BOOK NOTICES.

RELIGION, THEOLOGY, AND BIBLICAL LITERATURE.

Encyclopedia of Sacred Theology. By ABRAHAM KUYPER, D.D. Translated from the Dutch by Rev. J. Hendrik De Vries, M.A. 8vo, pp. 683. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Price, cloth, $4.

Professor Kuyper was directly introduced to our readers by his dissertation on "Pantheism's Destruction of Boundaries," which we printed in this Review in July and September, 1893. Professor Warfield, of Princeton, writes that as a force in Church and State Dr. Kuyper is probably the most considerable figure in both political and ecclesiastical Holland; that he is organizer and leader of the Antirevolutionary party, and chief editor of its organ; founder and developer of the Free University of Amsterdam, in which the people of the Netherlands have an object lesson of the possibility and quality of higher education conducted on Christian foundations, free from interference from the State; and is advocate in the Church of freedom of conscience, confessional rights, and the principles of that religion to which the Dutch people owe all that has made them great, endeavoring to bring all who love those principles together into one powerful communion, free to confess and live the religion of their hearts. His presence in this country for three months last autumn and his course of lectures at Princeton University on Calvinism help to draw fresh attention to him and to the volume which the Scribners lay upon our table. The whole work fills three volumes the size of this one. The first and third have not been translated. The reason for preferring the second volume to introduce the work to the English-speaking public and test its desire for the rest, probably is that, though only a fragment of his theological work, it is "possibly thus far his most considerable contribution to theological science." The first volume is introductory; the third treats of the several divisions of theology; while this one contains the general part and discusses questions relating to the place of theology among the sciences, and the nature of theology as a science with a "principium" of its own. There is no doubt that Dr. Kuyper is the most affluent, prolific, and brilliant mind at work to-day in the civil, educational, and ecclesiastical life of Holland. He serves the State as a member of the lower chamber of the States-general, and the Church as Professor of Dogmatics in the Free University at Amsterdam. Dr. Kuyper regards Methodism as a necessary reaction against influences which threatened to petrify the life of the Church. He thinks it was born from Calvinism; and it was to the extent and in the way that abolitionism was born from slavery. He believes that, as a necessary reaction, Methodism had a high calling which

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it is bound to obey, and a real spiritual significance. He admits apologetically that owing to his environment he has spoken of Methodism in a way which would have been impossible either in England or America. We respectfully submit that opinions which it would have been impossible for him to utter in England or America, about any Church, would better have been omitted from a volume translated for the special use of Englishmen and Americans. Still, it is satisfactory to find that the author felt that the few slight criticisms contained in his references to Methodism were so inapplicable to Methodism in general as to require a virtual retraction when he came to write the Preface to this volThe nature of his references to Methodism and of his misconceptions thereof may be sampled from page 165, where he says that the new life in the soul which springs from palingenesis (the new birth) has not always been balanced and guided by scientific knowledge, but has sometimes manifested a dislike or disdain for science, and then follows this sentence: "The history of mysticism has its tales to relate, and Methodism comes in for its share." He does not tell us, but we infer that he means "its share" of criticism. The last chapter of the book contains a history of theology, in the closing sections of which he describes the apparent defeat, in the eighteenth century, of the great Reformation movement, and the period of resurrection which glorifies the nineteenth. He attributes that apparent defeat to the effects worked by Deism, which spread across the Continent from England; the effects worked by the spirit of the Encyclopedists, which caused its power to be felt in France; and the effects worked by the Aufklärung (Illumination), which asserted itself in Germany. These produced a low moralism which clipped every wing, mocked every form of the ideal, and weaned men from all high impulses. And the Christian Church and Christian theology in those days lacked the holy fire and the energy of heroism to withstand with righteous indignation these malign and stupefying influences. Then was developed in the Church Rationalism, the attack upon which by the Supernaturalism of the time was so clumsy, unskillful, and inadequate as to make the defeat of Christendom still more humiliating. At this point the author notes, as if it were almost the only star of hope in a dark time, the fact that "Pietistic circles were maintained in Lutheran lands, and mystical and Methodistical circles in Reformed lands, which hid the salt of the Gospel, lest it should lose its savor; " but he remarks regretfully that "these spiritually attuned circles failed of exerting any saving influence upon official Churches and official theology." This expounder and champion of Calvinism correctly narrates the history of the latter part of the last century when he says that, in order that the salt of the Gospel should not altogether lose its savor in the world, it was hid in "Methodistical circles," circles which were "spiritually attuned." That statement need not be withdrawn or modified anywhere; it is as suitable to be printed in English as in Dutch. The author, speaking of

