an accompaniment rather than a substitute for other homiletic treatises. Their style, which is free and lively, as well as their arrangement, is more suitable for oral delivery than for the uses of a text-book. To students for the ministry they have the more value and interest as giving an unusual amount of professional and personal information, with many pertinent suggestions and wholesome examples, and the general reader will find in them entertaining reading. Particularly the sketches of Chrysostom and St. Bernard merit high commendation.

A DAILY WALK WITH GOD.*-This is an earnest argument and persuasion addressed to Christians of all denominations in behalf of the liberal use of property, and especially in behalf of daily social worship. First, from Old Testament teachings, showing that, in addition to the weekly Sabbath, by appointing the morning and evening sacrifice, the three annual festivals, the Sabbatical year, and the year of Jubilee, God "released the Jewish Church from toil for the body about one half of the time." Secondly, from the New Testament, showing the practice of our Lord and his apostles, and their first followers, especially in connection with the day of Pentecost. Then, from later historical testimony, that "the daily service introduced by the apostles was continued in the Christian Church," and "generally attended by professing Christians, for more than three hundred years," and "that the neglect of it marks the decline of piety in the Church." The same authorities, among the early Fathers and eminent modern divines, are cited for more frequent communion than is now practised by most churches; and on this point we commend to Congregational and Presbyterian ministers the decided judgment of Calvin and Edwards. The same thing is argued further from the exigencies of the church and the world, and from the blessing that has sanctioned daily assemblages for worship. Another chapter is devoted to answsring objections. Inferences are drawn as to the transientness of revivals and the means of continuing them, and the book closes with "an appeal to Christians of every

* A Daily Walk with God, in his own Ordinances: or the Bible Standard of Duty, as exemplified in the Primitive Christians. By Rev. STEPHEn Porter, Geneva. Fifth revised edition, with an introductory Sketch of the Author's life, by his son, Rev. J JERMAIN PORTER, D. D., Watertown. Rochester: Erastus Darrow, Publisher. 1869. 16mo. pp. 136.

denomination." The earnest piety of the author pervades all his arguments and exhortations. He writes from long and loving familiarity with the subject, and most fervent desires for the restoration of the practice and the power of primitive Christianity. This fifth edition of his work, published by Darrow, is the more valuable for the Memoir prefixed by his son, and the accompanying tributes, since his decease, from other ministers. "Father Porter," as he was called, was one of the most saintly men in Western New York. We are glad to find his work in increasing demand. Its circulation cannot fail to further the end which above all things he desired. Daily prayer-meetings are so much gained in this direction. Young Men's Christian Associations will do well to avail themselves of this volume in maintaining such services. We desire to see it circulated as being (what is stamped on the cover) "a plea for a daily religious service."

NEW EDITION OF PROFESSOR FISHER'S ESSAYS ON THE SUPERNATURAL.*-The new edition of Professor Fisher's Essays on the Supernatural Origin of Christianity is so much enlarged as to demand a new notice. It is so much enlarged and improved, that it will be necessary for all those critics and students to procure and read it, who would be placed at once in possession of the present state of literature and opinion, in respect to the subject of which it treats. The topics which are here discussed must force themselves upon the attention of every clergyman to whom is committed the important duty of defending the testimony concerning Jesus, and of every thinking man whose faith is assailed by the manifold unbeliefs that are current in every community. The candor, ability, and conclusiveness of the discussions contained in these Essays have been universally acknowledged. The additions made to this enlarged edition consist of an elaborate Introduction of thirty-eight pages, presenting a brief summary of the philosophical and critical aspects of the questions concerning the Supernatural Origin of Christianity; and an Appendix of forty pages, consisting of a series of supplementary notes which are, in fact, extensions of the several Essays. Both these additions to the volume add very greatly to its value. Since the publication of

* Essays on the Supernatural Origin of Christianity; with special reference to the theories of Renan, Strauss, and the Tübingen School. By GEORGE P. Fisher, D. D., Professor of Church History in Yale College. New and Enlarged Edition. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1870.

the first edition, great advances have been made in the state of opinion in regard to many of the leading topics. Important concessions have been made by the boldest critics, and the questions in dispute between historical and philosophical writers are narrowed down to fewer points, and are brought within more definite limits. The questions can be easily apprehended by any persons who will take the trouble to acquaint themselves with them, and, when they are once stated, with the arguments for and against. The adversaries of Christianity, whether in or out of so-called Christian pulpits, make the meanwhile noisy and confident boastings that the learning and science of the world are against the supernatural and the miraculons. A multitude of superficial thinkers, and of active minded readers, believe what they hear often asserted and rarely disproved. The unreading defenders of the truth, whether they are learned or unlearned, are frightened out of their wits, lest this boasting may have some terrible significance of reality, or they hide their heads perhaps in the sand. Let them acquaint themselves fully with the utmost that these foes of Christianity have to offer, and they will prosecute their vocation and hold their faith with clearer heads and lighter hearts. The new edition of these Essays is emphatically a book for the times.

