ecute these orders, and various circum- | stances delaying his entering on the campaign, news arrived of the emperor's death, which took place in March of the year 37, and Vitellius was thus stopped in his military movements. Aretas might take advantage of this interval to gain possession of the city. But we must not suppose that the city thus snatched from the Romans remained long in his hands; and it is probable that, as in the second year of the reign of the emperor Caligula, A.D., 38-9, the affairs of Arabia were settled, Damascus was not left unnoticed. If we place the flight of Paul from Damascus in 39, then his conversion must have been in A.D. 36, since it must have occurred three years before; and we also fix the same date for Stephen's martyrdom. From the absence of chronological information respecting the events of those times, we cannot fix with certainty the date of Paul's conversion; yet the computation which places it in A.D. 36, has this in its favour, that it allows neither too long nor short a time for the events which took place in the Christian church, from the period of Christ's ascension, to the martyrdom of Stephen and the conversion of Paul."-PP. 92-3. It is impossible for us to follow the narrative of Paul's journeyings and labours, without very much encroaching on the limits assigned to us. Suffice it to say, that in the work before us both are minutely detailed; the Pauline epistles being noted chronologically, as far as can be ascertained, together with the state of the churches or the character of the persons to whom they were ad dressed. In this section of the book general readers will find most to admire; yet here, unfortunately, there is most to condemn. In the course of the narrative, while admiring the skill and power of our author, we are not a little annoyed to find with what ease passages in the Acts or the Epistles are spoken of as glosses, and the first Epistle to Timothy declared to contain " something not Pauline." In both cases there are marks of low views on inspiration; as well as too little regard paid to what has been written in defence in other countries besides Germany. If Neander were acquainted with Paley's Hore Paulina, it is strange he does not refer to it. If he were not, he ought not, in all fairness to have pronounced so positively that the first epistle to Timothy was not Pauline. The next two books review the la bours of James, Peter, and John. Here again, we find the worthy author giving way before some supposed internal proofs of the post-apostolic character of the second epistle of Peter, and boldly striking it off from the sacred canon. It is in the sixth book that Neander shows himself a master. This section is wholly taken up with a careful analysis of apostolic doctrine. In our view, this is the most valuable part of the present work. There is now and then a little obscurity; but in the main christian truth is set in a full clear light. "The doctrine of Christ," says Neander, was not given as a rigid dead letter, in but it was announced as the word of spirit one determinate form of human character; and of life, with a living flexibility and variety, by men enlightened by the Divine Spirit, who received and appropriated it in various constitutional qualities, and the difa living manner, in accordance with their ference of their course of life and education. This difference served to manifest the living unity, the riches and the depth of the forms of conception, which unintentionthe christian spirit in the manifoldness of ally illustrated each other and supplied their mutual deficiencies. Christianity, indeed, was designed and adapted to appropriate and elevate the various tendencies of human character, to blend them by means of a higher unity, and agreeably to the design of the peculiar fundamental tendencies of human nature, to operate through them for the realization of the ideal of man, and the exhibition of the Kingdom of God in the human race through all ages. "In the development of the original Christian doctrine, we can distinguish three leading tendencies, the Pauline, the Jacobean, (between which the Petrine forms an intermediate link), and the Johannean." p. 414. In opening up the Pauline form of doctrine, in which we find the fullest and most complete development of christian truth, Neander begins by noting the connexion and contrast of Paul's earlier and later standing-points, contained in the ideas of dikaιoσvvη and νομος. He passes on to the central-point of the Pauline anthropology-human nature in opposition to sin; then glances at the preparatives for redemption in Judaism and Heathenism, and goes on to notice the work of redemption, as accomplished by christianity, from whence come reconciliation with God, redemption and justification. "With respect to the idea of justification," REVIEW. observes Neander, "it cannot have been conceived by Paul as if men had been objects of the divine wrath and hatred, till Christ appeased the Divine justice by his sufferings, by his timely intervention reconciled an offended God to mankind, and made them again the objects of his love; for the plan of redemption presupposes the love of God towards the race that needed redemption, and Paul considers the sending of Christ and his living and suffering for mankind, as the revelation of the superabounding love and grace of God; Eph. iii. 19; Titus iii. 4; Rom. v. 8. viii. 32. And this counsel of God's love he represents as eternal, so that the notion of an influence on God produced in time falls to the ground, since the whole life