particular cases, that we may occasionally not coincide.

"The state of theology and religion of an age, does not at all depend
upon the progress of general science and social life." p. 10. From this
sentiment and the train of observation in reference to it on the same
page, we do not dissent. But no American Lutheran appeals to _this_
spirit of the age, exhibited in the progress of the physical sciences,
as proofs of any advance in theology. The sciences to which we refer as
media of increasing life, are those on which the proper interpretation
of the sacred volume depends, philology, archaeology, hermeneutics, &e.,
and certainly our brother cannot dissent from this position, he will not
maintain, that no progress has been made, in the knowledge of the
original languages of Scripture by continued studies of scores of the
ablest philologians the world has ever seen, especially during the last
half century. He will not deny, that the exploring labors of travellers
[sic] to the lands of holy writ, the increased study of the manners and
customs and institutions of the nations inhabiting them, have
illustrated some portions of the sacred volume. Nor will he affirm the
utter fruitlessness of all the prayerful efforts of men of God, during
the last three centuries, to understand the general principles of
languge, [sic] the different significations of words, (the literal, the
tropical, the typical, the allegorical, &c.,) and the proper rules for
the interpretation of the Sacred Record. He is too well acquainted with
the literary fame of Germany and the writings of that galaxy of
theological luminaries, that has reflected so much glory on the land of
the Reformation, not to admit that many parts of the Sacred Record are
better understood at present, than they were three centuries ago. But
the principal difficulty which prevented the full and clear appreciation
of divine truth in the earlier Reformers, was the fact that _they were
educated till adult age, [Note 3] in all the superstitious rites and