1849.] De Wette's Criticism on Müller. 799 ciple are most commonly connected with the grossest sensuality. Often, indeed, the love of fame may induce a man to forego many a gratification of bodily sense, but still as a passion it is something sensuous, having its seat in our psychical or inner sensuous nature. The chief fault De Wette finds with Müller is, that he follows too much the laws of abstract logic, and does not sufficiently regard the simple facts of consciousness. For example, instead of being satisfied with the simple fact of consciousness - — we are free, he sets up an abstract idea of freedom, which he regards as necessary to the possibility of sin, and for which there is no corresponding reality in human experience. He is therefore driven to the assumption that the personal will had this freedom in a state of being preceding our existence in time. His inquiries respecting the relation of human freedom to the Divine omniscience and Divine omnipotence, though conducted with much care, are inadmissible in their nature, and could offer themselves only in the way of a false abstract speculation. If I have done anything which I impute to myself as sin, I confess at once that I have acted contrary to the will of God, and bow myself penitently before him; but I do not ask, why he did not hinder me from doing it, and so I avoid bringing human freedom and Divine omnipotence into any relation to each other. If I see another do what I know to be sinful, and impute to him as such (which sentence, however, is never sure), I indeed think of God only in this respect, that thereby his holy will has been violated; and if I see many destructive consequences resulting therefrom, and perhaps threatening disaster to institutions dear to myself and well pleasing to God, I will not ask, why God has permitted all this evil, for that would be unholy complaining and presumptuous cavilling, and therefore no suitable subject for philosophical or dogmatic investigation; but I would take refuge in the feeling of submission. This, to be sure, I must so interpret to my understanding that, even that which I regard as evil has, in some way, come to pass by God's will; for only in this thought can I find rest. I will even regard an obstinately wicked disposition as ordained or produced by God; because, otherwise, I could not quiet my heart respecting it; but since I regard the hardened one as guilty and deserving of punishment, I ascribe his wickedness not to God, but to his own perverse will, and so limit the Divine efficiency to the outward relations and circumstances. On the other hand, if anything good has been done by me, I will not, with proud self-complacency, recognize my own free act, but will give credit to favorable circumstances, favorable influence, and especially to Divine assistance. In relation to the good which I seek after, I know myself entirely dependent upon God, and wish nothing more than to be led and supported by his Spirit and his Power. De Wette closes his essay with lamenting that the author did not devote his learning and his acuteness more completely to the work of mediating between the ancient truths of theology and the modern mode of thinking. The modern mind aims at a knowledge of truth through experience and consciousness; and in order to be convincing, Theology must take the same course. It must begin with the facts of experience and of consciousness, and especially aim to elevate the ethical significancy of Christianity. Only in this practical way will it be possible to build up again the fallen church. The Studien u. Kritiken for Oct. 1849, viertes Heft, contains seven articles. The first, by Prof. J. G. Müller of Basil, is on "The Idea of the Great Spirit, among the Wild Indians of North America." It is an elaborate discussion, filling sixty-eight pages, and exhibits the patient and extensive reading for which the Germans are so famous. The special topics taken up are such as these: View of those who make the Indians Monotheists; of those who attribute the notion of a Great Spirit, which the Indians now possess, to their Intercourse with Europeans; the Indian Polytheism and its Constituent Parts; the direct Worship of Natural Objects; Belief in Spirits and Fetishism; Amalgamation of the direct Worship of Nature and Fetishism; Worship of Images and Anthropomorphism; the many gods are not mere Sensual Forms; among them, only one Great Spirit is worshipped, under different names, and is the Creator, the God of heaven, etc. Art. II. is, Contributions to the Interpretation of the Prophet Amos, with special reference to Gustavus Baur's late work on that prophet, by F. Düsterdięck, repetent in the Theological Faculty at Göttingen. He considers the question, particularly, whether the book of Amos, in its aim and contents, stands in a dependent relation on that of Joel, as Credner and Baur maintain; and also whether the kingdom, mentioned in ch. 6: 2, had already fallen. There are also a number of criticisms on difficult texts in the prophecy. Art. III. contains exegetical investigations by Dr. Bähr of Carlsruhe, on Gal. 3: 13, "Christ hath redeemed us," etc. and on Heb. 13: 11-13, "For the bodies of those beasts," etc. In Art. IV. W. J. Rinck, of Grenzach in Baden, discusses the question, whether the Epistle to the Ephesians was directed to the church at Ephesus. He maintains that it was sent to that church, in opposition to Wetstein and others. In the next Article, we have the welcome pen of Ullmann, in further illustration and exposition of his previous work on "the Nature of Christianity," a third edition of which has been published during the present year. The last Article is by Prof. Nevin of Mercersburg, Pa., on "Antichrist, or the Sectarian Spirit," first published in Prof. Schaff's Kirchenfreund. 1849.] Religious Sects in Germany. 