to which God has conducted us; (2) along that path which God bids us take; (3) by the light which God affords; (4) with the staff which God provides; (5) to the land which God prepares." As "a biblical study," the volume is disappointing; as a series of sermons, it is interesting and edifying. The "plans" remind us of Reinhard's; they are worthy of attention, as presenting a method of treating a subject in a sermon not very common in this country-the occasional use of which would help to give variety to preaching.

MURPHY'S COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.*-This commentary includes a revision of the translation, arranged according to the parallelism, with breaks to indicate the divisions of the thought; a comment aiming chiefly to bring out the meaning of the psalm, with little attempt at illustration; an introduction prefixed to each psalm, giving briefly what is known of its occasion, subject, and arrangement; critical notes placed by themselves after the comment on each psalm; and a general introduction occupying 50 pages, treating of the place of the psalms in the Old Testament, their titles, nature, and poetical character, instrumental accompaniment, themes, and arrangement. Prof. Murphy is already favorably known as a commentator, and the volume before us is a valuable addition to his works in this department.

VOL. II.t

OEHLER'S THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. The first volume of this important work was noticed in the NEW ENGLANDER for April, 1875. The second volume completes the discussion of "Mosaism," and contains the second and third parts of the work. The second part is entitled "Prophetism," and is divided into two sections. The first treats of the development of the theocracy from the death of Joshua to the close of the Old Testament Revelation; the second treats of the theology of Prophetism. The third part is entitled "Old Testament Wisdom" and treats of the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes,

* A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Psalms, with a new translation. By JAMES G. MURPHY, LL.D., T.C.D., Professor of Hebrew, Belfast, and author of commentaries on Genesis, Leviticus, and Exodus. Andover: Warren F. Draper. 1875. 8vo, pp. viii and 694.

Theology of the Old Testament. By Dr. GUST. FR. OEHLER, late Professor Ordinarius of Theology in Tübingen. Vol. II. Translated by Sophia Taylor. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1875. New York: Scribner, Welford & Armstrong. 8vo, pp. vii and 497. Price $3.00.

and some of the Psalms. We have read with special interest the development of the Old Testament doctrine of the Messiah and of his kingdom. The whole work admirably unfolds the profound significance of the Old Testament. We commend it to the many scholars who are forgetting the old maxim: "Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet; Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet."

THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT.* BY DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D. This work aims to present an inductive analysis of the religious sentiment; it seeks to ascertain what in the mind of man gave birth to religion and is ever breathing into it life. The subjects treated are: The bearing of the laws of mind on religion; the emotional elements of the religious sentiment; the rational postulates of the religious sentiments; the prayer and its answer; the myth and the mythical culture; the cult, its symbols and rites; the momenta of religious thought.

The author starts from the position that mind is co-extensive with organic life. "The distinction between the animal and the vegetable worlds, between the reasoning and unreasoning animals, is one of degree only." "We may be competent to explain the phenomena of mind by organic processes; and equally competent to explain all organism as effects of mind; but we must never suppose an immediate identity of the two; this is only to be found in the formal law common to both; still less should we deny the reality of either. Each exhausts the universe; but at every step each presupposes the other; their synthesis is life, a concept hopelessly puzzling unless regarded in all its possible displays as made up of both." He distinguishes, however, "the laws of mind, regarded as physiological elements of growth" from "the laws of thought, these, as formal only, being held as nowise a development from those." Proceeding from this starting-point, he finds in the laws of thought "the norms of absolute truth." The religious mind "must assume that there are some common truths, true infinitely, and, therefore, that in all intelligence there is an essential unity in kind." He argues against the theory of Nescience as held by Hamilton, Mansell, and Spencer; and against the objection from anthropomorphism, quoting the words of Novalis, "It takes a

*The Religious Sentiment. Its Source and Aim. A contribution to the Science and Philosophy of Religion. By DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D., author of The Myths of the New World." New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1876. Large 12mo, pp. vi and 284. Price $2.50.

god to discern a god." He presents three postulates of religious belief: I. There is order in things; II. This order is one in intelligence; III. All intelligence is one in kind." And he finds "the satisfying and exhaustive conclusion" in "intelligence, not apart from phenomena but parallel with them, not under law but through perfect harmony above it, power one with being, the will which is the essence of reason,' the emanant cause of phenomena, immanent only by the number of its relations we have not learned." The author recognizes religiosity as constitutional in man. His investigations are conducted not in a denying and destructive, but in a constructive spirit. The work evinces much intellectual vigor and an extensive range of reading, and is suggestive and quickening to thought. But the author does not reach, by his course of thought, the personal God, to whom we can cry "Our Father;" and the idea of our own personal existence after death, "potent as it has been as a moment of religious thought, must be ranked among those that are past." "We are driven back to the teaching of Buddha, that true thought alone is that which does not die." Religion is "Expectant Attention, directed toward an event not under known control, with a concomitant idea of cause or power." The one message of all religions is, "Seek truth; do good. Faith in that message; confidence in and willing submission to that order, this is all the religious sentiment needs to bring forth its sweetest flowers, its richest fruits." This result would seem to indicate that there has been some defect in the premises or some error in the reasoning. It cannot satisfy the religiousness of man nor nourish his spiritual growth. The author aims at reconstruction; but his words seem rather the wail which Goethe ascribes to the spirits who were bearing away from sight the fragments of "the beautiful world:"

"Woe! woe!
Thou hast destroyed
The beautiful world
With powerful fist;

In ruin 'tis hurled

By the blow of a demi-god shattered.

