THE former of the above-named books contains six valuable "Lectures" on the Position, Culture, Accomplishments, Duty, Influence, and Maternal Relation of Woman. In the latter we have the same number of excellent "Discourses," the topics of which are,- The Christian View of Sorrow; Christian Consolation in Loneliness; Resignation; The Mission of Little Children; Our Relations to the Departed; and the Voices of the Dead. We need say nothing more in commendation of these volumes, than that, in respect to thought, they are worthy of their author, and, as to style, are greatly superior to any other productions of his pen which we have seen.

B-t.

The Incarnation. A Letter to Rev. John Fiske, D. D. By WILLIAM B. GREENE. West Brookfield: Published by the Author. Jan. 1848. 12mo. pp. 52.

THIS Letter covers a large field of doctrine and contains much thought, but it is wanting in comprehensiveness and maturity. We cannot say that Mr. Greene's views strike us as altogether new. They seem rather to be the vigorous reproduction in his own mind of familiar, general truths, reclaimed from a somewhat isolated existence, arranged in systematic form, and deduced from certain texts of Scripture used as philosophical formulas. It is plain truth in the guise of metaphysics.

The theory of the Incarnation contained in the Letter is strictly Unitarian in its practical aspect, but is peculiar as resting on a basis entirely theological. The central thought is, that the life of the individual is sustained by concurrence with the life of other beings; the natural sinful life by concurrence with humanity, the spiritual holy life by concurrence with God. Man is redeemed by holiness, which is assimilation to God. But the energy of sin accumulated from the Fall has so broken the original sympathy between man and God, so obscured man's spiritual perception, that holiness is impossible. To make "the things of the Spirit of God" tangible to an evil race, a Mediator is necessary; and Christ, as this Mediator, "the middle term through whom the perfections of God may descend upon the children of Adam," is the Word, the Divine Wisdom incarnate. His whole life was in concurrence with the Father's; his food was the Father's Will and Truth; he is the ideal humanity; the Image and Fulness of God to the world. Man may now obtain holiness by being transformed into the image of this Mediator, and thus assimilated to God. This transformation is effected by digesting his truth (John vi. 57) and by obeying his example of disinterested love and self-sacrifice.

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In connection with this general view, Mr. Greene holds a theory of the Trinity much resembling that of Coleridge, and a doctrine of the Reconciliation which is easily deduced from his leading principle. The criticisms upon the received doctrine of the Trinity and the Atonement are very trenchant, but not more so than is just.

F.

Immigration into the United States. By JESSE CHICkering. Boston: Little & Brown. 1848. 8vo. pp. 94.

Dr. Chickering's essay on the "immigration of foreigners into the United States," their number, and the effect they are likely to produce on the character and institutions of our country, is well worthy of the attention of the public. It embodies a great amount of important statistical information, collected apparently from authentic sources. Several tables, with the necessary explanations, are given, embracing a period of twenty-six years, from October 1, 1820, to September 30, 1846. "The number of foreigners coming" in 1847 he states as "nearly 300,000," that is, "nearly equal to the present natural increase of the whole white population of the United States in 1840."

8. G. 11. Bonne

L.

Der Deutsche Kirchenfreund. Organ für die gemeinsamen Interessen der Americanisch-deutschen Kirchen. Herausgegeben von PHILIPP SCHAFF, Professor der Theologie in Mercersburg, Pa. Jan. 1848. [The Friend of the German Church, Organ of the Common Interests of the American German Churches. Edited by Philip Schaff, Professor of Theology, etc.]

PROFESSOR SCHAFF of Mercersburg, Penn., commenced in January of this year the publication of a religious journal, in the German language, with the title above given. The first number is full of interest, and contains six articles, on the following subjects: 1. The Design of the Publication; 2. German Literature in America; 3. Anselm of Canterbury; 4. "All is Yours" ; 5. Brief Review of the Ecclesiastical Events of the Year 1847; 6. The Good Shepherd. The pamphlet derives its interest from the fact of its being mainly the production of a learned German, transplanted from the teeming literary soil of Germany to the United States, where he has lived sufficiently long to have become acquainted with our theology and ecclesiastical affairs.

The article on German Literature in America is able, and for the most part fair and candid. It makes a large, but reasonable, demand on the gratitude of the world for German learning and research. Of German philosophy Professor Schaff entertains a

higher estimate than will be conceded to it by the Anglo-Saxon mind. German theology is destined, he believes, to exert an important influence in the religious development of North America. There are, he supposes, at least three millions of Germans and their descendants in the United States, all more or less imbued with the German spirit. He looks forward to the time when they will be absorbed into the great mass of the American people, but will carry with them their own peculiarities to modify the grand product. He acknowledges the superior practical character of the American mind, and hopes for great results from the action of our national common sense upon German speculation, which he confesses is sometimes carried to extravagance. In a passing notice of Unitarianism, which he considers as one of the products of the revolutionary spirit of the last century, he says: :

"The eighteenth century may be called the age of revolution or destruction, but in removing rubbish it prepared for a century of re-creation. It had a glowing hatred of tyranny of any description, and struggled for freedom, but not the holy freedom of the sons of God; rather, the freedom of the flesh. It sought an earth without a heaven, a state without a church, a religion without a revelation, a Christianity without Christ, and man without God. Rationalism, under various forms, at that time peculiarly, pervaded the whole Church, and is confessedly not yet rooted out. In England and Scotland it appeared as deism, latitudinarianism, and indifference. In France, as bold materialism and atheism. In North America, it showed itself in a falling away to Unitarianism, Arianism, and Universalism, and in a general slumber of the churches."

He advises those who study German theology to go to the bottom. A superficial acquaintance with it tends only to unbelief. He advises thoroughness on another account, approach of a great battle with Unbelief in the shape of Unitarianism.

