Roman Empire at that time, he treats of the life and age of Justin, of the circumstances under which the two Apologies were written, of the philosophy of Justin in its relation to Stoic Platonism, and especially of the mutual relations and analogies of the Christian Doctrine and of Paganism, according to St. Justin.

A work from the same author on the persecutions of the Christian Church, (Histoire des persécutions de l'église jusqu'à la fin des Antonins, Paris, 1875,) is regarded as one of the most important publications on Church history which have appeared in 1875. After giving two introductory chapters on "Dissensions in the Primitive Christian Church,' and "Sufferings of the Christians Previous to the Persecutions of Nero," the author describes in the six following chapters the character and the history of the persecutions under Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. An appendix contains two essays on the legality of Christianity in the Roman empire during the first century, and on the martyrdom of St. Felicitas and her seven sons. The work is written in an attractive and fascinating style, and based on a most thorough acquaintance with all the sources of information.

The literature on the Council of Trent has received a most valuable addition by the publication of a work of Dr. Dollinger, (Ungedruchte Berichte und Tagebücher zur Geschichte des Concils von Trient. Nordlingen, 1876.) As the title indicates, it contains a number of reports made, and diaries kept, by bishops and officers of the Council. All of them are now published for the first time. Among the documents of the volume is a report on the preparation for, and the beginning of, the Council from Serpando, general of the Order of St. Augustine, subsequently cardinal; a diary of the Council by Massarelli, the secretary of the Council; a report on the progress of the Council by Gonzalez de Mendoza, Bishop of Salamanca, and a diary by Bishop Pseaume of Verdun.

A new work on the manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible in the Imperial Library of St. Petersburgh, by Harkavi and Strack, (Catalog der Hebräischen Bibel-Handschriften, St. Petersburgh, 1875,) gives a curious account of one of the most remarkable literary forgeries of the age, which is all the more interesting as it concerns manuscripts of the Bible. The manuscripts referred to form the most valuable collection of the kind in any public library. There is only one of still greater value at Tchufut Kale, in the Crimea, but that will probably be also purchased by the Russian Government for the Petersburgh library. Both these collections were made by the almost incredible zeal of a Caraite Jew of the Crimea, Abraham Firkovitch, who died in 1874 at the age of eighty-eight years. Even when more than eighty years old, this man undertook long journeys to the East to search for new manuscripts. His attention was specially devoted to the genizas, or cellars, beneath the synagogues, in which the Jews frequently conceal old damaged manuscripts of the Bible, in order that they may decay without being violated by the hands of man. It is natural that valuable discoveries can be made in these places. Unfortunately, Firkovitch tried to enhance the real value of the discovered

manuscripts by the most shameless forgery. He changed the dates in the signatures of the copyists, and in the notes concerning the sale or donation of the manuscripts, and, besides, made many additions of his own. According to the falsifications made by him, some of the manuscripts even belonged to the time before Christ, while a very large number was compiled during the first ten centuries of the Christian era. If genuine, these discoveries would have been of an astounding character, for thus far we had only a few manuscripts belonging to the tenth century, and not a single one of an earlier age. It was, therefore, natural that the genuineness of these remarkable manuscripts should be looked upon with suspicion; but a noted Orientalist, Professor Chwolson, vehemently defended them, and even Tischendorf censured the rashness of the doubters. But several other members of the Russian Academy noticed the obvious discrepancies between some notes of the manuscripts and well-known facts of history, and the new work of Harkavi and Strack proves the fraud, that has been committed in a manner which leaves no room for further doubt.

The first good biography on Bernardino Ochino, one of the most celebrated Italian Protestants of the sixteenth century, has been recently published by Benrath, (Bernardino Ochino von Siena. Leipsic, 1875.) Ochino was a Capuchin monk, and vicar-general of his order. He was not only the glory of his order, but was regarded as one of the first pulpit orators of Italy. By reading the works of the German Reformers, and by his personal acquaintance with Valdez, the foremost representative of the Reformation in Spain, he became convinced that the pope was the antichrist. He fled to Switzerland; was for five years pastor in Augsburgh, when Charles V. demanded his surrender; sought, in 1547, refuge in England, where he obtained considerable influence under Edward VI.; was again compelled to flee by the edict of Bloody Mary; became pastor in Zurich, from where he was expelled on the charge of heresy; fled to Poland, and bad, at the age of seventy-seven years, to leave this country again to escape persecution by the Catholics. German papers praise the work as one of the best written biographies relating to Church history.

ART. X.-QUARTERLY BOOK-TABLE.

Religion, Theology, and Biblical Literature.

Daily Christian Advocate. Folio. New York: Nelson & Phillips. 1876. It was a happy, though unintentional, coincidence, that the General Conference of our centennial year should be held in Baltimore"old Baltimore"-redolent with so many reminiscences of our past history. With "old Baltimore we had our battles in the days of slavery; but they have passed, leaving nothing but fraternal and honoring memories behind them. And the members of this

General Conference will, we believe, cherish a cordial recollection of the various Methodisms, once one, but now divided, there residing. Sectionally and denominationally distinct, an era of peace is dawning, looking to a future of spontaneous spiritual oneness, in which former and present denominational boundary lines will lose much of their significance.

