This able bi-monthly dates both from New York and Chicago; and is furnished at the low price of $2.50 a year. Each number contains 160 pages. The March number is interesting to Bostonians, as containing a portrait of the late Dean Latimer, of Boston University; with a biographical sketch by another gentleman well known in this city, the Rev. J. W. Bash ford, now of Portland. There are also articles on Madagascar, Socratic Philosophy; and one of special interest on The Fall of Constantinople, in the year 1204, in which more than usual justice is done to the Greek Catholic Church. This paper is by Rev. A. L. Long, who is connected with Roberts College, in the city of which he writes.
Two articles are of special interest to Christian Scientists. The first, by Rev. G. M. Steele, of Wilbraham Seminary, is called The Apologetic Value of Miracles. It takes the decided and obvious position, that when the great works of Jesus are referred to in the New Testament, his miracles are meant; though they are not called miracles (in Greek, thauma) but signs and powers (semeia and dunameis). Dr. Steele does not think, however, with Christian Scientists, that these wonders are the outcome of a mental power 'over matter which belongs to all spirituality, and is in accord with a law which is as universal as gravitation; but he regards miracles as so many marvellous signs, designed to prove the divine mission and Messianic office of Jesus. From this line of reasoning it must of necessity follow that these sign were of more value in Jesus' day than they are now, when Christianity has become its own best proof. With the question of the promised continuance of wonders after the Apostolic Age, the author does not deal; and he barely touches those wrought by the early disciples. He believes the miracles of Jesus to be unlike those mentioned in the Old Testament, partly because they affect humanity rather than Nature. He calls it an open question, whether the Bible regards supernatural occurrences as possibly proceeding from any but godly leaders; but the story of Balaam, and some other Scriptural accounts, would indicate a different conclusion
The other—an abstruse paper, on The Significance of the Body for Mental Action—is by Prof. B. P. Bowne, of Boston University. He argues against Materialism, as affording no satisfactory explanation of the phenomena of Life; but Christian Science would disagree with his opinion that matter has a real existence, by which Mind is conditioned. He regards physical health as essential to mental health. Idiocy, he says, varies "in depth, with the physical imperfection from which it springs." "Mental work is greatly aided by physical helps." It is his belief that this present body is not essential to the continuance of Life after death, and he even admits that human souls, or minds, may exist without any form whatever; but as such "a life would be very bare and limited," he thinks it probable that we shall have bodies in heaven, and perhaps the same that we now have. Nevertheless, he closes with a paragraph containing these words, which are mainly in harmony with the views maintained by this Journal:—
