Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society, Boston and Chicago. The Drift of the Young Men with Relation to the Churches. Pp. 79. Paper,

15 cts.

Ginn & Company, Boston. Animal Life and Intelligence. By C. Lloyd Morgan, F. G. S., Professor in and Dean of University College, Bristol; Lecturer at the Bristol Medical School; President of the Bristol Naturalists' Society, etc; author of "Animal Biology," "The Springs of Conduct," etc. 8vo. Pp. xvi, 512. 1891.

Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York. The Epic of the Inner Life, being The Book of Job translated anew, and accompanied with Notes and an Introductory Study, by John F. Genung. Pp. xi, 352. 1891. $1.25.

A. C. Armstrong and Son, New York. System of Christian Theology. By Henry B. Smith, D. D., LL. D. Edited by William S. Karr, D. D., Professor of Theology in Hartford Theological Seminary. Fourth edition, revised. With an Introduction, by Thomas S. Hastings, D. D., LL. D. Pp. xx, 641. 1890. $2.00. For sale by De Wolfe, Fiske & Co., Boston. The Expositor's Bible. Edited by the Rev. W. Robertson Nicoll, M. A., D. D., editor of "The Expositor." The Book of Ecclesiastes. With a New Translation. By Samuel Cox, D. D., author of "Commentaries on Job, Ruth," etc. Pp. xvi, 335. $1.50. For sale by De Wolfe, Fiske & Co., Boston. The Sermon Bible. Vol. VI. St. Matthew xxii. to St. Mark xvi. Pp. 389. 1891. $1.50. For sale by De Wolfe, Fiske & Co., Boston. Christus Mediator. By Charles Elliott, D. D., Professor of Hebrew in Lafayette College, Easton, Penn. Pp. 145. 1891. 75 cts. For sale by De Wolfe, Fiske & Co., Boston.

A. S. Barnes & Company, New York. Bible Readings for the Responsive Service in Christian Worship. Prepared by Rev. George C. Lorimer, D. D., and Rev. Henry M. Sanders. Pp. vi, 170. 1891.

Fords, Howard & Hulbert, New York. Murvale Eastman, Christian Socialist. By Albion W. Tourgee. 12mo. Pp. viii, 545. 1890. $1.50.

Funk & Wagnalls, New York. The Light of the World, or The Great Consummation. By Sir Edwin Arnold, K. C. I., E. C. S. I., author of "The Light of Asia," etc. Pp. xii, 286. 1891.

Hunt & Eaton, New York; Cranston & Stowe, Cincinnati. Elijah: the Man of God. By Mark Guy Pearse. Pp. 120. Cloth, 50 cts. - My Journey to Jerusalem, including Travels in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Palestine, and Egypt. By Rev. Nathan Hubbell. With sixty-four illustrations. Pp. 311. 1890. $1.00. Scripture Selections for Daily Reading. A Portion of the Bible for Every Day in the Year. Compiled by Rev. Jesse L. Hurlburt, D. D., author of "Studies in the Four Gospels,' 99.66 Studies in Old Testament History," etc., etc. Pp. xiii, 433. 1891. $1.50. Studies in Old Testament History. By Rev. Jesse L. Hurlburt, D. D., author of "A Manual of Bible Geography," "Outline Normal Lessons," etc., etc. Pp. 95. 1890. Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 40 cts.

Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, New York. Prophecy and History in Relation to the Messiah. The Warburton Lectures for 1880-1884, with two Appendices on the Arrangement, Analysis, and Recent Criticism of the Pentateuch. By Alfred Edersheim, M. A., Oxon., D. D., Ph. D., author of "Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah." Author's edition. Pp. xxi, 391. New edition. $1.75.

Thomas Whittaker, New York. A Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and to Philemon. By Joseph Agar Beet. Pp. xi, 413. 1891. $2.00. Reason and Authority in Religion. By J. MacBride Sterrett, D. D., Professor of Ethics and Apologetics in Seabury Divinity School. Pp. xiii, 184. 1891. $1.00.

