dertaken to counteract the impression made by
STRAUSS'S "Life of Christ," in which the attempt was made to apply the
mythical theory to the entire structure of evangelical history.
According to Strauss, the sum of the historical truth contained in the
narratives of the evangelists is, that Jesus lived and taught in Judea,
where he gathered disciples who believed that he was the Messiah.
According to their preconceived notions, the life of the Messiah, and
the period in which he lived, were to be illustrated by signs and
wonders. Messianic legends existed ready-made, in the hopes and
expectations of the people, only needing to be transferred to the person
and character of Jesus. The appearance of this work produced a great
sensation in Germany. It was believed by many that the book should be
prohibited; and the Prussian government was inclined to this measure.
Neander, however, advised that the book should rather be met by
argument. His Life of Christ which was thus occasioned, wears, in
consequence, a somewhat polemical aspect. It has taken the rank of a
standard authority, both in German and in English, into which it has
been admirably translated by Professors M'CLINTOCK and BLUMENTHAL.

The great work of Neander's life, and of which his various writings in
the departments of Ecclesiastical History, Biography, Patristics, and
Dogmatics are subsidiary, is the General History of the Christian
Religion and Church. The first part of this, containing the history of
the first three centuries, was published in 1825, and, improved and
enlarged, in 1842--43. The second part, which brings the history down to
the close of the sixth century, appeared originally in 1828, and in a
second edition in 1846--47. These two parts, comprising four volumes of
the German edition, are well known to English readers through the
excellent version of Professor TORREY. This is a history of the inner
development of Christian doctrines and opinions rather than of the
external progress of the Church, and in connection with GIESELER'S
Text-Book, furnishes by far the best apparatus for the study of
ecclesiastical history now extant.

A correspondent of the _Boston Traveler_, writing under date of Berlin,
July 22, gives the following graphic sketch of the personal
characteristics of Neander:

"NEANDER is no more! He who for thirty-eight years has defeated the
attacks upon the church from the side of rationalism and
philosophy--who, through all the co