this college, the existence of which was due to certain provisions in the British Treaty with China, was to train young men for the public service, especially as agents of international intercourse, Of this college Dr. Martin is still president emeritus, and we note with interest the statement, that on his recent passage through this country, Li Hung Chang, on seeing Dr. Martin, told him that he looked well and strong enough to return to China and resume his life and work there. All these opportunities afforded Dr. Martin rare facilities in the preparation of the book before us. The volume gives a mass of useful information, and all so naturally suggested by Dr. Martin's sojourn in the land that it is marked with unusual vividness and interest. The personal elements in it make it the more interesting, and a vein of humor constantly shows itself, adding spice to the narrative and history. The author devotes much attention to subjects like the opium curse, the missionary problem, relations to other nations, etc., as well as to the country's physical aspects, the language and literature, domestic life, customs and manners, government and religions of the country. The large number of excellent illustrations add interest to the book and make it most attractive.

COLLEGE HYMNAL. A Selection of Christian Praise-songs for the Use of Worship in Universities, Colleges and Advanced Schools. New York and Chicago: The Biglow & Main Co. 1897.

"Of making many [hymn]-books there is no end." We suppose they are made to sell; that wherever there is an organization or gathering in which there is some esprit-du-corps with a sufficient large number of members or constituents, there is an opportunity to sell. This is the only way in which we can account for this collection. There is nothing except the title to differentiate it from any other really good collection of hymns and tunes. The compiler is not named. The print is good and clear, the type used for the hymns being unusually large and distinct. The binding is attractive and very substantial. The collection is one of a better and more dignified type than the popular collections for youth, and will therefore cultivate a more elevated class of song-service.

POCKET MANUAL OF RULES OF ORDER FOR DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES. Part L Rules of Order. A compendium of parliamentary law based upon the rules and practice of Congress. Part II. Organization and Conduct of Business. A simple explanation of the methods of organizing and conducting the business of societies, conventions, and other deliberative assemblies. By Colonel Henry M. Robert, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A. One hundred and eightyseventh thousand. 16mo, pp. 218. Chicago Scott, Foresman & Co. 1896.

The popularity of this hand-book proves its adaptability to its purpose. In terser, clearer terms than any such publication with which we are familiar, it sets forth the rules of order which are generally accepted as the guide of deliberative bodies. In arrangement, difference of type used, etc., it is ready of reference, a most decided advantage in a hand-book of the kind, in view of the fact that in most cases in which such a book must be consulted, it must be consulted immediately and without undue delay to business.

THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK. Editors, W. M. McPheeters and D. J. Brimm. Published monthly at Columbia, S. C., by the Bryan Printing Company. $1.00 per annum.

This new monthly periodical of twenty-four large pages, presents a handsome appearance. It is well printed, and its contents attractively arranged. A photogravure of Dr. Thornwell adorns one of its pages. The contents are in short, crisp, editorial notes and brief articles on topics of present interest, followed by historical notes, a digest of ecclesiastical information, and exegetical suggestions and opinions. Large attention is to be devoted to biblical research and discovery. The contributors to the initial number are Drs. S. M. Smith, R. C. Reed, A. R. Cocke, S. S. Laws, J. L. Girardeau, R. L. Dabney, and J. D. Tadlock. These names are a guarantee of its ability. And the reader will not be disappointed when he turns to the pages which they have written. We wish the founders of this magazine great success in their venture.

THE

PRESBYTERIAN QUARTERLY.

NO. 41.-JULY, 1897.

I. PHILIP MELANCHTHON, SCHOLAR AND REFORMER.'

Or the many brief descriptions of the Reformation, none is more striking than that which represents it as the return of Christendom to a book. Of course, so continental, profound and complex a movement cannot be described in a single sentence. But with a rough kind of truth it may be said, that when the hour of the great religious revolution struck, the various lines on which its historical causes had for centuries been moving converged and terminated in the Holy Bible. If we were limited to a single statement as to what the Reformation, in its inmost essence, was, and what, as it perpetuates itself in the Protestant churches, it still is; after all our study of the historical events which preceded it as coöperating agents-the papal schism, the reforming councils, the struggles between Gallicanism and Ultramontanism, the classical revival, the destructive and constructive forces which tore down the medieval and built up the modern society, as the inventions of printing, of gunpowder and of the mariner's compass and the great voyages of discovery, the religious labors of local and national reformers like Wicliff and Huss and Savonarola-if, I say, after all this study, we were called to select a single sentence in which to embody the idea of the Reformation, we could find no better sentence for the purpose than that of Wil

'An address delivered in the chapel of Princeton Theological Seminary on the occasion of the celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of Philip Melanchthon. The Rev. Dr. Green, Chairman of the Faculty, presided; and the Rev. Dr. Jacobs, Dean of the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, took part in the services. The hymns sung were written by Melanchthon and Luther.

liam Chillingworth: "The Bible, and the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants." And because this is the Reformation in its essence, there is no other single line of events leading up to it so interesting or fruitful as a subject of investigation as the line of literary studies. Certainly, there is no other line which will bring us, by a route as direct or as charming, to the University of Wittenberg and to Philip Melanchthon, the preceptor of Germany.

It need not surprise us that the early Christian church rejected a literature whose charm was due, partly at least, to its association with a religion which the fathers of the church called the worship of demons. There is more reason for surprise in the fact that we can trace a line of Christian scholars, like St. Augustine, who extolled the study of heathen writers as introductory to the study of the divine revelation, or like Alcuin, who could write. of his little collection of the classics in language as affectionate as if he were speaking of his best-beloved friends. But these were exceptions; and of these exceptions, Mr. Symonds tells us that "Augustine deplored his time spent in weeping over Dido's death by love, while all the while he was himself both morally and spiritually dead; and that Alcuin regretted that in his boyhood he had preferred Virgil to the legends of the saints, and stigmatized the eloquence of the classic Latin writers as wanton." The tardy penitence of the North-African theologian and of the Saxon teacher is mild, indeed, when compared with the vehement denunciations of most of those who contrasted their own writings with the classics. "I warn the reader," says one, "not to mind the mass of barbarisms in this work, but to seek the pearl within the dung-heap"; and Gregory the Great struggles after language equal to his contempt for the literary masters of his own Italy. "The places of prepositions and the cases of nouns," said he, "I utterly despise, since I deem it unfit to confine the words of the celestial oracles within the rules of Donatus."

Undoubtedly, the western church, during the Middle Ages after the Dark Age, enjoyed an active intellectual life and abounded in missionary work. The Teutonic peoples were christianized and civilized, and the great doctrines of Christianity were stated, defended, and organized in systems in which their relations to the