books we have seen during the present season. It is quite worthy of a place on every table, as having not only a pleasing exterior, but also as containing much instruction and information as regards the "Path on earth to the Gate to Heaven."

The character of these essays may be judged of from a few words in the opening chapter. The author tells us that "This book is designed, in the main, for those who confess that they are strangers and pilgrims, and who desire to tread the narrow pathway to where, beyond these shadows, there is peace.' It will, however, speak of the origin, and growth, and laws of the religious life; of some of the perplexities, dangers, and encouragements common to all ages, or peculiar and special in the present; of its abiding principles; of its close here, and its consummation hereafter; something of a map, something of desultory sketches, of that pathway trod by the pilgrims of the Great King."

The volume is divided into three books. The first is called "The

Way of the Christian Life," and contains essays on "Life as an Education;""Of Sin;" "Conversion and Repentance;" "Christ Crucified, the Centre of Doctrine," and many others.

In the second book, "The Heavenward Path," the chapter "On Prayer" is perhaps the most interesting. We select the following remarks from it:-"It must often be a cause of grief that prayers are so slight, so brief, so unworthy, so beset with wanderings and sinful thoughts. Of course the existence of such perturbing forces should form matter for self-examination and humble confession. But it is to be remembered that prayer is a high and difficult attainment; that it is something which keeps attention, and thought, and feeling at its fullest tension; and he who has advanced but little on the pathway, finds that an arduous effort is involved. That man has not lost his prayers who has risen from his knees humbled by the sense of his weakness and inefficiency. But the success of our prayers does not depend upon whether we have prayed well, but is obtained through God's love and mercy in Christ. Neither need it be supposed that we have only prayed aright when we have prayed with deep fervour, or when our mind has been deeply impressed with the reality of Divine things. These may be absent, and yet the prayer, offered up with quiet faith and deliberate purpose, well-pleasing in the sight of God. As he advances onward, the Christian man will find that this duty, like each other duty, becomes a matter of delight. There will be delight in retiring to the oratory of the secret chamber; a delight in the awful familiarity of the spot where one has so often raised up the soul to God; a delight in knowing that to the all-loving, all-kind, all-sympathising ear, the the Christian man may pour out his inmost soul, and there find the surest means for securing the richest treasures for himself and those dearest to him. Who is there in the wide world he could approach with the full story of all he suffered and all he wanted? What human friend is there who would listen to us so patiently and fully as the Great God does in His vast charity to the sons of men? This, our most bounden duty and service, is the highest blessing and privilege which could be vouchsafed to us; and, led onward by the grace of God, we shall increasingly feel the privilege and the blessing."

The third book, "Nearer to Heaven," treats of "Faith and Work ;" "The Consolations of Christ," and one or two other subjects.

It would take too much of our space to enter into the details of the work; nor have we time to do so. We cannot be answerable for some of the views and opinions of the author; suffice it to say, that the essays seem to be written in an evangelical spirit, in a clear and masterly style, and evidently by one who holds the "pen of a ready

writer."

As regards the illustrations, we must express our strong disapprobation of some of them; such as "I. H. S.," "The Good Shepherd,” and one or two others, where the figure of our Saviour is introduced. Though beautifully executed and finished, they are to our mind rather revolting than otherwise. Besides which, no picture can in the least convey to the mind the true idea of Christ, of whom the Homily says, "No representation is or ought to be made, seeing that Christ consists of two natures, God and Man; and that as there is no portrait of the Godhead, so there is no representation of Christ."

PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

THE New Parliament assembles just as our Magazine will fall beneath the reader's eye. The Queen has announced her intention of opening it in person; it will be her Majesty's first appearance in public for a gloomy period of four years; and the joy with which this event is hailed by her affectionate people is such as, if described, would seem extravagant indeed. If ever a sovereign was blessed with a more than loyal and loving people, devoted to herself and family, and always ready to make every reasonable sacrifice on their behalf, Queen Victoria is blessed with such; and earnestly do we hope, that while her life is spared they may never again be subject to a trial so long and so depressing.

