"censured," and suspended for a year from his right to sit in convocation. Documents on both sides were published; but the matter did not end there. Gaussen and some friends (Galland and Merle d'Aubigné among them) had been gradually forming an "Evangelical Society" for the furtherance of the Missionary cause, the distribution of tracts, &c. Just at that time an influential member of the Geneva Academy issued a publication in which the doctrines of Our Lord's Divinity and original sin were denied. The new society felt moved to establish a training school in which young people and young candidates might be instructed in sound Christian doctrine. Circulars were sent, subscribed by the three friends, to the Council of Geneva and to other churches outside, vindicating the necessity and propriety of such an institution. The result of this was their expulsion. On September 30th, 1831, the Company of Clergy, without hearing their brethren, declared to the Consistory, consisting of the said clergy and sixteen laics, that the writers must be put away. The Consistory cited the three, but refused to give them written copies of the charges, confirmed the sentence of the Company, and demanded the sanction of the Council of State. The Council, always more liberal than the clergy, allowed six weeks to pass before giving judgment. During that time Gaussen was not idle. He wrote to the Council documents which were afterwards published, in which he showed that the State was about to decide a matter in which all the forms of righteous procedure had been trampled under foot; and, moreover, was about to give a sentence which would decide whether the Genevese Church should return to orthodoxy or declare itself openly Arian. The Council decided in favour of the clergy, but not without censuring them for the manner in which they had conducted their

cause.

Thus was Gaussen driven from his church. He left the scene of fourteen years' hard and conscientious labour. Not anxious about himself, or his maintenance, he was overwhelmed for the church which had been rendered illustrious by so many names, and which seemed bent upon casting out every Evangelical witness. His health suffered, and the effect remained for many years. He travelled in England, where he met with much sympathy; and in Italy, where his anti-Roman impressions were deepened, and he came to the conviction that the Pope was the Antichrist of Scripture.

In the year 1834, Gaussen decided to take a professional office in the newly-established theological institution; he was chosen for the chair of dogmatic theology. His tendency was towards the strictest Reformed orthodoxy; only in the doctrine of predestination he allowed himself a certain latitude. Without giving any very decided expressions to his opinions, he let it be perceived that he believed in Election; the high Calvinist (supralapsarian) doctrine he did not hold. His teaching was very earnest. His personal character, his known and manifest experience of the doctrines of grace, gave him great influence; while he was devoid of everything like philosophical

genius, the strength of his feeling and conviction imparted to his thoughts a certain originality and depth. There were three departments in Evangelical theology which he made his peculiar province; and he engaged himself upon them not only in the interests of his studies, but for the general public. These were the Divinity of Christianity, the Prophecies, and the Divine authority of Scripture. The Divine nature of Our Lord being everywhere attacked, he first mastered the defences of that doctrine. Afterwards, and by an obvious necessity, he was obliged to defend the authority of Scripture; and his best writings were devoted to this subject. In the Theopneustia he defended the proposition that all the writings of the Old and of the New Testament were verbally inspired; his motto being the plain words of Turrettinus: "Quæritur, an, in scribendo, ita acti et inspirati fuerint a Spiritu Sancto, et quoad res ipsas et quoad verba, ut ab omni errore immunes fuerint: adversarii negant, nos affirmamus." The book and its arguments are not addressed to unbelievers and sceptics, but to those who believe in the authority of Scripture, but without admitting its plenary or full inspiration. Hence he does not enter into any arguments to establish the authenticity and credibility of the Biblical documents; but he says to his hearers, "If you believe in the authority of these Scriptures, believe also what they say concerning themselves." They positively declare of themselves that they were perfectly, and word for word, given by inspiration of God. He then shows that, because the prophets uttered the Word of God, what they uttered was the Word of God itself passing through their lips. He adduces the leading demonstrations of this position; and shows that Jesus actually treated the Holy Scriptures as verbally given by verbal inspiration. Then he concludes that the whole Scripture was as a whole given of God, just as in another aspect it was as a whole, and altogether of man. individuality of the writers does not disappear; they are, he says, like the pipes of an immeasurably great organ over which the fingers of the Divine organist have passed. This first part of the book is followed by a second in which objections are discussed and answered. This work had great success in English-speaking lands, and in France itself, where two editions were soon exhausted. That success was due to the boldness of the thesis, the intrinsic importance of the subject itself, the admirable character of many of the writer's judgments and remarks, its literary excellence generally, and its extremely edifying tendency. No French book, scarcely any English book, had written concerning the Bible with such loyalty, and taken such pains to extract and exhibit its beauties. Some parts of it will linger long in the memory of those who have read them; and, whatever reservations, or doubts, or scruples the reader may entertain as to some of the extremest views of the author, it is impossible to read to the end without elevation of heart. The judgment of very few is convinced upon every point in his theory; and it has happened that some have been driven into an unhappy reaction.

