David Maclagan, F.R.S.E. By Rev. N. L. WALKER. Nelson and Sons. THE motto on the title-page of this tastefully got-up volume "Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord"-literally applies to a man like David Maclagan, who, while earnest in his calling, displayed a fine Christian spirit. He was a Free Churchman; and in Edinburgh and London successively he encountered many eminent men, and he was himself both a man of taste and a philanthropist; so that the narrative throughout is full of interest. Young men, and business men generally, will be the better for perusing such a book.

Jeanne D'Arc, the Patriot Martyr; and

other Narratives of Female Heroism in Peace and War. Illustrated. Blackie. MAINLY in their own language, the heroines here described tell the story of their courageous deeds. There is too much of the battle-field to suit our taste, and we could have wished that more of the saints of peace had been immortalized here. Grace Darling's crown of glory seems somewhat tarnished by being mingled with Joan of Arc's in a common setting; and Ida Lewis is scarcely among "her own" when she is numbered with Flora Macdonald. Still, the stories are well related, and admirably brief, all mere padding being conscientiously avoided.

Hard Battles for Life and Usefulness: an Autobiographic Record. By the Rev. J. INCHES HILLOCKS. W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co.

LIFE has been a struggle to Mr. Hillocks from the very commencement, but he is unconquered and unconquerable. He has no overwhelming achievements to record, but he has plodded and suffered. In poverty, he endured and hoped; in physical suffering, he bore up, and looked forward; and now, as years increase, he believes, and expects. As a champion for the oppressed poor, he has done his best for reform and benevolence. His autobiography strikes us as being here and there a little grandiloquent in style, but that is a mere matter of opinion. Here is the story of a brother who begins as a little Dundee weaver toiling for bread; by-and-by

he weaves another web, his whole nature acting as the loom; and then with his home-spun he covers many a brother's nakedness, and arrays himself in the garments of charity.

In Memoriam: James Baldwin Brown, B.A. Edited by ELIZABETH BALDWIN BROWN. James Clarke & Co. THERE is not much to relate in the life of this eminent Independent minister; but the few remarkable incidents are lovingly interwoven with highly appreciative remarks. Mr. Baldwin Brown is regarded with honour by many for having "driven Calvinism out of the Congregational Union": we hope the charge is not actually true, though we are afraid that in spirit and intent it was so. He was a man whom we admired for his personal character, though we deplored his unsound and unsettling teachings. He is newly gone from us, and we do not care to be critical at a funeral; nor if we were so inclined should we criticize him, though we should repudiate his teachings. His divergences from orthodoxy, although very serious, are so far outdone by certain of his brethren who have gone beyond their former leaders, that he does not seem to stand out so prominently peculiar as once he did. He commanded the esteem of many who differed widely from him. We only mourn that such a man should have rejected and assailed those sacred truths which are to us sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.

Coligny: the Earlier Life of the Great Huguenot. By EUGENE BERSIER, D.D. Translated by ANNIE HARWOOD HOLMDEN. Hodder and Stoughton. WE sincerely trust that M. Bersier will speedily give us the second half of this important life. This first portion is wellwritten, and therefore it is all the more unsatisfying, whetting the appetite of the reader for that which is yet to come. The great Protestant Admiral is here rather introduced than pourtrayed: we see the beginnings of things, and wonder whereunto they will grow; but the end is not yet. Still, this is a standard work, necessary to every library which aims at completeness in the section set apart for biography.

The Christ of History. By JOHN YOUNG, L.L.D. T. F. Unwin.

WE occasionally meet with a little book which demands a larger notice than our limited space will allow: this is one of the kind. Here we have a small volume that has reached its seventh edition, and well deserves to be even yet more widely known.

