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Theophany, or the Manifestation of God in Jesus Christ; with a Supplement, touching the Theories of the Rev. Dr. Bushnell. By ROBERT TURNBULL. Second Edition. Hartford: Brockett, Fuller & Co. 1849. 12mo, pp. 230, 77.

The writer of this volume presents in his intellectual habits and productions a favorable contrast with some of his contemporaries, and particularly with the writer, much known of late, whose eccentric theories are alluded to on this title page. Not less given to philosophical studies than they, with not less of that acumen which is essential to philosophical insight and speculation, he bears always with him that profound reverence for the unquestionable authority of Revelation which becomes the character and profession of a Christian minister. Indeed the pages of the work before us are sanctified by the spirit of Christian docility which they breathe. There is in them no straying from old land-marks, no audacious wanderings in the regions of unexplored intellectuality; the writer sits at the feet of Christ and his apostles, and illustrates and vindicates the truth as thence derived. The first part of the work sketches rapidly the life of Christ; the second brings out from that life thus historically considered the proofs and designs of a Divine Presence. The Supplement forms an elaborate and conclusive refutation of the theories of Dr. Bushnell. This had indeed been done indirectly in the body of the work; here it forms a distinct and important purpose.

We are glad to see the "second edition" of such a work, and congratulate the author on this indication of its usefulness. And we ought to say that its usefulness is by no means confined to its polemical character and bearings. It is a practical work. We rose from the reading of it refreshed in spirit, and grateful to the author that we had sate with him in heavenly places in Christ.

Anastasis, (Sacred Dramatic Dialogues on the Resurrection of our Saviour,) the Temptations of the Wilderness, Bathsheba, and other Poems. By THOMAS CURTIS, D. D., original editor of the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, and editor throughout of the London Encyclopædia. New-York: Leavitt & Co. 12mo, pp. 143.

'The leading poem in this collection had its origin in a proposition to reduce the testimony in reference to our Lord's resurrection to legal forms, to be submitted to a moot court created for the purpose, at which a distinguished chief-justice was to preside. The plan, for some reason, was not executed, but from the materials came forth this poem. The testimony is well arranged, and woven into a powerful argument, while the parts sustained are true to the historical characters introduced. There is sometimes an obscurity in the elaborated language of the poem, not unlike that which is so often manifest in the poems of Dr. Curtis's associate in literary labors, Coleridge, and there are occasional lines where the versification loses its usual flow; but these faults are far more than balanced by the sublimity of the theme, by the power of the argument, and by frequent passages which rise to the highest order of poetry. The work belongs to an order of poetry higher than is generally current among us, and addresses itself unquestionably to the "fit audience, though few." The remaining poems are in a similar style, and are the fitting companions of that which gives its name to the book. Little had we expected to meet Dr. Curtis in such a walk; but the hours spent with him have been agreeable and instructive, and we do not doubt that many others will find equal pleasure and advantage in dwelling upon his pages.

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Old Portraits and Modern Sketches. By Joнn G. Whittier. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 12mo, pp. 304.

The readers of the National Era, Washington, have not failed to observe that that journal, along with its special mission as a political paper, has performed a somewhat unusual part in the literary world. In that journal, of which Mr. Whittier is in some way an editor, many of the portraits and sketches in this volume originally appeared. They are tinged with the spirit of the Quaker and the Reformer; and are the more agreeable for that, because they are true to the character of the author, who is both, and both sincerely. In the Quaker past he finds, amid fancies and extravagances which he would never defend, germs of freedom and progress illustrated in the lives and sufferings of true heroes and martyrs, and these form the subjects of some of the portraits before us. But these same germs and these same illustrations were found equally out of the Quaker ranks, and Mr. Whittier is too comprehensive in his admiration of moral heroism to discard such men as Bunyan from his gallery. In one of the portraits will be found confirmation of Macaulay's picture of the social position of parish priests at the accession of James II.,—a picture generally deemed extravagant. Among the "modern sketches we find one of Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, and we suppose we must set down to Mr. Whittier's Quakerism the extent of the charity with which he covers the assaults of that writer upon the institutions of Christianity. He could hardly be excused on other grounds.-All in all, the book is exceedingly agreeable, not as history, not as memoirs of individual lives, but as portraits and sketches, bringing out into strong relief characters and events prominent in their time, and linked with the grand march of humanity. The subjects are, John Bunyan, Thomas Ellwood, James Naylor, Andrew Marvell, John Roberts, Samuel Hopkins, Richard Baxter, William Leggett, Nathaniel P. Rogers, Robert Dinsmore.

The Seaside and the Fireside. By HENRY WADSWORTH LONGfellow. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 12mo, pp. 141.

Though Mr. Longfellow is too much imbued with the spirit of German song to be in strictness a national poet, he is nevertheless among the very first of our poets, and one of whom we may be justly proud. There is a winning fancy in his poems and an exquisite finish, which cannot fail to charm the reader. Unquestionably they will survive him, and become classics. The collection before us bears the usual marks of his poems. The opening one, the Building of the Ship, is boldly conceived and admirably executed, concluding with a passage of singular force and sublimity. We cannot withhold it :

"Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O UNION, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast and sail and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge, and what a heat,
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
"Tis of the wave and not the rock;
"Tis but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!

In spite of rock and tempest-roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,-

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,

Are all with thee,-are all with thee!"

