posture; and the central, life-giving truth of our religion was analyzed into a contradiction and a sham. The Christian church stood aghast at such a horrible presentation of Christ and Him crucified; and have ever since been perplexed to determine whether its author's escape from ecclesiastical censure was due to the inherent impotence of the Congregational polity to purge out heresy, or to a predominant sympathy with it among the ministers of Connecticut.

We had hoped that the lapse of time, the cessation of controversy and ecclesiastical agitation on the subject, the teachings of manifold experience, along with thorough study, had delivered Dr. Bushnell from his bondage to these monstrous dogmas. It was with such hope, strengthened by its title, that we hailed the appearance of this new treatise-the calmly elaborated expression of his ripened convictions-a hope which the bare survey of the table of contents is quite enough to extinguish.

The title suggested, 1. That he was about to maintain the vicarious sacrifice of Christ. 2. That the necessity for it, in order to the forgiveness of sinners, is grounded in the moral perfections, the justice and holiness of God, and so "in principles of universal obligation." But no. The "vicarious sacrifice" of Christ, in the room of sinners, as that has been ever understood by Christians, and their adversaries as well, is utterly denied and scouted in this volume. The "vicarious sacrifice" admitted and defended by Dr. Bushnell, is of the same kind as love in all good beings bears for its objects; and is common alike to God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to holy angels, and redeemed men. So "vicarious sacrifice is grounded in principles of universal obligation," as all love, and its appropriate sacrifices for its objects, are of universal obligation!

The Holy Spirit, says Dr. Bushnell, "works in love as Christ did, and suffers all the incidents of love. . . . Taking men upon him to bear them and their sins, precisely as Christ himself did in his sacrifice." (P. 74.) He had previously affirmed the same of God the Father. He proceeds to assert the same of the good angels, and then tells us, "In what is called his vicarious sacrifice, Christ, as we have seen, simply fulfils what belongs universally to love, doing neither more nor less than what the common standard of holiness and right requires.... Vicarious sacrifice then will not be a point where he is distinguished from his followers, but the very life to which he restores them, in restoring them to love. What we call his redemption of mankind must bring them to the common standard. Executed by vicarious sacrifice in himself, it must be issued in vicarious

sacrifice in them. . . There can be no greater mistake, in this view, than to imagine that Christ has the matter of vicarious sacrifice wholly to himself, because he suffers officially, or as having undertaken it for his office to supply so much suffering. He suffered simply what was incidental to his love, and the works to which his love prompted, just as any missionary suffers what belongs to the work of love he is in. It was vicarious suffering in no way peculiar to him, save in degree." Pp. 105-7.

Yet, in the closing chapter, he insists on the necessity of the altar-form in order to culture the soul in piety. "Oppressed with guilt, we should turn ourselves joyfully to Christ as the propitiation for our sins, Christ who hath borne the curse for us, Christ who knew no sin, made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (P. 537.) And yet, as in his previous works, he inveighs against the doctrine of the direct substitution of Christ's sufferings for the sinner's punishment by all manner of special pleading, caricature, and invective, as revolting to all reason and refined moral sensibility. His doctrine of atonement is sheer, bald Socinianism.

And, indeed, he too often outrages our most sacred feelings by his flippant and contemptuous caricatures. of truths dear to the whole church. He assures us, "God himself is not any better than he ought to be." The doctrine that the Holy Spirit is "sent by a kind of immediate or efficient agency to renew the soul," exhibits its work as done, "much as by some unseen hydrostatic pressure, or some silent gun-shot stroke of Omnipotence." Pp. 87-8.

But we must stop here for the present. Dr. Bushnell in this volume is the Dr. Bushnell of old. Not only in his doctrine, but his traits as a writer. He is master of a quaint, brilliant, and vigorous style. He is quite a poet; much of an orator; an indifferent scholar; a wayward thinker; a theologian only in name. His armour defensive is still mysticism and the disparagement of logic. His offensive weapons are still logic whenever it will avail him, both sound and unsound, and his own distortions of Christian doctrine.

Reminiscences, Historical and Biographical, of Sixty-four years in the Ministry. By Rev. Henry Boehm, Bishop Asbury's Travelling Companion and Executor of his last Will and Testament, Edited by Rev. Joseph B. Wakeley. New York: Published by Carlton & Porter. 1865.

Or otherwise, by the Methodist Book Concern, whose initials, M. B. C., are stamped on the cover, and which, for some reason, chooses to publish many, if not all of its works, under the name of Carlton & Porter. The volume before us consists of

the reminiscences of a devout, zealous, and devoted minister, a pioneer of American Methodism, which, in addition to their intrinsic value and interest, shed great light on the origin and growth of the great Methodist body in the United States. Rev. Mr. Boehm is a lineal descendant of the celebrated pietist Jacob Boehm.

Social Influence, or Take care of the Boys. By Zell. Author of "Aunt Betsy's Rule." Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication.

This is a good addition to the excellent "Series for Youth," now in course of publication by our Board. It is especially fitted to make boys realize the importance of being select in their associations.

The History of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. By John Foster Kirk. Two volumes. 8vo. Philadelphia: Lippincott & Co.

