all others with the light of a holy and exemplary life; for this also belongs to the common character of all who call themselves christians; as just in this consists indeed the signature and badge of their new priestly character. In this respect office gives no advantage; and there may be common members in the congregation whose piety forms its salt, and who in the attributes of a holy life excel those, that by their gifts and calling are placed ministerially at its head. It should be a pleasure to ministers, where they can discern such a work of the Holy Ghost in any of the members of their churches, thankfully and humbly to acknowledge the fact. Those who have made the farthest progress in sanctification, are not just by this called and qualified to take the government of the church into their hands. It would be a misapprehension of their gifts and calling, a mark of spiritual pride, if they should make any such pretension. It must be indeed the endeavor and effort of those who are at the head of the church to take the lead of all in life as well as word; for the two things of a truth go closely together. And from the beginning, one who seeks to prepare himself for the vocation of a minister should be occupied with this feeling, so as to bring all his knowledge to bear at once on his own life, and to fit himself by his life still for acquiring new knowledge. Πράξις ἐπίβασις wpias, as Gregory of Nazianzen says, He who is not filled with this feeling should have nothing to do with theology from the start, that he may not pursue this study to his own condemnation; of which we have alas but too many sad exemplifications in this time of sifting in the case of those, who through this study have become the most violent enemies of the gospel, lik salt that has lost its savor, and from corrupt theologians have turned out to be at last only shallow and profane demagogues. But still we cannot allow of any calling as such, that those belonging to it have the advantage of all others in the power of being holy.

What is it then that should distinguish those who are usually styled ministers from the church in general, that should form their special zápcoμa or gift? It is this, that by a scientifically developed sense they should form the medium of connection between the congregation and the Divine word contained in the sacred scriptures, that they should be thus the conscious bearers of the Divine word for the use of the congregation. Herein consists their true dignity, to be only organs of the word for the people, that it may be not themselves speaking in what they preach but the word speaking through them, that they lead the people to make all of the word and to give up their whole life

to its guidance. The light of the Holy Ghost as it is obtained by devotional diligence and prayer, they have in common with other believers; whence they may learn too even from enlightened lay persons, so far as regards the interior understanding of the Divine word from spiritual experience. In this respect also there is no privileged class; the light of the Holy Ghost is no nonopoly. But what proceeds from scientific study alone, and is to be reached only by persevering exercise under the conduct of a scientific consciousness, this should those who stand at the head of the church possess in distinction from and above others. Only thus are they qualified to take such lead, which can never have place rightly except by nieans of the word. By means of practical exegesis, in the view of it now presented ministers should be interpreters of the Divine word for the life of the people, and should lead them to make a proper application of it to all living relations; something only then possible indeed, according to what we have seen, where the scientific understanding of the Scriptures with all its needful scientific conditions has gone before, so as to form always the sure ground for practical exposition. So should the sermon in particular breathe with practical exegesis, and in this way make itself felt on life. When this happens, preaching will be found what its end requires, the means whereby the Holy Ghost, who speaks in the word, speaks from it at the same time, by the organs he has formed for the purpose, to the life of the present tine. All will become thus inore full of thought and at the same time more individual. Here meets

And to glance now a moment at our own time. us the conflict between the old church orthodoxy and the culture of the age. There is now needed especially a right adjustment, between what is solid in the existing culture and the system of Christianity, which rejects nothing that belongs to the true human development of man's nature, to true humanity, but only seeks to transform all into a higher character. The problem is, after the pattern of the apostle Paul, to become all things to all men; not to sink down to the world, but to raise all from the world to heaven, to gain them for Christ. It must be shown to all, that there is one pearl which in its brilliancy far eclipses all other pearls, for which he who has found it is gladly ready to part with all besides, for the one highest good giving up all other forms of good-a sacrifice however which only brings them back again with new worth. Those whose minds are entangled in the conflict of old and new just mentioned, should by the pulpit be made to see and feel, that it is only in christianty still they can find all that their frequently unconscious longings seek, and

that their seeking itself proceeds more or less from the unconscious influence of christianity. This can be done, only through a right negotiation between the contents of the Divine word and the answer that is to be given to all the life questions of the age. Such a negotiation however, as is clear from what has been already said, can be brought to pass by means of practical exegesis alone. By this will the old become new and the new old. We think we have perceived, that in many quarters, where there was no lack of earnestly pious and enlightened ministers, these have still failed to exert a proper influence on the mass, just because they were deficient in this pliant mediatory skill, and could move forever only in one and the same circle of doctrinal or experimental notions,

The age needs a proper mediation between Christianity and the secular culture that has fallen away from its authority. What usually happens in such times of crisis, when a deeply felt religious want seeks vent in conflict with a worldly or infidel tendency, when the presentiment of something new, that must come, an inward longing towards it fills unsatisfied minds, namely that manifold forms of lawless self-will, manifold outbursts of enthusiasm, are found to prevail; this observation, we say, has begun to verify itself also in our age, and may be expected to do so more and more, until the new day which all desire shall be ushered in. However such appearances may fill us with grief, they still carry this comfort, that the present is no time of death stillness, that the mighty throes attending the birth of a new life can be seen and felt on all sides. In such a time it is especially needful again on this side also, that the application of the Divine word, which alone can furnish the true mean between the antagonisms that lead to perverseness and distortion, which alone can produce healthy clearness of mind, should discover to the age the crimson clew that may lead it through this labyrinth to the true and right issue, safe from the undue influence of a onesided subjectivity, which is ever prone to extravagance and excess. And for this practical exegesis will alone serve.

