but our life being wrought in us by the Spirit." Manifestly, he conceives of the matter thus: They who are to be baptized are penitent believers; and in being baptized and thus taking the decisive and completing step of discipleship in the liveliest exercise of their penitence and faith, they are regenerated by the Holy Spirit. We have only to lament that in his representation, like many others, under the influence of a mode of thinking and speaking that had been adopted without due regard to Christian simplicity and to the facts in the case, he seems to defer and limit to the time of baptism that spiritual regeneration which, we are constrained to think, ought to be conceived of as being coincident with the first exercise of genuine faith. We cannot forget that, according to the Holy Scriptures, whoever is a penitent believer in Christ, is born of God; that this accords with the nature of the case, so far as we can know anything on the subject; and that an immensity of evil has arisen from confounding baptism with spiritual regeneration, the sign with the thing signified. * But we rejoice that Basil has borne so clear a testimony to so much truth. He shows that it is conscious and believing persons that he has in his mind, when he speaks of any as being baptized, or receiving grace in baptism. He teaches that, in this solemn rite, the baptized are enlightened in their souls, and taught most impressively the knowledge of God; that baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God; and that our Lord, preparing us for the resurrection-life, prescribed his holy laws, so that, whatever duties may be required of us in that state, these, having been anticipated, may be performed by us from deliberate purpose. In another chapter of this work,† he says: "Faith and baptism are two ways or means of salvation, connected with one another by their nature, and inseparable. For faith is *See 1 John v. I, and 1 Peter i. 21–23. †Ch. xii., (at the end,) vol. iii., p. 24. Ben. ed., and in Biblioth. Patrum, Gr. D., vol. ii., p. 224. perfected by baptism; and baptism has the foundation for it laid by faith;* and with the same names the one and the other are accomplished; for as we believe in a Father and Son and Holy Spirit, thus also we are baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; and indeed profession precedes, leading to salvation, but follows, sealing our engagement.” Declarations so explicit, and from such a witness, certainly ought not to be forgotten. We make no claim of infallibility for any man. But what Basil has said should awaken earnest inquiry. It should lead us to think what must have been the sources of his conviction. Let his teaching be tried by the unerring standard. Let it be compared with the teaching of Christ and his apostles. If our Lord would have all become believing disciples, and then be baptized; if he has required faith as laying the foundation for baptism, the existence of the compact before the affixing of the seal; if he, in his wisdom and love, has thus arranged faith and baptism, "connected with one another by their nature, and inseparable," surely, it cannot be right in us either to disarrange them and invert the fitting order that he has established, or to put asunder what he has joined together. ART. VI.-THE NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPÆDIA. † THE word Cyclopædia is not derived, but is simply anglicised from xvxhonαidea its Greek prototype. It signifies literally "the circle of instruction." A Cyclopædia pro * πίστις καὶ βάπτισμα δύο τρόποι τῆς σωτηρίας, συμφνεῖς ἀλλήλοις και άδ ιαιρετοι πίστις μὲν γὰρ τελειονται διὰ βαπτίσματος, βάπτισμα δὲ θεμελειον ται διὰ τῆς πίστεως. Vols. THE NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPÆDIA: A popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. Edited by GEORGE RIPLEY and CHARLES A. DANA. i., ii. and iii. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 346 and 348 Broadway. poses to treat of all that may be known, and is, among books what a university is among institutions of learning, except that the latter is, of course, more thorough. Cyclopædia is a comparatively modern word. It is not to be found in the earlier lexicons, which give Encyclopædia instead. Modern lexicography allows either; but modern use prefers the shorter word;-and wisely, we think, both because it is shorter, and because the preposition en (ɛv) does not add to the significance of the term. The importance-nay, the necessity of a Cyclopædia to every library seems neither to demand nor admit argument. It is scarcely less indispensable to the student than his dictionary. Indeed, in some sense, it is even more essential, and by as much as things are more important than words. The true mode of study requires that every subject undertaken be, at the time, thoroughly and finally mastered. This often involves research far beyond the text read, and the student will often find himself leaving this text, and making draughts upon the different shelves in his library. But the Cyclopædia is a library itself, with the advantage of classification and index, and making up by the universality of its range for the necessary absence, in many cases, of minute detail. This want of minutiæ is itself often a positive advantage; since there are