DR. SHIELDS'S EDITION OF THE REVISED PRAYER BOOK.*-After the Presbyterians, to their great cost, had aided in restoring Charles II., and when the King, though determined to disappoint their hopes, wished to make a show of redeeming his promises, he called a Conference at the Savoy, in May, 1661, between twenty-one Anglican and as many Presbyterian divines, for the ostensible purpose of accommodating their differences as to ceremonies and worship. On that occasion the Presbyterian divines brought forward their objections to certain parts of the Book of Common Prayer, and their suggestions of amendment. They thus presented a Prayer Book which would meet their views, and which they would be willing to use. It is the Puritan Prayer Book. Dr. Shields has republished it, accompanied by an historical and critical review, in which we are presented with highly interesting and valuable information respecting the history of worship and forms of worship among the Presbyterians, and respecting the origin of the matter comprising the English Prayer Book. The discussion of the latter topic is specially interesting. It shows how many of the devotional forms in which Episcopalians delight are from the pen of Calvinistic divines outside the pale of the Anglican Church. It is diverting to hear, as we do now and then, hearty abuse of Calvin from men who in the same breath laud prayers which (however ignorant they may be of the fact) Calvin wrote. Dr. Shields has executed his task con amore, and with the best judgment and taste. The whole subject of public worship is now engaging the attention of not a few thoughtful minds in the Presbyterian and Congregational denominations. It must be considered anew, and it should be considered with candor. We hope to offer to our readers, before long, an essay or series of essays on this subject.

MILMAN'S HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE First three CenTURIES. Since this work first appeared, a vast amount of inves

The Book of Common Prayer, as amended by the Westminster Divines, A. D. 1661. Edited by CHARLES W. SHIELDS, D. D. With a Historical and Liturgical Treatise. Philadelphia: James S. Claxton

White. Price $2.50.

1866. New Haven: Judd &

The History of Christianity, from the birth of Christ to the abolition of Paganism in the Roman Empire. By HENRY HArt Milman, D. D., Dean of St. Paul's. In three volumes. A new and revised edition. New York: W. J. Widdleton. 1866. New Haven: Judd & White. Price $6.75.

tigation and discussion has been devoted to the early history of the Church. We have only to mention the Tübingen school to remind our readers of the recent controversies relating to this theme. Milman professes to have given attention to these modern discussions, but his references to them are cursory and superficial. In order to take account of them, his work would almost need to be rewritten. His reply to Strauss is not without merit, although his representation of the mythical theory is neither sufficiently full nor quite correct.

Milman, as a historian, must have the credit of having made wide and careful researches. His reading is extensive and generally accurate. He writes always in a liberal, kindly spirit. He abstains from denunciation. His style is animated, being in advantageous contrast, in this respect, with the style of most of the Church historians. But here the catalogue of his merits must stop. His style, though lively, is artificial, latinized, and betrays the vicious influence of Gibbon. His liberality savors too much of indifferentism. He assumes, if we may so say, the tone of an outsider in his treatment of the persons and events that pass under his eye. Sometimes this easy manner comes near to superciliousness. Religious phenomena that pass beyond the limit of good English decency and mediocrity he evidently regards with little respect. Hence in his estimates of character he is too often superficial. The foibles, extravagances, eccentricities, of men of genius fill too large a space in his eye. When Milman undertakes to describe a character like that of St. Louis of France, he produces a caricature. The same may be said of the representation he gives of men like Marcion and Tertullian. He lamentably fails in sympathy and depth of appreciation. Notwithstanding these very serious deductions to be made from the value of his writings, an author who is so learned, and who always intends to be fairminded and catholic, cannot fail to be instructive. To most people he is at least much more readable than the eminent German historians of the Church.

Milman, speaking of the origin of the Episcopate, observes on page 19 (vol. II.) of the work before us, that "at a very early period, one religious functionary superior to the rest appears to have been almost universally recognized; at least it is difficult to understand how, in so short a time, among communities, though not entirely disconnected, yet scattered over the Roman world, a scheme of government, popular or aristocratical, should become,

even in form, monarchical. Neither the times nor the circumstances of the infant church, nor the primitive spirit of the religion, appear to favor a general, a systematic, and an unauthorized usurpation of power on the part of the supreme religious functionary. Yet the change had already taken place within the apostolic times. The Church of Ephesus, which, in the Acts, is represented by its Elders, in the Revelations (sic) is represented by its angel or bishop." In a note he speaks of this change as "a total revolution," and acknowledges that his opinion on the subject is at variance with that of Mosheim, Gibbon, Neander, and "most of the learned foreign writers." It is unfortunate for the Dean's argument that the Apocalypse was, in all probability, written before the Acts. Milman himself dates the former book in the reign of Nero. It is unfortunate, again, for his argument, that the term "angel" in the Apocalypse does not denote bishop. Everything that is said to the several "angels" is said to the churches respectively; and "angel" is a personification of the spirit of the church. The gradual concession, to a particular presbyter, of a presidency or a precedence over his fellow-presbyters is not properly called "a usurpation." This change which Milman finds so wonderful was very natural and easy to take place. The growth of the hierarchical system, until it culminated in the papacy, was imperceptible, though rapid. The first movement in this direction, which Milman thinks to be so surprising in case the Apostles did not decree it, is not a tenth part so astonishing as the subsequent changes in the same direction, which all know to have occurred without Apostolic commandment.