The earlier public sessions of such a body seem dilatory and employed in trifles. But during these early sessions the real work is being distributed and performed by the great Committees. These Committees are truly sub-Conferences, which take each its share of business, and thoroughly and earnestly consider it; and their report is the result of their best brain labor. Those reports cannot be completed until the latter part of the session. Then they come in rapidly, and as these often require little more than the sanction of the Conference, masses of business are finished which have been industriously matured during the whole session. The earlier public sessions do, indeed, furnish room for an abundance of trivial propositions, which are referred for due entombment to the proper Committee. In particular, the soft-brained brother who proposes to mutilate the Apostles' Creed by abolishing that grand old word "Catholic," put in his usual quadrennial appearance, illustrating how enduring is the generation of in

nocents.

The addresses of the various delegations were a most interesting feature of the session. Of course, the first in honor were Messrs. Rigg and Pope, both from their high personal reputation, and from our reverence for the island Church who is the mother of us all. Most heartily received, also, was the frank and manly address of our fine old Calvinistic foe and brother, Dr. Patton, from the Presbyterian Church. With Dr. Patton we staunchly hold to a creed, and fully recognize that our two creeds are not one; but these necessary differences of the understanding lie in a stratum altogether below that higher concord of the Spirit in which we are one. The modifications made by Augustine, and still more trenchantly by Calvin, are a special phase, but no fundamental change in the great, immutable, generic theology of the Church. The addresses of the fraternal delegates from the Church South were eloquent and hearty, and heartily received. Such arrangements were made as will, we trust, establish fraternal relations forever, to be confirmed by a catholic union of the various bodies of, at least, American Methodism.

Perhaps no more touching words were addressed to the Confer

ence from a sister Church than came from the African Methodist Episcopal Church, under signature of Bishop Payne and others:"Most reverend Brethren: With joy we hail the day that once more permits us, as fellow-laborers and sufferers in the bonds of Christian faith, to greet you in the capacity of Church counselors assembled. Heretofore, by our connectional standing, we have realized the strength of our relationship. You have seemed nearer to us than any other great body of Christians in the world, because we have drawn life from your doctrines, models from your laws, and grace from your examples. Your Methodism has been our Methodism; your pioneers our pioneers. The realizations of times gone by are stronger to-day than at any preceding period. We feel in Christ that we are brethren by blood, by denomination, by doctrine, by our peculiar law. You and we all stand upon the apostolic principles of John Wesley, and, as Methodists, practically ought to be near each other. We should feel the pulsations of only one heart. May God, for his own glory and the good of his Church, draw us to one common center!"

This Conference was conservative-progressive. Special efforts had been made to render it a Conference ready for fundamental changes. The essays in the editorial columns of one or two of our leading Advocates more than four years ago, in favor of quadrennializing the Episcopacy, had been followed by the maintenance of doctrines in Church polity heretofore almost unheard of in our Methodism. Under so powerful an influence a general spirit of questioning almost every point in our system arose. A discussion ensued, unjustly characterized by the " Independent" as "a furious newspaper war;" unjustly, we say, for it was, though an earnest, an eminently fair and courteous discussion. Yet the movement brethren did, in some sections, carry the discussion into the delegate elections, producing in some instances unfortunate results. Sensational announcement appeared in the "New York Herald" of a whole programme of fundamental changes, followed by nearly as sensational an announcement in the "Independent." Of course all such outside pyrotechnics were conducive to reaction. If we are specially sensitive against any thing, it is against sensational pressures from any outside or hostile sources assailing our Church institutions. Still it was not reaction from the discussion of change that mainly produced the result. The fact was, that as the discussion advanced the clearer it became that the changes were, in themselves, not only reversive of our system, but, as partial changes, unproductive of the expected good results.

Quadrennialization and abolishment of episcopal ordination did not venture to utter a word for themselves. Modifications of the Presiding Eldership were decided to require a constitutional change. We believe this last to have been strictly the true ground. Yet it stands clearly on record that either and all these changes can be constitutionally made. Our Episcopacy, our Presiding Eldership, and even our Itinerancy, exist by the voluntary will of the Church, and must justify their existence by the results they produce. But there are some things which nominally ought to be held settled. Progress" is a very fine word; but it depends entirely on the direction the progress takes, whether it is a very fine thing. Stability is also, in its place, a blessing and a condition of success. There must be axioms in reasoning and fundamentals in institutions. The reason why the English people possess constitutional freedom and the French have seemed incapable of that attainment is, that the former hold their foundation stable, while the latter can blow up and blow down a constitution at two successive puffs. It will stand to the recorded honor of this our centennial General Conference that it has placed some things, not among the immutables, but among the reasonably, permanent. Not that any future discussion is to be at all suppressed or held disloyal; but a perpetual questioning of settled points will present little inducement. Inside innovations and outside assaults may give themselves a settled repose.

The evils of Conference "patronage," and of canvassing for the election of officers of the Church, and especially of the intrigues of self-seeking candidates, have called out some very strong expressions both before and during the Conference. How far these evils justify the vivid pictures and intense language employed we have had no personal means of actually knowing. We have never been a member of any General Conference by whose vote we were placed in our present position. Our visits to the Conference have usually been brief, and under disqualification for mingling in the discussions, public or private. A just sensitiveness, no doubt, that should make self-seeking or "log-rolling" fatal to a man's claims, cannot be too stringently maintained. On the other hand, any exaggeration and over-talk upon this subject, which we are inclined to believe exist, are unjust and injurious. There must be a rational amount of discussion as to the fitness of men, and the wishes of sections to be represented by the men. It is a very captious ethic which denounces this fair discussion as "electioneering," and a spurious piety that styles it "the prayer-meeting