as arbitrary alterations in the interests of a given system; although, indeed, no pure result has been reached by the latest defenders of this view. A remnant of places still present themselves, which cannot be brought within this category."

The difficulty here, which our critic takes care to magnifyis transferred from Marcion to St. Luke—but this, as has been said of it, is a cover for the retreat.

Thus, we perceive that the last assailants of the old view that Marcion altered St. Luke to suit his purposes, have been obliged in the person of their Leader to retract their assertions and to yield their point. That they do not yield everythingthat they continue to hold and maintain that Marcion's text had some readings (confessedly not weighty) different from and older than the Canonical, is of no moment for us here and now. The dispute as a whole is completed; the warfare henceforth, upon this point, must be guerilla. We trust we appreciate the ingenuousness of Dr. Baur in thus acknowledging his change of opinion, but, nevertheless, we feel obliged to say that his results and the results of his school generally, cannot be entitled to any high consideration at our hands. On this very subject within a space of ten years, they chose to take ground against an opinion almost unanimous throughout Christendom; they gravely told the world "nous avons changé tout Cela!" and now, at last, they have been compelled thoroughly to modify their notions and to return to the view current before they undertook to amend it. Their "variations" are a remarkable feature in their course and history; not indeed without a certain tragical interest. Who knows whether and in how far they will retract many of their present opinions? Or whether they will again assert what now they yield? Who can tell what they will think a year hence re

*These are Baur's words:

"Die Frage über das Evangelium Marcion's scheint durch die entgegnungen welche der von Ritschl und mir aufgestellten Ansicht zu Theil geworden sind, so ziemlich wieder auf den stand punct zurückgedrängt worden zu sein, anf welchen man sich zuvor mit ihr befand. Es bleibt dabei, dass Marcion mit dem Kanonischen Lukas Evangelium Veränderungen vorgenommen hat, deren bestimmendes Motiv nur die unverträglichkeit so manchen stellen mit seinem gnostischen Dualismus gewesen sein kann. Wenn man auch nicht mehr von einer Verstümmelung des Lukas Evangeliums im Sinne der Kirchenväter reden will Sondern nur von einer Redaktion ähnlicher Art, wie innerhalb unserer Kanonischen Evangelien selbst das Material der Evangelischen Geschichte zu verschiedenen Formen verarbeitet worden ist, so ist doch in Anschung der sache selbst zwischen dieser ansicht und der älteren kein sehr gross Unterschied. Es ist nun zwar nicht zu läugnen, wie auch ich mich durch wiederholte Prüfung überzeugt habe, dass die meisten abweichungen des Marcionitischen Evange liums von unserem Evangelium in ihrer mehrzahl mit überweigender Wahrscheinlichkeit als willkürliche Aenderungen im interresse eines bestimmten Systems anzusehen sind," &c.-Markus Evangelium, p. 191.

specting the authorship of our fourth Gospel, or of the Epistle to the Ephesians? We find fault with them because they display a reckless haste of conjecture in a sphere where conscientious thoughtfulness should prevail. We may, indeed, admire their studious research, but we care very little for their premises in the way of a speculative critique, or for their conclusions. They are among the curious phenomena of a restless age. We apprehend the world will be slow to accept their assertions, since their own faith in them rests upon sand. They are, we know, terrific spectres to ignorant, or to weak hearted Christians who are familiar with them only through hearsay; we grant even that they are often clever in attack, but really their proportions diminish, their frightful mien passes away when men come face to face with them. Historic Christianity, in its Catholic sense and power, shall survive, we fancy, their shifting conjectures, and their negative results. Whatsoever in their methods, in their groupings of familiar facts, in their investigations into periods little known, is good, shall eventually minister to the glory of our LORD CHRIST. Men who unhappily are impatient of His yoke may hail them as their guides, even though they may be compelled to change their views with each new book they issue. For ourselves, we confess, we have no special admiration of their spirit, nor dread of their destructive prowess.

Marcion becomes then in our judgment, quite a conspicuous figure in the History of the Sacred Canon-quite an important witness for the antiquity of St. Luke's Gospel. Clear headed, wrong headed man that he was, hoping after his fashion to bring back the Church to what he considered an estate of purity! There is a dash of enthusiasm about him. Let us not quarrel with him, for his hopes, his aspirations have perished, and we waste not our wrath upon dead foes! The memory of his mutilated Gospel survives indeed, but not perhaps as he would have it, nor any longer in his interests. It survives, bringing with it an assurance that what he found current within the Church as an integral portion of her " Evangelicum instrumentum" had no magical entrance within the fold, but was an ordinary feature of her life. This of necessity rolls the evidence up under and within the very shadows of the' Apostolic age. Who can assail, with the testimony of fact, the belief that St. Luke's Gospel then, is a product of that age? Forth from the obscurity of the sub-Apostolic time, the Church issues with this Gospel in her hand, avowing her belief in it as a production of a fellow laborer of the Apostle Paul. In this belief, unembarrassed by the pressure or the presence of conflicting evidence, we are content to remain.

ART. II.-POLITICAL PREACHING.

The Free and Independent Church. A Discourse delivered in Trinity Church, Cleveland, Ohio, June 15th, 1856. By the Rector, Rev. JAMES H. BOLLES., D. D.

Our Country's Troubles: a Sermon preached in the Church of the Epiphany, Philadelphia, June 29, 1856. By Rev. DUDLEY A. TYNG, Rector. Published by request of laymen in Boston.