The

Edmund Scherer, for instance, whose appointment as theological professor Gaussen had favoured, fell into critical difficulties, came into collision with his colleagues, and in 1849 retired from his post. This gave rise to great searchings of heart; numbers of French divines sympathised with the movement. Scherer himself has since gone a long way in scepticism. All this moved the writer of Theopneustia much, especially as it was openly said that he had brought about this reaction. He prepared another work, which, having passed through his lectures, took the form of an essay on The Canon of Holy Scripture. This is addressed also to those who admit the authority of the Word of God. But, he supposes, the question may be asked, whether among the various books of the scriptural collection one may not have intruded surreptitiously; and whether some inspired document may not have been omitted? He answers these questions with a negative: in the name of science in the first volume, in the name of faith in the second. He declares that science has incontrovertible evidences of the authenticity and the canonicity of the Scriptures to bring forward; and he adduces them accordingly. He then points out that we know by faith that the canon of the Old Testament was entrusted to the Jews, who preserved it with most scrupulous care. Most indisputable facts are in evidence that the providence of God has kept them from corruption. How, indeed, could it be supposed that God, after giving mankind inspired Scriptures, would permit them to be hurt or to be lost? Hence the perfect integrity of the canon is a dogma. It is an absolute whole of fully inspired writings; it is therefore of sole, unimpeachable, and paramount authority, and it contains no error. Such was the strong faith of Gaussen; no difficulties made it quail, and no criticism ever availed to shake it in the least. Of his faith in the Word of God we have a few fine examples in all the leading theological literatures of Europe. They are not many, but they are increasing, on the whole, despite appearances, especially in Germany and France.

It is easy to be understood that Gaussen, with such views of the doctrine, would study with peculiar fervour those books of Scripture which bear on them the characteristics of the highest inspiration. The prophetic books would be sure to exercise a strong attraction on him. He published Lessons on Daniel, in three volumes, an imperfect work, giving the pith of a series of catechetical lectures. It contains nothing new, but sums up the Reformed exposition of the prophet; it shows, however, the width of his reading, the vigour of his language, and the tenderness of his heart. Like all enthusiasts in the interpretation of prophecy, Gaussen attached too great importance to his own and others' schemes of scriptural fulfilment. Another fruit of his catechetical labours was a little book for the young on the first chapter of Genesis. His treatise on the Divinity of Christ has in it nothing very original or very striking.

We honour the memory of this good man. He appears like one of the heroes of the Reformation era in the midst of the theological

pettinesses of his time. His style has some of the graces of the best style of French literature; but his heart was with Calvin, the elder Turrettin, Pictet, and the early Reformed writers, whom, with a few English writers of later date, he almost exclusively read. He studied only Scripture. A society for the exact translation of the Bible he was very active in founding, and laboured in its cause diligently. He pleaded vehemently for Evangelical missions throughout France, and visited often the churches originated in this way. That society, which in the year 1835, on the festival of the Genevese Reformation, first celebrated the Eucharist apart from the national Church, blended in 1849 with the Genevese Dissenters, and now reckons 1,500 members. Gaussen was actively connected with this, but never adopted Vinet's extreme views as to the separation of Church and State. He was kept in a state of severance from the national Church, not by any strong tendency to ecclesiastical freedom, but by his extremely rigorous orthodoxy, on the one hand, and, on the other, by his rooted conviction that every Church should have a confession of faith, a principle that the national Church had long abandoned.

