Cfrrrasrocottitu.
LETTER FROM CHINA.
TALK WITH A BM:MIST.
It was in Anne or July that Ihad the
;pleasure of communicating some sped
men-talk with Budhist priests, and I now
venture on a fresh specimen of the kind.
It was to me a deeply interesting con
versation held with. a young priest at
Ku-shan monastery, a fine, intelligent
looking man, modest, affable and polite.
It was Sunday, Sept. 2d,
,and he sought
the interview himself., So little did he
comprehend our supreme object in com
ing to his country, `that he seemed very
fearful of being regarded intrusive and
troublesome. After his mind was made
eas y on this point, he politely led the
way to the large visiting-hall, and invit
ed me to a seat by a table. It soon
appeared that he was a native of Hing
hwa, the prefecture adjoining that of
FooChow, and could make himself but
imperfectly understood in his broken
Foo•Chow speech. This he partially
remedied by procuring a large painted
tablet on which he wrote in the common
Chinese character.
LIED AND DEATH
He wrote at one end, the words for
Life and Death, remarking gravely,
"These are important." But I soon
found that he preferred talking of the
former. Doubtless, like the millions of
his race, he dreads the awful thought
-embraced in the word death. He began
at once to urge the pantheistic notion--
yun sing tungti—the original nature (of
all things) is the very same essentially.
The only difference is in the degree of
wisdom or intelligence. " Indeed," said
the, " animals are our superiors in some
things, accomplishing ends and perform
ing feats quite beyond our ability to
imitate." In speaking of the soul, he
preferred the term ling kwang, spiritual
light, or intelligence, to the term ling
hwan, which is commonly used by mis
sionaries, insisting that the latter entity
id man is corruptible, while the former
is incorruptible.
THE FIRST CAUSE
When I urged a Fiist Great Inte
Trice, as needed to solve the problem of
creation and providence, he took refuge
in the silly abstraction of the Wu kih, a
theory aboht as plausible as the pain-.
fully attenuated ones of the French
infidel schools. By the Wu kih,, Chinese
disputants of all creeds seem to mean a
time, place, space or state of things,
wholly uninvestigable or chaotic. Our
Budhist friend evidently supposed that
his grand formula, " the No limit pro
duced the 'Great limit (first material
principle), the Great limit produced the
• dual powers (male and female) and the
• dual powers produced the three powers
of heaven, earth and man," as a highly
satisfactory explo;nation of all that is or
is to be. One says " The great Tan
(reason) is the parent of space, and
. apace is the parent of heaven and earth;
and heaven and earth produced men
and things." (See Middle Kingdom, Vol.
• 2, p. 246.)
A PERSONAL GOD
This young priest felt very uneasy
- when I pressed upon his attention the
idea ef a personal God, named Jehovah,
and clothed with infinite attributeS. So,
.at least, I inferred from his disturbed
manner. He proved himself quite an
orthodox nominalist. He said, " Where
,do you get that name for your God ?
Names are given after the birth of
things, and are •:of little consequence.
Pray don't stickle so much about the
name. Now here I have written Wu kih,
Sakya, Buddha and Shangti, (God.) I
rub them all out, so—then put my hands
together, so, and shutting my ears, wor
ship without uttering a single word.
Yon do the same. So our worship is
essentially the same." In reply, I sug
gested whether, in so doing, he did not
think" Sakya," while I thought " Shang
ti." He smiled a curious smile, as
though in a dilemma.
In the course of the conversation, he
:advanced, if I apprehended him correct
•ly, the most repulsive of all ideas of
pantheism. He said, " The Wu kih being
everywhere, is also within us, so whether
we worship (outwardly ?) or not is of
no consequence whatever." • He also
denied that the human mind - has any
fixed place, being—so runs the formula
—" neither within nor yet without!' In
proof, he referred to its taking note of
distant' sounds. On this point, how
ever, he took more the attitude of in
quirer, and I gave him somewhat crude
ly a few simple explanations on aeons-
Ales, nerves, the brain and mind. '
It is needless to dWell at length on
the manner in which the false, heathen
notions of this interesting youth were
-met. Precious opportunity indeed it
Was '. to -taliko him about the God of the
Bible, as revealing , himself to us in all
his glorious perfections. Though zeal
.ons for his creed, he listened politely
...sad patiently, while it was attempted
to be shown that reason demands an
adequate cause for the existence of all
created things, and that God alone, as
declared in his own word, is such a
- Cause. It was pleasing, too,. to strive
4o show Lim that God is not a mere
k-mortal, sage, or hero, and that a wide
watt* separates between man as an im
mortal being, and the brutes that grovel
and perish.
