with the amplifications which she has in some cases adopted. Our Litany is hardly equal to its germ; nor do our collects exhaust available stores. Yet if it be one great test of a theology, that it shall bear to be prayed, our author has hardly satisfied it. Either reverence or deference may have prevented him from bringing his prayers into entire harmony with his criticisms; or it may be that a discrepance, which we should constantly diminish, is likely to remain between our feelings and our logical necessities. It is not the less certain, that some reconsideration of the polemical element in our Liturgy, as of the harder scholasticism in our theology, would be the natural offspring of any age of research in which Christianity was free; and if this, as seems but too probable, is to be much longer denied us, the consequence must be a lessening of moral strength within our pale, and an accession to influences which will not always be friendly. But to estrange our doctrinal teaching from the convictions, and our practical administration from the influence, of a Protestant laity, are parts of one policy, and that not always a blind one. Nor is doctrinal narrowness of view without practical counterpart in the rigidity which excludes the breath of prayer from our churches for six days in seven, rather than permit a clergyman to select such portions as devotion suggests and average strength permits.

It did not fall within the scope of this essay to define the extent of its illustrious subject's obligations (which he would no doubt largely acknowledge) to contemporary scholars, such as Mr. Birch or others; nor was it necessary to touch questions of ethnology and politics which might be raised by those who value Germanism so far as it is human,

rather than so far as it is German.

Sclavonians

might notice the scanty acknowledgment of the vast contributions of their race to the intellectual wealth of Germany. Celtic scholars might remark, that triumph in a discovery which has yet to be proved, regarding the law of initial mutations in their language, is premature. Nor would they assent to our author's ethical description of their race. So, when he asks, "How long shall we bear this fiction of an external revelation?" that is, of one violating the heart and conscience, instead of expressing itself through them: or when he says, "All this is delusion for those who believe it; but what is it in the mouths of those who teach it?" or when he exclaims, "Oh the fools! who, if they do see the imminent perils of this age, think to ward them off by narrow-minded persecution!" and when he repeats, "Is it not time, in truth, to withdraw the veil from our misery; to tear off the mask from hypocrisy, and destroy that sham which is undermining all real ground under our feet; to point out the dangers which surround, nay, threaten already to ingulf us?"- there will be some who think his language too vehement for good taste. Others will think burning words needed by the disease of our time. They will not quarrel on points of taste with a man who in our darkest perplexity has reared again the banner of truth, and uttered thoughts which give courage to the weak, and sight to the blind. If Protestant Europe is to

One might ask, whether the experience of our two latest wars encourages our looking to Germany for any unselfish sympathy with the rights of nations? or has she not rather earned the curse of Meroz?

So the vaunted discovery of Professor Zeuss, deriving " Cymry" from an imaginary word " Combroges," is against the testimony of the best Greek geographers.

escape those shadows of the twelfth century, which, with ominous recurrence, are closing round us, to Baron Bunsen will belong a foremost place among the champions of light and right. Any points disputable, or partially erroneous, which may be discovered in his many works, are as dust in the balance, compared with the mass of solid learning, and the elevating influence of a noble and Christian spirit. Those who have assailed his doubtful points are equally opposed to his strong ones. Our own testimony is, where we have been best able to follow him, we have generally found most reason to agree with him; but our little survey has not traversed his vast field, nor our plummet sounded his depth.

Bunsen, with voice like sound of trumpet born,
Conscious of strength, and confidently bold,

Well feign the sons of Loyola the scorn

Which from thy books would scare their startled fold.
To thee our Earth disclosed her purple morn,

And Time his long-lost centuries unrolled;

Far Realms unveiled the mystery of their tongue;
Thou all their garlands on the CROSS hast hung.

My lips but ill could frame thy Lutheran speech,
Nor suits thy Teuton vaunt our British pride:
But, ah! not dead my soul to giant reach,

That envious Eld's vast interval defied;
And when those fables strange, our hirelings teach,
I saw by genuine learning cast aside,
Even like Linnæus kneeling on the sod,
For faith from falsehood severed thank I GOD.

105

NOTE ON BUNSEN'S BIBLICAL RESEARCHES.

Since the Essay on Bunsen's "Biblical Researches" was in type, two more parts of the "Bible for the People" have reached England. One includes a translation of Isaiah, but does not separate the distinguishable portions in the manner of Ewald, or with the freedom which the translator's criticisms would justify. The other part comprehends numerous dissertations on the Pentateuch, entering largely on questions of its origin, materials, and interpretation. There seems not an entire consistency of detail in these dissertations, and in the views deducible from the author's "Egypt;" but the same spirit, and breadth of treatment, pervade both. The analysis of the Levitical laws, by which the Mosaic germs are distinguished from subsequent accretions, is of the highest interest. The ten plagues of Egypt are somewhat rationalistically handled, as having a true historical basis, but as explicable by natural phenomena, indigenous to Egypt in all ages. The author's tone upon the technical definition of miracles, as distinct from great marvels and wonders, has acquired a firmer freedom, and would be represented by some among ourselves as "painfully sceptical." But even those who hesitate to follow the author in his details must be struck by the brilliant suggestiveness of his researches, which tend more and more, in proportion as they are developed, to justify the presentiment of their creating a new epoch in the science of biblical criticism.

R. W.

106

ON THE STUDY OF THE EVIDENCES OF

CHRISTIANITY.

BY BADEN POWELL, M.A., F.R.S., &c.

THE

HE investigation of that important and extensive subject which includes what have been usually designated as "The Evidences of Revelation," has prescriptively occupied a considerable space in the field of theological literature, especially as cultivated in England. There is scarcely one, perhaps, of our more eminent divines, who has not, in a greater or less degree, distinguished himself in this department; and scarcely an aspirant for theological distinction who has not thought it one of the surest paths to that eminence, combining so many and varied motives of ambition, to come forward as a champion in this arena. At the present day, it might be supposed the discussion of such a subject, taken up as it has been successively in all its conceivable different bearings, must be nearly exhausted. It must, however, be borne in mind, that, unlike the essential doctrines of Christianity," the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," these external accessories constitute a subject which of necessity is perpetually taking somewhat, at least, of a new form with the successive phases of opinion and knowledge. And it thus becomes not an unsatisfactory nor unimportant object, from time to