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sphere were different, in many respects, from those on the estates in Monaghan, which hitherto have chiefly occupied our attention.

The chief difficulty which prevailed in the administration of the property at the time when Mr. Trench undertook it, seems to have arisen from its having come into the hands of a new owner under very perplexing and peculiar circumstances. The late proprietor had gone beyond his legal rights in the extent and terms of the leases granted to the tenantry; and it was held right by Lord Digby, and those who acted with him, to obtain compensation from the proper quarter for losses to which he was subjected by this arrangement. The whole account is very interesting in a legal point of view, but would occupy too much space for further notice here. Suffice it to say, that without any apparent fault on the part of Mr. Trench's employer or his agent, the tenants were also brought into some very trying and distressing circumstances. Nor can the rise and progress of much discontent arnong them be wondered at, together with efforts to counteract proceedings which at one time threatened them with very serious and unexpected injury. Every one who gives to the narrative a fair and unprejudiced perusal, will, we think, admit this, however sure to condemn the dark and bloody designs which the state of things originated. The author writes :

“ Conspiracies for various purposes became now the order of the day, and large subscriptions were set on foot to pay for the murder of myself and my son. But we were kept tolerably well informed of all that was going on; and more than once, by warnings from our secret friends, we escaped the murderous aim of assassins who were lying behind hedges to shoot us.

“Having passed through much danger, and run many risks of being shot, we resolved to take the 'bull by the horns,' and to eject from their holdings, and banish off the estate, a few of the foremost Ribbonmen, and face the danger as best we could, which must be necessarily incurred thereby.” (p. 324.)

The result was, that order was restored, and means were taken to treat with the tenants generally, so as to do them justice and give them satisfaction. Since that time, improve. ments of a very decided character have taken place on the estate ; and in spite of much discouragement and opposition during the first few years of the present ownership, it is now (according to Mr. Trench's statement) “ acknowledged by all who have seen it to be one of the most industrious, progressive, and improved estates in Ireland.” We leave him to describe the results in his own summary :

“When I recollect the miserable condition of this estate not quite ten years ago—the tenants disaffected, industry paralyzed, Ribbon. Vol. 68.-No. 378.

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ism rampant, and conspiracies to murder those who were most anxious for their welfare filling the minds of many of the peasantry -it is some consolation to find that steady and persevering determination, combined with kind and liberal treatment, will ever, in much abused Ireland, produce the most satisfactory results. And Lord Digby, and those who have worked under him, can look back with pleasure at having obtained a moral victory over what, at one time, appeared as dangerous and unpromising a subject as any Irish landlord or Irish agent could possibly undertake to manage.” (p. 330.)

We close this volume with the utmost admiration of the author's dauntless courage and steadfast endurance of some of the most trying and perplexing emergencies into which any man could be brought. Moreover, he has no doubt written with the full conviction that facts like those recorded in this very remarkable volume, speak so loudly for themselves, that any colouring of them would be perfectly unsuitable, and any call for feeling, on the part of the reader, quite out of place. In addition to his natural and physical courage, although the subject is rarely brought forward,* and in no case which we have observed, with any personal declaration of his own religious state and condition of mind under the daily perils of his life, Mr. Trench, we have reason to know, has been sustained throughout by that happy trust in his God and Saviour, which, beyond all other means, fits a man to meet them, as “complete in Christ," and, at any moment, ready for the world to come, as washed in His blood, and sanctified by His Spirit.

Of all reservations on the part of the English reader, there is one which requires the most watchful and constant exercise. It is that of avoiding any supposition that the state of things selected for description in the book is at all applicable to the whole state of Ireland. We must not conceal from ourselves that in all parts of the country there are matters which afford much anxiety to all thinking people, and specially to those most responsible, as landlords, agents, and supporters of the general good order and tranquillity of the land. We refer here to those mainly of a religious and political character; as in many districts of Ireland there have been no more acts of violence, threatenings, or conspiracies with regard to the land, than in any other parts of Great Britain. Mr. Trench undertook his work, chiefly pourtrayed in these pages, as one of the most difficult and unmanageable kind, and carried it out accordingly. Hence the scenes given are exceptional, and not to be transferred to the whole country. The English reader, acting thus, would fall into much error; and yet,

* There is an exception in the chapter entitled “ The Revival," but it has no connection with the general subject of the book.

unless on the watch, is not unlikely to incur it, when engaged and absorbed in these startling revelations.

The great question of the day-viz., the dis-establishment and disendowment of the Established Church in Ireland-has no place in the volume. It is one of that magnitude, of that serious responsibility towards God, and, as we think, of that disustrous character, which must silence the lips and restrain the pen, except it could be treated in its own place and according to its full claims. May God give fresh life and energy to our prayers, and answer them "exceeding abundantly beyond all we can ask or think,” in connexion with that land, “that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations !”

DEAN HOWSON'S METAPHORS OF ST. PAUL. The Metaphors of St. Paul. By John S. Howson, D.D., Dean

of Chester. Strahan & Co. THOSE who have derived pleasure and profit from “ The Life and Epistles of St. Paul,” (and what biblical student is there who is not, more or less, indebted to that work?) will hail with satisfaction any publication, whether great or small, of a similar character, proceeding from the pen of the Author of its most valuable and most interesting portion. "

In commending Dean Howson's “Metaphors of St. Paul” to the attention of our readers, we gładly resign our more peculiar functions as Critics, and proceed first to give a short account of the object which the Author has in view, and then to quote a few specimens of a book of which the only fault we have to complain consists in its brevity.

