Scotland, will present the view, which our author entertains of this Commentary, in comparison with his Comm. on the Romans. “I wish especially to remark, that the work (on the Rom.) is to be regarded as the production of an earlier period of my life, and as having been intended for a particular purpose. I composed it in my twenty-fifth year, with the special view of commending to the hearts of my countrymen the doctrine of justification by faith, which at the time I perceived to be greatly misunderstood. Other points are hence labored with less care; and at this time (1833) I believe that on the 9th chapter I should be able to give some more profound views. Accordingly, it by no means presents what I now consider as the beau ideal of a theological commentary. I am occupied at present with the publication of an extensive commentary upon the Sermon on the Mount, and it is to this I must refer, if your countrymen should wish a more mature work from my pen. It contains many expositions of the doctrines, and might serve to render the dogmatical part of our theology more accessible to English divines. At the same time I am persuaded, that none of them would there meet with anything at all contrary to the pure orthodoxy of your church." Ed. Bib. Cab. Preface to the Comm. on Rom. pp. 13, 14.

In 1835, Tholuck published a Comment on the Influence of the Greek Philosophy upon the Theology of the Mohammedans and the Jews; in 1836, his Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews; in 1837, his Treatise on the Credibility of the Evangelical History, with his reply to Dr. D. Strauss's Leben Jesu; and in the four years 1834, 5, 7, and 8, he published four Volumes of sermons, each containing about 200 pages, 12mo. They have recently been published in a new edition of 2 Vols. pp. 366 and 429. His contributions to the German periodicals have been numerous and important. Those published in the Studien und Kritiken are, one on the Want of Agreement among the Interpreters of the New Testament Vol. V. No. 2, a translation of which by Prof. Robinson is in Bib. Repos., Vol. III. pp. 684-707; one on the Sin against the Holy Ghost, Vol. IX. No. 2, and one on the Study of Paul's Epistles, Vol. VIII. No. 2. He is at this time engaged in a labored revision of his Comm. on the Romans; and when we consider the great advantages which he enjoys for improving his preceding editions, we may reasonably expect that this Commentary will surpass in interest either of his others.

Notwithstanding the variety of Prof. Tholuck's publications, his labors have not been confined to the study. When at Berlin, he established at his own house a religious conference, chiefly for the benefit of the pious students of the University. It was held every week, and its exercises were prayer, singing, the reading of the Scriptures or of a sermon, familiar conversation on doctrinal or practical theology, and sometimes a direct religious address. This conference is still continued every Saturday evening. It is the more worthy of notice, because meetings of this character are generally subjects of ridicule among the Germans; and besides are often regarded with suspicion, have sometimes indeed been expressly prohibited by the Government. Since Tholuck has been at Halle, he has held similar meetings at his house once or twice a week. He also conducts a missionary meeting every month, at which he presents the latest intelligence respecting American, English and other missions. He labors much in preparation for this meeting, and imparts to it a lively interest. This missionary spirit would not be indeed particularly noticeable among American Christians, but it is to be viewed in contrast with the prejudices and the dormancy of even the evangelical party in his own land. Read the description of the want of religious enterprise among German Christians, in Bib. Repos. Vol. I. pp. 438-451. The German Professors ordinarily have little or no personal intercourse with their pupils, are often wholly unacquainted with them. The students are too numerous, and the Professors too much absorbed in study, to permit a great degree of social interview. Neander and Dr. F. Strauss at Berlin, however, have labored to exert a personal religious influence upon their scholars; and Tholuck, as he has a very peculiar interest and tact in conversation, employs his talent with fidelity. Prof. Sears, writing from Halle in 1834, says, "The uncommon pressure of Tholuck's public labors leaves him no leisure time. But when he walks, which he does twice a day, and an hour and a half at each time, he invites three or four students of similar religious character to accompany him. With these he converses in a manner best adapted to win them to a religious life. With the serious he comes directly to the point. With others he spreads his net wider; and through the medium of literary, philosophical, or theological discussion, conducted with vivacity and the utmost affection, he steals upon their hearts and holds them his captives. Another company

are, for the same purpose, invited to his dinner table; and thus daily he spends several hours, as a friend, patron and pastor to the more hopeful among his pupils. If they are indigent, he remits their tuition; and if he publishes a sermon or a pamphlet, the profit goes to them. His extensive and choice library is always at their service."

In addition to the personal influence which Tholuck exerts upon his pupils, he conducts an extensive correspondence both with his own countrymen and with foreigners, and is distinguished for his attention to the literati who visit Halle from other lands, and particularly from England and America. The pious foreigner feels at home when with Tholuck; and nearly every one, coming within the reach of his influence, feels a strong attachment to him. "To the American Christian," said Prof. Robinson in 1831, "who travels on this part of the continent, Tholuck is undoubtedly the most interestjing person whose acquaintance he will make. He possesses a greater personal influence and reputation than any other theologian in Germany." Bib. Repos. Vol. I. p. 29. His opposers ascribe his popularity to his extensive and intimate intercourse with foreigners, to the strong personal attachments which he has formed, and to his connections with a religious party; as well as to what they are obliged to acknowledge, his superior talent in lecturing, and some considerable power in his writings. Cons. Lex. Vol. IV. p. 627.