801 The great work projected by Ersch and Gruber- Allgemeine Encyclopaedie der Wissenschaft und Künste — is advancing slowly towards its completion. It is now published by Brockhaus of Leipsic. Ten of the Parts most recently printed lie before us. The First Section, edited by Prof. Gruber, including A· G, closes with the article Freiburg, and completes the forty-eighth Part or volume. The Second Section-letters H. to N. — under the charge of A. G. Hoffmann, closes with the word Jüdeln, and completes the twenty-sixth volume. The Third Section, edited by Prof. H. G. E. Meier, closes with the word Phokylides and the twenty-fourth volume. Religious Sects in Germany. The forty-six millions of inhabitants are Christians, except 578,000 who are Jews, Gipsies, or, Moslems. Of the Christians, we distinguish the Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and Evangelical church, without respect to the separation of the last into Lutheran and Reformed, since in most countries the union of these two has been effected. Of the single religious sects, all of which have sprung out of the Evangelical church, except the lately formed German Catholic churches, we notice merely the Mennonites, on account of their large number; but omit the Hernhutters, Old Lutherans, etc. The Gipsies embrace or reject any form of religion according to the circumstances of the moment. The following is a careful tabular view of the religious sects of Germany, at the close of 1848: Thus the number of Christians in Germany is 45,422,000; those who are not Christians, is 578,000. More than half of the Christians are Catholics. The following table distributes them into three groupes: It thus appears that Austria is almost wholly Catholic. Not including that empire, the Protestants are 21,011,900; Catholics, 12,027,900. A very small number of Mennonites are found in Baden, Hanover, etc. The members of the Greek church are Russians and other persons, engaged in commerce, etc. We have received the third volume of the new life of Luther, "Luther von seiner Geburt bis zum Ablassstreite, 1483-1517, von Karl Jürgens. Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1847, pp. 696." Of the probable extent of this monument of German diligence, we are not informed. Three large volumes only complete the first part, down to the year 1517. It is, in truth, a vast thesaurus, not only of the incidents in the life of Luther and in the history of the Reformation, but of contemporary events and characters, and even of topographical and local details, when they bear on the life of the great reformer. The author has had copious materials at his command, in all the departments of his labor, which were denied to all his prede cessors. The tenth volume of " Dr. J. M. Jost's History of the Israelites from the Maccabees to the present time, prepared from the Original Sources," was published in 1846-47, in three parts. The first part contains a history of the legal relations and the general condition of the Jews in Germany; the second part goes over the same ground in respect to the Jews in all other countries. The third part is taken up with the history of culture, or the present intellectual state of the Israelites. A copious Index to this volume is subjoined. Maurer's Commentary on the Old Testament was completed in 1848, with the publication of the Commentary on Ecclesiastes and Canticles, in a fasciculus of about 250 pages. The author of the last two parts, or of Vol. IV., is Augustus Hiligstedt, a Leipsic scholar. The promised work of Dr. Hengstenberg on the Apocalypse is about to appear. The first volume of his Commentary on the Psalms has come to a second edition. The History of the Old Covenant (Geschichte des Alten Bundes), by J. H. Kurtz, is described in Tholuck's Anzeiger, as a work distinguished for fulness of learning, orthodox views, and, for our times, what the Historia Ecclesiastica Vet. Test. of Buddaeus was for his. Dr. Gieseler, the church historian, has published two volumes on the "Protestant Church in France, from 1787 to 1846." The first volume of Dr. Lepsius's Chronology of the Egyptians, has appeared. Commentaries have lately appeared, on the Epistle to Philippians, by Neander, on that to the Ephesians, by Stier, on those to the Thessalonians, by Koch, and on that to the Romans, by Philippi. C. G. Zumpt, the distinguished professor of Latin in the university of Berlin, died at Carlsbad July 25, 1849. He was born March 29, 1792, in Berlin, studied - 1849.] Lynch's Expedition Woods's Works. 803 at the gymnasia in Berlin, at the university in Heidelberg, and, at the university of Berlin, heard the lectures of Wolf, Heindorf, Schleiermacher, De Wette, and Fichte. He published the "Rules of Latin Syntax" in 1814, and his Latin Grammar in 1818. The last had reached its eighth edition in 1837. Zumpt edited the fourth volume of Spalding's edition of Quinctilian, an edition of Curtius, of Cicero's Orations against Verres, and of Cicero de Officiis. He became professor ordinarius in the university in 1838. He contributed very valuable papers to the Transactions of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. The volume of Lieut. Lynch, describing his exploration of the Jordan and of the Dead Sea, is very well received in Great Britain, and is regarded as one of the most valuable contributions to geographical science which has been made for many years, conferring honor upon the American government, and especially upon the officers and men who carried the enterprize through, in the face of such appalling difficulties. It is certainly a great honor to do well what all the enlightened governments of Europe, and innumerable enterprizing travellers, scarcely before attempted. We make these remarks the more readily as it seems to us that due credit has not been rendered to the author in some American notices of his book. They have dwelt disproportionably on the literary faults to which the introductory portion of the book especially is obnoxious, and have failed to render prominent its great merits as a real and very important addition to our knowledge of the Holy Land. The style, too, of the main portion of the book is very picturesque and appropriate. Mr. George Ticknor, formerly Professor of Modern Languages in Harvard College, has written a History of Spanish Literature, with criticisms on the particular works and biographical notices of prominent writers. It will be published by the Harpers, in December, in 3 vols. 8vo. Mr. T. resided some time in Madrid, and is said to possess a Spanish library which has no rival out of the Peninsula. Dr. Woods's Works. The main topics discussed in the first volume, in forty-one lectures, 588 pages 8vo., are the Method of Theological Study, Use of Reason, Inspiration of the Scriptures, the Divine Existence, Trinity, Deity and Humanity of Christ, and Divine Purposes. The work will be welcomed by the numerous pupils of the author, and by many others, as the fruit of long and patient study of the Scriptures, and as a contribution to theology of great value. The course of Lectures will embrace five volumes, the second of which is now in press. "Some of the common topics of theology are omitted, and some others treated very briefly," "as there are various well known works in which they are treated judiciously and at full length." The author has "attended chiefly to those subjects which are of the highest importance, especially at the present day." All the Lec |