the soul. It furnishes a judicious parent with an opportunity of glancing at faults, where direct admonition might be inexpedient. It greatly conduces to the maintenance of family government and order, while its spiritual advantages are invaluable." Review of Religious Publications. THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH; or, A Visit to a Our anonymous Author has given them If the writer of "The Eclipse of Faith" has done no other good service to the cause of truth, he has at least made it manifest to the common-sense of mankind, that the spiritualism of the Bible is not to be plagiarised and appropriated by men of the Newman-school, while they deny the Divine authority of THE BOOK to which they are indebted for their purest and loftiest conceptions. He has fixed them on the horns of an awkward dilemma;-and they must either account, on their own principles, for the matchless spiritualism of the Bible, or they must show cause why it should not be received as an immediate revelation from God. How it should be the most surpassing of all books, in its moral and spiritual phases, and yet be nothing more than a mere item of human development, is a conception which, considering the national source whence it emanated, few will entertain who have not taken leave of their sober senses. That as a mere product of the Jewish mind it should outstrip, in moral excellence and beauty, all other books that ever saw the light, is a proposition only to be received by those who can believe in German myths, and all other monstrous things, but who regard a "book revelation" from God as a thing "impossible." In the present century, there has no work issued from the British press, on the subject of infidelity, of greater power, or more decidedly useful tendency, than "The Eclipse of Faith." A name, however revered in the annals of our Christian literature, could have added nothing to the effect which an Essay so remarkable in grasp of knowledge is fitted to produce ;-though, had the author's name been given, we have reason to believe it would have been sufficient guarantee for masculine thought, large resources, and firstrate ability in English composition. These qualities may be traced in every page of the work; and some of the shallow thinkers of the day, who have lent themselves to the cause of infidelity, may well feel themselves rebuked as they ponder some of his withering caveats against the flippant scepticism which they have borrowed from the German mint. He has made it palpable, we should hope to themselves, that the half-way house in which they have taken refuge is a frail tenement, ready to tumble about their ears, -that it is, in fact, an utterly untenable thing, having neither the stability of a veritable faith, nor the downright honesty of a fearless unbelief. We deem it all the more dangerous, because it compliments the spirit of the Bible, while it seeks to destroy its evidence; that it prates about its Divinity, while it excludes the direct intervention of its Author, thus resolving all its unique and marvellous phenomena into a mere development of human nature, which, according to the new-school, is a law and a revelation to itself the only law-the only revelation, which these wonderful judges of the laws of the moral universe deem possible. "The Eclipse of Faith" is neither a romance nor an actual biography; and yet it partakes of elements common to both. There is a fictitious drapery thrown around the characters and scenes to which we are introduced; but we suspect that Harrington, and even Fellowes, are real personages; and whether they be or not, they are true types of the classes whose opinions they represent; the one a universal sceptic, who scarcely believes anything; and the other a disciple of the school of Newman, who discards the inspiration and authority of the Bible, denies its miracles and its history, and yet, with marvellous inconsistency, adopts its spiritual element,-not, however, as a thing of God, but of man. The uncle of Harrington is the grave opponent both of the scepticism of his nephew and the spiritualism of Fellowes; in his several interviews with them combating sometimes the one, and sometimes the other; but always pouring a flood of light on the topics submitted to his profound and critical investigation. By some it may be thought that the book should have been more of a tale ;-and by others that it should have been less. We cannot help feeling, however, that the author has exercised a wise discretion. By the plan adopted, he has 'eschewed the severity of a theological treatise, and has thereby secured for himself all the popular effect of the best portions of our light literature; while the disquisitional character of the work makes it a fit vehicle for the refutation of error and the defence of truth. The prominent object of the work is to demolish the German spiritualism, especially as advocated by Messrs. Newman, Parker, and