“ The Metaphors of St. Paul” begin with the enunciation of a very simple, but, we fear, too much neglected truth, viz., that “every part of Holy Scripture has its own distinctive imagery ; and, through the mediuin of this imagery, its instruction is often conveyed.”

Having briefly illustrated this proposition by a reference to the prophecies of the herdman of Tekoa, and shown the necessity of some familiarity with oriental life in order to a due appreciation of Old Testament phraseology, Dean Howson proceeds to point out the necessity of a similar attention to the peculiarities of Greek and Roman civilization, in order to a right understanding of the New Testament generally, and more especially of the Epistles of St. Paul.

His subject is obviously one which admits of almost indefinite expansion, and we sincerely trust that the present little volume, in which the Dean has illustrated, in four sections, “certain groups of images which are common in one part of the New Testament,” is but the first instalment of other volumes of a similar character.

The first subject selected for elucidation is the military metaphors of St. Paul. .

St. Paul's close proximity to soldiers during a considerable portion of that period of his life embraced in the records of the Acts of the Apostles; his missionary journeys, not only throughout Syria, but also to other places both in Europe and Asia, where the warlike symbols of Rome were prominent; and more particularly his prolonged captivity both at Cæsarea and at Rome, render frequent allusions of this nature not only natural, but almost inevitable, if the Epistles attributed to the great Apostle were really composed under the circumstances expressed or implied in their contents, and addressed to those Churches which are designated in their titles. One quotation under this head must suffice.

The passage proposed for illustration is Ephesians vi. 10–17.

“One part of the armour remains—The Sword 'the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God,'—i. e., the sword which the Spirit gives, and which is none other than God's revealed truth. This is the one offensive weapon. We are not sanctioned in the use of any other; all the rest of our armour is defensive; and this is very instructive. Our conflict is not with man, but with sin. We have no angry passions of our own to gratify. Our duty is steadfastly to resist: and when we strike, we must strike only with the weapon which God puts into our hands. All this is made more emphatic, if we observe the one weapon-the most characteristic weapon of the Roman soldier—the great pilum or pike, which Lord Macaulay has introduced with strict truth into one of his · Lays of Rome,'—this weapon is entirely omitted. Here the parallel is less incomplete. Can we doubt that this was done purposely? The silence of Scripture has its meaning, as well as its actual words." (pp. 29–31.)

Dean Howson's second section is devoted to the elucida. tion of the architectural metaphors which occur in St. Paul's Epistles. He directs particular attention to the Apostle's frequent and almost exclusive use of the word “edify," and shows, incidentally, the direct bearing of investigations, such as those which he is here instituting, upon the great and momentous subjects of Christian Evidence, of Christian Doctrine, and of Christian Practice! Here again one illustration must suffice. We select it no less for its value than for its brevity.

Referring to Ephesians ii. 19, (one of those Epistles in which, as the Dean reminds his hearers, architectural allusions might à priori be expected,) Dean Howson writes thus :

“Now all I will observe on this quotation is this :-—that I do not believe that the apostles and prophets are the foundations of which St. Paul speaks; but that Jesus Christ is foundation-stone and corner-stone in one. I would render it thus: 'Built on the apostolic and prophetic foundation-stone,'-the stone which apostles and prophets laid, and on which they themselves rest—for other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, '—viz. Christ.” (p. 62.)

The third topic selected for elucidation, is that of St. Paul's agricultural metaphors. We entirely concur in Dean Howson's explanation of the allegory drawn in the 11th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans from the grafting of the olive-tree. The lesson is drawn, as the Dean observes, from the grafting of branches of a wild olive-tree on the stock of a good olive tree

-the grafting of branches of a wild fruit-tree on the stock of a good fruit-tree-a process unheard of among gardeners. The explanation suggested by Dean Howson is, as he observes, very simple, and though not new, as he supposes, has been for the most part overlooked by Commentators. “I believe,” the Dean writes, “ that there partly is the very point of the parable, that the grafting was contrary to the law of nature. ... It was the very contrary to the grafting which took place in the olive grounds, to which all readers of the Epistle were accustomed.” (pp. 110, 111.)

We must not dwell longer on this third topic than to direct the attention of our readers to a very suggestive observation in p. 93, that the “references to nature in St. Paul's writings are almost entirely to nature in connexion with human labour"_but must content ourselves with one more illustration of the characteristic imagery of St. Paul as contained in the last of Dean Howson's four essays on this most interesting subject. The title of the last chapter is “Greek Games,” and our quotation is taken from the elucidation of one of the many allusions to the foot-race, pre-eminently, as Dean Howson observes, “the struggle which caused the most eager interest in that age and in those countries.”

“In the Epistle to the Philippians, St. Paul writes thus :-'Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after. This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil. ii. 12-14.) Was there ever a more vigorous picture of a runner in earnest ? Here is the eager pressing toward a definite end in view, the feeling that nothing else is to be thought of for the present—the determination that nothing shall interfere with the matter in hand ;-and at the same time, with the strong

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