Voices of the Soul Answered in God. By Rev. JOHN REID. 12mo., pp. 374. Nisbet & Co., Berners Street, London. 1865. *

This volume contains much sterling thought, and will repay a careful perusal. It leaves a solemn impression on the reader, and is well fitted to interest him in the study of religious truth. A work so good as this ought to have been better. It might be improved by more definiteness of statement. What, for example, does the writer mean by saying, "The soul of Jesus was greatly agitated in view of his approaching passion; but yet I cannot think that corroding care disturbed his spirit, or blighting anxiety withered his heart" (p. 332). Does this mean that Jesus was not exceed

ing sorrowful even unto death," or that he did not sin amid his baptism of grief? 'Estrangement from God is from its nature eternal; that is, left to itself, it must continue for ever." "As estrangement from God is eternal in its nature, so reconciliation to God must be eternal" (pp. 282, 295). Must reconciliation be eternal in its nature, so that "left to itself it must continue for ever"? Does the writer mean that it must, or that it will and should continue for ever? Again, he is attempting to prove the truth that sinful men will receive "a punishment different from that of conscience," and is justly condemning the error that sinful men will merely suffer those pains of conscience "which are the constitutional result of sin;" but he goes so far as to assert, that if sinful men are to suffer merely those pangs which it is the nature of conscience to inflict, then "there is no moral government" (p. 118); "there is no accountability to God," "a premium is offered for crime" (p. 119). But does not God rule in the conscience? Is not its reproof God's reproof? We find numerous expressions like the following, which need to be qualified and explained: "The creation of the first man is really a prophecy of the God-man" (p. 21). “I apprehend that the Supreme Majesty had to humble himself when he called into existence the first particle of matter that settled upon the bosom of space" (p. 32); "Guilt cries out for suffering; and the more intense the suffering the more satisfaction there is to the moral faculty" (p. 137). "It is strange that this last and greatest of human atonements (the suicide of Judas) should stand side by side with the divine atonement" (p. 138). "In a profound sense, the soul is duothelitic instead of monothelitic; and in a sense equally pregnant with meaning, sin is involuntary as well as voluntary. The aboriginal soul, which is crushed down by the superincumbent mass of the developed one, will not acquiesce in sin,-here it is involuntary; while the developed soul does acquiesce,-here it is voluntary. There is a primitive spectral soul ever haunting the one that has wandered astray, and ever pronouncing a condemnation against its deeds of wickedness. No sin can reach this haunting spirit, neither can any misery frighten it away," &c. (p. 248).

The preceding citations suggest the remark that, although the style of this volume has many excellences, it has also a class of faults which the writer of the volume might easily, and should sedulously, avoid. These faults of rhetoric are closely combined with a fault of logic. The words affect, as they are affected by, the thought. The following extracts will indicate the class of foibles to which we allude: a disregard of English idioms, a confusion of prosaic with poetical forms of speech, an apparent striving after words which have a deep sound, &c. "Man is demeritorious for not keeping the law" (p. 100). "It seems obvious that there is a punishment of God as well as a punishment of the soul" (p. 122). "If there be no divine punishment," &c. (p. 119). In the future state, there will

From The Bibliotheca Sacra, Janua y 1863.

Landels' "Sepulchre in the Garden."

425

be the conscious disapprobation of self;" "there will also be the conscious disapprobation of God and the good" (p. 123). "There are mental wants that seem to be stretching out their arms for help, away down at the very bottom of being" (p. 304). "That there is a dark zone in the mind of man must be admitted by all;" "a nebulous belt surrounds the soul;" "an extended kingdom exists in the mind shrouded in darkness, greater even than the kingdom of light;" "there are germs of truth in the mind which we can only half see by scraping away the soil that is about them, and which will not appear above ground till the spring-time of eternity draws near" (pp. 300-306). "A visitor from some distant world would never know that the mighty array of glorified men were once with sin defiled” (p. 373). "In men of genius with their intellectual strides there is found a typology of the future" (p. 311).

It would be unfair to pronounce a judgment against this entire volume on account of such faults as are here indicated. The volume has great and positive merits, and accordingly we are not surprised that it has positive faults.

By

The Sepulchre in the Garden: or, the Buried and Risen Saviour. WILLIAM LANDELS, Minister of Regent's Park Chapel. London: Nisbet & Co. 1866.

