perhaps inevitably-from an interfusion of the notions of a Jewish memorial-supper and of a heathen sacrifice, determined towards a particular result by the remarkable words of the gospel in which the institution had its origin. It is also true, that on each side of the proper communion -preceding it and following it-we meet with prayers of the most beautiful spiritual earnestness, exhibiting glimpses at least of the brightest revelation of the true idea of Christian self-sacrifice. But in this as in so many other points, in the history of the church, we witness a struggle between higher and lower elements for ascendancybetween the spirit of God always working with more or less power in the human heart, and the dark, carnal thoughts, the gross cravings often material satisfaction, which so often closed around it and stifled its voice and broke its power.-Still the spirit was there, and the recognition of its presence justified every one who truly felt it, in adopting it as the only essential element of the service, and transforming under its influence into harmony with itself, those usages which originally expressed a lower idea and a feeling less pure. This would be perfectly consistent with our author's own doctrine *, 'that it is not possible, from the nature of things, that the most perfect form of the ancient church should be maintained unchanged.' It is the very idea which he has worked out so successfully in his defence of Infant Baptism, admitting at the same time that it was not the practice of the most ancient church, and that its introduction was encouraged at least by feelings allied to the carnal and the superstitious. Yet this retention of an old practice with a new idea, when followed by its needful complement in the rite of Confirmation, he demonstrates very clearly, may become one of the most expressive and valuable ordinances of the Christian Church. As the subject presents itself to us, we cannot but regret that M. Bunsen did not take his broader and more independent views in relation to the very important doctrine of the Christian Sacrifice, instead of labouring to establish it by a line of argumentation which does not carry full conviction to the mind. The doctrine itself, in its direct growth out of the living root of the Christian Spirit, is unassailable; the historical * II. p. 162.

proofs by which it is endeavoured to be shown, that it has a hereditary claim on the acceptance of the church, are not So. It always gives us pain to see a great truth placed on what we believe to be an insecure foundation.

We have occupied much space, and yet feel that we have rendered no adequate justice to this most interesting and instructive work. On the subjects of prayer, psalmody, church discipline and church architecture, M. Bunsen has some very fine remarks dictated by a rare union of Christian piety and scholarlike taste and cultivation, which will well repay the reader's perusal. We must also particularly commend to his attention the Philosophical Aphorisms at the commencement of the second volume, and the admirable preface to the third. The latter every Englishman of liberal and earnest mind will at once appreciate. In the former some allowance must be made for German modes of thought and the peculiar terminology in which they are wont to clothe themselves. Any one, however, who will not be repelled by a first aspect of difficulty, but will take the trouble to penetrate to the fundamental and informing idea of the whole series, will find himself richly rewarded for his pains. We believe that there are here collected together in a somewhat loose and disjointed form, richer and ampler materials towards a true psychology of religion, and towards a satisfactory solution of many of those problems which still exercise devout and thoughtful minds than have yet been made accessible to the English reader. On the wide field of his researches into the ancient liturgies and old law-books of the Christians, we have left ourselves no time to enter. Indeed the subject is too vast and too important to be treated of in a paragraph or two, and deserves an entire article to itself. We may possibly recur to it on some future occasion. We will merely observe in passing, that M. Bunsen has brought out very clearly, as one result of his investigation, that the further we can trace back the primitive liturgies, the simpler they become in doctrine and in form, and that in their oldest state they seem to have been little more than a general framework or directory for regulating the order of the service, in which ample space was left for the free utterance of spontaneous devotion. The oldest Christianity, as is evident from M. Bunsen's restoration of its Church and CHRISTIAN TEACHER.-No. 59.

M

House Book, was more a life than a doctrine, more an inward spirit than an outward form.-Instruction of the ignorant and the young, care of the sick and the poor, wise and faithful oversight of moral conduct, and brotherly communion between the members of the Church-were its principal and its vital elements.

