blessedness here upon earth. But he finds the great fault of the Mystics in the fact that they sought it, not in the forgiveness of sins, but in a consciousness of physical nearness to God and spiritual union with him. But while this may be the truth as judged from Luther's saying, that "where forgiveness of sins is there is life and blessedness," yet it does not cover the whole ground. Personal religion is more than a mere ignoring of the antagonisms between ideals and realization, even though we do ignore them because we know our sins forgiven. There is in every truly Christian heart a desire to overcome the hinderances within and without which stand in the way of our moral progress and of our communion with God. The intense zeal of the mystical ascetics may have been misdirected, but they recognized and emphasized the need of a greater moral and spiritual nearness to God. Christianity means more than being saved from the consequences of our sins. It proposes the highest development of the spiritual nature of man. An excessive emphasis upon the doctrine of justification overlooks this. Seeberg, however, in common with all thinkers of his class, in opposing mysticism emphasizes the fact that Christianity demands faithfulness in our daily occupations, and that the Christian life is compatible with the performance of any legitimate duty. Mysticism by its virtual assertion of such incompatibility has done immense harm, and deserves the blows which are being dealt out to it in this practical age.

WEIZSAECKER'S TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

THE book is in German, but many of the readers of the Review know enough of that language to avail themselves of this excellent work. Weizsaecker is tolerably liberal in his theology, but he believes that the New Testament is a book which all ought to read, and that a translation is the best form in which to convey to the masses the results of the latest and most scholarly investigations. "Translation is exegesis." The translator gives his conception of the meaning of a passage in the Greek Testament by means of translation. And if this method denies him the opportunity of defending his exegesis before scholars it has the advantage of direct appeal to the reader without the confusing effects of arguments pro and con. In fact, the results of critical investigation can in this simple way be made the property of all readers. The translation is from the most critically revised text, and if well made is an exact reproduction of its spirit. Passages which were formerly regarded as genuine, but which have been proved by investigation to be interpolations, can be quietly dropped out, and all the bewilderment occasioned by critical comments can thus be avoided. The transit from the textus receptus to the most advanced results can thus be made without confusion, and the next generation of Christians would be the product of such a Bible. But were this method employed it would throw an immense burden of responsibility upon translators. Weizsaecker does not introduce the results of the so-called higher criticism into his translation. He takes the New Testament books as he finds them, studies the text with the utmost care, and then translates

with a view to reproducing the contents of the Greek in German. Consequently all the books of our New Testament appear under the names of the authors to whom they are generally ascribed. Even Hebrews is attributed to Paul. Our Revised Version is an attempt in the same direction. Weizsaecker recognizes the fact that in modernizing his language he loses some of the force of Luther's translation. But he rightly feels that it is better to give an exact reproduction of the mind of the Spirit than to preserve terseness of style. May the time soon come when the opposers of our Revised Version will cease to prefer the strong Anglo-Saxon of our Authorized Version to the real meaning of the holy book!

RELIGIOUS.

ROMAN CATHOLIC INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS.

In order that the readers of the Review may form some idea of the activity of the Roman Catholic world we give an outline of the work of the recent international congress in Mechlin, Belgium. Attention was paid to the erection of houses for neglected children; to the formation of associations for the perfection of the school system; the development of Roman Catholic universities, and the founding of literary and art societies in all Roman Catholic organizations. The department of social work recommended societies for professional people; the establishment of houses for laborers; the foundation of labor societies and of co-operative associations. The department of science and art studied the question of the establishment of Christian theaters, and recommended the reading of Christian books. In the general session of the 9th of September M. d'Hulst spoke in favor of the founding of Roman Catholic universities. On the 10th Bishop Stillemaus appealed to the assembly in favor of supporting the action of Belgium on the Congo. This partial outline of subjects considered and measures projected is suggestive. The Roman Catholics are alive to the needs of the hour, and in their way are trying to meet them, of course in the interest of the Roman Church. About eighteen hundred persons were present as participants in the congress from various countries of Europe, chiefly, however, from Belgium.

