petuate the influence of that Northampton pastor, and to become an apostle of temperance, and a missionary for the Sabbath.

After his graduation at Williams College, and his residence at Andover Theological Seminary, Dr. Edwards became, in 1812, Pastor of the Old South Congregational Church at Andover. During his pastorate, he was one of the foremost of those philanthropists who originated the New England Tract Society. For several years, he had the principal direction of that Institution; and, after it was merged into the American Tract Society, he remained, until his death, one of its most active and efficient officers. During his ministry at Andover, he probably exerted as much influence as any other American pastor, in extending the system of Sabbath School and Bible Class Instruction throughout the churches of this and other lands. He was the first who gave a practical efficiency to the Temperance Reformation, and was the father of the American Temperance Society. His ministerial life of nearly fifteen years in a quiet rural parish, was, in this and other methods, prolific of blessing to the whole world. In 1828, he was installed first Pastor of the Salem Street Church in Boston, where he remained nearly two years. Such were his wisdom and success in the ministerial office, that he was frequently and urgently solicited to change his sphere of labor and take charge of some of the most important churches in the land.

He deemed it his duty, however, to devote himself to the Temperance Reformation. On the 27th of August, 1829, he became the General Agent and Secretary of the American Temperance Society. In 1827 he had officiated as Agent of this Society for a brief period; but he now devoted to the office a new and truly remarkable energy. The surprising results of his labors for two years, in this department, are stated on pp. 342, 343 of Dr. Hallock's memoir. He retained his office seven years. During this period, besides various tracts, and unnumbered essays in the newspapers, he published his two octavo volumes, entitled Permanent Temperance Documents. These had an immense circulation in our land, and large parts of them have been translated into the German, French, Spanish, and other foreign languages, and circulated through nearly all parts of the civilized world. They are monuments of his enterprise and industry, tact and prudence.

Such was his reputation for sound judgment and honest piety, that he was often invited to chairs of instruction in our Colleges and Theological Seminaries. The Professorships of Divinity in Hamilton College, of Sacred Rhetoric in Auburn Theological Seminary, of Theology in the New York Union Theological Seminary, and in the Western Reserve College, and various other Professorships were severally tendered to him. He accepted in 1836 the Presidency of Andover Theological Seminary, and retained it between five and six years. Then, after some important labors in behalf of different benevolent societies, he accepted, in 1843, the Secretaryship of the American and Foreign Sabbath Union, and continued in this office six years. In 1849, he commenced his Commentary on the Bible. In 1853,

he had published his Notes on the New Testament, and had written his comments on the Old Testament as far as to the ninetieth Psalm, when he was obliged to suspend his studies by his last sickness. Afterwards, in the midst of his disease, he prosecuted his favorite work until he had finished his notes on the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm. This work has been also published, and extensively circulated. He died July 23, 1853, at the Bath Alum Springs, in Virginia.

Ministers of the Gospel, when discouraged by the apparently limited sphere of their usefulness, may be stimulated to fresh zeal by reading this instructive Memoir; for it gives an illustration of the extent to which a sound head and an honest heart diffuse their influence from parish to parish, and land to land. Two of Dr. Edwards's sermons, written in the midst of his parochial toils, have been printed in the Italian, Modern Greek, and Armeno-Turkish languages; and, in the words of Rev. Mr. Goodell, “will probably go throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria;' will travel as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch; will come to Perga in Pamphylia,' and 'to Antioch in Pisidia,' and 'to Lystra, and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia,' and 'to Philippi, the chief city of Macedonia,' and 'to the seven churches that are in Asia;' and will be read in the midst of Mars' hill,' and 'in the isle of Patmos,' and at Corinth and Colosse and Thessalonica, at Scio and Samos and Rhodes and Miletus, and by the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.' Of one part of his Sabbath Manual 541,000 copies had been printed in 1851, and of all the other parts 684,000 copies had been published in four languages. The extent of circulation to which other of his printed works have attained, in this and other lands, cannot be estimated. Yet he accomplished his great work, amid the embarrassments of disease, by the simplest methods. The plainest possible statement of a plain idea, he made more effective than the most elaborate argument is usually made. What can be less recondite than his saying: "The surest way to avoid drunkenness is to stop drinking?” Who can find the courage to utter a less questionable adage than "Laboring men have a right to keep the Sabbath"? Yet it has been by a pithy style of repeating such axioms, and a dexterous method of applying them precisely when and where they were needed, that Dr. Edwards gained multitudes of adherents to his plans of reform. The simplest of all his means of usefulness, however, was his good heart. He feared God. He had an exact conscience. He practised a rigid self-control. "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." Few men have advanced nearer to perfection, than Dr. Edwards advanced in the harmlessness of speech. At the same time, his Memoir shows that few men have been more firm and emphatic than he, in the expression of opinions which needed to be expressed.

