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fifteen years or more, and has engaged the efforts of fifty different translators and scholars in the work of bringing it before the American public, is now completed. As we look at it in its immensity, covering twenty-four large octavo volumes and fifteen or sixteen thousand pages, and as we consider the fact that, at the advertised prices, it costs the pastor or student from one hundred and twenty-four to one hundred and eighty-six dollars, we cannot but have two feelings; one of admiration for the energy and perseverance which have been shown in the undertaking and carrying forward to success of such a great enterprise as the publication of this work; the other of regret that so much effort should have been turned away from German works of much greater value, and bestowed upon this one. The American editors, however, have gathered from various sources much that the original Commentary did not contain.

FORD'S STUDIES ON THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION.* This volume comprises upwards of 400 pages, and includes contributions previously made by the author to The Watchman. He has aimed, as he states in the preface, to write in a conciliatory spirit, while plainly asserting what he believes to be the truth. He writes for laymen as well as for ministers. In Chapter I, he gives the general characteristics of Dr. Dale's book. In Chapter II, he reviews the complimentary testimonials which it has received. The notice in The New Englander—which, Mr. Ford may like to know, was written by Professor James Hadley-he approves. The remaining chapters of this volume embrace a careful, learned, and instructive discussion, from the Baptist point of view, of the mode and subjects of Baptism. The book will be a thesaurus of arguments for the Baptist denomination, and may be consulted with profit by others who are interested in the subject which it handles. The author disposes of much sophistical reasoning, as well as mistaken history and erroneous philology, which have been in vogue among the polemics on the other side. To prove, however, that Christ will recognize nothing as baptism but immersion, that none but the immersed have a right to the Lord's Supper, and that the baptism of infants is inconsistent with the idea of the church and of baptism, is a task of much greater difficulty.

* Studies on the Baptismal Question; including a Review of Dr. Dale's "Inquiry into the usage of Baptizo." By Rev. DAVID B. FORD. Boston: H. A. Young & Co. 1879.

DR. UHLHORN'S CHRISTIANITY AND HEATHENISM.* -The first part of the work is a clear and well-considered presentation of the religious and moral condition of the heathen world as it existed in the Roman Empire at the beginning of the great struggle of Christianity with heathenism; and of the character, condition, and work of the Christians at the same time. The second narrates the story of the persecutions from Nero to Gallienus. The third part narrates the final persecutions under Diocletian, the conversion of Constantine, and its immediate results, and the final struggle of heathenism under Julian. The work is not a continuous narrative, even in its second and third parts. It narrates enough to give the reader a knowledge of the most important transactions bearing on the subject and their connections, and occasionally presents a vivid sketch, as of the martyrdom of Polycarp. In connection with the narrative of events, the author discusses the influences and agencies by which they were brought about, and their necessary connection with the interests and exigencies of the empire. He succeeds in giving the reader a clear conception of the nature of this great struggle between heathenism, sustained by the mass and might of the Roman Empire, and by the philosophy, literature, and culture of the times, on the one hand, and Christianity in its small beginnings, relying on its moral and spiritual forces, on the other. He shows that while. the empire was striving to suppress Christianity, its own existence secured the conditions, without which, humanly speaking, the new religion could not have prevailed. The struggle lasted, though not always with bloody persecution, about 250 years. There is not a paragraph in the book in which the writer uses his narrative explicitly as a proof of the divine origin of Christianity; but the whole work makes a profound impression that nothing less than its divine origin, and the continued presence and power of God could have secured the triumph of Christianity in this long and unequal conflict. The work is translated into easy, readable English. While rich in learning, it is not scholastic, and is suited to interest all intelligent readers.

* The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism. By Dr. GERHARD UHLHORN, Abbot of Loccum, and member of the Supreme Consistory in Hanover. Edited and translated with the author's sanction, from the third German edition, by Egbert C. Smyth and C. J. H. Ropes. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 743 and 745 Broadway. 1879. pp. 508.

ROMAN DAYS.*-The title of this very interesting book does. not give any clue to the real purpose of the author. The volume contains a series of studies on Julius Cæsar and the first six emperors of Rome, with a view to arrive at their true characters, as they can be learned from a comparison of what is said of them in the histories of their reigns, with the busts and statues which were made of them during their life. The idea of the accomplished Swedish author-Viktor Rydberg-is one which has suggested itself doubtless to many other persons, as they have stood before the long rows of the statues of the Roman Emperors in the galleries of the eternal city, but no one has carried it out so completely and with such critical ability. Mr. Merivale, it is true, in his estimate of the character of Claudius-than whom no one of those six Roman emperors presents more of a mystery-says that he has been "guided by the study of his countenance in the numerous busts still existing." He says: "It is impossible not to remark in them an expression of pain and anxiety which forcibly arrests our sympathy. It is the face of an honest and well-meaning man, who feels himself unequal to the task imposed on him."-"There is the look of perplexity"-etc., etc.-"There is the expression of fatigue, both of mind and body," etc., etc.—“There is the glance of fear," etc., etc. "Above all, there is the anxious glance of dependence," etc., etc. What Mr. Merivale has done very briefly in the case of Claudius, Viktor Rydberg has done at length with Julius Cæsar, Cæsar Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero.

