expect to be rewarded, not merely according to, but for, our works. Christ merits nothing for us, we are not to look to him for sanctification, or any other blessing. All he has done, or does, is to make it consistent with the benevolence of God to forgive sin. Forgiveness of sin, therefore, is the only benefit which God bestows on us on account of Christ.

This theory changes everything. Men are rebellious subjects. It is now consistent in God to forgive them. He calls on them to submit, to lay down their arms, then he is free to deal with them as though they had never sinned. They must merit, not forgiveness-for that is granted on account of what Christ has done-but the reward promised to obedience; justification is simply pardon. Conversion is that change which takes place in a man when he ceases to be selfish, and becomes benevolent; ceases making his own happiness the end of his life, and determines to seek the happiness of the universe. The essence of faith is love, i. c., benevolence. It is hard to see, according to this theory, in what sense Christ is our prophet, priest, and king; how He is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; what is meant by our being in him as the branch is in the vine; or, what our Lord meant when He said, "without me, ye can do nothing;" what was in Paul's mind when he said, it is Christ for me to live, "it is not I that live, but Christ liveth in me," and so on to the end. This is a different kind of religion from that which we find in the Bible and in the experience of the church. As the religion (in the subjective sense of the word) is different, so is the preaching different, and so are the modes of dealing with sinners, and of promoting reformation among men. Some go so far as to hold, that there can be morality without religion; men are exhorted fo be moral because it is right, because it will promote their own welfare, and make them respected and useful. They are to become morally good by a process of moral culture, by suppressing evil feelings and cherishing such as are good ones, by abstaining from what is wrong and doing what is right.

Others take the higher ground of theism, or of natural relig ion, and bring in considerations drawn from our relation to God as an infinitely perfect being, our creator and preserver and father, who has rightful authority over us, who has prescribed

the rule of duty, and who rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked.

All this is true and good in its place. But it is like persuading the blind to see and the deaf to hear. This is not the gospel. Christ is the only Saviour from sin, the only source of holiness, or of spiritual life. The first step in salvation from sin is our reconciliation to God. The reconciliation is effected by the expiation made by the death of Christ (Rom. v: 10). It is his blood, and his blood alone, that cleanses from sin. As long as men are under the law, they bring forth fruit unto death; it is only when freed from the law, freed from its inexorable demand of perfect obedience and from its awful penalty, that they bring forth fruit unto God (Rom. vii: 4-6). Christ delivered us from the law as demanding perfect obedience, by being made under the law, and fulfilling ail righteousness for us; and he redeems us from the curse of the law, by being made a curse for us -dying the just for the unjust, and bearing our sins in his own body on the tree. Being thus reconciled unto God by his death, we are saved by his life. He sends the Holy Spirit to impart to us spiritual life, and transforms us more and more into his own image. The Spirit reveals to us the glory of Christ and his infinite love. He makes us feel not only that we owe everything to him, but that he himself is everything to us-our present joy and our everlasting portion—our all in all. Thus every other motive to obedience is absorbed and sublimated into love to Christ and zeal for his glory. His people become like him, and as he went about doing good, so do they. All this of course, is folly to the Greek. God, however, has determined by the foolishness of preaching to save them who believe.

Pulmonary consumption is more destructive of human life than the plague. So Christianity without Christ, in all its forms, the phthisis of the church, is more to be dreaded than skepticism, whether scientific or philosophical. The only remedy is preaching Christ, as did the apostles.

Two important facts are to be borne in mind. First, the inward religious life of men, as well as their character and conduct, are determined by their doctrinal opinions. Even the Edinburgh Review, years ago, said, "The character of an age is determined by the theology of that age." Therefore, any sys

tem of doctrine which assigns to Christ a lower position than that which he occupies in the New Testament, must, in a like degree, lower the standard of Christianity-that is, the religious life of those calling themselves Christians. Second, nevertheless, it is equally true that men are more governed by their practical than by their speculative convictions. The idealist does not feel and act on his belief that the external world has no real existence. In like manner, the religious life of men is often determined more by the plain teaching of the Scriptures and by the common faith of the church than by their theological theories. Hence, men have often more of Christ in their religion than in their theology. It is, however, of the last importance to remember, that sound doctrine is, under God, our only security for true religion and pure morals. If we forsake the truth, God forsakes us.

Art. VII. CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE.

THEOLOGY.

Scribner, Welford & Armstrong have imported, for use in this country, a special edition, price $3.00, of Volume II. of the Theology of the Old Testament, by Dr. GUST. FR. OEHLER, late Professor Ordinarius of Theology in Tübingen, translated by SOPHIA TAYLOR. We have before called the attention of our readers to the merits of volume first, which, like the present, is very scholarly, discriminating, and evangelical. In this volume the Mosaic ritual, prophecy in its nature, various forms, stages of development, and its theology, are very thoroughly discussed. It closes with an examination of the Old Testament Wisdom, as displayed in Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. We think the tendency of the author is somewhat to underrate the measure of evangelical experience of the Old Testament saints, as compared with those under the New. But the book as a whole sheds great light on the theology of the Old Testament.