Under this title, Mr Landels has followed out the train of the Gospel narrative from the resurrection of our Lord to his ascension. The present volume, therefore, is a fitting appendix to "The Cross of Christ," by the same author. The topics in the present volume are varied, and they are treated in the same interesting and eloquent style for which Mr Landels is distinguished. It is vain to conceal that we have here a series of pulpit discourses; for the popular impress is conspicuous throughout We have no objections to have such addresses transferred from the pulpit to the press; but we must own to a feeling of disappointment when we fail to find in a printed volume anything more than what may be expected from a popular address. Mr Landels succeeds admirably as a scenepainter; and the topics he has selected afford him ample scope for this talent. He is quite in his element when describing the sepulchre in the garden, and when applying the scenes which he describes to the circumstances of human life. But we take this opportunity of expressing our serious dissatisfaction with a style of preaching which has become too fashionable in our day, and for which we can find no better a name than that of sensational. The pulpit has been too often converted into a field for theatrical display. The topics must be such as afford room for graphic delineation of character and incidents. Truth, heavenly truth, must stand aside, only to be introduced on the stage when she can be paraded in character, or dressed up in trope and poetry. Such effusions remind us of the discharge of artillery and musketry on a grand review day. It is all very fine and startling, and it is meant "for effect," but after all, if the guns are not shotted, what real or lasting effect is produced? Mr Landels is in danger of falling into this flashy style, from his possessing, in no common degree, the kind of talent which is necessary to excel in it. If he is endowed besides with the gifts of interpreting Scripture and expounding Christian truth, he certainly does not come out here in either of these departments. As to his doctrinal views, he has left us very much in the dark. Here, however, we must be cautious how we speak, for Mr Landels has inveighed in no measured terms, against all who would "attempt to press the minds of others within the limits of their stereotyped creeds;" and we run the risk of being included among "poor purblind creatures

hunting for heresy;" "poor short-sighted creatures denouncing a man because he thinks more honestly, more largely, and in consequence more clearly and further than they with their little creeds," &c. We are unable to guess to what "creatures" in all broad England this denunciation can properly apply. Most of the Churches we know of have no creeds at all, little or large, and such as have a creed have no discipline. Must we conclude, then, that Mr Landels speaks from personal experience, and that he has embraced certain principles which have exposed him to the censure or suspicion of some of his own brethren of the old evangelical school? We can discover no evidence of this from the volume before us; but, as we have said, the author has afforded us very scanty means of judging in regard to this point. That his views are not of the "Broad School," may be inferred from the fact that Mr Landels is a Sacramentarian, being fully as zealous about "believers' baptism" as any disciple of Pusey can be about the bodily presence in the other and higher sacrament. And, though his language might seem to indicate indifference to divine truth, such a suspicion can hardly be entertained in regard to one who recently came out so strong with his "testimony" against baptismal regeneration, if we recollect right, that he charged the whole body of the evangelical clergy of the English Church with the sin of "lying unto God.” When, therefore, he says, "Even where differences on the most important points exist, it is never wise to resort to unsparing denunciation," and though a man may differ from us in his interpretation of the plainest statements of Scripture, we should be slow to threaten him with damnation; we must hesitate before setting him down as devoid of zeal for revealed truth. Such expressions, in fact, amount to little more than high sounding phrases, in the general sentiment of which all are agreed, but which each party in turn, when its own peculiar views are assailed, indignantly refuses to apply to itself.

The Awakening of Italy, and the Crisis of Rome. By the Rev. J. A. WYLIE LL.D. London: Religious Tract Society. 1866.

Supposing (what some interpreters of prophecy hold to be very likely) that the papal church should rise to a sudden and brief ascendancy, previous to her final overthrow,-supposing that during that period she should re enact on the stage of our country the tragic scenes which marked the reign of bloody Mary,"— —we know none so likely to figure among the first victims of her vengeance than the author of this volume. Certainly no writer of the present day has done so much to unveil the enormous pretensions, to paint in more vivid colours the malign features, to lay bare the unwholesome intolerance, the treasonable policy, and the nefarious designs of the Church of Rome. Some time ago we directed attention to his admirable work on "Rome and Civil Liberty," the perusal of which, we have reason to know, has opened the eyes of many to the true character of the papacy; and a cheap edition of which has, we rejoice to learn, been circulated in several thousands through England. And now in the volume before us, where we are invited to contemplate Italy in its present position and prospects, the author has given the results of his personal observations, after a third visit to that delightful, but long downtrodden, and yet half-awakened country. Every fact (and many of them are startling enough), is substantiated by proofs of unquestionable authority; and the whole is written in a style which combines the elegance of the scholar with the ease of the master in composition.

In giving this brief notice of the publication before us, we feel that our duty is only half done. The topics to which it introduces us are such as demand

Young's "Life of John Welsh."

427

the solemn attention of all the evangelical churches, and of the nation itself. We might point, for example, to the chapter in "The Paolotti," or the order of St Vincent de Paul, a species of modern Jesuits. Dropping the odious name, they are animated by the same spirit, and under various pretences aim at the same object. "The Paolotti know how to open all doors, and to penetrate into the most secret places. They belong to every rank of life, from the noble to the beggar; they practise every profession and every trade. They profess all shades of politics, and they wear every disguise. They are found in the bureaus of government, eating the bread of the state which they are secretly labouring to overthrow. They swarm in the workshop, they insinuate themselves into the working men's clubs; but what delights them most is to act as tutors and schoolmasters. Their ambition is to mould the young, and rear a race in Italy that shall be worthy of the dark ages." "This powerful body, with its numerous affiliated branches, is spread, not only over Italy, but over all Europe." But while our author exposes the dark side of Italy, and assigns full weight to the various obstacles which oppose her regeneration, he has given interesting details of the awakening of Italy. As to Rome, his is the hopeful spirit inspired by faith in the elastic energies of a people at last fairly roused to a sense of liberty, and above all, by faith in the powers of evangelical truth. He is not one of those who think that the extinction of the papal sovereignty would create no blank in Europe, and occasion no disturbance beyond Rome. "In the triple crown Catholic Europe finds its centre of union,-the pivot on which its political organisations revolve. The suppression of the temporal power and the annexation of the tiara to the crown of Italy carries in it a formidable menace to the other monarchs of Europe. They neither can nor will consent to such an arrangement. Their interests demand the independence of the pontificate; and, as M. Thiers said in the Legislative Assembly, 'There is no independence for the pontificate but sovereignty."" He anticipates, therefore, "a break up"-a terrible revolution-from which he thinks the papacy itself anticipates an ultimate triumph, as on former occasions of the same kind. But the changed condition of society, the influence of a free press, the spread of constitutional and national ideas, may, he concludes, baffle the calculations of Rome, "and so the tempest, instead of wafting her to dominion, may plunge her into an abyss from which she shall rise no more."

