gregations. The cardinals who are senators attacked the conclusions of M. Dupin, and the senate compromised by referring to the minister of worship the petition which had provoked the discussion.

The Israelites.-A "UNIVERSAL ISRAELITE ALLIANCE" has been formed in Paris, intended to embrace the whole world. The object is to bind the Jews together so as to promote their general emancipation and progress. This alliance will tend to foster a feeling of unity among the Jews, and may lead to important consequences. There has been among the Jews of our days, for many years, a movement toward Moses; many are putting away orthodox Rabbinism, and taking Moses for their guide and the prophets for their example, and they are reforming their worship. The feeling of the French Jews toward Christianity is, moreover, far from being hostile. A proof of this was given very recently by their eagerness to follow the noble call of Mr. Cremieux, one of their members, and in 1848 a member of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, to subscribe liberally in favor of their Christian brethren now persecuted in Syria.

ITALY.

The Protestant Churches.-THE SYNOD OF THE WALDENSEANS met this year at a momentous point of time. A large majority of all the voters in the liberated provinces had demanded annexation to that Italian state which has now for longer than ten years patronized so nobly the cause of religious liberty. Instead of the groans of persecution, the Synod heard this year the most urgent calls for immediate spiritual aid. In consideration of these calls the Synod passed unanimously the important resolution to remove their "Theological College" from its retired situation at La Tour, in the valleys, to Florence, which is more and more becoming the great center of all Protestant movements in Italy. It was also resolved to establish a new Committee for Evangelization, separate from the old Table or Administrative Board, in order to carry on the work of evangelization more efficiently than hitherto. Yet already, hitherto, the Waldensean Church has had more evangelists and agents at work beyond its own limits, in proportion to its numbers, than any other Christian Church. Four additional colporteurs were added to the staff at work during

the month of July, supported from Scotland. One of these, appointed to labor in the Val d'Aosta, was set upon by two men in the neighborhood of Aosta within the last month, beaten in the most barbarous manner, and left for dead on the road. MANY CHEERING REPORTS are received from various quarters. At Florence a new Protestant school for Italian girls has been opened. In Pisa the Vaudois Church, under the direction of M. Ribet, is succeeding admirably, the hall in which they worship being always quite full on Sundays. The Tuscan Monitore, the government organ, has stated in two successive articles that the Vaudois had full permission to build churches for themselves.

The Roman Catholic Church.THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPE is rapidly waning. The reimposition of "St. Peter's Pence," so pompously announced by the Roman Catholic press, and heralded with such ostentation by the priesthood, has produced very little. The pontifical treasury remained empty, and the head of the Church was reduced, like other monarchs, to the necessity of borrowing money from persons who are willing to lend. The bishops of all countries have received instructions to plead warmly on behalf of this loan, and they have fulfilled their mission of financiers with marvelous eagerness. In some countries, as in Spain, plenary indulgences have been promised to the lenders in addition to the annual interest of five per cent. THE AUTHORITY OF THE BISHOPS must have received a severe blow by the summary way in which the Sardinian government deals with those who refuse obedience to the laws. Quite a number of the prelates have been condemned to imprisonment and fined. It is to be regretted, however, that Sardinia occasionally exacts obedience from priests in matters essentially ecclesiastical, such as the singing of Te Deums, in which a secular government ought never to interfere. For the same reason we regret that Garibaldi has seen fit to expel the Jesuits from Sicily. It is a bad precedent, of which the enemies of religious liberty will be eager to make use.

SWITZERLAND.

The Protestant Churches.-THE ANNIVERSARIES OF FRENCH SWITZERLAND, held toward the close of June, at Geneva, command special attention on account of the two vast missionary fields which these societies cultivate, Italy and France. The

real wants of both can be and are more freely discussed on the free soil of Protestant Switzerland than within their own borders, where the influence of the priests is still powerful enough to require the greatest caution in language as well as in action. The reports of the societies present many incidents of great interest. A letter from M. de Sanctis mentioned, with regret, that the work was not progressing so favorably in Piedmont. In the new Italian provinces it had been commenced and promised well. The report of the "Society for Aid to Protestants scattered Abroad disclosed the astonishing fact that of the eighty-nine French departments there were twenty-five without a pastor, and fifteen with only one. meeting of the Evangelical Alliance reported on the preparation for the General Conference of the Evangelical Alliance to be held in Geneva in 1861. The Council of State of Geneva had announced that it would welcome the meeting, and would lend every assistance; the ecclesiastical authorities of the National and of the Free Churches had answered favorably, and the circular had been well received everywhere and published in the religious journals of many different countries.

TURKEY.