The same publishers also issue, at $2.25, Moses, a Biblical Study, by J. J. VAN OOSTERZEE, D.D., translated from the Dutch by JAMES KENNEDY, B.I), another signal proof that the author is equally great in practical and speculative divinity. If history is "philosophy teaching by example," biog

raphy is eminently so. There is no better way of translating the abstract propositions of theology, theoretical or practical, into the concrete forms of life and actual religious experience, than to trace their application and exemplification in the typical lives of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. Whenever we look in this volume, ad aperturam libri, we find it rich, not only in delineations of Moses' life and character, but in the instruction and guidance which it derives from the vicissitudes of his career, suited to all the phases of Christian life and experience. No better book could be put into the hands of thousands of ministers and Christians, and especially recent converts, to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. Something equivalent to it is quite needed to assist new-born Christians to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

A. D. F. Randolph & Co. publish Pray for the Holy Spirit. By the REV. WILLIAM SCRIBNER.

If the author could have foreseen the remarkable spiritual quickening which has spread over the country-more remarkable than anything of the kind, it may be safely said, in our day-he could not have prepared a volume more seasonable, or better suited to be useful. It would seem, indeed, that the same good Spirit, who is moving with so much power on the hearts of great numbers, must have prompted the devout author to have in readiness such a work as this, as he appears in a high degree to possess the spiritual qualifications for its performance. Laid aside from the active work of the ministry, his heart has been fully in it; rejoicing in the success of hi brethren permitted to labor, he has sought to render them what help he could by means of his pen. His former little volume, Pray for your Children, although addressed to parents, had the same lofty aim.

Mr. Scribner has the theological insight needed for handling the subject of this second publication with intelligence and soundness; but his spiritual insight and wisdom qualified him especially for this undertaking. The very title breathes the earnestness of his convictions. In the first part he assigns reasons why Christians should earnestly seek this priceless gift for themselves; and in the second, why they should thus seek it for the church and the world. The style is simple and perspicuous, and there is scarcely a page on which may not be found suggestions of great importance, evidently proceeding from that Spirit whom the volume is designed to honor.

We heartily commend the work for wide dissemination. It will remain as a proof that this busy and—as some are disposed to regard it—shallow age of ours is not without examples of piety of as deep and spiritual a type as have distinguished any other.

La Théologie Allemande Contemporaine. Par J. F. ASTIE. Genève, Bale, Lyon. H. Georg, Libraire-éditeur. 1875. 8vo, pp. 286, 100, 360. Professor Astié, of Lausanne, is already well known to our readers, not only by a former residence in this country, and as a delegate from Switzerland to the Evangelical Alliance in New York, but also as the author of a valuable History of the United States, 1620 to 1860, 2 vols., with a preface by Laboulaye, of the French Institute, and a work entitled, Esprit d'Alexandre Vinet

(2 vols.) He was a pupil of Vinet, and his successor in the academy of the Free Church of the Canton de Vaud. He has also written an Explication of the Gospel of John, a work of merit. He has taught at Lausanne for a series of years, in the independent and philosophic spirit of Vinet, but with a fuller knowledge of the later German theology, which has served to modify some of his views, and made him a representative and advocate of "liberalism," in contrast with what he considers to be a formal orthodoxy. His essay on the Two New Theologies in the Heart of French Protestantism is devoted to this theme. It is also the subject of the preface to the above, volume, viz.: a Letter to the Younger Theologians of the Countries Speaking the French Language. His divergence from the stricter forms of orthodoxy has much of the character of Rothe's speculations. The volume itself is made up of a series of criticisms, republished in part from a prominent quarterly, entitled, Swiss Review of Religion and Theology, to which M. Astié has been a frequent contributor. These essays indicate an active, penetrating, critical mind, addicted to theological and especially speculative inquiries, independent in its investigations, and willing to give up much of the letter, for the sake of saving what M. Astié considers to be the essential verities, of the Christian revelation. He departs much further then did Vinet from the traditional orthodox phraseology; and, while agreeing with Rothe in being an ardent supernaturalist, he is less confident of the results of a speculative construction of the Christian theory.

The first essay is a critical examination of the Philosophy of Liberty (second edition), by M. A. Secrétan, which is made the the occasion of a penetrating discussion, not only of the extreme views of Secrétan on the nature and tent of human freedom, but also of several fundamental questions in religious philosophy and dogmatic theology, such as "native culpability," and the christological problem. As to sin, while rejecting imputation, he maintains a doctrine not unlike that of the later New England theology. In respect to the person of Christ, he denies the strict distinction of natures (the divine and human), and advocates what he terms a "successive incarnation "—the divine becomes the human.

A large part of the volume is devoted to a clear, comprehensive synopsis of the theological views of Rothe, as given in his Contributions to Dogmatics and his Theological Ethics. This is done with thorough appreciation and decided ability. Outside of Germany no better account has been given of the critical and speculative scheme of the famous Heidelberg professor. The French language demands a precision of statement which is often lacking in the German. Any one who wishes to see a summary of Rothe's teachings on the idea of dogmatics in general, and of Protestant dogmatics in particular, his views on revelation, inspiration, and the Scriptures, and the main points in his speculative ethics, will be abundantly aided and well guided by this impartial and exact summary. The remainder of the volume is devoted to an analysis of Schwarz's Contemporaneous German Theology; Hausrath's Era of Jesus Christ; of Gass' History of Protestant Dogmatics