no council until summoned by Gregory, the general feeling a council mania, and the assembly at Basle council fanatics - almost the only instance of calling names in the book. The objectivity extends to severe criticism of the papal policy in many cases, to deploring the failure of Martin V. and other Popes to undertake a thorough reform, and to very clear and fair statements of opposing views. Keeping in view the fact that it is primarily a history of the Papacy, the historical perspective, the choice of events upon which to enlarge, is extremely good. The style is entirely without ornament, and a very odd effect is produced on one who reads a number of books with this at finding frequent sentences transferred verbatim from other authors without quotation-marks or other warning, though references are made in the foot-notes. That which makes this book indispensable to the student of this period, aside from its being an authoritative statement of the Catholic view, is the new light which is thrown upon numberless matters of detail.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.

George Burton Adams.

HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. BY GEORGE P. FISHER, D. D., LL. D., Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Yale University. With Maps. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1887. $3.50.

In the "Outlines of Universal History" (noticed in this "Review," vol. v., p. 448), and in the volume now before us, Professor Fisher has provided the two most compact, trustworthy, and best proportioned textbooks in the English language in their respective departments. Would that all text-books could be written by men at once practical teachers and masters of their subjects. The notion that the preparation of elementary schoolbooks may be left to men whose knowledge is only at second or third hand, or even still more remote, should be exploded. The elements of a subject are its profoundest truths. To set them forth clearly, proportionately, with firm discrimination yet without assumption of knowledge, requires a master's hand.

Professor Fisher's church history is not a mere text-book, being written with more of range and amplification than the "Outlines," and for general perusal. It is, however, the fruit of long experience in the classroom, and is preeminently adapted to the needs of students who desire a general and comprehensive knowledge of its subject. In the arrangement of the materials there is a combination of the rubrical and chronological methods, according to the best results of modern periodology and scientific classification. Three eras are marked, with subdivision into nine periods. The epochal year between the Ancient and Medieval Eras is found, rightly we think, in the time of Charlemagne, not in that of Gregory I. The dates for periods are 100, 312, 590, 800, 1073, 1294, 1517, 1648. The second date, 312, assumes an unproved edict of that year (pp. 5, 50). Either the date 311, or better, 313, is preferable. The rubrical divisions are clearly defined under the heads, Missions, Polity, Doctrine, Christian Life, Worship. In the execution of the plan the apportionment of chapters follows faithfully the course of the history, now one topic taking the lead and now another. Fundamentally there are but three main rubrics, Doctrine, Life, Organization. Missions are part of the work of the Church. Worship is one expression of its life. Professor Fisher's development of his general plan is so true

to the subject of the history that it really follows in the main a better rubrical division than is stated on pages 2 and 3, particularly in the association of "Life" and "Worship." The conjunction of "Worship' with "Polity," in one instance, is suggestive of the deeper meaning which the rubric "Organization" should have, and which it gains when it is connected with Doctrine and Life, and appears as one of the three main aspects of historical Christianity.

The relation of Christianity to secular history is a subject which Professor Fisher treats with special fullness, as compared with other church historians. He evidently agrees with Professor Creighton, that ecclesiastical history cannot be written upon merely ecclesiastical lines. No part of this book, which is everywhere instructive and readable, is more fresh and attractive than the chapters in which the events of church history are treated in their connection with political history.

With this topic of the progress of Christianity in its connection with secular history, that of doctrinal history is specially elaborated. The author sketches in a masterly way the course of doctrinal development, and reviews the leading controversies. His judgments are firm, but never narrow nor partisan. They are necessarily compact in statement, yet remarkably clear. Sometimes in a few sentences a verdict is rendered that reveals to any one familiar with the subject the superiority of the writer's powers of historical judgment as well as the comprehensiveness of his scholarship. The method and style in this portion of the book, as elsewhere, are so free from what is technical and professional that the general reader will find it adapted to his needs. It is much to be desired that the members of our churches should become more generally acquainted with the history of Christian doctrine than is now the Professor Fisher's book supplies the needed help.

case.

The topic of Christian Life is allotted a due place, and its treatment shows the same judicious use of the best materials that characterizes other divisions. We cannot but think that there is at present more room and call for new investigation and profound reflection in this province of church history than in any other. Much has been done to show the influence of the Church at different periods in the great spheres of human life, but what was the power that wrought? What was Christianity, as the ultimate spring and motive of life, to its followers from age to age? What was it over and beyond natural religion and natural ethics, Aristotelianism, Confucianism, human reason and the human conscience? Professor Fisher's sections on Christian Life help to the understanding of such questions and show what Christianity has done for men. They stimulate to yet further questionings as to what it is in men.

