Theological Notes and Queries.

OPEN COUNCIL.

[The utmost freedom of honest thought is permitted in this department. The reader must therefore use his own discriminating faculties, and the Editor must be allowed to claim freedom from responsibility.]

then it would be contrary to the Christian law to lend money on mortgage, which is the same in principle. At the same time, it is obvious both that the occupation exposes one engaged in it to peculiar temptations, against which it behoves him to be especially on his guard; and, also, that it must often subject him to the appearance of being hard and unfeeling. We do not think that the letter of the law of Moses binds us in this respect.

CHRIST AND MARY MAGDALENE.

REPLICANT. In answer to QUERIST No. 13, p. 116. We do not agree with you in setting aside St. Mark's clear assertion that "he appeared first to Mary Magdalene." There is no proof of any ascension before

that which took place at the end of the forty days, and speculation is useless. We have never met with any explanation of the words of Christ which has fully satisfied

us.

They have ever presented a difficulty to exegetes, and have occasioned a great variety of interpretations. Dean Alford, who nearly agrees with Grotius, paraphrases thus:-"Do not thus-for I am not yet restored finally to you in the body-I have yet to ascend to the Father." He then remarks:-"This implies in the background another and truer touching, when he should have ascended to the Father.

The two renderings of ἅπτου to be guarded against, are-(1) A laying hold of, to retain.

(2) A laying hold of, to worship,"

as in Matt. xxviii. 9.

Literary Notices.

[We hold it to be the duty of an Editor either to give an early notice of the books sent to him for remark, or to return them at once to the Publisher. It is unjust to praise worthless books; it is robbery to retain unnoticed ones.]

THE REVIEWER'S CANON.

In every work regard the author's end,

Since none can compass more than they intend.

A HISTORY OF ENGLAND FOR THE PEOPLE. FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS. Re-Edited and continued to the death of the PRINCE ALBERT. By a Member of the University of London. Fourth Edition. London: William Tegg.

THE History of England is the history of England's past life, and though geographically small, has been the scene on which that life has to operate; it has played out a drama whose acts are thrilling, and whose moral is worthy the study of ages. England's story has been often written, but not always with literary skill, seldom with philosophic analysis, and more seldom still with righteous impartiality. Many of the works are so voluminous, that in this age of intense activity few can command the time for their perusal; others are so intolerably dull, that every page diffuses a drowsiness through the system, and others are so

one-sided in their treatment of facts and character, that the sooner they are burnt the better. All preceding histories have left ample room for the one before us. It brings within the compass of eight hundred pages the leading events, and the prominent characters of our past times. There are no waste words, no pedantic disquisition, no stiff stateliness of style, no attempt at being grand, here. Considering the fulness of information, the clearness of statement, the vividness of style—the condensation is remarkable. It is just the history for the people, and the people should possess it; it comes within their means.

THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF EDWARD IRVING. (In Five Volumes.) Edited by his Nephew, REV. G. CARLYLE, M.A. Vol. I. London : Alexander Strahan & Co.

men.

MRS. OLIPHANT, in her interesting biography, has revived the memory of Edward Irving--a name which, thirty years ago, fell from a thousand lips every day, but which was fast sinking into oblivion until her pen brought his grand figure once more on the stage. Taken for all in all, Edward Irving was a type of men who appear in very distant intervals in the world's history. Heaven is not lavish in its gifts of extraordinary Once in a century, perhaps, they come. For this reason they arrest attention and demand study. Mr. Carlyle, his loyal and talented nephew, in the voluminous work of which this is the first volume, is engaged in reproducing the utterances of this marvellous man; and such utterances are seldom heard in these days-stately in their sentences, Miltonic in their ring, prophet-like in spirit. The following extract may be given as a specimen of the great man's spirit and style. It is on the world's neglect of the Bible:-"Oh! if books had but tongues to speak their wrong, then might this book well exclaim, Hear, O heavens and give ear, O earth! I came from the love and embrace of God; and mute nature, to whom I brought no boon, did me rightful homage. To man I came, and my words were to the children of men. I disclosed to you the mysteries of hereafter, and the secrets of the throne of God. I set open to you the gates of salvation, and the way of eternal life, heretofore unknown. Nothing whatever did I withhold from your hope and ambition; and upon your earthly lot I poured the full horn of Divine providence and consolation. But ye requited me with no welcome, ye held no festivity on my arrival, ye sequester me from happiness and heroism, closeting me with sickness and infirmity; ye make not of me, nor use me for your guide to wisdom and prudence; but press me into your list of duties, and withdraw me to a mere corner of your time; and most of ye set at nought, and utterly disregard me. I came, the fulness of the knowledge of God. Angels delighted in my company, and desired to dive into my secrets; but ye, mortals, place masters over me, subjecting me to the discipline and dogmatism of men,

and tutoring me in your schools of learning. I came not to be silent in your dwellings, but to speak welfare to you and to your children. I came to rule, and my throne is set up in the hearts of men. Mine ancient residence was in the bosom of God; no residence will I have but the soul of an immortal; and if you had entertained me, I should have possessed you of the peace which I had with God, 'when I was with him, and was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.'" AUTOBIOGRAPHY, CORRESPONDENCE, &C., OF LYMAN BEECHER, D.D Edited by his Son, CHARLES BEECHER. In Two Volumes, Vol. I. London: Sampson Low, Son, & Gurton.