Ir has ever been the device of Satan to establish his kingdom by blending it with the political institutions and relations of a country, so as to make it the interest of civil rulers to sustain his false systems. In every form of heathenism, princely rule and priestly rule have usually been seen standing together, like two ancient trees with limbs and roots intertwined, so that, to assail the one was to attack the other, and, consequently, the danger and difficulty of the assault were doubled. Romanism has so far adopted Satan's device, that Popery may be said to owe its very existence now, and its dominion in past ages, to the secular arm, a fact clearly foretold in the apocalypse, where its temporal and spiritual power are represented under correlative emblems, and the kings are said to "give their power and strength unto the beast." It was in conscious weakness that false systems sought thus to ally themselves with temporal rule, and priests and princes were too often joined together, like the upper and nether millstone, the more effectually to grind their miserable victims.

Christianity, on the other hand, was designed to stand alone, asking not the aid of earthly powers, flourishing best when relying least upon them, yea, often most pure and prosperous when they were combined against her. My kingdom, said our Lord, is not of this world. His Church is like a kingdom, inasmuch as it is a collective body of people gathered under One Supreme Head. No one is so democratic in spirit and principle, but that, could there be a ruler perfect in wisdom, power, and goodness, he would say, that poor, fallible, suffering mortals were best under his absolute, monarchical sway, and that a government of the people is desirable only because a driveler, or an inferior, or one but equal to ourselves may be placed upon the throne. Now Christ is a King possessing all attributes of

perfection, with not a law in His realm that He would wish to have changed, able to provide more effectually for the interests and happiness of His people than they could for themselves, and therefore we may gladly submit ourselves to His rule, and say, we will have no King but JEsus.

Yet His dominion is spiritual. Human laws can reach only the outward conduct, controlling not the will, nor the affections, nor the conscience; while it is here, where none else can rule, that our King preeminently reigns. His kingdom affects not outward pomp and display, too often with earthly monarchs, the covering of weakness, and designed to dazzle and awe where real worth fails to awaken submission and reverence. The greatest majesty assumed by Christ on earth was when He rode upon "the foal of an ass" into Jerusalem. The ceremonies of His religion are simple, and in them the strength and power of His kingdom consisteth not. The first vow of His subjects is to renounce the pomps and vanities of the world. Unlike earthly Sovereignties which soon fall asunder, however enlarged and consolidated by conquest, Christ's Kingdom is designed to be everincreasing, universal, and in its duration, eternal. The problem of an empire within an empire, our Lord has solved; for His kingdom co-exists with the dominions of this world of every name and form, diverse from them, independent of them, not interfering with them, neither overthrowing them, nor overthrown by them.

It would seem obvious, that a kingdom so unlike anything earthly, must be sustained by a policy, by means and arts entirely different from those by which the kingdoms of this world are maintained. And accordingly we find it so. Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. If my kingdom were of this world, said our Lord, then would my servants fight; but now is my kingdom not from hence. Put up thy sword, was the command to Peter. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual, mighty through God. Such are, uniformly, the declarations of Holy Scripture upon this point. As an old writer says, "We advance by yielding; we rise by falling; we conquer by suffering; we persuade by silence; we become rich by bountifulness; we inherit the earth through weakness; we gain comfort through mourning; we earn glory by penitence and prayer."

But there has ever been a great tendency among Christians to use carnal weapons in their spiritual warfare, those with which the depraved nature, some remains of which are in the regenerate, is most familiar. They are those which advance the interests of earthly kingdoms, and it is natural to think that

Christ's Kingdom can be furthered by like instrumentalities. And here is the defect and danger of our own day, and of our own country. The Ministers of the Gospel are, in too many cases, we fear, leaving their own proper work, to introduce into this kingdom an earthly, worldly policy, to meddle with political and other matters which belong not to them, and to the great detriment of that cause which they are set apart to maintain. And this is specially the point of our present

Article.

The pleas for such interference are, that these questions have a moral and religious bearing, and so come properly within the province of the pulpit, which would be recreant to duty if it did not speak out against the political sins, amid the civil dangers of the times; and, moreover, it is urged, preaching is of little worth except it adapt itself to existing evils, and existing wants. We reply generally, to these excuses, that, upon such grounds, Ministers must concern themselves as Ministers, in all the Arts, and employments of life, for there is nothing pertaining to Humanity, that has not more or less of a religious bearing. Though it may be difficult to draw the limits, yet, we conceive, there is a distinct and peculiar province in which the Minister is to labor, and that when he steps out of it, injury to himself, and his Master's cause, invariably results.

For guidance upon this point, let us turn to the example of Christ, and of the early preachers of the Gospel. The Saviour lived in a time when civil and religious questions were as much mingled, and in as important ways, as they now are; yet, in all His teaching, public and private, He studiously avoided that which was political, although, as the Jewish government was a Theocracy, He, as God's own Son, might certainly have interfered in that, if in any. He paid tribute by miracle, to avoid giving offense, even when privately insisting on His right of exemption. He was falsely put to death on a charge of treason against Cæsar, albeit the Emperor's jealous substitute was satisfied that the charge was groundless. He submitted to the most unjust and cruel sufferings from the rulers of Judea and of Rome, without a word of resistance. The country in which He lived was torn by factions, and wretchedly governed, yet Christ allied Himself with no party, nor passed judgment upon the acts of the civil authorities. The nearest approach He made to political topics, was in the question of tribute to Cæsar, and there, His exclamation, "Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?" shows His wariness in such matters, and His unwillingness to be drawn into them, while His answer is a perfect model for all who are similarly ensnared in their talk.