produce. Its attractiveness is greatly increased by the scope it affords for that species of descriptive composition in which the author greatly excelled. In sketching the geographical, historical, social, and religious features of the places, communities, and persons which were connected with the lives, teachings, and labors of our Lord, of John, and the other apostles; in describing the characteristics, sayings, and doings of these greatest personages in the world's history, as well as those of the Roman emperors and their subordinate rulers, under whose dominion they taught, labored, made converts, planted churches, or suffered persecution and martyrdom, we see the pen-sketches of a master in graphic delineation. Passages are not wanting which, in style, remind us of the great English classics.

The volume is much increased in value and interest by maps and pictorial illustrations-mostly taken from photographs of places and scenes, or from copies of busts of persons-remarkable for their fine execution, which serve admirably to illustrate the subjects treated. The outline figures of the Roman emperors, Julius Cæsar, Augustus, Caligula, Nero, as well as others, are well worth study, and highly suggestive of traits which history ascribes to them.

We have observed that this volume interprets the teachings of John by the incidents of his life. But more than this, it aims, and with good success, to show how the apostles generally, and John pre-eminently, were themselves prepared and trained by their constant intimacy with Christ, and under his direct, special instruction, for the teaching and other ministerial functions of the apostolate, but, especially, for work of inspired authorship. The following passage presents this in a striking light:

At night he [Christ] sought retirement; he went out into a mountain near Capernaum, and spent a whole night in prayer. That night of prayer had some reference, there can be no doubt, to what was to occur the following day. In the morning "He called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles." In this honored list occurs the name of John, who, together with his brother, the first apostolic martyr, received the surname Boanerges, sons of thunder. It was a great office, the greatest to which man was ever called. In virtue of it, he was to be endowed with miraculous power, and the gift of inspiration; he was to receive the keys at the kingdom of heaven, and to be entrusted with the organization of the church, and the dissemination of the religion of Christ among men. He had been already more than a year with Christ before he received solemn appointment to this high office. His tuition and discipline were to be continued during the whole period of the Lord's ministry, and after his ascension he was to receive those super. natural gifts which would qualify him to perform the high functions he would be called to exercise. The founder of Christianity did not send forth uninstructed, untrained, undisciplined men to do his work. The apostles have been so often described as rude, untaught fisherman, that it is the more important to notice their contact and close association with the greatest of teachers for a period of more than three years. p. 72.

In the chapter immediately following this, the author very powerfully exhibits St. John's "preparation for his work, from intercourse and instruction in private, in the last days of Christ, especially as a witness of the

crucifixion." We should be glad, if we had space, to cull some extracts from this, but must forbear.

Dr. Macdonald in early life published a volume on the Apocalypse, which attracted much attention, and was highly commended as one of the very foremost works on that subject by such high critics as the late Dr. J. Addison Alexander. His power in descriptive composition greatly aids his successful handling of this wonderful book, which, in many aspects, is so confounding to exegetes, that Calvin himself is said to have shrunk from making a commentary upon it, because he could not understand it. The weight of critical opinion is against Dr. Macdonald's view of the early date of this composition, which he nevertheless supports with great ability. But we think the following a very judicious account of its aim and scope : "The great theme of the Apocalypse is the coming of Jesus Christ to this world in compassion to his people and judgment on his foes, and, after the destruction of all the anti-Christian powers that may arise in different ages of the world, and the church has enjoyed a long season of unexampled prosperity, his final coming to raise the dead and judge the righteous and the wicked; so that this book might be entitled, not inappropriately, THE BOOK OF the Coming of Jesus Christ. The New Testament informs us of a two-fold appearance or coming of Christ. One, his appearing in the flesh, was visible. The other, or second, relates to the preservation, propagation, and consummation of his kingdom. The second coming is partly invisible, as in the instance of the destruction of Jerusalem, or when he interposes for his sincere followers, and grants them the light and comfort of his presence. And it is partly visible; that is, Christ at the end of the world will thus appear to raise the dead, and pass the irreversible sentence of judgment on every man. Now, it is the second, partly visible and partly invisible, coming of Christ which this book reveals, and which should never be lost sight of if we would have the blessedness it promises: 'Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things that are written in this book.'"-Pp. 173.