This priest doubtless, is but one of a
considerable class, representing the best
intellect of the empire; not best in the
sense of grandest and strongest, perhaps,
but best as being inquisitive and some
what desions to'discover truth: And once
THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1866.
the spirit of truth di:seends and stirs this
mass of mind to its depths, how speedily
will the mists of error be scattered, and
the enslaved become free. For this we
pray and labor in the school, the chapel,
the public mart, the house, the temple
and -the monastery. Where souls grope
in sin and throng the broad way to
death, there we rejoice to . know is our
mission of love. Help us by your prayers
to fulfil it. In heaven we meet to re
joice over a world saved by the grace
of Christ. C. C. B.
Foo•Cnow, Oct. 1866.
LETTER FROM EGYPT.
BY REV. EDWARD PAYSON HAMMOND.
DEAR BROTH.ER KUM :—We are
now in the land of the Pharaohs. We
could not have been more surprised if
we had dropped down in another world
—everything is so new and strange, or
rather, we might say, so, old; for every
thing seems to be done here very much
in thp manner of their ancestors for
thousands of years past.
We left Brindisi last Monday, the
22d, in a fine Italian steamer. After
we had passed by the old pier built by
Julius Caesar, we found the sea quite
rough. Nearly all the passengers were
sea-sick for an hour or two.
We had seen in the harbor, some of
the samirsort of galleys as Virgil sailed
in, when he made his last sea voyage
from Greece to Italy. And When we
found the sea so rough, we did not
wonder that, tossed about for days in
a little boat, not much larger than an
American yacht, he died' soon after
reaching Brundusium. We.thonght, too,
of Paul's sea voyage in the same, sort
of a "ship," as he calls, it, when be
says: "But when the fourteenth night
was come, as we were driven up and
down in Adria, about midnight the
shipmen deemed that they drew near to
some country." Brit we could not tell
when we crossed his track on his way
to martyrdom at Rome.
The winds soon lulled, and our voy
age of three days to. Alexandria was
very pleasant. Cavre Sebastiano Fenzi,
with his family, from Florence, was on
I board. He told us that eleven hundred
"communes" or towns, out of eighteen
thousand in the south of Italy, had no
roads to them, only bridle-paths; and
that, too, in the most fertile part of
Italy. Coming down as we had done
on the east coast of Italy, where so few
travelers penetrate, we saw some of
these novel phases of life. But Italy,
in its onward progress, is now, by good
roads, developing this rich section of
the country. We were at one time about
eighty miles from Naples, but were told
that it would not be safe, on account of
the banditti, to cross the country.
But I began to tell you a little:of
the thousand wonderful things-we have
seen in this classic land of Egypt.
had often read of the novel entrance to
Alexandria ; but no description can do
justice to the reality. The firing of a
cannon announced "our ,approach, and
soon our steamboat was surrounded
with little boats, rowed by fantastically
dressed ebony natives, all eager to get
us as passengers,' that they might in
crease their supply of backshies. It
was no easy matter to fight our way
through turbaned, clamorous Arabs, to,
the custom-house. Sometimes we had
to stop and all join in a hearty laugh,
while those with whom we kid- bar
gained and employed were telling us
the most palpable falsehoods.
In a drive to the hotel we saw strange
sights enough to fill a book, if described
in detail. But amid all the hubbub and
excitement incident to the arrival of a
steamer, the sedate camels,. " the
. ships
of the desert," as they slowly passed
us, appeared„ entirely unmoved. While
the ragged boys, with their donkeys,
were flying, about irk, all directions, the
calm, patient, and we might' almost say
dignified, camels looked upon the scene
as an every-day occurrence.
Alexandria has a population of about
'200,000; but, as you walk about the
streets, you would think that the native
population were nearly all— men and
boys. I have laid down my pen
and been to the window of out large
" Hotel d'Europe," which is situated in
front of a large square, where hundreds
pass and repass continually, and there I
have been watching, for some time; but
among the hundreds who have paised,
I have seen but one native woman, and
she, of course, was veiled, as it is well
known all the Mohammedan women are,
when they appear in public. .
