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it only furnishes additional evidence of the freedom with which each evangelist as, in the highest degree, a reliable historian wrote his account. It was perfectly natural that John should supplement his predecessors. Mr. Grenville here presents to us the results of lengthened and pains-taking study. We should conclude that he has well weighed the statements of both friendly and antagonist critics; and he has brought his findings within a definite and appreciable compass. It is not to be supposed that all his adjust ments will be universally received. His views on the composition of the "Sermon on the Mount" will not be accepted by those who think that Matthew has given us the report of a connected address. The notes contain, in a condensed form, a large amount of critical material of very considerable value, though occasionally his reasons may not be convincing. We do not agree with him in his representation, either of the time of the year, or of the time of the day, when our Saviour held His converse with the Samaritan woman. His note relative to the day on which the Saviour celebrated His last Passover, and that on which the crucifixion occurred, is worthy of a careful study. The student of the evangelists will find much to interest him in the fifty pages of which Mr. Grenville's Synopsis consists.

Short Arguments about the Millennium. By the Rev. B. C. Young. London: Elliot Stock. Pp. 256. Second Thousand. This is the second edition of a small, but very useful and reliable book, which has already received favourable notice in this Magazine. As the pre-millenarian theory has obtained, by the bold plainness,

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or by the insinuating eloquence, of its advocates, a wide currency among the less learned circles of the religious world, a plain, unvarnished, yet calm and scriptural refutation of it was desired. The want is largely met in this publication. In this edition, additional chapters are furnished on "the Rapture Theory," and on 'Prophecy and the Present Time." In the latter is shown how remarkably several lines of prophetic intimation concentrate upon our own days—as the period when Antichrist and the False Prophet are to be fatally stricken, if not destroyed; yet the author guards against the assumption that this crisis must of necessity be "the end of all things." The treatise also keeps constantly before the reader the practical bearing of the controversy with the millenarian. If the world is not to be converted by the Word and Spirit of God under this dispensation, but by a personal appearance of the Lord, the church is under a serious misapprehension. If Jesus Christ is not yet upon the throne of David, exalted until His enemies become His footstool, and if He has not the power by which all nations shall be subdued, then faith and preaching are vain. So that this is not a dispute merely about "times and seasons," and "things hard to be understood." We know that good men hold millenarian opinions, and that they continue actively to work for Christ, believing that so they ought to be found doing when He comes. But what must be the effect upon the church generally of the persuasion that the most the Gospel will ever do, will be to "call out an elect people," and that it never can convert a nation or the world? Will such an expectation sustain and extend Christian Missions,

or send the Gospel to every creature? We need not say that these views are chiefly held among those who do not believe in the general redemption of mankind. While accepting the broad principles of interpretation observed in this little work, we are not to be regarded as approving every exposition here presented to us. We are not certain, for instance, that in Matt. xxiv. there is no reference to the end of time, as well as to the end of the Jewish economy. A few exceptionable views, however, do not prevent our most cordial recommendation of the book for its comprehensive, sober, and condensed refutation of the errors it encounters.

Memorials of Charles March, Commander, R.N. By his Nephew, Septimus March, B.A. James Nisbet and Co. 1867.-This is a volume of two hundred and thirtysix pages, intended to commemorate one of those Christian heroes, who, from time to time, have adorned the annals of the British navy, and who by their bright examples have proved the possibility of serving God while serving their country on the ocean. The volume is very well got up; and the memoir, which is agreeably written, does credit to the author, who is, we believe, a respected Independent Minister at Southampton. A striking portrait of Captain March is prefixed to the volume, which will form a suitable companion to that which contains the memoir of Hedley Vicars.

complishment in the Period of the Millennium. By John Mills, Minister of the Gospel, Author of "Sacred Symbology" and "Thoughts on the Apocalypse." London: Elliot Stock.-The writer of this book of three hundred and forty pages elaborates the theory that the scriptural "promise " of " new heavens, and a new earth," is fulfilled in the establishment of Christianity upon a displaced Judaism, and in the effective and universal regeneration of mankind to be accomplished by its influ ence. In this way he thinks that he refutes those who imagine that our globe, physically renewed, will be the inheritance of the saints; and also those who imagine that mankind are only to be converted by the personal coming of our Lord. In order to this it would be necessary to show that Isaiah (chap. lxv.)and Peter(Second Epistle, chap. iii.) meant by 66 new heavens and a new earth" only the coming and pervasive power of a new dispensation of grace. But in this he fails, being compelled in p. 108 to admit that St. Peter evidently refers to the heavenly state, as well as to the millennial glory. So that his reasoning, while it may present some face to the millenarian, is discomfited before those who expect this globe to be the scene of the future heaven. We wonder that one so favourably disposed to the argu ment of analogy as this author, should not be willing to admit that both the prophet and the apostle look forward to the final consummation; but the prophet employs this grand expectation to symbolize the spiritual transformations of Messiah's reign. Does not St. Paul's expression, (2 Cor. v. 17,) "a new creation,"