The wilful distrust of "Christian evidences" so much cultivated in society at the present time, makes extraordinary demands on those who witness for the truth among the partisans of "modern thought." Science is the pretext of these doubters: it may serve their purpose well, but it is no more than a pretext. With truly scientific men we have deep sympathy. We hail every discovery that their patient labour can register; but we tremble for the souls of the simpletons who never study for themselves, but eagerly imbibe the last new error,-people without occupation or education, mere loafers about the precincts of the schools of learning, quidnuncs who constantly quote the floating rumours of the hour: these are ever in peril, and are even eager to place themselves in jeopardy, like flies which seek the candle. Our serious men do not grudge years to ascertain a fact; and after that they will occupy months to elaborate a theory. They know right well that their theories explode by the dozen before they can venture to place them in the list of probabilities. Very different is the course of action adopted by the boastful race to whom we now allude. Your silly men make a fresh discovery every morning. Their itching ears are always waiting to be tickled, and their lips are watering to report a startling novelty. How painfully familiar we have become with the sneer of those who say of this evidence, or of that argument-"it is old and threadbare," as if the antiquity of the one, and the currency of the other from generation to generation, should not rather tend to dispel suspicion, and excite reverence! Our author surveys the position from what he seems to imagine a fresh, and yet by his own admission, a low stand-point. authenticity (we do not say the inspiration) of the documents which we are content to label as "the four gospels" is allowed by our adversaries. Scientific

The

criticism has reached this conclusion. This is a good starting-post. Now let us coldly ask-If the account the Evangelists give of the life that Jesus of Nazareth led is not a faithful record of facts, who among all the sons of men could have imagined it? The words he spake,-if he never uttered them, by whom were they invented? Pity that the authors of so peerless a romance How should perish without praise!

came this life and this doctrine to be extant among us? Let us know their author, that we may do homage to his unrivalled genius. Let those who deny the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ do homage to the humanity of the four historical worthies, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, for their construction of an ideal man, and for a life of him ineffably superior in its dramatic prose to any poetry that was ever composed. There stands "The Christ of History." Has not his life dissolved itself into your daily thoughts, and, wittingly or unwittingly, into your hourly conversation? It has laid hold of you, even while you have refused to lay hold of it. Your speech bewrayeth you at every turn. One thing is clear to every publisher: the social philosophers of the day quote our Saviour's proverbs without acknowledgment. Our blessed hope is their dark problem. Nor can they account for "The Christ of History" without that faith which is its legitimate logical outcome.

Again we recommend Dr. Young's standard work to any reader who has not yet seen it.

The Beauty of the King. Daily Food for the King's household. J. E. Hawkins, 17, Paternoster Row.

IN different bindings, according to which the price is regulated. A suggestive selection of texts concerning "the King" and his dominion. A series of sermons or addresses might grow out of these texts.

My Friends. An Autograph Album.

J. E. Hawkins, 17, Paternoster Row. QUITE a novelty in albums,-as the name is inlaid in a little landscape, or scene. It would be wise to give more variety, for one does not care for the same drawing five times over. Price 28.

The Prayer that Teaches to Pray. By the Rev. MARCUS DODS, D.D. Hodder and Stoughton.

ANYTHING by a man of mark upon this theme is worth having. If this author cannot bathe us in spirituality, he can, at least, point to the sealed springs; and in this case he does so most helpfully, and we thank him.

About Jesus. One Hundred Poems.

By WILLIAM LUFF. Partridge. MR. LUFF is not one of those poets who act upon us as wasps or blue-bottle flies; his versification is good, and there is original and gracious thought in his poems. He does not aim at great things, but sweetly sings as his heart suggests to him, with no design but his Master's glory. Those of whom we can say this are beyond our criticism: let them sing on till they join in the eternal anthems. Thirty thousand Thoughts; being Extracts covering a comprehensive circle of religious and allied topics. Vol. III. Kegan Paul and Co.

THE arrangement of this gigantic pile continues to puzzle us. The subjects do not appear to have any logical sequence, or to be placed in any justifiable order in reference to each other. Upon certain topics the extracts given are well placed, so as to produce a complete view of the subject in hand; and in this respect this vast cyclopædia is superior to almost every other we could name. We hope, as the huge work goes on, to understand it more fully, and like it better; but as far as it has proceeded we have not taken to it, though we were prepared to give it a special welcome. The pieces quoted are, in our judgment, frequently commonplace and jejune, and by no means such as a preacher could use. The price for each volume—163. -is very moderate, but few of our pastors would feel pleased with the result if they were to lay out that amount on one tome of such a library. Books of one-tenth the size, more wisely compiled, would be worth ten times as much. It does not appear to us that upon its own merits this compilation will command a remunerative sale; and we are truly sorry for it, for the design is excellent, and it has been resolutely carried out.

The Reality of Faith. By NEWMAN SMYTH. T. Fisher Unwin.

