ART. X.-FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

Dr. Sevin, lecturer on Theology at Heidelberg, the author of several works on the Synoptical Gospels, has published a second (greatly enlarged) volume of his work on the "Chronology of the Life of Jesus." (Chronologie des Lebens Jesu. Tubingen, 1874.) The researches are entirely based on the first three of the so-called Synoptical Gospels. With regard to the fourth gospel, the author agrees with those German critics who believe in insolvable discrepancies between it and the three first gospels, and who, on that account, reject it as spurious. After rejecting several chronological positions which have hitherto been held by most of the theologians, he undertakes to fix the dates of some prominent events. Pilate, according to him, was deposed before Easter, 36; Caiaphas soon after; John the Baptist was not put to death before 33. The fifteenth of Nisan, which, according to the Synoptical Gospels, was the death-day of Jesus, was, in the years 30 and 34, on a Friday; hence, he concludes Jesus was crucified on April 23, 24.

Three valuable essays on the "History of the East in Ancient Times" (Abhandlungen zur Geschichte des Orients. Halle, 1874) have been published by Dr. Brandes, Professor of History at the University of Breslau. The first essay treats of the list of Assyrian eponyms which have been brought to light by the discovery of cuneiform inscriptions, and are of incalculable importance for a more accurate knowledge of the ancient history of the East than was formerly possible, shedding in particular a flood of light on many chronological statements of the Old Testament.

A new Introduction to the New Testament has been published by Professor Hilgenfeld, of Jena, (Historische Kritische Einleitung in das Neue Testament. Leipzig, 1875.) The author is well known as one of the prominent representatives of the radical Tubingen school, and as the editor of the Zeitschrift fur Wissenschaftliche Theologie. A feature of this book which makes it of great interest to all theological students, though they may not approve of his negative critical views, is the thorough acquaintance of the author with the entire immense literature on the New Testament. There are few, if any, theologians living who exceed him in this respect.

Of another work on the Introduction to the New Testament, which has for years held a high rank in the theological literature of Germany, the "History of the Holy Writings of the New Testament," by Professor Reuss, of Strassburg, (Die Geschichte der heil. Schriften des Neuen Testamentes. Braunschweig, 1874,) the fifth edition has appeared. Differing from most of the other authors on the subject, Professor Reuss treats the Introduction to the Bible more as an historical than an exegetical subject. He divides his work into five books: the history of the origin; of the collection, (canon;) the preservation, (text;) circulation, (translations;) and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.

A theological work of great importance is the publication of the Acts of the Council of Trent, by the late Father Theiner, of Rome. The work has the title, Acta Genuina 88. Ecumenici Concilii Tridentini ab Angelo Massarello Episcopo Thelesino ejusdem Concilti Secretario Econscripta, nunc primum integra edita ab Augustino Theiner. Accedunt acta ejusdem concilii a card. Gabr. Paleotto archiep. Bononiensi digesta, secundis curis Expolitiora. Vols. I and II. Agram, 1874. It is a remarkable fact that the Papal See has ever since the conclusion of the Council of Trent been opposed to the official publication of its acts, and that the latter had to remain for longer than three hundred years in the Papal library, until the learned librarian, Father Theiner, much against the wish of the Papal authorities, made it possible to make arrangements for their publication. The expenses for the publication, which appears at Agram, the capital of Croatia, are borne by one of the wealthy prelates of Croatia, Bishop Strossmeyer, a friend of Father Theiner, and well known for his energetic denunciations of the Jesuits at the Vatican Council. Father Theiner was on intimate terms with the leading Old Catholic Theologians of Germany, though, like Dollinger, he did not favor a formal separation from the Church. His friend, Bishop Strossmeyer, has, though with great reluctance, finally submitted to Papal infallibility, though he retains his opposition to the Jesuits and the ultramontane party.

ART. XI-QUARTERLY BOOK-TABLE.
Religion, Theology, and Biblical Literature.