SECULARIZATION OF BOYS' SCHOOLS IN FRANCE.

On the 1st of October, 1891, a weighty and radical change was made in the conduct of boys' schools throughout France. In 1886 a law was passed providing that at the end of five years the clerical teachers should be replaced by secular. During the year 1891 the number of clerical teachers of all classes was reduced to 1,213 out of a total of 52,000. This change has not been as yet so completely executed in girls' schools, the law of 1886 not having fixed any definite date for the expulsion of the female religious teachers. The reason of this is that a sufficient number of competent secular female teachers cannot yet be found. Of 44,000 female

teachers 11,000 are still drawn from the religious houses. But this change is also only a question of time. Perhaps from the stand-point of the struggle between Protestantism and Romanism the redisplacement of the religious teachers may be a gain. But it means the expulsion of religious instruction of any kind from the schools of France, and to a considerable extent prevents instruction even by persons whose sympathies are Christian. In other words, it is a clear gain for infidelity, since infidelity and infidel teachers are not excluded.

EVANGELICAL RELIGION IN BERNE.

THE Canton of Berne, Switzerland, is in the main of the reformed faith, accepting a mild interpretation of the Helvetic Confession. But the most diverse theological tendencies are represented among the clergy. The one hundred and sixty pastors are divided as follows: eighty adhere to the middle party, forty to the radical reformers, about half of the remaining forty are known as orthodox, while the last twenty belong to the Pietists. The extreme orthodox preachers complain loudly of the religious condition, and will not be comforted because so many prefer a living Christianity to a dead orthodoxy. And as every-where, so in Berne, there is much reason for complaint of the status of religion. But one thing can be said of the inhabitants of Berne-they are not lukewarm. They are either hot or cold. As compared with German cities of the same size Berne is far in the van. Thousands find their way to the churches of the orthodox pastors and to the chapels of the Methodists and other dissenting bodies, as well as to the week-night meetings. Sunday is well observed both in the city and in the country. On the highest Alps and in the deepest valleys the people assemble for worship. In regard to temperance, also, Switzerland leads continental Europe, and Berne is among the foremost of the cantons in this reform.

THE SOCIETY OF THE BLUE CROSS.

THIS most vigorous temperance society of continental Europe recently held its anniversary in Geneva, the city of its birth. The object of the society is to assist the victims of the drink habit to reform. The pledge requires total abstinence, but the society does not condemn those who make a moderate use of stimulants. These provisions illustrate the undeveloped condition of temperance work in Europe. A few years' experience will show the workers in this cause that if there were no moderate drinkers the special work of the Blue Cross Society would soon be superfluous. Already the society is beginning to call in the aid of the State, and the method is peculiar. The tenth of the tax on brandy is to be devoted to the relief of the evil the traffic produces. This is supported by the consistory. The report of the management shows that France is the most difficult field of labor which the society has yet entered.

EDITORIAL REVIEWS.

SPIRIT OF THE REVIEWS AND MAGAZINES.

THE numerous papers which appear in the religious Reviews of the day show that the persistent recklessness with which destructive criticism has assailed the claims of the Bible to divine inspiration has given this great question a foremost place in the thought of the Christian Church. Nor are those papers simply defensive of these claims. Rather, their attitude is that of attack on the theories by which that skeptical criticism seeks to destroy human confidence in the revealed word. Seeing that this criticism is like shifting sands, drifting hither and thither, denying to-day what it affirmed yesterday, Christian scholarship is becoming confident of its speedy overthrow, and is assailing it with a skill and force which may be safely accepted as an augury that at no distant day the injury heretofore done to popular faith in God's holy book will be repaired, and the mass of men will unquestioningly accept it as the truth by which alone they can be saved.