NIEDNER'S CHURCH HISTORY.-The first edition of Niedner's Manual of Church History appeared in 1846. Notwithstanding the author's excessive division of the matter into sections and subsections, by which some readers were bewildered and repelled, and certain equally obnoxious qualities of style, this work was acknowledged by all discerning students to have extraordinary merits. Professor H. B. Smith, in his very thorough and able "History of the Church in Chronological Tables," speaks of it as an invaluable aid." Niedner emulated Gieseler and Neander in

* Christian Wilhelm Niedner's (weil. Doctor and Professor der Theologie zu Berlin) Lehrbuch der Christlichen Kirchengeschichte, von der ältesten zeit bis auf die Gegenwart. Neuerste, von dem Verfasser kurz vor seinem Tode ausgearbei tete Auflage. Berlin. 1866.

He

laborious research and in familiarity with the original sources. It is to be regretted that he did not live to prepare a much more copious work, of which the manual would have served for the foun. dation. Since his decease, this new edition has been issued. had rewritten the book, canceling some passages, introducing new matter, and casting the old into new expressions. In its latest form, it will remain a monument of genuine scholarship and learning.

PHILOSOPHICAL.

RECENT BRITISH PHILOSOPHY.*-This is a very readable volume, and will to very many readers convey all the information upon recent British Philosophy which they need care to possess. It consists in substance of three lectures delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in the year 1865. These were designed doubtless for a cultivated, but as certainly for a popular audience, and therefore the subjects and the authors are all treated in a way that makes no pretension to special subtilty or profoundness. In expanding the volume from the lectures, the author adheres to his original design, and, as the result, has produced a work which may be recommended as one of the best, if not the very best, upon this subject for the uses of the reader who is not a philosopher in the special sense of the term. His notices of the authors who, with greater or less propriety, may be called philosophical is very nearly complete, and is brought down to the latest date. Scarcely a single work of importance seems to have escaped, unless it be the quasi philosophical tales of Mr. William Smith,-Thorndale and Gravenhurst. His account of the opinions of each may be accepted as fair and intelligible—the only criticism which we have to offer being that his system of classification compels him to adopt a high sounding and somewhat inconvenient terminology, which requires him to find a definite place for each author under some one of the categories which he has provided, or else to have no place for him at all. In other words Professor Masson falls into the practice adopted by too many critics and historians of philosophy of using high sounding, if not "glittering generalities" for purposes of exposition and criticism. The estimates of the author seem to us just. His stand point is correct, being the spiritual as

* Recent British Philosophy. A Review, with criticisms, including some comments on Mr. Mill's answer to Sir William Hamilton. By DAVID MASSON. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1866. New Haven: H. C. Peck. Price $1.50.

opposed to the materialistic, psychological as contrasted with the physiological, intuitional as distinguished from the empirical, and theistic as opposed to the atheistic. We cordially recommend the book as worthy the attention of our readers.

SUPERSTITION AND FORCE.*-This solid volume is packed full of solid facts gathered from a very extensive and exact reading, and arranged so as to illustrate each of the topics indicated by the titles of the several essays. These facts, with the brief comments by which they are explained, illustrate in a very striking and impressive manner the darkness of other times, and the slow emancipation of the race from the dominion of Superstition and Force. They also illustrate the tenacious and ineradicable faith of the human race in God, in the moral order of the universe and the certain triumph of the right. The simple curiosity which delights in the bizarre and amusing will find in these strange recitals an inexhaustible fund for its entertainment. The enquiry is often made by the curious what were the facts respecting the prevalence of these wagers and trials. How extensively did they prevail ?--under what forms and conditions were they applied? This volume can answer all these questions to full satisfaction. It will take its place in all good libraries, we doubt not, as a collection of valuable monographs on these several topics. The preparation of them is most honorable to the research and scholarship of the country, none the less certainly that the writer is conspicuous in other forms of activity.

HISTORICAL.

FROUDE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND, VOLS. VII. AND VIII.tWith the seventh volume, Mr. Froude enters on the reign of Elizabeth-an independent section of his history. In vividness and graphic power of style, and in that skillful disposition of the matter by which a dramatic interest and progress are given to the narrative, the volumes before us even excel their predecessors. If history were always written in this style, it would have more read

• Superstition and Force. Essay on The Wager of Law-The Wager of Battle -The Ordeal-Torture. By HENRY C. LEA. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea. 1866. 12mo. pp. 407. New Haven: Judd & White.

+ History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth. By JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, M, A., late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. Reign of Elizabeth. Vol. I New York: Charles Scribner & Company. 1867. New Haven: Judd & White. Price $3 per volume.