The subjects which lie before the new Parliament are enough to demand all the wisdom which the ablest of English ministers have at any time brought to the consideration of national affairs. There still remains enough on hand to justify anxiety with respect to our relations with America. But we hope that the worst is passed, and that a mutual good understanding may once more prevail. If America could once persuade herself that we are not at all envious of her greatness, or bigness rather, all would be well. We should be glad to see her truly great; but that depends upon herself alone. She has taken one great step, in the emancipation of her slaves. If she will now cease to boast or threaten, and apply all her powers to the improvement of her own internal polity, she will set an example which foreign nations will not be slow to admire. And from England she may expect only fair treatment, and a generous construction of her conduct. Other nations

We are

at present afford us no uneasiness. The temple of Janus, we were going to say, is closed. But a moment's reflection checks the profanity of the threadbare allusion, and tells us rather to give praise to Him" Who snappeth the bow and breaketh the spear asunder, and burneth the chariot in the fire." From Rome only is danger to be feared. But home questions threaten to disturb our peace. to have, it seems, another Reform Bill. If the people of England were polled to-morrow, the result, we are persuaded, would be that no great change is desired. The working classes are already well represented, and utter no complaints. And although our system is by no means perfect, yet upon the whole it very fairly reflects the sense of the nation. Yet it may be possible to get up an agitation which in its results shall be highly mischievous. All parties would do well to bear in mind that no violent change produces either the good or the harm expected from it. The Reform Bill of 1832 has not handed us over to mob government, as the old Tories firmly believed it must do ; nor has it given the Whigs of that day an absolute possession of the reins of government, as their heated partisans expected it would do. The repeal of the corn laws has not given us the cheap loaf which it promised; neither has it ruined our farmers and destroyed the agricultural interest, as it was feared. When we venture upon great changes, we are but like children who have learnt to set a steamengine in motion, but are quite unable to stop it again, or even to control its movements. So, too, of Free-trade. On the whole it has proved advantageous to England; yet it cannot be denied that it has ruined some of our oldest manufactures-those of ribbons, and the cheaper kinds of watches, for example. These things should teach our senators wisdom, the despised wisdom of moderation.

There are some subjects on which moderation is treason against Heaven, as well as against the Constitution. Such are all concessions made to the Church of Rome; we mean to her priesthood and spiritual powers. Many years' experience has now proved that every hope has been fallacious. Rome is not to be propitiated. Can any of our readers tell us of one single instance in which our concessions have not been made the occasion for still further claims? Has Maynooth satisfied her restless priesthood? Has the concession of Romish chaplains to Protestant workhouses prevented those very chaplains from intriguing for still further power? Romish railway officials now swarm on the stations in Lancashire and the north; and they circulate far and wide announcements of Romish lotteries, which are altogether illegal, and of other schemes, for the aggrandisement of Rome. Some of these we have in our own possession. And now, it is said-but we confess the scheme is too monstrous, as it seems to us, to be true; but said it is by one of those journals which professes to be well informed-that Earl Russell has taken the sense of the Cabinet upon a proposition for establishing two national churches in Ireland; the one Roman Catholic, the other Protestant: the property of the Protestant Church to be divided between them. Our new House of Commons will soon have its virtue put to the test. There are other questions of a social character which directly concern the health and comfort, and therefore the morals, of the people; such as the cleansing

of rivers, and the providing of wholesome habitations for the poor. But the grand experiment, now so near its completion on the Thames, will soon show us what is possible in the cleansing of rivers-a far more serious evil in some parts of the country than even in the metropolis-and what remedies the case admits of. So of model lodginghouses for the poor; we entertain some doubt-not as to their utility, if the poor should be satisfied with them-but poverty, like wealth, has its caprices.

The annual address of the French Emperor speaks only of peace and goodwill, and we see no reason to doubt his Imperial Majesty's sincerity. At home, it is only from Rome and her intrigues that danger seems likely to arise. Abroad, the Emperor seems determined to take no offence from the violent language of the United States; though he will not desert his nominee in Mexico, neither will he maintain an army there to support him on the throne. From Jamaica we have learned nothing further on official authority since we last wrote. The Commis

sion despatched by Government, under General Storks, will, we hope, have arrived safely, and begun its labours before these lines meet the reader's eye. We shall therefore make no further comments, but leave the subject until we are in possession of fuller information. The Commission is so fairly constituted, that it already possesses the confidence of reasonable men of all parties.

