generally, with respect to those (whosoever they be) who may eventually reach heaven, a Christian will thankfully accept the language here em. ployed." (p. 75.)

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As regards the benefits resulting from the death of Christ, we find such expressions as these:

"vi. 3... Before death He was a Teacher: death alone could make Him a Saviour." (p. 48.)

"iii. 25. A propitiation to be wrought out in His Word, i.e., in His death, as the central and completive act of the whole work of redemption. The death presupposes the incarnation, life of obedience and self-sacrifice, &c., and is the necessary prelude to the resurrection, ascension, intercession, &c. Thus it is at once the briefest and the most comprehensive term for the whole redeeming work of Christ." (p. 27.)

And, just before, the force of iλaorýptov is thus expressed :—

"A propitiation, that which propitiates by expiation of sin; that which makes it consistent for God to pardon.'

These expressions are, perhaps, as full as was consistent with the nature of the work; though we should have been glad if the author had thought it well to enlarge upon them. They contain, however, a statement of the true doctrine of the atonement-the death of Christ is an expiation-that which makes it consistent for God to pardon. This is the human side of it; the divine side is beyond our grasp. We are therefore quite prepared to find the following remarks on the apostle's words, Karnλλáynμev tŵ (v. 10.)

€.

"Were reconciled, changed from exopol into friends by the announcement of a free forgiveness of sin through the death of Christ.

The reconciliation is that of man to God; but it is effected by an act of free forgiveness (μὴ λογιζόμενος αὐτοῖς τὰ παράπτωματα avrov) on the part of God to man.'

This we believe to be the force of St. Paul's expression; but we bear in mind that in the preceding verse we have the words, owonσόμεθα δι' αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῆς ὀργῆς, in which the wrath of God against sin is stated not less strongly. And we believe that the first view of the work of Christ which the penitent sinner obtains, is just this, salvation from the wrath to come-wrath to which his sins have most justly exposed him.

It is not necessary that we should notice the passages which bear on the fall of man, the corruption of the natural heart, the necessity for and nature of the work of the Holy Spirit. We must refer our readers to the book itself. But we cannot pass by in silence à statement concerning baptism :

"Baptism (in the case of a penitent and believing convert) was a moment of actual transition from a life of sin to a life of holiness, and is constantly referred to in Scripture as such." (p. 48.)

No doubt St. Paul (by the use of the aorist tense) constantly

denotes a definite time, at which the Christians to whom he wrote had entered upon their new life and assumed their new position; and his own thoughts and the thoughts of his readers would naturally recur to the moment of baptism as the moment at which they had set their seal to the truth of God, and had been received, as Christ commanded, into His church. The baptism was the crowning act of the mental struggle through which they had passed the sign that the victory was won for Christ. But surely it does not follow that it was a moment of actual transition from a life of sin to a life of holiness. The new convert, penitent and believing, must already have given evidence that this transition had taken place, and it was in virtue of this evidence that he was allowed to be a partaker of the rite of baptism and reckoned amongst the Lord's people. The analogous case of the circumcision of Abraham, concerning which Dr. Vaughan observes, that "circumcision was only given to him as a sort of token and authentication of an acceptance possessed before and without it,' (p. 33,) ought, we should imagine, to settle the question conclusively.

Nor are we disposed to agree with the view taken in the notes of chap. vii. We do not see why St. Paul "could only apply the language" of vii. 9 to himself "with something of accommodation." Is it not the experience of many an advanced Christian that this chapter describes his inner life even to the last? Certainly of none but the truly spiritual man can it be asserted, that "the inward man, the true self, the eye of v. 17 &c., approves of God's law, and admits its holiness." (p. 63.) We believe that Christians have often found consolation in the midst of conflict, from the thought that the great apostle has drawn this picture from his own experience. Dr. Vaughan, at any rate, so far agrees with us as to state, in his closing note on the chapter, that the "above description of a life, and conflict and misery," "has its application, in various degrees, even to a Christian's life." (p. 64.)