the nineteenth century as the "Period of Resurrection" for the doctrinal and spiritual life which marked the Reformation, says that in this century the mystical-religious movement rivals the effects of the Reformation. "Revivals of all sorts of tenets are the order of the day in Europe as well as in America. In spite of its one-sidedness Perfectionism has gained a mighty following. Methodist and Baptist Churches have developed an activity which would have been inconceivable in the eighteenth century, and which affords its masterpiece in the Salvation Army. Missions have assumed such wide proportions that now they have a universal historical significance. New interest has been awakened in religious and churchly questions, which make manifest how different a spirit has come to the world. Even negative tendencies have found it advisable, in their way, to sing the praises of religion. If then, after the shameful defeat of theology in the period of the 'Illumination' (Aufklärung), we may affirm an undeniable resurrection in the nineteenth century, let it be said that this is owing, first of all, to the many mystical influences which, against all expectation, have restored once more a current to the religious waters. A breath of wind from above has gone out upon the nations. . . . The power of palingenesis (new birth) has almost suddenly revealed itself with rare force.

It has pleased God, in almost every land and in every part of the Church, to raise up gifted persons, who, by him 'transferred from death into life,' as singers, as prophets, as statesmen, as jurists, and as theologians, have borne a witness for Christ such as had not been heard of since the days of Luther and Calvin." There is on page 403 a statement which, we think, cannot have even an intelligible meaning in England or America-the statement that "the Methodistic tendency in particular has degraded" the Holy Scripture into a mere "collection of inspired utterances concerning the Being of God, his attributes, his will and counsel of grace."

The Gospel for an Age of Doubt. By HENRY VAN DYKE, D.D., LL.D. 12mo, pp. 329. New York: The Macmillan Company Price, cloth, $1.25.

This is the sixth edition. Revision of the book and omission of the Appendix have reduced its size. The additional interest of this edition is found in a new Preface of fourteen pages containing brief replies to some critics who have misconceived the purpose of the book and misrepresented its meaning. Dr. Van Dyke's book is the substance of his course of lectures on preaching delivered before the divinity students of Yale University. The aim of his lectures was not to teach the art of making sermons, but "to accentuate the truth that the question, What to preach, comes first, and the question, How to preach, comes afterward. A man must have a distinct message, clear and luminous to his own soul—a message which comes to him with a joyful sense of newness and demands utterance-he must feel the living fitness of this precise message to the needs of the world before he can learn to deliver it with