It is worthy of remark, that notwithstanding Prof. Tholuck has for a long time given to the world two or three volumes a year, some of them highly labored; and in connection with these efforts for the public has delivered regular lectures at the University, sometimes two or three lectures a day; has preached statedly once a fortnight, and on frequent intermediate occasions; has maintained the responsible and onerous station of a leader in the evangelical party for the period of nearly twenty years, and is at the present time but just forty years old; and notwithstanding he has combined with all these labors a sedulous attention to the personal duties of a gentleman, a Christian, and a pastor, he has been afflicted during the whole period with feeble and precarious health, and has been reduced at times nearly to a state of blindness. Suffering under a broken constitution, he has been obliged, like Neander and Hengstenberg, to depend on rigid physical discipline for ability to prosecute his studies. His person is slender, his temperament nervous, and his life is a perpetual conflict between mind and body. His appearance is at

present that of a man prematurely grown old. It is to be earnestly hoped, that he may add another to the many illustrations of the remark, that men of the feeblest constitutions often accomplish the most, and live the longest.

The philosophical opinions of Tholuck are peculiar; more congenial however with the prevalent systems of his own countrymen, than with any other. He is a decided opponent of Locke, Reid, Stewart and Brown, of the whole "sensual" system, so called, which prevails in Great Britain and America. He does not however entirely sympathize with either Kant, Schelling, Fichte or Hegel. He may be called perhaps an eclectic transcendentalist; having a system of his own, which is culled from the various systems of what is termed the spiritual philosophy. We have understood that he finds no objection, in his speculations, to the new theory of animal magnetism, but has avowed his belief in it, and defended some of its principles in his lectures on theology. Hegel and Schleiermacher, and indeed many of his most distinguished countrymen have avowed the same belief. The following note in Hegel's Encyclopaedie der Philosophie pp. 591, 592, will indicate (so far as it is understood) the views which this prince of the transcendentalists entertains of Tholuck's philosophical tendencies. "The rich contributions which Tholuck has given us in his Anthology of the Oriental Mystics, from the poems of Dschelaleddin, and others, were produced with views like those which we have here presented. In his introduction, Tholuck shows what a thorough comprehension he has of the mystic philosophy; he there determines very accurately the character of the Eastern, and that of the Western and Christian writers in reference to this system. Notwithstanding the dissimilarity of these classes, they have the common designation of mystics. The union of mysticism with what is denominated Pantheism includes according to Tholuck, p. 33, that inward vitality of the mind and soul, which essentially consists in this, the annihilation of that external All, which is wont to be ascribed to Pantheism. In other places Tholuck acquiesces in the common but obscure representation of Pantheism. He had no interest in a fundamental discussion of the subject, further than was necessary for ascertaining the feeling of the writer whom he quoted. He seems to be seized with a wonderful enthusiasm in behalf of a mystical philosophy, which is to be called, in the usual sense of the term, entirely pantheistic. But yet when

ever he undertakes to philosophize, (p. 12, seq.), he does not go beyond the ordinary view taken by the metaphysical understanding, nor beyond its indefinite forms of thought."

In his theological speculations, as well as philosophical, Tholuck is independent and untrammelled. It needs not to be stated that the spirit of his theology is eminently evangelical, and such as exposes him to the severe animadversions of the rationalists. They complain of his fanatical "mystical" pietism, as his great weakness. It must be remembered, however, that in his orthodoxy, Tholuck is a |German, and not a Briton, or of British descent. He makes no effort to regulate his creed by any of our formularies, but examines every doctrine for himself, as if he were the first man who had investigated it. He adopts the prevalent continental view of the Sabbath, and such a view of the nature and extent of inspiration as no evangelical Christian in America would approve : see Bib. Repos. Vol. VIII. p. 487. He is an admirer and eulogist of Calvin: Plato, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Calvin are said to be his favorite authors; yet he sometimes expresses such feelings in reference to the peculiarities of Calvinism, as can be palliated only on the ground of a mental structure and habits of association altogether peculiar.

The believers in the final restoration of the lost have sometimes, in triumph, claimed Prof. Tholuck as an authority in their favor. They have rested their claim on the representations, which several of our evangelical writers have given of Tholuck's belief on this subject; representations which have been misunderstood by some, and misinterpreted by more. In the first place, there can be no doubt, that the whole spirit of Tholuck's theology is as dissonant from that of American universalists, as music from discord. In the second place, the tendency which his speculations may have had, at a former period, toward the doctrine of the final restoration of all mankind, cannot be ascribed to them, in the same degree, at present. His mind was once fluctuating on the subject; and the difference between a permanent conviction that a doctrine is true, and a temporary inclination toward the doctrine is too obvious to be insisted on. In the third place, the notions which he may have entertained in sympathy with the doctrine of universal salvation, he never made prominent in his system; never thrust them forward into a conspicuous place, nor even avowed them, except with the caution of one who knew the licentious influence which they might exert. An