street United Presbyterian Church (Rev. Dr. J. B. Johnstone's), to become their congregational missionary. Amongst the denizens of a densely-populated and neglected part of the city he laboured with untiring zeal and much success. His efforts, by means of a large Bibleclass, among young men and women were productive of lasting good. After attending for five sessions the Theological Hall of the United Presbyterian Church in Edinburgh, he was licensed to preach in January, 1870. In a short time he received unanimous invitations from Leith (Rev. Dr. Smart's), and Dunfermline (Queen Anne-street). He accepted the latter, and was ordained on October the 5th, 1870; and on the following Sunday was introduced by the Rev. Dr. Wm. Anderson, Glasgow, and Rev. M. Crawford. After a short but successful pastorate there he received and accepted a unanimous call from Derby-road United Presbyterian Church, Bootle, Liverpool, rendered vacant by the translation of the Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, M.A. (now D.D.), to Broadway Tabernacle, New York. He began his ministry at Bootle in August last, and was privileged to occupy his own pulpit for only four Sabbaths. The last sermon he preached was from the words in 1 Chronicles, xxix., 5, "Who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord" which, like his previous sermons, produced a deep impression on his very large audience.

During the following Monday he was busily engaged in pastoral visitation, and in the evening attended a meeting of session, when he appeared in good health and excellent spirits. Early next morn

ing he was seized with an attack of hæmorrage, from which he never recovered. His four weeks' illness was borne with marked patience and resignation. His lamented death called forth the tender sympathy not only of his Bootle Congregation and his brethren in the ministry, but of all denominations in Liverpool. Funeral sermons were preached in Queen Anne-street Church, Dunfermline, and in other churches in that town and elsewhere.

On the Saturday previous to his death he said to a friend, "I am now ceasing to look at side-lights (referring to good men of mark), and look only to the cross." In course of the same day, when the lines were quoted

"Nothing in my hand I bringSimply to Thy cross I cling," he impressively remarked, "Yes, that is mine; I cling there."

A day or two before the end, when he was repeating the words of the wellknown hymn

"The hour of my departure's come,' his wife quoted the lines

"I leave the world without a tear, Save for the friends I hold so dear," when, with characteristic emphasis, he said-"And the work."

So passed away, in the very morning of usefulness, a most promising young minister, whose memory will be fondly cherished by many, and by none mora tenderly than by the young, for whose best interests he was an unwearied and successful labourer.

In accordance with his own wish, his remains were conveyed from Bootle to Glasgow, and laid in the beautiful necropolis of that city.

The Christian Family. 1872.

(London: Hodder and Stoughton) A praiseworthy and well-sustained effort to establish a penny monthly magazine for "The Christian Family." The editorial council are to be congratulated

W. L.

The Training of Young Children, on Christian and Natural Principles. Addressed to Mothers. By GEORGE MOORE, M.D., Member of the Royal College of Physicians. (London: Longman, Green, & Co.)

This is a little book, but it is worth much. In a series of short chapters Dr. Moore treats of the physical, mental, and moral training of children in a way that cannot fail to be helpful and suggestive to every mother who reads his pages. We have here the practical sagacity of the thoughtful man, the skill of the wise physician, and the spiritual tastes and affinities of the true Christian. The author does not deal with the diseases of children, so that his work in no way supersedes other works specially devoted to such matters; but after laying down a few principles demanding attention in considering the healthful development of the body and its organs, he goes on to the growth of the mind, the training of the will, the treatment of passion and temper, and kindred subjects, and justly maintains that Christian culture is the best natural discipline for the child. We hope this valuable book will find its way into the hands of thousands of mothers.

Robin Tremayne: A Tale of the

Marian Persecution. By EMILY
SARAH HOLT, Author of "Sister
Rose," &c., &c. (London: John F.
Shaw & Co.)

