music, its virtues are independent of numbers. The notes necessary to entrance one soul can thrill the ages with unabated force. Extacies for the race sleep in those modulations from which each lover of "sweet sounds" must take his music or be without it.

VIRTUE. The principles of virtue, like the elements of nature, are ever identical in essence but changeful in form. New generations of life are but old elements in new forms; and new righteous theories and institutions are but old principles of virtue entering into new combinations.

ECONOMY.- Nature is avariciously frugal; in Matter, it allows no atom to elude its grasp; in Mind, no thought or feeling to perish. It gathers up the fragments that nothing be lost.

SOLITUDE. Great souls are lonely in the crowd; they live in the abysses of their own musings, as islands amidst the swelling

seas.

RECREATIONS.-Amusements to virtue are like breezes of air to the flame-gentle ones will fan it, but strong ones will put it out.

GREAT SOULS.-A great mind like a great ship cannot move in shallow water. Give it sea depth, and sea room and it shall bear cargoes to serve the nations.

GREAT DEEDS.-Unselfish and noble acts are the most radiant epochs in the biography of souls. When wrought in earliest youth they lie in the memory of age like the coral islands, green and sunny, amidst the melancholy waste of ocean.

Literary Notices.

[We hold it to be the duty of an Editor either to give an early notice of the books sent to him for remark, or to return them at once to the Publisher. It is unjust to praise worthless books; it is robbery to retain unnoticed ones.]

Series of Discourses from the Colossians. By THOMAS GUTHRIE, D.D. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black. TWENTY-SEVEN SERMONS, and a FAREWELL SERMON; preached in St. George's Church, Barnsley. By the Rev. W. J. BROCK, B.A. Incumbent of Hayfield, Derbyshire. Second Edition. London: James Blackwood.

THE lover of nature will love these sermons. In freshness and vigour of description, they resemble the expatiations of the redoubtable Christopher North. We can imagine some reviewers to say, "The

public having already stamped them with approbation, they need not our commendation." We, however, hold that the reviewer should aim at leading, not following, public opinion. We do not believe in the infallibility of the public. Our contentment with this volume is discriminating. Amongst those who have eyes and hearts for nature there can be but one opinion concerning this man's depth of passion, or skill in uttering that passion in forms borrowed from the inexhaustible earth, ocean and skies. The consequence is an irresistible fascination. Amongst the worshippers of nature, this man is a high-priest. Here the dumb poet will find his sentiments exprest for him in apt and satisfying eloquence. Here the man of partial insight will be cultured, and again issuing forth to the fields and the woods, will gaze on old scenes with more penetrating and intelligent eye. The book is redolent with the breath of flowers, and awakens echoes of the sweet song of birds, and of the music of the wave, and of the dash of the torrent. Not a repeater of traditional forms of admiration, the author evidently gives fresh and living words to his own experience amid the beauty and majesty of the world. Do you love the season when the universal mother, wrapt in spotless drapery of snow, with artless decoration of crystal frost, sleeps for awhile? Or the time of resurrection, when encouraged by the warm breath of the south, young and timid, but hopeful, beauties uncover themselves? You will find such here described in a fashion which will make you love them more, and awaken impatience to rush forth and gaze on them again. The author was born a poet, has the passion and the eye, and only wants the song. His illustrations are profusely lavished on these pages. They are so numerous and so elaborate, that a man might be tempted to conclude them the chief aim. You are led, as it were, through a fine gallery of pictures by Turner or Bright, where every step brings fascination, and where you unwillingly turn from the last to another object of beauty to be fascinated again. When at last you reluctantly perceive that you have reached the end, and slowly recover from the dream of beauty, you reflect that the relation between these pictures and the spiritual lessons they professedly illustrate is somewhat loose. By the use of a little ingenuity, the drapery would fit another system of doctrine. There the doctrine itself is not the noblest type of Calvinism, dogmatic and disdaining explanation. The author is a much better poet than theologian. If you look for manly theologizing, a meditation which soars or fathoms, or expatiates, affording help on the great questions of the soul, or for the exegetical results of one who has labored to perceive for himself the meaning of Paul's Epistles, you will not find. These things are said by reason of the marked superiority of the book. Read it by all means, and if you have learnt what to expect, you will not be disappointed. As to MR. BROCK'S VOLUME. To begin at the beginning-the titles of

