to tell them this plain truth, even if it be not altogether palatable. To arouse false hopes and to cultivate illusions result only in increased suffering."

In Professor Commons' SOCIAL REFORM AND THE CHURCH, the want of employment is made the ground for an indictment against churches. The churches are responsible for about all the ills that flesh is heir to. There is a social problem; Christianity is the cause of it; the failures of Christians perpetuate and intensify social problems; and the Christian preachers are responsible for the entire program.

This reminds us of the boy's definition of salt: It is what makes potatoes taste bad when you don't put it on." Small and Vincent well say: "The most mischievous social doctrinaires among us are not the theoretical anarchists, who attack social order directly, but those zealous prophets of righteousness who teach that the only reason why the kingdom of God cannot be established on earth to-morrow is that Christians will not put their knowledge of social principles into practice."1

But Professor Commons is an earnest and sincere writer, and the spirit and purpose of his book is excellent, despite some minor defects, which he will without doubt correct in later editions.

Small and Vincent's INTRODUCTION TO THE Study of SoCIETY is the first book from the press designed as a text-book for actual use in the class-room, although Bascom's “Sociology" and Dr. David J. Hill's “Newton Lectures" can be so used with profit. Ex-President Bascom believed that the facts of Sociology must be used as illustrations, and the proof must stand forth in its own light, and in the reflected light of the manifold things illuminated by it.2 Small and Vincent believe that "the method of credible Sociology must be the method of observation and induction.”

Auguste Comte is admitted to be the pioneer in sociology for many reasons, among them being his statement that intellectual anarchy was the source of social evils; his insistence upon the need of rational classification of phenomena; his principle of classification; and the results of applying it. It is frankly admitted that sociology is not a science (pp. 31, etc.): it is "passing through a stage of struggle for the application of scientific principles of investigation in place of loose criticism and silly utopianism" (p. 32). This is in accord with Kidd, who says there is no science of human society at the present time. Small and Vincent view society as an organism and define it in terms of biology and of the sciences. They admit, with Ward, Ely, Patten, Kidd, and others, that Herbert Spencer stopped his investigation where he should have begun.

Sociology having been born again, because of some vital social problems demanding practical solution, we cannot escape the conclusion that sociology must become a living, practical science, so far as it can claim to 1 Introduction to the Study of Society, p. 19.

2 Bascom's Sociology, Preface, p. vi.

8 Social Evolution, p. 5.

be such, whose mission it is to add to the sum of human happiness and to find answers to questions that are burning. To do this it will need to study psychical forces inductively and hold to absolute clearness of thought and simplicity of style.

If the work which Comte and Herbert Spencer attempted is held to, and sociology aims to know something about everything instead of everything about something, it will die an intellectual dwarf. If it can be redeemed from the sphere of theory, and can sit, clothed and in its right mind, at the feet of some earnest, living, sociologists, like Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, Micah, Christ, and Paul, and can clear its brain from the cobwebs of such a bald materialist as Comte, and from the social physics of Spencer, there is hope that its mission may justify its existence. It must observe the phenomena of society, and this it cannot do except as it takes cognizance of sin in all of its subtle workings and of that power which no man can tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth.

Herbert Spencer says, that ornament precedes utility, in the earliest stages of development, and the beginnings of sociology in its practical stage would seem to verify the observation in its own case. It is useless for sociology to attempt to form a huge synthesis of all knowledge. It cannot be done. Comte's mistake was in supposing that mankind needs light, instead of life. St. Paul covered this point, that what he would he did not, and what he would not that he did (Rom. vii. 15). The world has never lacked theorists. We would not be interpreted as assuming that sociology is to be confounded with social reform, but sociology is to furnish data which become the ground and justification of practical Christian work in the effort to make of society as a unit all that it should be; but the perfection of individuals cannot be overlooked as a condition precedent to such a consummation so devoutly to be wished. Or, as Small and Vincent have so clearly shown, it must first be descriptive, then statical, then dynamic.