The women of the better class on the
streets are covered from head to foot
with white muslin. They look strange
enough as they waddle along in great
yellow boots, with their black eyes
peering at you, as , if amused' at your
,astonishment. One, riding upon a don
key, seemed to join in our laughter, and,
really bowed to us. I. fear she may
suffer for it, if it is known that - she
'nodded her head to' 'one of the mtich
despised " Christians."
A very intelligent dragoman, who
wishes to conduct our party through
Palestine, told us this morning that his
wife never went out of doors, except to
the mosque, which was only a few steps
from their house; she had never seen'
the •beautiful fountains in the square
where we were standing.
Often, often have I been led to ex
vlaim, as I have silitn the degradation .o
woman in this heathen, Mohammedan
land : "01 how , much woman in Chris
tian countries owes to . Christ." Not to
Christianity in the abstra'ot, lint to the
Act that she lives in a land where it is
known that the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world and died to save sinners.
Where this fact has never bees declared,
woman is but a slave to the brutal pas
sions of man ; but where the light of the
'Gospel has penetrated, there she is ele
vated to an equality with man; while,
in the finer qualities of our nature, she
is truly regarded as his superior.
As we walked along one of the streets
yesterday, we saw what at first sight
resembled a very fat black pig, being
carried by a donkey. But a closer ex
amination revealed to us the fact that
it was only an oriental leather " bottle."
Though filled with water instead of
wine, still it brought to mind the words
of Christ in Matt. ix. 17 : "Neithe4 do
men put new wine into old bottles ; else
the bottles break, and the wine runueth
out, and the bottles perish; but they
put new wine into new bottles, find
both are preserved." These bottl,s,"
of course, were filled with the pure,
sweet waters of the Nile. I never
tasted sweeter water in my life.
It led me to think of one of the mslny
reasons why the Nifeis all in all to the
Egyptian. , Not only would he thist
and die without it, but this fertile valley,
with the annual overflow of its 'oysters,
won soonsoon forget to bring forth its life
gividr treasures. It is not only one of
the indispensable agents in the produ9-
tion of fruits and grain, but it also trant!-
ports them to the sea. It
. 00nnects firr
distant countries, and thus the missioe
ary is enabled to penetrate, with the
light of the Gospel, into the felt • dark/
ness of heathenism. The source has
till of late, for ages been a mystery, bu
the millions whom it has blessed have
not for this reason refused its precious!
gifts. • Who can help thinking of those,
who, because of the mysteries connected
with the incarnation of the Son, have
refused and are unwilling to drink of the
'" river of life," "the streams whereof
shall make glad the city of God ?" His
words are : " I comrforth from the
Father." Ah, how true that, as the
Nile, - though flowing through a parched
desert " maketh it to rejoice and blos
som as the rose ," so, where the streams
of salvation take their course, there the
." lame man shall leap as an hart, and
the tongue of the dumb shall sing_; for
in the wilderness shall waters break out,
and streams in the desert, and the
parched ground shall become a pool and
the thirsty land springs of water."
Yes, the souls which before had
never before brought forth any of the
fruits of righteousness, shall welcome the
overflowing of the riches of Christ and
thus learn what it is to "bear much
fruit" to the glory of the Father. Such,
too, at length, like a " shock of corn
fully ripe," shall, on the bosom of the,
Saviour be trasported to the sea of,
heavenly rest
A little beyond where we saw the
leather bottle, speaking of which led
to this digression, we found Cleopatra's
Needle. Our guide told ns that she
ordered it to be brought from Heliopolis
near Cairo, where it had stood for cen
turies. The one which is•now standing
we measured, and found to be twenty
eight feet in circumference, and it is
seventy-one feet in height. It is a mon
olith. How this one massive stone was
'ever brought all that distance, and then
made to stand uponits pedestal, has been a
mystery unsolved by anything we know
of ancient mechanics. The one now
standing, which we examined, is cover
ed with hieroglyphics, which are said to
date as far back as the exodus.
Pompey's Pillar is also a monolith.