MORE of the new and advanced theology! In it there is no "reality" and no "faith." We have too much already of this article home-grown, and there was no need to go to America for more of the rubbish. This volume will suit the modern school of doubt, for it is pretentious, and talks a good deal about faith, and yet has nothing in it, and above all nothing for faith to rest upon. Here are some 300 pages of sublime balderdash, and there was no earthly reason why the author should not have made them 3,000. You have nothing to do but muddle your brain, and set your tongue going, and the result is unbounded nothing in big words.

Love Revealed. Meditations on the parting words of Jesus with his Disciples in John xiii. to xvii. By GEORGE BOWEN. Edinburgh: David Douglas. HERE is a feast of fat things, of fat things full of marrow. Much have we been edified by Mr. Bowen's "Daily Meditations," and here is another work worthy of its predecessor. The subject is of the choicest, and the handling is of the wisest, and therefore the result is rich beyond compare. Our author's missionary life in Madras has not dimmed the lustre of his love to Jesus, but, on the contrary, has bound him all the more closely to the Cross. Five shillings invested in this volume will load the purchaser's spiritual table for many days

to come.

Notes on Ingersoll, the American Atheist. By Rev. L. A. LAMBERT, Roman Catholic Priest. Nicholson and Sons, 20, Warwick Square.

IF Ingersoll's abominable talk is doing mischief in any region, this is an excellent antidote. Father Lambert comes to close quarters with the infidel, and hugs him to death with arguments from which there is no escape. Though the combatant in this case is a Catholic priest, we are glad that the champion of atheism has found his match. Not that this will silence the creature; he is bound to talk on long after he has been answered, and to boast of victory when he has sustained complete defeat. The "Notes" cost only sixpence.

Loveday's History: a Tale of Many Changes. By LUCY ELLEN GUERNSEY. J. F. Shaw and Co.

A PORTLY volume, arrayed in scarlet and gold. It deals with the days of Harry VIII., the short light of Edward VI., and the terrible glare of blood-red Mary. The gospel is well wrought into the fabric, and the tale is true to the fashions and customs of the period.

Wind and Wave fulfilling His Word. A Story of the Siege of Leyden, 1574. By HARRIETTE E. BURCH. The Religious Tract Society.

WE select this story for honourable mention and hearty commendation. It is Motley's history of the Dutch Republic prepared story-fashion. Its principles are genuinely Protestant, and thoroughly spiritual. We do not wonder that the inhabitants of the Low Countries felt a bitter hatred to the Spaniards, and that the mention of the name of Alva always elicited a curse; but we do bless God that the yoke was broken, and Holland became a stronghold of religious liberty.

Bunyip Land. By G. MANVILLE Fenn. Blackie and Son.

EXCITING adventures in New Guinea. Fiction of the most energetic order for boys; well thought out. Not quite in our line; but a handsome, well-written book.

The Children's Pastime, Pictures and Stories. By LISBETH G. SEGUIN. Hodder and Stoughton.

ren.

PLENTY of pictures to amuse the childThe letter-press is written for the sake of the engravings, and, therefore, it is not very remarkable.

Other Lives than Ours. Fables in Prose. By Mrs. STANLEY LEATHES. With Illustrations by M. IRWIN. J. F. Shaw and Co.

LIKELY to create in young bosoms tenderness towards animals. The simple stories do, in reality, teach great truths; but if these should not be spied out by little eyes, it will still be something that they learn to love better all manner of living things. The book is handsome within and without.

Out The Sefton Boys. Little Pollie. of the Shadow. Lost on the Moor. J. F. Shaw and Co.

FOUR attractively-bound books. These belong to a series which Shaw and Co. sell at a shilling each. We have no idea how it is done, but certainly such cheap stories are a great boon for young England. These are just the books for a juvenile library.

Little Folks. A Magazine for the Young. Cassell and Co.

As usual, up to the highest point of excellence. We know of nothing in the English language which can be placed before "Little Folks." It keeps always in the front rank.

The National Temperance Mirror. Volume for 1884. 337, Strand.

QUITE a handsome volume, fit for any gentleman's drawing-room. Many people would be improved if they took a good look into this "Mirror," especially if what they saw induced them to forsake the glass in which the serpent lies concealed.

Evans' Temperance Annual, 1885. 337, Strand.

