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established, and they originated in the ascertained fact that many would attend who would be disinclined or afraid to go to a church or chapel. As to the last item, we can easily believe the statement that," but for the progress of educational work amongst the men, female education would still be as impossible as it was twenty-five years ago." "Until recently female education has depended almost entirely on Christian teachers or Christian superintendence; but this state of things will soon alter when secular schools become more numerous." Of course, the danger is that infidelity may gain a footing amongst the women before Christianity can be brought to bear. To obviate this danger the Church must bestir itself. The London Missionary Society's work in Central Africa has to contend with painful adversities. Another of the little band of labourers there-the Rev. D. Williams, of Urambo-died on September 24th, from the effects of sunstroke, ten months after his arrival, and less than a year and a half after his appointment to missionary work. The Rev. W. Griffith, the only missionary left at the stations on Lake Tanganyika, was, by the last account, stricken down with fever. Dr. Southon is now virtually alone in the Central African Mission. These sad events, however, are rousing the Society to renewed and still more energetic zeal on behalf of this important region. Native pastoral work is vigorously and successfully maintained in South Travancore. The massacre of twelve persons, including four native teachers, at Kalo, New Guinea, in March last, has not deterred others from entering the service. Application for successors was made to the Society Islands Institution, when all the students deemed eligible readily offered themselves. The choice was determined by lot, and the ordination took place in July, in the church at Raiatea. Mr. G. H. Macfarlane, a Rotherham College student was ordained for mission work at Vizagapatam, South India, in Eglington Church, Glasgow, on the 6th of November, and, with four others connected with the missionary staff, left for India on the 16th of the same month. Miss Ellen H. Horton, daughter of the Rev. T. G. Horton, of Bradford, was designated for mission work at Coimbatore, South India, in her father's chapel on November 21st.

Reviews.

SUNDAY MUSINGS. Illustrated. Lon-
don: Cassell, Petter, & Galpin.
THIS handsome volume is one of the
most appropriate gift-books of the
season, and will prove not less useful
than acceptable to those who are for-
tunate enough to secure it. It contains
a large and varied selection of readings
--didactic, devotional, and consolatory
-in poetry and in prose from the best

English writers, whose names, however, ought to have been appended to their pieces. The selections have been skilfully and judiciously made, and admirably illustrate the great doctrines of Scripture, as well as its more prominent incidents. They are full of wise and sympathetic counsel in relation to our duties in the various relationships of life, and suggest the true answer to

our deepest needs. Well known events of Church history are graphically described, while here and there we come across short stories in which our young folks will heartily delight. For family reading no book of higher worth has ever been published, and, in view of its combination of excellences, we know of none equal to it. There is not a dull page in it. From first to last it is bright and genial, and will tend to make our homes pure, peaceful, and happy. The illustrations, many of them full-page, are specially fine. A number of them are after pictures from the great masters. They are fully as varied as the readings, and comprise Biblical incidents both in the Old and New Testaments, Oriental manners and customs, memorable historical scenes, aspects of nature, and symbolic representations of spiritual life. The volume is sure to become a favourite for general and family reading. The study of its illustrations will be no mean education in art, while its words of truth and wisdom will give invaluable aid in matters of more transcendent importance.

THE LIFE OF CHRIST. By F. W. Farrar, D.D., F.R.S., &c. Popular Edition. London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin.

THE publishers have conferred an immense boon on thousands of English readers by the issue of this cheap edition of the most popular book of our age. No contemporary work of any kind has had so marvellous a circulation as Canon Farrar's "Life of Christ." Its success is altogether unique, and the demand for it has in no degree abated. The present edition contains the text complete, and omits simply the notes and appendices, which are of great value to the scholar,

but of little interest to the majority of readers. The work is now brought within general reach, and ought certainly to secure a place in every household in the land. Sunday-school teachers and elder scholars will rejoice in the enterprise of the publishers, who have thus rendered it possible for them to make this really great and brilliant work their

own.