From the beginning to the end of his professional life, Dr. Edwards was an untiring student of the sacred volume. On his last journey, when most other men would have abandoned all mental application, he carried with him his Hebrew Bible, and several commentaries upon it. He never

claimed to be a learned expositor; he was more apt to conceal than to expose his acquisitions; but he loved the plain meaning of the inspired text. Some have imagined, that he never devoted himself to theological speculation. This is a mistake. He was a staunch and uncompromising advocate of what is technically denominated the New England Theology. He defended it ably in several trying conjunctures. Still he was singularly independent in his conclusions. Although eminent for caution, he was also remarkable for freedom of thought. He bowed to no man's dictation. He prized the Bible infinitely above all human compends. He indicates his own theological tendencies in the following words, addressed to a theological student who was interested in certain controversies on original sin, etc. After having advised the student to learn the views of distinguished theologians, "not by hearsay, but by a careful perusal of their works," he says: "The Bible, on these and other subjects, is all just right; and that is the only book, in matter and manner, probably, that is so. All human standards and human works partake of the imperfections of their authors. To the law and the testimony everything is to be brought, and by them to be tried. If they speak not according to that word, they are to be rejected. It is important to be biblical in manner as well as in matter, to catch the spirit and aspect as well as the sentiment or truth of the Bible. The truth may be held in unrighteousness, and spoken in contention, hatred, variance, wrath, emulation, and strife, instead of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, goodness, faith, and temperance. Let a minister be truly mighty in the Scriptures, not in the letter merely, that killeth, if alone; or in the literature and critical verbal philology, that puffeth up; but in the spirit, that giveth life: let the word of Christ and the Spirit of Christ dwell in him richly in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, and then will he find it mighty through God to the pulling down of strong-holds. Make God your principal teacher, if you would become godlike in temper, teaching,

and success."

Engaged as was the subject of this notice, for so long a time, in the practical operations of the church, it was natural that he should become interested in the subject of Ecclesiastical Polity. He observed the working of various systems, and narrowly watched their immediate and their permanent results. He travelled extensively, among various conflicting sects, and examined their tendencies on a broad scale. He loved all who breathed the spirit of their Master. He was, it is true, a thorough and hearty believer in the principles of Congregationalism. He became more and more attached to the polity of the churches among which he spent his pastoral life. But he never exalted his denominational preferences above his catholic spirit. His rule was: "Make philosophy as prominent as the Bible makes it. Say as much of Church Government as the Bible says. Be true to the word of God." His strong sense enabled him to detect the substantial truth which diversified sects hold in common, and wherever the truth was, thither as to a magnet was his heart attracted.

Dr. Hallock's biography of this sagacious and reflective man, will be read

by hundreds who have been themselves reclaimed, or whose friends have been reclaimed from vice, by the simple words of him whose inner life is now in some measure revealed to them. It is impressive to see the influence of his prayerful spirit upon all his public ministrations. "He walked with God, and he was not, for God took him."

ARTICLE VIII.

SELECT THEOLOGICAL AND LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

GERMANY.