THIS little sixpennyworth seems scarcely up to the mark of previous years, but even now it is cheap at the price. "Old Ebony's" lecture on "Water" might be delivered with great effect at Band of Hope and Temperance meetings. The Water-drinkers of the Bible. By

J. W. KIRTON, LL.D. 337, Strand. WE cannot say that we are pleased with this book. The Bible contains so much, both directly and indirectly, in commendation of the principle of abstinence from intoxicating drinks, that there is no need to twist or strain other passages, as we think Dr. Kirton has sometimes done. The literary portion of the work is as unsatisfactory as the theological, and we wonder that the author of "Buy Your Own Cherries" should have allowed so many mistakes to remain. However, we hope this little volume, notwithstanding its defects, will convince many who read it that the Bible says more than they were aware in favour of water-drinking, and in praise of water-drinkers.

The Children's Own Paper. Edited by Uncle GILBERT. Manchester and

Salford Boys' Refuge. Cassell and Co., Ludgate Hill.

A FINE Volume of a publication which we have never seen before. The cause of the suffering animal world is here pleaded most powerfully and winsomely. There is sad need still to teach the elements of humanity, and we are right glad that there are Uncle Gilberts who drop into the service with right good

will. The volume for the year is most handsomely got up. The Christian Worker, a similar serial, deserves our praise.

Hints on Health to the Overworked. By Dr. STEWART. J. Heywood, 11, Paternoster Buildings. Price 3d.

BELONGS rather to a medical reviewer than to our department; but contains many useful suggestions.

JUST on the eve of his anticipated departure for Mentone, the Editor was again smitten down with painful sickness, which detained him at home two or three weeks longer than he had intended to remain. The frequent return of his trying malady clearly indicated to himself and all his friends the need of prolonged rest, if he wished to avoid a complete breakdown; and, therefore, on Monday evening, January 12, a special churchmeeting was held at the Tabernacle, at which an unusually large number of membars attended, and it was unanimously resolved that the following letter, signed by the officers on behalf of the whole church, should be forwarded to the absent Pastor:

"Dear Pastor,-We have heard, with profound grief, that you have been unable to go out on your proposed visit to Mentone in consequence of severe and painful illness during the past week.

"Our poignant sympathy is rather increased than lessened by the reflection that this season of affliction has not been borrowed from your time of service in the church, but from the period of recreation to which you have a perfect right, as well as a hearty welcome.

"While devoutly recognising the hand of the Lord in this, and in all other dispositions of his providence, we feel that it cannot be irreverent to seek some clear interpretation of the will of our heavenly Father. Can we be mistaken in supposing that the lesson to us all, and to yourself, is transparent? Your arduous labours and your incessant anxieties so far exceed the average strength of your constitution, that there is an imperative demand for you to take longer and more frequent occasions of retirement; and to take them, not when you have used up the last ounce of your strength, but when you are in unimpaired vigour.

"Under present circumstances, we earnestly entreat you to consecrate at least three months to entire relaxation from the duties of your sacred office; and, if it seems good to you, let the appointment of supplies for your pulpit be left to the copastor and the deacons, subject always to

their accepting any suggestion of yours, and their communicating to you every arrangement of theirs, as is their habitual wont.

"And accept herewith our assurance, as a church, that we will all unite in a strong determination to support the good work of the Tabernacle by constant attendance, both on Sundays and week evenings, and by offering our full contributions to the support of the various institutions of the church.

"With sincere affection, and unceasing prayers for your recovery,

"We are, dear Pastor,

To this kindly sympathy of our beloved people we can only yield a grateful acceptance. The approach of the College Conference now renders three months' rest impossible, but we will rest all that we can if we can recover strength enough to travel out of this perpetual fog. Yet the absence from our own sphere of labour is a great trial of heart. No one knows what interests are affected by the Pastor's absence from such a church. It is our heart's prayer that the prosperity of the church at the Tabernacle may be one among many standing proofs of the power of the gospel; and hence we shrink from the grave experiments involved in frequent protracted absences. Our finances. for home purposes suffer, and this is no small addition to our care; but this could soon be remedied if the Lord moved one or two of his servants to relieve all pressure. It is in spiritual matters, as to attendance, conversions, and holy growth, that we are most apt to suffer. For this we know of no help but increased prayer. If all who love us in the Lord will give us a fragment of special prayer each day, all will be well; and we shall go to our rest with a light heart, and return as a giant refreshed.

It has been said that the usefulness of a pastor is best proved by his apparent uselessness: if he has so conducted matters that things go on well without him because the brethren are up to the mark, then he has done his work well. Here, then, is an op