The Almost Christian Discovered; or, the False Professor Tried and Cast. By the Rev. MATTHEW MEAD. With an Introduction, by Rev. WILLLIAM R. WILLIAMS, D. D. New-York: Lewis Colby. 18mo,pp. 250.

A searching book is this, the work of an eminent Nonconformist divine, and as suggested beautifully in Dr. Williams's preface, like sub-soil ploughing to agriculture, the sure occasion of richer harvests to those who apply it faithfully to their souls. We consider it a good augury that such a book is received with so much favor. We hope it may be widely circulated and widely read.

The War with Mexico Reviewed. By ABIEL ABBOT LIVERMORE. Boston: William Crosby & H. P. Nichols. 12mo, pp. 310.

This volume is the one which, under an adjudication by the Hon. Simon Greenleaf, LL. D., the Rev. William Jenks, D. D., and the Rev. Baron Stow, D. D., received the premium of five hundred dollars offered by the American Peace Society for "the best review of the Mexican War, on the principles of Christianity and an enlightened statesmanship." It is remarkable for the number of facts, of every form and hue, and gathered from the widest variety of sources, which it brings to illustrate its positions against war, as a method of national arbitrament, and especially against the late war with Mexico, which it condemns in unsparing terms.

ART. IX.-INTELLIGENCE.

Literary.

In place of the ample record of literary intelligence, both American and foreign, which we had designed for the present number, we are obliged to content ourselves with the brief summary which follows, and to exclude altogether some items of information pertaining to colleges and theological seminaries which we should be glad to lay before our readers.

Among the books lately published in England is An Essay on the External Act of Baptism, by the Hon. and Rev. Baptist W. Noel, M. A. The second volume of Dr. Davidson's Introduction to the New Testament has been issued. It extends from Acts to 2d Thessalonians. Messrs. Johnstone & Hunter announce that the subscriptions for the proposed edition of the works of Dr. John Owen warrant them in putting the first volume to press without delay. The works will be comprised in 15 volumes, to be issued at the rate of five volumes per year. The sub

scription price until March 31st was one guinea per year; from that time the price was to be one and a half guineas.

"We have to announce, with regret," says the London Christian Times, "that Tholuck's Litterarischer Anzeiger has ceased to appear, with the year just ended, after having been for twenty years one of the ablest and most popular orthodox theological reviews of Germany. The learned and pious editor attributes his determination chiefly to the want of contributors, since the great strife upon the Church and State question, brought on by the revolution of 1848. Many of his former fellow-laborers are so divided in opinion as to be unable to co-operate with each other, and the attention of those that are like-minded is absorbed by the prac tical interests of the Church, and of Society; they have neither time nor heart to sit and criticise. We trust the day is not far off when Dr. Tholuck may resume his pen, cheered by the results of that conflict which now fills him with despondency. One of the last numbers of the Anzeiger announces a third edition of Tholuck's comment upon the Hebrews, so revised as to be almost a new book. It seems the important question, how far the New Testament writers were influenced by the then reigning Jewish exegesis, is thoroughly investigated."

J. L. Jacobi, Professor Extraordinary in the University of Berlin, has in preparation a compendium of Church History, of which the first volume has appeared. The Methodist Quarterly Review announces a translation as soon to be published in London or New-York, and perhaps in both. Professor Jacobi is a friend of Neander, and the one, we suppose, who at Neander's request wrote the article on Baptism in Kitto's Cyclopædia. He denies the apostolic origin of Infant Baptism.

Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. have lately republished Notes on the Miracles of our Lord, by Richard Chevenix Trench, M. A.,-a valuable work, similar in character to Notes on the Parables, by the same author. The Life and Religion of Mohammed, as contained in the Sheeah Traditions of the Hyat-ul-Kuloob; Translated from the Persian, by Rev. James L. Merrick, is the title of a work just issued by Phillips, Sampson & Co., Boston. Professor H. B. Hackett, of Newton, and Professor B. B Edwards, of Andover, are engaged upon a Commentary on the Psalms, which is expected to be issued during the present year, Professor Hackett is also engaged upon a Commentary on the Acts.

THE

CHRISTIAN REVIEW.

No. LXI.-JULY, 1850.

ART. I.-COLERIDGE AND SOUTHEY.

COLERIDGE's Works. 8vo. Philadelphia. 1840.

COLERIDGE'S Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit. 12mo. Bos

ton. 1841.

SOUTHEY'S Life of Wesley. With Notes by COLERIDGE. 3
vols. 12mo. New-York. 1847.
SOUTHEY's Life and Correspondence. Edited by his Son, the
Rev. CHARLES CUTHBERT SOUTHEY, M. A. Vol. I. 1849.
COTTLE'S Reminiscences of Coleridge and Southey. 12mo.
New-York. 1847.

*

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"WE have got Coleridge's Literary Remains," says the late Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, (himself a proper man,') in which I do rejoice greatly. I think, with all his faults, Old Sam was more of a great man than any one who has lived within the four seas in my memory." Of Southey, said Coleridge, "When future critics shall weigh out his guerdon of praise and censure, it will be Southey the poet only, that will supply them with the scanty materials for the latter. They will likewise not fail to record that as no man was ever a more constant friend, never had a poet more friends and honorers, among the good of all parties."-"I know few men who so well deserve the character which an ancient attributes to Marcus Cato-that he seemed to act right by the necessity of a happy nature."

We venture to produce the above as, on the whole, a fair

*Life and Correspondence, by Stanley, 8vo, New-York, p. 288.

+ Coleridge's Biog. Literaria.

VOL. XV.-NO. LXI.

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