3. of its soteriological presuppositions; 4. of its view of sin; 5. of regeneration, faith, and works; 6. of justification; 7. of the Christian life; 8. of James himself; 9. of the relation of the Epistle to the Christianity of Paul. On this last important point the author's conclusion is that James and Paul have one and the same conception of justification as a "declarative" act; that both conceive of living faith as inwardly connected with works; and that both deny justification by works alone.

INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT.2- The eighth edition of the first part of De Wette's Historico-critical Introduction to the Old and New Testaments, "worked up afresh," by Dr. Schrader. The editor is said to have introduced many improvements. Occasionally he has approximated more closely to orthodox views; and he has added notices of the new works that have appeared. However one may differ from De Wette-Schrader, the joint work certainly ought to be consulted.

Schöberlein Schatz des liturgischen Chor-und Gemeindegesangs. A collection of chorales, chants, responses, and so forth, drawn from sources of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with historical and practical explanations, edited by Professor Schöberlein of Göttingen, an authority on the subject. The musical part is superintended by H. Riegel, another authority on church music. It is being published in parts of about one hundred and fifty pages, each costing 1 Thaler. The work has been very strongly recommended both privately and officially.

Schletterer: Geschichte der geistlichen Dichtung und kirchlichen Tonkunst. A history of spiritual poetry and church music in their connection with the political and social development of the German people in particular, which is spoken of as both thorough and interesting. The first part of the book sketches the history of poetry and music among the nations of antiquity; e.g. Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans.

Rougemont: Geschichte der Astronomie in ihren Beziehungen zur Religion. A translation of the work of the well-known French writer on the history of astronomy in its relation to religion. He takes us through the various periods of astronomy, and shows us what influence it had in each case on religion, and religion on it. Interesting.

Rougemont: Die Offenbarung Johannis. An exposition of the Book of Revelation, by the last-mentioned writer from the point of view of such authors as Elliott, Gaussen, Auberlen, and the like. He seems to expect that Christ will really appear for the deliverance of the Jewish nation in

1 Lehrbuch der historisch-kritischen Einleitung in die Bibel alten und neuen Testaments. 1 Theil Einleitung ins Alt. Test. und die Bibelsammlung überhaupt. Von De Wette. Neu bearbeitet von Dr. E. Schrader. Berlin: Reimer. 1870. Price, 23 Thaler.

the year 2000. In one respect he is more sensible than Dr. Cumming none of his contemporaries will live to charge him with being a false prophet. Pfannenschmidt: Das Weihwasser im heidnischen und christlichen Cultus, etc. The author of this treatise on holy water among heathens and Christians, believes that it was first used among the Jews. His historical facts, so far as they are reliable, are interesting, but the use he makes of them, and the theories he builds on them, are singular.

Palmer: Evangelische Pädagogik. The fifth edition of a work on paedagogical methods and principles from an evangelical Protestant point of view. It is calculated, of course, rather for Germans than for Americans; but any one who wishes to see how a good and able German clergyman looks on the school, the schoolmaster, and the relations of the two to Christianity and the church, cannot consult a more trustworthy book.

Dühring: Kritische Geschichte der Philosophie. The design of this work is not to give an account of the philosophical systems that have been successively produced by the human mind; but to ascertain, by critical sifting, how much abiding truth each has been the means of evolving. Its criticisms are often severe, and it does its best to pull down idols. Men whom Germany places in the foremost rank, such as Leibnitz, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, he degrades, and some whom Germany has rather snubbed of late, as Locke, Hume, Schopenhauer, Giordano Bruno, and others, are promoted. The tendency of the book reminds one rather of Lewes's "History of Philosophy."

Fischer: Geschichte der neueren Philosophie. Two new volumes of the second edition of this very detailed history of modern philosophy. They treat of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, and of the system based on this critique; and extend over no fewer than thirteen hundred and six pages! Regarding some parts of Fischer's representation a controversy has long raged between him and Prof. Trendelenburg of Berlin. This has recently become so bitter that, as we have heard, it contributed not a little to bring on the serious illness under which the latter is now suffering. Fischer's is a very able work, although too much protracted.