and sufferings of Christ were only the completion of the eternal counsel of Divine love. Therefore Paul never says, that God being hostile to man, became reconciled to them through Christ, but that men who were the enemies of God became reconciled to him, Rom. v. 10; 2. Cor. v. 16. Thus he calls on men to be reconciled to God; 2 Cor. v. 20. The obstacle exists on the side of men, and owing to this they do not receive the revelation of the love of God into their self-consciousness; and since by the redeeming work of Christ, this obstacle is taken away, it is said of him that he has reconciled man to God, and made him an object of Divine love." pp. 449, 450. We have next noticed in order the appropriation of salvation by faith; the new life proceeding from that faith, embracing faith, hope, love, and opening up into the special Christian virtues of humility (TaTewoopoovn,) sober-mindedness (owopoovvn), wisdom and prudence (oopia). Here Neander shows the analogy of these virtues to the cardinal virtues of heathen philosophers, love occupying, however, with the christian, the place of the heathen δικαιοσύνη. "The idea of dikaιoσvvn is closely connected with that which essentially distinguishes the moral development of the ancients from christianity, namely the practice of considering civil life as the highest form of human development which includes all others in it, and the State as the condition adapted for the complete realization of the highest good.* As now by realizing the idea of a Kingdom of God, morality was freed from this limitation, *The opinion of those who attribute to the State such an importance, and would constitute it a perfect model for the realization of the Kingdom of God, is derived from unchristian premises and leads to unchristian conclusions. 475 was exalted and widened in its application to all mankind, became transformed into a divine life in human form; and as it is the love of God which manifests itself as the holy and redeeming characteristic of this kingdom-it follows that, in the divine life of this kingdom, love occupies the place of righteousness on the standingpoint of antiquity, so that, as Aristotle and Plato traced back all the cardinal virtues to the idea of righteousness, and according to the Grecian proverb, righteousness included in itself all other vir tues, (ev de dikaloσvin σvλλnßdny wâơ' apeτn evi); so according to Paul, love is the fulfilling of the law, includes and originates all other virtues, and is, in short, the sum and substance of perfection, (Col. iii. 14), And in 1 Cor. xiii. 4, 5, he represents all the peculiar acts of the leading christian virtues as so many modes of love. Love is discreet, patient, persevering, always chooses what is becoming, is all things to all men, and thus acts with true sagacity. The idea of righteousness is not excluded, for all the acts of love may be conceived as determined by a regard to right; for love is not capricious, but conformable to law: it acknowledges and respects those human relations which are agreeable to the will of God, and gives to every one what his position in society demands. In Rom. xiii. 7, Coloss. iv. 1, love is represented as the animating principle in the pertherefore be considered as only one mode formance of the δικαιον και ισον, which may of the operation of love.”—p. 488. The church and sacraments now come under notice. Of baptism Neander says, that "it is the confession of dependence on Christ and the entrance into communion with him;" (p 494) and in a former part he says of the mode, "that the usual form of submersion practised by the [christian] Jews was transferred to the Gentile christians;" adding, "that this form was the most suitable render an object of contemplation by to signify that which Christ intended to such a symbol; the immersion of the whole man in the spirit of the new life." (p. 161.) Of the Lord's-supper he rightly says, "It is the solemn remembrance of Christ's sufferings for the salvation of men." This is certainly a concession for a Lutheran. The first volume concludes with an explanation of the Pauline idea and extent of the kingdom of God; the doctrine of the resurrection and the state of the soul after death; and the end of Christ's mediatorial kingdom. The second volume opens with "the | his own principles-that what is in itdoctrine of the Epistle to the Hebrews," self insignificant, is often raised into an Epistle written, as Neander thinks, importance by forcible attempts to supby an apostolic man of the Pauline press it. school. While our author contends The main defect of these volumes is that we may discover in the Epistle, the style. Neander's German, as every that the writer differed from Paul in scholar knows, is proverbially stiff and constitutional qualities, mental training, clumsy. We cannot expect, however, and his mode of transition from Juda- that translation will entirely strip off this ism to Christianity, yet we think that peculiarity. It will certainly demand the arguments for a Pauline origin, in- praise if it does not add difficulties stead of being unnoticed at all, ought thereto. We feel bound to say of this to have been fairly met. The testimo- translation that it is in every respect ny of Clemens Alexandrinus, of Origen, much superior to Neander's "Church and of Eusebius, in favour of the com- History," the work, we believe, of an mon opinion, is not referred to in any American. Neander's style is rendered way; while all that is stated about pe- much more vague and obscure by the culiarities of style and treatment may, use of