The doctrinal influences which led to the corruption of a portion of our churches are very manifest. These corrup tions resulted from the notion of a physical depravity in fallen man, and a consequent natural inability to love God and perform spiritual duties. It was because the sinner was regarded as altogether unable to turn to God, that he was urged to use means in an unregenerate way. To what else should he be urged? To repent of his sins and perform spiritual duties he had no ability of any kind; and what should he do, or be directed to do, but to use means with such a heart as he had. It was this state of things which led to the discussions before spoken of, respecting unregenerate means and doings.

It was under the influence of the same notion of inability that the sinner was urged, in many instances, to come to the Lord's table, as a means of conversion; "to come to the pipes," as one expresses it, "through which the healing waters of salvation are ordinarily conveyed to the soul."

And when, in consequence of such instructions, unconconverted men had been committed to the churches, they soon found their way to the pulpits; and so the ministry and church were corrupted together. There can be no doubt that our ministers and churches were spiritually corrupted, years before they were doctrinally corrupted. Arminianism and Unitarianism were in the heart before they took possession of the head.

From this account of the matter, which no one acquainted with our religious history can doubt, we see how utterly unfounded is the charge that Unitarianism came into our churches in consequence of the Edwardean or Hopkinsian theology. It was introduced rather in spite of this theology than by means of it. It was introduced under the influence of some of the mistaken assumptions of the old Calvinistic faith.

Of the theology which has been sketched in the foregoing

Mayhew of Boston. Shute and Gay of Hingham, and Brown of Cohasset all of them opposers of the revival, of Edwards, and his followers. See his Letter to Dr. Moore.

pages, no intelligent Christian, we are sure, has any reason to be afraid. Without pretending to a uniformity in all things, it may be described, in general, as that theology which began to be taught by President Edwards, and has been followed up by such men as Bellamy and Hopkins and the younger Edwards, and West of Stockbridge, and Smalley, Spring, Emmons, Austin, Griffin, Worcester, and Dwight. It is the theology which has been preached in nearly all our revivals for the last fifty or sixty years; which has filled up our churches with young and active members; which has aroused and sustained the spirit of missions; which has fostered and directed nearly all the charitable enterprises of the age; which, so far from conniving at essential errors, has ever been foremost to expose and withstand them; which, while it claims to be the same as the theology of the apostles, has produced, in no stinted measure, the same blessed results. Let this theology be preserved in its purity, and preached in fidelity, free from all foreign admixtures and adulterations, and, we repeat, no intelligent Christian has any reason to be afraid of it. "Wisdom is justified of her children." "The tree is known by its fruits.

ARTICLE VII.

NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

RECENT WORKS ON EGYPTOLOGY, ORIENTAL TRAVEL, AND
GEOGRAPHY.

FEW books of Oriental travel cover so wide a region of territory, and so many places and topics of interest, as are embraced in H. Petermann's two comely and portly octavos. Leaving Berlin in June, 1852, he proceeded by the Danube to Constantinople, arriving there about the first of July. After a fortnight spent in the Turkish capital, in which he accomplished little more than the usual routine of sight-seeing, he went by steamer to Beirut, and from that point began a course of travel and literary and antiquarian exploration in the East, which terminated early in June, 1855, — three years from the date of his departure. By the favor of the late king of Prussia, to whose liberal patronage Orientalists and Egyptologists owe many thanks, - Petermann was commissioned to purchase manuscripts for the royal library, and coins and antiquities for the royal museum - a function which gave a peculiar character to his oriental tour. From Beirut he proceeded at once to Damascus, where he remained until March, 1853. Leaving Damascus with the opening of spring, he journeyed southward through Râsheiya, Hasbeiya, Huneïn, Safed, Tiberias, etc., to Jerusalem, where he spent several weeks, - and then, after various excursions in Palestine, returned by the coast to Beirut, about the middle of August. From Beirut he went again to Damascus, by way of Zahle, Zebedâny, and the Sûk Barada; and after a few days, he set out northward, by way of Baalbek and the cedars, coming down upon the coast at Tripoli, and then following the coast southward to Beirut, with occasional digressions to convents in the interior of the Lebanon. This occupied till the last of September, 1853.

In October, once more starting from Beirut, he followed the coast north- . ward as far as Tarsus in Cilicia, and on his return, visited and explored the island of Cyprus. Again in November, 1853, making Beirut his point of departure, he went to Jerusalem, and thence began his long journey into the interior of Asia; first to Hâleb, thence to Süerek Diarbekir, Maredin, thence to Mosul; from Mosul to Bagdad, following the Tigris, from Bagdad to Babylon, and down the Euphrates to Sûk esch Schiuch, near the junction of the Euphrates with the Tigris. From this point he returned to Bagdad, and thence went down the Tigris, and crossing the Persian Gulf, proceeded eastward as far as Shirâs, and thence to Persepolis

1 Reisen im Orient von H. Petermann, Leipzig. Verlag von Veit und Comp. 1861. Two volumes; pp. 408 and 470.

and Jezd. From this farthest eastward point, he returned by way of Ispahân, Hamadân, Kermanschâh, Kerind, to Bagdad, where he remained five months. From Bagdad he went again to Mosul, by way of Taûk, Kerkûk, Erbil (Arbêla), reaching the site of Nineveh at the end of March, 1855.