these Sermons are elegant and alluring,-the Eagle stirring up her nest, the Cloud upon the Throne,-the Rough Wind stayed,—the Bright Light in the Clouds,-the Swelling of Jordan,-the Dark Mountains, &c. The divisions are neat, but although Herder says, "he will pardon all defects but those of arrangement," yet good sermonizing implies much more than a mere knack at division, which may readily be acquired, and, when once habitual, may be considered as ranking next to a mechanical art. With regard then to the manner of development. This is marked by clear, forcible and Scriptural doctrine, always lively and pathetic, rising at times to the most stirring eloquence. We rejoice to recognize the spirit and character of a genuine minister of Jesus Christ, yearning for humanity, one having sympathy with sorrow, skill to reach the heart, and fitness for the highest service. It is well that the Volume is in the second edition, it were better had it reached the tenth.

EVANGELICAL MEDITATIONS. By the late Rev. Alexander Vinet, D.D., Professor of Theology in Lausanne, Switzerland. Translated from the French by Professor Edward Masson. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. We thank Messrs. Clark for another volume of the great Swiss divine in an English dress. The general circulation of his works amongst the religious of our country would prove an inestimable blessing, would furnish both nourishment to the best minds amongst us, and an efficacious antidote for the twaddle which too often passes for orthodoxy. The translation is done remarkably well. WHAT IS A BOY, and WHAT TO DO WITH HIM. By Thos. Morell Blackie. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co. This felicitous title is not an introduction to nothing, but to a masterly exposition of the subject of education, which is philosophic without dryness, learned without pedantry, and godly without cant. Happy the boy whose training were done on the principles set forth here! The author is evidently not a mere theorist, but practically and thoroughly acquainted with the nature of boys, as it is, as it should be, made with the right method of procedure and the difficulties to be encountered. We understand he is a teacher of rare and exquisite qualities and growing fame.-THE VOICE OF OUR CONGREGATIONS; or, Responsive Services, without Prepared Prayers, for the Churches of Christ. By J. W. C. Drane. Another "Dissenting" Liturgy. It was inevitable, when one led the way, that others should follow. The author has paid some attention to the structure of Hebrew devotional poetry, and holds that it indicates adaptation— particularly in chiasm or parallelism—to responsive use. We are not a little surprised to observe, that the Author has appropriated several of the Services of "The Biblical Liturgy" without even, we understand, consulting the Editor. We have no objection to the multiplication of such works so long as proper deference is paid to the spirit of the Bible and the rights of authorship.

A HOMILY

ON

The Moral History of the Inner Man, illustrated by the seventh chapter of Romans.

"The inner man."-Rom. vii. 5-25.

VAUNT all controversy!-Oblivion to all the conflicting ideas of polemical critics! Such is the state of mind with which we should enter on the study of some controverted passages, if we would get from them a fresh, human, and practical, meaning. The field of revelation is as open to us as any, and we have eyes that, peradventure, may see as well without the spectacles of others as with them. Let us try. We can but blunder, and honest blunders are not crimes. The infant that dares to run off without its leading strings, will fall, and bruise its little limbs. Still though it fall a thousand times, let it run alone. Each self-reliant effort imparts new energy, and each fall new skill to use it. This is Heaven's way of training mortals:-its way as well with spiritual faculties as with corporeal limbs. Let each man use his own powers, or he will never strengthen himself or serve the universe.

At the outset we obsérve two remarkable things in this passage:

First: Here we have two distinct forces. "That which I do I allow not for what I would, that I do not, but what I

Vol. VIII.

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