1848.] Intellect in the Pulpit. 303 to men; but the severe duties of practical godliness and the inevitable issues of a worldly and sinful life, set forth in plain Scriptural terms, strong delineations of true holiness of character, delineations which convict men of sin and shut them up to condemnation unless they repent and reform, these are thought to be somewhat out of place in addressing an audience of refined, intellectual, cultivated persons. The community, at least the now large portion of the educated and cultivated community, has become so Christian in appearance, so improved in manners and conduct, that some are disposed to think that the stern and uncompromising features of the Gospel may be laid aside, or but seldom presented. In the progress of refinement, sin has so disguised itself in garments of beauty and grace, that many are deceived, and led to imagine that the thing itself no longer exists except in the lowest haunts of infamy and crime; and to those intrusted with its high duties and responsibilities it becomes a serious question to consider, whether, in the progress of refinement, the pulpit has not been so affected in its language and services as to lose something of that strong hold it ought ever to keep upon the conscience and the heart of the world, whether it does not speak too gently and softly of sin and punishment, and present too hesitatingly the necessity of repentance and regeneration and holiness. We do not mean that these should be incessant themes of discourse. We would give a large liberty and variety to the pulpit. We do not mean that preaching should be always suited to excite alarm, still less, that it should ever be denunciatory. We would have the preacher never forget that the goodness of God may lead men to repentance. But we would have him remember that Paul says he "persuaded men by the terrors of the Lord," and that, standing before Felix, he so reasoned" of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come," that the judge became the culprit and trembled before his prisoner. We would have him remember, that the solemn sanctions of the Gospel, the fearful delineations of the retributions awaiting the ungodly and impenitent, fell from the lips of him who was Divine love incarnate, mercy's messenger to a corrupt and misguided world; and we would have him not ashamed or afraid to use the language of his Master. Neither in what we have said would we be understood as decrying intellect, undervaluing knowledge, learning, talent, in the pulpit. The highest measure of these that can be had there, the better, if they be sanctified by those gifts of the spirit, those graces of the heart, that alone make them of any avail to the high purposes of the pulpit. We only mean, that intellect alone, arrayed in all the accomplishments of the most profound, splendid, or diversified scholarship, is not the first requisite. Moderate abilities, a limited portion of general knowledge and mental culture, united with a deep acquaintance with the word of God, and a fervent piety, living and growing in the soul, these will form a preacher of a higher order, of a higher order so far as the great object of preaching is concerned, a preacher with more power to persuade, regenerate, sanctify, to convert men to holiness and God, than the most exalted genius and the largest learning, destitute of this devout and fervent spirit. It was not Mr. Buckminster's intellect, exalted as it was, nor his profound and extensive learning, it was his heart, that gave him his power in the pulpit. It was his piety, his serious and devotional spirit, his simple and profound love of God and goodness, that anointed his lips with a holy unction, and produced those sermons that are now read with interest and edification by so many minds of different religious creeds, and different degrees of mental cultivation. In a merely intellectual point of view, in the absolute amount of thought and range of knowledge embraced, the "Sermons on Christian Communion" are equal, if not superior to Mr. Buckminster's two volumes; but it may be questioned whether they have the same unction and power, or whether, though read to an equal extent with his, they will ever reach and influence as many hearts. But our limits require us to leave the subject, and to omit several points that we intended to touch upon. Our chief object in this notice will have been gained, should we succeed in directing attention to the "Sermons on Christian Communion." Mr. Sullivan has done a good work in collecting and editing this volume. Although it does not correspond, as we have said, to our expectations, it is a collection of excellent, instructive, edifying sermons, in its general spirit and character highly honorable to our denomination, and we hope it will be extensively read and circulated. We intended to give some extracts, for the benefit of those of our readers who may not have seen the volume, but we have occupied all the space at our command. S. K. L. 1848.] Notices of Recent Publications. 305 NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS. General Principles of the Philosophy of Nature: with an Outline of some of its recent Developments among the Germans, embracing the Philosophical Systems of Schelling and Hegel, and Oken's System of Nature. By J. B. STALLO, A. M., lately Professor of Analytical Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry, in St. John's College, N. Y. Boston: Crosby & Nichols. 1843. 12mo. pp. 520. THIS book will not find many readers; nevertheless, it is on many accounts a remarkable work. The author, as we understand, is a Catholic, an ex-Professor of a Catholic college in New York, of German descent, but born and educated in this country. His German affinities appear on every page, but we cannot say the same of his Catholic faith. On the contrary, a pretty careful perusal of the volume had led us to set him down as a rationalist. He holds, for example, that the Middle Ages were "the ages of faith," "when Christianity culminated"; he also speaks of " the Christian epoch" as something which "was," and again he says, "the Spiritual never retraces its steps" (page 173). He is indignant at certain "philosophes" who make the faith of former ages to rest on "the artful device of a few impostors." "The saints and martyrs did not live and die," he contends," for an illusory shadow; they died for the divinity within them. 