As a whole, we gladly commend the book to our readers. We believe that many a clergyman may be furnished from it" with the true elements of exposition," as Dr. Vaughan hopes. We could wish that they were somewhat less bare; for the notes are in some instances terse almost to a fault. Still it is a valuable book-an important testimony, if we may so speak of any human witness, to the gospel of God. Let those who are in doubt as to the great doctrines of the gospel, study St. Paul with Dr. Vaughan for their guide. He will tell them that "intellectual difficulties in religion are best met by moral axioms;" that conscience (even a safer guide than the intellect) echoes the language of revelation, which declares the coming judgment;' echoes also, we would add, all that the Bible tells us about the need of our atonement, and the vicarious nature of the atonement of Christ.

Vol. 59.-No. 276.

5 M

Memoir of the Life of Ary Scheffer. By Mrs. Grote. London: John Murray.

WE have to thank Mrs. Grote for an interesting memoir. It is written with clearness and spirit; with a personal knowledge of its subject, and taste fully competent to appreciate his proficiency as an artist. Mrs. Grote's frequent visits to France, her residence there during periods of its recent history, her intimacy with many of its liberal politicians and leading men, especially qualify her for the task she has undertaken. If, with a natural partiality, she assigns to Ary Scheffer an eminence in art which some will dispute, she has given us, both in the memoir and its appendix, materials for forming our own judgment, and some critical remarks by other pens which exhibit the artist's defects. But while we can thus commend the work with safety, we must, at the same time, notice some obvious defects; and these defects are of a kind which detract seriously from its merits. The moral tone of this work is low; of any approach to religious sentiment there is not a trace. The tribute which Mrs. Grote pays to the warm affections and the generous disposition of Scheffer is deserved. But was it consistent with common morality to palliate his vices? She speaks in terms of praise of his affection for his daughter, and she quotes with admiration his letters to her. But these letters are sadly defective, as they contain no reference to the higher objects of a Christian; and of these defects Mrs. Grote seems insensible. Strange that the subject of art, and the struggles of the painter's mind, should place full before us the grandest topics of Christianity; and yet the person who records them with her pen should appear to be unconscious of their existence; mournful to think that art should be regarded with rapture, and no reverence felt for Him who gave the genius, and was its highest subject-that there should be sympathy with all that is noble and kindly in man, and no feeling of reverence, no sentiment of homage to Him who unites in His character all that is glorious and gracious and sublime. These defects are dark blots. on this book. It would be dishonest if we did not mark them. But in place of pointing further our censure, we prefer to express our wish that the convictions, which we look for eagerly in the painter's mind, may yet engage and sustain that of the writer before the curtain of life falls upon her. She will then discover to her great joy, that there are more glorious things on earth than the highest art has conceived: that He, whose agony in the garden the painter tried-how vainly !-to represent, He, whose victory over sin and Satan baffled all his conceptions, is indeed a person living, near us, ever present, and accessible to all; that to know Him, to hear His voice within our hearts, to love Him and to

serve Him, form for each of us life's one grand duty, and offer to each the materials of a happiness after which the painter sadly yearned, but which the humblest christian may assuredly obtain.

