ART. VII.-BOOK NOTICES.

PERVERSION: or, the Causes and Consequences of Infidelity. A Tale for the Times. By Rev. W. J. CONYBEARE, M. A., Author of "Life and Epistles of St. Paul." New York: Wiley & Halsted. 1856. 12mo. pp. 494. New

Haven: S. Babcoek.

This "Tale for the Times," though a work of much less importance than the English press led us to suppose, is yet worthy of some attention. Mr. Cony beare's Article on "Church Parties," in a late English Quarterly, attracted considerable notice, mostly on account of its personalities, and its bold positions as to the origin, character, aims and ends of party spirit in the Church of England. He is much better known by his more elaborate work on the Life and Epistles of St. Paul, in which line of pursuit he is more successful than in writing works of fiction. The "Tale" before us has, as a subordinate aim, to show, that while Church Clergymen are wasting their lives in heartless unrealities, or in internecine war, quarreling with each other on points of mere opinion, the world around us is drifting towards Infidelity. The leading object of the work is indicated by its title. It reduces to practice the "Positive Philosophy," the "New Reform," which in various ways is taking such strong hold of the public mind, and of which the Westminster Review is now the most prominent organ, but which is also widely scattered in the columns of the New York Tribune. "The innocent impulses of nature," and "the impositions of priests," these are its watchwords and its arguments. The book before us reminds us of the Article in the last Church Review on "High Church and Low Church," in which the writer forcibly thus puts the question

"And while we are contending about matters, which few will dare affirm are vital to our salvation, what is going on around us? While we are defining the operations of Grace in Baptism, and localizing the Divine presence in the Eucharist, what recognition is there of either Sacrament by the great majority of men? While we are philosophizing over the nature of Original Sin, and contending about the diagnosis of depravity, what are the workings of actual transgression' in the community? While we are discussing the relative author. ity of the Church and the Scriptures, what are our young men learning from Strauss, and Hennel, and Newman, and Gregg? The whole tone of modern Literature, scientific, philosophical, ethical, poetical, critical, historical, periodical, clearly shows that there is soon to be a mighty contest, in which the fact of a Supernatural Religion will be the point at issue."

Now God forbid that we should yield to any one in our loyalty to the Church. But we do say that there is a spirit of party among us which is both wicked and suicidal. And it is for this reason that we call the attention of our readers to this "Tale for the Times," by Mr. Conybeare.

The plot of the story is ingeniously laid, yet many of the scenes are badly done, and the principal characters overdrawn. Armstrong, the son of a popu lar preacher, a youth of strong and vicious propensities, adopts unhesitatingly the infidelity of the Martineau, Comte, Newman and Westminster Review Schools, and, after a career unnaturally conceived, and repulsive to the reader, he at length enters Oxford, where, without being recognized, he meets with his old schoolmate, Charles Bampton, who, with his sister Clara, are the chief heroes of the story. Charles, under the influence of a conceited, dreamy, greasy, smoking German tutor, Gottleib Schrecklich, had already become a skeptic, and now, disgusted with the hollow-hearted pretensions of Tractarians and Evangelicals alike, corrupted in his principles, and staggered by the noisy impudence

and shallow learning of modern infidelity, he becomes an avowed infidel. Clara, too, yields to the same influences, and adopts infidel principles, and marries Armstrong; but a former wife appearing, the unhappy woman coolly determines to end her misery in suicide. Charles is at last saved to Christianity, yet only as by fire. The union of rubrical strictness with sensual liberty, the mercantile morality of Paley's System, the grasping ambition and unprincipled villainy of a sanctimonious hypocrisy, all these sit for their portraits, which are boldly and strikingly, if not always delicately and accurately drawn. That the writer has power to seize and hold the attention cannot be ques tioned. Thus the utter wretchedness of the victim of infidelity, who has shut the eye of the soul to the glorious truths of Christianity, is depicted in the history of Clara Bampton, and her letter to her brother, after her determination to "shuffle off this mortal coil," is graphically done. She had just been listening to the echoes of her aunt's voice in the "Requiem" of Mozart. She thus writes: "Alas! what a religion it is that we have lost-the religion of sorrow-the religion of the cross! Yes, I can understand now how it is that the shadow of the cross can turn the Christian's agony into joy. The disciples of a crucified Redeemer drink their Master's cup in felt communion with Him. They thank Him for pain, because it brings them into conformity with His likeness. Their anguish illuminates with a more vivid light the characters of His ineffable love traced upon their souls. The flames which consume them are transformed into a glorious image-the image of a divine companion standing by them in the fire, who is like unto the Son of God.' Where such a faith exists-and doubtless it has existed in many Christians, or how could the Church have furnished her glorious army of martyrs-where it does indeed exist as a reality, I can understand the happiness of suffering; I can comprehend the meaning of that prayer of Keble's:

'O Lord, my God, do thou thy holy will,

I will lie still;

But such a petition is not for me. Such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for me, I cannot attain unto it. I feel no tendency to be purified by suffering. Alas! no-it only crushes me, and (what is worse) crushes curses out of my heart-curses against my destiny-curses against the government of the world. Yet, as I listen to that strain, a better feeling comes over me. My heart longs to cry out, "Agnus Dei miserere." But a thick black veil of doubt and darkness stretches itself between me and heaven, and blots out the brightness of the sky. O, if there be in this infinite universe an ear to hear me, that ear will surely listen to the half-uttered cry of my broken heart. If there be an infinite love, it will not-He will not punish a poor child for running home to Him, even though uncalled. Our mother did not punish you when you came back a truant boy, escaping from the cruelties of school. Surely a heavenly will not be less tender than an earthly parent.

'So runs my dream; but what am I?

An infant crying in the night;
An infant crying for the light,
And with no language but a cry.'

She has stopped singing. The last words of the Agnus are still in my ears. Dona nobis pacem.'-' Dona nobis pacem.' O, how they are echoed by my heart. The last tones of music which my ears will ever hear-the latest strain of harmony which will linger with me till hearing dies-is that heavenly prayer for peace. O that it may be an omen! Dona расет, Dona pacem.

And now it is getting late, and I must cease this lingering farewell, and fold up

my letter.

It will have traveled far before morning dawns, but perhaps not so far as I shall. To-morrow it will have passed through the crash and roar of London, and thence be wafted across the sea; and soon it will be be yond the Seine and the Loire. But who can say whether my spirit may not have outstripped its flight? Perhaps I shall be with you before it, under the shadow of the Pyrenees, thrilling you with a mysterious presence, or a kiss of parting love, felt in your heart if not upon your lips. But why do I delay thus vainly? I must slip out across the bridge, and into the silent streets of the little town, and drop my letter into the post; for I will trust it to no other hand but my own. Then I shall quietly return home wards-yes, to my last home, and then I shall fall asleep; and then-then Fermasi al fin il cuor che balzò tanto.' .. Dearest, dearest brother, farewell, farewell for evermore. Think of me without bitterness-think of me as I was in early days, when we played together on the shore. Remember that all the happiness of my life I have owed to you. And if you cannot think of these later months without a pang, yet comfort yourself with the knowledge that all is over now, that the restlessness of my misery is stilled for ever."

"

As a work of art this Tale is full of faults. The author sketches well, but he never finishes a picture. This is emphatically true of his picture of Mormon life and Oxford life. There is no such masterly delineation of character, no such delicate shading of individualities, as is seen, for example, in "Hawkstone." His leading characters also are often mere caricatures. Neither "Tractarians" nor "Evangelicals" are, as a class, quite such fools or rogues as the Rev. Mr. Morgan and the Rev. Mr. Moony are made to represent them. And yet it cannot be denied, that some of the noisiest of both parties are chiefly remarkable for their ill temper, censoriousness, penuriousness, self-will, self-indulgence, and pharisaism.

