lee, Shepard, & Dillingham. 1874. 12mo, pp. 210.

to the dominant tendency of any age in whatever direction it tends, as human thought always does in some direction, to excess. It holds all the fundamental or vital elements of truth as no other religion does, and hence at some point antagonizes and corrects every other. But the book may be better described by noting the subjects of the several chapters, of which the first relates to "the civilization of India." "There are two moral tendencies," says the author, "by the one or the other of which all ancient civilization was controlled. The one tendency turns the spirit to the outer world, to seek for objects of reverence, of support, and guidance." Under its influence "man becomes submissive and reverent he is weighed down by a deep sense of his own unworthiness; he puts his trust only in an external and divine authority; be yields readily to every bond that may be placed upon him.” This tendency ruled "the civilization of India." Its idealism made account chiefly of the Absolute, disparaging all phenomena as only shadows, and man among them, and disparaging the present as compared with the future. As India carried out this process of development, so Greece carried out the other, which "turns the spirit inward upon itself, teaching it to rely upon its own impulses and powers." Under its influence "man grows proudly conscious of human dignity: he trusts in his own intellectual energies rather than in things divinely revealed; he is animated by the spirit of enterprise and freedom." This "Hellenic civilization" is the subject of the second chapter. The third chapter treats of "the Essence of Christianity," which is defined as "Faith in Christ," and as having these two factors, "the love of a personal ideal, of the man Jesus," and "the sense of dependence and spiritual need." "Combine the two" factors, "and you have the most effective reforming influence that the world has ever known." The first factor or element embodies "the Hellenic tendency," "the other the Oriental." The fourth and fifth chapters treat of "the Catholic Age," particularly medievalism, as having in ascendency idealism, or the Oriental element, addressed to the sense of need,-this element having been required by the foregoing civilization. The sixth and seventh chapters treat of "the Protestant Age" as characterized by the Hellenic element in ascendency, as seen in industrial movements, the progress of science, and the sentiment of freedom and equality. This, too, was called for by the excess of the other element, and could not have brought about its benignant results without