pose to say that they must be scriptural. The point we insist upon is, that their scripturalness has not received sufficient attention. For this reason, as already shown, we have become indifferent to all means not focalizing in one point— the production of immediate results of the kind we have come to regard as indispensable to a revival of religion. It is thought the end is so desirable that the nature and appropriateness of the means is wholly a secondary consideration. And it has come to pass that we must accept the vagaries and extravagances in manner and method of all who claim to be specially engaged in labor to promote revivals of religion, or submit to the charge of hostility to religious effort and opposition to the "use of means." Expediency and zeal are to be accepted as adequate apologies, if not as reasons. All innovations are to be received without questioning, on the presumption that the men introducing them are good men, or they are pleasing and attractive to the young. Results must be accepted as genuine; and if anyone does not join enthusiastially in their glorification, he is assumed to have no heart in the good cause. And what is the consequence of this disregard of scripturalness in the use of means, which, in not a few instances, is little better than reckless enthusiam, in which all reasons for acting and the selection of methods are drawn from an overwrought imagination or strong feeling, swayed by an unsanctified will, rather than from the study of God's word and sincere reverence for its teachings? The answer to the question is, " By their fruits ye shall know them." The type of picty formed by such means is emotional, rather than rational. Its theological basis is the sensibilities and sympathies, rather than the Bible. It has its source in highly wrought emotions, rather than in gracious experiences; is often impracticable in church relations; is self-opinionated, rather than wise unto salvation; presumptuous, rather than humble; and guided more by impetuous self-will than by the spirit of Christ and the word of God. That we should be pained by none of these things if we conformed to the fullest extent possible

to the word of God is not affirmed. Even then we should encounter them, even as the apostles did. But what we do affirm is that if we gave a more earnest study to the scriptural theory and method of religious revivals we should greatly decrease the sum total of those things by which our hearts are saddened and the interest of evangelical Christianity compromised in the opinion of those who are without.

If any one should think we have made our statement too strong, we are nevertheless persuaded that none will dispute the position that sensationalism now enters largely into the means employed, and that it was not used by the apostles. That in all places where they preached there was a curious, gaping multitude, doing nothing except hearing or telling some new thing, and that the agitation of the popular mind by the preaching of the apostles furnished a sensational stimulus and gratification to those gossipping loungers and idle talkers was doubtless the fact. But the apostles did not pander to this class. They did not covet their approbation. They made no attempt to produce an excitement by catering to their prurient curiosity. We know that a "time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord" will occasion more or less excitement, according to the sentiments, culture, and habits of the society in which it occurs. But that is not the question. What we say the apostles did not do, and we should avoid, is the deliberate creation of excitement in order to turn the thoughts of men to personal religion. Yet often the first thing done is to produce some excitement, and if this is not brought about in some way nothing is effected. Arguments addressed to the understanding and designed to reach the conscience by convincing the judgment, thus rousing men to a sense of sin, of alienation from God, and of personal reconciliation to him through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ are not relied upon. Reason and conscience are not the objects of appeal. The effort is not to awaken man's indurated moral self-consciousness through them. They are not made the means of reaching, awakening, and

renovating the affections and sensibilities. On the contrary, as every man must admit who has carefully and dispassionately studied the methods and measures of some evangelists, the emotions and the imagination have been conspicuously appealed to, while the demonstrations of clear reasoning and the pungency of appeals to the conscience based upon God's word and man's moral constitution have been as conspicuously absent. The theory on which these measures are defended is preposterous. What, excites men before you reason with them? Excite men before you reach their consciences, and in order to reach their consciences? Excite men first, so that you may lead to Christ afterward? Very well, suppose you do. When the exciting conditions are withdrawn, what remains to hold either reason or conscience loyal to Jesus? Nothing. It happens to them, "according to the true proverb, the dog returns to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." Yet churches are looking for excitement as indispensable to the progress of Christ's kingdom. There must be some clap-trap to catch the people. Resort is had to some kind of pious fraud. A sort of side-show must accompany the exhibition of the cross. It may be a tirade against Universalism, or an unprovoked assault on other heretical bodies, whom we should rather try to win that we may convince and save, than repel by insulting allusions or declamatory denunciations; or it may be the dreamy mysticism and lofty pretensions of the higher life, or great personal magnetism, or remarkable ability in working upon and managing the emotions. No cause for surprise, therefore, that we have so much that is both superficial and sentimental in the typical piety of our day, when we make so little account of straightforward earnestness, of clear perception of the truths of the gospel, of deep conviction of man's moral ruin, and that his recovery is possible only through the saving knowledge of Christ. Therefore it behooves us to "inquire for the old paths, and walk in them"; so shall we see a better day in Zion. We shall rejoice in true revivals