We notice an occasional slip, which would probably have been avoided had the author lived to revise the proofs. A marked instance of this is observable in the apparently conflicting accounts given on pages 138 and 225, with regard to the continuance of the literal as distinguished from the figurative or mystical Babylon. But such mistakes are rare. It deserves mention that the table of contents, references, and the index of topics are remarkably complete, and add much to the value of the book.

One of the most noteworthy chapters is that entitled, "St. John as a disciple of John the Baptist," and we should be glad to transfer to our pages the fine portraitures drawn of the characters of both these great leaders, in the introduction of Christianity and founding of the church. We cannot do this; but we make room for the following passage, in regard to one prevalent conception, or rather misconception, of the main subject of the volumes, pp. 28, 29, 30.

"From his honored position at the Last Supper, and his peculiar designation as 'the disciple whom Jesus loved,' and because, in his epistles and gospel, he dwells so much on love, John has been frequently described as being all mildness, dis

tinguished by a feminine softness, and destitute of strong, positive elements. But to imagine that he was a merely contemplative being, tame, and of a weak, sentimental nature, is, unquestionably, to do serious injustice to his character. His natural traits appear rather to have been those of decision and energy; traits which it is not the province of divine grace to eradicate, but to regenerate and sanctify. He possessed a temperament, indeed, which, if it had not been subjected to the influence of this grace, might have made him fiery and fierce, if not cruel and unforgiving. The love which dwelt in him in so eminent a degree, might easily, under adverse influences, have been changed into its opposite-violent hatred. It was the strong, manly quali ties of John which so commended him to the regard of the Redeemer of the world, and led to his selection for the great share he had in the work of laying the foundation of the Christian faith, amid opposition, confusion, and blood. In him the searching eye of the Redeemer recognized faculties which, diverted from the low ends of worldly ambition and contact, might be exalted to the great works of divine benevolence. He could see how the impulses, which, misdirected or left uncontrolled, must tend only to evil, could be made the guide of truth and love,' and in his "fiery ardor, the disguised germ of a holy zeal," which, under his careful tuition, "would become a tree of life, bringing forth fruits of good for nations." It was in perfect keeping with these characteristics which Josephus ascribes to the whole Galilean race, ardent and fierce,' that when the inhabitants of a certain Samaritan village refused to show Jesus hospitality, the two brothers, James and John, the more ready doubtless to take fire on account of the old national grudge, desired permission to call down fire from heaven for their destruction. It was a delicate susceptibility to impression which led John to respond so readily-and some. times in a way not so amiable-to the events and disclosures, which were ever multiplying around him, as he followed his Master. To refuse hospitality to such a being as he knew his Master to be, seemed to him unpardonable. This same quick susceptibility appears on another occasion, when he came and told the Saviour that he had rebuked a man for casting out devils, because he did not follow Christ in his company.

"The character of John, even when more matured, showed itself strongly colored by the same constitutional peculiarity. Had this native quality been left to itself, unchecked by harmful influence, and unchastened by the grace of God, that John, whose soul, pouring itself forth in inspired writings, one delights to observe, so yielding to the slightest touch of heavenly truth, would have been known, if at all, only as the dissolute prey of contending passions. His susceptibility would have been like the perturbations of angry waters, which surrender themselves to every coming gust. But in the confirmed Christian and apostle, this trait appears like the rapid and transparent picturing of past succeeding beauties and glories of the opening heavens on the bosom of some stream, charmed by the presence of an unseen presiding spirit. If this responsive picturing in his soul was sometimes overcast with a shade from untimely objects, such a disfiguring shadow was but transient.' He used no softened, honeyed terms, when he described evil-doers. With him a false professor was a 'liar;' a hater of his brother, 'a murderer;' a denier of fundamental doctrines, 'anti-Christ.'"

Art. XI.-CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE.

THEOLOGICAL AND RELIGIOUS.