Th. Zahn: Der Hirt des Hermas. A painstaking monograph on that strange early Christian writing "The Shepherd of Hermas." The author believes it to have been the work of a Roman Christian, of the name of Hermas, who stood at the head of the Roman church at the time of Clemens, shortly after the Domitian persecution; who really had the visions he records, between A.D. 97 and A.D. 100: and who was regarded as a proclaimer of divine revelations. Lic. Zahn takes a totally different view of the work from that of the critical school, and in his negation is right; but whether he is equally right in his positions, we should be disposed to doubt. As giving a complete review of the subject the monograph deserves attention.

Prof. v. d. Goltz: Gottes Offenbarung durch heilige Geschichte, etc.

A series of lectures unfolding the various aspects of revelation in their historical development. The author's idea is a good one; and some of his thoughts are suggestive; but a cursory examination of the earlier lectures left on us the impression of lack of distinctness; which, however, may be our fault.

Thomas: La Resurrection de Jesus Christ. A "biblical study" on the subject of the resurrection of Christ, written as a prize essay. In the first part the facts are examined as far as to the vision of Paul; in the second, the positive, direct and indirect, and the negative proofs; in the third, the consequences.

Mestral: Tableau de l'Eglise Chretienne au XIX Siècle. An attempt to give a complete doctrinal and statistical picture of the Christian church in its various branches at the present moment. On doctrinal matters the author endeavors to let each church speak for itself, though he also tells us when he thinks it lags behind its creed; e.g. especially in the case of the Greek church. The following is in brief the statistical result at which he arrives: Roman Catholics, one hundred and ninety-five millions: Greek church, ninety-five millions: Protestant, one hundred and ten millions. As is usual with continental writers, his description of what are called the Protestant sects, is marked by not a few inaccuracies. The word "sect," always has a remarkable effect on continental theologians!

Böttcher, Dr. F.: Ausführliches Lehrbuch der hebräischen Sprache. The second volume of a new large Hebrew Grammar, which is said to be remarkably full and accurate in the matter of verbal forms. It supplements in several important respects all existing grammars, and as such deserves the notice of teachers of Hebrew.

Gass, Dr. W.: Geschichte der Protestantischen Dogmatik, etc. The fourth and last volume of a very valuable work, designed to exhibit the course and development of Protestant dogmatic theology from the Reformation down to Schleiermacher. This last part treats of "Illuminism and Rationalism," "the dogmatics of the philosophical schools," and "Schleiermacher and his time." The author's own point of view is moderately orthodox, perhaps somewhat freer than we should be disposed to consider consistent with the truth; but his book is learned, well-arranged, and on the whole impartial. Being himself a pupil of Schleiermacher, without, however, accepting all his teacher's positions, the section relating to him is specially full and interesting.

Preuss Theod.: Kaiser Diocletian und seine Zeit. A painstaking account of the reign of Diocletian, which throws new light on some points, though open to criticism on others. Said to be mainly valuable as a clear putting together of the results of the labors of other writers: though the original sources have also been used.

W. S.

COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.'- We have two criticisms to make on this book of Professor Overbeck, and both of them moral (moralisch), rather than critical or scientific. One of them is that the author allows himself to call this a fourth edition of De Wette's Commentary on the Acts, when, as he himself states, his own additions to this fourth edition (De Wette's last being the third) exceed the original work in the proportion of three parts to one. Not only so, but the parts which he adds are so incorporated with DeWette's text as to make this text an appendage merely to his own, for the most part hardly more distinct than the citations which he makes from other writers to whom he frequently refers. To call such an agglomeration a fourth edition of De Wette's work misstates the relation of the two works to each other, and is unjust to De Wette. One effect of this unfortunate plan is that it goes very far to destroy the character of compactness and precision for which DeWette's treatises are justly celebrated.

