ARTICLE VII.-NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

THEOLOGICAL AND RELIGIOUS.

ECCE DEUS.*-This work was evidently prepared in haste for the market-so far at least as its form is concerned as distinguished from much of the matter which it contains. Many of the thoughts which it presents, and the lines of argument which it enforces, are obviously the products of the most earnest consideration. Some of them embody the results of the thinking of a lifetime and are marked by great ability. It is most unfortunate however for the interests of the truth as well as for the reputation of the writer of Ecce Deus that he should have been induced to put his opinion forth in the form of a supplement or critical reply to Ecce Homo.

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The assumption or postulate which is the key-note to this treatise is this-that the life and character of Jesus can be satisfactorily interpreted and understood only on the supposition of the Incarnation; and that the author of Ecce Homo committed a fatal mistake in commencing his "Survey of the life and work of Jesus Christ" at that point in his history when he meets the eye as a young man of promise, popular with those who knew him and appearing to enjoy the Divine favor." This mistake he regards as fatal to the success of the work and as necessarily vitiating the arguments and interpretations which it embodies. As this critical objection to Ecce Homo is the key to all that is controversial in Ecce Deus-as indeed it seems to have occasioned and inspired the book-it deserves a moment's attention if we desire to do justice to either.

It does not appear as yet that the author of Ecce Homo does not agree with the author of Ecce Deus in holding that the Incarnation is essential to the correct and satisfactory interpretation of the life and work of Jesus. He has never said or implied that he

* Ecce Deus Essays on the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ. With Controversial notes on "Ecce Homo." Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1867. 16m0. pp. 363. New Haven: Judd & White.

does not. He has expressly implied if he has not declared that he has much in reserve to say concerning the higher nature of Jesus and the higher relations of his person and his work. It remains to be seen whether he will not insist even more emphatically than the author of Ecce Deus that the Incarnation can alone fully explain the very peculiarities of the life and doctrine which he has chosen first to survey from the human side and in the relations of human history. Meanwhile it should be left with him to decide whether it may not be for the advantage of his argument to start from the lowest assumption which he chooses to make, or rather to start from no postulate at all, and to reason out a partial exposition of Christ's life and work. It will be proper to complain of his argument and its results, when the argument is complete. It is not even fair to criticise any defects of method till the method is fully developed.

The author of Ecce Deus shows very strikingly his unfairness by the special criticisms which he offers upon a few passages from Ecce Homo. These are by far the weakest part of his book. They indicate either indisposition to interpret his aims with charity, or incompetence to appreciate the nature and method of his arguments, or a desire to use his supposed defect as a foil to set off his own interpretations of Christ's person and work. We discern moreover a certain conscious or unconscious effort to imitate his style and to copy the boldness of his attacks upon many features of the current Christianity.

But when we have said all this, we take great pleasure in acknowledging the power and excellence of the volume. Though as a continued argument in support of its avowed theme it has by no means the closeness and continuity which we might desire, it contains many very able and impressive exhibitions of the higher nature of Christ. The author has thought profoundly and thought independently on this most attractive theme. He is no stranger to the difficulties of the problem. But he bows with reverent and adoring conviction before the transcendent excellencies of the life, the sayings, and the work of him who "became flesh and dwelt among us." He does not indeed make the bearing of many of his views upon the question of the Deity of the Lord so prominent as his title would indicate, but his discussion of these topics is none the less effective. Viewed aside from the unfortunate attitude which it assumes with respect to Ecce Homo, Ecce Deus is a work of interest and importance.

VAUGHAN'S "CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST'S TEACHING ; AND “CHRIST THE LIght of the WORLD."-We take great pleasure in calling the attention of our readers, both lay and clerical, to the series of very neat volumes from the pen of Dr. Vaughan, of Doncaster, which are published by Mr. Strahan of London and New York. Most, if not all, of these discourses have been previously published in "Good Words," and in that way have been made known to many of our countrymen. They are worthy a closer attention than a casual reading of them would be likely to attract, and it is for the very reason that they are in some danger of being passed over as in no way superior to the great mass of goodish books of the sort that are daily issued from the press, that we give them this special notice. They are designed for common readers. They make no pretensions to discuss with profoundness points of theological doctrine, or to answer any subtle questions in the philosophies of the schools. They are not ambitiously eloquent in style, nor exciting in their appeals, nor startling in their imagery. Their tone and manner in all these respects is strikingly, if not studiously, quiet and unambitious. A modern sensation preacher, whether of the more vulgar or refined class, would pronounce them tame and common-place, and wholly deficient in originality and eloquence. The most of our American audiences who are accustomed to be stimulated by exciting doses of tawdry rhetoric, vulgar allusions, and overstrained appeals, would reject them as very good, but not in the least original. A careful perusal of them will show that they are the productions of a thoughtful and highly cultured mind, and are therefore eminently instructive to all who think. The transparent thought, the simple diction, the quiet imagery, the unimpassioned earnestness which characterize these short discourses are easily discerned to indicate the clear, rich, and refined liquor which has been purified by the first and second fermentations, or rather the bright metal that gushes from the furnace freed from every oxide and alloy, pure, rich, and glowing. Perhaps no more serious danger threatens the religious life of our churches, and the dignity and self-respect of the clerical profession, than the systematic degradation of the style of pulpit

