The outcome is put into perspective in the closing sentence: "Creating or suppressing, constructing or dissolving, placing or displacing, expanding or contracting, hastening or retarding, helping or hindering; helping all right and hindering from all wrong; the Hand is working all things after the counsel of its own will; always as a benevolent providence, never as a heartless fate; the one almighty omnipresent OPTIMISM of a world which but for him would have been a pessimism."

JOSEPH COOK'S OCCIDENT.*-From the Introduction to thisthe ninth volume of the Boston Monday Lectures, we learn that several of the preceding volumes have reached a fifteenth or sixteenth edition; and that in London alone there have been republished thirteen different forms of these volumes. "Fit audience though few" need not be quoted to console Mr. Cook, for he never appears any where as a deserted philosopher. Indeed, in these days we hardly know where to look for any thinker“ of the grove," of whom the world has yet to hear. Even Emerson, the most philosophic of the hermits, had to come out with his wisdom and retail it by the lecture.

It is eminently proper, however, that Mr. Cook's voice should be heard; that his thoughts should be spread in the years of their birth, because they are for the counteracting of present oppositions to everlasting truth. He has done good service by his instant testimonies in behalf of things historic, reasoned, and revealed. If the meekness, of wisdom is not always so apparent in these books as the courage of conviction, we are to remember that in the popular assembly, to be successful, the prophet, like Isaiah, must be " very bold." To the orator, the hour and the power are for the most part identical, as the oratorical portions of these lectures show. What was greeted with "applause," "great applause," "great laughter and applause," already fails to bestir even the memory of an emotion in those hearing it. For this reason, the reading public is likely to prefer the "Lectures" to the "Preludes;" and among the first of those we put the last"On Art and History at Athens." The other lectures on "Advanced Thought in Italy and Greece," "Spiritualism," "Criticism," "Advanced Thought in Germany," and, "Advanced Thought in England," are all distinguished by Mr. Cook's chief

* Occident, with Preludes on Current Events. By JOSEPH COOK. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. New York: 11 East Seventeenth street. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1884.

characteristics, life and grasp; and they escape an influence of the time who fail to come under the deliverances of the Boston Monday Lectures. On the great questions of reform-Temperance, Civil Service, Missions-Mr. Cook has no uncertain sound, -seldom if ever does he speak on topics capable of large and lustrous treatment, but in a manner able, eloquent, masterly.

SERMONS TO THE SPIRITUAL MAN.*-Here are twenty-six sermons, covering quite a variety of topics. The topics are weighty and the discussion of them is serious and dignified, and in their way thoughtful. They address us with simplicity and directness. They are not dependent upon their rhetoric for whatever of efficacy they may have. We are more impressed with the author's evident sense of the importance of the themes he discusses than with his skill in the discussion. Prof. Shedd is not a preacher. He always appears as a theologian in whatever he undertakes, and we are never to be left in doubt as to the color of his theology. The color as it appears in these sermons, it must be acknowledged, is somewhat somber. The importance of the themes presented, in the author's judgment, sanctioned their publication, but it were to be wished that their tone were a little more cheerful and hopeful and evidential of a stronger grasp of the great powers of redemption. Sermons to the spiritual man would naturally be suggestive of the brighter aspects of redeemed life, but we pause every now and then to ask what manner of person this spiritual man is whom the author has in mind. In the Prefatory Note we are promised something that is addressed to the "Christian heart." That, as regards the intent of the author, the promise is fulfilled is unquestioned, but there may be doubts as to its accomplishment-in fact. The average "Christian heart" is not reached by perpetual emphasis of sin and depravity and by the presentation of somber views of life. And in an age when we need above all else the gospel of hope, the practical value of sermons which have their origin in semi-pessimistic assumptions, is more than questionable. The object of this volume is candidly indicated. The author "is well aware that both this and the volume of 'Sermons to the Natural Man'" are out of all keeping with some existing tendencies in the religious world. "He thinks also that these tendencies are destined to

* Sermons to the Spiritual Man. By Wм. G. T. SHEDD, D.D., Rosevelt Professor Systematic Theology in Union Theological Seminary, N. Y. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York: 1884.

disappear, whenever the blind guides shall cease to lead the blind, and honest self-knowledge shall take the place of self-flattery and religious delusion." This is not a very cheerful view of the age and its prevailing tendencies, and it is quite certain that, whatever may be the truth of our author's views and whatever their importance (and they are probably of far less importance than he thinks them to be), he will never succeed in making the impression he desires by approaching the men of his time with such assumptions as these. It were to be wished that themes so grand and weighty and significant as those chosen here should be so presented that men will attend to them. But there are few who will be attracted by this volume and many that will be repelled.

Prof. Shedd is a man of positive convictions and of thorough honesty, candor, and courage. It is always in order for a man to speak out what is in him to speak. But the preacher must have something more than a message from his own head and heart. Something more even than a message from God. He must have a message to the men of his time of such sort as will adjust itself to their ways of thought, to their difficulties and doubts, to all that is best in their experience, and shall bring them the word of light and cheer and courage for the battle of life.