others. But one great recommendation of the author's plan is this, that, while pursuing his majestic course, like the current of some mighty river, he sweeps away all the other sandbanks which infidelity has cast up, at different periods, on which to tempt deluded mortals to place their hopes. By a single dash of his pen, or by a dexterously-conceived paragraph, he has utterly annihilated the force of theories which have boasted the advocacy of great names. One thing has struck us much in reading "The Eclipse of Faith;" viz. that, in contending successfully with the new and somewhat plausible race of sceptics and unbelievers, we must take to the old weapons which routed the giants of the seventeenth century; just as we must take to the old weapons of the Reformation if we would stand securely against the onset of Popery and Anglo-Catholicism. Our author has very ably availed himself, in a variety of ways, of the arguments of Butler ; and the more one thinks of it, the more one is convinced that nine-tenths of the objections of infidels must fall before its crushing power. By a very skilful, but perfectly fair process, our author sets Harrington, a general sceptic, to answer the objections of Newman and his class;-and it is truly instructive to see what good service even a sceptic may do, in demonstrating the sandy basis upon which the common-places of the development-school rest. We may give the following illustration. Harrington's uncle had just read a paper to Fellowes, in which he contended, with great force of argument, "that all the analogies derived from the fundamental laws of the de velopment of man's nature-from a consideration of the relations in which that nature stands to the external world-from the absolute dependence of the individual on external culture, and that of the whole species in its historic development—are all in favour of the notion both of the possibility and utility of an external revelation, and even in favour of that particular form of it which Mr. Newman and you so contemptuously call a 'book' revelation : " "I paused,' said Harrington's uncle, 'and Fellowes mused. At last he said, "I cannot feel convinced that the absolute religion' is not (as Mr. Parker says) essentially the same in all men, and internally revealed. The want exists in all, and there must, according to the arrangements of universal nature, be the supply: just as the eye is for the light, and the light is for the eye. As he says, we feel instinctively it must be so. "Unhappily,' said Harrington, Mr Parker says that many things must be which we find are not, and this among the number At least I, for one, shall not grant that the sort of spiritual supply which is given to the Calmuck, or the savage "besmeared with the blood of human sacrifices," at all resembles that uniform light which is made for all people's eyes.' "Fellowes seemed still perplexed with his old difficulty. 'I cannot help thinking,' he began again, 'that the spiritual faculty acts by immediate "insight," and has nothing to do with "logical processes" or "intellectual propositions," or the sensatorial or the imaginative parts of our nature; that it 'gazes immediately upon spiritual truth." Now, in the argument you have constructed, you have expressly implied the contrary. You have said, you know that even if you granted men to be in possession of "spiritual and moral truth," there might still be large space for a divinely-constructed book, from the reflex operation of the intellect, the imagination, and so forth, upon the products of the spiritual faculty, both directly, and also indirectly, inasmuch as external influences modify or stimulate them.' "But,' said I, 'does not Mr. Newman himself, in the first part of his "Treatise on the Soul," admit the reciprocal action of all these on the too plastic spiritual products; and as to "logical and intellectual processes," does he not continually employ them for his system of opinions, though he will not allow them to be employed against it? And by what other means than through the intervention of your senses, by which you read his pages-your imagination, by which you seize his illustrations-your intellect, by which you comprehend his arguments, did he reclaim you, as you say he has done, from many of your ancient errors ? How else, in the name of common sense, did he get access to your soul at all?' "I cannot pretend to defend Mr. Newman's consistency,' said he, 'in his various statements on this subject. I acknowledge I am even puzzled to find out how he did convince me, upon his hypothesis.' "Are you sure,' said I, laughing, 'that he ever convinced you at all? However, all your perplexity seems to me to arise from supposing the spiritual powers of man to act in greater isolation from his other powers than is conceivable or even possible. Not apart from these, but in intimate conjunction with them, are the functions of the soul performed. The divorce