hem, to the Rebellion of Prince Absalom. In a Series of Letters. By J. H. Ingraham. Philadelphia: G. G. Evans. 12mo. pp. 603. (Notice deferred.) El Fureidis. By the Author of "The Lamplighter" and "Mabel Vaughan." Boston: Ticknor and Fields. 12mo. pp. 379. (See p. 143.) Katherine Morris; an Autobiography. By the Author of "Step by Step," and "Here and Hereafter." Boston: Walker, Wise, & Co. 12mo. pp. 353. (See p. 148.) Rutledge. New York: Derby and Jackson. 12mo. pp. 504. A Mother's Trials. New York: Harper and Brothers. 12mo. pp. 400. Margaret Moncrieffe; the First Love of Aaron Burr. A Romance of the Revolution. By Charles Burdett. New York: Derby and Jackson. 12mo. pp. 437. Danesbury House. By Mrs. Henry Wood. New York: Harper and Brothers. 12mo. pp. 282. POETRY. Fresh Hearts that Failed Three Thousand Years ago; with other Things. By the Author of "The New Priest in Conception Bay." Boston: Ticknor and Fields. 12mo. pp. 121. Poems. By William H. Holcombe, M. D. New York: Mason Brothers. 12mo. pp. 360. Lucille. By Owen Meredith. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. (Blue and Gold.) A Narrative in some points of exceeding beauty; but hurt by its crude poetic form, and its disproportionate digressions. Quaker Quiddities; or, Friends in Council. A Colloquy. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, Lee, & Co. 16mo. pp. 48. JUVENILE. Stories of Rainbow and Lucky. By Jacob Abbott. New York: Harper and Brothers. 24mo. pp. 183. Little Songs for Little People. New York: Carlton and Porter. 16mo. pp. 244. The Oakland Stories. By George B. Taylor. Cousin Guy. New York: Sheldon & Co. 16mo. pp. 173. Tales from the Bible, for the Young. By William M. Thayer. Boston: J. E. Tilton & Co. 16mo. pp. 262. MISCELLANEOUS. Notes on Nursing. What it is, and what it is not. By Florence Nightingale. With some Account of her Life. Boston: William Carter. 12mo. pp. 104. (Paper.) Sketch Book; or, Miscellaneous Anecdotes, illustrating a Variety of Topics proper to the Pulpit and Platform. By William C. Smith. New York: Carlton and Porter. 16mo. pp. 352. The Story of a Pocket Bible. Ten Illustrations. New York: Carlton and Porter. 16mo. pp. 412. Light in the Valley; or the Life and Letters of Mrs. Hannah Bocking. New York: Carlton and Porter. 24mo. pp. 176. A Voice from the Washingtonian Home. By David Harrison, Jr. Boston: Redding & Co. 12mo. pp. 322. (See p. 149.) Stories from the Scriptures. Samson. New York: Sheldon & Co. pp. 15. (Printed on Cloth.) The Human Will. A Series of Posthumous Essays on Moral Accountabil ity, etc. By the late James Pollard Espy. Cincinnati: Office of the Dial. 8vo. pp. 95. The West Indies and the Spanish Main. By Anthony Trollope. New York: Harper and Brothers. 12mo. pp. 385. (See p. 141.) The American Ecclesiastical Year-Book. 1859. By Alexander J. Schem. New York: H. Dayton. 12mo. pp. 236. Home and College; an Address. By F. D. Huntington. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, Lee, & Co. 12mo. pp. 70. From the Dutch of Rev. J. De Liefde. The Signet Ring, and other Gems. Echoes of Harper's Ferry. By James Redpath. Boston: Thayer and Eldridge. 12mo. pp. 513. Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labors during an Eighteen Years' Residence in Eastern Africa. By J. L. Krapf. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. 12mo. pp. 464. PAMPHLETS. Forty-third Anuual Report of the American Colonization Society. Washington: C. Alexander. pp. 72. The Doctrine of Endless Misery an Occasion of Scepticism. By the late Sir James Stephens. Boston: J. P. Jewett & Co. pp. 21. The Present Crisis; with a Reply and Appeal to European Advisers. By Samuel Nott. Boston: Crocker and Brewster. pp. 43. The Polar Exploring Expedition; a Special Meeting of the Geographical and Statistical Society, held March 22, 1860. New York: Printed for the Society. pp. 30. Ninth Annual Report of the Boston Young Men's Christian Union. pp. 19. What do Unitarians Believe. By Rev. Samuel J. May. Albany: Weed, Parsons, & Co. pp. 12. The American Board, and Slavery; Speech of Theodore Tilton, in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, January 25, 1860. New York: John A. Gray. pp. 53. Twenty-eighth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Perkins Institution for the Blind. Cambridge: Welch, Bigelow, & Co. pp. 38. A Discourse on the Life and Character of John Barker, D. D. By Samuel P. Bates. Lancaster: W. R. Wiley. pp. 16. The Dublin Suit, decided in the Supreme Judicial Court of New Hampshire, June, 1859, in Chancery. Concord: G. P. Lyon. pp. 122. The Right of American Slavery. By T. W. Hoit. St. Louis: L. Bushnell. pp. 51. (An amusing pamphlet, apparently a satire on some of the current arguments in behalf of slavery.) A Look at the Life of Theodore Parker: a Discourse by James Freeman Clarke. Boston: Walker, Wise, & Co. pp. 20. Theodore Parker; a Sermon, by O. B. Frothingham. Boston: Walker, Wise, & Co. pp. 20. THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER. SEPTEMBER, 1860. ART. I.-PAUL'S ARGUMENT FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 1. A Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. By MARTIN LUTHER. London. 1838. 2. Kritisch Exegetisches Handbuch über den Brief an die Galater. Von DR. HEINR. AUG. WILH. MEYER, Consistorialrath in Hannover. Dritte Verbesserte und Vermehrte Auflage. Göttingen. 1857. 3. Kurze Erklärung des Briefes an die Galater, und des Briefes an die Thessaloniker. Von DR. W. M. L. DEWETTE. 