The author modestly alludes to the liability to inaccuracies of such a work as he has attempted. We have found it noticeably free from minor inadvertences, even in the proofreading. It is well supplied with Maps and Tables, and has a full Index, prepared by Mr. Henry E. Bourne, to whom the author acknowledges still further indebtedness.

On critical questions connected with the earlier history of the church evident pains has been taken to keep well within the lines of established fact and sifted results. This wise caution makes all the more noteworthy the paragraphs which treat of opinions upon theological topics now under discussion as the Sacred Canon, Inspiration, Atonement, Eschatology. The few words on the "Rise of the New Testament Canon (pp. 78, 79) may be particularly referred to for their suggestiveness.

The account of the Origin of the Apostles' Creed on pages 66 and 67, seems to us somewhat over-cautious. In its old Roman form this Creed probably dates earlier than the middle of the third century; and Caspari has, to say the least, invalidated the theory that it sprung from earlier "rules of faith." It seems to be more likely that these rules are expansions or interpretations of the baptismal symbols, of which the old Roman Creed is an example, and for the West the archetype.

In conclusion, while again expressing the hope that the remarkable clearness, fairness, judgment, and literary skill with which this volume is prepared, as well as the importance of its theme, will secure for it a very wide reading in the churches, as well as in the higher institutions of learning, we can assure its author that none will more highly appreciate his service, or be more grateful to him, than those whose duty it is to cultivate the same noble science which he is promoting so industriously and successfully.

Egbert C. Smyth.

CHRISTIAN FACTS AND FORCES. BY NEWMAN SMYTH, author of " Old Faiths in New Light," "The Reality of Faith," etc., pp. 267. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1887.

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These sermons, as the author states in the dedication of the volume, are the product in part of his last year's ministry. They bear on every page the marks of immediate connection with the spiritual life of his congregation. No heat is lost in the passage from the study to the pulpit. Sometimes the message will brook no words of introduction, the preacher contenting himself with a simple reference to the thought of the preceding Sabbath, or with the direct form of personal address, "I wish to speak to you this morning;" while the conclusion of the sermon not infrequently shows the reluctance of the preacher to give over the truth in the hearing which he has gained for it, — " But I must break off my sermon," "I must close with the half not uttered." The sermons have the directness, the timeliness, the throb of sermons prepared week by week in the thought of the spiritual needs of men. They are practical in the sense that the preacher is endeavoring through them to bring the truth which he holds in assured possession to the help of life. Dr. Smyth is evidently a student of human nature and a keen sympathizer with men in their sins and sufferings and wrongs. But his first impulse to preach comes from the side of truth. He does not put into the Scriptures under the stress of life. He starts from out the Scriptures with a message of hope. Many of the sermons in the present volume are the evident outcome of studies in the closing periods of the life of our Lord. And yet they are not studies but sermons. Dr. Smyth knows how to divide in his use of material. The author and the preacher are held, each to his proper function. The sermons show that he has more to say, but one must turn to his books for the philosophical or theological statement.

The ruling idea of this volume is what might be expected in the knowledge of the theological writings of Dr. Smyth. It is everywhere the Christian conception of God, of truth, of life. But the expression of this thought is peculiarly free from the contentious spirit of the times. There is only the most occasional and incidental reference to existing controversies in the Church. The truth, as the preacher conceives it, is stated in its positive and practical relations. And how positive and practical

these relations are, we may discover in the range and direction of thought in the sermons before us. Some of the titles are "The Changed World," "Standing in the Truth," "The Positiveness of Jesus," "The Beginnings of Discipleship," "The Christian Revelation of Life," "A Real Sense of Sin," "Misunderstanding Christ," "The Great Requirement," "The Limits of Spiritual Manifestation," "The Interdependence of all the Saints."

The sermon on "Standing in the Truth " is a remarkably strong and impressive statement of the moral element in Christianity.

"In this one short text, ' He stood not in the truth because there is no truth in him,' Jesus puts before us the real thing to be desired in our anxiety to stand in the truth. And like all other real things of worth to us, this object to be desired pertains to a man's character. The truth must be in us, or we cannot abide in the truth. Having no truthfulness within, the Evil One lost his standing in the truth of God's universe without him. He had fallen from the truth because there was no truthfulness within him.

"This extremest case of Satanic falling from the truth illustrates the whole process of descent of soul from the truth. According to this word of Jesus, we may take it as general law, that a mortal being must himself be truthful in order to maintain his standing in the truth of things. A man cannot know the truth of nature if he cherishes a lie in his heart. The soul must itself be truthful to see the truth. When we exhort men, therefore, to stand fast in the faith, we need, if we would follow Christ's example, to look to it first and last that we and they are in our spirits of the truth. If not, we shall not find by all our logic, sure, sunny standing-place in the truth. . .

