our system of doctrine the Scriptures furnish the only authoritative criterion.

All streams that flow here point back to their infallible source, to the personal Christ and the revelation of divine truth in his person. This Christ Jesus, blessed for evermore, is the nucleus around which evangelical theology has formed; the center from which the gracious light of divine truth is thrown upon God's relation to man, and man's relation to God. Christ is the ground and corner-stone to which the theological structure is inseparably joined-not, however, a Christ, the fanciful product of human imagination, but the Christ, as revealed in the gospels. It is beginning to be fully appreciated that this God-man, Jesus Christ, "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever," is "the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," and that he only can impart vigor and vitality to the theological science.

But this evangelical orthodoxy of to-day goes one step further, and every-where insists that this Christ, who has "enlightened the eyes of our understanding," must also take complete possession of our heart, and make it his permanent abode. Christ in the heart is what makes the true theologians deserving his name. Wherever Christian truth has only entered the head it may be quickly displaced by other thoughts; but where it has not only touched but taken full possession of the heart, it will not be so easily removed. The study shall also become a closet of prayer; we must read the Scriptures, not only with the critical eye of the student, but with the tearful eye of a penitent sinner-as one who reads his pardon. We must read the Bible with the filial affection of a son who would hear his father's voice. These well-known Wesleyan maxims have now become a distinctive feature of the evangelical theology of all lands. However much yet remains to be done, we see the sun is rising. The day is dawning, and it is especially gratifying that this theology not only requires, but presumes faith in this personal, living, and life-giving Christ in all of its professors. Even men who, on account of their speculative leanings, are generally classed with the negative school, confess that Jesus Christ is the source and center of their thought and Christian life. Richard Rothe writes thus: "I can honestly say, that simple faith in Christ

is the sure foundation of all my thought-the Christ (not a dogma or a theology) who has for eighteen centuries conquered the world; and I will gladly surrender any so-called form of knowledge conflicting with him, my highest certainty." Victus vincam-Conquered I shall conquer-was the motto of this great religious thinker: it is likewise the motto of this evangelical theology. And as long as a Christian belief and a Christian life remain the crown of this theological science it will go on to still greater triumphs, and need not fear death or defeat.

It is due to Methodism more than to any other evangelical movement that a personal and living, as well as an intellectual and historical faith has become a characteristic feature of the theology of the present. By putting piety in the foreground, and constantly insisting on the necessity of a holy Christian life, it was the occasion of forming the evangelical party in the Anglican Church. In America it showed a dry, cold Calvinism what a theology of the heart could accomplish. In France, Germany, and Scandinavia it acted as a healthy leaven. Methodism deserves great credit for having proved to the Christian world that a personal, living faith in the crucified Christ must be the fundamental principle of theology. This is the sign in which it conquers: "The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation."

Although faith in Christ is the great distinguishing characteristic of this theological movement, one must not, therefore, think that it is without a doctrinal system, or that it is incapable of being formulated into a creed. On the contrary, nearly all who have joined this movement belong to one denomination or other. While they demand evangelical liberty for themselves, they freely grant it, without hurling anathemas to others who may differ from them on minor points.

A third feature of this theology is its very practical tendency. In Germany as well as England it is beginning to be thoroughly understood that practical and available men are quite as much needed as educated theologians. Our age is severely practical, and measures the value of a principle by its results. He who would aspire to a worthy leadership among men must know how to stay and sway the course of events. Theological squabbling and hair-splitting will not answer. FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXXV.-9

Piety and learning must produce practical results in deeds of mercy. It was not the learned Pharisee nor the orthodox Levite, but the good Samaritan who saved the life of the man who fell among the thieves.

This evangelical theology in Germany is remarkable for the wealth of learning and painstaking labor which it employs to get at clearer ideas on the mighty problems of religion, while their Anglo-Saxon brethren are taking the lead in practical benevolences. The German is the miner who digs down into the depths of the earth to bring up the crude ore which the AngloSaxon smelts and converts into machines that move the world. The German bores the artesian well, and then delights in the beautiful play of the waters; while the Anglo-Saxon dams them, makes them irrigate the dry places, and change the barren desert into a blooming garden. Corresponding to this national trait, we find that practical theology has reached a very high state of development in England and America, both as regards an excellent literature as well as the objective results in its public charities and home mission work.

Incited by the example of their Anglo-Saxon brethren, the Germans have entered this practical field with a commendable zeal. The final abundant proof of this is not only in the r manifold benevolences, but, what is more remarkable for Ge:many, in the literature of the last decade. Practical theole gy in all its forms is ably treated, and live issues, current abuses, social, political, and ecclesiastical, necessary reforms, methods, and experiments, are treated with a fullness and thoroughness which command our admiration. The believing German theologian will always remain more or less of an investigator, and we are glad of it. True, some of them, impatient at the slow fulfillment of their biblical realism, are having chiliastic dreams, and weaving fine-spun theories on the spiritual corpo reality of Christ; but, upon the whole, the evangelical theology of Germany has taken a decidedly practical turn. Young Germany, with the Bible in one hand, a thorough education in the other, and Jesus Christ in the heart, has planted itself with these weapons right in the midst of the people, and is bravely fighting for the final victory. To-day practical theology is virtually taking the first rank in the whole Protestantorthodox world. Christian Evidences, important as it may

seem, is not now getting the same amount of attention which it received two decades ago. The duties of the present are too urgent, for evangelical theology to give the witticisms of an Ingersoll or the new discoveries of a Darwin much attention. It sees that enough time has been spent to equip the ship and make it seaworthy, and, therefore, it boldly steers for the deep to accomplish its purpose. It is fully convinced of the fact that the time has now come when, with the testimony concerning Christ supported by science and by faith, it were folly to stop and answer the thousand-and-one objections which may be urged against Christianity. Now is the time to push forward aggressively if permanent results of real value are to be achieved.