THE PUBLIC MINISTRY OF OUR LORD.*-Prof. Blaikie is a writer upon Homiletical subjects of unusual freshness and of excellent judgment. The volume entitled, "For the Work of the Ministry; a Manual of Homiletical and Pastoral Theology," which has already passed to its third edition, and is used as a text-book of Pastoral Theology in many theological seminaries in different parts of the world, is a work of uncommon value. It would be of service to any theological student who means to make the most of his ministry, for which he would find reason to be thankful in after years. The importance of Homiletical and Pastoral Theology is more thoroughly recognized in Scotland than it is in this country. Perhaps this is one reason why the Scotch are the better preachers. More attention was given to this department of theology under the earlier method of training ministers. That method had some advantages. It brought men into close contact

* The Public Ministry and Pastoral Methods of our Lord. By WILLIAM GARDER BLAIKIE, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Apologetics and of Ecclesiastical and Pastoral Theology in the New College, Edinburgh. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 530 Broadway. 1883.

with strong and earnest pastors and theologians. No theological school with class-room method of training men can ever take the place of the personal intercourse and influence of the living teacher. The modern theological teacher and pupil live at too great a distance from each other. The volume before us reminds us of the personal power of our Lord's ministry. It is impossible to over estimate its worth to those Apostles. It was expedient for him to go away, but not before he has profoundly impressed himself upon the living souls of a few men. We rejoice in Christ's spiritual presence, but we have to remember that it was of little avail apart from its connection with the earthly and historical presence. His priestly and kingly functions have obscured his pastoral function. We are reminded anew by this work that Christ in his earthly life was preeminently the pastor and teacher, and that he had the "cure of souls" in a parish that taxed all his skill. His ministry is here discussed in all its aspects, in his preparation for his work, in the inner spirit and in the outer features of it, in its private and in its public aspects, in its Galilean and in its Judean peculiarities. In every aspect of it our author finds something that furnishes examples for every Christian minister. Special attention is given to his work as a teacher. Its characteristics are well treated and his dealing with different classes of people carefully indicated and wisely emphasized, the author writes with affluence and sometimes with genuine eloquence. It is pervaded by the evangelical spirit in the Prof. Blaikie would do the Christian world good service if, following the same general method, he should discuss the public ministry and pastoral methods of Paul for homiletical and pastoral uses.

best sense.

DR. HOPKINS' BACCALAUREATES.*-These Baccalaureates have had several publications, of which this is the latest and the best. The simple elegance of the volume is becoming to the contents; for with Dr. Hopkins there are neither patches nor spangles in thought or style; without and within, the beauty of this book is in its strength, and its strength is in its beauty. Modestly the preface says that "the subjects of those discourses are of permanent interest;" with greater assurance the reader can say that "the discourses themselves are of permanent value." In its * Teachings and Counsels: Twenty Baccalaureate Sermons, with a discourse or President Garfield. By MARK HOPKINS, D.D., LL.D. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1884.

completed form this book is a fine tribute to the power and worth of a man of wisdom for years at the head of a literary institution. These outlooks from the calm altitude of the instructor, have a value of their own, with which the successes of the knights of the rostrum enter into no competition. Beginning in 1850 with "Faith, Philosophy, and Reason," and ending some twenty years later with "The Circular and the Onward Movement," at intervals of a year we have such themes as "Higher and Lower Good," "The Manifoldness of Man," " Providence and Revelation," "The Bible and Pantheism," "Zeal," "Life," fully, fairly, and yet only suggestively discussed; and discussed in a way in which the preacher does not seem to wish his word to be taken any farther than shall seem reasonable in the judgment of the reader. These admirable addresses teach, by showing, the candor and the skill necessary to keep the rays of truth separate from the flashing meteors of delusion. They also show to those covetous of genius the existence of such a thing as a genius for care and diligence, as well as a genius for originality and sagacity. To specify the excellencies or to criticise the philosophies of these treatises, for such in substance they are, would be to review a shelf of books. We can only give the comely volume a welcome and a commendation as a piece of work creditable alike to the printers, the publishers, and the author. The graduates of Williams, and all friends of our New England colleges, and college system, have the right to express their satisfaction with this new tenure of life granted to these weighty "teachings and counsels."

PROF. LADD'S TRANSLATION OF LOZTE'S OUTLINES OF METAPHYSICS.*The translation of the Outlines of Lotze's Philosophy will render an important and timely service to philosophical culture. We think Prof. Ladd has made a wise selection in the choice of these outlines for the presentation of the philosophical views of Lotze. These volumes will be admirably adapted to this twofold object in their publication, viz: to promote a larger style of thinking among those who aspire to culture, and to open for English students one of the most important developments of German philosophy.

Though appearing under the title of Outlines of Philosophy the present volume and those that are to follow are by no means mere *Outlines of Metaphysics: Dictated Portions of the Lectures of Hermann Lotze. Translated and edited by GEORGE T. LADD, Professor of Philosophy in Yale College. Boston: Ginn, Heath & Co. 1884. 66 pp.