that will lift the people out of sin and bring them into joyful communion with God.

In submitting these reflections and criticisms, it is not meant to disparage revival effort. Having the fullest faith in both its necessity and efficacy, to all that is scriptural and in harmony with the fitness of things we say heartily" Amen and amen." The day in which we live calls for the employment of all our forces. The fields are white already to the harvest. Enthusiasm must not, therefore, be chilled by cold, searching criticism; nor honest endeavor intimidated by sarcasm or ridicule. But, notwithstanding, we need to be careful, though not abating earnestness one jot or one tittle; wise, though just as persistent; more biblical, but just as unremitting in our activity. That untempered zeal should lead to extravagances, the results of which we deplore is to be anticipated; that earnestness in so great a work should sometimes degenerate into rashness ought not to surprise us. Rather these possibilities and tendencies should incite us to a healthful caution, so that we may not suffer the consequences of undue zeal, thus preventing rashness and avoiding extravagances. To do this, how imperative that wisdom and grace which cometh from above! May it be sought in all our churches and by all our pastors; and in secking it may the prayer of all Christians be, " O Lord, so revive thy work that we may see most of thy glory and least of human imperfection."

ARTICLE VI.

RECENT WORKS BEARING ON THE RELATION OF SCIENCE TO RELIGION.1

BY REV. GEORGE F. WRIGHT, ANDOVER, MASS.

No. IV. CONCERNING THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF FINAL CAUSE OR DESIGN IN NATURE.

Birks (Thomas R.). Modern Physical Fatalism and the Doctrine of
Evolution. 12mo. Macmillan.

Cocker (Prof. B. F., D.D., LL.D.). Theistic Conception of the World.
An Essay in Opposition to certain Tendencies of Modern Thought. pp.
426. New York.
Bowen (Professor Francis).

pp. 465.

1875.

Lowell Lectures on the Application of Metaphysical and Ethical Science to the Evidences of Religion. Boston. 1849. In Lectures viii. and ix. of the First Course, pp. 155-198, the “Argument from Design" is judiciously and powerfully presented, though of course without special reference to the peculiar problems of the present time.

Cook (Rev. Joseph). Monday Lectures delivered in Boston in the Fall and Winter of 1876 and 1877. Published with the author's revision in the Daily Advertisers of the Tuesdays or Wednesdays following. Especially the Lectures on the Concessions of Evolutionists. Oct. 9, 16, 23, 30, 1876.

Dawson (J. W., LL.D.). An Address before the American Association for the Advancement of Science at Detroit, Michigan. August, 1875. pp. 26. Montreal. 1875.

Article in International Review for Jan. 1877, in Review of Huxley's New York Lectures. pp. 17.

Elam (Charles, M.D.). Winds of Doctrine: being an Examination of
the Modern Theories of Atomatism and Evolution. Reprinted from
Contemporary Review for Sept., Oct., and Dec., 1876.
London: Smith, Elder, and Co. 1877.

pp. 163.

Fiske (Prof. John). Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, based on the Doctrine of Evolution. 2 vols. pp. 465, 523. Boston. 1875.

Article in North American Review for Jan. 1877. pp. 90-106.

1 The list of books and articles given here is supplementary to that given in the two previous papers. See Bibliotheca Sacra for July and October, 1876. We regret that through oversight Mesozoic was incorrectly spelled in the October Article. It was correctly spelled in the manuscript.