"The

As illustrative of this aggressive spirit one may note The Presbyterian Quarterly (South) for October, which in one article, entitled, Universal Book," lucidly points out the vast range of Bible principles and their fitness to meet every exigency and interest of humanity. On its human side this writer justly affirms that it is "as distinctly human as if it were all human; on its divine side it is as distinctly divine as if it were all divine-the analogue of the real Word, the God-man." In another article "Verbal Inspiration " is defended, not as being mechanical, but that its writers were so completely "borne along by the Holy Spirit" as to preserve them from all error, and to guide them infallibly in speaking and writing the matters revealed to them in the identical words in which they were communicated, and in recording accurately what they had learned by their own ordinary experience. In a third paper certain alleged discrepancies between "Chronicles" and " "Kings are satisfactorily shown by exegesis and examination of the topography of Palestine to be no discrepancies at all, except in the eyes of critics in eager pursuit of them. Still again, in its Editorial, this scholarly Review insists, perhaps, with premature confidence, that it is time for Protestantism to regard the inspiration of the Bible as "a closed question," to be expounded and maintained but not to be controverted as doubtful! The Theological Monthly also has a very strong paper on Inspiration, which, in contending for plenary verbal inspiration, discriminates between verbal inspiration and verbal dictation, and also between inspiration and revelation; that is, between "the material or matter of the Sacred Record and the recording of it." It ably meets several objections to its theory of verbal inspiration. And The Quarterly Review of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,

has a correspondent whose clear, sharp pen dissects the "documentary hypothesis" of the rationalists concerning the book of Genesis, and concludes his argument by claiming, on good grounds, that the said hypothesis is but "an assumption which for lack of substantial evidence might be banished to the realm of myth and fancies." Its editor also briefly comments on that theory of inspiration which practically ignores the human element; on that which gives undue emphasis to the human and too little to the divine; and on the dynamical theory. He, too, prefers the doctrine of plenary inspiration, which concedes that the Holy Ghost, as the productive principle, embraced the entire activity" of the inspired man," rendering his language the word of God." He boldly and rightly concludes that "the plenary inspiration of the Bible is a truth far removed from the possibility of refutation." Obviously these writers do not anticipate the triumph of skeptical criticism.

THE Quarterly Review of the United Brethren in Christ for October discusses: 1. "Transcendentalism;" 2. "The Number Seven; 3. "The Church's Tribute to Vice;" 4. "Silence in Heaven;" 5.“ 'Ecclesiasticism." The first of these papers traces the history of transcendentalism from Aristotle to Kant, Schelling, Coleridge, and Emerson; exposes the false principles which it has embodied; and contends for a transcendental philosophy which shall not transcend experience, but, which shall recognize and demonstrate the a priori elements, "the preconditions of knowledge" included in "the whole of consciousness or in experience." It is a discriminative and sound article. The second paper finds in the number seven, which recurs more than six hundred times in Holy Writ, a symbol of the divine Being which reveals the mode of that Being. It is an interesting paper, but, as we view it, its theory is more fanciful than solid. The third paper has some good points respecting the neglect of the Churches to enforce the duty of its members to apply Christian principles to their political action by refusing to vote for men of questionable character; but when it teaches that a business man is morally responsible for the vices of his employees we must demur. That he should try to reform them is clearly his duty, and there may be cases of odious conduct which would obligate him to refuse employment to the guilty. The article strains its theory too much. The fifth article is a well-grounded plea for such union between churches based on the essentials of their respective creeds as would prevent the multiplication of churches for merely denominational ends.

THE London Quarterly Review for October has: 1. "Browning's Life and Teaching;" 2. "Abraham Lincoln;" 3. "A New Study of the Commonwealth;" 4. "Lawrence Oliphant;" 5. "St. Dominic;" 6. "A Picture of London Poverty; 7. "Wesley His Own Biographer; " 8. "Industrial Provision for Old Age; " 9. "Archbishop Tait." The first of these vigorously written papers judiciously criticises Mrs. Orr's Life of Browning;