"The universe is a moral universe and its forces are honest forces. Soon or late, in this world or another, the end of inward untruthfulness is certain as the law of gravitation. The moral universe can be relied upon eventually to throw out every immoral man. Without are the idolaters, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie."

The following extract from the sermon on "A Real Sense of Sin," shows the discrimination of the preacher in dealing with the more serious aspects of spiritual experience.

"We cannot hold our conception of God, and attach to it a conviction of sin which belongs to another conception of God. We cannot retain a religious feeling or experience which is the reflex of our predominant conception of God, if we have habitually in our mind a different thought of God. For example, when St. Augustine ceased to think of this world as under the dominion of the powers of good and evil, and believed in one true God, he saw the sins of his youth in altogether a new light. So as we change, or clarify, or Christianize our thought of God, our religious feelings will naturally follow that change, and our sense of sin, if it be genuine, will correspond to our thought of what God is, and of what we are towards God. Yet just at this point we are apt to fall into religious fictitiousness. We may not discern how great has been the change which has come over men's thoughts concerning God, and so vainly strive to force ourselves into emotions and convictions which were true to former ideas of God, but which are not true to our prevalent thought of God."

The sermons on "Putting the Witness away (referring to the desire of the Jews to kill Lazarus), on "The Gospel a Gift to the Senses," and on "Zebedee's Absence," are peculiarly fresh in subject and treatment. The most helpful sermon in the volume is on Reconciliation with Life," from which a closing extract is taken.

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"Nevertheless I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, and the day following.' Not to the Son of man alone, but to every man there come inevitable days of life. No human will can escape the necessity of saying at some hour, 'I

must.' Even Napoleon has his St. Helena. We say, 'I will,' and the next day finds ourselves saying, 'I must.' God never suffers us to say the one for many hours without compelling us to say the other. Thoughtlessly we go our way, and look up to find ourselves facing the inevitable. There it is, steadily confronting us. It is hard as the face of a precipice. We cannot go around it. We cannot climb over it. We must stand still before it. There is no word of our English speech which we more cordially dislike than this same short word, must. We will not brook it when spoken to us by other men. Any friendship would be broken by it. Love knows nothing of it. Liberty consists in refusing to speak it when kings proclaim it or any foreign might commands it. Men have died rather than yield to it. Yet nature every day compels us to say it, and hard providences often wring it from broken hearts. There is a strange contradiction between our vital instinct of freedom and this inevitableness of so much of human life. We do not recognize this variance between constitution and necessity in other objects which have their appointed places in the order of nature. We are aware of no contradiction to the nature of matter when we say the molecules of oxygen and hydrogen must combine in certain definite proportions. It would be no insult to a star to declare it must keep true time over our meridian. Nature is one ordered compulsion. But from the first impulse of infant consciousness our human nature rebels against inevitableness. The child has always to be taught the habit of obedience. There is some spiritual power in us evidently created for a free life unrestrained_by outward compulsions. Sin is wild outbreak of freewill, and its curse. But the principle of rebellion against the power of nature over us, and our objection to any outward control, is a constitutional principle of human nature. It is born in us, and we can never be content to say, 'I must,' unless we can say in the same breath, I will.' . . . How we should learn to say 'I must,' is the subject of this morning's sermon."

ANDOVER.

William Jewett Tucker.

PARISH PROBLEMS, HINTS, AND HELPS FOR THE
Edited by WASHINGTON GLADDEN. Pp. 479.
Co.

PEOPLE OF THE CHURCHES.
New York: The Century

This is more than a book, it is a library. Twenty-four writers contribute to its pages. But the volume is so skillfully edited that all confusion is avoided. Dr. Gladden presides over the book with the ease of a master at a feast. He never obtrudes his personality, but it is nowhere wanting, informing the book with rare good sense, clear moral discrimination, and the charm of a direct and practical purpose. The sections from his own pen reveal the writer's fresh, pointed, manly way of dealing with all social and business questions. He is as happy in brushing away the absurdities in the charge of "Stealing a minister," as he is in enforcing upon laymen "The duty of taking office" in the church, or of illustrating "Man's work in the local church." Whatever Dr. Gladden has to say upon these and kindred topics is so full of sense, so healthy in its tone, so bright and so true, that the reader quickly passes from interest to hearty assent.

The origin of the book is ascribed in the preface to Mrs. Margaret Woods Lawrence, whom the editor graciously characterizes as that "elect lady, who, as maiden, wife, and widow, has borne names endeared to the church at large, and who has usually preferred to appear under a mask that has grown transparent with time the literary nom de plume of 'Meta Lander.'" Mrs. Lawrence contributes one entire chapter-that upon the Pastor at Home- and several sections in other chapters; and