Archbishop Innocent, who has converted to Christianity several populations of Eastern Siberia and on the confines of China? This apostle of our own day preaches with the aid of some fellow-labourers through a country ten times the size of France. He invented for his dear children in JESUS CHRIST the written characters which their barbarous and unpolished language required. He translated for their use the Holy Scriptures and the Liturgy (for our Church is accustomed to celebrate her offices in a language which the people understand). He formed Christians, who call to mind those of apostolic times. man of GOD sounds not the trumpet before himself, yet he is known and respected even in China. Perhaps in France his existence is unknown! This "Yet is the important thing not merely to produce Christians, but to train and preserve them. It is to this work that the Orthodox Church specially devotes herself. I could quote to you the testimony of our very enemies as to the profound faith which reigns throughout Russia. Perhaps there are some Roman Catholic countries which could scarcely merit the same praise."-P. 88. THE LIFE OF CHRIST ON EARTH. 1. The Messiah. London: John Murray. 1861. 2. Historical Lectures on the Life of our Lord Jesus Christ: being the Hulsean Lectures for the year 1859. By C. J. ELLICOTT, B.D. London: J. W. Parker and Son. 1860. THE doctrine of the Incarnation of the Son of GOD, as it is the foundation of Christian theology, and that upon which the strongest powers of the intellect and the highest faith of regenerate men have to be exercised, so from old time has it been the battle-ground of rival systems. Here heretics have concentrated their most determined attacks, and unbelievers have used all their efforts to encourage misrepresentation and to excite ridicule; and modern controversy tends more and more to come round to the same point. The various questions that are agitated among rationalists, both German and English, seem in the end to converge to inquiries touching the Person, office, and actions of the Redeemer. Modern speculation, with its twofold criticism of the evangelical writings and the evangelical history, is directly concerned with derogating from the Divinity of the SAVIOUR; while opinions that limit the degree of inspiration, to be accorded to the Bible have no logical escape from questioning the authority of Him Who constantly referred to and quoted the Old Testament, and Who is the entire subject of the New Testament. If, however, our opponents are numerous and subtle, there is no lack of writers intentionally or thodox. At the same time it cannot be denied that the Protestant conception of the Incarnation of our Blessed SAVIOUR, even where it keeps clear of formal heresy, is very insufficient in its account both of the stupendous design itself, (of which, of course, all human ideas must be inadequate,) and of its effects upon fallen man. Integrity of practice is dependent in a great degree upon integrity of faith; and although we cannot accurately determine the spiritual consequences of the due reception of each portion of Christian doctrine, or the loss to the soul which ensues from a defective perception of certain points, yet we know that the whole cycle of teaching is necessary for the attainment of the measure of the stature of the fulness of CHRIST, and we are justified in tracing the many defects in modern practice to an imperfect feeling and apprehension of the great truths of our Redemption. No one can read the history of our LORD's life on earth, and the practical lessons deduced from it in the Epistles, without seeing that the religion of modern days differs in numerous particulars from that promulgated in the New Testament. The rules of conduct are different; many walks of holiness therein set forth are absolutely untrodden; roads to perfection plainly marked out are left without a traveller. This is not the common case of practice being inferior to precept, but is a general deficiency alike in teachers and taught. Here and there some pure soul, seeking a closer walk with GOD, may have the reward of his obedience in more perfect knowledge, and half unconsciously may have adopted the strictest rules of the Gospel; but, for the most part, the religionism of these latter days is content with a very partial obedience, and ignores the counsels of perfection altogether. It is derogatory to the verity of the Incarnation to suppose that CHRIST's teaching is not for all time, as though any future condition of society or development of the human race could render His doctrine superfluous or unsuitable to the circumstances of mankind. And yet it is not exaggeration to say that, viewed by the light of the practical Christianity of our time, much of our LORD's teaching would seem to be obsolete, inapplicable to all ages, and of no universal obligation. Whereas