The New Creation: a View of the Divine Predictions of New Heavens and a New Earth, as having a Pro-Krious, involve a similar allusion? gressive Fulfilment in the Christian Dispensation, and a complete Ac

The disappearance of the Jewish system was the passing away of

the old heavens; the obscuring of a former light, and the gradual extension of Christianity may be viewed as the creation of a new earth: but this does not exhaust the words of St. Peter, as the titlepage of this book would indicate; and therefore is not opposed to the opinion of those who conjecture that this globe, purified and sublimated by the last fire, may be our future heaven. Of the independent probability of this theory we say nothing at present. Incidentally, the book supplies some antidote to millenarian notions; but it is vitiated by the fallacy just named: and the unhappy verbiage in which the author delights, five hundred words being generally used where fifty would express a clearer and more forcible meaning,-with the frequent repetition of certain phrases, will confine most readers to his first pages. A great part of the book is occupied with the idea that the "new creation" of the moral world is conducted in exact harmony with the progress of the material creation; and that acquaintance with geological and astronomical science will help us to understand the spiritual progress of mankind. He thinks that the slow deposition of the superficial strata upon mountain masses of primary rock, the advancing developments in the

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forms of life, and the transitions from periods of terrible desolation to those of comparative quietness and enjoyment which geological phenomena exhibit, are all a kind of "unconscious prophecy" of the moral processes by which the new earth" shall be produced. Perhaps some general illustration of the Divine procedure in the spiritual world may be drawn from the wonderful discoveries supplied by the long hidden archives of the rocks, as we have learned from such works as Dr. Harris's "Pre-Adamite Earth;" but our author pursues the matter into details which savour of the "correspondences" of Swedenborg. Among the ignes fatui which flicker over the border bogs of science and theology, none are more delusive than the suppositions of analogy and symbolism. The correlative principles of nature and revelation need patient study, and future investigation may show us many instructive resemblances in the different sections of the work of God; but scientific accuracy and philosophic clearness will be needed to make the evidence forcible. The only authorities in geology quoted by Mr. Mills are M'Causland and Hitchcock; while the faults of style much lessen the value of some propositions with which we cordially agree.

GLANCE AT PUBLIC OCCURRENCES.

IF the French Emperor ever seriously hoped to realize his project of an European Conference on the Roman Question, he must have abandoned the expectation when he permitted his two Ministers, the Marquis de Moustier and M. Rouher, to make declarations in the French Chambers, to the

effect that Italy should not be allowed, under any circumstances, to possess itself of Rome. As that is the very point in dispute, there is nothing left of sufficient moment to submit to a Congress of European diplomatists. At present, then, the Papacy is protected by the military power of France,

to the great joy of the clerical party, but to the chagrin of the more intelligent and liberal portion of the French people. Italy, a nation of twenty-five millions, treated like a child that has been crying for some coveted bauble, is rudely informed that its "national programme "-one solemnly voted by its constitutional representatives, the dream of the patriotic statesman Cavour-must not be carried out.

The continued occu

pation of the Papal territories by French troops is sure to intensify the anti-Gallican feelings of the Italian people, and may eventually involve the two countries, if not the whole of Europe, in war. One good, however, may possibly result from the indefinite postponement of what lately appeared so imminent the destruction of the Pope's temporal power; and that is, that Italy may be led to quarrel with his spiritual pretensions. Hitherto the subjects of Victor Emmanuel have been opposed to Pius IX. in his character as sovereign of Rome. What they have yet to learn is to oppose his ecclesiastical claims, and to reject the elaborate system of religious error of which he is the head. Italy has her Garibaldi: she needs a Luther. Will the policy of Napoleon unintentionally help to produce him?