- the

"Whoever engages superficially with German theology and philosophy can hardly escape injury to his simple, childish faith; but he who wrestles with it manfully, and pursues the intricate and tedious process of investigation to the deepest foundation of our most holy faith, will afterwards be more firmly grounded than ever in Orthodoxy.

"Such a contest will our theology ere long be called to encounter. Nay, it has already begun, and that through the influence of the negative and infidel element of German literature. The Pantheism of the extreme left of the Hegel school has been transplanted among us. Unitarianism and Universalism arm themselves with foreign learning and speculation, and, if the signs of the times do not deceive us, we have before us a still more desperate struggle between belief and unbelief in the field of science. Surely, then, in order to meet this encounter with success, we stand in need of appropriate weapons. We must seek the enemy in his camp, and smite him with his own weapons. If we yield to him, or encounter him with our old, worn-out

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armour, we shall justly expose ourselves to derision. Since the invention of gunpowder, we can gain no victories with bows and arrows."

We can assure our German friend, that we cherish no such bloodthirsty, ferocious dispositions as he supposes. The Unitarians are a very quiet, inoffensive people, intent, not on destroying, but on building up Christianity on a surer and more lasting foundation. We shall use German learning for the best of all purposes, to moderate and correct the extravagances of German speculation, both Orthodox and Infidel.

He ends by predicting the rise of a theology in this country more perfect than any that has gone before it, enriched with all the learning and wisdom of the past; and of a church adorned with all the virtues of saints and martyrs, and modelled on the true idea of the fellowship of the first-born of God. To this aspiration we heartily say, Amen! B-P.

6

We have received from the publishers several reprints of works which need only to be named, as their merits are already known in our community. Aurelian or Rome in the Third Century. In Letters of Lucius M. Piso, from Rome, to Fausta the Daughter of Gracchus, at Palmyra. By WILLIAM WARE, Author of 'Zenobia' and 'Julian' (in 2 vols. 12mo.) sequel to Zenobia was published nearly ten years ago under the name of Probus,' and soon republished, in several places abroad, under that of 'Aurelian,' which the writer has now himself adopted. We commend Mr. Ware's series of truthful fictions - for such they are to every lover of a pure and instructive literature. The Birthday; a Sequel to the Well-Spent Hour. By ELIZA LEE FOLLEN (18mo. pp. 160) was originally published under the second only of these titles. It presents an agreeable continuance of the Well-Spent Hour,' and yet may be read with pleasure and benefit by those who may not have seen the former story. — Hours for Heaven (32mo. pp. 109), “ a small, but choice selection of prayers, from eminent divines of the Church of England," with "religious miscellanies," "sacred poetry," and "religious aphorisms," the whole "intended as a devotional companion,"―does not bear evidence on the title-page, as it should, that it is not a new compilation. It will be found a useful manual of piety. - Self-Culture. By WILLIAM E. CHANNING, D. D., with a Biographical Sketch of the Author (32mo. pp. 132) also appears, improperly, as if it were now first issued in this form. Of its merits we need not speak. Reminiscences of the Best Hours of Life for the Hour of Death, etc. By JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER (32mo. pp. 98) contains, besides a reprint of the translations from Jean Paul, published under the

same title a few years ago, other extracts that increase its value.

C. S. Francis & Co. of New York have sent us The Congregational Singing Book: a Collection of Sacred Music; consisting of the most familiar Psalm and Hymn Tunes, for Use in Churches, Sunday Schools, and Families (16mo. pp. 78); of which, from its cheapness, from the excellence of the typographical execution, and from the good judgment shown in the selection of the hymns that accompany the tunes, and, as far as we can judge, of the tunes also, we are inclined to speak very favorably.

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From Messrs. Crosby & Nichols we have received The Two New Scholars, and other Stories. By the Author of the "Young Farmers," etc. (18mo. pp. 88), of which a friend, to whose judgment we are accustomed to defer, observes, "The book, as a whole, pleases me, and I think may be read by young children with much pleasure and advantage." - Messrs. Crosby & Nichols have just issued The Gospel Narratives: their Origin, Peculiarities, and Transmission. By HENRY A. MILES (16mo. pp. 168); also The General Features of the Moral Government of God. By A. B. Jacocks, M. A. (16mo. pp. 90); of which we shall speak hereafter. The same publishers have in press The Marriage Offering, designed as a Gift to the Newlymarried. Edited by Rev. A. A. Livermore, containing 200 pages or more, 16mo. They will also soon put to press a volume by Rev. G. W. Burnap of Baltimore, of about 150 pages, 16mo., entitled Popular Objections to Unitarianism considered and answered, in seven Lectures. Messrs. J. Munroe & Co. have in press a revised edition of a volume of Lectures by Rev. Mr. Burnap, under the title of What is Unitarianism?

The Statesman and the Man. A Discourse on Occasion of the Death of Hon. John Quincy Adams, delivered in Washington, February 27, 1848. By JOSEPH HENRY ALLEN, Pastor of the Unitarian Church. Washington. 1848. 8vo. pp. 23. A Discourse on the Life and Character of John Quincy Adams, delivered in the Unitarian Church, February 27, 1848. By GEORGE W. HOSMER. Buffalo. 1848. 8vo. pp. 24. Discourse on the Life and Character of John Quincy Adams; delivered the Sabbath after his Death, February 27, 1848, at the Church of the Saviour. By R. C. WATERSTON. Boston. 1848. 8vo. pp. 22.

A Discourse on the Life and Character of John Quincy Adams, preached at the Church of the Saviour, on Sunday Evening, March 5, 1848. By the Pastor, FREDERICK A. FARLEY. Brooklyn. 1848. 8vo. pp. 32.