The scattered

Fragments into the void we carry,
Deploring

The beauty perished beyond restoring."

MORAL CAUSATION.*- Mr. Patrick Proctor Alexander's very lively and readable treatise upon Moral Causation, has passed to a second edition. We cannot be surprised at this, for it is one of the most spirited metaphysical tractates to which this fruitful age has given birth. The immediate occasion of it was a still briefer essay entitled Mill and Carlyle, which contained a few brief comments of the author upon Mill's doctrine of Freedom, as expounded in his examination of the philosophy of Sir William Hamilton. Of the volume containing these comments Mr. Mill vouchsafed a somewhat elaborate notice in the third edition of "the Examination." This notice called forth the present volume in which Mr. Alexander devotes himself to a deliberate assault upon all Mr. Mill's utterances in respect to moral freedom and follows him up without mercy in a series of acute and humorous criticisms which are not easily outdone in any metaphysical discussion within our knowledge. The author is evidently master of his subject, and with all the humor which he allows himself, he connects a thorough mastery of his topic in all its relations. He spreads himself moreover into all the kindred fields of inquiry, and discusses with great ability most of the fallacies which are held by the modern materialistic and associationalistic school. We would advise all our readers who would enjoy a feast of wit and wisdom together to procure and peruse this acute and lively treatise.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL.

LIFE AND LABORS OF DUNCAN MATHESON.t-The employment of lay-evangelists in popular awakenings is not so much an invention of our times as many seem to suppose. More than fifty years ago laymen in New Haven churches went out, two by two, into various towns, as far as forty or fifty miles, holding religious services, and virtually preaching, though only for a season. The Haldanes of Scotland earned a wide and honorable repute as evangelists, giving their time and wealth to the work, the younger not only in that country but on the continent. This sort of activ

* Moral Causation, or Notes on Mr. Mill's Notes to the chapter on “Freedom,” in his third edition of his "Examination of Sir W. Hamilton's Philosophy." By PATRICK PROCTOR ALEXANDER, M.A., author of "Mill and Carlyle," etc., etc. Second edition, revised and extended. William Blackwood & Sons. Edinburgh and London. 1875.

Life and Labors of Duncan Matheson, the Scottish Evangelist. By the Rev. JOHN MACPHERSON. New York: Robert Carter & Bros. 1876. 12mo. pp. 392.

ity is, however, more common and more organized in our day, and is brought more fully into sympathy with churches and pastors of different denominations. The volume before us is an account of one of the most remarkable and successful evangelists, who died in 1869, only forty-five years old, his vigorous constitution giving way under arduous and protracted labors. He reminds us of Mr. Moody in his strength of faith, devotion to the Bible, passion for saving men, physical energy, good native powers with imperfect education, and especially buoyancy of spirit and sympathy with the masses. Of the two, Duncan Matheson seems to us intellectually superior, though not working in such conspicuous positions, nor with such helpful combinations. Besides his work in Scotland, which was more largely out-door preaching, he devoted himself with wonderful enthusiasm and success to the help of the British troops and others in the Crimean campaign, as a Bible-distributor, nurse, and philanthropist. To this vocation of a Christian worker he gave up his trade, which was that of a builder, expending himself in disinterested toils that won for him the confidence and good will of all classes. In common with Mr. Moody, he placed himself beyond all suspicion of mercenary motives, and we think this distinction should be carefully noted in behalf of those "evangelists" and "revivalists" for whom it can be claimed, in contrast to some who are said to have built up a more lucrative business in this line than the regular ministry could furnish. This memoir is made up largely of letters and journals, though we observe, to the credit of the subject, that he did not number his converts. The editor has given more of his own comments and reflections than seem needful, and perhaps even the evangelist's labors are reported in too minute detail; but the record is inspiring, as of a rare Christian workman and a noble life.

FORTY YEARS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE.*-It is related of two eminent missionaries of our American Board, in the same field, that in a house where they were hospitably entertained, on being offered in turn the most comfortable chair, one of them, being of a somewhat austere and gloomy habit, refused it as a luxury which a self-denying missionary must forego, while the other, as

* Forty Years in the Turkish Empire; or Memoirs of Rev. WILLIAM GOODELL, D.D., late Missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. at Constantinople. By his son-in-law, E. D. G. PRIME, D.D. New York: Robert Carter & Bros. 1876. 12mo, pp. 489.