Joseph Henry Allen's
'Christian History,' which will be completed by the publication of a
third volume, it is the first and foremost work of the kind ever
attempted in this country. Even in our theological schools, the history
of the Church is usually taught on the basis of some foreign manual, of
which Guericke may be mentioned as the most favorable example, although
the book is clumsy and exceedingly narrow-minded. The history of the
Church, written for the use of educated men and women, has never been so
much as attempted in this country. Our theologians have never been
partial to ecclesiastical history, and in most cases they have been
satisfied with accepting the statements of so-called standard
authorities. Professor Allen's two volumes, covering the early Church
and the middle age, are distinctly a new departure, for they rest in
good part on original research.... There can be no reasonable doubt that
in Professor Allen's work we have the most considerable attempt at the
history of the Church ever made in the United States."--_Boston Daily
Advertiser._

THIRD PERIOD. "Modern Phases." (In press.)

A NEW LIFE OF SWEDENBORG. The Life and Mission of Emanuel Swedenborg. By
BENJAMIN WORCESTER. With an Introductory Chapter on Swedenborg's Place
in History, an Appendix giving a complete list of Swedenborg's Writings,
and a fine steel-engraved portrait and facsimile of his handwriting. One
large 12mo volume. Cloth, gilt top. Price, $2.00.

"It is a large 12mo volume of towards five hundred pages, in which the
author has collected, with great care, the leading facts relating to the
Swedish seer, and has woven them into a biography prepared with
scrupulous fidelity, though of course marked by the most reverent
admiration for its subject. Mr. Worcester holds to the reality of the
visions of Swedenborg, and believes the revelations which his works
furnish as the result to be supplementary in the quality of inspiration
to the Bible. The work is not one of the most attractively written
pieces of biography; but its subject is interesting, and there are
characteristics of Swedenborg which, aside from any supernatural
endowment, plainly stamp him as one of the great minds of his time. His
followers, if they are not as large as those of many of the religious
sects of the day, are people of the purest minds and most intelligent
perceptions, without a tendency to credulity or a tinge of fanaticism in
their natures. This book wi