good way beyond Samuel, dating, in short, from Moses, and that the centre and symbol of it was the worship of Jehovah, which was restored, not created, by the greatest of the Judges. And we consider that no argument as to the date of the two chief monuments of the early poetic literature the Oracle of Jacob and the Song of Deborah -is, on the whole, so plausible as that which refers them to the period of the Judges, not long before Samuel, perhaps, yet enough before to indicate for the type of the religion and for the name of the God of Israel an age some generations earlier than Bishop Colenso is willing to allow.

It is but just to add, however, that the argument is, in the nature of it, an uncertain one. The Song of Deborah may be, as he urges, a later composition, — in short, an artificial ode, instead of the genuine lay or ballad which we have taken it to be. We are by no means prepared to meet (except on the general grounds we have stated) the argument which makes it later than Psalm lxviii., with whose language, in one passage, it is so strikingly parallel, - the name Jehovah being found in the ballad, and Elohim in the Psalm, in phrases otherwise exactly similar. Indeed, the whole argument from the language of the Psalms is stated by Bishop Colenso with great skill, and is, we believe, in large part original with him. By careful comparison (which every reader may verify in the common version), he establishes that the Psalms are clearly divided into classes, corresponding, no doubt, to periods of the history strikingly differing in their religious phraseology, and that those which on general grounds we should consider oldest are also those in which the older name, Elohim, is almost, if not quite, always used.

At the same time, it must be remembered, that in the latest period of the history, as well as the earliest, the name Jehovah disappears. Thus, in the Book of Nehemiah, where "Elohim" constantly occurs, "Jehovah" is found in only a few formal religious phrases. In the vigor of the national existence, the personal name of the God of Israel was the symbol at once of spiritual courage and confidence, loyalty and faith, a protest against idolatry on one side, and against superstition on the other. So it continued while Israel was an independent nation. In the earliest age, it is lost in the darkness of idolatry and civil anarchy; towards the last, it disappears from current use in the shades of superstition and the gloom of subjugation. That it became the symbol, in the better age, of the national life and of the popular faith, was due to the noble and devout founders of the Hebrew state; probably to Moses, who had cherished it in passionate adoration during his sojourn in the desert; * certainly to Samuel, whose true service, as the first and grandest name in the Hebrew prophetic literature, has never been more clearly set forth than in the present treatise.

A LARGE number of excellent compilations prepared for single churches testify to the want, widely felt, of some manual which may

*See Ewald.

bring our forms of public prayer somewhat nearer the ancient standards. If we single out for special notice the manual just issued by Messrs. Walker, Wise, & Co., it is not for invidious distinction, but for these two reasons; that it has the sanction given it by a certain concert of action between two liberal communions in England and America; and that its excellence is assured by the eminent name and the alike lofty and cultivated intellect of its principal compiler, Mr. Martineau. It is distinguished from most attempts of this sort in not being a mere compilation, but including a considerable amount of matter freshly composed, expressly to clothe new devotional thought in language as much as possible like the time-hallowed forms of psalm or liturgy. And this not only in forms of prayer composed for special occasions or moods, but in a peculiar style of modern psalm, or "canticle," in which the Christian language and thought is frankly substituted for the Hebrew. In the following example, the reader will acknowledge the extraordinary skill, and the richness of spiritual diction, with which this difficult task has been achieved.

"Lo! at length the True Light: - light for every man born into the world; Kindling the face of them that receive it: till they become the sons of God. Cease, blinding glories of the heavens: which none could see and live! Cease, gross darkness of the earth; where the righteous put forth their hands and fear!

The veil between is taken away: and the mingling day-spring comes; No longer is the dwelling of eternal life too bright above: and the perishable world too dark below.

and truth;

The Son of God hath dwelt among us: full of grace The Son of man hath got up on high: made perfect through suffering for the holy of holies.

He is our peace: giving us access by one spirit to the Father;

No more strangers and exiles: but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

6

O Lord Almighty! we had said of thee: Thy thoughts are not as our thoughts';

But thou hast looked on us as with the pity of a man: and raised us to think the thoughts of God.