This practical tendency, together with personal faith, has done a great deal toward drawing the different denominations nearer to each other, out of which has come the Alliance. There was a common ground upon which they could meet as brothers, and a common foe who could be conquered only by a union of all the forces; and so differences were set aside, barriers broken down, mutual approaches made, and, as a result, Christian fraternity followed. Such an alliance must develop gradually; diplomatic negotiations cannot bring it about; it grows out of a mutual understanding and a mutual respect for each other, in which both the differences and the agreements come to light. Spiritual unity does not require outward uniformity. To have brought about a spiritual confederation of believers is one of the grand results of the practical tendency of the evangelical theology of to-day.

It is going to be the theology of the future. Negation ends with nihilism, and confessionalism ends with lifeless formalism. Neither of these movements have a future as a theology. Indeed they do not deserve the name. The future belongs to the theology which is founded upon a true knowledge, born of a living faith, centering around our Lord Jesus Christ, whose active charities are as wide as the world; such a healthy, spiritual, living, evangelical orthodoxy, which is in full sympathy with every thing human, and ready to recognize the divine in whatever form it may be revealed-such a theology has a long lease on life; for it is anchored on Him of whom it is written: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given

him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

ART. VIII.-SYNOPSIS OF THE QUARTERLIES AND OTHERS OF THE HIGHER PERIODICALS.

American Reviews.

AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN AND ORIENTAL JOURNAL, October, 1882. (Chicago, Ill.) 1. Native Races of Colombia, S. A.; by E. G. Barney. 2. The Cubit of the Ancients; by Charles Whittlesey. 3. Palæolithic Man in America; by L. P. Gratacap. 4. Phonetics of the Kayowe Language; by Albert S. Gatschet. 5. The Sister and Brother: an Iowa Tradition; by J. O. Dorsey. 6. Antiquities of Nicaragua - Origin of the Palenque Builders; by Dr. Earl Flint. 7. The Origin of the Architectural Orders; by Stephen D. Peet. 8. Keltiberian Inscriptions in Spain; by Rev. Wentworth Webster.

5. American Aug. J. The8. The ComLatest Con

AMERICAN CATHOLIC QUARTERLY REVIEW, October, 1882. (Philadelphia.)-1. The Origin of Civil Authority; by Rev. J. Ming, S.J. 2. Cardinal Newman as a Man of Letters; by John Charles Earle, B.A. 3. Cesare Cantù and the NeoGuelphs of Italy; by Rev. Bernard O'Reilly, LL.D. 4. The Attitude of Society Toward Religion; by Arthur Featherstone Marshall, B. A. Freethinking. 6. Superior Instruction in Our Colleges; by Rev. baud, S.J. 7. Labor Discontent; by John Gilmory Shea, LL.D. ing Transit of Venus; by Rev. J. M. Degni, S.J. 9. England's quest. 10. Irish Crime and its Causes; by John MacCarthy. BAPTIST QUARTERLY REVIEW, October, November, December, 1882. (Cincinnati.) -1. Thomas Aquinas; by the late Rev. Richard M. Nott. 2. Comments on Matthew xvi, 16-18; by Rev. David Foster Estes. 3. The Free State of Tephricé; by L. P. Brockett, M.D. 4. Historical Proofs of the Soul's Immortality; by Rev. Lewis M. Ayer. 5. Our Debt to the Huguenots; or, What we Owe to French Protestantism; by Rev. J. N. Williams. 6. As to a Millennium; by Rev. H. A. Sawtelle, D.D. 7. The Sin Unto Death and Prayer; by C. E. W. Dobbs, D.D. 8. The Rise of the Use of Pouring and Sprinkling for Baptism; by Rev. Norman Fox.

BIBLIOTHECA SACRA, October, 1882. (Andover.)-1. The End of Luke's Gospel and the Beginning of the Acts: Two Studies;-by Theodore D. Woolsey, D.D., LL.D. 2. The Development of Monotheism among the Greeks; by Dr. Edward Zeller; translated from the German by Edwin D. Mead. 3. The Trial of Christ: A Diatessaron with Dissertations; by Henry C. Vedder. 4. Positivism as a Working System; by Rev. F. H. Johnson. 5. The Epistle to the Romans in the Revised Version: by Rev. R. D. C. Robbins. 6. Dr. Dorner's Position with Regard to Probation After Death; by Rev. William Henry Cobb. CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY QUARTERLY, October, 1882. (New York.)-1. Anniversary Address; by Pres. Charles F. Deems, D.D. 2. The Validation of Knowl edge; by Prof. Henry N. Day, D.D. 3. Christ and Our Century; by Rev. A. H. Bradford. 4. The Duality of Mind and Brain; by Prof. Noah K. Davis, LL.D. 5. Nature, the Supernatural, etc.; by Prof. George T. Ladd, D.D. 6. God and Man Mutually Visible: by Howard Crosby, D.D. 7. Proceedings of the Institute.