It is as a religious or theological production, however, that this "Tale for the Times" chiefly deserves attention; though there is much less, either of religion or theology, in it than one would anticipate. The External Evidences of Christianity, so called, and the authoritative testimony of the Church, are of course thrown into the background. The gross and demoralizing character of modern infidelity is clearly illustrated, and this is the best feature of the book. The great fault of the work is its negativeness. If the Church of England is, indeed, a quiet and sure resting place for the troubled spirit seeking some refuge from the barrenness of modern speculation, the wretched poverty of an intense, morbid subjectiveism, and the miserable impostures of Rome; if our branch of the Church Catholic thus meets all the soul's wants, capacities, and aspirations, then why has not Mr. Conybeare made that Church the chief and crowning glory of his picture? He has not done it, and why? Jesuits and Infidels will laugh together at his caricature. Let him remember that croaking stolidity, however noisy, has nothing to boast over zealous partisanship, however narrow. If the author has any loyal attachment to the Church, the reader of this volume would hardly detect it.

SERMONS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, written and preached at different places and times during his public ministry of forty-four years. By Rev. ADAM EMPIE, D. D., late Rector of St. James' Church, Richmond, Va. New York: Dana & Co. 1856. 12mo. pp. 511.

The Rev. Dr. Empie has long been known to the Church as a well educated scholar, an earnest, sound divine, a rubrical Churchman, and an Evangelical preacher. According to the old-fashioned notions thirty years since, and before the late medieval discussions had conceived and brought forth new technicalities, Dr. Empie, like Ravenscroft, and Hobart, and Seabury, and Johnson, may be called a " High," but not a "dry" Churchman. That is, he believes in the Threefold Ministry as a divine institution, the Sacraments as Means of Grace, &c., &c., and at the same time he recognizes and preaches the necessity of a subjective experimental work of grace in the heart. Certain forms of expression were used

and insisted on by this class of men, which grew out of the controversies of their times, and which we would now modify, or sometimes vary in formal statement; but the great truths which they held and uttered with such earnestness, are as universal and enduring, as the nature of man on the one hand, and the Plan of Salvation on the other. These Sermons of Dr. Empie, prepared for the press since physical disability compelled him to retire from parochial responsibility, will be welcomed by members of the "six congregations" of which he was pastor, and may be read with profit by Churchmen everywhere. For the sake of the Sermons, therefore, as well as of the venerable and excellent Divine himself, we bespeak for them the attention of our readers. They are forty in number, and comprise the more prominent Festivals and Fasts of the Church, and the most distinctive doctrines and duties of our holy religion. They were nearly all written between the years 1811 and 1818, and are published with slight verbal alterations. We do not coincide with every opinion in them, nor would we use every expression which we find there, but yet we do not hesitate to pronounce them sound and excellent.

WAU-BUN: THE "EARLY DAY" IN THE NORTH-WEST. By Mrs. JOHN H. KINZIE, of Chicago. New York: Derby & Jackson. 1856. 8vo. pp. 498.

As we landed at Mackinaw, from the "Buck-Eye State' steamer, on the morning of June 5th, 1856, almost the first man we met was a cabman, with "Mission House Hotel" staring at us from his chapeau; and the dingy houses, the lazy, lounging groups of men, women, Indians and dogs which greeted us in our stroll around the island, were in sad contrast with the picture which Mrs. Kinzie draws of the island as she saw it in 1830, when the Mission was prosecuted vigorously, and the island was the busy depot of the valuable Fur trade of the North-West and South-West, concentrated at this beautiful and convenient point. Chicago, too, she describes as it was less than twenty-five years ago, with a mere "handful" of houses clustering around Fort Dearborn, and so lately there the scene of a terrible Indian massacre. It was not until 1836, twenty years ago, that the red men abandoned the ground where Chicago stands for their homes on the Upper Missouri, and yet Chicago now numbers over a hundred thousand inhabitants; and the stranger in that wonderful city might imagine himself elbowing his way through the busy streets of our great commercial metropolis. As an illustration or two of the business of the city, there are sixteen trunk railroads, with thirty-three or four branches centering there as a focus, with from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and forty traine arriving and departing daily. About twenty million bushels of grain were brought into the city during the last year, and there are single firms doing a business of over twelve hundred thousand dollars annually. Some conception of the magnitude of the business of the West may be formed from the fact, that the commerce of the Great Lakes and Rivers last year was about four hundred millions of dollars, while our whole foreign commerce was only about three hundred and fifty millions of dollars.