a thousand things of which it is well to know, but of which only the summa fastigia (main points) are useful, and these the Cyclopædia furnishes at a great saving of time and trouble. Another peculiar use of a Cyclopædia is not less obvious and important, viz., to enable the cultivator of each department of knowledge to ascertain, with the greatest advantage, the achievements in every other department. Few can say, with Goethe, that they have taken all knowledge. for the object of their pursuit. Yet all should seek a general acquaintance with every branch of learning, for the sake both of symetrically developing and liberalizing the mind, and of securing a thorough and accurate comprehension of those subjects which are made a specialty, and which cannot be accurately understood unless viewed in their connection with other subjects. Thus, while the min ister need not, cannot be a lawyer also, or a physician, he may and should understand the general principles, and the most important practical truths of both law and medicine -should be at home on those subjects which are the communes loci of all scholars. The same principle is equally applicable to the lawyer and the physician. For securing acquisitions such as these, a good Cyclopædia is decidedly the best, if not the only instrument. Suppose, for example, that a man who is not a physician has, in his earlier years, studied something of physiology, and yet has not the time to keep up with the progress of the science by perusing the regular text-books on that subject, how easily might he, with the aid of a Cyclopædia, attain this end. Suppose him to hear, in conversation, the term "auscultation;" his idea of its meaning is vague, and would not be made clear and full by a dictionary; he has no leisure or opportunity to consult medical treatises, nor would he know where to look; but, turning to a modern Cyclopædia, he finds not only the meaning of the term, but full explanation as to the thing, couched in language free from technicalities, and a statement of the latest improvements in the science or art. So great and rapid is the progress in every department of knowledge, that new or revised works are rendered constantly necessary in order to keep pace with this progress. When one remembers that it is nearly thirty years since a complete Cyclopædia was published in this country, and that since that time we have-to quote the advertisement of the work of which we shall presently speak-doubled both our population and our area-peopled the gold regionsdiscovered a new continent-gone through a war-buried our third generation of great statesmen, in Clay, Calhoun, Webster and Benton-built towns like Chicago-all our Railways, Ocean Steamers-our Iron Houses-invented the Photograph, the Electric Telegraph, and the Lightning Press-introduced Cheap Postage, Steel Pens, Gummed Envelopes, Lucifer Matches, Ice, Omnibuses, Chloroformwhen we think of this, and of much more which might be named, we feel the need of a New Cyclopædia which shall treat of all these new and important subjects, and of all oth ers in the clearer light of the middle of the nineteenth century. We are prepared then in advance to regard with favor "THE NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPÆDIA." Before considering the merits of its execution, we can see at once that it proposes to supply a felt and important need. And from the examination which we have been able to give to the three volumes already issued, we believe that the present work will actually accomplish its proposed object.. The publishers promise (and so far seem to be fulfilling their promise) to make the present work "fuller in every department and for every period than its predecessor, and to give it besides a net addition of the events of the last thirty years." This fact alone would give this work the preference over all others, with those who have now, for the first time, to supply themselves with a Cyclopædia, while it would induce many having other similar works to supply themselves with this also.. We like too the American feature, for while we have not the national vanity to assert that a view from an American stand-point is absolutely the best, we cannot but think it the best for American people. But the work is Cosmopolitan in its spirit, as well as American. That it is entirely unsectional, and unsectarian is a recommendation which cannot be too highly esteemed. "At the same time each subject has been treated in the point of view of those with whom it is a speciality, (specialty, begging your pardon, Messrs. Editors,) and not in that of indifferent or hostile observers." The correctness of this plan, can, we think, not be doubted. That this plan may be carried. out, the various articles have been, as far as possible, entrusted to writers whose studies, position, opinions and tastes were a guarantee of their thorough information, and which furnished a presumption of their fairness and impartiality. Thus, in the different branches of science, the articles have been prepared by men of eminent accomplishments in each of their respective departments; the articles in Biography, especially of living persons, by those most familiar with the life and character of the subjects . . . and on the History and Doctrines of the Church by Theo |