and in human history, its obligations transcend all institutions, its history is beyond all record. Philosophy takes measure by it. Poetry hangs garlands in its temples. The human mind is its happy slave, bound by its harmonious enchantments; free, because its labor is delight.

ART. IV. - DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

1. The Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost; or, Reason and Revelation. By HENRY EDWARD, Archbishop of Westminster. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1866. 12mo. pp. 274. 2. The Scripture Testimony to the Holy Spirit. By JAMES MORGAN, D.D., Belfast. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 8vo. pp. 494. 3. Die Christliche Dogmatik vom Standpunkte des Wissens aus dargestellt. Von Dr. DANIEL SCHENKEL. In zwei Bänden. Wiesbaden Christian Dogmatics set forth from the Standpoint of Conscience. Two volumes. Kreidel und Wiedner. 1858, 1859. pp. 511, 1260. 8vo.

FOR obvious reasons, the old topics of dogmatic theology are winning new interest from the more thoughtful class of readers, who had become weary of the old textual and sectarian polemics. The great church organizations now claim place, and demand notice; they even defy opposition, as social and temporal powers, in such a tone as to have considerable interest in the current reading and business of the day.

Archbishop Manning will find ears open to his plea for Roman legitimacy that would be deaf to an abstract theological argument; and the greater part of inquiring men like to know how he bolsters up the pope and his priesthood, by claiming for the Papal Church the direct presence and authoritative possession of the Holy Spirit. His argument is presented with learning and power, and is so well brought to its point as to convince us of its unsoundness, by leading to conclusions wholly inadmissible, and unchurching what to us is the most hopeful part of Christendom. That the reign

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of the Holy Spirit is the characteristic mark of the Church of Christ, and the fruit of his mission, we have been always ready to believe; but that the church is to be limited to the close corporation of the "Pontiffs and Councils," is too monstrous an idea to be entertained for a moment, in the face of sober history and daily observation, especially here in America where the Holy Spirit has done such blessed work from the beginning, in congregations where papacy and even prelacy have been unknown. Audacity is sometimes prudence; and certainly the Archbishop will win, by his boldness, an attention that more cautious utterance would fail of meeting.

Dr. Morgan's work is a careful and able statement of the Scriptural view of the Holy Spirit, from the evangelical point of view, and will interest greatly all devout students of the Bible, especially all those who believe in the constant power of the Spirit in the Church, and are advocates of "revivals," whether of the extreme or the moderate schools. The author is not much of a philosophical thinker, but he is an earnest and sensible man; and his fifty-four sermons are marvellous proofs of the persistency of his studies, and the patience of his congregation.

Schenkel's great work is wholly of another school; and, although nominally orthodox, it launches out into the open sea of modern Liberalism, without any of the limitations of papal authority or evangelical dogmatism. He takes his stand upon human conscience, and studies the Scriptures as the history of that kingdom of grace that aims to bring the soul of man within the salvation of God, in that true faith and righteousness which unites the sense of dependence with the sense of duty. To him there is no sufficient reason for accepting the ecclesiastical dogma of the tripersonality of God; and his trinitarianism is but one form of our unitarianism. God is to him one Being from all eternity; and, only when He comes into time, and manifests himself in the world, the application of the epithets of Father, Son, and Spirit, is just and intelligible. As the ground of all things, he is Father; as the manifested life, he is the Son; and as the end

or final cause that works to bring all to the divine likeness or true blessedness, he is the Spirit. Jesus Christ is the central, historical, and continuous manifestation of God as the Son; but, in this book of dogmatics, Schenkel does not distinguish so boldly, as in his later works, between the person of Jesus Christ and the Word or Son of God. His treatment of the Spirit is not full or adequate; and it is especially unsatisfactory from his regarding it mainly as the influence of Christ's personal life in history, and presenting it too little in its relations with the essential being and life of God.

We have these three books as fair representatives of the leading thought of our time, or of the literal, evangelical, and liberal parties. Without being limited to their teaching, we offer some thoughts upon the great subject which they treat in such various and diverse ways.