'L'homme dupe' is a fit subject for comedy and derision; but 'l'humanité dupe' has never existed." He goes on, however, to object to what he calls "an analogous assertion, which is not a jot the better," namely, that mankind have been exclusively indebted for the great revelations they have received to "a few chosen individuals." He will not allow that this is true except as "the spiritual sun of the world, at the break of each new historical day, gilds lofty eminences sooner than low valleys" (page 175). On the subject of miracles he is sufficiently explicit, for he says: "The verification of truths by external miraculous phenomena is a logical circle, and makes matter a criterion for mind, subordinates the essence to the phenomenon. The mind, reason, the Spiritual, is the Highest, and is absolutely incapable of deriving strength from another authority" (page 179). As has been intimated before, Mr. Stallo's habits of thought and expression are wholly German. This is to be regretted, for it prevents him from coming any nearer than most Germans VOL. XLIV. -4TH S. VOL. IX. NO. II. 27 would to the English or American mind in his expositions of the difficult passages in German metaphysics. Take the following for an example. are, as "The Eternal, therefore, is literally the Zero of nature, and from it every thing temporal, finite, proceeds. The first discession of Zero is that into the self-definition of the Eternal. + and it were, the spirits of all numbers; every number is only a successive position of or . The numbers are acts of the primitive idea, of Zero, which is not absolute Naught, but an ideal act without substratum. This primitive act has a twofold tendency, that of affirming and that of denying itself. is the self-position of 0; but +, being nothing else than 0 in position, must return thither, which takes place through the medium of. The act of affirmative position is therefore simultaneously that of negation; the 0, when existing, is necessarily + The realization of the Eternal is therefore its own antithesis. 0 is; not — — or ——.” — pp. 232, 233. = Our Trinitarian friends are welcome to the light and support to be derived from another paragraph in this connection. "The Deity is essentially a trinity: 0+. Since every individual thing or being is but the uttered thought of that trinity, and the Deity's thoughts are acts of self-consciousness, since the Deity thinks only itself, — it follows that every individual thing or being must also exhibit a trinity, and that every individual act must be a repetition of the primitive act. The forms corresponding respectively to 0 +are rest, motion, and extension (form, solidity)." — p. 233. These extracts are taken from his account of Oken's system. His expositions of Hegel are often quite as dark. We sometimes hear the expression, "as common as the air we breathe." Now suppose a person, desirous to know a little more about what is so common, should consult the work before us. He will read as follows: "The element of undifferentiated simplicity is now no longer positive identity with itself, or self-manifestation, light as such, but merely negative universality, degraded to a momentum of individuality, and therefore also affected with gravity. As negative universality it is the unsuspected, but insinuating and consuming, power over the Organic and Individual, a fluid passive with respect to light (transparent), but vaporizing whatever is individual, penetrating everywhere, - air.” p. 426. But we must not judge this work by its defects alone, especially as they are such as are scarcely to be avoided by one who would go to the bottom of the subject. In one respect, it manifestly has the advantage of all preceding attempts to expound in English Schelling and Hegel. Mr. Stallo is not content with indicating the point of departure of each system, and its method, or with discussing some of the leading principles involved therein. After having done this, he goes on, in his account of each system, to 1848.] Notices of Recent Publications. 307 note its manifold applications throughout the whole circle of the physical and moral sciences. Accordingly, we are disposed to say of this book what probably cannot be said of any other in the language. A student may take it, and by dint of hard study come at length to understand the Germans as well as they understand themselves. Whether the play, if play it may be called, would be worth the candle, is another question;-to be determined probably, as our author intimates in his Preface, by the individual's "craving for mental unity," by his desire to find some general principle which will show the intimate connection of all sciences, and, by going to the bottom of things, solve the problem of the universe. W. Revolutionary Services and Civil Life of General William Hull; prepared from his Manuscripts, by his Daughter, MRS. MARIA CAMPBELL: together with the History of the Campaign of 1812, and Surrender of the Post of Detroit, by his Grandson, JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1847. 8vo. pp. 482. To the curious in American biography, to those interested in the details of individual life and the varieties of individual character among the men who acted a conspicuous part in our Revolutionary struggle, this work will be valuable and instructive. Though prepared by near relatives, it is marked by great fairness and impartiality, and every statement in relation to the most important passages in General Hull's life is sustained by unquestionable and authoritative documents. To the generation now on the stage of active life, General Hull is known only by his misfortunes in the campaign of 1812, his surrender of Detroit, the charges of cowardice and treason brought against him for that act, his trial and conviction on those charges, and his subsequent pardon by the President of the United States. His Revolutionary services are comparatively but little known, and even where known, the dark cloud that gathered around his later years has been permitted to overshadow and conceal them. His own successful and conclusive defence of his conduct in the campaign of 1812, published in a pamphlet in 1824, never incorporated into any permanent historical work, is now but little known. Multitudes have never seen nor heard of it, and the prevalent impression throughout the country is still unfavorable to his character, as a man weak and inefficient, who had not the energy to conduct, nor the courage to meet the exigencies of a military campaign. It was natural that his descendants, to whom the facts of his life were familiar, and the real merits of his charac |