[ocr errors]

T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh; Scribner & Welford, New York. The Church in the Mirror of History: Studies on the Progress of Christianity. By Karl Sell, D. D., Ph. D., Darmstadt, editor of Life and Letters of H. R. H. Princess Alice of England and Hesse-Darmstadt." Translated by Elizabeth Stirling, and dedicated, by permission, to Her Royal Highness Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. Pp. viii, 250. 1890. $1.50. For sale by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston.

Register Publishing Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Outlines of a Critical Theory of Ethics. By John Dewey, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Michigan. Pp. viii, 253. 1891. $1.50.

C. J. Clay & Sons, London. Pitt Press Mathematical Series. The Elements of Staties and Dynamics. By S. L. Loney, M. A., Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and Lecturer at the Royal Holloway College. Part I. Elements of Staties. Pp. vi, 272, xii. 1891. Pitt Press Series. Milton's Arcades and Comus, with Introduction, Notes, and Indexes, by A. Wilson Verity, M. A., sometime Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge. Edited for the Syndies of the University Press. Pp. lxxvi, 208. 1891. -The Iliad of Homer. Book XXII. With Introduction, Notes, and Appendices. By G. M. Edwards, M. A., Fellow and Tutor of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Edited for the Syndics of the University Press. Pp. xxxii, 48. 1890. Livy. Book XXVII. With Introduction and Notes by H. M. Stephenson, M. A., late Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, late Head Master of St. Peter's School, York. Edited for the Syndics of the University Press. Pp. xxiii, 140. 1890. An Apologie for Poetrie. By Sir Philip Sidney. Edited for the Syndics of the University Press (from the Text of 1595), with Notes, Illustrations, and Glossary, by Evelyn S. Schuckburg, M. A., Librarian and late Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Pp. xxxiv, 192. 1891. Pitt Press Mathematical Series. Euclid's Elements of Geometry. Edited for the Syndies of the Press, by H. M. Taylor, M. A., Fellow and formerly Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge. Books I.-IV. Pp. xii, 326. 1891.

Euclid's Elements of Geometry. Edited for the Syndies of the Press, by H. M. Taylor, M. A., Fellow and formerly Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge. Books III. and IV. Pp. 162. 1891. The Smaller Cambridge Bible for Schools. The First Book of the Kings, with Map, Introduction, and Notes, by the Rev. J. Rawson Lumby, D. D., Norrisian Professor of Divinity, Fellow of St. Catharine's College. Edited for the Syndics of the University Press. Pp. 144. 1891.

Ernest Leroux, Paris, France. Essais Bibliques, par Maurice Vernes, Directeur Adjoint a L'École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne): La Question du Deuteronome. La Méthode en Littérature Biblique. La Date de la Bible. -Travaux de G. D'Eichthal. La Palestine Primitive. Jephthé, le Droit des Gens et les Tribus d'Israel. Le Pentateuque de Lyon. Pp. xiv, 372.

1891.

THE

ANDOVER REVIEW:

A RELIGIOUS AND THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY.

VOL. XV.-JUNE, 1891.- No. XC.

CHRISTIANITY A RELIGION OF HOPE.

THE truths of God forever shine

Though Error glare and Falsehood rage;

The cause of Order is divine,

And Wisdom rules from age to age.

Faith, Hope, and Love, your time abide !
Let Hades marshal all his hosts,
The heavenly forces with you side;
The stars are watching at their posts.

F. H. HEDGE.

The Christian religion, rightly apprehended, is preeminently the religion of hope. Its chief message to the world is the declaration of God's good intention toward men, and its chief representation is the person of Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed "with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him."

