BOOK NOTICES. ■ ' 447 



It is no part of our purpose in this paper or those that may follow to antag- 

 onize true Christianity as it came from the great Teacher and his immediate fol- 

 lowers, as we regard true and undefiled Christianity as the grandest civilizer of 

 man the world ever saw, and the man who would pull down this form of religion 

 is an enemy of his race. 



Man has ever been a worshiping animal, and some form of religion dates 

 away beyond the historic period, until it is lost in the mists of fable. We 

 find some form of religion known and practiced, and it is destined to con- 

 tinuity the close of time in some form. There is not and has not been a form 

 so likely to survive, as the Christian religion, which for nearly twenty one 

 centuries has withstood the rude shock of its professed enemies and the still ruder 

 shock of its pretended friends. 



Most of the various religions that have prevailed in the world have been 

 made up of priest-craft, idolatry, heathen mythology, superstition, error and brute 

 force with little or no admixture of truth and have existed upon the ignorance 

 and credulity of the uneducated masses they have oppressed and impoverished. 



When Christianity dawned a new era was rapidly approaching and could it 

 have remained in its purity as Christ and his apostles left it, would it not have 

 filled the whole earth. But as early as the days of Constantine, courtly favor, 

 ofiice and thrift, as reward, followed a profession of Christianity, and multiplied 

 thousands flocked to the church, most of whom had never been touched by the 

 spirit of the Master, nor is it much better to-day. Priest craft, the traditions of 

 churches, some heathen mythology, a large amount of superstition and error has 

 crept into the Christian churches and is multiplying infidelity to an extent be- 

 yond the grandest efforts of the most deadly professed enemies of the true faith. 

 A large proportion of the best cultured intellect of the world is now combating 

 these departures from the faith in its purity. When this is accomplished, which 

 is an herculeaii task, the world will be better. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



The Currents and Temperatures of Bering Sea. Wm. H. Dall, Quarto, 

 pp. 46, Illustrated, Washington, 1882. Government Printing Office. 



This is Appendix No. 16 to the Report of the United States Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey for 1880, and is the result of the personal work of Mr. Dall, who 

 has been for several years an energetic worker and observer in various fields of 

 research on the Pacific Coast. After giving tabular and classified records of tem- 

 peratures, in Avinter and summer, of the Bering Sea and the course, rate of flow and 

 temperature of the Kuro Siwo or Japanese Stream with voluminous extracts from 

 the log books of numerous whalers and exploring vessels, he arrives at the follow- 



