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divine displeasure;" and he argues that the former view obtained under the ascetic pietism to the exclusion of evangelical doctrines and feelings. Indeed, this searching writer regards the defection of the Nicene era as so deplorable, that he affirms that "Romanism was a reform or a correction of the Nicene church system,” which he regards as a "fanatical debauchery," "a baptized Paganism," "a combination of the Buddhist, or abstractive, and the Braminical, or penitential principles," in the ascetic institute which then prevailed in the Church.*

As a general view of the type of piety under Monasticism, this is sound and philosophical; and it is confirmed by history. But individual men are sometimes better far than the systems in which they were trained. And as in the time of Christ, amid the prevailing ignorance and superstition of the Jewish people and the hypocrisy of their teachers, there were yet found a Mary and a Joseph, a Zachariah and an Elizabeth, an Anna and a Simeon, so were there instances of simple living faith in Christ amid the gross perversions of Medieval Christianity.

The researches of Neander have shown us what he has

*Ancient Christianity, vol. 1, p. 176; vol. 2, pp. 69 and 129. London Edition.

appropriately styled "light in the dark places"--a living Christianity, an evangelical faith, an active, practical piety-in Northern Africa, in Germany, Italy, France, and Britain, through all the ages from the fifth to the fifteenth century. The works of Emile de Bonnchose and of Ullmann have made us acquainted with many "Reformers before the Reformation"-Huss, Jerome of Prague, John of Goch, John of Wesel, John Wesselwhose faith and courage, whose zeal and purity, entitle them to be considered the peers of the Reformers of the sixteenth century, as they were the pioneers and the prophets of their work. Milman, in his "History of Latin Christianity," Hardwicke, in his "History of the Christian Church in the Middle Age," Gieseler, and others who have made this period their study, (to mention only such as are accessible to the English reader,) have produced many notable examples of the vital power of Christianity in the "Age of Darkness." These researches show, that when the Protestant is asked, "Where was your Church before Luther?" he does not need to search for the flock of God in the fastnesses of the Waldensian Mountains; but piercing the veil of Ecclesiasticism, he points to Eugenius of Carthage, to Germanus of Auxerre and Cæsarius of Arles, to the venerable Bede, to Boniface the Apostle

and Gregory the Abbot, to Peter Damiani, to Anselmi and Aelred, to Hildebert, to Peter of Blois and Antony of Padua, and to the many of whom these were the representatives;—he points to these, and says: "In all ages the foundation of the Lord standeth sure; in all ages the Lord hath known them that were His. Not in hierarchies nor in councils, not in cathedrals nor in ritual pomps, but in these living, believing, praying souls is found fulfilled in every age the promise of the Master, Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world."

Such discoveries of living piety amid surrounding death, strengthen our faith in the perpetual vitality of the Gospel, and in the promise of the Redeemer that against His spiritual kingdom the powers of earth and the gates of hell should never prevail. They also enlarge our charity for those who, through adverse circumstances and with manifold errors and imperfections, have yet cherished the love of Christ; and they exalt our admiration of those who by that love have triumphed over the darkness and the wickedness of their times. The increasing number of such whom the study of the Middle Ages has brought to light, warrants the belief that in all the centuries of the Christian era an unnumbered multitude have lived and died in the faith of the Lamb.

A most valuable contribution to our knowledge of the Christianity of the Middle Ages has been lately made, by the publication of a volume of extracts from the sermons of that period, translated by the Rev. J. M. Neale, Warden of Sackville College. This work embraces selections from twenty-one preachers, covering a period of ten centuries. Many of the sermons are characterized by a fullness, even an exuberance, of Biblical illustration; by the fervor and pathos of appeals drawn from the sufferings of Christ; by the simplicity and earnestness of faith, as seen especially in descriptions of the future glory of the saints; by the vividness and aptness of their illustrations from passing events; and in the main by a clear and effective popular style. There is much in them that is fanciful, and even grotesque, in the allegorical or the mystic interpretation of Scripture; but there is also many a gem of Christian thought and feeling sparkling amid these fanciful and outré settings, and the heart is quickened and cheered by communion with saints who, in ages long consigned to ignorance and superstition, did humbly walk with God, and maintain so much of the purity and life and power of the Gospel.

With a view to bring this quickening influence of departed saints into contact with Christians of the present

generation, this little volume of selections has been made, mainly from the materials furnished by Mr. Neale. To that gentleman belongs the entire credit of the original selection and translation. The American editor has but culled passages from his more copious extracts, and added to these a few from other sources, chiefly through Neander. But the objects of the two volumes are quite different. Mr. Neale's book is designed to furnish specimens of preaching in the Middle Ages: the object of this little book is to furnish a Manual of pious meditations, selected from the preachers of those ages. Hence the editor has scrupulously ruled out from it whatever was fanciful or singular in the interpretation or the illustration of Scripture, and has selected only such sentiments as accord with the common faith of evangelical Christians.

The selections are topically arranged; but in the margin is given the name of each author, with the years of his birth and his death, or a proximate date. The term "Middle Ages" is somewhat vaguely used by the best writers. Some restrict it to the period from the eighth to the fifteenth century, or midway between the decline of the Roman Empire and the revival of letters in Europe. But Mr. Hallam, who must be acknowledged a good authority, comprises in the Middle Ages the ten centuries

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