freedom and power." Dr. Van Dyke wanted to tell the young men studying for the ministry that they "must not let themselves be educated out of sympathy with the modern world; that they must understand the trials and difficulties of the present age in order to serve it effectively; that they must keep in touch with living men and women, outside of the circle of faith as well as within it, if they wish to help them." More than this, he wanted to show that "there is a message of religion especially fitted to meet the needs of our times, an aspect of Christianity which comes to the world to-day as glad tidings, a newness in the old Gospel which shines out like a sunrise upon the darkness and despondency that overshadow so much of modern life. This aspect of Christianity centers in the person of Jesus Christ, as the human life of God. This newness of the Gospel lies in believing in him as a real man, in whose sonship the Fatherhood of God is revealed and made certain to all men. And the power of this message to enrich and ennoble life lies in the fact that they who receive it are set free from a threefold bondage: first, from the heavy thought that they are creatures of necessity whose actions and destiny are determined by heredity and environment; second, from the haunting fear that the world is governed by blind chance or brute force; and, third, from the curse of sin, which is selfishness. To see Christ as the true Son of God and the brother of all men is to be sure that the soul is free, and that God is good, and that the end of life is noble service. This is the true Gospel for an age of doubt. The present is a doubting age, but also a hopeful age, an earnest age, an age of generous feeling and noble action. What it needs is a clear answer to its doubt and a powerful remedy for its sadness. Answer and remedy are found in the person and power of Jesus Christ. His life is a fact which cannot be explained without God. His character is a standing proof of the reality of the spiritual world. A universe of matter and force could never have produced such a person. His teaching is a direct witness to things which are unseen and eternal. Those who will receive it shall find his words a fountain of living waters springing up within them unto everlasting life." The closing paragraph of Dr. Van Dyke's answer to his critics will arouse expectant interest in all who read it: "I know very well that this book is incomplete. It touches only one aspect of the greatest of all subjects. It needs a sequel to make it harmonize more fully with the truth as it is in Jesus, and to bring it into touch with another side of the needs of humanity. Very soon I hope to be permitted to follow this volume on The Gospel for an Age of Doubt with another on The Gospel for a World of Sin."

Quiet Talks with Earnest People. By CHARLES EDWARD JEFFERSON. Small 12mo, pp. 180. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. Price, cloth, $1.

The author is the new pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle in New York city, long known as Dr. William M. Taylor's Church. The volume is "affectionately dedicated to the laymen of Christendom by a minister

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who esteems and reveres them." Twenty-five frank, friendly, confidential talks with laymen about ministers and ministerial life and work, in a style which is a model of simplicity, clearness, and directness, make this a book of practical value, well worthy to be read by every layman in Christendom. It might pay both ministry and laity to divide between them the expense of putting a copy of it in every Protestant pew as well as on every minister's desk. A better understanding of mutual rights and duties would result. The topics are these: "The Unknown Man; " "The Maligned Man;" "The Misunderstood Man;" "The Importance of Knowing Him; " "The Sermon;" "What is the Matter?" "Who is to Blame?" "Why Time is Needed;" Vacation, and Why;" "Objections to Vacations;" "Money; " "Ministerial Liberty;" "Liberty Defined;" "Sympathy; Cooperation;" "Considerateness; " "Thoughtlessness; " "Ways of Killing a Sermon;" "Inspiring the Minister;" ""Appreciating the Minister; ""Criticising the Minister;" Securing a Minister;""Dismissing a Minister;" "The Minister's Wife;" "The Mission of Laymen." To quote at length would be interesting and profitable, but space permits only a few brief bits. "There are more brave men in the pulpits of Christendom than in any army which ever followed a general to the mouths of the guns." "The best people in the world, so the author thinks, are laymen. The tallest and sweetest saints whom it has been his privilege to know have been not in the pulpit, but in the pew. There is probably no subject on which a true minister of Christ so loves to dwell in his thought as the sacrifices which laymen are making continually to advance God's kingdom." "A clergyman, unless providentially hindered, ought to accept the leadership of the largest church which he is capable of serving. Every man ought to enter the largest door which Providence opens in his face." The radical defect in much of the preaching of our time is its "lack of spiritual passion. The tone of authority is faint. Too much of the preaching is like that of the scribes. Clergymen are numerous, but prophets few.... Only a prophet can achieve genuine success in these hurried and fascinating days. . . . Woe to the preacher who in these days shirks the wrestlings and agonies of the prophet." R. H. Hutton went to hear one of the afternoon sermons of the chaplain of Lincoln's Inn, Frederick D. Maurice. He "heard and saw and felt that day things which lived in his memory through life. He heard a prophet. Maurice spoke for God. The intense and thrilling tones, the pathetic emphasis, the passionate trust, the burning exultation, the atmosphere of reverence and devotion, awed and subdued the worshipers. The church became indeed a holy place. The words of the service seemed put into the preacher's mouth, while he, with his whole soul bent on their wonderful drift, uttered them as an awestruck but thankful envoy tells the tale of danger and deliverance.'” It is known to our denomination that the Congregationalist author of this book is a Methodist product, a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University.