but scarcely any to us, an utter extinction of being, but rather and only as the cessation of individual existence, and the attainment of unlimited being. In the poetry of Wordsworth and Tennyson, Mr Moore clearly indicates the presence and influence of this theosophic idea, as allied to some of the purest phases of modern theism. But in this place we prefer to give the author's own sentiments on the subject. We shall therefore conclude our inadequate summary of this deeply-engaging treatise by a further quotation :-"The most pious souls have longed for a full and ever-present consciousness of a mutual indwelling of themselves and God. This has not been confined to the Christian faith; stronger expression of it could be found than is contained in the Christian writings, In him we live and move and have our being.' Abide in me and I in you.' 'I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.' 'I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' The mysticism of all religions, however, has seized on the same idea of what may be called the spiritual absorption of the human soul in Deity. Of course none of these ideas are identical with the theory of absorption as Hinduism teaches it, but they seem to be sufficiently related to it, to justify us in suggesting that it is an elevation and not an extinction of being the eastern devotee desires." The reader will find this idea most exquisitely handled by Sir Thomas Browne in his majestic peroration to the tract on Urn Burial. LAICUS. XI. FOREIGN LITERATURE. Zeitschrift für die Historische Theologie. IV. Heft. Jahrgang, 1868. Gotha, Perthes. This number of the Journal of Historical Theology, contains two articles. The first is by Rippold, Professor of Theology in Heidelberg. The subject of it is, "David Joris of Delft: his Life, his Doctrine, and his Sect." This is the third article on the subject. The first having appeared in this Journal in 1863, and the second in 1864. The whole forms an interesting monograph. Joris was a glasspainter in the town of Delft in Holland. He became one of the most dangerous religious fanatics in connection with the great Anabaptist movement by which Germany was convulsed in the time of the Reformation, or immediately subsequent to it. Joris claimed to be the true Christ, and travelled over Germany disseminating his views both orally and by his writings. He became an object of great abhorrence to the authorities, and from fear of imprisonment he changed his name and retired to Basle, where he remained till his death in 1556. Rippold enters into the history of this remarkable man, and of the movement with which he was connected with great minuteness of R. Rothe's Nachgelassene Predigten. 869 detail. The second article in the Journal is from the pen of the editor, Dr K. F. A. Kahnis. It presents a history of St Elizabeth, princess of Thuringia and Hesse, and founder of the order of the nuns of St Elizabeth. After she became a nun she retired to a hut near Marburg, and devoted herself to prayer and works of charity. She died in 1231. Dr Kahnis gives a deeply interesting account of her life and times. Geschichte der altirischen Kirche und ihrer Verbindung mit Rom, Gallien, und Alemannien (von 430–630). Von CARL JOHANN GREITH, Bischof von St Gallen. Freiburg i. B. 1867. London and Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate. This is a history of the ancient Irish Church and its relations to Rome, France, and Germany, from A.D. 430 to 630, by Greith, the Bishop of St Galle, from an entirely Roman Catholic point of view. This is enough to give our readers an idea of the structure and spirit of the book. The author first gives a historical summary of the incidents connected with the dismemberment of the Roman Empire, and its bearing upon the progress of the Christian church. Then follow different chapters on the history of St Patrick and his mission in Ireland, St Columba and his mission among the Irish and Picts, St Columban and his labours on the continent, and St Gallus the apostle of Germany; the last portion of the work consists of a chapter on the doctrines of the Irish church. The author merits the praise of great industry and ingenuity. He has quoted almost the entire literature of the subject, and is evidently acquainted with works of note which within the last few years have appeared in this country. He seems, however, never to have come across Dr M'Lachlan's very admirable work on the "Ancient British Church," which we think most conclusively disposes of all attempts to discover popery or even prelacy in the church of the Culdees. This work by the Bishop of St Galle deserves to be read by those who would investigate the primordia of the British church, if for nothing else, at least, for the sake of the great mass of curious things which it contains, and the skilful way in which the author tries to make it apparent that full-blown popery was the religion of these primitive times. It is a goodly volume of 462 octavo pages. Bishop Greith is already well known as the author of a work on the German Mystics of the 13th and 14th centuries. R. Rothe's Nachgelassene Predigten. Herausgegeben von Dr D. SCHENKEL. Erster Band. Elberfeld, 1868. London: Williams & Norgate. Dr Richard Rothe's name stands prominent among the great leaders of German theology. The contemporary of the distinguished men, many of whom have now passed away from the scene of their earthly labours, whose mission was to lead the German Church out of the depths and the darkness of Rationalism, into the light of the knowledge 3 L VOL. XVII.