the novelty of the title, 'Ideology,' which is not yet extensively domesticated in our vicinity. Its substance, however, (if so unsubstantial a thing can so be spoken of,) has long been familiarly known among us as the radicalism of Strauss and his school. A good sketch of this critic of the gospels is furnished; and also of a very different man, from whom he, nevertheless, derived no small impulse to his destructive task-Schleiermacher the learned, vigorous, eloquent, persuasive, sentimental, sarcastic, dreamy genius of Berlin. Strauss has all of his strength, far more than his recklessness and audacity, with none of his sensibility and devoutness. A rapid account of the career of this ideological heresy in Germany, and of its exile from the fatherland to the uncongenial soil of Britain, throws light upon the present state of English atheism, in which "empty abstraction swallows up all idea and fact, the Divine and human, in one universal void." (p. 184.) To this utter nihilism that finger-post points the shortest road.

The ideologist's position is the reverse of the old-fashioned infidelity. That threw aside the biblical history as absurd, incredible. But this holds that the facts of our revelation are the self-developed forms which man's conscious want of spiritual belief and repose has assumed. They are merely ideal conceptions of the desirable, taking on an embodied shape; imaginations clothing themselves in the semblance of reality, yet not real. Thus the narrative of Christ's life, and the entire scripture-record, is disposed of. Instead of the flings and blasphemies of the Age of Reason,' it tells us that all this Christian story is too good and too beautiful to be true, — what men so wished to be that they created it out of their own hearts, as a lovely illusion; but that it only projects a fair picture upon vacancy. This is indeed betraying the Son of God with a kiss. Yet there is a fraction of truth even here. Christian facts and doctrines are, as here asserted, consonant with the judgments of a rectified reason and the impulses of a sound conscience. The wild delusion is, that the idea of them could have originated in the human consciousness, as the ideologist maintains. Especially is this certain with respect to fallen man. Can figs grow on a thistle? Could the supremest beauty of holiness in life and sentiment be the invention, the outbirth, of a sinful and a

sinning soul? The soul does unquestionably need just what Christianity publishes; often, it intensely feels that aching, famishing want. The true doctrine is, that these revelations thus demanded, are not an empty chimera of unreal ideals—" the dream of a poet, or a saint, of a spirit full of divine yearnings and sympathies, but still a dream, an empty, unsubstantial dream;" but solid historic verities, all the more veritable because so good and so beautiful; words which God has spoken, records which he has authorized and superhumanly certified, for our individual consolation and redemption as lost but saved transgressors. We accept the statement of an opponent as conclusive against the ideologist, while of course repudiating its strongly implied denial of the authenticity of the Christian narratives:

"Melt the Christian history into myth, and what remains of the Christian hero? Every man must then make his own Christ, and build his church not on a rock of fact, but on the quicksand of fancy. An ideal Christ is next to no Christ at all. Phantom Saviours, phantom Christians, and phantom churches may be very well suited to the deceptive twilight of Hegelian or German metaphysics; but we are convinced they will all disappear ere they have long been imported into the broad noonday of English common sense. Christianity is either a history, or it is nothing. It is true or false, not true and false. What is a fiction in reason is not a fact in faith."*

We take the issue: Christianity is either a history, or it is nothing.' So let the conflict go onward; and we close our review of these volumes with a hearty satisfaction in the winning fortunes of this "good fight of faith." Our forces have not yet had to turn their back on the foe in the day of battle. Who honestly believes that they ever will?

*Westminster Review, (reprint April, 1862,) p. 311.

ARTICLE IV.

CHURCH CULTURE AND DISCIPLINE.

THE Christian church recognizes the social nature and wants of man. When, in its organization, God gave visible expression to the union of believers to Christ and to one another, he was legislating for the members of a community, and not for isolated individuals. When he entered into special covenant with Abraham, he included his household with him; and the reason which he gave for so doing has deep significance: "For I know him, that he will command his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." In this transaction, according to the illustration of the apostle Paul, the visible church had its distinct origin. Then was planted the olive tree whose root and fatness are to endure through all the changes which may take place among its branches.

