BIBLICAL REPOSITORY AND CLASSICAL REVIEW. CONDUCTED BY REV. W. H. BIDWELL. THIRD SERIES. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE PROPRIETOR, AT 120 NASSAU STREET. LONDON WILEY & PUTNAM, 32 PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCXLVII. BY PROF. ENOCH POND, D.D., Theological Seminary, Bangor, Me. From the German of DR. F. W. BESSER, by PROF. W. M. REYNOLDS, Gettys- 3. Monette's History of the Valley of the Mississippi. 5. Treatises of Luther, in German. 6. D'Israeli's Amenities of Literature. 8. Lord's Exposition of the Apocalypse. 9. Works of Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne. 10. Dr. Buchanan on the Holy Spirit. 11. Turnbull's Genius of Scotland. 12. Hallam's Constitutional History of England. THE BIBLICAL REPOSITORY AND CLASSICAL REVIEW. THIRD SERIES, NO. X.-WHOLE NUMBER, LXVI. ARTICLE I. THE LAW OF PROGRESS IN ITS APPLICATION TO CHRISTIANITY. By REV. WILLIAM ADAMS, D. D., New York. AMONG the many theories which have been advocated concerning the condition and prospects of society, that which affirms its gradual and certain advancement has now, at length, obtained a very general, if not universal prevalence. During the last two hundred and fifty years, the human intellect has developed an unprecedented activity. Discoveries have been pushed into the secrets of the sea, the air, and the earth; inventions have been multiplied to subserve the convenience of civilized man; the boundaries of knowledge have been greatly enlarged; and the general condition of the world has assumed a new and brighter promise. That the "golden age" is past already, is a dream of pagan mythology. Ours is the day of hope and expectation; and as the face of the whole earth revives under the breath of Spring, so do all departments of science, physical and intellectual, partake of that progressive impulse which is abroad in the earth. In these circumstances, it was not to be expected that the province of religion would long remain uninvaded by the universal spirit of motion and innovation. At length, we have heard it affirmed, and this no longer by an avowed infidelity, but by professed religious teachers, that the Christian religion is capable of many essential improvements; and that it must, and will, indeed, undergo many important modifications, or prove itself altogether unequal to an age of brightening light and progress. Let us not, therefore, be judged as one that beateth the air, when we announce for our theme, the Law of progress in its apTHIRD SERIES, VOL. III. NO. 2. 1 |