Any book that fairly and faithfully represents the character and workings of Popery should be thankfully welcomed by the Protestant Christians of this country. This the present story does. The scene of the tale is in the times of Edward VI. and Mary, especially the latter, in whose reign the fires of Smithfield burned so fiercely, and ended the carthly history of so many faithful martyrs. Miss Holt has been at great pains in making researches in the State Paper Office and among the MSS. in the British Museum for the historical facts on which

the tale is based. We hardly think she has been so successful in this book, as in some of her former works, in weaving the facts in connection with the fiction into such an attractive web for the reader; but on the whole the story is admirably told, and we most heartily trust it may do something to arouse the thoughts of good men of all churches to the painful fact, that the light of the Reformation is in some quarters gradually burning dimmer in England every year. The characters of Edward Underhill, the "Gospeller," Isoult Avery, Dr. Thorpe, and Robin Tremayne, the supposed hero of the story, are well drawn.

The Romance of the Streets.

a

By

London Rambler. (London : Hodder & Stoughton.)

The

One of the most hopeful signs of the times in which we live is the amount of light that is thrown on the dark places of our crowded population in the large towns and cities of the empire. revelations made are always painful, often very revolting; and many good people judge from them that the world is getting worse, instead of better, and that "the time of the end draweth nigh." We form a different judgment, and rejoice in the purifying power and quickening influence of the light which reveals to us these nests of abomination and sin. Were it not for the spreading light we should know little or nothing of them. Never was the Church of God more awake than now to the darkness and misery of the teeming masses around us, and never was effort more earnest or systematic to ameliorate their condition and meet their wretchedness with God's remedy. This book of a "London Rambler" is rich in interest of the gravest kind, and yet, amidst the sin and crime which it discloses, gives many encouraging glimpses of the good being done in various ways to reach and stay them. The author writes with graphic force, and evidently in full sympathy with the manifold agencies at work in London for the en

The Argument of the Epistle to

the Hebrews. A Posthumous Work by GEORGE STEWARD, Author of "Mediatorial Sovereignty," &c. (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clarke.) This book comes to us under circumstances which almost disarm criticism. It was the last work of the lamented author, left unfinished at his death, and is edited by his wife and daughter, who may well regard it as a noble testimony to the firmness of his faith, and to his profound reverence and love for the Redeemer.

We have here an exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the form of a series of ossays on the principal topics taken up by the sacred writer. These essays everywhere bear the marks of painstaking thought and earnest piety. The creed they defend is in substance the orthodox creed, and various points are discussed with great ability. But we are afraid we can go no further. We dare not say that we are satisfied with either the theology (as distinguished from the fundamental beliefs) of the work or with many of the explanations it affords us.

Limiting our remarks to its theology,

we notice that chapters VI. and VII. are occupied with the consideration of the Sacrifice of Christ, and teach us that the Atonement is something altogether exceptional, and indeed abnormal, in the government of God. We have to accept it as a revealed truth; but inexperience and reason "there is no finding any data by which it can be supported, or any analogies by which it can be illustrated. It stands absolutely clear of all precedents and verisimilitudes." Such a conception gives birth to many complex questions. Human language has been framed to express human realities, and it naturally fails in a sphere which has no relation to them. We have therefore such formidable sentences as the following:

"The Being who accomplishes it [the act of Atonement] must not be supposed to be subject to the obligations antecedent to moral actions as appropriate to creatures." "He must substantiate in Himself the two relations of sovereignty and subjection, not understood as contemporaneously exercised, but as successive. Something is done pursuant to a relation of the Lawgiver to His own law, which is not to be regarded as purely normal." "Federalism, as well as individuality, is alike subject to the behests of law: it can only secure one class of results beyond those proper to an individual status, i.e., transmit a certain moral condition normal to the exercise of personal free agency, so that should federalism in its personal applications originally swerve from its coincidence with law it would become necessarily defunct."

Either these conceptions can be expressed more simply or they can not. If they can, then it is a thousand pities the writer did not so express them; but if they cannot, we may be pretty sure that they have no more to do with the essentials of our religion than have the subtleties of the schoolmen.

It seems remarkable that one who believes so implicitly in the infallibility