But this is not the worst aspect of the matter. The other objection is that Professor Overbeck here offers to the public a Commentary on the Acts, under the authority of DeWette's name, written from a stand-point which DeWette not only did not occupy, but repudiated in the most emphatic terms. In the preface to his third edition (the last in his lifetime), De Wette speaks of Baur's critique as not only destructive, but too confessedly extravagant and self-refuting to need any refutation on his part. He terms it "a measureless critique," which, by its own overstepping of all proper metes and bounds, serves only the one purpose of warning us against a path which leads to such results. But the editor in his preface to this fourth edition not only avows himself one of this critical school, but with commendable candor assures us that he stipulated with the publisher that he should be allowed to make DeWette's Commentary a vehicle for bringing his own Baurism before the public, and in fact consented to do the work only on that condition. It is not surprising to be told after this, that the apologetic exegesis of Germany and other lands (meaning that which treats the Acts as a true history, and capable of defence against all reasonable objections) belongs to an antiquated past. He looks upon all commentaries written from that point of view as now quite worthless, except as monuments of an unscientific method and of a credulity which this generation has outgrown.

On its philological side Professor Overbeck's work deserves to be commended. We have evidence of his use of the best results of grammatical study, and of the later geographical works that serve to illustrate Paul's history. The views of interpreters on difficult passages are much more fully represented than in DeWette's briefer annotations.

H. B. H.

1 Kurze Erklärung der Apostelgeschichte, von Dr. W. M. L. De Wette, Vierté auflage bearbeitet und stark erweitert von Lic. Th. Franz Overbeck, A. O. Professor in Basil (pp. liii and 487). Leipzig. 1870.

B. ENGLISH AND AMERICAN WORKS.

THE LIFE OF FRA PAOLO SARPI, Theologian and Counsellor of State to the most Serene Republic of Venice, and Author of the History of the Council of Trent. By Miss Arabella Georgina Campbell. From Original Manuscripts. 8vo. pp. 253. London: Molini and Green. 1869. We have here the memoir of one of the most eminent men of the sixteenth century a noted reformer in the Catholic church. Paolo Sarpi was born in Venice in 1552. He appeared upon the stage at the era when the Reformers were contending with the Jesuits, and was contemporary with Philip II. of Spain, and Queen Elizabeth of England. During his childhood he showed marked intellectual powers; and at the age of fourteen, against the wishes of his friends, he entered the convent of the Servi, one of the mendicant orders of his day. His mind tended towards secular studies, which he prosecuted with great vigor; and while still a young man he became eminent as an historian, metaphysician, and anatomist. Indeed, many claim that he was master of all the learning of his age. He is said to have discovered the inclination of the magnetic needle, the existence of valves in the blood-vessels of the body, and the contraction of the pupil of the eye. Through life he was the friend and correspondent of Galileo, whom he might have rivalled, had he confined himself to the realm of physical discovery. He is known to posterity, however, more by his political contest with Pope Paul V. and by his historical work resulting from it, than by his scientific eminence. With his great learning, Sarpi had a marvellous aptitude for practical affairs, and at the age of twenty-six he was chosen provincial of his order and counsellor to the republic of Venice. The Venetians were at this time nobly contending for their liberties against the papal encroachments. Sarpi saw with the rapid insight of genius that the miseries of Italy were really due to the temporal power of the pope, and this abuse he attacked unceasingly with all his learning, sarcasm, and eloquence. The infallibility of the pontiff he boldly denied, and the world stood astounded to see the poor Servite confront the papal court almost alone. Through his influence, the Jesuits were expelled from Venice with contempt, and so formidable did Sarpi become to the court of Rome that an assassin was sent from that city to dispatch him. The ruffian failed in his purpose, though he inflicted a terrible wound. From this time Sarpi lived in constant danger of assassination; but he conducted himself with great courage, and guided the Venetian republic by his wisdom till the end of his days. During his old age he pursued his attack upon the pope's infallibility, by composing his celebrated History of the Council of Trent, a work which all good judges have pronounced to be a master-piece of ecclesiastical history. He died in 1623, at the age of seventy-one.

Sarpi appears to have had one of those gifted minds, capable of achieving the highest success in everything which he attempted. He appeared to