The Fenian attack upon the prison van in Manchester has been completely thrown into the shade by the attempt to rescue "Headcentre" Burke, by igniting a barrel of some explosive substance close to the wall of the Clerkenwell House of Detention. Never, perhaps, in the history of atrocious crime, was there such a reckless disregard of the lives of the innocent and unoffending, as was shown by the miscreants who laid half a street

in ruins for the problematical accomplishment of a desperate object. In every Protestant Lord and Commoner, Guy Fawkes recognised a real foe of the Church which he wished to serve; but what had the quiet inhabitants of Corporation-street done, that, without a warning or chance for escape, their houses should be hurled down upon their heads, maiming them for life, or killing them on the spot? The disregard for the lives of the little children, playing, unconscious of their danger, near the deadly barrel; and for the wives of honest artisans, preparing their husbands' meals, is almost equalled by the unreasoning expectation of the desperadoes of rescuing a prisoner, while imminently risking his life. The whole affair presents a picture of crime, as senseless as diabolical. It should not be forgotten that this murderous deed was preceded by ostentatious displays of sympathy on behalf of the three men executed at Manchester. The funeral processions which took place in Loudon and elsewhere, doubtless exerted a mischievous influence upon the excitable and ignorant agents of Fenianism. That the rescue of Kelly and Deasy was not a crime against common and statute law, but an act of honourable war; that killing Sergeant Brett was not murder, but a mere political homicide; that Allen, Larkin, and Gould, were not assassins, but heroes and martyrs, for whose souls masses are to be piously celebrated in Roman Catholic chapels: if these be the views extensively entertained, then it can be no wonder that the Clerkenwell outrage should have taken place. It will be thought by many that the bold way in which sympathy has been shown for the executed Fenians,-or, more properly, disloy

alty to the crown and the constitution of the country,-by this marshalling of mock funerals, has not been interfered with too early by the Government. One thing, at least, the movement, while it lasted, has brought out,—the alarmingly extensive sympathy with Fenianism that exists amongst the Roman Catholic populations of England and Ireland. It is deplorable that disaffection should be so widespread; but since it exists, it is better that the Government and people of this country should know it, and prepare accordingly. It will help to dispel not a few illusions on the various methods proposed for the pacification of Irish Romanists.

No doubt there are many Roman Catholics whose fealty to the throne is unimpeachable; but so long as that throne is filled by a Protestant, according to the requirements of the constitution, so long will the tendency of that political religion which teaches that a primary allegiance is due to a foreign potentate be unfriendly to thorough loyalty. A few priests, it is said, have refused to say masses for the Manchester murderers; and the Bishop of Beverley issued an address to the Roman Catholics of Leeds, dissuading them from a procession which the authorities had prohibited. He addresses them as, "My dear children in Jesus Christ." Would that, in Paul's sense of the phrase, they were "in Christ Jesus!" Then, instead of whisky-drinking and fighting, making additional work for the police, giving trouble to the magistrates, and constituting a large proportion of the prisoners that occupy Armley jail, they would, as "new creatures in Christ Jesus," give evidence that "old things are passed

away, and that all things are become new."

The Ritualists continue to labour hard to bring England down to the condition of Ireland and Spain. They are not to be suffered, however, to un-Protestantize the country without a struggle. The Evangelical clergy and laity of the Established Church are girding themselves for the fight. At a most important meeting, held at Willis's Rooms, they solemnly re-asserted

the anti-sacerdotal doctrines and anti-Papal protests of the Church of England. In order to bring to a legal test the doctrinal teaching, as well as the ceremonial observances, of the National Church, they have resolved to raise a fund of £50,000. Meanwhile the battle in the law courts has begun, in the case of Martin versus Mackonachie. When Sir R. Phillimore was the leading counsel for the Ritualists in this case, he used all his legal dexterity to divert the court from the main issue, by raising objections on technicalities, and thus causing delay. Since then he has been promoted to the bench as Dean of Arches, and is now actually sitting in judgment on the very cause in which he was the leading advocate for the defence. He attempted, it is true, to delegate his power to two surrogates; but his previous colleagues in the case have obtained a mandamus from the court of Queen's Bench, compelling him to act as judge himself. After hearing Dr. Archibald Stephens, whose remarkably able speech for the prosecution extended over four days, the Court of Arches, with the delay characteristic of ecclesiastical litigation, has adjourned the further hearing of the case to the 13th of January. If the

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