mitting the importance of these factors, the demands of the congregation also require careful consideration. Roemhild, an excellent homilist, made it his chief aim in preaching to answer the question, "How can I get the truth to the hearer?" Ahlfeld, one of Germany's most effective of recent preachers, frequently said: "A drop of life is better than an ocean of knowledge." These hints are significant, because the sermon has value only in so far as it affects the hearer. Respecting the more formal elements, the author demands scrupulous attention to appearance and manner in the pulpit, so that nothing may strike the audience as ludicrous or offensive; logical arrangement of the sermon; & style neither too learned nor trivial, but dignified, popular, living, and modeled after Scripture. He emphasizes careful regard to acoustic requirements, so often neglected by German ministers. Referring to the history of the German pulpit, he says that Luther formed his style from Scripture and from intercourse with the people, thus making it the style of life itself. After the Reformation, a tedious, dry, barren, though learned, style became prevalent. Even Pietism, with all its life, found difficulty in overcoming it. During the period of Enlightenment, stiff essays with a literary style were common. At present the tendency prevails to model the style of the pulpit after Scripture and cultured conversation. It must be attractive both to the learned and to the illiterate. Thus Ahlfeld's style attracted eminent professors at Halle and Leipzig, but also peasants and servants. Turning to the substance of the sermon, he demands Biblical truth as the basis, and protests against the assertion of rationalists that Scripture has become secondary, and that the spirit of the nineteenth century must take its place if the pulpit is to bring the educated back to the Church. The matter must not be too learned. There were times when preachers were to be found who made their sermons exegetical and dogmatic lectures. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, sermons contained numerous Scriptural quotations in Greek and Hebrew, and also citations from Latin and Greek authors in the original, together with scholastic arguments, and propositions from philosophy, dogmatics and polemics-evidently out of place in a sermon. The people need practical and edifying truth. This, of course, does not mean that the sermon must be superficial. References may be made to literary, political and other current events, but not so as to lose sight of Scripture. The culture of the congregation must be considered, in order to determine what truth they can bear. There may be audiences which require elementary instruction; others require more advanced doctrines. The author mentions a certain congregation which informed the new minister, after his first sermon, that they were able to endure stronger food than he had given them. The minister should, therefore, study his members, or, to use an expression of Bismarck, he should read "the soul of the people." If the minister wants to preach effectively, he must study the history, manners and opinions of his church. The more thorough the prognosis and diagnosis of a physician the more easily and effectively will he be able to apply the needed remedies; and so the preacher will be able the better to apply the needed balm for healing the diseases of his people if he has thoroughly studied their social and spiritual pathology. Meyer's Commentary is still regarded as by far the best, and it holds its place so firmly because every new edition is improved and brought up to the present standard of research. There is least demand for the volume on Revelation, of which only three editions have appeared, and most for those on the synoptical Gospels and Romans, of which seven editions have been published. On the other books there are extant the fourth, fifth and sixth editions. PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. The attempts of Ritschl and his school to free theology from the influence of philosophy, particularly of metaphysics, may have a healthy effect in preventing the encroachment of philosophical speculation on the domain of spiritual life. The aim is to concentrate the attention less on speculative dogmas and more on practical religion. But while now, just as in the time of Schleiermacher, it may be neces sary to prevent the interference of philosophy with religion, the two cannot be permanently separated. And besides the efforts made to divorce them, we also find a tendency to bring them into more intimate relations. The numerous attempts of philosophical writers to overthrow materialism, and to find a firm basis for ethics and religion, are noteworthy signs of the times. To this tendency belongs the book of Dr. H. K. Hugo Delff on "The Principal Problems of Philosophy and Religion" (Die Hauptprobleme der Philosophie und Religion). He recognizes spiritual and supernatural elements in man's nature, whose needs, consequently, transcend the satisfying power of this world. Hence peace can only be the work of God. "Nature and reason, interest and calculation, cannot furnish it. Peace must spring from the relation of the inner powers, and only God has control over these." And our age, in order to attain peace, needs moral and spiritual healing, not merely external application of remedies. opposition to those who sneer at Christianity and pronounce it antiquated, he professes to be a philosopher who cheerfully proclaims himself a disciple of Jesus. "Of all teachers, He is the only one who fills me with reverence, the only one whom I can unreservedly call • The Master.' Jesus taught, and is something of which no one else had any conception, or now has independently of Him; and yet this conception embraces all human destiny." He pronounces Christianity the truth and realization of reason. Reason moves amid postulates, and therefore presupposes something which transcends reason; but that which reason cannot reach is brought by Christianity. Therefore Christianity contains the Alpha and the Omega of all wisdom. In INDEX TO VOL. XII, July to December, 1886. Pew Chapman, Melville B., D.D., A Cry from the 204 Gordon, Rev. E. C., "The Vacation Scan- 153 465 Hale, Edward E., D.D., Personal Communion 42 336 358 97 294 Hall, Charles H, D.D, The Source of Hope. 411 471 228 487 59 417 Sherwood, John D., Concerning the Making 119 109 521 428 Stuckenberg, J. H. W., D D., Current Religi- 383 516 124 145 423 King, Rev. James B., The Christian Philoso- 516 429 334 24 37 Pierson, Arthur T., D.D., The Foolishness of Stone, George M., D.D., Some Modern Fu- Storrs, R. S., D.D., The Glory of Christ (a communion sermon) Talmage, T. De Witt, D.D., The Termini of Taylor, George Lansing, D.D., God's Great 317 Thomas, Jesse B., D.D., Debt to Childhood... 512 281 Communion Thoughts, by A. J. Quick.... Judas, by H. F. Smith, D.D...... 215 Lay Talks in the Prayer-Meeting, by Rev. J. 267 ...... " 334 Love of Christ, The Constraining Power of .... 281 Paul, St., The Conversion of: Its Preparation Personal Communion with God, by Edward Saloon-keeper's Ledger, by Rev, Louis Albert Banks.... Salvation, by Massillon... "Science, The Final," A Few Words from Scriptures, The Public Reading of the, by 8. .... 491 ....... 242 H. Kellogg, D.D. Striving and Seeking, by Henry J. Van Dyke, Study, The Maximum of Time for, by Rev. 380 116 199 Symposium on the Ministry. "How may the 519 420 Pew, A Cry from the, by Melville B. Chap 42 Termini, The, of Two City Roads, by T. De 408 423 Praise Service, by Charles S. Robinson, D.D. Preparation for the Sacred Ministry, An Old World View, by Prof. Orelli, trans- 24 189 Through Doubt,by J. H. W.Stuckenberg, D.D. 302 Twenty-Eighth Psalm, The, by Rev. J. E. Scott..... Way, The Untraveled and Irretraceable, by 333 Way, The Hard, by Rev. C. Q. Wright..... 57 |