We have already said, that this art can be brought properly to prosper, only when we cease to look upon the collection of the sacred writings, with onesided doctrinal view, as a stiff uniform codex of divine revelation, when another conception of inspira

'We are reminded of the word uttered by the Parisian chancellor Gerson, from the heart of such a time: Fefellit multos nimia sensimentorum Conquisitio.

tion, more living and growing more directly out of the bosom of religious feeling itself, has taken the place completely of the old mechanical theory. For this very reason the later theology, of which the art is to be a distinguishing ornament, shows itself specially adapted to promote practical exegesis in the right form; as this is suited also to show, that by the overthrow of that old contracted view nothing is lost in the use to be derived from the Scriptures, but rather a great deal gained. In a still higher and richer sense than before, will the Bible by this means remain, in the face of all sorts of worldly culture and outliving the whole, the Book of Life. Men will no longer seek to find in it the solution of questions that pertain only to the interest of science in its different spheres, or that go quite beyond the range of human knowledge,' but will use it as the oracle for all that is necessary for man's salvation, for all the relations of life as they should be ordered in reference to its eternal scope. And for such right use of the Bible always practical exegesis must still show the way.

Translated by J. W. N.

MODERN CIVILIZATION.

Protestantism and Catholicity compared in their effects on the Civilization of Europe. Written in Spanish by the Rev. J. BALMES. Translated from the French. Baltimore: Published by John Murphy & Co. Pittsburg: George Quigley. 1851. 8vo. pp. 514.

A VERY interesting and able work; written by a devoted Roman Catholic; but none the less worthy for this reason of being diligently read and considered by all intelligent and earnest minded Protestants. It is the boast of Protestantism, we all know, to seek the light, to shrink from no inquiry, to encourage the most unbounded intellectual and religious freedom, to be ready to listen at least even to an enemy's voice speaking in the name of reason, and not to refuse instruction from whatever quarter the smallest measure of it can be drawn. The only regret would seem to be with a certain class of its champions

Δ μὴ ἑώρακεν εμβατεύων, curiously praying into the secrets of the invisible world, Col. ii: 18.

often, that the opposite interest, that of the Roman Church, is not willing to meet it on the same fair, liberal and honorable terms; that when it says, "Come let us reason together," that proud party should only scorn the proposal, and seek on principle and system rather to cover itself up in blind fog, and to resist all learned investigation as something that is felt instinctively to be full of danger to all its towering pretensions. The complaint is that Roman Catholics love darkness rather than light, and are not willing to stand forward before the world, and give account of the faith that is in them at the bar of history and logic. In these circumstances, the book before us certainly deserves a welcome reception at the hands even of those whom it undertakes to assail and attack. For it is no vulgar onset, made up merely of declamatory noise and slang. It abounds, beyond all contradiction, in comprehensive learning and profound observation. It is full moreover of vivacity, the vigor of a fresh spiritual life, such as it is refreshing to commune with, whether we can lend ourselves fully to its cause or not. The work has evidently suffered some by translation, but it retains still no small amount of its original glow, rising at times into actual eloquence of no ordinary kind. Here then is just what we should all be glad to see, an able and dignified attempt on the side of Romanism to show itself better than Protestantism, on the very field which this last has been most ready of late to claim as altogether its own, the relative bearing of the two systems namely on the progress of modern society. Now instead of battling with the wind, our valorous Samsons have the opportunity of grappling, shoulder to shoulder, with a real flesh and blood foe, in the full panoply of Rome, whom all must allow to be in every respect worthy of their best prowess and zeal. Shall we not be glad of this for their sakes, as well as for the sake of that great cause of truth which is here in controversy and debate? Here is a fair field for new laurels, more green than any that have yet crowned their brows. Will they suffer it to go without improvement and use? One solid refutation of such a work as this of Balmes would be a more meritorious achievment for Protestantism, than fifty or five hundred replies to Archbishop Hughes in the reigning pulpit and rostrum style. What we need is not declamation and bold popular rant, but true scientific discussion; such as Rome is commonly charged with eschewing and abhorring, but has here at least happily so far forgotten herself as of her own accord to offer and court, on an arena which is open to the free gaze of the whole world. Let the book be read, and not ignored or treated as a nursery tale. Let its facts and reas