many strange words, such as as we conceive, be satisfactorily recon- will puzzle those who may not be able ciled with the other Epistles by the same to refer to a Greek Lexicon. There is writer. Neander thinks we may discovone sentence that requires special attener the influence of Paul's dialectic education. It is of its kind perfectly unique. tion in his Epistles; but that in the Epistle to the Hebrews we find traces rather of the writer's having received his training in the schools of the rhetoricians. But if the style of the Epistle to the Hebrews be more rhetorical than some other of Paul's epistles, does it not the more nearly resemble those powerful addresses delivered by him in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch, at Athens, from the castle stairs at Jeru salem, and before Felix and Agrippa? In noticing the doctrine of James, Neander observes that the only difference between James and Paul was a difference of development, which is admirably shown in page 23, Vol. II. The analysis of apostolic doctrine closes with an exposition of the doctrine of John, in whose mind the intuitive element predominated over the diatetic; the central-point of his doctrine being communion with Christ. About 130 pages of additions and corrections, made by Neander to the fourth and last German edition, complete the "Planting." We have thus endeavoured briefly to lay before our readers an outline of the multifarious contents of this work; but we cannot close our notice without expressing our regret that Neander should have conceded so much to the enemies of the truth. Gfrörer, Bleek, and Bauer are occasionally shown too much favour, and treated with too much attention. Neander in this respect violates one of In speaking of the conduct of those christians at Corinth who ridiculed their weaker brethren for abstaining from "things offered to idols," and even went so far as to take part in the festive entertainments, consisting of the flesh that was left after the sacrifices had been presented, which the heathen were wont to give to their friends, he says, "We here find the germ of a one-sided over-valuation of the theocratic illumination, a misunderstanding of christian freedom, a false adiaphorism in morals, which a later pseudo-pauline gnostic tendency carried so far as to justify the grossest immoralities !"-p. 244, Vol. I. There are certainly few such sentences; but the reader will have frequently to re-peruse a whole paragraph before its precise meaning becomes apparent. Many will shrink from reading this work because of the Greek which bristles on almost every page; but certain we are that the more carefully the work is read, especially the latter part, the greater will be our delight in the apostolic epistles, the more perfect our conception of the peculiarities of each writer, the warmer our love for our common Lord, and the more intelligent our defence of "the faith once delivered to the saints." The "Anti-Gnosticus; or Spirit of Tertullian," which occupies more than half the second volume, will have our attention at some future period. J. OBITUARY. THE KINGLY OFFICE OF JESUS: A Sermon, preached in New Church Street Chapel, Edgeware Road, London, on Lord's-day morning, August 21st, 1853. By JABEZ BURNS, D.D., minister of the congregation. (Published by request.) Houlston and Stoneman. pp. 12. or THIS short discourse, delivered in the dinary course" of the ministry of Dr Burns, is a favourable specimen of his pulpit ministrations. In the exordium, the preacher recapitulates two previous discourses, on the prophetic and priestly offices of Christ, as leading naturally to the consideration of the royal mediatorial dignity which belongs to the Son of God. After introducing a series of appropriate quotations of holy writ, representing the kingly office of Christ, the preacher proceeds to consider the leading characteristics of his administrations, under which he remarks that Christ's kingdom is not of this world-is spiritual-righteous-based on atonement-peaceful-progressive and universal. Under these particulars a number of pertinent observations are introduced, and the whole is concluded by a suitable application. Sermon and sketch making surely is Dr. Burns's forte: for, [ 477 while few of his productions evidence a MOTHERLESS MARY, AND THE BETTER HOME. This is a plaintive, sorrowful tale, with OBITUARY. Him." In our dear Jane we have one of the many examples of the efficacy of early religious training. "Let christian parents and guardians," said Baxter, "wisely and earnestly seek the salvation of their children, and the ordinary preaching of the gospel will cease to be the means of their conversion." SARAH JANE WADE, was the only child of Mr. T. Wade of Ketton - once a deacon of the G. B. church at Barrowden-who died three months before her birth, and whose death was recorded in the G. B. R. for 1835, p. 419. She was born at the residence of her uncle, Mr. C. Halford, in March Fen, in whose pious house she found a happy home during the first seven Young people, beware of colds! Their years of her short life. The writer having pedigree is said to be, a cold, a cough, a married the widowed mother, Sarah Jane coffin;" so was it with our beloved Sarah became a loved and loving member of Jane: she somehow took a slight cold-his family a scholar in the G. B. Sunday went on a visit among her relations to School, Chatteris,-then a teacher-a mis- March Fen and Whittlesea; but no serious sionary collector, and an active distributor apprehensions were entertained till after of little religious