LITERARY NOTICES. 



M3 



variation that is noticed in different persons. 

 With this information the mother need have 

 no alarm when unaccustomed sensations are 

 felt, or if she or her child do not do exactly 

 the same as her friend and her friend's child 

 have done. The book does not attempt to 

 take the place of a physician, but tells, under 

 the various divisions of its subject, what 

 symptoms require that a physician should be 

 called. 



Paganism surviving in Christianity. By 

 Abram Herbert Lewis, D. D. New York : 

 G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 309. 



The efforts of partisans, the author of 

 this book says, to manipulate early history in 

 the interest of special views and narrow con- 

 ceptions have been a fruitful source of error. 

 Equally dangerous has been the assumption 

 that the Christianity of the third, fourth, and 

 fifth centuries was identical with that of the 

 New Testament, or was a fair representative 

 of it. The constant development of new facts 

 shows that at the point where the average 

 student takes up the history of Western Chris- 

 tianity it was already fundamentally corrupt- 

 ed by pagan theories and practices. Its un- 

 folding from that time to the present must 

 be studied in the light of this fact and the 

 rise, development, present status, and future 

 history of Roman Catholicism and Protestant- 

 ism can not be justly considered independent- 

 ly of it. The fundamental principles and 

 the underlying philosophy of these divisions 

 of Christendom originated in the paganizing 

 of early Christianity. This fact makes the 

 re-study of the beginnings of Christianity of 

 supreme importance. The book presents a 

 suggestive rather than an exhaustive treat- 

 ment of these influences, and of their effect 

 on historic Christianity, in the four points 

 of the influence of pagan thought upon the 

 Bible and its interpretation; upon the organ- 

 ized Church, through the pagan water-worship 

 cult; upon the practices and spiritual life of 

 the Church, " by substituting pagan holiday- 

 ism for Christian Sabbathism " ; and upon the 

 spiritual life and subsequent character of the 

 Church, by the union of church and state, 

 mid the subjugation of Christianity to the 

 civil power, according to the pagan models. 

 Under the first of these headings came the 

 corruptions derived from gnosticism and va- 

 rious allegorical interpretations of scriptural 



doctrines and symbols ; under the second the 

 corruptions of Christian baptism, giving rise, 

 among other things, to the doctrine of bap- 

 tismal regeneration and the use of holy wa- 

 ter; under the third, the origin of the sub- 

 stitution of Sunday for the old Sabbath, and 

 the rise, purpose, and tendency of Sunday 

 legislation — to which the author is opposed, 

 on principle and as a Seventh-day Baptist; 

 and under the fourth the whole course 

 of secular interference with the Church. 

 " Other forms of pagan residuum in Christi- 

 anity " include a low standard of religious 

 life; the metamorphosis of an ancient phallic 

 emblem into the Christian cross ; various be- 

 liefs connected with baptism ; lights in wor- 

 ship ; the eastward position ; certain features 

 peculiar to the Roman Catholic Church ; and 

 the observance of certain Christianized pagan 

 holidays. Regarding the fundamental prin- 

 ciples of Protestantism, as involved in present 

 issues, the author concludes that Protestants 

 must accept the Bible in fact as well as in 

 theory, reinterpreting it in the light of 

 " higher criticism " and deeper spiritual life, 

 or be overthrown ; that baptism must cease 

 to be the football of denominational polemics 

 and be raised to a question of obedience to 

 the example of Christ ; that Protestants must 

 return to true Sabbathism, " which is as un- 

 denominational as faith " ; and that all union 

 of Christianity with the state must yield be- 

 fore the normal development of true Protest- 

 antism. 



Elements of PHVsirs. By C. E. Fessenden, 

 Principal, Collegiate Institute, Peterboro, 

 Ontario. London and New York : Mac- 

 millan & Co., 1892, Pp. 229. Price, 80 

 cents. 



This is the latest of the excellent series 

 of text-books in science published by Messrs. 

 Macmillan & Co. It is especially worthy of 

 the attention of educators, on account of its 

 simplicity and the natural method of instruc- 

 tion, scientific accuracy of statement, clean 

 text, type, and admirable illustrations. The 

 four simple divisions are : Matter and its Prop- 

 erties, pp. 1-53 ; Kinematics, pp. 53-64 ; Dy- 

 namics, pp. 64-179; Heaf, pp. 179-229. 



One is inclined to envy a generation of 

 beginners in science to whom each step is so 

 clearly explained, and where the illustrations 

 really assist the student. The longest chap- 

 ter, very properly, is devoted to the impor- 



