Handbook of Specimens of English Literature. 619

God as well as man. The numerous works on the subject which are constantly appearing in France shew what an interest is at length awakened in these matters among a people by whom they had been too long put aside with a light sneer. Theology in France does not want readers; and the book which we have been reviewing is one which will certainly do good to all into whose hands it comes.

A Precious Saviour. By HENRY JENNINGS, F.R.S.L, London: Nisbet and Co. 1866.

This little volume professes to treat of Jesus Christ as a precious Saviour -a willing Saviour a pleading Saviour-a present Saviour-an all-sufficient Saviour-an everlasting Saviour. These points, in which all have so deep an interest, are treated with simplicity, liveliness, and effect. Without a word of controversy, the doctrine is sound, uncorrupt; without degenerating into cant, the style is warm and affectionate; and the reflections are enlivened by suitable and striking anecdotes. We commend it as a beautiful present, in token of Christian friendship.

The Handbook of Specimens of English Literature. Selected from the chief British Authors, and arranged chronologically. By JOSEPH ANGUS, M.A., D.D., Examiner of English Language, Literature, and History, to the University of London; author of "The Handbook of English Literature." London: The Religious Tract Society.

In a notice of Dr Angus's former volume, "The Handbook of English Literature," which appeared in our number for October last year, we took the liberty of commenting on the absence of "characteristic extracts" from the works of the writers introduced to our notice in that excellent compend. This, we thought, was owing to the author's plan including too large a list of writers; overlooking the fact that, at the close of his preface, Dr Angus had appended a notice, announcing that, "in addition to this volume of authors and history, it is intended to publish a companion volume of SPECIMENS." And here we have the specimens, forming another volume rather larger than the preceding. In the arrangement of these, Dr Angus has followed a strictly chronological order, thus avoiding the awkwardness, entailed by his former method of separating the poetry from the prose, of travelling twice over the same period. And in the selection of his extracts, he has displayed his wonted good taste and judgment. Few tasks are more difficult than to compile a volume of extracts which shall please the general run of readers. Every one has his favourite authors, and his pet pieces, and is almost sure to be disappointed at finding them excluded, or curtailed of their fair proportions. But Dr Angus does not make his selection with the view of gratifying the tastes or ministering to the entertainment of his readers. He aims at higher ends. "He has sought (1) to illustrate the progress of our literature and language; (2) to select from each author the most characteristic specimen, both of his style and thought; (3) to present extracts remarkable for beauty, force, and suggestiveness; and (4) to introduce the reader to the works from which selections are taken." In short, the book is meant for use rather than for amusement; for the student who is eager to become an English scholar, and not for the literary lounger who is content with mere scraps. The tendency of many of our "Collections" is to cherish a superficial sciolism, and even to render the youthful reader less solicitous to consult the original works from which the excerpts are taken. Not so the specimens before us, which are so judiciously exhibited as only to stimulate his curiosity and whet his appetite for more substantial fare. Our religious literature is not overlooked, though, we must say, it is somewhat sparingly represented.

Discourses delivered on Special Occasions. By R. W. DALE, M.A. London: Jackson & Walford. 1866.

These sermons, ten in number, were all delivered on public occasions. They are special sermons; and as such we are, possibly, not to look for so much of what may be called "doctrine" as we should expect in the habitual pulpit work of a pastor. But even these special sermons must take for granted and proceed upon a certain system of doctrine. No man can speak long on matters of the faith without revealing the substratum of doctrine which is the habitual staple of his own thoughts, hopes, trusts. In more than one place Mr Dale does give us something like an outline of what he conceives the gospel to be. For example, in the annual missionary sermon, preached in Surrey Chapel, he says, "The New Testament reveals to us that God's heart yearned over the human race from the beginning, that he shrunk from inflicting on man the penalty his guilt had deserved; he pitied, and resolved to save." "The sufferings of Christ-God manifest in the flesh-have resulted in this, that the Moral Ruler, having thus revealed and maintained his fidelity to the moral law, is henceforth released from the necessity of punishing those who may be willing to receive his pardon, and to be delivered by him from the tyranny of sin. It is an act which, from its essential principle, changes the relations between himself and every individual of our race." "We are to tell men this, that by their very birth they are the subjects of Christ, and that the king who reigns over them has atoned for all their transgressions." This is the gist of what theology is discoverable in this bulky volume of ten sermons. "Men are lost, not because they have no interest in the death of Christ, but because, although he has actually atoned for their sin, they reject the pardon which is now within their reach.' "By a daring and appalling act of free-will they resist, they vanquish, the infinite mercy of God." It is curious that Mr Dale should have added before such an auditory: "These great truths are not strange and unfamiliar to any of us. They are the common air which the poorest and most uninstructed of our people breathe, the common sunlight in which our churches walk. They are our daily meditation when alone with God; they are the principal theme of our public ministry," And much more to the same effect. Did it never occur to Mr Dale to ask, If the sins of the lost "are actually atoned," that is, are actually punished and so "taken away," how does it consist with justice to punish them again a second time? Does justice demand that the same sins be twice atoned?