Peter, the Apostle. By the REV. WILLIAM M. TAYLOR, D.D., Minister of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York City. Harper & Brothers. This volume contains no less than twenty-three chapters, which are evidently the substance of as many discourses preached upon the most notable and instructive events in the life of the Apostle Peter, beginning with his conversion, and ending with a survey of his character and career as a servant and apostle of Christ. It is on the same general plan, and has originated in the same way, as the author's previous volumes on David and Elijah. Although Dr. Taylor's sermons owe much of their electric power over audiences to a commanding and impassioned delivery, which, no less than the words spoken, voices his very soul to his hearers, yet it is only necessary to read them to perceive that there is an electricity in the matter of them, without which the most vehement vociferation would be comparatively vox et preterea nihil. They carry along the reader by an inherent force and attraction which come from the unfailing light and power, freshness and vivacity, with which "truths, of all others the most awful and interesting," are so sent home to the understanding, heart, and conscience, that they can no longer "lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul side by side with the most despised and exploded errors."

These sermons, we judge from frequent allusions in them, and from their special application to revivals of religion, to have been preached in close connection with and reference to the great awakening in New York in the winter of 1875-6, which centered in the Hippodrome meetings under the preaching and conduct of Mr. Moody. While there is much in them to instruct and inspire, as concerns the ordinary Christian life, they are still more special in respect to the methods and motives which relate to Christian work for promoting the growth of the church by conversions and revivals. And such are the justness and importance of the truths set forth, and the fertility and appositeness of the illustration and imagery which vivify them to our apprehension, that they keep up an unflagging interest in the reader, as they previously did in the hearer.

These discourses are replete with scriptural truth, uttered with the authority which is backed by a "Thus saith the Lord," challenging assent and obedience as such, and as spoken by the ambassador of God. And here lies the open secret of their power. Much has been written and said in regard to the occasional calling of foreign clergymen to our pulpits, and the pre-eminent success which a few of them have achieved. We once heard a young man, not a professor of religion, who had, during a season's residence in New York, taken the opportunity to hear the most distinguished metropolitan preachers, ascribe the remarkable success of those ministers from abroad, whose names our readers will readily recognize, to the superior Scrip

turalness of their preaching. We believe that this explains the secret, in part, at least; and that, if not true in every sense, it is in one particular, to which our young American preachers and their homiletical teachers will find it worth their while to take heed. And we advert to it just here, because it is strongly illustrated in this and the previous volumes of Dr. Taylor. We think the great body of our evangelical preachers are just as Scriptural in the sense of conforming their discourses to, building them upon, and fortifying them in all their positions by, the Bible, as these leading foreign preachers, of whom Dr. Taylor is a distinguished specimen. But their peculiar excellence, in which they may profitably be held up for study and imitation in our view, is, that they set forth the truth of Scripture less in the abstract, and more in the concrete forms of life, experience, and example, in which it is held forth in the Bible; only adapting and applying it to the analogous cases of our own time, and to the circumstances of the men and women of the passing day and hour. Thus, they are constantly holding up the Bible as a glass through which men see their own experiences, actions, habits, characteristics, whether good or evil, photographed, and then reflected back in their own consciousness for comparison with Scriptural standards. “As in water face answer to face, so the heart of man to man." Thus it is, that the same essential Scriptural truth penetrates and stirs all the faculties of the soul, because so presented as to find its counterpart and verification in the living consciousness of that soul. It then grapples the man, so that he becomes not a hearer only, but a doer of the Word, and is blessed in his deed.

It is just in this region that we think our American preachers may learn something to their advantage by the study of these and like discourses of the best foreign preachers. Not the mere taking a text, or logically unfolding and applying, or raising important doctrines from it, and duly confirming them by other Scriptural testimonies; not the delivering of an elegant essay or cogent argument about them; but the bringing truth out in the concrete, living forms in which the Bible presents it, causing it thus to permeate the whole discourse, so that in all its parts it takes on a Scriptural hue, and speaks with a divine authority—a pungency sharper than any two-edged sword.

Dr. Taylor, repeatedly in this volume, gives forth his own subject in his portraitures of the preaching of Peter and others. pentecostal sermon he says:

ideas on this

Of Peter's

"This discourse was eminently biblical. He brought the Bible to the front, and by its simple exposition he proved that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Messiah. Now-a-days we have a great deal said in the pulpit that might be just as appropriate in the hall of the layman, or in a class-room of a professor of philosophy. But Peter began and ended with the Word of God. And when our preachers will give over apologizing for the Bible, or criticising it, and will let it simply speak for itself, then 'we, too, may look back for a new day of Pentecost. What mean the crowds that everywhere throng to hear those evangelists whom God has so signally honored? They are the proof, if men only are to be con