In forming our judgment of Christianity, we must discriminate between what is accidental and transient on the one hand, and what is essential and permanent on the other. The discriminating process must be carried not only through all the organizations and institutions and theories and history that are loosely grouped under the term Christianity, but also through the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. In these Scriptures is given us a revelation of God. This is the chief but not the only revelation, for there are revelations of God in nature and in man which from one point of view are preparatory for the revelation in the Bible, and from another point of view are both supplementary and

Copyright, 1891, by HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & Co.

confirmatory of it. Indeed, were it not for the revelation of God within man, any revelation to him from without would be impossible. The Biblical revelation is progressive, exhibiting a distinct and great advance from the naive monotheism of Abraham, with its predominant anthropomorphic elements, to the profound and pure spiritual Theism of Jesus. Because revelation is progressive, corresponding to man's growing power of apprehension, and depending upon it, there are many features of the revelatory process that are incidental and transient. Learning is in part a process of discarding. Low ideas of the divine nature are continually replaced by higher. New points of view necessitate an abandonment of the old. Imperfect symbols are dropped as their defects become apparent, and better symbols take their place. The prophets, for example, show a marked advance in their conception of God upon the conceptions of the patriarchs, and Jesus occupies a higher level of spiritual view than the prophets. But the progress is not mechanical, nor a mere process of sequence. It is vital, and has an indestructible continuity. Much is left behind, but something is steadily carried forward. The new is in a true sense the outgrowth of the old. The plant is the evolution of the seed; but the process of development is also a process of increment. In order to get, therefore, a true idea of the Biblical revelation of God, we must take our stand on the highest point reached in the revelatory process which has its record in the Bible; that is, the point afforded us by both the teaching and the personality of Jesus. From this point we may trace the slowly ascending and slowly brightening path that leads up from the primitive age to the time when, with a boldness of utterance and a depth of spiritual insight which we do not yet fully comprehend, Jesus declared at once: "God is spirit," and "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Manifestly, to take our position at any point in the process of Biblical revelation short of the summit on which Jesus stands, and to say of the view obtainable from that point, "this is the vision of God," is to misunderstand and to misrepresent the Bible.

The same is true with reference to the idea of Christianity of which the revelation that culminates in the Son of God is central. No book of the Bible preceding the Gospels truly represents or defines Christianity. Only in Him of whose spirit Christianity is the effluence do we find a true exponent of what essential Christianity is. But there is also a prophetic element in the Biblical revelation of God. What Jesus gives to the world is more

than another and higher stage in the revelatory process than that which is given successively by patriarchs and prophets. The singularity of his communication is partly in this, that his revelation of the Father is not only complementary, but also prophetic and ideal. The value of the New Testament is chiefly in the fact that it is far more than a high-water mark of the generic spiritual perception of men. It sets a standard toward which the world still strives, and communicates a thought which the world has not yet wholly grasped. The spiritual progress of so much of humanity as has come within the circle of Biblical communication is a progress, not beyond the point reached in the New Testament, but toward that point, that prophetic revelation which Jesus, the chiefest of all the prophets, or speakers for God, both gave and was. All the advance of philosophical thought toward the true and perfect idea of God has been an advance toward the thought of Jesus. All the progress of that spiritual life which is the expression of spiritual thought is a progress toward the life of Him who "came from God and went to God," the "Son of Man" who was yet "the only begotten Son of God." So, too, and necessarily, there is a prophetic and ideal element in the idea of Christianity which Jesus gives. The religious thought and life of today are far higher and purer than the religious thought and life of the early Christian centuries. This is a truth which no careful student of Christian history can for a moment doubt. Both the intellectual apprehension and the practical application of Christian principles are broader and juster and more thoroughgoing to-day that at any time in the past. Yet, when we succeed in clearly discriminating essential Christianity from all that is incidental and adventitious; when we carry this process not only through historical and institutional Christianity, but even through the New Testament, until we discover the fundamental and enduring elements of the Christianity which Jesus embodied in his person and manifested in his spirit and expressed in his authenticated teachings, we can understand the real meaning of Lessing's extravagant yet not altogether untrue saying: "The religion of Christianity has been on trial eighteen hundred years; the religion of Christ is yet to be tried." We shall understand, also, and approve, the statement of Fairbairn, that true Christianity is "an ideal for the whole of humanity, and a great method for its realization." The revelation which Jesus makes of the divine interest in man, and the divine purpose to be realized in man, discloses also the forces and motives by which man is to achieve a spiritual des

« НазадПродовжити »