SPIRIT OF THE REVIEWS AND MAGAZINES.

BROWSING, as Charles Lamb might say, among the Magazines and Reviews of the last three months, one cannot well help noticing the suggestive fact that several of them vigorously discuss questions of practical morality. In the New Englander, for example, the immorality of speculation is logically demonstrated. In the Quarterly Review (London) gambling is placed in an ethical pillory. In the Contemporary Review immoral literature is strongly denounced. In the Forum the indifference of the churches to the importance of the vital question of the relation which a proper application of the law of neighborly love bears to the solution of the social problem is severely but justly characterized. The Baptist Quarterly Review shows the deadening and secularizing influence of the Sunday paper; points to the bearing which inconstant attendance on church sabbath services and indulgence in driving and social visiting on Sundays have on the alleged neglect of the masses to attend public worship; also utters incisive words concerning the bribery which marred the late presidential election. Our Day utters no uncertain words against the immoral influence of the Sunday newspaper: and the Catholic World boldly places the so-called Trusts, which are such disturbing forces in modern business, in the category of things condemned by sound ethical principles. To the Christian thinker this almost simultaneous treatment in the reviews of questions in practical ethics is an indication that many Christian men are awakening to a perception of the possible and probable disastrous effects of certain practices which are stealthily creeping into the life, not of society only, but also of the churches. Usually, in writing for intelligent readers, the presentation of ethical principles is deemed sufficient to determine their convictions and practice. But here we have those principles vigorously applied to acts which the popular conscience has ceased to condemn, and which many who wear cloaks of discipleship are struggling to baptize with the Christian name. It is therefore apparent that the enormity of the evils condemned, and the growing stolidity both of the public and the Christian conscience, are giving birth to a conviction that no mere reasoning on principles is sufficient to quicken the moral sense, either of society in general or of those Christians who have blinded their own moral perceptions by participation in prevailing wrong practices, and that nothing less than plain denunciation of those profitable and pleasant deeds as being immoralities can prevent the further demoralization of the popular conscience. Hence every Christian thinker must rejoice over the plain, direct, and positive condemnation of existing evils in the Reviews and Magazines of the day.

Looking thoughtfully on the recent history of the Christian Church, one is led to believe that her great adversary, the devil, having vainly tried to destroy her faith through the manifold forms of modern skepticism, is now striving to sap the foundations of her spirituality by the fascinations of an innocent-visaged secularism. Neither atheistic materialism,

nor a religiously-inclined deism, nor a mystic pantheism, nor a plausible and learned rationalism, nor a pretentiously proud scientism, nor a willfully-blind agnosticism has been able to destroy her belief of the truth. In spite of these she stands bravely by her orthodoxy. But she is yet vulnerable in her spirituality, which is her "heel of Achilles." If that can be reduced to fruitless emotion it will become nothing more than the vaporing of hypocrisy, and she will be robbed of all that makes her beautiful in the sight of her Lord and beneficial to the world. And this can be accomplished by blinding her to the fact that true spirituality and strictly moral conduct are co-existent factors. A man who is not moral cannot be truly spiritual. Christ indwells in every spiritual man, and is constantly striving to reproduce his own beautiful ethical life in the visible life of the disciple who calls him Lord. Therefore, to make men fancy that they can do immoral things in their business and in their hours of recreation, and yet be his disciples, is the end now sought by Satan in the present tendency to secularity visible both within and without the Church. Therefore, the Reviews are doing great service to 'the Church, and are valuable coadjutors of her pulpits in boldly denouncing the immoralities which, like hypocritical masqueraders, are pushing themselves into the trade, commerce, and amusements of the times.

The Forum for March has: 1. "The Manifest Destiny of Canada;" 2. "How Society Reforms Itself;" 3. "A Definition of the Fine Arts;" 4. "Advanced Education for Women;" 5. "The Bible in the Public Schools;" 6. "Dreams as Related to Literature;" 7. The Future of the Negro;" 8. Reviewers and their Ways;" 9. "Darwin's Brilliant Fallacy;" 10. Bribery in Railway Elections; " 11. "The Next Postal Reform." The first of these papers is by Professor J. G. Schurman. It treats of the vast extent, the immense resources, the prospective growth, and the political institutions of Canada. It predicts that it is destined not to annexation with us, nor to imperial federation with the British empire, but to be a sovereign power allied perhaps in some way to England, and living in peace and fraternity with the United States. It is a noteworthy paper. In the second article, Edward Atkinson thoughtfully discusses sundry proposed reforms, not in dogmatic form, but tentatively, viewing them on both sides. He claims that in the end the common sense of the people will discover what is really best, and thus genuine reforms will be achieved. In "Advanced Education for Women," Kate Stephens gives a succinct and impressive statement of the "enormous changes that have come about since the end of the last century," in the "educational wing of the woman movement." "The Bible in the Public Schools" is a plausible but fallacious attempt, by Cardinal Manning, to convince Americans that their common schools are nurseries of immorality. He appears to make out his case, because he charges the increase of our civic vices not to the hosts of immoral immigrants, mostly Romanists, who throng our cities, but to our public schools! The drift of the writer favors a denominational school system under which the State would

