By J. C. HARDING, A. M., New York. IV. A HALF CENTURY OF UNITARIANISM... By Rev. H. W. WARREN, Boston, Mass. 1.-LEWES'S BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY...... 513 By Rev. OLIVER S. MUNSEL, A.M., President of Illinois University. THE METHODIST QUARTERLY REVIEW. JANUARY, 1859. ART. I.-INFANT BAPTISM AND CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. 1. Christian Nurture, by Dr. BUSHNELL. Hartford. 2. Childhood. OLIN's Sermons. Harper & Brothers. 3. Childhood and the Church, by T. R. F. MERCEIN. A. D. F. Randolph. 1858. 4. Bertha and her Baptism, Boston: S. K. Whipple & Co. 1857. 5. The Teknobaptist Boston: John Wilson, Sen. 1857. WHAT is the relation of a human soul at the beginning of its immortality to Christ and his Church? This is the quæstio vexata to-day, both of theology and of Church order. It demands for its investigation and settlement the most strenuous action of the profoundest intellects and profoundest hearts. The Church is moving up to a common ground of faith and practice. The old banners that filled contending sects with fury are being cast aside, and the flag, made white in the blood of the Lamb, is glittering before the hosts of the redeemed, uniting under the great Captain of their salvation. In the midst of this crystalization, and because of it, springs up this radical question, full of importance; to many, full of difficulty: Shall the Church have only intelligent believers in its fold, or shall she carry the babes in her bosom? Shall she be an encamped army, made up of men of war, ever assailing, ever conquering the world, but never losing her martial style or force? or shall she be a colony, armed and invading, yet carrying in itself all the elements of its maturity, transformed by the working of these forces into a state, to be raised by a gradual but inevitable growth to a power in the earth, and in due time to the sole authority? How shall she treat those who are in their earliest infancy? Shall they be made, by her purposed neglect, to pass through the fires of Moloch that burn deadlier around our Christian homes than even in FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XI.—1 ancient heathendom, with certain death to all save the few who marvelously creep forth, scarred and maimed, compelled to bear the fruit of her sin through all their future being; or shall she put underneath and round about them from the dawn of their immortality her everlasting arms? To answer this question is the duty and destiny of the Church of to-day. There is to be a radical sifting and replacing of all her doctrine and discipline from this stand-point. The appearance of many essays within a few years, from the strongest exponents of the various opinions, clearly foretells and briefly foreruns the work of the Church for this and the coming generation. The treatises named above are eminent types at once of the diversity and strength of these sentiments. Dr. Bushnell's work long since startled his communion with the boldness and force of its statements; but his apparent desire to reduce Calvinism and Socinianism to one amalgam has destroyed much of its influence. It reveals the conflict in himself rather than settles it in the general Church. Dr. Olin's is one of those masterly essays of his which seem to flash truth upon the intuitions, like John's writings, rather than make a broad, macadamized road for the logical understanding as Paul does, and as most minds pre-eminently need. It is therefore both satisfactory and unsatisfactory, showing you the truth as the eye sees the sun, but giving you no data by which you can reduce it to practice, either in formularies of doctrine or ceremonies of service. Bertha and her Baptism is an argument from the Calvinistic stand-point, admirably constructed in the narrative and conversational form, said to be by Dr. Adams, of Boston. The Teknobaptist is a very able argument, by a Baptist, in the form of a dialogue between a Calvinist, an Arminian, and a Baptist, the last, of course, conquering, though the Arminian, fortunately for his victor, represents the High Church rather than the Methodist view. The posthumous pamphlet of Mr. Mercein shows what service he would have done the Church, had he lived, in its great conflict for God and the truth. As we read its original thought, exquisite in statement and fiery with feeling, we can but exclaim, "Heu pietas, heu prisca fides, invictaque bello Dextera." Amid the contending ranks of ancient defenders and opponents of this doctrine, appears Arminianism, as set forth in the Methodist Church, and we design to show that her doctrine alone can satisfy the conditions of the problem, and that on the basis of the belief on which she builds her impregnable towers, and from which rush forth her unconquerable armies, every Church must stand, and carrying it out to its legitimate results, make all her children sharers |