The Universal Church. (Triibner.)—What is this "Universal Church?" We have
read this book, or as much as an endurance somewhat above the average has permitted, and are not the wiser. Certainly it is not Christianity, of which indeed our author entertains but a mean opinion, holding its records to be doubtful and its morality defective. But it is what all good men of all ages have believed, i.e., the truth and good- ness of their beliefs and lives, apart from all that was false and evil in them. This is the Church, which our anonymous Apostle, who must have the test which distinguishes between these two, strangely mixed together as they are, sets forth to men. On the whole, till this new St. Paul brings better letters of commendation than anything we have yet discovered, we shall keep to the obsolete faith which he despises. The clients of Messrs. Trubner favour mankind with some half-dozen new religions in the year, often ingeniously constructed, and as they have the Bible to quarry from, are not without some good materials, but they have not yet discovered anything that quite supersedes Christianity.
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