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conversion were peculiar, and should teach a lesson to Protestants. He was bred a Baptist, in profound ignorance and still more profound contempt of the worship, the doctrines, and the members of the Romish Church. Till the age of thirty-two he was not a believer in the truth of Christianity. But at that age he became convinced of his error, and acting on his new faith, he joined the Disciples, i. e., the Campbellites. Three years after he removed to Oregon, with his family. Here, near Fort Vancouver, he attended High Mass, on Christmas, at midnight. He had never before witnessed one of those impressive spectacles by which that Church exerts such marvelous power. He was awed and elevated by the sight of the ceremonial, and its effect on the worshipers. Thenceforward his attention was aroused to the consideration of the claims of the Church. He studied Campbell's debate with Purcell, but was not convinced by the apostle of his sect. He sought other writings, and doubtless conferred with living Romish teachers, though he does not acknowledge it. After eighteen months' earnest and apparently honest inquiry he became a Romanist, and has written the volume before us to exhibit the arguments on both sides, which were considered before his decision.

There is no great marvel in the fact that a simple-minded man, with no deeper grounding in the nature and evidences of Protestant Christianity than the gospel according to Alexander Campbell would impart, should go through a process like this. Indeed, it would be easy to show that the Romish Church and Campbell teach a view of Christianity which is radically defective in two similar particulars. We refer to the view common to both, in respect to the nature of Faith as the condition of salvation-and in respect to the nature of the Sacraments as the channels of grace.

The circumstances attendant on Gov. Burnett's conversion illustrate the adaptation of the Romish system to captivate a very large class of unstable, because uninstructed, of self-relying, because active-minded men, in such new settlements as Oregon. The hope of Protestantisın in such regions is a thoughtful and educated ministry; and the supply and strength of such a ministry is a Protestant American College. A worthy son of a noble New England sire, and one of the worthiest Christian scholars whom New England has ever seen, has been begging, for a score of months, for the means to establish such a college in Oregon; and yet Oregon is so far, and so young, that those to whom he addresses his plea find in its distance and its youth-which of them

selves are the most decisive arguments for the necessity of such an institution-the sufficient excuse for responding slowly to its call.

We hope this book will be a service to Protestantism in the way in which it is fitted to be eminently useful-for we are sure no one will find the arguments difficult to meet and answer.

THE CRUCIBLE.*-In its scope and aim, this book supplies a desideratum in our religious literature. The subject it discusses, however, is one of great difficulty and delicacy. Most writers, in laying down tests of a regenerate state, are apt either to overlook the necessary diversities of Christian experience, which arise from differing circumstances and diversities of natural temperament and endowments, or else to lay down tests, not so much of regeneration, as of an advanced stage of sanctification; in both cases, constructing a sort of procrustean bed for young converts, ill-adapted often to their actual condition and wants. Such, in truth, with all its excellencies, is "Edwards on the Affections." The work before us has a wider reach of plan, and indicates a juster appreciation of the various elements which enter into the formation and expression of the Christian life. The subject is discussed under a three-fold aspect; first, Unrecognized Regeneration, or Faith without Hope; second, Unrecognizable Regeneration, or Hope without Faith; and third, Recognized Regeneration, or Faith and Hope. The first is a topic not usually considered in discussions of this sort, yet it is obviously one of no inconsiderable importance. The encouragement of persons who, though professing not to be converted, in reality are, may be as much a pastor's duty as the discouragement of those who, though professing to be converted, in reality are not. In a question of such vital concern to a man, as whether or not he has experienced that inward change which constitutes the beginning of true religious life in the soul, the ultimate appeal, of course, under the light of Revelation, must, for himself, be to his own consciousness, and for others, to that only safe rule, the one laid down by our Saviour, "By their fruits." Yet any discussion that shall wisely concentrate and apply the Scriptural light, guide consciousness, or aid in testing the fruits, may be of inestimable service, not only to individuals in the work of self

* The Crucible; or, Tests of a Regenerate State. Designed to bring to light suppressed hopes, expose false ones, and confirm the true. By Rev. J. A. GoODHUE, A. M. With an Introduction by Rev. Edward N. Kirk, D. D. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1860. pp. 352.

examination, but to pastors also, and all who are called to interest themselves in the religious experience of others. Such a discussion, we think-though we have not had time for a thorough perusal of it—is the one before us. It is clear, evangelical in spirit, practical in method, evidently intended to do good rather than propound a theory, and while all the views expressed cannot be expected, on such a subject, to meet with universal approval, the work, as a whole, we doubt not, will be received with favor, as an honest and earnest effort to promote the cause of vital godliness and the purity and efficiency of the churches. The endorsement of Dr. Kirk, so thoroughly and practically conversant with the whole subject, is a sufficient guaranty of the general soundness and value of the work.

THE POWER OF JESUS TO SAVE.*-A faithful and earnest effort to commend the Gospel of Christ, as a renewing, sanctifying, and saving power, to the hearts and consciences of men. It is not a theological treatise, but a practical appeal. The views expressed are thoroughly evangelical, and there is breathed throughout a spirit of Christian love, and of tender solicitude for the salvation of souls from sin. Like most Scotch treatises on similar topics, it is not original, not brilliant, not characterized by any particular attractiveness of style, but earnest, plain, Scriptural, practical.