We believe that sociology is practical, so far as it gets away from Comte and Herbert Spencer, and though it studies society as an organism, it is an organism having not simply resemblances to vegetable and animal organisms, but it is a living, practical unit, with a life that is beyond scientific analogies because it is not merely an aggregation of units or, "secreting layers of fiber around a nucleus," has resemblance to "growth"; but because each civilization has its own form, its own fragrance, its own subtle influences; and carries within itself, hidden from the eyes of men, the seeds of life and death. To observe all these phenomena requires a microscope that is simply infinitely powerful in discovering ultimate life, and a telescope equally powerful in reading all the spheres of knowledge. Let us frankly admit that sociology is largely a speculative philosophy and must remain so, but let it not hinder the excellent work of perfecting sociology as a science to which Small and Vincent have so ably contributed.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

BIBLE CLASS EXPOSITIONS. By Alexander Maclaren, D. D.

New York: A. C. Armstrong

& Son. 1894. (53⁄4×34.) $1.00 per volume. The Gospel of St. Matthew, umes. (Pp. vii, 255; vii, 238.) The Gospel of St. Mark. (Pp. vui, 247.)

In two vol.

THE TRIAL And Death of JESUS CHRIST: A Devotional History of our Lord's Passion. By James Stalker, D. D. New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son. (Pp. xv, 321. 5%×34) $1.50.

FATHER EELLS; or, the Results of Fifty-five Years of Missionary Labors in Washington and Oregon. A Biography of Rev. Cushing Eells, D. D. By Myron Eells. With an Introduction by Rev. L. H. Hallock, D. D. Boston and Chicago: Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society. 1894. (Pp. 342. 5 ax3.) $1.25.

SERMONS ON THE INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL LESSONS FOR 1895. By the Monday Club. Twentieth Series. 1894. Boston and Chicago: Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society. (Pp. 383. 6x34.) $1.25.

The Carew Lec

WEALTH AND MORAL LAW. By E. Benjamin Andrews, D. D., LL.D. tures for 1894, Hartford Theological Seminary. Hartford, Conn.: Hartford Seminary Press. (Pp. 135 54x3.) Cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cents.

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY: Its Present Claim and Attraction.

By Theodore C. Pease Bartlett, Professor of Sacred Rhetoric in Andover Theological Seminary. With an Introduction by Prof. Egbert C. Smyth, D.D. Edited by "The Fortnightly Ciub." Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. (Pp. 190. 5x3.) $1.25.

MASTER AND MEN; or, the Sermon on the Mountain Practiced on the Plain. By William Burnet Wright, author of "Ancient Cities" and "The World to Come.' Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1894. (Pp. 240. 5x23.) $1.25.

THE JEROME BANNERS. By Irene E. Jerome. Comprising The Rest Banner, The Joy Banner, The Every-Day Banner, What will the Violets Be? Boston: Lee & Shepard. 50 cents each. Four kinds in a case, $2.00.

CANONICAL AND UNCANONICAL GOSPELS. With a Translation of the Recently Discovered Fragment of the Gospel of Peter, and a Selection from the Sayings of Our Lord Not Found in the Four Gospels. By W. E. Barnes, B. D., Fellow of Peterhouse, and Theological Lecturer at Clare College, Cambridge. London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co. 1893. (Pp. xii, 112. 5x3.)

STUDIES IN BIBLICAL ARCH LOLOGY.

By Joseph Jacobs, Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy, Madrid. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1894. (Pp. 1894. 59x3%.) $1.00.

THE ILLS OF THE SOUTH; or, Related Causes Hostile to the General Prosperity of the Southern People. By Charies H. Otken, LL.D. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. (Pp. xiii, 277. 54*34-)

THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF JESUS: A Critical Analysis of the Sources of the Gospels, together with a Study of the Sayings of Jesus. By Arthur Kenyon Rogers. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1894. Pp. 354. 5'x3%) $175.

PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CHURCH HISTORY. Vol. VI. Report and Papers of the Annual Meeting, held in New York City, December 27 and 28. 1833. Edited by Rev. Samuel Macauley Jackson, M. A., Secretary. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1894. (Pp. xxx, 224. 63x376.)

PHILOSOPHY AND DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGION: Being the Gifford Lectures, delivered before the University of Edinburgh, 1894. By Otto Pfleiderer, D. D., Professor of Theology, University of Berlin. In two volumes. New York & London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1894. (Pp. 331, 356. 5% x3%) $5.00.

THE SPHERE Of the State; or, The People as a Body-Politic. With Special Consideration of Certain Present Problems. By Frank Sargent Hoffman, Professor of Philosophy, Union College. New York & London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1894. (Pp. viii, 275. 54x34)

SECULARISM: Its Progress and Its Morals. By John M. Bonham. New York & London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. (Pp. iv, 396. 5X3.) $1.75.

CHRIST THE CENTRAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. By the Rev. Principal Cairns, D.D. New York, Chicago, and Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. (Pp. 284. 5 1-16x3.) $1.00.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By J. M. Stifler, D.D., Professor of New Testament Exegesis in Crozer Theological Seminary. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. (Pp. vi, 287. 54x33.) $1.25.

THE

BIBLIOTHECA SACRA.

ARTICLE I.

THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND THE DEBS INSURRECTION.

BY MR. Z. SWIFT HOLBROOK.

[Concluded from page 152.]

BUT the times have changed. That tree planted by the rivers of water, that brought forth its fruit in due season, whose leaf did not wither, and whatsoever it did prospered, is now bearing sour fruit. Those branches may be, for the most part, the engrafted ones, but they are none the less a part of the tree. It may not have been wise to engraft so many, but it has been done, and it is our duty faithfully and with confidence in God, to treat them as a part of the tree. for whose fruit, be it good or bad, we are responsible. Let us examine the tree and its fruits.

And the first thing we notice is the swarms of parasites that are living upon it and eating into its very life. The ideas which were once considered an inspiration are being superseded, though we believe only temporarily. They are like the pulpit behind which once officiated an eminent New England divine, whom Judges and Governors delighted to honor, but which is now stored away under the hay in the loft of an old barn. And when it is the fashion to copy the VOL. LII. NO. 206.

I

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old New England homestead,-its colonial architecture, so severe and simple; its low ceilings, small windows; its open fireplace, with the crane, the spit, the kettles, the bellows, and even the andirons and tongs,-who knows but it may yet be the fashion, and our clergymen will yet esteem it an honor, to preach behind those old pulpits, and again exalt the sovereignty of God and the exceeding sinfulness of sin with its sure reward. Who knows but the great mass of common people may yet learn, by bitter experience in the wilderness, that the way to the promised land is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever; not by materialism and rationalism, which give expediency in the place of faith for a rule of conduct, but by following religion, morality, and knowledge as leaders, instead of politics and economics.

But that tree under whose branches the fowls of the air have found lodgment and shelter; which poet and scholar in every age have praised, from Coleridge to our own Whittier and Holmes; from De Tocqueville to Bryce and Von Holst, is now passing through a new experience. Cut it down, shrieks the anarchist; Replant it, cries the socialist; Shower it with acid, says the economist; Let me manage it, says the demagogue. But the true husbandman has it under his own care. He planted it, he digged about for it, he trimmed it, cared for it when it was a sapling, and now he is simply pruning it that it may bring forth more fruit.

We cannot agree with President Eliot, that the Mormons resemble, in any particular, the founders of this republic; nor are we attracted by the intimation of doubt in his latest inquiry as to whether this country can endure.1 T. P. O'Connor, member of Parliament, has even gone so far as to revile our Constitution. He said:

"The Constitution of the United States is, in my judgment, one of the most unjustly eulogized instruments of political history. . . . It is a machine, which to a large extent means not the regulation, but the paralysis of government." 2

1 Forum, Oct. 1894. Chicago Tribune, Sept. 14, 1894.