between the "spiritual faculties" and the intellect, which your favourite, Mr. Newman, has attempted to effect, is impossible. It is an attempt to sever phenomena which co-exist in the unity of our own consciousness. I am bound in justice to admit that there are others of our "modern spiritualists" who condemn this preposterous attempt to separate what God hath joined so inseparably. Even Mr. Newman does practically contradict his own assertions; and outraged reason and intellect have avenged his wrongs upon them by deserting him when he has invoked them, and left him to express his paradoxes in endless perplexity and confusion."" Our very limited space forbids our doing justice to this volume, which must be read to be appreciated. It places the New German School just where it ought to stand,—in the region of pure fanaticism. 6 Speaking of Newman, our author says, "To hear him sometimes speak, one would imagine that the logical, the moral, and the spiritual are held together by no vital bond of connexion; nay, from some expressions, we would think that the 'logical' faculty had nothing to do with religion, if it is not to be supposed rather to stand in the way of it; that the intellect' and the 'spiritual faculty' may each return to its vacant interlunar cave,' and never trouble its head about what the other is doing. Thus he says in one place: All the grounds of Belief proposed to the mere understanding have nothing to do with faith at all.'* In another,The processes of thought have nothing to quicken the conscience or affect the soul.'† How, then, can the state of the soul be tested by the conclusion to which the intellect is led?' + And accordingly, you see, he every where affirms, that we ought not to have any better or worse opinion of any man for his intellectual creed;' and that'religious progressi cannot be anticipated' till intellectual 'creeds are destroyed." "§ * Soul, p. 223. Ibid. p. 245. 245. + Ibid. p. § Phases, p. 222. Poor Mr. Newman! how he must be fighting against his better feelings! "There is no book," says he, " which I love and esteem so much as the New Testament, with the devotional parts of the Old. There is none which I know so intimately, the very words of which dwell close to me in my most sacred thoughts; none for which I so thank God, none on which my soul and heart have been to so great an extent moulded. In my early boyhood, it was my private delight and daily companion; and to it I owe the best part of whatever wisdom there is in my manhood." * What insufferable cant is this, from the pen of a writer who is doing his utmost to deprive the Bible of all claim to a Divine origin, who would strip it of all its peculiar truths as a revelation of mercy to a guilty race, and who would even desiderate the immortality of the soul! In prospect of the dying hour, who would not rather be the author of "The Eclipse of Faith," than of "The Phases of Faith?" In the one case, we have a man religiously trained, seeking to strengthen the foundations of belief in supernatural revelation, which has been the parent of all human melioration; in the other, we have an individual also religiously trained, complimenting the Bible for all kinds of surpassing excellence, yet employing all his talents and learning to make the age believe that there is not a particle of Divine authority in the Scriptures; and that there is no religion in man but that which he finds in his own "spiritual faculty." The presumption of such sentiments is only equalled by their folly and their peril to the interests of human nature. We express a hope, that "The Eclipse of Faith" will be as useful in our day, as "Butler's Analogy" was in his. There are no books in our literature which, all things considered, so greatly resemble each other. THE FUTURE; or, The Science of Politics. London: J. Rowsell, HERE we have a fresh medley of theology and politics from the hand of Mr. Alison. We had hoped that, after the infelicitous exhibition of folly, misstatements, and undisguised infidelity made in his " Second Reformation," he would not again tax our patience, or add to the trunk-maker's stock of materials. But Mr. Alison, like most men who have mistaken their mission, and are distinguished by that element of character, which Solomon assures us, even braying in a mortar will not purge out, instead of regretting what he had already done, repeats the mischief. He seems, indeed, so thoroughly imbued with that hostility to Evangelical religion, which springs Soul, pp. 241, 242. from ignorance and the prejudices of shallow thinking, that we should not be surprised to find him dabbling in this kind of print to the end of his days. In this volume, we think, there is a little moderation of his former tone. The spirit is the same, and the statements are often identical with those in his former book; but there is less arrogance and impiousness. He still, indeed, denies a Special Providence, Original