He has said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Word shall not pass away." Again, what but an imperfect appreciation of the mystery of the Incarnation occasions the defective view of the ordained means through which we are made participant of its benefits? CHRIST, taking into Himself human nature, has rescued matter from its evil uses, and made it capable of becoming the medium of heavenly gifts. In this condescension of the Son of GOD is embodied the Sacramental principle. That feeling of the incongruity between the apparent insufficiency of the means and the incalculable effects claimed for them, which has proved a stumbling-block to many minds, at once ceases to disquiet before the contemplation of an Incarnate GOD. By His Baptism in the river Jordan CHRIST sanctified the whole element of water to the mystical washing away of sin. And, as S. Irenæus maintains,1 "all the simple ingredients of man's life were purified through their employment by that Head of our race, Who could not be defiled." A defective realisation of the union of the two natures in our Blessed LORD's Person is at the bottom of much of the misapprehension and unbelief on this subject. Any one who firmly and faithfully believes in the union of God's nature with manhood, will have little difficulty in believing in our own actual union with the man CHRIST JESUS by Sacraments. He Who first formed our Sacramental life in Holy Baptism, by uniting us to His sanctified Humanity, nourishes and sustains that life by imparting the original Substance of which it was formed; and that Body, thus taken, incorporates into Itself those who rightly feed upon it. Thus it is readily understood how it is that Sacraments are said to be the extension of the Incarnation. They join us to that body, the Head of which is identified with its members, make us and continue us part of that renewed race which is "accepted in the Beloved." What is the Church on earth but a community founded by CHRIST, in which the works wrought by Him during His sojourn among men should be carried on until the end of the world? In it the HOLY SPIRIT effects the continual redemption and sanctification of mankind, working by the appointed means through the ordained channels. To have a true perception of the attributes and office of the Catholic Church demands a competent realisation of the fact that the WORD became flesh. The Incarnation supplies the reason of the visibility of the Church. Henceforward the furtherance of the kingdom of grace was to be intrusted to outward, visible means, and human agents, under which and whom CHRIST should work, concealed under earthly forms, yet manifesting Himself in power and in grace. There is no room here for that easy contentment under the loss of unity, which is experienced by modern religionists; no room for that unreality of a redemption effected by an Incarnate SAVIOUR, yet influencing only the heart, and to be attained only by some conscious mental effort, spirit holding converse with spirit, without the aid of material media. It is from a persuasion of the entire need of truer and juster views of the stupendous subject of the Incarnation, that we hail with delight any work that tends to set the life and office of our Redeemer in a clearer and more definite light. CHRIST's whole actions are sacraments, and it behoves us to study them with every possible assistance that different minds bring to their elucidation, only in a devout, childlike, obedient spirit, and then the knowledge of the life of CHRIST will be found to be no barren acquisition. It will stimulate practice, and lead to imitation; it will encourage faith and nourish piety. 1 S. Iren. vol. xiv. I. Wilberf. Incarnation, ch. xiii. VOL. XXIV. Of the two volumes named at the head of this article, the one that stands first challenges our entire approbation, and will be found a valuable contribution to Biblical literature. It is the work of a devout mind exercised upon the highest and noblest of all subjects. If it wants the eloquence of Jeremy Taylor's Life of CHRIST, the loving fervour of S. Bonaventure's Meditations, and the tenderness and poetry of Isaac Williams' Harmony, it has special merits of its own which will lead to its appreciation by all reverent and thoughtful Churchmen. To hearts wearied with the wretched controversies of these days, when the free handling of sacred truths is considered to be the duty of the grown man, and reason, instead of satisfying itself that mysteries are Divine, and bowing before them as necessarily incomprehensible, tries every doctrine and fact by its own insufficient standard, discrediting this and eliminating that according to a pre-conceived theory, it is refreshing to turn to an author who thoroughly believes in the Divine work of redemption, and brings to the elucidation of the Redeemer's earthly