2te Verbesserte und Vermehrte Auflage. Leipzig. 1845. 4. Biblical Commentary on the New Testament. By DR. HERMANN OLSHAUSEN, Professor of Theology in the University of Erlangen. Translated from the German, &c., &c. New York: Sheldon and Company. 1860. (Exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians.) MODERN criticism has settled, beyond a doubt, the fact and the nature of the schism which divided the Apostolic Church. This schism has been exaggerated, but it was real. The Pauline doctrine, of a universal religion, above the restraints of ceremonial law, above the need of positive law of any kind, and the Judaistic doctrine, which clung to the forms of the old religion, stood over against one another, in an opposition more or less abrupt. It is remarkable, that, while so much critical thought has been applied to the fact of this schism, so little has been expended on the dogmatical import of it. The great argument of Paul has been left enVOL. LXIX.-5TH S. VOL. VII. NO. II. 14 cumbered with the notions of medieval theology. All the authorities placed at the head of this article, and many others, including even the intrepid Paulus, have mainly contented themselves with the conventional language of the traditions and the creeds. On the other hand, those who have freed themselves from these traditional encumbrances have handled the question too loosely. They have contented themselves, too much, with mere generalities. One party makes Paul talk too much like a modern Orthodox creed-maker; the other, too much like a modern Unitarian. What we need, for the right understanding of this matter, is to sink ourselves, so far as we can, into the thought of Paul. He was neither a German nor an American; he knew nothing of the points of Calvinism, and nothing of the Articles of the Church. But he was dealing with earnest questions, which racked the Church to its foundations. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. His thought is for all time, though many of his arguments and applications were for his own. We feel, therefore, that we shall do service by calling attention to the problem to which we have referred, even should our solution of it be less clear and convincing to other minds than to our own. The Epistle to the Galatians contains the argument of Paul in its earnest, clearest, fullest, and most direct form. It is the only one of his Epistles that is wholly devoted to this question. We will, therefore, apply ourselves first to this, and then confirm our results by comparing them with expressions found in other Epistles. The third chapter of the Galatians contains the grandest and most logical statement of the position of Paul. The three great points which Paul made in this chapter are,-first, that the promise was given to Abraham before the law was established; secondly, that the law, which came afterward, was as powerless to do away with the freedom of the gift, as it was to bring about its fruition; and thirdly, that the promise was fulfilled in Christ, who was an outlaw. "Christ hath redeemed us," he says, "from the curse of the law, being made a curse [that is, accursed] for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Abraham, then, the receiver of the promise, and Christ, in whom it was fulfilled, stood both outside the law. The one preceded it; the other was made an outlaw by its own act. The promise, then, the free grace, projects beyond the law, in both directions. It encircles it. It draws a cordon of freedom about it, which it cannot pass. The Christian Church stretches back across it, and clasps hands with the Patriarchal Church, Christ with Abraham. The narrowness of the intermediate priestly system is done away with. Christ is made a priest forever, after the order of Melchisedec. This position needs to be examined more closely. In the second chapter, Paul gives the argument which he used with Peter. This is, in brief, the same which he is about to unfold at large to the Galatians. It is thus a kind of prelude to the fuller presentation of his thought, while it also completes it. Here he says (verses 19 and 20), "I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ," &c. Meyer maintains, very conclusively, the logical connection of these propositions, a connection which gives to each of them its point and meaning. It was the law by which Christ was crucified. It was by participation in this crucifixion that Paul was freed from the law. Therefore, by the law, he was dead unto the law. While Meyer, however, keeps fast to the context in maintaining the connection of these propositions, which other critics have overlooked, he is less true to this principle in regard to the ground of the connection, making it ethical rather than legal, rather a death to sin than that death to the law which the context requires. Elsewhere Paul speaks of himself as being crucified with Christ unto the world, in a very different sense from that in the passage before us. Suppose our life were bound up with that of some dear friend who is taken from us. We shun the gayeties of the world. People ask us, Why is this? why are you so changed? why do you no longer join us as before? We might answer, We once lived in the world, and for it, but with the death of our friend we died to the world, and the world to us. The spiritual life of Paul was bound up in that of Christ. His affections died to the world with Christ, |