become the supporter of papist schools in which Catholic children may be taught that they owe a higher allegiance to the pope than to their country. One cannot help seeing the face of a Jesuit peering over the shoulder of the Cardinal when he was writing this paper. "The Future of the Negro," by Professor W. S. Starborough, a colored man, views the race problem very candidly, and, after weighing various possible methods of solving it, concludes that the Negro must leave the South, not en masse, but gradually spreading over the great West, as other Americans do. That there is wisdom in this conclusion who can doubt?

The Canadian Methodist Quarterly for January contains: 1. "Perfect Love;" 2. "The Religious Faculty;" 3. "Gyge's Ring;" 4. "Critique of the Fernley Lecture for 1887; " 5. "Who is God? What is God?" 6. "Salutatory." This is a new candidate for the favor of Canadian Methodists, and it richly merits their approval and liberal support. In its first article Chancellor Burwash presents a well-worn topic in a style and manner which give it an aspect of originality. Yet it is really only the old wine in a new bottle. It clothes a soundly Methodistic doctrine in a highly presentable garb. The second article, by Rev. W. Harrison, is a philosophical analogy of the Religious Faculty, very attractively presented and very ably written. In the fourth article, Rev. J. Graham reviews with a caustic pen Dr. Dallinger's Fernley Lecture on "The Creator and What We Know of Creation." As presented by Mr. Graham, Dr. D.'s premises must logically land him in pantheism. But not having seen the lecture itself, one needs only say here that this review is a specimen of pitiless logic, racy style, and strong sympathy with the teaching of Scripture concerning the Creator and creation. The fifth article, by Rev. A. M. Phillips, is the first part of a sermon on the Fatherhood of God. It is a profoundly thoughtful paper, analyzing with much acute discrimination the causes and processes of the soul's spiritual life. But when the author illustrates his view of the "actual contact" of God with the spirit of man as being "more than a mere touch of our spirits by his Spirit, as hand touches hand; or an inbeing of God's spirit in ours, as water is in a vessel; or a union of the divine and human spirit, as milk and water may be mixed," he implies a degree of mysticism in Christian experience which, accepted by imaginative and undiscriminating minds, might easily lead them into religious fanaticism. Better, because far safer than these mechanical illustrations, is his statement that the spiritual life "is a vital indwelling, a hypostatic union, a divine immanence resulting from the mystical communication of Christ's own life to man's spirit." But would not even this be improved by omitting from it the term "hypostatic?"

The North American Review for March has among its most noticeable papers an essay by Charles Bradlaugh, M.P., entitled "Humanity's Gain from Unbelief," which is skillfully specious and adroitly false in the putting of historic facts. By attributing to skepticism the beneficent social results caused by the development of Christianity, this paper makes the

latter appear to disadvantage and clothes the former in garments stolen from the latter. It may be a false light to unwary minds, but to the wellinformed Christian thinker it will only give birth to a regret that it found a place in this influential Review. Ignatius Donnelly, in "Delia Bacon's Unhappy Story," severely criticises Theodore Bacon's life of his sister, Delia Bacon. Mr. Donnelly, sympathizing with Miss Bacon's opinion that Lord Bacon wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare, severely censure, her brother for giving this biography to the public. He cannot see why a brother should write a book to prove that his sister's Quixotic theory was the offspring of a disordered mind. Nevertheless, Theodore Bacon may have thought that by portraying her as a woman whose rare genius was unfortunately subjected to the control of a fascinating illusion he was doing justice to her memory. In doing this he simply painted her as she was. One may question the taste which led Mr. Bacon to perform this sad task, but is it necessary to ascribe its inspiration to unbrotherly feeling? In "Common Sense and Copyrights," Mr. G. S. Boutwell argues with force, and, as we judge, with conclusiveness, that an international copyright law would be beneficial not to American but to English authors; that it would make books of both countries dearer in America, and thus unjustly tax the reading public. He disposes of the moral claim to copyright by showing that no writer has any property right in either his thoughts or in his expression of them, but that his claim for copyright originates in law grounded on public policy. In "At the Goethe Society," Dion Boucicault writes intelligently of "The Influence of the Newspaper Press upon Art." Among other things he charges the newspaper with so corrupting the tastes of the theater-going public that it demands the "vulgarity, wantonness, and imbecility which now form the staple of public entertainment," which, he asserts, "is an abomination and reproach to the age." We commend this paper to the consideration of those Christians who justify their attendance at the theater on the plea that it is no longer a demoralizing institution. Mr. Boucicault, speaking with certain knowledge, pronounces it "an abomination and reproach to the age!" Our clerical readers will find a symposium on the question, "Can our Churches be made More Useful," suggestive reading. Rev. Drs. Savage, Hale, and Gladden are the writers. Altogether this is a spirited and spicy number of the North American.