life the simple faith of the little child, and a reverent regard for the teaching of the Church in all ages. He is one who sees the virtue that issues from the very garment of CHRIST. Recognising the Divinity of the MESSIAH, he knows that His lightest actions transcend human thought, and that they have in them that character of incomprehensibility and mystery which belongs to His Person. The work is a connected life of CHRIST, interspersed here and there with thoughtful and devout remarks, and containing citations from a large body of authors who have written upon the same fruitful subject. One peculiarity, which will favourably distinguish it from many preceding and contemporary volumes of a like character, is to be found in the copious quotations from somewhat recondite authors, as well as from the better known Fathers and Schoolmen, and the absence of those continual references to modern German commentators, who are wont rather to confuse truth and to excite doubts than to elucidate difficulties and to confirm faith. A mention of some of the less common writers may prove useful to our readers. Among Catholic commentators who attempted the chronological arrangement of the sacred records, a foremost place is due to the Portuguese Jesuit Sebastian Barradius, who for his zeal and eloquence in preaching obtained the title of "the Apostle of Portugal," and has left a harmony of the Gospel narrative in four folio volumes, together with an index of subjects for the use of preachers, which is deservedly esteemed very highly. Of a similar nature, less elaborate, but perhaps more accurate, is the work of Cornelius Jansenius, Bishop of Ghent, who was one of the representatives at the Council of Trent, and a divine well skilled in the three tongues, as they were then called par excellence, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. A better known Harmony is that of Bernard Laury, an oratorian, who died at the beginning of the last century. The work is useful and learned, but not so valuable as his Commentaries, which for the time of their composition are remarkable for their chronological and geographical exactness. Another book from which our author has borrowed largely is Ludolph of Saxony's Vita Christi, written in the fourteenth century, and in the infancy of printing, and indeed up to the time of the Reformation one of the most popular books in Europe. Among the Protestants who have composed evangelic Harmonies, and who are cited in the work under notice, may be mentioned the learned Lutherans, Martin Chemnitz and John Brentzen, or Brentius. The former, who is noted for his polemical works, did not himself complete the Harmony, which was continued by Polycarp Leyser, and finished by John Gerhard. Brentius' production takes chiefly the form of sermons, in which class of composition he attained unusual eminence. Among the commentators upon the four Gospels, or some one or more of them, we may note the Calvinist theologian and botanist, Benedict Arretius; the famous Cardinal Thomas de Vio, commonly called from his see, Cajetanus, noted for his remarkable acquaintance with scholasticism; Dionysius Carthusianus, of Ryckel, near Liege (often quoted as Denis Ryckel), whose prolific pen gave to the world more than two hundred distinct works, all of them displaying immense erudition and accurate theology; Jacobus Faber Stapulensis (Jacques Le Fevre d'Estaples), who, although a painstaking and pious writer, could not help quarrelling with Erasmus-a contention in which he was most ignominously silenced; Johannes Ferus, or Wild, an eloquent and learned preacher of Mainz, whose commentaries on SS. Matthew and John are copious and lucid discourses, adhering in their interpretations closely to the letter of Scripture; Franciscus Lucas of Bruges, a profound Oriental scholar, who compiled a most valuable commentary on the Gospels, accompanied with an Itinerary of our Blessed LORD arranged in chronological order; Augustine Marlovat, the author of an edition of the Latin version of Erasmus' New Testament, with variorum notes; Wolfgang Musculus, the Lutheran, who retained deep respect for antiquity amid his Protestant aberrations; Jacobus Tirinus, whose notes are incorporated in the Biblia Magna; Cardinal Franciscus Toletus, one of the revisers of the Vulgate of Sixtus V.; and the erudite Spaniard Alphonsus Tostatus, who fitly closes the list with his commentaries on Holy Writ contained in twenty-seven folio volumes. The work of Mr., now Dean, Ellicott is of a different character from that which we have been considering. The academic lecture takes the place of the devout narrative; notes gathered from modern German sources are found instead of remarks culled from earlier and more orthodox authorities. At the same time, all who know Mr. Ellicott's former writings will at once agree that he is a deter |