The husband of the authoress was Indian Agent at Fort Winnebago, who, with her Father-in-Law, John Kinzie, Esq., will never be forgotten in connection with the history of the Indians in the North-West. Her opportunities, therefore, of studying the native character, habits, &c., &c., of the Indians were most favorable; and in this respect her work is of exceeding interest and value, and will be none the less so a century hence. It is written with exquisite taste, in a style of which any author might be proud; and although it gives the author's personal experience, in which reality and romance are sometimes fearfully blended, yet the story is told with great delicacy and tact; and we part with the authoress as from a true-hearted, noble-minded woman; one as well fitted to adorn the circles of refinement now, as she was to battle heroically with the trials of frontier life when a youthful bride in 1830. May she share abundantly in the best blessings of that Church which she seems never to have forgotten, and of which, in later years, the family have been such efficient supporters.

THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS, In Greek and ENGLISH; WITH AN ANALYSIS AND EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY. By SAMUEL H. TURNER, D. D., Professor of Biblical Learning and Interpretation of Scripture in the General Theological Seminary, and of the Hebrew Language and Literature in Columbia College, N. Y. New York: Dana & Co., 381 Broadway. 1856.

The Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians is one of the most instructive and valuable of the writings of the New Testament. At the time of writing it the Apostle's mind seems so filled with the unsearchable riches of God's love in the redemption of man, though his body is restrained by bonds and a prison-so full of his great theme-as to hurry him onward in his discourse, without studied selection of words or arrangement of sentences. Hence the intricate and parenthetical nature of some of the chapters, requiring the most careful reading and study to embrace fully the meaning the writer would convey. But the diligent student of this portion of the Sacred Volume cannot fail to reap a rich reward. In the words of the learned author of this Commentary, "It is not possible carefully to study the Epistle to the Ephesians, without recognizing and feeling the extraordinary character of the Gospel scheme of salvation, the energetic influence of divine truth, when rightly understood and appreciated, and the utter unimportance of everything worldly, in comparison with that acquisition of Christian faith and love which prepares the soul for the enjoyment of the inheritance of the saints in light."

But when the great and fundamental truths contained in this Epistle are unfolded and explained, with the subtle and acute analysis which characterizes all Professor Turner's works, they become doubly valuable, both to the theological student and the thoughtful Christian.

In the freedom from sectarian bias-the constant aim to get at the "mind of the Spirit," by "making the inspired author of the Epistle and his authoritative compeers the leading directors to the truth,"-with which Professor Turner comes to the examination of the original text, he seems to have acted in the spirit of his own criticism upon those commentators who, having settled upon some particular dogma, can always find some portion of Scripture to confirm it. "Never," says he, "can it be reasonably expected that the Church of Christ will become one in the degree in which it ought to be united, until those whose office and duty it is to expound the truths of the Gospel, come to an examination of the original text of the Bible, divested of sectarian bias, and such prepossessions as spring from imperfect and erroneous education, and enter fully and heartily into the spirit and feeling of the childlike founder of the school of the ancient Hebrew prophets, exhibited in his answer to the divine call, 'Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." "

The present work is far superior to any of the previous volumes by the same author, in this, that there is more fullness of detail upon particular points, and in the elucidation of many disputed passages.

The introduction briefly but conclusively disposes of various points, as to the authorship of the Epistle-to whom it was originally addressedwhat inscription it bore, or whether it indeed bore any-and like topics, which have given rise to much learned and often useless discussion. Before entering upon the Commentary the reader is presented with a terse and complete statement of the teaching of the Epistle, by a careful analysis and division of the contents into sections. In the Commentary proper, which is conveniently arranged with the Greek and English text at the top of the page, and the notes at the foot, the Fathers and Rabbinical writers are freely referred to, ancient and modern commentators examined, analyzed and quoted, with a fullness and profusion which seem wonderful to one not familiar with the varied and profound learning which, for many years, has illustrated and adorned the Biblical literature of the Church. In supporting his own views he appeals to eminent and judicious critics, within and without our own communion, and while in some cases exposing the unsoundness of the German school, endorses the views of others, which harmonize with his own, with a