In his theory of Church Government, our author lays down the broad and fundamental principle-as the only security for religious freedom and religious progress-that the source and centre of all ecclesiastical authority lie in the congregation; that the congregation rightly constituted, is from age to age the organ of the Spirit of God.With this indispensable reservation of a first principle, M. Bunsen is not unfriendly to the general organization of the Church of England. He would maintain an episcopacy, something like that which was once advocated by Usher and Baxter, associated with ecclesiastical assemblies in which laymen and ministers should have equal influence, and based on the unassailable rights of a Christian people. After close reflection on this subject for many years, and with early belief and predilection pointing quite in an opposite direction, we had come independently to the same conclusion which is adopted by our author, that a thorough reform and liberal expansion of the Church of England, through increased vitality and earnestness among its own members, would under present circumstances be the happiest event that could happen to the religious life of our country-more conducive in all its consequences and opportunities to the mental and spiritual development of the national mind, than any further multiplication of the forms of mere Dissent as such. We inherit from our ancestors an immense machinery, capable of the widest action on the moral condition of the community, interlaced at every point with our civil and municipal institutions, and blended still more deeply with the habits and associations of the people.-We cannot afford to break it to pieces and scatter it to the winds, and trust to what accident or fanaticism may build up on its ruins. But if renovation rather than destruction is ever to take place, the change must make full provision for honesty and earnestness; it must be large, liberal, and comprehensive; it must distinguish between the spirit and the forms of Chris

tianity; it must secure the rights of the people and the freedom of their teachers; and insist on nothing fundamental beyond the recognition of Christianity as a divine element in our existing civilization. Were such a change within view as attainable, we believe that the great majority of religious men would gladly accept it. Even if religious scruples should still exclude themselves from its provisions, they would rejoice in so vast an increase of the means of the highest moral and religious influence.

We hail the appearance of the Chevalier Bunsen's book at the present time with peculiar satisfaction. His position in society, his intimacy with the most distinguished men of his day, his great learning, and the deep reverential conservatism which he mingles so naturally and yet so perceptibly with the free speech and bold conclusions of the scholar and the philosopher, will procure for his writings on the most important themes which can engage the thoughts of men, a respectful attention and a weight of influence which a production even of equal merit proceeding from a less distinguished personage, could not expect to enjoy. We hope and we believe, it will produce good effect on our Church and on our Universities-on the number of earnest, thoughtful, religious minds which many circumstances indicate to be increasing in the highest ranks. He has himself expressed the wish, that his work should rather create the conditions and furnish the materials of gradual and future, than form an incentive to hasty and present, change. In that wish we ourselves unite; but believing that wise and timely reform is the true conservatism, we cannot but also desire, that what has been said so truly and so honestly, should become something more than a topic of conversation or even of controversy, that it should also direct earnest minds to practical questions and quicken all the energies of a religious patriotism.

In reviewing this work, with its wide range of thought and its great wealth of erudition, we have so constantly felt ourselves in the presence of a superior, that it is with real diffidence we have ventured on a few points to raise objections and avow dissent. Possibly we may have misunderstood M. Bunsen; possibly more knowledge might have led us to see the complete justness of his views; but

coming from such evidence as lay before us, to a different conclusion, we could not honestly have done our duty without stating it. With the general results, with the fundamental doctrines, with the leading ideas, with the pervading spirit of this admirable book, we desire once more to express our entire and grateful concurrence. We have said enough of ourselves. We will conclude in the noble words of M. Bunsen (III. p. 367):

And now one retrospective glance over our picture! The hidden germs of life have been developed into a new world, now growing into colossal proportions, and conscious of the awful alternative of death or regeneration. The great work of Christianity is not a hierarchy with her rich rituals and her ritualistic art and conventional science; its miracle is the world in which we live. It is the individual, standing before his God with his Bible and his selfresponsible conscience, whether men or women, laymen or clerk. It is the Christian household founded on mutual trust. It is the congregation with its own shepherd and his pattern household. It is the Christian Municipality, governing itself by the self-government and mutual confidence which are in its members. It is the Christian Nation and State with her National Schools based upon the Gospel of the persecuted Church; with her universities expanding in the Christian philosophy founded by the martyrs; with her national hospitals grown out of the nurseries of the old deaconesses; and with her Poor Law, consecrating Christian support as a national debt; finally, with her Sovereignty of law, and with her religious and civil liberty, advancing by reform and not by revolutions. Where that work and that faith in its divine power live, there is Apostolicity, and there is the future of the world."