From Mosul he varied his return route to Hâleb, so as to include Orfa, and other localities of special interest, and he once more found himself in Beirut early in May. A trip to Egypt, including nothing more than a hasty visit to Cairo, terminated this protracted and most interesting tour.

Petermann devotes much space to the religious sects of the East, whose tenets and customs he had opportunity to study during his long residence at various centres of religious life. The fourth chapter of Vol. i. upon Damascus, is largely occupied with descriptions of the different sects of Mohammedans and Christians in that city. The seventh chapter is devoted entirely to the Samaritans, with whom he spent two full months, at Nablous. His account of their doctrines, their worship, their priesthood, their festivals, and their domestic and social life, is minute and comprehensive. Their doctrine of the spirit-world, of angels and devils, paradise and hell, appears to be a curious mixture of Persian myths with the teachings of Moses. The names of the four highest angels are Fanuêl, the first, under whom are Anusa, Kabbala, and Nasi. Answering to these are evil angels, or devils, of which the chief is Azazêl, and under him are Balial (Belial ?) and Jasara, and a fourth whose name is unknown. Dr. Wilson states that the Samaritans render Deut. xv. 9, "Beware that there be not a thought in thy heart of Belial;" and that they regard Belial as a proper name of Satan (Bible Lands, Vol. ii. p. 49). According to Petermann, they hold that in the day of judgment men will be spirits without bodies; that, consequently, they will not marry, nor have any remembrance of their former life, but the good will become angels, and the bad, devils. From hatred of the Jews, they locate hell at Jerusalem, because it lies near the Dead Sea and its water has an odor of brimstone!--but Paradise will be on Mount Gerizim. Petermann's personal inspection of the Samaritans was much more full than that of any recent traveller.

non.

Appended to his first volume, there is also an elaborate essay on the Druzes, drawn from original sources. This is worthy of being put into English dress. A valuable historical sketch of this singular people was published in the New Englander for 1851, by W. H. Thomson, M. D., of New York, himself a native of Syria, and familiar with the tribes of LebaWortabet also gives an outline of the history and tenets of the Druzes, in his " Religions of the East." But the Appendix of Petermann is more complete and reliable than anything which has appeared on this subject, since De Sacy published his standard treatise, “Exposé sur la Religion des Druzes." In addition to his own researches, Petermann procured from a Christian Arab in Damascus, well versed in the Druze religion, a minute written account of the faith and worship of this mysterious

sect.

In his second volume, our author gives a minute account of the Mandaeans, whom he found at Sûk esch Schiuch, and again at Bassora, near the junction of the Euphrates and the Tigris. Petermann rejects the common orthography Men-daeans and writes Mandaeans, as a patronymic from Manda de hajje "Mandâje." They are known also as "the disciples of John," "Christians of John,” “Sabians," and sometimes "Nazoreans," — which last should be carefully distinguished from the Nasaireans, a sect of Mohammedans. John the Baptist is their Messiah, and the prominence which they give to baptism, a rite which is repeated at stated times upon the same subject, has caused them to be known in church history as Hemero-baptists. They are commonly regarded as descendants of a Jewish sect, which, having received John the Baptist as the promised manifestation of God in the flesh, embraced Gnosticism in its earlier stages, particularly its doctrines of the emanation of Aeons, and of the conflicting kingdoms of light and darkness. John is their Aeon, the manifestation of the divinity.

Norberg, a Swede who visited them in 1780, Gesenius (in Un. Encyc. Art. Zabier), Burckhardt, and others, have given some account of the Mandaeans and their doctrines. But nowhere can be found so complete a statement of their legends, their faith, and their worship, as Petermann now gives in the seventh chapter of his second volume, and in Appendix 46. Our author pays a merited tribute to the character and services of the American missionaries whom he saw at Beirut, Damascus, Hâleb, and Mosul. He characterizes them as remarkably amiable and courteous in their intercourse, and men of scholarly culture. "This enables them to be active in behalf of science; and we owe to them much important information upon the languages, history, geography, and antiquities of the countries in which they have their stations. They have also enriched the libraries and museums of their native land with literary and antiquarian treasures. But their peculiar calling, their missionary work, is with them before everything else."

Petermann happened to arrive at Mosul on his return route, just as the sad intelligence of Dr. Lobdell's death was received. He makes a touching allusion to that event, and gratefully records the kindness he received from Messrs. Marsh and Williams.

Our author was not intent on geographical exploration, and except in the way of incidental allusion, his volumes make little addition to our general knowledge of the countries through which he travelled. But for the special characteristics above indicated, Petermann's Travels in the East will long be a standard book of reference with oriental scholars; though its price, about eight dollars, may restrict it mostly to public libraries. It contains a fine map by Kiepert.

Der Zug der Israeliten aus Aegypten nach Canaan, von Gustav Unruh: Langensalza. The chief point of interest in this brochure is the theory that Goshen lay along the Mediterranean, near the easternmost mouth of VOL. XIX. No. 75.

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