PSALMS AND HYMNS, with Supplement, for Public, Social, and Private Worship; prepared for the use of the Baptist Denomination. London: J. Haddon & Co., 3, Bouverie Street, Fleet Street.

WE have just received a superbly printed, bound, and ornamented copy of this admirable collection of hymns. It is truly "a thing of beauty." The collection is worthy of the form and style in which it is thus issued. It is perfectly convenient and safe for ordinary use, and yet it would grace the most elegant drawing-room table in the land. We take this opportunity of expressing the hope that our denomination will be true to the interests of this excellent publication. It has had, and still continues to have, a large sale. It is adequate in every respect to the requirements of any Baptist congregation. It is not a private speculation for money-making purposes. On the contrary, its entire profits, as our readers know, are distributed amongst the needy widows of deceased Baptist ministers and missionaries, and a very large sum has been already thus appropriated, some £300 of which has been given to the widows of ministers connected with the "General Baptist section of the body. We make these remarks because we have reason to believe that efforts are not wanting to

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supplant "Psalms and Hymns" in quarters where that collection would most naturally be used. This is to us a matter of sincere regret, and we take the liberty of urging our friends to be on their guard against it.

THE BAPTIST VISITOR a Monthly Magazine for Church and Home. London Baptist Tract and Book Society, Castle Street and Cursitor Street.

We have before us the January number of this publication, and are glad to see it not only enlarged, but improved in various respects. It is openly denominational, and should be the more welcome to Baptists on that account. It is exceedingly cheap-costing only one halfpenny per month. The number contains excellent articles by the Rev. S. H. Booth, H. Kitching, Dr. Maclaren, Dr. Culross, and J. H. Cooke, a hymn by Mr. Spurgeon, and a good tune set to words by Mr. Cooke. The remainder of the space is filled up by telling anecdotes and pithy extracts. It can be easily "localised " at a very moderate cost, and in such a way as to secure a liberal local profit, which might be applied to Church or Sunday School purposes.

THE NEWER CRITICISM AND THE ANALOGY OF FAITH: a Reply to Lectures by W. Robertson Smith, M.A., on the Old Testament in the Jewish Church. By Robert Watts, D.D. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. MR. ROBERTSON SMITH has gained what we cannot but regard as an unenviable notoriety by his very free critical handling of the Old Testament, and by the penalty which has been visited upon him for the liberties he has taken with Sacred Books at the hands

of the Ecclesiastical authorities under whom he had to serve. It is no part of our duty here to discuss the treatment to which he has been subjected. The Presbyterian Churches of Scotland allow but little scope for free and independent thought amongst their ministers. Whether the restrictions they impose are likely to keep down error, and to conserve truth, may, perhaps, be doubtful. At any rate, most of the free Churches on this side the border manage to remain tolerably orthodox without them. Apart, however, from this question, it is clear that when powerful religious thinkers, who add to their intellectual capacity high scholarship and large research, diverge from the lines which are considered to lead to right and safe conclusions, the thing most needful to be done is to point out the mistakes into which they have been betrayed, and the corrections of which those mistakes are susceptible. Mr. Robertson Smith has a formidable opponent in Dr. Watts, who is the Professor of Systematic Theology in the General Assembly's College, Belfast. The work before us is a formal reply to the Lectures on Biblical Criticism recently delivered by Mr. Smith, in Edinburgh and Glasgow, before large audiences, the aim of which was to "give to the Scottish public an opportunity of understanding the position of the newer criticism in order that they might not condemn it unheard." As Dr. Watts puts it, "the delivery of these lectures was simply an appeal from the decision of the Free Church Commission in the previous October, suspending the author from the ordinary work of his chair in Aberdeen,' to the general tribunal of 'the Scottish public.'" Mr. Smith's method of dealing with Old Testament history has

not been allowed to pass unchallenged. Answers to his sometimes subtle, but oftentimes extremely rash, reasoning have cropped up here and there; but we have nowhere met with so complete and exhaustive a reply as that which Dr. Watts' admirable volume contains. We do not pretend to be familiar with all the details of the matters in dispute; but, so far as we have looked at them and apprehended them, we unhesitatingly reject the destructive criticism which Dr. Watts has so vigorously attacked, and accept the older and sounder belief which he has so ably defended.