Gaussen lived out his seventy years. In a pleasant villa, "Les Grottes," outside Geneva, he lingered in peace till June 18, 1863, when he departed, leaving only a daughter behind him. Few men better deserve of their country and of their country's religion than he.

Dr. J. A. Bengel's Tischreden. [Bengel's Table Talk.] Reutlingen Rupp.

BENGEL has been more prominent during the last twenty years than ever before since his departure. The obligation of Biblical criticism and exegesis to his labours is more fully estimated now than ever. Many friends were in the habit of collecting Bengeliana, and they are now in a complete form for the first time given to the public. Here are a few specimens of the 387 Apophthegmata that follow the new biography :

"We

"There were seventy disciples of Christ, seventy judges were given to Moses, there were seventy children of Jacob." should not subject religion to the rules of logic; otherwise he who could not well describe his soul must needs be without one." "Artificial music in church fills the ear, and hinders the internal melody of the heart. The pretence that these things are an external means of awakening devotion has opened the door to endless ceremonies." "However erroneous and corrupt the outward Church has been, we owe the preservation of the Scriptures to it: otherwise the history

of Christ would have long ago become a fable. We ought not to be over-eager to accept everything that is said against the visible Church." "In Ps. lxxxvii. we see what Selah means: Diapsalma, the division of a discourse. Down to verse 3 inclusive, David addresses the city of God; afterwards he speaks to God down to verse VOL. XXXV. NO. LXX.

K K

6 inclusively, and Selah occurs again; then the discourse goes back to the city of God." "In Zech. ix. 9 a helper means not a deliverer, but One endowed with help." "Satan came once to an old father and said: Thou dost fast much; I also do not eat and drink; thou dost watch much, I also do not sleep; in one little matter thou dost excel me, that is in humility; I cannot compass that." "There are those who would not go to heaven, because somany poor, contemptible creatures go in there." "In their nature, Word and Sacrament are not equivalent. The Eucharist Christ gave to His disciples, the Word was for all. With the Word I may go to the heathen; with the Sacrament not. The Word makes room, the Sacrament is a seal." 66 "In Holy Scripture the reward of Christians is always reserved for eternity. What God gives them here in this world is only something for their strengthening, to encourage them to run and wrestle afresh." "To the world we should cover, and not expose, the faults of the good. To the devout we may freely speak of the faults of the devout."

Many very impressive sayings are scattered among these anecdotes. There are also some hitherto unpublished documents of considerable value; and some essays which are becoming scarce.

Tableau de l'Eglise chrétienne au XIX. Siècle. [The Christian Church in the Nineteenth Century.] By Armand de Mastral, Ministre. Lausanne, Bridel.

THIS is an important work, exhibiting the ecclesiastical statistics, confessions of faith, and external and internal relations, of the Churches of the world. The author defines the Church as, in its idea, an institution of God, and a fellowship of believers; describes its territorial development, and exhibits its distribution as that of sons and daughters emancipated from the father's house, the original Church. He assigns to the Romish Church 195, to the Eastern 95, to the Protestant 110 millions; making together 400 millions. He distinguishes two classes of Churches: those which assume to be institutions of grace simply, at the one extreme; and those which are merely societies, and refer everything ultimately to the subjective conscience or judgment, at the other extreme. The former are governed by authority in monarchical or aristocratical form; use liturgical worship, and aim steadily at external unity and catholicity as their highest ideal. The latter are the opposite of all this, and are seen in their highest development in the Darbyites or Brethren, the Swedenborgians, the Maronites, the Mormons, and the Unitarians, and the "free Christians" everywhere.

The Eastern Churches are first described: according to their opponents exhibiting the dry and withered traditional stems, according to their friends the pure and true representative, of the original Catholic Church. Their worship is carefully examined, some of their liturgies and prayers translated, and a fair estimate formed of the slight in