In instructions afterwards given, and in legislation respecting the church, the same principle was recognized. The apostle, in addressing his countrymen, assured them that the covenantpromise belonged to them and their children by a law of descent in respect to covenant blessings. So also the members of the church are called brethren: "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ." And the Saviour himself said: "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." The church was a want of the social nature of man, and at the same time it avails itself of that social nature as a medium for sending outward and downward the rich blessings of the gospel.

A gospel church is, therefore, a visible organization of believers in Jesus Christ, formed for the purpose of securing a fuller development of the spiritual life of its members, and to be an instrumental agency for imparting that life to others. Such an organization, in the nature of things, must have some bond or ligament uniting its members. The harmonious action of individuals together, always requires, as a condition, some

law by which their actions are governed. The idea of constitution, or law, underlies every idea of a society. What is thus involved in the nature of things the scriptures distinctly recognize. They enjoin special duties upon the church, and prescribe for it the appropriate rules of action. An end contemplated by those rules, and secured through their observance, is the culture and discipline of the members of the church. It is of the first importance that correct views of this subject prevail among the members of our churches. Their views deeply affect their conduct.

The word discipline, is derived from the Latin disciplina, and that from disco, meaning, to learn. The primary meaning of the word thus derived, is instruction and regulation. Hence the discipline of an army is the carrying into effect all those rules and regulations, in regard to the individuals that compose it, which are needful for its efficiency. So the discipline of a school consists in enforcing such rules as will secure the accomplishment of the ends sought by the school. In like manner church discipline consists in the execution of all the appropriate laws of the church which call forth and guide the moral energies of its members. Discipline grows out of the very nature of the church, and includes all that it does for the moral and religious improvement of its members and the good of the world. This is the generic meaning of the term discipline as used in connection with the term church.

But church discipline, in common speech, often includes much less than what has thus been specified. It is made to include only specific action in reference to members of the church supposed to be guilty of gross offences. And it can hardly admit of a doubt that views thus imperfect have had an unhappy influence in all our churches. Suggesting little more than certain formalities connected with the trial of offending members, scenes oftentimes painful to contemplate, a low estimate of its importance is formed. Then low views of the importance of discipline naturally lead to laxness in its administration. Thus the great ends of the church-organization come to be still less perfectly answered.

A more correct as well as healthful view of church discipline, is that which makes it include all which the church does in ac

cordance with its constitution and laws to develop the Christian graces of its members, and so train them for usefulness on earth and glory in heaven. Such a work is at once felt to be one of momentous importance. And then that specific part of the work, so often regarded as the whole of it, assumes at once a deeper significance from the fact, that it is a part of a great system of religious training for the people of God. Prejudices which often obstruct the discipline of the church are thus removed, and new motives are presented for making it efficient.

Having thus considered the general nature of church discipline, its special object claims attention. The primary result sought is the spiritual culture of God's people. Other objects, secondary in a logical point of view, though not in point of importance, are also aimed at and secured. As Christians become more spiritually-minded, and exhibit in greater distinctness the Christian character, they become more happy, more useful, and do more to honor God.

The new spiritual life in man commences in feebleness. For its development genial nurture is demanded. This is in part afforded by the quickening influence of Christian sympathy and love. The church, in the exercise of its proper functions, draws men within reach of the sympathy and love of their fellows. So intimate is the union subsisting in this organization, that it is thus spoken of in the scriptures: "Whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it; or whether one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular." An important object is thus gained by bringing Christians more directly under the stimulating power of each others influence.

Another subsidiary object is attained when Christians are brought by covenant obligations to put forth personal efforts for the religious improvement of their brethren. Such effort excites and strengthens the spiritual life in him who makes it; for it is a law of the kingdom of grace, that men grow strong by labor, and rich by giving; that they become more watchful by exercising a Christian watch over others. And, on the other hand, this effort is seldom lost upon him who is the object of it. A renewed heart cannot long remain insensible to the warm