CHRIST IN HISTORY.-This is a new and revised edition of a work first published some years since, and received with much favor by the Christian public. Dr. Turnbull is well read in the facts and philosophy of history, and is well known as an able writer, and, in the main, an original and philosophical thinker. In the work before us, without attempting a complete philosophy of history, he aims to give an exposition of the relations of Christ (taken as the highest expression or man ifestation of God) to the history of the world. He takes the Incarnation as the central or turning point in this history, and undertakes to show how all the forces of society converge around it-how all preceding

* The Power of Jesus to Save to the Uttermost. By the Rev. A. J. CAMPBELL, Melrose. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1860. pp. 329.

+ Christ in History. By ROBERT TURNBULL, D. D., Author of "Genius of Scotland," "Pulpit Orators of France and Switzerland," "Life Pictures from a Pastor's Note-book," etc. New and Revised Edition. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1860. pp. 540.

history prepares for it, and how all succeeding history dates from it. In order to develop this fact, the reader is taken back to central facts and principles, in other words, to the fountains of history, in the nature of God and the nature of man; and the point pressed upon his attention is, that the history of the world, ancient and modern, can be understood only with reference to Christ. The investigation touches, of course, the leading characteristics and evidences of Christianity. It is shown to be not only a historical reality, but a Divine and supernatural power, by which all other realities and powers are explained and controlled; in a word, is shown to be, in its interior relations and vital energies, nothing less than the presence of God, through Jesus Christ, among men, renovating the hearts of individuals and preparing the transformations of society. The work will be read with profit by those whose minds are inclined to speculate on the topics which it discusses, and by those whose business it is to instruct in the great principles and relations of the Christian system.

THE STARS AND THE ANGELS.*-Ingenious minds find great pleasure in speculating on recondite themes, whether of Nature or of Revelation; and ingenious Christian minds are naturally inclined, in their speculations on these themes, to attempt to reconcile the two classes, wherever there is supposed to exist any discrepancy between them. The anonymous author of "The Stars and the Angels" has given us, under this title, what may be called a series of meditations, or discussions, on the harmonies of Science and Revelation. He starts with the idea, not only that Nature and Revelation both have their common source in God, but that the facts of both are alike under the control and operation of law, and that all law is, in its existence, but a constant testimony to God's infinite wisdom and goodness, and in its operation a visible exhibition of his present power. In the work before us he applies this principle to a consideration of the operation of law in the natural history of creation. He is thus led to pass in review first, and with reference to their bearing on Revelation, the leading facts of science, particularly of Astronomy and Geology, (" the Stars,") and secondly, with corresponding reference to their bearing on Science, the leading facts of Revelation, including man in his character and relations, spirits good and evil, the resurrection,

*The Stars and the Angels. Philadelphia: William S. & Alfred Martien. 1860. pp. 358.

and other points of eschatology, ("the Angels.") The book abounds in speculations some ingenious and suggestive, some bold, some baseless, and some few crude, and ill-accordant, in our view, with sound science or correct exegesis. There is everywhere apparent, however, a deep reverence for the Bible, and a disposition to give it a fair and honest interpretation. The religious views expressed are thoroughly evangelical. There is little or nothing to disturb the religious faith or prejudices of any one; while there is much to quicken thought and lead the mind to enlarged views both of nature and of nature's God.

MAN, MORAL AND PHYSICAL; OR, the Influence OF HEALTH AND DISEASE ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE.*—The subject of this book needs to be more thoroughly understood than it is, both by clergymen and physicians. The clergyman, on the one hand, is apt, in his ministrations, to lose sight of the influence of bodily states upon the condition of the mind and heart, and the physician, on the other, is too prone to think he has little to do with the mind in the care of the sick. Not only are these two opposite tendencies more or less manifest in the two professions, in the spheres belonging to both, occasioning a deficiency in the ministrations of each, often of a most deplorable character; but there sometimes is a clashing between the two professions on ground which is rendered common to both by the ultimate connection between the spiritual and the natural, a result which might readily be prevented if the principles so well developed in Dr. Jones's work were properly understood and appreciated. We apprehend that the deficiency is greater, ordinarily, with the clergyman than with the physician, in respect to this common field into which they are called to labor, for two reasons. First, the clergyman is not familiar, as the physician is, with the nervous system, that curiously constructed set of organs which so mysteriously and so intimately connects the spiritual part of man with the natural. And, secondly, the melancholy so often occasioned by bodily states, has so near a resemblance to that mental state which a certain class of religious considerations is calculated to produce, that it is difficult for one unskilled in investigations of bodily disease, to make the discriminations requisite for deciding the nature of the case.

* Man, Moral and Physical; or, the Influence of Health and Disease on Religious Experience. By JOSEPH H. JONES, D. D., Pastor of the Sixth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. Philadelphia: William S. & Alfred Martien. 1860. pp. 300.

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