periodicals; and we were her return, when in a fit of coughing she hoping for her a long career of usefulness ruptured a blood vessel. This was soon in the church of Christ. She was blessed followed by fever and frequent delirium. with good health, much energy, and an All that medical skill, christian kindness amount of common sense rather beyond and prayer could do was done; but He in her years. As a child of Adam's fallen whose hands our times are suffered the race she doubtless had her faults: the wind to pass over this opening flower and writer seldom saw any-he often admired cut it down. "He changed her counte. her excellences, especially the promptitude nance and sent her away." During a and cheerfulness of her obedience. We fortnight her sufferings were great. She loved her much, and she loved us. Some was often delirious, but had many lucid of her last words were, "I love you all-intervals. In one of them she said, I love only the Lord Jesus better than I "Father this is mysterious." She was love you and I love Him because He reminded that Paul had a desire to depart first loved me and died for my sins; and and be with Christ. "Is it," said she, not mine only but for all who believe on "inconsistent to have any wish to live?" say. Seeing her young friends weeping, she said, "Do'nt weep: I'm not unhappy." That blessed text, "This is a faithful ing and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief-" of whom I am chief -was often on her lips. With an earnestness never to be forgotten, we heard her pray, "Lord give me patience, fortitude, resignation, and pardon all my sins, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen." That sweet hymn commencing, "Jesus lover of my soul," often furnished us with words wherewith we came before the Lord. "Jane it grieves us, but we must part; we shall not be long after you." "I don't know that I shall live till morning," said the sufferer. You must go to the throne if you would come to glory." The writer himself, ill at the time, going up at midnight once more to see and pray with the dear sufferer, she said, "The Lord bless you and his cause." She did live till morning, but in great suffering, and all the restlessness of approaching death was on her until 11 o'clock on Saturday, April 10th, 1852, when she calmly yielded up her spirit, while the family were kneeling and praying, “Lord Jesus receive it." On the 15th of April her body was laid in grave number 1074, in our beautiful Cemetery, when brother Jones of March delivered a solemn and an appropriate address. We miss her every day and everywhere; time has not healed the breach or closed the wound. Our "fire-side has one vacant chair;" but "Let us be patient, these severe afflictions But oftentimes celestial benedictions Young friends! how eloquent is her early grave! Our Jane was 16 years of age when she died. How old are you? Have you fled to Christ? You cannot be apparently more healthy than she was. Your life is a vapour. Like Jane you may be moral and amiable; this is not enough. She felt herself the chief of sinners, and made Christ and Him crucified the only ground of her hope for pardon and salvation. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." INTELLIGENCE. THE WARWICKSHIRE CONFERENCE Was held at Union Place, Longford, on Tuesday, Sep. 14th, 1853. Brother Cheatle of Birmingham opened the morning service by reading and prayer, and brother Lewitt of Coventry preached an excellent sermon from 1 Cor. viii. 1. "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." At the Conference, in the afternoon, brother Salisbury, minister of the place, presided. After singing, and prayer by brother Knight of Wolvey, the reports of the Churches were received. They were generally favourable. Twenty-six had been baptized since the last Conference, and there were eleven candidates for baptism. At Birmingham five had been baptized. At Coventry one, and there are eight candidates. At Longford five, and one candidate. At Longford, Union Place, six, and one candidate. At Nuneaton four, and one candidate. At Wolvey five have been baptized. After the reports were presented the doxology was sung. The following business was then attended to. 1.-The Secretary informed the Conference that, in accordance with the resolutions of the meeting in May last, a case had J. L. been presented to the Association, requesting it to consider the propriety of retaining the name of Cradley Heath on the list of churches, and also the propriety of endeavouring to secure the chapel property; and that the Association had appointed a committee of inquiry, who were directed to send a report of the result of their proceedings to the Conference. A statement was then made by brother Cheatle respecting the present aspect of the church at Cradley Heath, but no proceeding was taken thereon, as no official report had been received from the Committee. 2.-Brother Knight of Wolvey, having been appointed by the last Conference to write, on their behalf, a sympathetic and affectionate epistle to our Missionary brethren in Orissa, he was requested to forward it at his earliest convenience. 3. After some appropriate remarks by brother Cheatle, respecting the importance of special effort to promote the revival of religion in the churches connected with the Conference, it was agreed that brethren Crofts and Knight of Wolvey; Lewitt and Farmer of Coventry; Chapman, Shepherd, Smith, sen., Salisbury and Colledge of Longford; and Stenson and Hands of Nuneaton, constitute a committee, with power to add to their number, for the |