THE most important of the recent contributions to Scientific Theology is an elaborate treatise on "Philosophical Dogmatics, or the Philosophy of Christianity," by Prof. C. H. Weisse, of Leipsic, of which only one volume has thus far appeared. The work is designed to embrace the entire circle of Church Doctrine, philosophically developed, so that it will be at once a complete theological and philosophical system. The present volume, after an Introduction on the Nature of Religion and of Revelation, and on the Historical Development of Christian Doctrine, is mainly devoted to an inquiry into the Nature and Necessity of the Idea of God, the Evidences of His Existence and the Biblical Doctrine concerning Him, and the Divine Attributes. The author belongs to the liberal school, but his volume contains some very severe criticisms upon the theories of Tübingen. The work is enriched with ample learning, and its lucid style, and impartial, independent tone, will commend it to the great majority of readers.

Prof. Twesten of Berlin has republished, in a small but handsome volume, the well-known "Compendium Locorum Theologicorum," of Leonhardus Hutterus. In the chapters on Predestination, the Sacraments and Christology, some additions have been made from the works of Wollebius and Pictetus.

The "Biblical Numismatics," of Cellstino Carechoni, has been translated from the Italian by A. von Weslhof. The original work first appeared in 1850, and was in the same year crowned by the Academy of Inscriptions at Paris. A table of coins is added at the end.

A second edition of Parker's "Ten Sermons" has been published. While his works have been severely handled in some quarters, they have attracted a good deal of attention among a limited but intelligent class of readers.

Ludwig Völter, pastor of a church near Stuttgardt, has published a work on the "Holy Land and Land of the Israelitish Wandering," designed to

be a geographical commentary on the Bible. It is not, however, limited to a mere detail of places, but aims at a complete picture of the physical aspects of the country. It is based in part on the author's own researches.

An important contribution to religious history is made by Dr. Wilhelm G. Soldan, in his "History of Protestantism in France till the death of Charles IX.," which aims less to exhibit the development of the formation of the Reformed ecclesiastical constitutions, than the ideas and struggles to which the age of the Reformation gave birth in France. Of course it touches extensively upon the political history of the time. The author claims to have made a more thorough investigation of the original sources than any one before him, having consulted for this purpose, not merely the vast collection of Mémoirs and historical documents which have been given to the public of late years, but also the numerous MSS. relating to the subject, preserved in the Paris Library, which were courteously placed at his disposal by the French government. As the present work aims only to trace the youthful growth of Protestantism, it properly closes with the death of Charles IX. If well received, the author promises to extend it to the period of the culmination of the Reformation in France, the publication of the Edict of Nantes. The work contains a vivid picture of the religious and ecclesiastical life in France at the beginning of the sixteenth century, in which the corruption, ignorance, and immorality of the clergy are treated without compassion.

From Prof. Duncker of Halle we have the first volume of an enlarged and improved edition of his "History of Antiquity." The entire work extends from the earliest times to the fall of the Caesars. The author does not rank with the first class of original historical investigators, but he has made diligent study of the labors of others, and his works, as a condensed summary of the last results of historical research, is perhaps, on the whole, the best that we have.

A small work on the "Primitive History of the Human Race," by A. F. Gfrörer, though like the preceding valuable as a compend, derives its chief interest from illustrating the total change in the author's sentiments. Formerly a critic of New Testament history of the most ultra-rationalistic school, he now vindicates the authority of tradition, and claims for the first chapters of Genesis an almost literal acceptance.

In the department of Philosophy we note the appearance of the second volume of Kuno Fisher's History of Modern Philosophy, which is devoted to Leibnitz and his School. None of the living expounders of philosophy have excited so much enthusiasm among their pupils as Prof. Fisher, whose lectures at Heidelberg were attended by a concourse of students wholly unprecedented. It will be remembered that he was displaced from his chair on the charge of Pantheism, chiefly, it is said, at the instigation of Prof. Schenkel. His lectures have consequently been given to the public through the press. The first volume appeared more than a year since, and was devoted to Descartes, Spinoza, and Malebranche. The second brings the history down to Kant, tracing especially the influence of the philosophy of