Shaker Sermons. By H. L. Eads. (Trfibner and Co.)—This volume,
printed, we see, at " Shakers, New York," and the work of the " Bishop of South Union, Kentucky," sets forth the theology and practical rule of life of the Shaker community. The most notable point of their theology is its Unitarianism ; in their practical rule, as all the world knows, the most important is their " forbidding to marry." Perhaps Bishop Eads would deny that they " forbid to marry." Every man, he says, must act up to his light. There is an Adam plane which is the lower, and a Christ plane which is the higher. Shakerism, therefore, is an esoteric faith,—for the few, nor for the dim multitudes. Every such faith, we take it, is self-condemned. The more it prospers, the worse these multitudes will. become, for it will take from among them souls gifted with a peculiar power of self-restraint, and will leave them so much the poorer. The Bishop is a keen controversialist, and deals Colonel Ingersoll, the comic Apostle of Unbelief, some hard blows.
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