Aids to the Study of German Theology. 12mo., pp. 184. Edinburgh: T. & T.
Clarke. New York: Scribner, Welford, & Armstrong. Price, $2.

In fluent style, renouncing all technical terms, and believing that German thinkers need representation rather than translation, the present writer, beginning with Kant, traces the course of German theological speculation though a succession of leading thinkers to the present day. Kant was, in theology, the demolisher of Rationalism. In saying this he gives his own definition of Rationalism, which, we are free to state, is not ours. The Rationalists, in his view, are the Lardners and Paleys, who base Christianity on historical evidence, and undertake to prove a religion by the logic of the understanding. This Rationalism begins, indeed, with Leibnitz and Paley as the friend of religion; but it ends, so he thinks, with Semler and Paulus, in making a victim of its protégé. Reason, professing to prove religion, assumes to be its master, and closes with being its destroyer. Kant's theory of religion professed to represent the intuitional theology; and while its scheme of redemption was singularly like Christianity in its theoretic type, it rejected

the historical Christ, not as false, but as of no value. He, therefore, sunk Rationalism, but real Christianity with it.

Next Schleiermacher arose and restored a form at least of the Christian faith. He made Christian consciousness, the moral heart, the center of his system. Christianity, he taught, was a central life rather than a dogma; and hence all dogmas and all phases of belief that refer themselves to this common center are within the circumference of religion. This view he put with such force and power as to unite an immense body of adherents of the most diverse views with a sort of coherence, insomuch that he is in fact at the present time the religious power in German theology.

The next generically great thinker is Hegel; and to Hegelianism the author seems to look for the placing of Christianity above the need as well as the reach of Rationalism, whether the Rationalism of Paley or of Paulus. He attempts to give us an outline of Hegelianism, but he does not clearly reveal to us "the secret of Hegel." He seems disconcerted, but not disheartened, by the fact, that the Hegelian school forks off into two great branches, of which while Tholuck and his co-thinkers belong to one, the ornaments of the other are Strauss and company. We do not sympa, thize with his apparent hope that Hegelianism is to place Christianity beside geometry as intuitively positive, and not needing the props of history. This position Christianity may yet occupy, but will not travel to it by the Hegelian route.

We give a few items about German opinions:

IMMORTALITY. This doctrine, as we have seen, was received by Schleiermacher purely on the authority of Christ; he found no place for it in the nature of things. Olshausen has gone still further. He has denied the possibility of a soul existing apart from the body, and therefore has maintained that, previous to the resurrection, the spirit of man can only live in union with the particles of the body, either in the grave or scattered throughout the universe. Weisse and Rothe refuse to admit a universal immortality, but considor eternal life as the exclusive possession of the redeemed. There is, of course, a sense in which every Christian holds the same, but with these theologians eternal life is that which in the future will supply the place of this natural existence, and without which there could be no future life at all. With the exception, however, of these extravagances, there is, on the whole, a preponderance of orthodox opinion regarding this doctrine.-Pp. 63, 64.

CONDITIONS OF THE INCARNATION.-It will be remembered that Schleiermacher made the incarnation of Christ the result of human sin. In this he is followed by few. The general tendency of German theology is to regard the incarnation as something which would have happened even if man had never fallen. Indeed, the only writers of any eminence whom we know to have taken a contrary view are Müller and Thomasius.-P. 66.

VICARIOUS ATONEMENT.-The doctrine of a vicarious substitution is almost unknown in Germany. We say almost, because there is one branch of the

school of Schleiermacher which in this respect has separated itself from the parent tree, and approached more nearly to the English stand-point; the representatives of this small party are Delitzsch and Ebrard. These theologians have adopted the common English view, that the death of Christ was an expiatory sacrifice for the sins of the world.-Pp. 69, 70.