It is ninetpone feet in height and thirty
in circumference. It was 'not called
after Pompey, Julius Csar's great
rival, bnt.after the name of the Egyptian
who was employed, to rear it, in A. D.
269. These are among the few monu
ments of ancient Alexandria,tbuilt by the
conqueror of the world fcur hundred
years before Christ.
It has been hard to realize as we
bave moved in and about the modern
city, that we were walking over the
ruins of the ancient emporium of the
East, which was at one time the centre
of learning and civilization—that here
St. Mark preached the Gospel, and that
" Apollos, an eloquent man and mighty
in the Scriptures," first saw tbe light of
day, here and played on these sandy
shores. Bat we tried, in imagination, to
repeople the great city of 600,000, sur
rounded with walls fifteen miles in cir
cumference, and containing a library of
700,000 volurnes. The words of the
victorious Saracen general to his chief,
helped us to complete the picture in our
own minds. He says : "It is impossi
ble for me to enumerate its riches and
beauty, and I shall content myself by
observing that it contains four thousand
palaces, four thousand baths, four thou
sand theatres, 'twelve thousand shops
and forty thousand tributary Jews."
'And- yet the words of Ezekiel, spoken
more than two thousand four hundred
years ago, 'are fulfilled with regard to
this and other cities in Egypt : " And
the land of Egypt shall be desolate and
-waste, and thenithall know that I am
the Lord ; because he hath said, The
river is mine, and I have made it. Be
hold, therefore
_I am against thee, and
;against thy rivers. And I will make
the laid of Egypt desolate in the midst
'of the, countries that are desolate, and
her cities among the cities•that are laid
'waste shall be desolate."--Ezrai. xxix.
9-12. Your brother in Christ,
$ E. P. HAMMOND.
ALEXANDRIA., EGYPT, Oct. 27, 1866.
ALTHOTJGA we find ourselves among
evil people, yet we shall not lack oppor
-1 •
timity to do good. •
REMARKS ON
PSALM LI : 12.
"Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me (with thy) free spirit."—
PSALM. 12.
Thus reads another very interesting
passage in our common or authorized
version. Like the rest of the Psalm, it
is so full of pions sentiment, that the
thought of any inconsistency seldom, if
ever, crosses the mind when quoting it.
And' yet the parallelism of the origi
nal Hebrew does not appear; there is
not a shadow of resemblance between
"thy free Spirit," (understood to be the
Spirit of God,) and " the joy of God's
salvation." The italicized words, "with
thy," scarcely fail to attract attention.
Almost any one, reading the passage
with even a moderate share of caution,
will pause at these, and leaving them
out, (as certainly the spirit of inspire.
tion did)—will endeavor to see what
sense will be developed or what will be
the obvious import of the .passage :
" Restore unto me the joy of thy salva
tion; and uphold me, free spirit," or
" spirit free."
Turn we now to the original Hebrew,
and we there find the word which is
translated "free," means " liberal, volun
tary, free." This last, in the sense of
being freed from bondage; which brings
1113 in sight of the true meaning : David
had been left to sin, and his spirit had
been in bondage to the flesh; he had
been "under the law of sin and death,"
as Paul would say ; and while in this
state he had lost his relish of religious
things ; " the joy of God's salvation"
had departed from him.
The great error, then, of our present
version is, its language is that which
implies, that it is the Spirit of God that
is sought ; while the true import is,
desire of the Psalmist that his own spirit
might be freed from carnal bondage.
Whenever this passage is quoted, as it
often is, by ministers in public prayer,
l and by others in other circumstances, it
puts into the month of the petitioner
the same error ; he is made to ask for
the Spirit of God, while it is obviously
his own spirit that was the object of the
sacred penman's petition.
Besides, this is the only case in the
Bible in which the term used to qualify
i t he word spirit, when it refers to .God,
is qualified by a term that only means
freedom from bondage. The verse im
niediately preceeding this closes with
an example in point : " Take not thy
Holy Spirit from me."
When correctly understood, therefore,
it is a passage full of instruction. It,
sets before us the fact, that a state of
sin is a state of bondage, and it shows
us the nature of that bondage. The
'sinne,can plead nis other inability than
that which is fully removed when he
voluntarily does that which he knows
to be right. The declaration of the
Lord Jesus Christ, that those who were
made free by Him were free indeed, re
ceives confirmation and support.