Dr Wylie needs no letter of recommendation from us. He has already established for himself a name as an authority on Romanism and Italy. This volume will not detract from his fair fame. It is, without exception, the best book we know on the state and condition, mentally, morally, politically, commercially, as they bear on the future prospects of the Italy of the present day.

Life of John Welsh, Minister of Ayr: Including Illustrations of the Contemporary Ecclesiastical History of Scotland and France. By the late Rev. JAMES YOUNG, Editor of the Countess of Mar's Arcadia, &c. With a Biographical Sketch of the Author. Edinburgh: John Maclaren. 1866.

Well did we know the author of this volume; and a worthier man, a more devout Christian, and a more painstaking, enthusiastic student of our history, we have seldom met with. A Presbyterian of the old school, he may be said to have almost worshipped the memory of our Scottish worthies. It was this profound veneration, and not a mere antiquarian spirit, that led him to pry into ancient records, to ferret out old books, and to gloat with insatiable delight over some dusky moth-eaten manuscript that happened to fall into his hands. It was not the rareness of the document, but the asso

ciations with the men and the times which it elicited, that awakened the sparkle in his eye, and gave tenderness to the tone in which he referred to the treasure he had discovered. But of all the characters which he admired, none stood so high as the subject of this Memoir. For years was he engaged in prosecuting his reseaches into the history of John Welsh; not a stone was left unturned, not a library unconsulted, not a track unpursued, which promised to throw light on the darling object of his investigations. Not that he bored any with the subject; on the contrary, the search was followed out as if by torch light and alone; he never crowed over his discoveries; and his nearest friends hardly knew what progress he had made. Even to them, therefore, the present volume must be new, and they must be struck with the amount of information which he has succeeded in amassing. It is recorded of one of the ancient fathers of the church, that the only regret he expressed on his deathbed was, that he had not been spared long enough to finish his treatise on some point in theology. The only wish for the prolongation of life which escaped from the lips of our dying friend was, that he might be spared to publish his Life of John Welsh. The wish was not granted; but the task, which was so long delayed that some doubted if he would ever live to accomplish it, has been fulfilled since his decease by his excellent friend the Rev. James Anderson, well known among lovers of our ecclesiastical history as the author of "The Ladies of the Covenant and of the Reformation," and "Memorable Women of the Puritan Times." It has been executed with the most scrupulous fidelity, perhaps, we might say, over-scrupulous; for the editor has retained much in the text which he himself might probably have thrown into an appendix. The editor has prefixed a biographical sketch of the author, remarkable for its truth, tenderness, and good taste.

We had no conception till we opened this volume that the Life of Welsh contained so much graphic and varied incident. In the very outset of life he was "no ordinary boy." Having played truant at school, he set off from his father's house and joined a gang of gypsies or border thieves. The return of the prodigal from this unhappy escapade, and to the house of his aunt, who so kindly received him, and who, bringing the offender from his hiding-place, reconciled him to his grieved father, is well told. We are next introduced to him as minister of Selkirk, where, surrounded by popish enemies, his labours were prosecuted at the risk of his life. Few readers will be prepared to hear of the extent to which popery, or at least an ignorance prepared to relapse into popery, prevailed in Scotland at that period; and how much we owe to the self-denying labours of such men as Welsh. Nor can we well form any idea, in these piping times of peace, how much devolved on the shoulders of such men, at a time while whole districts of country, including several parishes, were, through the parsimony, or rather the simonaical avarice of the land-owners, consigned to the care of one minister. "From its commencement, the Reformed Church of Scotland was a missionary institution. It was only by the extensive diffusion of the pure faith that she had any security, not only for her prosperity, but for her very existence. Not otherwise could she have been prevented from falling an easy prey to the machinations of her adversaries, whether these were ungodly rulers, the ignorant rabble, or the supporters of the man of sin."

After his transportation to Kirkcudbright, Welsh was exposed to much calumny and reproach by his faithful preaching, and especially by his uncompromising opposition to the manoeuvres of James and his Court for the restoration of prelacy. But it was not till his settlement at Ayr that his serious troubles began. The immediate and ostensible occasion for the persecution to which he and others of his faithful brethren were exposed, was their share in holding the famous meeting of the General Assembly at