Characteristics of Christ's Teaching, Drawn from the Sermon on the Mount. By C. J. VAUGHAN, D. D., Vicar of Doncaster. London and New York: Alexander Strahan. 1867.

Christ the Light of the World. By C. J. VAUGHAN. London and New York: Alexander Strahan. 1866.

oratory under the guise of ambitious originality, tawdry rhetoric, strained imagery, silly conceits, vulgar allusions, cheap learning, political demagogism, and affected emotion. If the Lord is ever to deliver his people from these modern defilers of the sanctuary, it will be in part by the example of discourses like these of Dr. Vaughan.

LANGE'S CRITICAL, DOCTRINAL, AND HOMILETICAL COMMENTARY. VOL. IV. ACTS *This is the third, in the order of publication, of the volumes of this valuable Commentary. It is translated from the German by Prof. CHARLES F. SCHEFFER, D. D., of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. In its general characteristics it is like the volumes which have appeared heretofore, consisting of three classes of comments and annotations-exegetical, doctrinal, and homiletical, and being as faithful a presentation in our language, as possible, of the original work. The translator has added a few notes, which he marks as his own, and has inserted, near the beginning of the volume, a chronological chart, taken from Meyer's Commentary on the Acts, which presents the dates of the principal events of Paul's life, according to the views of most of the leading scholars who have discussed that interesting subject. Dr. Lange and his associates in this work have rendered a service, whose value has been fully recognized in their own land; and the gentlemen who are engaged upon the American translation, are already receiving the commendation and gratitude of their ministerial brethren. As a critical and exegetical Commentary, it can hardly claim a place in the very first rank, and yet, in the several portions which have thus far been published, it compares quite favorably with anything that we have in our language. From the suggestions of a more practical nature, however, which are added to the explanatory annotations, it becomes useful in a peculiar way to large numbers of those for whom, it is designed, and gains for the homiletical

* A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures; Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical, with special reference to Ministers and Students. By JOHN Peter Lange, D. D., in connection with a number of eminent European Divines. Translated from the German, and edited with additions, original and selected, by PHILIP SCHAFF, D. D., in connection with American Divines of various Evangelical denominations. Vol. IV. of the New Testament; containing the Acts of the Apostles. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1866. 8vo. pp. 480. New Haven: Judd & White. Price $5.

student an interest which is unknown in ordinary Commentaries. Few clergymen, we presume, will wish to be without it, but those to whom it is not known already, through a personal examination of it, should understand just what its merits are, and just the place which it is intended to fill in the department of biblical learning. By far the best scholarly work on this part of the New Testament, to which we have access in this country, as it seems to us, is that of Prof. Hackett; but the present volume, in connection with that excellent work, will be of advantage to all who make a judicious use of it.

LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL.-This volume is written with the design of proving the doctrine of eternal punishment, especially with reference to the arguments and objections of those who advocate the theory of annihilation. The author begins with a statement of the view of his opponents, and of what he calls the fundamental vice of their mode of interpreting the Scripture language-namely, that they give a low and material construction of the phrases and passages, in which this subject is introduced, that is in direct contradiction to their real and well-understood meaning. He then enters upon an extended investigation of the terms "death" and "life," and other terms employed in the Bible, as bearing upon the errors and fallacies of Mr. Hudson and the class of writers to which he belongs. Following upon this inves tigation, he examines the difficulties in regard to the permanent existence of evil under the government of a God of love, and endeavors to show that the existence and continuance of evil for a time proves its continuance for eternity to be compatible with God's perfections, provided sufficient reasons exist, and that no one can deny that such reasons may exist-unknown perchance, to us, but manifest to God. Here he leaves the refutation of the annihilationist's arguments. In the second part of the volume he takes up the more positive disproof of their doctrinemaking a careful presentation of the evidence that the Jews, both before the coming of Christ, and in his time, believed in a future existence, and then setting forth in several chapters the teachings of the New Testament upon this whole subject. The book closes with a discussion of the tendencies of the annihilationist's system

* Life and Death Eternal; A Refutation of the Theory of Annihilation, By SAMUEL C. BARTLETT, D. D, Professor in Chicago Theological Seminary. Published by the American Tract Society, Boston. 1866. 12mo. pp. 390.