We would all be reasonable, and, at the same time, devout and believing; studious of the sober truth, and rejoicing in the abounding grace. Why take it for granted that the two dispositions are hostile to each other? They have not been hostile in the study of nature: why should they be more so in the study of religion? Science has explored the atmosphere, -that "spirit" or breath of nature, and not lost faith in the effort. The air answers to our questioning, and gives us more healthful inspirations and soothing effluences in return. Our science, indeed, disenchants the atmosphere of the old genii or "spirits" that were thought to control the winds, but does not disenchant it of the presence of the living God, whose spirit is like the wind that moveth whithersoever it listeth. We have found new truth in nature, and have not lost the old grace; but rather brought it out, and multiplied it. Why not be as hopeful of the realm above nature, and believe that God will open new blessing in answer to our reasonable thought, and give us new light upon his grace and truth in Jesus Christ?

It is very obvious that the phrase itself is figurative, as all religious language of necessity is, by its compelling us to illustrate things invisible by things visible. "Holy

Ghost" means holy spirit, and holy spirit means holy breath; and, as in this case the holy breath is represented as coming from God, of course it is the holy breathing of God, either within himself, or into human souls. Evidently the figurative language does not destroy, but rather magnifies, the dignity of the power that it illustrates. Breath is essential to life, and is taken sometimes for life itself. The air is the first condition of the life of nature; and, when it is withdrawn or corrupted, life ceases, and plants and animals die at once. The air, moreover, unites all beings in one kingdom of nature, and carries out all the wonderful transformations of natural growth. How exalted, then, must that power be which corresponds spiritually to this benign and majestic element, even the Spirit of God!

Of course the figure has higher natural analogies, and is to be interpreted in the human as well as the natural plane, or by the spirit of man as well as the air of nature. The breath of natural life in man depends upon the atmosphere, and unites his bodily constitution in one economy, and keeps open communication between his bodily constitution and the universe. When we breathe, we bring nerve and muscle, heart and brain, into living unity; and take in and give out something of the universal life. But our spirit is more than our breath it is the breathing of our mental and moral constitution in the inward fellowship of its members, and in their communication with the mental and moral kingdom. The spirit of man is our highest human interpretation of the Spirit of God. "For," says Paul, "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God." What the spirit of man is, we know well enough to enable us in some measure to interpret by it the spirit of God. The spirit of man is the vital energy, the living power of his whole being, character, and thought, the life that unites all his faculties together, and expresses them in action. It is the man himself in full consciousness and fellowship, the breath of his whole being and intelligence. It marks not so much his essence and mental constitution, however, as their working;

his inward and outward life, rather than his organization. As man is made in God's image, and human faculties illustrate the divine attributes, we are warranted in arguing from man's spirit to God's spirit, and to regard God's spirit as his inward and outward life; the vital fellowship of all his powers and perfections with each other and with his kingdom, especially with his rational children on earth and in heaven. If we look into the Scriptures, we find this ready suggestion of analogy and of reason confirmed. The Scriptures represent the Spirit of God as his harmonized and communicating life, his proceeding love and active power, the executive function of his majestic economy. God reveals

himself by his word and his spirit; his "word "being essentially his wisdom, or that perfect reason of God which is the image and expression of his mind; and the "spirit," that active love or proceeding energy which does his holy and blessed will. The old schoolman Aquinas was not much out of the way when he said that the Father was the parent mens or mind, and the Word and Spirit were the notitia and amor, or the wisdom and love. The Bible begins with affirming this working and loving power of the Spirit. "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters;" and the psalmist repeats the lesson of Genesis when he says, "Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth." The Spirit was at work in giving life to man. "The Lord breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul;" and the inspired bard of the Book of Job repeats the thought," The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." Throughout the whole of the Old Testament, the Spirit is spoken of thus as the executive agency of God, and as engaged in all manner of service, whether to prepare a king for his throne, a hero for his conflict, or a workman for his skill. It is said of Othniel, "The spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel." "The

king's heart is in the hand of the Lord: as the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will." Of Samson it is said, "The spirit of the Lord began to move him in the camp of