The

Outburst of Mohammedan Fanaticism. We have repeatedly had occasion, in former numbers of the Methodist Quarterly Review, to refer to the profound irritation which has been spreading for years throughout the Mohammedan world against Christianity. The Christian nations began to fear that the outburst of Mohammedan fanaticism in India, in the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and at Djeddah in Arabia would be followed by others equally or even more atrocious. These fears, as our readers already know, have recently become a sad reality. A massacre of Christians of all denominations has taken place in Syria, more general in extent and more atrocious in its character than any other recorded in the history of the many religious wars in that country. The original perpetrators of these outrages were not Mohammedans but Druses, who have a religion of their own. But it is the sympathy and the assistance of the Mohammedan authorities and population to which the enormities of the Syrian massacre must be mainly ascribed. For the present the Christian Churches of Syria are nearly rooted out. The native Christians and the flourishing

congregations planted by American missionaries have equally suffered. Many thousand Christians of both sexes have been slaughtered, thirty thousand women sold to the Turkish harems, and nearly all the rest of the Christian population scattered and stripped of their property. The account of this extraordinary mas sacre has made, as was to be expected, a profound sensation throughout the Christian world. Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Greek nations vie with each other in contributing aid for the Christian sufferers, and even the Jews have hastened to show their abhorrence of such acts by cordially joining this philanthropic movement. The governments of Europe, without distinetion of creed, have agreed upon an armed intervention to check the fanaticism of the Turks. But, in the mean while, the agitation among the Mohammedans continues, and there is no room for the hope that the return of equally murderous scenes can be avoided, unless the Christian governments prevent it by an efficient protection of the Christian population of Turkey.

The Eastern Churches.-THE RES IGNATION OF THE GREEK PATRIARCH of Con stantinople is an event of rather frequent occurrence in Turkey, but under the present circumstances it is of greater importance than formerly, for in the election of his suc cessor the entire Church will for the first time take part, through its chosen repre sentatives. THE BULGARIANS are maturing the preparations for cutting off altogether their ecclesiastical connection with the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Bul garian Archbishop of Constantinople has left out in the liturgy the common prayers for the patriarch, and, being summoned before a Church Council, at which the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem were present, he declared that his nation were determined to have no longer anything to do with Greek priests, and that he could do nothing except exhorting the Bulgarians to remain faithful to the orthodox faith.

RUSSIA.

The Greek Church.-The hope of the Christian world, that the government of the present emperor would inaugurate an ERA OF THOROUGH RELIGIOUS AND ECCLESIASTICAL REFORMS, will not be doomed to disappointment. Important intelligence has been received respecting this point during the past months. Provisions have

been recently made for a vernacular edition of the Holy Scriptures, to replace the Slavonic version now in use. At the coronation of the Emperor Alexander, when most of the Russian archbishops assembled at Moscow, it was decided that all the theological academies, as well as all the representatives of theological science, should be appealed to to concur in this important work. The first portion of the new translation has already made its appearance. Measures like these cannot fail to tie a bond of union between the Eastern Episcopal and the Protestant Churches. We expect the same result from the liberality of the Russian government in defraying the expenses of the publication of the newly discovered Sinaitic manuscript of the New Testament. It will promote theological science in the Russian Church, and bring it into closer contact with the neighboring Protestant countries. To the same end will tend the transformation of the ecclesiastical semin

aries into theological faculties to be connected with the universities. While better theological schools and more thorough theological science will gradually train for the Church a better clergy, the establishment of Sunday-schools will be instrumental in penetrating the laity with a new interest in religion. The non-Greek denominations are thankful to the emperor for abrogating the intolerant law which forbade the reception of Pagans, Mohammedans, and Jews into any of the Churches except the State Church. A new law on toleration, which was submitted to the Council of the State, has been adopted. It still contains many intolerant provisions; for example, it subjects to punishment persons who found new sects, and orders the seceders from the State Church to be sent to the ecclesiastical authorities to be instructed and persuaded. But, nevertheless, it marks a transition to a better state of things than the one now abandoned.

I. ENGLAND.

1. Religious and Theological.

Quakerism Past and Present: being an Inquiry into the Causes of its Decline in Great Britain and Ireland. By John

Stevenson.

The Peculium, an Endeavor to throw Light on some of the Causes of the Decline of the Society of Friends, especially in regard to its Original Claim of being the peculiar People of God. By Thomas Hancock.

These books undertake to answer an inquiry which properly awakens a considerable interest in the thoughtful mind.

Williams and Norgate, London, publish in the original languages the following:

The critical edition of Hyppolitus, with a Latin translation and Notes. Baron Bunsen, in his work on this newly discov ered volume, affirms that it doubles our information concerning the Christianity of those primitive times. Also,

Fasciculus first of a new edition of Eusebius, edited by Læmmer. Also,

Vol. 1 of the Opera of Epiphanius, edited by Dindorf.