This is a history of the Prescott stamp, and pertaining to that connection of public events to which Mr. Prescott confined himself. It is not, however, an imitation. The author has a style of his own: and that a free and manly one. If in recording political affairs of the fifteenth century, an historian had much range of choice in respect to the moral character of his principal personages, we should say that Mr. Kirk was unfortunate in his hero. For a less attractive one than Charles is not easily found in eminent place out of his own century. But when a man would present the events in which Charles figured, whom shall he set in the foreground? Shall it be his cousin and rival, Louis XI? Perhaps that would be quite as true to the actual relations of things; but it would exhibit a figure less attractive still-with vices more repulsive than those of Charles, and singularly free from virtues to counterbalance them. Walter Scott did not venture to depict Louis in all his meanness and villany, lest he should violate the probabilities of romance. Charles was headstrong, rapacious, unjust, and gratuitously cruel; but he was, at least, open, valorous, and could not wait for the arts of duplicity.

The brief career of independent Burgundy was connected with an important crisis in the history of Europe. France was passing from the state of bondage to a number of feudal princes into the hands of one irresponsible monarch; a process accelerated by her disasters in war with England, which, by breaking down the feudal leaders, opened the way for the reviving monarchy to gather their honours, authorities, and lands, into itself. It was in that process of aggrandizement that the dukes of Burgundy, for a time, vied with, and almost excelled, the princes of the royal line. Theirs was, however, but a brief

history. When King John of France, taken prisoner at Poictiers, was carried to England, his third son Philip accompanied him to share and console his captivity. The grateful father testified his sense of that filial affection by constituting the lands of Burgundy into a dukedom for him, with the rank of first peer of the kingdom. Four dukes successively reigned in that right, from 1364 A. D. until the death of Charles the Bold in 1477, covering a period of over one hundred years.

In the English politics in France the dukes of Burgundy took a leading part. Philip the Good, father of Charles, actually governed France for many years. It was also the heir of Burgundy who commanded the army sent out to the East to defend Hungary against the Turkish sultan Bajazet, and which met with such discomfiture under the walls of Nicopolis. At home fortune so favoured that ducal house that, when Charles came into possession, it was actually wealthier than any royal family in Christendom. To the lands proper of Burgundy had been added Alsace, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, both north and south; that is, both Holland and Belgium, and many other inferior places, including the most opulent seats of manufactures and commerce. And with less than the wisdom of his father, Charles might have put his own coronet above the crown of Louis. His rapacity and rashness risked all, and lost it with his life. His only heir was a daughter, whom Louis soon plundered of Burgundy. Her son Philip, heir of the Netherlands and what else remained of her hereditary estates, married the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, and became Philip I. of Spain, and father of the Emperor Charles V. And thus the work of Mr. Kirk, when complete, will constitute a valuable. preliminary to those of Prescott.

The volumes now published bring the narrative down to the declaration of war between Charles and the Swiss-just the eve of the most stirring events of his troublous reign. The spirited manner in which it has been handled, so far, prepare us to greet with much interest the appearance of the succeeding part.

Winifred Bertram and the World she lived In. By the author of "The Schönberg-Cotta Family," &c. New York: M. W. Dodd, 506 Broadway. 1866. Pp. 479.

No modern writer for the religious public has attained a higher position than that which justly belongs to the author of this series of works. Their spirit is purely evangelical; their whole tendency is to promote true Christianity. They evince extraordinary historical knowledge, a remarkable talent for the portraiture of character, and an ability to transfer herself into

the age to which her story pertains. The members of the Cotta family think, feel, and act, as devout Romanists of the time of Luther, and not as the people of our generation. The number of the volumes flowing from the same facile pen may create misgiving lest the fountain should become exhausted, or its streams less clear and refreshing. We think, however, that our readers will not find in the present volume evidence of such exhaustion.

Songs Without Words. Leaves from a Very Old Book. Dedicated to Children by the author of "The Schönberg-Cotta Family," &c. New York: M. W. Dodd, 506 Broadway. Pp. 137.

A pretty book for children, designed to elicit instruction from the natural objects with which they are familiar. The language and style assume a degree of culture in juvenile readers rarely to be found, but the songs nevertheless are rendered intelligible, and they are full of meaning and beauty.

The Annals of Iowa. A Quarterly Publication of the State Historical Society at Iowa City. Numbers for January, April, July, and October, 1865. Edited by Theodore S. Parvin, Corresponding Secretary, Iowa City. Iowa: N. E. Brainerd.

We are glad to see this young and mighty state, amid other signs of intelligence and greatness, thus early taking measures to rescue from oblivion the facts connected with its original planting and settlement. Few of our states have enjoyed any such organ as a regular quarterly devoted to this special purpose. The enterprise and industry displayed in this periodical have supplied it with interesting matter, and will make it a repository of historical treasures for the benefit of coming generations.

On Saturday, January 6, 1866, Messrs. TICKNOR & FIELDS will begin the Publication of a Weekly Journal entitled "EVERY SATURDAY:" a Journal of Choice Reading, Selected from Foreign Current Literature.

Much of the best literature of the day is found in the English and Continental magazines and periodicals; and it is the design of the publishers of this new journal to reproduce the choicest selections from these for American readers, in a form at once attractive and inexpensive. The publishers believe that such a journal, conducted upon the plan which they propose, will be not only entertaining and instructive in itself, but interesting and valuable as a reflex of foreign periodical literature of the better class.

EVERY SATURDAY is intended for Town and Country, for the Fireside, the Seaside, the Railway, and the Steamboat.