The Bibliotheca Sacra contains: 1. "Dr. Nathaniel Taylor;" 2 "The Limits of Ministerial Responsibility;" 3. "The Divine Immanency" (No.4); 4. "Notes on Dr. Riddle s edition of Robinson's Harmony of the Gospels; being a Contribution to a Complete Harmony of the Gospels;" 5. “The Eschatology of the New England Divines;" 6. "Future Punishment and Recent Exegesis; " 7. "Music and Christian Education" (No. 2); 8. "Pseudo-Kranion;" 9. "Critical Notes:" 10. "German Periodical Literature." In the first of these papers Dr. William Woodworth outlines the career of a great thinker who contributed largely to the progress of theological thought in the Congregational churches of New England. It is

vigorously written, and valuable as a résumé of the polemical strife through which the so-called "New Divinity" modified old Calvinism in these churches. In the third paper Dr. James Douglas continues his able discussion of "The Divine Immanency," viewing this doctrine in its relation to instinct. After distinguishing instinct from reason by claiming that, while the latter is self-conscious and self-directive, the former is mechanical and automatic, an impulse which its possessor can neither direct nor control, he proceeds to show, by an array of scientific facts, that there is an intelligence manifested in the impulses and acts of instinct which is not in the animal. Hence, he reasons, there must be an intelligent power directing it. This power must be superhuman, and its origin must be sought in "the source of all intelligence, the Absolute Mind, unless we deny such an existence." He further treats of moral instinct and of the principle or law of sacrifice which "reveals itself as the spirit which pervades the All in the wide economy of nature," and is "divine in its origin." To those whose concepts of the immanence of God are mechanical, some points in this paper may appear to be somewhat pantheistic; but to those in whom the immanent conception is that of the divine will, operative through the whole field of nature, and directing instinct to the ends for which it was given, they will be accepted as presenting a concept of the immanence of God which is in strict harmony with his transcendency, as God dwelling in, yet above and outside, the universe. The sixth paper, by Professor W. A. Stevens, treats with great ability of "Future Punishment and Recent Exegesis." He rightly views it more as a question of biblical interpretation than of theology. He emphatically denies what Canon Row vigorously affirms in his unscientific and unsatisfactory work on "Future Retribution," namely, that biblical exegesis on this question has been unduly influenced by dogmatic theology during the present century. He keenly criticises the exegesis both of Canon Row and Canon Farrar, and discusses with abundant learning the various definitions given by scholars to those Greek words in the New Testament the proper meaning of which is the key to sound scriptural belief respecting the destiny of willful unbelievers in the life to come. After traversing this much-trodden path, guided by an evidently ample scholarship, he reaches the conclusion accepted by the general consensus of leading modern exegetes, "that the New Testament documents teach the eternity of punishment, not in single words merely, not in single sections or books, but inwrought into the very tissue of their historically unfolded doctrine."

The Quarterly Review (London) for January has: 1. "Early Life of Lord Beaconsfield;" 2. "Memoirs of a Royalist;" 3. "Venice, her Institutions and Private Life;" 4. "Letters and Diary of Count Cavour;" 5. "Gambling;" 6. "Dean Burgon's Lives of Twelve Good Men;" 7. "Lord Godolphin;" 8. "Universities Mission to Central Africa;" 9. "Mr. John Morley and Progressive Radicalism." This number of the Quarterly is rich in biographical papers. It critically reviews the beginning of Disraeli's singular career; it gives the pith of the memoirs of Count de Falloux,