-NO. LXVI, On of divine truth, he was second to none of them in the ability and earnestness he displayed, and in the influence he exerted. From the very interesting memoir from the pen of the editor of the volume before us, Dr Schenkel, we learn that Dr Rothe was born at the town of Posen, on 28th January 1799, so that at the time of his death, 20th August 1867, he was about sixty-eight years of age. His first ecclesiastical appointment was as chaplain to the Prussian embassy at Rome. the 11th January 1824, he entered on his ministry in that city. This volume contains forty-seven sermons, preached by him during his residence there till 1828. They are printed as they were found among his manuscripts. Though they have the usual disadvantage of being posthumous, yet they must evidently have been prepared with great care. One need not expect to find much of the gospel in these sermons, yet they are full of beautiful thoughts, and are plainly the production of no ordinary man. From Rome, he went in 1828 to occupy the place of Professor in the Theological Seminary at Wittenberg, whence, after a few years, he was removed to Heidelberg, where he held the double office of professor and seminary director. In 1849, he was called to Bonn as successor to Dr Nitzsch. In 1853, he succeeded Dr Ullmann at Heidelberg, and there he spent the remainder of his life. Dr Rothe's great work is his "Theologische Ethik" (Theological Ethics-Moral Theology). The first volume was published in 1845, and the third and last in 1848. A second edition is in progress. The first part was issued last year. This is a work of singular power. It has contributed more than perhaps any other since the days of Schleiermacher to influence the current of thought among speculative theologians. A translation of it into readable English would, we think, be a valuable addition to our theological literature. The memoir accompanying this volume of sermons is worthy of separate publication, as containing a summary of the principal events affecting the church, and the progress of theology in Germany during the past half century. Schenkel writes as one who admired and loved his friend and colleague. Nachlasspredigten ueber die Evangelien des Kirchenjahres. Von L. HARMS Von Hermannsburg. Herausgegeben von СH. HARMS. Hermannsburg 1868. London and Edinburgh: Williams & Norgate. This is a volume of posthumous sermons by the well-known Pastor Harms of Hermannsburg. It is edited by his brother, who prefixes the following note:-"In the name of Jesus. In this name, by which alone men can be blessed, is this collection of sermons by my beloved, never-to-be-forgotten brother, printed, and in this name it is now published, to be an offence to Satan and the world, to gladden the friends of the departed, and, may the Lord grant it, for the awakening, the edification, and the comfort of many souls. These sermons were, some of them, in my own possession, and some of them have been communicated to me by others. They were written out, not by the hand of others, but by the hand of my own beloved brother. But it may be said, Wherefore this collection of sermons? I have only to Lunge's Bibelwerk. 871 say in reply, that the many friends of my brother, and admirers of his works, have a title to all that he has spoken and written for the glory of God, and I would blame myself if I should withhold anything from them, in so far as it agrees with the word of God, and may be useful to the kingdom of God." The sermons are sixty-two in number, and date from 1842 to 1849. They are on subjects chosen from the gospel narratives. They are earnest and loving in their tone, and are calculated to be useful, inasmuch as they are full of evangelical truth. It is easily seen that they have been preached in the land of Luther, and by a Lutheran. Der Mensch Jesus Christus; Kurzgefaszte Einleitung in die Geschichte des Menschlichen Wandels unsers Gottes und Herrn Jesu Christi. Dritte Ausgabe, von VIKTOR FRIEDRICH OEHLER, Pfarrer in Feuerbach bei Stuttgart. London and Edinburgh: Williams & Norgate. 