Sin, and the Doctrine of the Atonement. And this is done just as he had done it before, -in a manner so flimsy and destitute of clear thinking, that it is to us truly astonishing how he could cheat himself into the delusion that he had any notion of the questions he pretended to examine. But in this volume he professes to admit the inspiration of the Scriptures, to believe the miracles of the New Testament, and very condescendingly avows that, with our present translation, he cannot undertake to explain the doctrine of imputed righteousness. Moreover, instead of branding Luther and Calvin, and others among the reformers, with ignorance of nature and forgetfulness of the perfection of God, he speaks in terms indicating a measure of respect. Perhaps, after all, there is some hope of Mr. Alison, as it is evident his opportunities of arriving at right conceptions of the doctrines of Christianity have hitherto been very slender, and the sermons he has had the misfortune to hear have been little better than a caricature and mockery of truth. stantiation. When, therefore, he sets about the work of authorship again, we would advise him to guard against being duped by his own ignorance, or practised upon by parties who laugh in their sleeves at him. The following things, selected from a multitude of a kindred description, will serve somewhat to illustrate the mistiness, or "confusion worse confounded," that pervades the pages of this book. Of Nature Mr. Alison makes frequent mention. It is, indeed, one of those things, which, with singular flexibility and convenience, answer all manner of purposes. Now, he pronounces it the "test of truth;" and then, a most unaccountable change having come over the spirit of his dream, he affirms that when "Nature steps in, a revival of superstition is the consequence." Of Faith he says the most contradictory things. In one place he maintains it produces no inward change;" in another, that it "is Truth received into the soul;" and in a third, that in this form it is "the Divine means of Conversion." Now what can be made of this? Is it intelligible? If Mr. Alison tells us that "Faith produces no inward change," and yet pronounces it "the Divine means of Conversion," we cannot help saying with all frankness, this is simply arrant nonsense. We can make nothing of it; nor, we should imagine, can any one else. Of everything in the shape of fact, or literal interpretation, that might stand in his way, he very speedily relieves himself by resolving the Old and New Testaments, with all their facts, prophecies, promises, and doctrines, into a collection of figures; for he gravely affirms, that unless we apply the figurative principle of interpretation "to all Scripture, we read that Book without rule, and disregard the first principles of truth." Of evil, it is hard to say what are his notions, as he represents a want of knowledge" as its primary cause." The vicious element, which runs throughout the theological portion of this book, and which must have been gleaned from the creed of some ignorant Antinomian, or passed off as a hoax upon Mr. Alison by some scoffer, who practised on his credulity, is that evangelical Christianity divorces practice from faith, and reduces religion to a barren dogina. This fiction is dwelt upon ad nauseam, the simple man evidently thinking all the while that he is combating a universal error, where, Don Quixote-like, his chivalry is expended on a shadow or a windmill, instead of a mailed knight. It may be very true that many people speak of faith who are strangers to holy practice; but this, instead of leading any candid and competent man to the conclusion that evangelical religion, as inculcated from the great majority of Protestant pulpits in this country, is a mere fruitless abstraction, would have conducted him to the opinion, that such people are as ignorant of the nature and power of faith, as they are destitute of consistent practice. The notion, which has cost Mr. Alison so much manual labour, and has led to the consumption of so much ink and paper on his part, is no more an element in the creed of evangelical Christians, than the assumption of the Virgin, or the doctrine of transub-religion." Taking these things as a sample, it will be at once seen that Mr. Alison has entirely mistaken his vocation, in attempting to meddle with questions connected with morals and religion. He is evidently not possessed of the natural qualifications which fit for such inquiries. And, moreover, his circumstances and associations must have been of the most infelicitous kind. He tells us that, in the only discourse he ever listened to "on the Deity," the preacher affirmed that creation furnished no evidence of the Divine existence, and that God is neither a person nor a principle, but something between the two. He further tells us - certainly in no way complimentary to his friends and associates, or to his opportunities of having