While we cannot concur with all that is said in almost any of these discourses, there is yet some good thinking and much wholesome truth with which we cordially agree in a sermon on Worship," and one on "The Old Worship and the New." The sermons are carefully and elegantly composed; they give abundant evidence of thoughtful preparation; and we are sorry, indeed, that we cannot fully and out and out commend a volume issued by the successor and former colleague of John Angell James.

The Science of Memory fully Expounded: for the use of Students, Ministers, Public Speakers, &c. By B. LYON WILLIAMS. London: James Nisbet & Co. 1866.

This is an ingenious little volume. It contains many good and sensible remarks on memory, its use and nature. The plans for aiding the memory are curious and very ingenious. They may be beneficial to those whose faculty is weak, or in some particulars defective. The method of fixing dates and numbers, generally, in the mind is worthy of attention, though to us it seems cumbrous. After all the artificial aids to memory we have seen and heard expounded, we incline to the opinion that the good oldfashioned way of hard work, and of again and again refreshing the memory by a fresh committal is the only really handy and effectual.

We knew a

Treatises on the Sabbath Question.

651

minister of no great faculty, naturally, either as to mind or memory, who told us that when he first began to preach it took him two days to write his forenoon sermon, other two to write the afternoon one, then two days were spent in committing one, and the remaining two the other, and on the seventh day he delivered himself of his week's labour, to begin the weary task anew on the morrow. When we knew him he had so far reduced the process by unflagging industry, that he was able to write both his sermons on the Saturday, and little more than an hour before he went to the pulpit sufficed to commit each of them, blots and all; and he used to repeat them very accurately; once or twice only do we remember to have seen him break down, and refer to the manuscript volume which he always had ready in his coat pocket. For those who wish artificial aid to a weak memory, this volume may safely be recommended as philosophical and judicious, and not aiming at too great things.

Treatises on the Sabbath Question.

We have received, during the last quarter, a good many treatises on this subject, to the more prominent of which we devote a few paragraphs. And, first, we notice, "The Decalogue and the Lord's day in the light of the general relation of the Old and New Testaments; with a chapter on Confessions of Faith. By the Rev. W. Milligan, D.D., Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism in the University of Aberdeen. Edinburgh: Blackwood." This is a volume of about two hundred pages; and appears to have been delivered as a series of public lectures in Aberdeen. The first lecture is entitled "The Revelation of the Old Testament as a whole;" the second, "The Jewish Dispensation: or, the Economy of the Law;" the third, "The Relation of Christianity to the Old Testament;" and the fourth, "The Sabbath Question in particular." Then follows the "Lecture on Confessions of Faith," and an Appendix. Dr Milligan, so far as we can make him out, agrees in the main with Dr M'Leod. Ile, too, thinks that the Decalogue, qua Decalogue, is abolished. He thinks a "principle" is higher than a "law;" that "law" is abolished, and that we are now governed only by "principles." He says, "with the events of the resurrection morning the new creation was completed, and the principle which had been 'from the beginning' rises once more to view, and in the same way. There is no law, no formal institution of sacred day, no express enactment introducing a change from the day hitherto peculiarly holy. But by his own appearances on that day, the risen Saviour "blesses the first day of the week, and sanctifies it;" and holds it in peculiar honour for himself, and all who will enter into his spirit, and see with his eyes, just as the Almighty, at the first, held the seventh day of the week in peculiar honour for himself, and for all who would enter into his spirit, and see with his eyes. The apostles and early Christians felt the force of the example." "The Lord's day was not substituted for the Sabbath of the law. It was wholly independent of the law. It was over and above the Sabbath of the law." Dr Milligan has not the faculty of making himself very clear; but he has made one thing very plain, that he has ceased to believe-if he ever did believe them—at least two chapters of the Confession of Faith in many very important particulars, specially chap. xxi. sec. 7, where we read of the primeval and Mosaic Sabbath, that "from the resurrection of Christ it was changed into the first day of the week." Dr Milligan has also some very peculiar views about confessions which go far to explain the apparent indifference he displays in contradicting the Confession he has signed, and is set to teach, in so many important particulars.