1868. This is the third edition of a very simple narrative of the life of our Lord on earth. The author, following the history of the evangelists, presents us with a very distinct portraiture of the man Christ Jesus. The work has nothing of a scientific character about it, but is wholly historical and practical. It consists of eighty-four brief chapters, with an appendix on the faith of the woman of Canaan, and of the nobleman of Capernaum. Oehler, who edits the book, says, in his preface, "This book was first published anonymously in the year 1762, with a dedication to Freidrich Carl von Moser, the son of the illustrious well-known John James Moser of Würtemberg. It was published a second time by the above-named Von Moser, in the year 1772. The author is Johann Carl Bretschneider, Russian aulic Counsellor at Schleiz, who was born at Gera on 3d August 1713. Of his circumstances in life very little is known. It would seem that he lived a long time at Ebersdorf, the seat of the Moravian Brethren (the Herrnhutters), together with John James Moser, from 1739 to 1747. He enjoyed long and intimate friendship with Fr. Carl von Moser, who says of him, 'He is no sectary fanatic or bigot, but a friend of the truth in the form in which he finds it in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and which he professes with mouth and heart."" The work is fitted to be useful. Theologisch-homiletisches Bibelwerk. von Lange. Des Alten Testa mentes XIII. Theil: Das Hohelied und der Prediger Salomonis. Von Dr OTTO ZÖCKLER. 1868. London and Edinburgh: Williams & Norgate. This instalment of Lange's Bibelwerk is distinguished by all the excellencies which characterise its predecessors. It is at once practical and critical, and fitted to be eminently useful for homiletical purposes. It consists of the Song of Solomon and the book of Ecclesiastes, from the pen of Dr Zöckler of the Evangelical Protestant University of Greifswalde, who is the author also of the commentary on the book of the Proverbs of Solomon, of the same series, which was published last year. The whole of the commentary on the New Testament, 1 with the exception of that on the book of Revelation, has now been published. The different parts of it are the combined work of thirteen distinguished evangelical divines. Of the Old Testament, six parts have now been published, and the remainder is in progress. This great Bibelwerk, when completed, will be one of the most valuable and comprehensive commentaries on sacred Scripture. The Messrs Clark of Edinburgh have conferred a great boon on British theologians by publishing a translation into English of parts of the New Testament portion of this work. Our American neighbours are following the same example, but we think they have done right in publishing, not a mere translation, but a translation carefully edited, and greatly improved by supplementary and corrective notes, by eminent American and British divines. This, no doubt, greatly enlarges the work, already bulky, but it adds immensely to its value as a work of constant reference. Having such a work, the reader is put in possession of all he, for the most part, needs to know on the subject inquired into. German theological books, even the best and the soundest of them, need such editing. Bibel-Lexikon, Realwörterbuch zum Hand-gebrauch für Geistliche und The third and fourth parts of this excellent Bible Lexicon here before us, bear evidence of the spirited and thorough manner in which both the publisher and the editor are resolved to carry out their important undertaking. Dr Schenkel has summoned to his aid a large band of efficient collaborateurs. The articles are full of well-arranged information on all the subjects discussed. We are particularly pleased with a somewhat elaborate article in the fourth part on the Interpretations of the Bible (Auslegung der Bibel). As an historical exposition of the subject, it is very interesting and useful. The editor, Dr Schenkel, is a very learned and able theologian, but by no means to be relied on in his doctrinal expositions. He has a strong tinge of Rationalism. Les Titres de la Dynastie Napoléonienne. Paris: Imprimerie Imperiale. 1868. Se vend chez HENRI PLON, Rue Garanciere, 8. Some will have it that this pamphlet is the production of the Emperor Napoleon III. There is at least good reason to believe that it has not been published without his sanction. The image of the imperial eagle is emblazoned on the title-page; and within the writing is such as might be expected of a pen taken from its wing. The ostensible design of the writer is stated in a prefatory note. "We have thought proper," says he, "to unite in one publication the several manifestations of the national will, which, under the two Republics and the two Empires, have founded the Napoleonic Dynasty. It seems to us that, from this collection, important in a historical point of view, there may proceed a grand lesson in politics." A brief account is given of the conditions on which Napoleon I. |