We are told that three millions of lately emancipated negroes in the Confederate States had planned a general rising on Christmas-day, to plunder the country, and seize the estates of their late masters. That something of the kind was intended, we cannot doubt; for, although all the black troops were removed, and those in the Federal States sent to the points from which danger was expected, several risings did in fact take place, and blood was shed on both sides. For the present, however, the insurrection is suppressed. They are not the best friends of the negro who choose to regard him only as a long oppressed and much injured being. At home, as Dr. Livingstone's volume must convince us, he is a degraded creature, and is not likely to have been much improved by the treatment he has received in slavery. Cruelty begets a cruel disposition. On many an estate religious teaching has been absolutely forbidden; on others, so much only has been taught as was meant to teach the slaves contentment and submission. It will take many years of patient missionary labour to bring these three millions of outcast and neglected men to some knowledge of true religion. Meanwhile, the first duty is to provide them with labour, and to secure for them wages sufficient for their sustenance. This is one of the difficulties with which the Northern States have now to deal.

We must return once more to the subject with which we concluded our last summary,-the anxious condition of our great religious societies from a want of funds. We merely mentioned some of the oldest and most valued ones, whose wants were urgent. But others are either needy, or, considering the wealth of England, very ill-supported. We may take, for instance, our Society for the Conversion of the Jews, crippled in its grand career of usefulness abroad, as well as at home, by the meagre support it has hitherto received. The Home and Colonial Society, and all the Irish Societies, are more or less in the

same condition, as well as others for evangelizing the continent of Europe. There are other Societies to which we need not advert. The Paper sticthed into our cover tells our readers from month to month how God has blessed the labours of the Bible Society. The Christian Knowledge Society, at which Canon Burgess and others of our friends. have worked so long, and so successfully, ought not to be passed by in silence. We must bear witness to the liberality of its grants, and the vast improvement of its tracts and books, in consequence of their exertions, and those of other zealous and excellent men. It is grievous to think that, with all our immense wealth, and our widely diffused evangelical truth, and with it an abounding evangelical profession, so little should be done for God.

The accounts of all the Societies will be made up for the year before we meet our readers again, and we can only pray that, before it be too late for the present emergency, the generous spirit which God has granted to a few may be universal amongst those who love Him, and really desire the extension of Messiah's Kingdom in this world.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

J. P., who has enclosed his card, and is a Christian minister "who has spent nearly twenty years among the negro race," modestly requests us to insert a letter which will fill two or three of our pages to prove that "the editor of the Christian Observer bears false witness," inasmuch that "we have no proof yet that what took place in Jamaica in October last was a rebellion at all." "That outrages (!) were committed by the Blacks upon the Whites in Morant Bay is alas! too true." We observe that our friend speaks of the Morant Bay atrocities with singular calmness. "That any plot existed has been doubted, and is doubted still. That any assassinations, that is, premeditated murders, took place, may have been denied." Under all the circumstances, our readers will perhaps bear with us another week or so before we read our recantation. Meanwhile, we have only to ask J. P. a question which we have asked of others who have come to lecture us in the same modest style. There is a lady in England who fled from Morant Bay for her life, and arrived here with nothing in the world but "the clothes upon her back." She says that she is a widow, and that her husband, who was a chaplain there, was tortured to death in the most horrible manner by the negroes before her eyes. We simply wish to know where is this lady's husband? Can he be produced? If not, how did he come by his death? We say nothing of the two hundred ladies who fled in the same destitute state to Kingstown, and took refuge with their friends. What caused their panic ? We receive every month large parcels of new books which we are expected to review. We are obliged to authors and publishers, who forward them to us, for their courtesy. But we are aware that it occasions many disappointments. It is not one twentieth part of these presents that we can possibly notice, even in our briefest manner. Nor can we hold ourselves obliged to do so. On the other hand, the time and fatigue, to say nothing of the expense of returning them, are what we cannot afford to give. Nor do we limit our selection of books reviewed in the Christian Observer to those which are thus presented to us. We are obliged to spend considerable sums on the purchase of books, good and bad, which we think it of importance to bring under the notice of our readers. In a word, our aim is not to oblige friends, but to maintain the high character which we are thankful to say the Christian Observer has now sustained ever since its commencement.