We had said, 'Our righteousness reacheth not unto thee: or to the holy ones of thy presence';

But thou hast made one family, there and here: one living communion of seen and unseen.

We had said, 'Thou layest men fast in everlasting sleep': but lo! they sleep into everlasting waking.

Blessed be the Lord God, that giveth beauty for ashes: and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

The one sanction which could establish a genuine 66 common prayer' in any considerable number of churches must be either antiquity, authority, or general consent. The last is as little likely as the others are impossible. So that it is difficult to judge the work before us from the only point of view from which it could be fairly judged. We

*Common Prayer for Christian Worship, in Ten Services for Morning and Evening; with Special Collects, Prayers, and Occasional Services. Boston: Walker, Wise, & Co.

are obliged, against our wish, to think of it as a work of literary art, and not as the long-sanctioned and familiar guide of devotion, which our very definition of a liturgy seems to demand. We also look at it, unavoidably, with reference to our personal feeling and want, rather than the uses of a congregation; and, in such a book as this, we seek the utmost range and copiousness of material, as a manual of devout thought. In this view, we regret the repetition of matter in a book where we would have the utmost completeness and condensation, -as for instance, in the Te Deum, which is given in full no less than five times. And we equally regret the omission of some arrangement (at least) of the Hebrew Psalms, which more than all other compositions seem essential to the order of public worship; together with other omissions, made, we suppose, on the score of taste, as, for instance, that passage in the burial service, of so rich and mournful cadence, beginning, "Man that is born of woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery." The repetition and the omission alike impair the uses of the volume as a manual of devotion, which are what we chiefly desire in it, while its use as a strictly ordered form, of general acceptance, it would be quite premature to anticipate.

There remains to it, however, the high sanction which we mentioned at first. And, along with this, we think it will be found that no similar volume contains so large a variety of brief petitions and thanksgivings, so chaste and elevated in their diction, and combining, with so delicate skill, the richness of modern devotional thought with the simple gravity of the antique form.

In

THE new Hymn-Book of the "Christian" sect* is too excellent to be passed unnoticed. It has been compiled with extraordinary skill, care, and research, and in its convenience as a manual for use in the church is unsurpassed by any collection that has been published. the arrangement of subjects, in the aids given for selecting suitable hymns, and in the helps offered to memory, it is as nearly perfect as any book is likely to be.

We can only state concisely the special practical excellences of the book. 1. The large number of hymns, 1,188 in all. 2. The hymns are not (with one or two exceptions) printed on the two sides of any leaf. 3. Nearly all the hymns are adapted to some text of Scripture, to which reference is not only made in the heading of the hymn itself, but in a systematic index. 4. There is not only an index of the first line of every hymn, but of every stanza. 5. The alphabetical index of subjects is very full, and the topics are arranged and classified with unusual precision. 6. While there are many new hymns, most of the favorite standard hymns are retained, original readings are restored, while many less familiar fine hymns of the old composers are restored Some alterations, however, have been made, both tasteless and unwise. 7. Nearly all the hymns are adapted to musical expression,

to use.

The Christian Hymn-Book, for the Sanctuary and Home. Boston: Crosby and Nichols. 1863. 12mo. pp. 800.

and are such as choirs can readily sing, having few difficult or exceptional metres. The book is distinctly a collection of hymns, and not partly of devotional poetry. 8. The tone is cheerful, hopeful, and inspiring, more lyric than elegiac.

The chief objection which we have to make is to its materialistic views of redemption, of the future life, and the joys of heaven. Many hymns seem to set forth the "blood" theology, and to imply a vicarious character in Christ's sacrifice. The hymns which express affection for Jesus are frequently superstitious in their extravagance; and in one or two instances the doctrine of his actual Deity seems to be involved. There is a too literal interpretation of Scripture imagery, and a preference for this literalness. The elimination of about two hundred hymns of this materialistic kind would leave an admirable collection.

SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY.

