I. Jesus. By Charles F Deems, Pastor of the Church of the Stran- gers,' New York. New York: United States Publishing Company. Evangelists: his historical character indicated; or, an examination of the internal evidence for our Lord's divine mis- sion, with refence to modern controversy. By the Rev. C. A. Row, M. A., of Pembroke College, Oxford, etc., etc. London: Wil- 1. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society Vols. 40 and 41, for 2. Papers on the Northern and Eastern Extension of the Gulf Stream. By Dr. A. Petermann, Gotha, Germany. Translated and repub- lished by the U. S. Hydrographic Office, Commodore R. H. Wyman, Chief. Washington, D. C. The Edinburgh Review. No. cclxxvi. 3. Thermal Paths to the Pole. 2d. edition. By Silas Bent. St. Louis, 4. Paper read by Dr. William B. Carpenter before the Royal Institution (1871), and Report on Deep Sea researches, Nature, April, 1871. 1. Memoir of Chief Justice Taney. By Samuel Tyler, LL. D. Balti- THE SOUTHERN REVIEW. No. XXV. JANUARY, 1873. ART. I.-The Present Crisis and its Issues. Address delivered by Rev. B. M. Palmer, D. D., at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va., June 27, 1872. John Murphy & Co. Baltimore: This Address, which so many persons have read with the deepest interest, has three claims to our most careful, conscientious, and profound consideration. These claims arise: 1. From the magnitude and importance of the subject discussed in the address; 2. From the occasion on which it was delivered; and 3. From the high character and great reputation of its author. 1. How awful the theme suggested by the words—' The Present Crisis and its Issues'! As these words relate, not to the dark and troubled state of the religious world, but only to the social and political condition.of this country, so there is not, perhaps, in the whole range of human thought, a subject which comes more directly home to our business and bosoms. Our hopes have fled, and we sit in darkness. The lights which once seemed to guide us safely, and to cheer us on our way, have gone out; and the ground, once apparently so firm under our feet, is still unsettled and heaving from the mighty volcanic throes of the late revolution. Coming events have, as yet, only 'cast their shadows before,' causing us to feel, though we cannot see, that imminent dangers await us. In this dreadful state of darkness and uncertainty, a general feeling of distrust, anxiety, and discontent is gnawing at the heart of the American people. The Present Crisis, in one word, sits and broods, like an awful incubus, on the minds, hearts, and imag inations of a thinking men. The Nemesis of God has, indeed, involved us in a frightful vortex of the universe, which is beating us onward, we know not whither, into the dark, dark future, and in whose irresistible grasp we are overwhelmed with a sense of our own feebleness. Who, then, will show us any light? Who will cast any illumination, if it be only one ray, on our destiny as a people? It is on this grand theme, this awful subject, that Dr. Palmer feels himself charged with a 'message' to 'the young thought and hope' of the country. Who, then, is not all heart, and all ear, as he listens to his solemn and soul-stirring message? Young gentlemen of the University,' says he, 'I have delivered the message with which I have felt myself charged.' Let us read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the contents of this 'message.' 'I have not been able to address you,' he continues, with the fopperies of rhetoric. I have done you the higher honor of supposing you capable of sympathizing with the deep emotions of my own heart.' Let us, then, with a lofty candor, and in full sympathy with his deep and patriotic emotions, weigh his words, and lay them to our hearts. For is it not evident that the magnitude and importance of the subject demand our most careful, cautious, conscientious, and profound attention? 2. This consideration is, also, demanded by the occasion on which the message in question was delivered. It was 'delivered,' as we learn from the title page, 'before the literary societies of Washington and Lee University,' one of the largest and most flourishing institutions of learning in the South. Such an occasion was calculated to draw, and has in fact drawn, the attention of the press to the Address before us, so as to extend its influence, far and wide, beyond the walls of the University in which it was pronounced. The young men of the two societies there assembled, and their numerous friends, both young and old, as well as the Faculty and the Trustees of the University, not only received a deep impression from the burning words of the Address themselves, but they have also, by means of the press, given them a wide circulation and permanent influence. Hailing, with enthusiastic delight that appropriate and most impressive Address,' the two literary societies of the University have commended it to 'the young thought and hope' of the South as the great pleading of their chosen orator-the distinguished advocate of Truth and Liberty.' The Faculty, too, in compliance with a 'resolution of the Board of Trustees,' have published the very able and eloquet Address,' which was delivered in the chapel of the University.' Surely an Address which comes before the world, thus accredited and thus commended, deserves the most thoughtful, patient, and profound consideration of every man who really loves his country, his kind, or his God. Perhaps no discourse of the present day has been as extensively circulated, or as highly eulogized, as this of Dr. Palmer, on the all-absorbing theme of 'The Present Crisis and its Issues.' Who has not read it? But who, in the name of God and humanity, has bestowed on it that calm, conscientious, and scrutinizing attention which its great importance demands? 3. The high character and the great reputation of Dr. Palmer entitles his Address to our very best and most discriminating attention. An address delivered on such a theme, and coming before the world under such auspices, could hardly have failed to attract much attention, event had been the production of a comparatively obscure person. But having proceeded, as it did, from the pen of the Rev. B. M. Palmer, the universal interest which it has excited was to have been expected as a mere matter of course, especially if we consider that Dr. Palmer is universally known as, perhaps, the most eloquent pulpit orator and writer of the Presbyterian Church, which, for piety, learning, and ability, is not excelled, if equalled, by any other in this country. How many people, indeed, both in and out of his own denomination, have read his oration with rapture, and, with generous enthusiasm, given it to the wings of the wind, bidding it God speed! Such are the claims which, in our humble opinion, entitle the Address of Dr. Palmer to our very best attention and most discriminating judgment. What, then, have we to say of this celebrated Address? As to its syle, or eloquence, it is as far above our censure or our praise as it is above our capacity. If we do not use the customary phrase, that his style has 'filled us with delight and despair,' this is only because it has always been beyond the reach of our highest hopes. Whenever be strikes a great truth (as is frequently the case) he does so with the hand of a master, and gives forth the noblest strains of eloquence. As an illustration of this (we only wish our limits would permit us to give moe) we have selected the following passage: 'In this connection, a caveat must be entered against that coarse and selfish utilitarianism which measures all things only by a material standard. This is the peril which I most dread in the impending crisis: that in the friction of these competitive industries the fine sense of honor which formed the beautiful enamel of Southern character may be rubbed away, to be followed by the swift decay of virtue, of which it was at once the protection and the ornament. Materialism, sitting in the schools and speaking through the forms of philosophy, is not, perhaps, much to be dreaded. It is too monstrous to be believed. It shocks our moral convictions, and startles the pride of self-love, to be told that thought is only a secretion of the brain that the rapture and the pathos of grief are only currents of electricny along the tissues of the body. We can safely leave this to the instinct of human scorn, which resents as an insult such a libel upon our nature. But the spirit of materialism, infused into all the transactions of business and common life, is the angel of pestilence dropping the seeds of death from its black wing wherever it sweeps. It is this subtle and dangerous spirit which is at the bottom of that fearful demoralization that has spread like a leprosy over the land. It is rapidly displacing legitimate commerce by the silent invasion of its fixed laws, rendering the individual trader helpless in the grasp of a powerful combination controlling the market by irregular and unnatural methods, and |