We therefore declare unequivocally
for the " amendment ;" the translation
we have is obviously defective, as it
makes us address our own spirit as - the
Spirit of God. Surely this is an error
of sufficient magnitude to beget a great
family of evils.
Other interpretatiens ate : Strengthen
me with a willing- spirit. (Tholuek.)
Endow me with a willing spirit. (De
Wette.)—En.
NEEDING LIGHT.
The poor and neglected, the ignorant
and the careless, the neglecters of the
sanctuary and the Prayerless" families,
are not confined to the distant ana des
titute portions of the country. Faithful
explorations of many districts near the
great centres of social, commercial and
religious influence have often disclosed
facts of religious privations, as appalling
as those where Gospel institutions have
not, been established. Christians, par
ticularly in this vicinity, cannot help
being affected in reading the simple re
port of , a colporteur connected with the
Philadelphia Branch of the American
Tract Society, who labored during the
last summer in the southern part of
Newlersey. The facts he reveals re
specting the religions condition of some
of our near neighbors should lead to
active efforts to refute their delusive idea
that no one cares for their souls. In
his report to H. N. Thissell, he says :--
The section of country in whicli I
have been laboring is very thinly settled,
and it has been very tedious visiting
families living back• in the woods, some
of them three or four miles from a pub
lic road. I have endeavored to search
out all such families that I could find
on my field. Among this class of per
sons I have found whole families who
could not read, and many children who
are well nigh grown to manhood and
womisnhood who had never been inside
of a church, never hearA a Gospel ser-,
mon preached, and never heard a prayer
uttered until I prayed with them and for
them.
Many adults of this class told me that
was the first person that had ever
visited them on such a mission; and
talked to them about their souls' salve
lion. Many of these persons have
seemed deeply penitent, and have wept
'like children while I have talked to them
,of i the redeeming love of Christ, and of
his willingness to save them from their
sins and give them an inheritance among
the sanctified in heaven.
In visiting some wealthy families, I
have met with rather a cold reception at
first; but when I
to
assured them that
my. mission was to do the;:ngtood, by the
=EMU
1 3113Wingrorilietor)racCOMPanyirig the
effort, they seemed to see that I was in
earnest, and eagerly listened to what I
had to say while urging them to give
their hearts to Jesus, and no longer
cling to their morality as all that is re
quired of them, or all that is essential to
the salvation of their souls.
After praying most earnestly with
such pers,ons, they have taken me by the
hand, and-with tearful eyes and quiver
ing lips they have said to me, " Sir, I
thank you for your visit, for your advice
and kind prayer in my • behalf; by. the
help of the Lord I will try to give: my
poor heart to Jesus, and live a different
life." I have given them suitable tracts,
and sold them a good book if I could,
leaving the result with the Lord, per
haps to meet them next at the bar of
God. I pray that my skirts may be
clear of their blood, if they are not saved.
Many others thanked God that the
American Tract Society ever sent 'a
man to visit them and talk to. them
about theirruls' salvation. Some per
sons told me they thought nobody cared
for them or for their souls. I assured them
that they were'just such persons as the
Tract Society were particularly interest
ed for. Very many of those persons
expressed a desire to flee to Christ for
refuge.
Such persons do not seem to be Gos
pel hardened ; they are easily moved,
very willing to receive the truth, and by
a little effort on the part of Christians,
many of, them, I think, might be brought
to a knowledge of Christ.
There •seems to be a great destitution
of religious literature generally, except
in the villages And thickly settled com
munities, and there is too much light,
chaffy reading matter, even in -familiea
who profess godliness.
I believe my labor has not been in
vain. If I have been the means of
awakening one soul, or doing any good
in any other way, to God be all the
praise and glory.
'Catrit.
FROITDE , S HISTORY.
FROITDE. History of England from the Fall
of Wolsey to' the Death of Elizabeth. By
James Anthony Froude, M.A., late Fellow
of Exeter College, Oxford. Reign of Eli
. zabeth, Vols. 1., 11. Crown Svo., pp.
J
554, 495. $3 per vol. For sale by J. B.
Lippincott & Co.