his errors corrected-that never, save once, did he hear "the word understood used in connection with On Mr. Alison's political speculations we do | impediments, he contends that it is only by not deem it our province to enter; but in refer- the principle of love, which is the antagonist ence to his views on moral and religious of all selfishness, that the pure Socialism dequestions we must say, in conclusion, that manded by the wants and necessities of anything more vague, confused, or thoroughly mankind can be realised. In other words, absurd, it has never been our fortune to meet Mr. Martin holds that nothing but the gospel, with. Mr. Alison's is a case of inherent simply received and faithfully acted out in weakness and mischief, aggravated by the every-day life, can meet the cravings of most unhappy combination of circumstances humanity. that ever befel a mortal. Ir is rarely that we have met with so much that is fresh, healthful, and vigorous in popular Christian teaching, as is to be found in these lectures. We deem them perhaps the most pointed and telling among the efforts of Mr. Martin. It is impossible to read them, with any degree of attention, without feeling that the nature of Christianity, as the great instrument of all true individual and social regeneration, is unfolded with peculiar felicity. The beautiful and benignant spirit of the gospel is so happily evolved and applied, that every one, who is not hopelessly blinded by prejudice, must admit that all the evils which afflict society are to be traced to its absence, whilst every bond of true brotherhood, and every indication of the future redemption of our race from moral and physical wretchedness, are to be ascribed to its presence and influence. The first Lecture is founded on 1 Cor. x. 24, and with great power of reasoning and peculiar pertinency of illustration shows, that obedience to the spirit of that passage would necessarily conduct to the highest and purest form of Socialism, in the family, the Church, and the world. Nor, we are satisfied, can any one read this beautiful exposition of Christian ethics, fenced round as it is with cautions and safeguards, without feeling that the universal adoption and application of the principles contended for, would secure glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." The second Lecture is founded on 2 Cor. vi. 12, and enters into an examination of existing hindrances to the pure Socialism of Christianity. These hindrances are shown, by a very striking running commentary on many of the prominent facts recorded in the book of Genesis, to be as old as our race, and as deeply rooted as the depravity of our nature. And hence, whilst Mr. Martin shows that men are, and have been, "straitened" as to true social development by multitude of The third Lecture is founded on Prov. xxiv. 11, 12, and is devoted partly to a specification of the causes in which the neglect of social duty originates, partly to an exposure of the subterfuges to which men resort when attempting to palliate or defend that neglect, and partly to the enforcement of "the recognition of the omniscience of God and the anticipation of the future judg ment," as "a strong antidote to the selfdelusions by which men sustain their neglect of each other." This is a very rapid and imperfect outline of these admirable Lectures; but we trust it will be sufficient to induce our readers to obtain them for themselves, and to stimulate those whose means are ample to aid in sowing them broad-cast over the length and breadth of the land. Their circulation among all classes could not fail to be attended with the happiest results. THE CHRISTIAN FIRESIDE LIBRARY. 1. MEMOIR OF THE REV. EDWARD PAYSON, D.D., Pastor of the Second Church in Portland; with Passages from his Select Thoughts. Post 8vo., pp. 352. 2. A HAND-BOOK OF POPERY; or, Textbook of Missions for the Conversion of Romanists: being Papal Rome tested by Scripture, History, and its recent Workings. By JAMES BEGG, D.D. With an Appendix of Documents. Post 8vo., pp. 352. 4. 3. THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS OF BLAISE PASCAL. A new Translation, with Historical Introduction and Notes, by THOMAS M'CRIE, D.D., LL.D., Author of " Sketches of Scottish Church History," "Memoirs of Sir Andrew Agnew," &c. Post 8vo., pp. 348. THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY, IN THEIR EXTERNAL OR HISTORICAL DIVISION; exhibited in a Course of Lectures. By CHARLES PETTIT M'ILVAINE, D.D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Ohio. Reprinted from the latest American Edition. Revised and Im proved by the Author. Post 8vo., pp. 346. Johnstone and Hunter. THE Christian Fireside Library, of which these four volumes are an interesting specimen, bids fair to obtain a large circulation. Payson's Life will be a household book as long as earnest piety is an object of real interest to the Christian Church. A few such |