PHILOSOPHICAL.
MORAL

PRESIDENT FAIRCHILD'S

PHILOSOPHY.*-President

Fairchild's Treatise on Moral Philosophy was prepared to be used as a text-book in Colleges and High Schools, and is in most respects admirably fitted for these uses. In its leading principles it is very similar to the two treatises by President Hopkins, but in its details it is more directly and felicitously constructed with reference to the convenience of learners and teachers. The style is clear, the sentiments upon many delicate questions of practical ethics are, in the main, true and just, and the tone and spirit are eminently elevated and Christian.

The controversial attitude of a work of this kind towards the late Dr. Taylor seems to us entirely inexplicable and unfortunate. There was no occasion for introducing any such reference at all in a college text-book. The author does not attempt to give any other than the most general classification of ethical theories. His

* Moral Philosophy; or, the Science of Obligation. By JAMES H. FAIRCHILD, President of Oberlin College. New York: Sheldon & Co. 1869.

selection is narrow even from English writers, and his notices of these are merely casual and unsatisfactory. That the views of a single American theologian, whose doctrines and influence on so many points were so nearly akin to those of the Oberlin school, should have been singled out for adverse criticism in a work designed for elementary studies, seems to us an offense against good taste and good feeling, and to exemplify a provincial tendency which we had a right to expect that the Oberlin gentlemen, and especially their catholic minded President, had altogether outgrown.

President Fairchild writes as follows: "Of those which account happiness the supreme good, there are again two classes; first, the theories which represent one's own happiness as the ultimate aim and grand motive of all virtuous action; and secondly, those which regard the happiness of all general well-being, as the end. Of the writers that have maintained the first view, Paley in England, and Dr. Taylor of New Haven, may be taken as representatives. The second view has been maintained by Priestly and Bentham in England, Jouffroy in France, and Presidents Edwards, Dwight, and Finney in America, with others less prominent. Each of these writers has his peculiar views and modes of statement, but the theories may still be embraced in two general classes." pp. 104, 5.

In another passage he speaks of the second class of theories as those "which make happiness the sole good, but find the grand motive for action not in self-love or desire of good, but in the value of the good wherever perceived. All good is to be chosen and pursued; and this choice of good is benevolence, which alone is virtuous action. Many writers have failed to distinguish between these two classes of theories, and have applied to them both the term utilitarianism, which is no more applicable to the doctrine of benevolence, as set forth by President Edwards and President Finney, than to the transcendental views of Zeno and Kant." p. 113.

Of this classification we observe that the points of opposition between the two classes are not necessarily exclusive of another. Neither President Edwards, nor Dr. Dwight, nor Dr. Taylor, would have contended that "the desire of one's own happiness as the ultimate aim and grand motive of all virtuous action" in the sense in which they used these or similar phrases--were exclusive of

or antagonist to "a regard to the happiness of all and general well-being as the end."

Next, the classification according to which Dr. Taylor is placed with Paley, and separated from Dwight and Edwards, seems to us entirely arbitrary and unwarranted. All the pupils of Dr. Taylor know, and the readers of Dr. Taylor's writings ought to be able to discover, that the system of Dr. Taylor was totally opposed to that of Paley in its so called utilitarian characteristic: that the "for the sake of everlasting happiness" of Paley stands for an entirely different motive from "the acting from a regard to their own well-being" spoken of by Dr. Taylor. An attorney trying a case before a country justice might argue that the passages quoted from the two proved a coincidence in their theories, but no person who had studied the systems of both writers ought to confound the two, so far as their doctrine of the desire of happiness is concerned, much less in respect to the spirit of their teachings.

The separation of Dr. Taylor from Drs. Dwight and Edwards, is, in our view, equally unwarrantable. The views of Dr. Dwight may be found in his System of Theology, Sermons 97, 98, and 99, the last of which is entitled "Utility the Foundation of Virtue," and in this the doctrine is explained and defended, that “virtue is founded in utility." It is true that Dr. Dwight did not raise distinctly the questions which Dr. Taylor answers in respect to the universal and fundamental character of the generic subjective desire of happiness, which is common to all special desires, and establishes a relation to itself which is common to every objective motive, but his doctrine was the same in principle, and is occa. sionally announced in words. In Sermon 97, the truly good man is described as one "who seeks his happiness in doing good." President Edwards subjects the question to a more careful analy sis with the following results, which we give in his own language: "Negatively, charity or the spirit of Christian love is not contrary to all self-love. It is not a thing contrary to Christianity that a man should love, or which is the same thing, should love his own happiness." "That a man should love his own happiness is as necessary to his nature as the faculty of will is; and it is impossible that such a love should be destroyed in any other way than by destroying his own being. The saints love their own happiness. Yea, those that are perfect in happiness, the saints and angels in heaven, love their own happiness; otherwise that