SOME persons denounce Autobiographies. They regard the principle of a man writing the memoir of himself as vicious. This is nonsense. If a man's life is valuable, it is worth writing; and if it is to be written, no man can do it so well as the man himself. No one so well understands the subject, and no one has so strong motives to be faithful to it, and no one has such power to invest it with charm of reality. Biographers generally, either from the spirit of adulation on the one hand, or detraction on the other, make their heroes either far nobler or baser than they really were. The man who writes his own life will find modesty on the one side restraining him from yielding to any temptation to exaggerate his own merits; and self-respect on the other, from any tendency to depreciate his own worth. The name of Beecher is now-through the writings of Mrs. Stowe, the daughter of the subject of this work, and the somewhat sanguinary' speeches, lately delivered amongst us, of her brother, Mr. Henry Ward Beecher-pretty well-known in England. Many, therefore, we doubt not, will give a hearty welcome to this Autobiography. There is a great variety in it. Domestic incidents, religious revivalisms, theological speculations, and ecclesiastical movements, all centering on the godly life of a thoughtful and active man, give the work a peculiar charm for all classes.

THE CHRIST OF THE GOSPELS, AND THE ROMANCE OF M. RENAN. (Three Essays.) By the REV. DR. SCHAFF, and M. NAPOLEON ROUSSEL London: Religious Tract Society.

THIS Volume contains a treatise by Dr. Schaff on the "Christ of the Gospels," in which the perfection of our Lord's character, as portrayed in the evangelists, is set forth as an argument for the Divinity of His purpose and mission. If the spotless purity of Christ's character can be demonstrated, His superhuman origin and nature must inevitably follow. The essay is an admirable delineation of the excellence of Christ, and as an argument against Renan and his school, is conclusive. This little book also contains two essays by Napoleon Roussel, one of the ablest of the French Protestant pastors, "in which the insidious and latent principles of the Vie de Jésus are stripped of their disguise,

and laid bare in their naked deformity. Many who might be deluded and seduced by the rhetorical romance of M. Renan, would start back with horror from an unveiled statement of his teachings." We commend this volume as an admirable antidote to the evil it is intended to remove. THE FAMILY CIRCLE. BY REV. ANDREW MORTON. (Third thousand.)

Edinburgh: W. Oliphant & Co. London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co. THIS little book, the author informs us, is designed for the fireside of the common people. It is composed of discourses which the author delivered in the regular course of his ministry. Its object is to show how the humblest home may be made happy. The subject is-Home, with all its Domestic Relations, and in connexion with its changes here and destiny in Eternity. The idea and execution of this work are alike admirable. We do not wonder that such a book has already passed through two editions. It editions should be numbered by hundreds. THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVANGELICISM; EVOLVED FROM THE RELATIONS BETWEEN CONSCIENCE AND THE ATONEMENT. London: Bell & Daldy. THIS is a book small in compass but big in meaning. Every page is filled with the profoundest thinking on the most vital parts of our faith. To do justice to the author's argument, and to point out where we agree, and wherein we differ, we should require several sheets in a Quarterly." Suffice it to say, that every theological dogmatist and Evangelical preacher should read and ponder every part of it.

THE WORKS OF THOMAS GOODWIN, D.D. With General Preface. By JOHN C. MILLER, D.D. And Memoir, by R. HALLEY. Vol. VIII. London: James Nisbet & Co.

THIS is another elegant volume, making the eighth of Dr. Goodwin's works. This contains discourses on the subject of Faith, the Acts of Faith, and the Properties of Faith. These discourses are equal to any of author's best productions. His points of thought are always numerous, and always richly illustrated by Scripture quotations. His illustrations are not always apt or decent, as for example: "When a marriage is proposed unto a woman, that which may move her at first to listen to it, may be the hearsay of an estate, and paying her debts with which she is encumbered; these may persuade her to view and see the person, and to entertain a visit from him, and to acquaint herself with him; but after some long converse, her heart is so taken with his person, that if he had nothing, she would beg with him the world over, for she is satisfied with his person alone. And thus it is between our souls and Christ; we come to Christ at first as the Lamb of God that takes away our sins, that will save us from wrath and pay our debts (and the truth is we must always come so to Him to cleanse us from sin every day).” The enterprising publisher has so done his part as to leave nothing to be desired.