2. Biography.

In Biography a Life of Cavour, an Autobiography of Leigh Hunt, are published.

The Life of Schleiermacher, as unfolded in his Autobiography and Letters, translated from the German, in two volumes, with a portrait, is published by Smith, Elder, & Co., London. The letters amount to 460.

Memoirs, Letters, and Speeches of Anthony Ashley Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury, published by Murray.

3. Scientific.

Dr. Whewell has published a volume On the Philosophy of Discovery, Chapters Historical and Critical.

Professor Owen's work on Paleontology is confessedly an able but not systematic work. It treats mainly of vertebrate organisms. On the mode of the creations in the successive periods he is reserved. He enigmatically enunciates, as "perhaps the most important and significant result of paleontological research," "the establishment of the axiom of the continuous operation of the ordained becoming of living

things." He favors, on the whole, the view of "a continuously operative secondary creational law."

II. GERMANY.

1. Exegetical Theology.

It is a remarkable circumstance, that the entire exegetical literature of the past three months is on the orthodox side. We have not noticed among the new announcements a single book of the otherthe rationalistic school. The names of the

authors are mostly new in this province of theological literature.

Rev. C. W. Otto, for many years a leading man among the High-Church Lutheraus in Germany, has published "New Researches on the Historical Relations of the Pastoral Epistles." (Die geschichtlichen Verhältnisse der Pastoral Briefe auf's Neue untersucht. Leipsic, 1860. Trubner, pp. 407.) The author has had recently the degree of D.D. conferred on him by the Theological Faculty of Leipsic, and he offers the above work to the faculty as a token of his gratitude. The author designates the work as the fruit of many years' studies. It was his desire to obtain clear views on the differences which determined the form of the doctrinal development of the Biblical theology, especially as contained in the Epistles of Paul. He found much valuable information in the copious recent literature on the Pauline Epistles, but neither the hypothesis of a difference between the Petrine and Pauline Theology, nor the assumed opposition between the Jewish-Christian and PaganChristian elements in the early Church gave him sufficient light. This led to a determination to investigate the whole subject anew. The author became convinced that the diverse doctrines professedly pointed out in the New Testament ought to be derived not from two opposing but from one common source. The greatest difficulty to the carrying through of this view was found in the Pastoral Epistles, and they were therefore selected as a fit subject for a special work. Three books are severally devoted to the three pastoral epistles; the introduction gives a survey over the whole literature, the expressions peculiar to the Pastoral Epistles, and over the views of the commentators respecting the time when these epistles were written. An appendix contains the testimonies of the first and second centuries for the authenticity of the Pastoral Letters and copious indexes.

The Prophecies of Zechariah have found a new commentator in W. Neumann. (Die Weissagungen des Sakharjah. Stuttgardt, 1860.) The obscure prophecies appear to him as words of the people of God struggling with the approaching ruin. An extensive introduction treats of the

peculiarities which distinguish Zechariah from other prophetic books, and which are analogous to the person and the tribe of Joseph; he portrays the times in which and for which the prophet speaks, and delineates the personal character of the prophet. Then follow a German translation of the prophecies and the commentary. The book is divided into four divisions: The Prophet's Vocation (i, 1-6); Seven Night-Visions (i, 7—vi, 15); Addresses to the People (vii and viii); and The Completion of the Future of Israel (ix to xiv).

2. Historic Theology.

Among the most important works on the history of the Popes belongs the History of Alexander III., and of the Church of his Times, by H. Reuter, Professor of Protestant Theology at the University of Griefwaldt. It is now publishing in a second thoroughly revised edition, to be completed in three volumes, the first of which has just been issued. The completion of the work is announced for 1861. (Geschichte Alexander des Dritten. Leipsic, 1860.)

The excellent edition of the complete works of Melancthon, which was commenced by the late Dr. Bretschneider, and has been continued by Dr. Bindseil, has been completed with vol. xxviii, on the tercentenary of the death-day of the great reformer. This last volume contains, as an appendix, Annales Vita Melancthonis, and indexes, which are sold separately, also. This collective edition of the works of Melancthon was intended by Dr. Bretschneider as the first part of a comprehensive collection of the Works of the Reformers, under the title Corpus Refor

matorum.

Professor C. F. Baur, the learned leader of the negative school of German Theology, has revised and enlarged his work on the Christian Church of the first Three Centuries, which was first published in 1853. The bold and defiant assertions of the neological school have called forth throughout the Protestant world an extraordinary zeal in the investigation of ancient Church history, and have, much against the originators of the movement, so strongly fortified the position of the orthodox theology that