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congregation at Shortwood Chapel, together with all other Christian people living in its vicinity, will naturally prize it; but Baptists in other parts of the kingdom would read it with pleasure, inasmuch as the Church at Shortwood has a worthy history. Mr. Cave's Sermons are not only intrinsically good, but perfectly appropriate to the occasion, whilst Dr.. Underhill's reminiscences are intensely interesting.

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J. Bunyan. Elliot Stock. WE hope that the immortal allegory of the immortal dreamer may become as popular in France as it has long been in England, though probably it is scarcely possible for this hope to be realized. Bunyan's idiomatic English cannot be adequately translated into French. Perhaps the work has been done in the version before us as well as it can be done; but the book loses very much of its characteristic power by being transferred to a language which is incapable of adequately representing it. Many of the titles to the illustrations are given in bad French. Nevertheless, the version deserves confidence,

and we wish for it a large circulation and rich spiritual results.

A LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER FOR A NIGHT, and Other Stories. By Robert Richardson, B.A., Author of "The Young Cragsman," "Phil's Champion," &c.

A LITTLE AUSTRALIAN GIRL; or, The Babes in the Bush ;" and JIм, a Little Nigger. By Robert Richardson, B.A.

THE TWO BROTHERS. By Robert Richardson.

THE BEST OF CHUMS, and Other Stories. By Robert Richardson, B.A. Edinburgh: Oliphant, Ander

son & Ferrier.

FOUR pretty little story-books, which our young people are sure to read with interest and profit. There are three stories in the first volume, two in the second, one in the third, and six in the fourth, and they are thrillingly illustrative of youthful courage combined and sweetened with the highest nobleness of disposition. The "Lighthouse Keeper," the "Best of Chums," and "Going for a Doctor," are reprints from Little Folks. Mr. Richardson needs no introduction to our readers. We will only say, therefore, that he has given his twelve stories in these four little volumes in the graphic style which is usual with him, and that they are all full of healthy feeling.

THE LITTLE GLEANER a Monthly Magazine for the Young. London : Houlston & Sons, 7, Paternoster Buildings.

THE completed volume for 1881 shows that this very excellent serial maintains all the fine features for which it is well known. Biblical exposition, anecdote, natural history, biography,

descriptions of scenery, poetry, exhortations to virtue and piety-these form the principal contents of the volume, and they are made abundantly attractive to child-readers by a simple and graceful style, and by numerous illustrations.

THE SUNDAY AT HOME. 1881, Religious Tract Society.

THE LEISURE HOUR. 1881. Religious Tract Society.

THESE two publications have long been independent of any words of praise from reviewers. They merit, and have gained, and will no doubt continue to hold, a first position in this age of innumerable periodicals. They can be implicitly trusted for the Scripturalness of their religious teaching, for the purity and loftiness of their moral tone, and for the wholesomeness of their influence. The rich and the poor, the old and the young, the strong and the weak, the healthy and the afflicted, the happy and the sorrowful, the learned and the unlearned, may turn to such pages as these with expectant interest: they will not be disappointed. The first of the two volumes before us contains 844 pages, the second 764. They are beautifully printed, largely illustrated, and brilliantly bound. Many of the pictures are exceedingly beautiful. Towards the end of the volume of "The Sunday at Home" we have a finelyexecuted portrait, and a short memoir, of the late Dr. Samuel Manning, whose contributions to literature, and especially to that of the Religious Tract Society, and whose services to the cause of our common Christianity make his loss a sorrow and his memory a pride, not only to the Baptist denomination to which he belonged, but to the church of Christ at large.

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