The old, oft-told story of Queen Eliza
beth and Mary Queen of Scots is re
hearsed in these new volumes of the
most important historical work of the
time ; but with such new aspects' and
enlarged resources as almost make it an
entire novelty. Mr. Froude has found,.
in the Spanish. archives of- Simancas, a
a mass .of "contemporary records of the
highest value to an elucidation of the
events of those times. They are the
despatches of the Spa'nish ambassadors
residing at the court of Elizabeth, to
their master,, Philip 11., whose greed for
everything,which spies and conspirators,
could pick up at a Protestant court is
well known ; and his ambassadors were
spies and conspirators of the worst sort
in Elizabeth's court ; one of them having
been detected in a deep-laid Popish plot
against the Queen's life.
The spedial interest in these volumes
belongs to Mary Queen of Snots, whom
Mr. Fronde unsparingly?., condemns and
concurs most heartily in the justioe of
her fate. He believes thoroughly in
the very worst aspects of her" character,
and his work will probably tear away
the last vestige of doubt of which a sen
timent of chivalry rather than of justice
has been willing to give her the benefit.
On "the other hand, as in the case of
Henry VIII., he has lavished his powers
in honoring and exalting Queen Eliza
beth, whom, indeed, he finds chargeable
with irresolution, but whose moral obli
quities, vanity, fickleness, obstinacy,
colAness of heart, falseness, niggardli
ness and treachery he would extenuate
under, the shadow of that venial fault.
But it is matter of gratification that
we have in Mr. Fronde another instance,
in the higher walks, of hiStory, of an
author whose sympathies are openly,
unreservedly and ardently with the
right ; who, if he has prejudices, has
none in the direction of vice, injustice
and irreligion ; whose sympathies are
with characters and tendeihcies in the
main right, and whose books are a cow
tribntion to the strength of sound senti
ment in the world. Siich are Motley's,
such are Bancroft's great works. n We
can give Mr. Froude no higher praise
than to class hino with these American
contemporaries.
GAYLORD. Uncle Downes' Home. The Boys
and Girls at Donaldton. By Glance Gay
lord. Boston : American Tract Sotiety.
18mo., pp. 156.
A story of suffering and cross-bearing
for righteousness' sake in the school-life
of two boyS. It is full of interest, both
from the incidents and from the.terseness
of the style, in which the moral is repre
sented as wrought out in action, rather
than made a separate business of the
writer. The grace of forgiveness is im
pressively illustr,ated.
EYSTER. Chineapiri Charlie. By Nellie
Eyster, author of "Sunny Hours.' Illus
trated by White. Philadelphia: Duffield
Ashnaead. 16m0., pp. 272.
A story of the liveliest and most en
tertaining sort of Children and most
genial and noble-hearted grown people,
such as any- community would be the
richer for. We are glad the writer
finds them in oar own State, the scene
:being laid in Harrisburg, and the worthy
Governor himself diving excellent ser
mice, though brief, in the opening of the
story. Doing good, not for fame, but
for its own sake, is the iesson kept
before the reader. Not infrequently the
liveliness and shrewdness of the juve
nile characters have an air of excess,
marring, the verisimilitude of the story.
The last chapter is a thrilling account
of an adventure in the rebellion, Which
is claimed to be a fact.
KATE COVENTRY: An Autobiography. From.
Fraser's Magazine. First issued in Ai. neri
ca in Littell's Living Age. Boston : Lit
tell, Son & Co. Paper. Bvo., pp. Si. 3N
cents.
SERMONS.
HAWES. Sermons Experimental and Practi.
tical. An Offering to Home Missionaries
By Joel Hawes, D.D. New York: .
Carter & Bros. 12m0., pp. 407.
A veteran preachey of New England
who has been privileged, for more than a
generation, with unswerving fidelity, to
proclaim the precious, simple truths of
the Gospel to men, gathers from the
harvest-field of his long pulpit labors
this sheaf for the instruction of his
younger brethren and sons in the minis
try. .The author's is an honored name.
Much of the unadorned but sterling
truth of Puritan times clings to the man
and his style. If purity of character
and sincerity of purpose can add weight
to speech, then the sermons of Dr.
Hawei deserve the reverence of all.
There are thirty-six in all in this volume,
some of them with such striking titles
as : "Is a Man's Religion Worth what it,
Costs Him ?" " The Doctrine of Regen
eration an Element of Power in the
Gospel ;" " The Day of Preparation for
a Better State of Things, Seldom a Day
of Hopeful Appearances;" " How to
Grow . Old Gracefully ;" " A Minister's
Experignce Confirming the Truth of his
Doctrine."