The second work on our list is a pamphlet on "The Perpetual Obligation of the Revealed Moral Law, and of a Day of Holy Rest. By Robert Macpherson, D.D., Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Aber

deen. Edinburgh: Blackwood." The pamphlet is of sixty pages; and is as sound and orthodox as the book of the author's colleague is the reverse. A house divided against itself, how can it stand? Do the same students attend both professors? If so, which are they to believe? Dr Macpherson treats his subject in four chapters, and begins at the root of the matter: "1st, the nature and foundation of moral law; 2d, man's original condition, and the primeval institution of the holy Sabbath; 3d, the revealed moral law; and 4th, the revealed moral law established by the gospel These topics are handled with judgment and skill; and we recommend Dr Macpherson's pamphlet as a sufficient reply and antidote to his colleague's volume.

Our third work is also a pamphlet, of thirty-two pages, enlitled, "Some Thoughts on the most Christian use of the Sunday: a Sermon Preached at the Melodeon, in Boston, Massachussets. 1848. By Theodore Parker, minister of the 28th Congregational Church in Boston. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas." The pamphlet has an anonymous editor, who adds three pages of notes; and prefaces by the following sentences: "The following discourse is reprinted from the first volume of speeches, addresses, and occasional sermons published by the author at Boston in 1852. Though some things in it are questionable, it may very profitably be read and considered at the present time." Now we think, not that some things, but nearly every thing in it is not only questionable, but plainly deniable. do not see how it can be profitable at all. The only thing we see in it very profitable" is the confession reluctantly given by its author to the value of God's two ordinances of preaching and the Sabbath day. Living in Boston, he had the evidence of both so abundantly, and so constantly, before his eyes that it would have been hard for even Theodore Parker to deny it. But there is scarcely a sentence in the sermon which is rigidly accurate and truthful. It is all coloured by the author's well known hatred of evangelical truth.

We

We turn with satisfaction to the last pamphlet on our table, "The Sabbath on the Rock: a Letter to the Rev. Dr M'Leod, and those Ministers who have advocated his views, &c. By a Sabbath-School Teacher. Glasgow: Porteous Brothers." This is a vigorous pamphlet. It is clearly and ably reasoned. The author has a firm grasp of his thoughts, and a thorough knowledge of his subject. He takes up Dr M'Leod's speech in detail, and replies to his arguments with a close and vigorous logic which there is no gainsaying.

St Paul: his Life and Ministry, &c. By T. BINNEY. London: J. Nisbet & Co. 1866.

This volume is hardly what we expected from Mr Binney on such a topic. It is a series of conversational evening lectures to the young, reported and afterwards revised by the author. But a man so wise, sagacious. and full, as Mr Binney, can hardly fall below an instructive level; and the volume, though it leaves much to be desired, has much for which to be thankful. It is an admirable introduction to the study of the life and labours of the great apostle; and Mr Binney pretends to no more. The volume is one admirably adapted for this purpose; and no thoughtful person can read it without much profit. The free and easy style of it, though a serious drawback in one sense, yet adds to its value in another. There is nothing new to any one who has read the great work of Conybeare and Howson; but there is none of the dry detail that might frighten ordinary readers from that solid treatise.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN

EVANGELICAL REVIEW.

OCTOBER 1866.

ART I.-Elizabeth of Denmark, Electress of Brandenburg.

AMONG the heroines of the grand Reformation epoch,

there are few more memorable than she who forms the subject of the following remarks. On many grounds, but two mainly, she claims our sympathy and reverence. In the first place, the contrast between her exalted rank and the grievous sufferings she endured contributes to educe in full relief the outline of those sufferings, and impress them with double force upon the mind. The greatest of English living poets has said, and said most truly,

Yet what Tennyson, in his noble "Dream of Fair Women," thus affirms of the female sex generally, applies with quite peculiar significance to queens and princesses. Not a few who, in addition to their royal origin, have been dowered with the dangerous gift of loveliness, in after-life experience terrible reverses of fortune, and sound the lowest depths of poverty and sorrow. By birth and position elevated above their less highly favoured sisters, they appear more certain than they of a prosperous future; but such anticipations are often bitterly disappointed, for whether their career shall prove fortunate or otherwise depends largely on those to whom they may be espoused; and in the matter of wedlock they have themselves smaller power than the very humblest of their sex. Early separated from their natal soil, and from family and friends, they are taken to a