But interesting as these sketches of the Emperors are, they are perhaps surpassed in interest by two criticisms which follow them, on the "Aphrodite of Melos" and the "Antinous." Rydberg proposes a new solution of the vexed question as to what the statue of the Venus represents, and states his view so clearly, and defends it so vigorously that no student of art should fail to give it careful consideration. The volume contains also a few chapters in which the early traditions of the Roman Catholic Church with regard to the apostles Peter and Paul are told. The book is one which possesses rare interest throughout.

*Roman Days: From the Swedish of VIKTOR RYDBERG; by ALFRED CORNING CLARK. With a sketch of Rydberg by Dr. A. W. Lindehn. Authorized translation. Illustrated. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1879. 8vo, pp. 332.

DR. UHLHORN'S CHRISTIANITY AND HEATHENISM.*-The first part of the work is a clear and well-considered presentation of the religious and moral condition of the heathen world as it existed in the Roman Empire at the beginning of the great struggle of Christianity with heathenism; and of the character, condition, and work of the Christians at the same time. The second narrates the story of the persecutions from Nero to Gallienus. The third part narrates the final persecutions under Diocletian, the conversion of Constantine, and its immediate results, and the final struggle of heathenism under Julian. The work is not a continuous narrative, even in its second and third parts. It narrates enough to give the reader a knowledge of the most important transactions bearing on the subject and their connections, and occasionally presents a vivid sketch, as of the martyrdom of Polycarp. In connection with the narrative of events, the author discusses the influences and agencies by which they were brought about, and their necessary connection with the interests and exigencies of the empire. He succeeds in giving the reader a clear conception of the nature of this great struggle between heathenism, sustained by the mass and might of the Roman Empire, and by the philosophy, literature, and culture of the times, on the one hand, and Christianity in its small beginnings, relying on its moral and spiritual forces, on the other. He shows that while the empire was striving to suppress Christianity, its own existence secured the conditions, without which, humanly speaking, the new religion could not have prevailed. The struggle lasted, though not always with bloody persecution, about 250 years. There is not a paragraph in the book in which the writer uses his narrative explicitly as a proof of the divine origin of Christianity; but the whole work makes a profound impression that nothing less than its divine origin, and the continued presence and power of God could have secured the triumph of Christianity in this long and unequal conflict. The work is translated into easy, readable English. While rich in learning, it is not scholastic, and is suited to interest all intelligent readers.

*The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism. By Dr. GERHARD UHLHORN, Abbot of Loccum, and member of the Supreme Consistory in Hanover. Edited and translated with the author's sanction, from the third German edition, by Egbert C. Smyth and C. J. H. Ropes. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 743 and 745 Broadway. 1879. pp. 508.

ROMAN DAYS.*-The title of this very interesting book does not give any clue to the real purpose of the author. The volume contains a series of studies on Julius Cæsar and the first six emperors of Rome, with a view to arrive at their true characters, as they can be learned from a comparison of what is said of them in the histories of their reigns, with the busts and statues which were made of them during their life. The idea of the accomplished Swedish author-Viktor Rydberg-is one which has suggested itself doubtless to many other persons, as they have stood before the long rows of the statues of the Roman Emperors in the galleries of the eternal city, but no one has carried it out so completely and with such critical ability. Mr. Merivale, it is true, in his estimate of the character of Claudius-than whom no one of those six Roman emperors presents more of a mystery—says that he has been "guided by the study of his countenance in the numerous busts still existing." He says: "It is impossible not to remark in them an expression of pain and anxiety which forcibly arrests our sympathy. It is the face of an honest and well-meaning man, who feels himself unequal to the task imposed on him."-"There is the look of perplexity"-etc., etc.-" There is the expression of fatigue, both of mind and body," etc., etc.-"There is the glance of fear," etc., etc. "Above all, there is the anxious glance of dependence," etc., etc. What Mr. Merivale has done very briefly in the case of Claudius, Viktor Rydberg has done at length with Julius Cæsar, Cæsar Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero.

But interesting as these sketches of the Emperors are, they are perhaps surpassed in interest by two criticisms which follow them, on the "Aphrodite of Melos" and the "Antinous." Rydberg proposes a new solution of the vexed question as to what the statue of the Venus represents, and states his view so clearly, and defends it so vigorously that no student of art should fail to give it careful consideration. The volume contains also a few chapters in which the early traditions of the Roman Catholic Church with regard to the apostles Peter and Paul are told. The book is one which possesses rare interest throughout.

*Roman Days: From the Swedish of VIKTOR RYDBERG; by ALFRED CORNING CLARK. With a sketch of Rydberg by Dr. A. W. Lindehn. Authorized translation. Illustrated. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1879. 8vo, pp. 332.

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