Fraternal Camp-Meeting Sermons. Preached by Ministers of the various Branches of Methodism at the Round Lake Camp-Meeting, New York, July, 1874. With an Account of the Fraternal Meeting. Phonographically Reported by S. M. STILES and J. G. PATTERSON. With an Introduction by Bishop PECK. 12mo., pp. 498. New York: Nelson & Phillips.

The Round-Lake Camp-Meeting is the greatest Feast of Tabernacles of our modern times. It originated in the inventive head and noble heart of a Methodist layman; it was energetically prosecuted to a result which will leave, we trust, its lasting impression upon our common Methodism and our common American Christianity.

race.

The prominent point in the whole movement was "fraternity," irrespective of geographical section, ecclesiastical organization, or North and South shook the brotherly hand. Episcopal and Congregational Methodism ignored their externalities. Caucasian and African forgot complexions. And the time is coming, we trust, when the black, and the red, and the brown shall, on some similar pentecost, commemorate the fact that all are one in Christ Jesus.

There were Lee, and M'Ferrin, and Kavanaugh, and Doggett, and Deems, from the Church South. There were Greene, and Gardner, and Douglass, from Canada; and Dare, from Australia. There were Murray, and Bates, and Alexander Clark, of the nonEpiscopal Methodist Churches; and there were Bishop Campbell, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Bishop Jones, (and for a short time Bishop Clinton,) of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. With a perfectly spontaneous heartiness these brethren were welcomed and heard, all the more enthusiastically because they were not exactly of our stripe; the pleasure of seeing and listening being enhanced by the facts, both of the freshness and novelty of the opportunity, and by the blessedness of expanding our hearts and rounding out the circumference of fraternal feeling. How warmly the noble Southrons were received we all know. And these pages show, too, with what cheers and shouts the African Bishop Campbell was interrupted. Of what color is the regenerated soul? To what race will belong the resurrection body? Of that same color and race is the true Church of Christ on earth.

A movement so happily inaugurated may well become a permanent institution. It may well become successional and œcumenical. Should it enter the hearts of our friends of the Church South to respond by appointing a fraternal festival within the Southern States, and to issue their invitations, we doubt not that they would gather a goodly embassage from all sections of American, and perhaps universal, Methodism.

Helps to Prayer: A Manual, designed to aid Christian Believers in Acquiring the Gift, and in Maintaining the Practice and Spirit of Prayer in the Closet, the Family, the Social Gathering, and the Public Congregation. By D. P. KIDDER, D.D. 12mo., pp. 399. New York: Nelson & Phillips. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. 1874.

Dr. Kidder has published a manual of prayer admirably adapted to the spirit and wants of our Church. It furnishes us forms of prayer with no purpose of formalism, but as suggestives and awakeners to the spirit of prayer. The larger share of the volume is devoted to a discussion of the nature of prayer and self-examination, recognizing that intellective thought has to do with these solemn exercises, yet treating them as deep emotional movements of the soul. How to pray within ourselves with both the spirit and the understanding, as well as how to lead the prayer of others through the channels of a sincere and acceptable devotion, is a holy art deserving the most serious study and cultivation. Ministers and people will find in this book a guide and a prompter well worthy of occupying their solemn hours in stirring up the gift within them.

Holiness the Birthright of all God's Children. By Rev. J. T. CRANE, D.D., of the Newark Conference. 16mo., pp. 211. Second edition, enlarged. New York: Nelson & Phillips. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. 1875.

We believe that most Methodists, not inspired with partisan feeling will agree that Dr. Crane should be allowed the privilege of restating himself. His own opinion is, that his views are essentially Wesleyan. How truly so, every reader who is likely to study his book is competent to form his own opinion. His book is, therefore, issued, like others of our publications, with the understanding that it does not commit the Church or the publishers to his explanation of Wesleyan doctrine.

One thing, however, we can unequivocally recommend, and that is the spirit of Dr. Crane, both personally and in his book. And that spirit has stood in so powerful a contrast with that of his assailants as to form in itself a lesson and an example.