With little that can be called orna•
ment, these sermons 'are pithy, well
illustrated from Scripture and other facts,
deeply, imbued with, or rather wholly
wrought out from, the matter of the
Gospel, and uttered in a tone of dignity
and authority worthy of the theme and
the office. Though "offered"—what
this means we scarcely understana-to
the missionaries of the;American Home
Missionary, it is calculated to be profita
ble to all classes of preachers and hear
ers.
BARNS. Sermons on the. Most Important
Subjects in the Book of .God. By Rev.
Wia. Barns, of the Philadelphia Annual
Conference. Phila. : J. G. Miller. 12.in0.,
pp. 350.
There is a great flow of native vigor
and boldness of declamation in these ser
mons with not a little argumentative
power. Great questions are treated with
a summariness that has more of the ap
pearance than the fact of superficiality.
Mr. Barns has said very well indeed
what there is to be said against the
leading points of ultra Calvinism, but he
seems not to be conscious that neither
Scripture nor sound philosophy shows
us a way out of the difficulties surround
ing -the questiOns of sovereignty and-free
age4:l,.cy. A prejudice such as the writer
seems able to get up against Calvin,
could be turned against Paul quite as
well.
The faults of style axe . very. glaring.
Epithets are heaped up in violation of
taste, and sentences are drawn to unrea
sonable length, so that we wonder,where
the speaker found breath for their utter
ance. The book is, however, an inter•
esting monument of some of the marked
peculiaritieg, the excellencies and the
defects of the Methodist pulpit.
i i ~Y~ _ .~
PROCEEDINGS AND ADDRESSES at the
Inanguration of Jonathan Edwards, D.D.,
LL. D., President of the Washington and
Jefferson College, Washington, Pa., April
4,1866.
r, THIRTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT of the
Philadelphia Tract and Mission Society, to
Sept., 1866.
GOOD WORDS for November Contains :
—Madonna Mary, by Mrs. Oliphant,C;haps
XLI,-XLIV; Carissimo, with an Illustra
tion; The Deformed and the Stricken;
Ice Caves of Annecy, with Illustrations;
Mary Merryweather ; Bridget Daily's
Change ) an Experience of a District Class
Visitor, with an Illustration; Faith Re
penting and Faith Resolving, by Dr.
Vaughan ; Condition of the Christians
under the Turks; A Day's Fishing; Son,
Remember, by Dr. Macleod; Curious old
Registers in Somerset House ; Ruth
Thornbury, by Wm. Gilbert, with an Illus
tration. A. Strahan, New York." Price,
$3 per annum. -
THE SABBATH AT HOME, an Illustrated
Religious Magazine for the Family. Janu
ary, 1867. Published by the American
-Tract Society, Boston. Vol. I, No: 1. Bvo.,
pp. 64.—Contents : The Sabbath at Home,
by Dr. Kirke; " The New Morning Star,"
with four Illustrations ; Mary Lyon's First
School Teaching, by Fidelia Fisk; The
Catacombs of Rome, ten Illustrations;
Battle of Ristori; The Electric Telegraph;
Welcome to a Young Pastor; Parable of
the Good Samaritan ; George N. Briggs,
with a Portrait; The On Thing Needful;
The Glory in the Cloud, by Rev. H. M.
Dexter,. D.D.; The Old English of Our
Bible ; An Appeal on Behalf of the Little
Ones ; The Buried Seed; In Hope of
Eternal Life; The Honorable Club; Li
lian's Toilet; The Bath, with Illustrations;
Does - him Love God; New Year's Hymn;
Sabbath Evening,- with Illustrations;
nitices of Books. S2 L per annum, in ad
vance.
ROOKS RECEIVED
LABOULAY.E'S FAIRY BOOK. Fairy Tales of
All Nations. By Edward Laboulaye, mem
ber of the Institute of France. Translated
by Mary L. Booth. With Engravings.
New York: Harper & Brothers. 12m0.,
pp. 363.
Bur ONCE. By the author of "Let Well
Alone." Philadelphia: J. P. Skelly Sc
Co. 16m0., pp. 255.
•
WE men are often little in great things;
the Saviour is great in little things.