We are always indebted to the luminous and faithful report of the annual progress in science and art* for some of the most agreeable and suggestive reading of the year. It is inevitable that such a report should contain much that is hasty and crude, which a few years more will winnow out from the accumulating mass of sound knowledge. In fact, a part of its value consists in reflecting the actual phase of scientific opinion as well as knowledge, and treasuring up some things for future curiosity among a good many other things for future use. Of the many points of interest it offers, we need barely mention the experiments going on, on so vast a scale, in the great science of attack and defence, the scientific investigations followed, in the heat and thunder of battle, under the walls of Sumter or the blazing bluffs of Vicksburg. We have marked, besides, several matters pertaining to the regular and peaceful advance of discovery, which have quite as genuine interest in our time.

The doctrine of the "conservation of force" has been curiously illustrated in many ways in these last years, some experiments verifying, within a very narrow margin, the statement that the amount of muscular power which can be got by any animal from a given quantity of food represents precisely the amount of heat "obtainable by burning that quantity of food." (p. 188.) Practically, as applied to the economy of the arts, this doctrine has immense importance. Heat, like current coin, is a common measure of a great many sorts of value. Light, electricity, weight, resistance, nervous or muscular force, all have their expression on this common scale. The twelve million "horse-power" of steam in actual use in England represents a definite amount of heat actually shed from the sun in the "carboniferous era"; and the "conservation of force" has a practical illustration in devices for compressing the waste of coal-mines, and furnaces with " regenerating chambers," or decomposing jets of water, for the fierce heat to be got from the gas it generates. In the "aniline dyes" of purple and

* Annual of Scientific Discovery; or, Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art for 1863. Edited by DAVID A. WELLS. Boston: Gould and Lincoln. 12

VOL. LXXV. 5TH S. VOL. XIII. NO. I.

crimson, distilled from coal-tar, we have, again, a sort of glorified ideal of utilitarianism. Among the more interesting recent applications of science to the uses of life, we have methods of making distilled water fit for common use; paper substituted for iron in pipes for gas or water, of wonderful lightness and toughness; aluminum employed for the most delicate weights in the chemist's balance; and the intense brilliancy of the electrical light put to service in light-houses. While met◄ als that were never known till discovered in the lines and tints of the prismatic spectrum thallium and rubidium · are likely to find their place in arts of beauty or utility.

Along with these practical matters we have something of the speculative side of science. Of this, the two most notable examples are the extremely interesting researches in "spectral analysis," of which a brief account was given a year ago, and the daring and hazardous observations made in a series of balloon ascensions by a pair of English aeronauts, who reached the astonishing height of about six miles, and had nearly perished in the intense cold (-20°), which rendered one of them quite insensible. These make two valuable and curious episodes in the present Annual. It would appear that two years ago, in the summer of 1861, the tail of the brilliant comet did actually envelop the earth, without causing so much as the quiver of a magnetic needle. New observations of Saturn's ring, the recently discovered companion to Sirius, the disappearance of certain nebulæ, and photographic "autographs of the sun," testify the unfading interest that belongs to the grandest of the sciences.

But on the side of observation and theory, by far the greatest interest is found in the recent studies of geology. It is instructive to hear of the ancient beds of rivers and lakes, and the agency of glaciers in shaping them; it is startling to be told that Vesuvius is probably degenerating to a mud-volcano; and our notion of the great central forces of the earth is helped by the magnificent imagination of the slow upheaval and subsidence of continents, through long geologic periods, in a series of changes which is far from being at an end. But these are quite subordinate to the testimony which they suggest and illustrate respecting the changes in animal life, the antiquity of man upon the earth, and the periods of civilization before all records of human history. This curious and fruitful field, more than any other, characterizes the scientific research of these late years; and a very fair statement of the general result is found in the volume which makes the subject of this notice.

THE particular question raised in the foregoing class of investigations is discussed with great fulness by Sir Charles Lyell, in his recent volume.* It may be defined as an inquiry into the earliest civilization of Europe through the testimony of geological records, and the connection of the primitive history of man with past geological periods. It

*The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man, with Remarks on Theories of the Origin of Species by Variation. By SIR CHARLES LYELL. Philadelphia: G. W. Childs.

8vo.