Ary Scheffer was in fact a German, having been born at Dordredcht in Holland in the year 1795. His father was a German, and his mother a Dutch lady. The father died early, and Madame Scheffer was left with three boys, and very straitened fortunes, in the year 1809. Ary had early displayed his taste for art; and when he was twelve years old, a picture of his was exhibited at Amsterdam, which was much admired. His mother was a person of equal judgment and tenderness, and resolved that her favourite son should enjoy the most complete education. She first placed him en pension in Lille, and afterwards removed him. and her other sons to Paris in 1811. There she could command for them the best instruction, and she placed Ary in the atelier of the painter Guérin. The art of painting in France was still labouring under that classical delirium which had seized it at the French revolution. From the days of Poussin it had declined, till it reached the low stage of debasement which characterised it, together with morals and politics, in the reign of Louis XV. The vulgar ostentation of Louis XIV. was satisfied by Le Brun and his school; while Bouchet, a still coarser artist, painted for the court of Louis XV. With the revolution came the passion for Roman and Grecian habits, which affected French furniture, with the dresses of men and women, and influenced both painting and sculpture. David was then the head of the French school of painting; and his pictures, though possessing real genius, were disfigured by these fancies. Napoleon's wars and his court demanded a different style of painting, which the pupils of David, and more especially Gérard, supplied. Before the empire fell, and after its fall, the French taste was for pictures which celebrated the courage and victories of the French army. Horace Vernet, along with Géricault, applied a more genuine art to meet these tastes. Still every one may remember that the huge portraits and pictures that filled the Luxembourg bore marks of a school whose defects were palpable. Classical dresses, half-naked figures, a colouring lustrous and exaggerated, and extreme attitudes, bore no traces of real life, but were a compound of the postures of the fencing-master and the gestures of the theatre. It was in this state of art that Ary Scheffer began his education. This at least he learned from his master Guérin, that the arbitrary laws which David imposed on the Academy were not to be accepted as infallible, and that his school was not to be admired. He turned his attention, therefore, to those subjects which belong to real life, and represent its incidents and trials. The Christening, the Widow of a Soldier, the Sailor's Children, the Convalescent Mother, were among the subjects which he chose. But the views of the man.intervened, and drew him to a different class of interests. The depart

ment of art which consisted in portrait painting had carried him to the house of general Lafayette, the chateau Lagrange. Here he met all the liberal politicians of France, and heard the invectives against the Bourbons, of which that coterie was full. He threw himself into their politics with all his soul, and he and his brother became involved in the conspiracy in Alsace in 1822, and had a narrow escape. He became acquainted with the admirable duchesse de Broglie, and in 1826, with the duc and duchesse d'Orleans, who conceived a great regard for him, and he became the instructor of their children in painting. After Louis Philippe reached the throne, Scheffer was the teacher and friend of the young princess Marie of Orleans; and after the death of the duc d'Orleans, of his son the young comte de Paris. This connexion with the liberal party formed his opinions. It was he who mounted and accompanied M. Thiers to Neuilly to offer the duc d'Orleans the crown. At the king's request, he accompanied his eldest son to Antwerp in 1832, and though dissatisfied with the policy of Louis Philippe, he continued attached to the family, and remained on the most friendly terms with the queen and the duchesse d'Orleans. He took his place as a captain of the national guard at the Tuilleries on the memorable day when the king was obliged to fly; he accompanied the royal family through the gardens to the carriages which received them; and discharged the last duty of an intrepid friendship by accompanying the duchesse d'Orleans to the Chamber. It was he, in fact, who held the little count de Paris with one hand, and supported on his arm the courageous duchess. In the three days of fight in June '48, he fought at the head of his company. But when he saw the temper of the assembly, and the measures with which it thwarted the president Louis Napoleon, in 1819, he augured the worst ; and he absented himself during the autumn of that year from France, making a tour through Belgium and Holland. We may conclude his political history by mentioning that he was true to the principles which he had espoused. To the Orleans family he remained invariably faithful. On the death of Louis Philippe he hastened to pay his homage at Claremont; and one of his latest labours was to return there, in 1857, to fulfil his promise and paint a portrait of the queen Marie Amélie. The journey to the same place in the following year, to be present at the obsequies of the duchesse d'Orleans, shortened his life. In French politics Scheffer ceased to take a part, after the coup-d'état which seated Louis Napoleon on the throne. The events of December, 1851, the dispersion of the chamber, and the arrest of his friends, filled him with the deepest sadness. He was unable for a time to resume his brush, his horses stood neglected in their stalls, and he shut himself up from society, wishing to hear nothing and know nothing of public affairs, which he now regarded with aversion.

It was natural that such strong political feelings should lead Scheffer to choose subjects congenial to them. Hence, while simple