they would gain if they could obtain some part in the management of the Society, they put forward five of their number as candidates at the election of the Standing Committee; but their effort has failed; all their candidates were rejected and Evangelical members elected instead. There is, however, little doubt that they will renew the attack at some future time, and consequently it behoves all the friends of this old and valuable Society to be on the alert.

Parliament has re-assembled, pledged to the accomplishment of no light tasks. The government have already, we regret to say, commenced their career with the usual popular tampering with Popery. When a late Viceroy of Ireland, Lord Eglinton, was invited to a banquet by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, at which he was informed the Pope's Legate, Cardinal Wiseman, was to be present officially, he refused to go. But the present Viceroy, appointed by Mr. Gladstone's government, not only attended a similar banquet, where the Pope's representative, Cardinal Cullen, occupied the next place in rank to him, and where he was actually addressed by the Lord Mayor as (" an illustrious Prince of the Catholic Church, his eminence Cardinal Cullen," ‚""the Cardinal Archbishop;" but the Viceroy said in his speech that it "gave him great pleasure" to meet him. No wonder that his speech was characterized by one of the succeeding speakers as such a speech as they had "never heard before from a Viceroy in that room.”" At that same banquet the Cardinal Archbishop thus spoke of his master the Pope, and his approaching oecumenical council:"So little did he fear the enmity of Mazzini or Garibaldi and others that at the present moment he was preparing to celebrate a meeting of all the bishops of the world. That council of bishops was for the restoration of discipline and the promotion of salvation. Such a spectacle was worthy not only of men, but of God Himself."

The government have given notice of their intention immediately to renew their attack upon the Irish Church; but, when applied to by the Irish bishops for permission to meet together in convocation for the purpose of considering what had better be the Church's course under these circumstances, they sternly refused to grant the request. In other words, the government violently attack the Church for the purpose of pleasing her foes, but they deny her liberty of action, lest she should ondeavour to defend herself! Surely their cause must be a poor and an unjust one, when they have recourse to such expedients to further it.

The Scottish Reformation Society has forwarded a memorial to Lord Clarendon, in the case of Mr. James Cassells, who has been banished the country in consequence of teaching Protestantism in Oporto. The memorial sets forth as follows: "That your memorialists are informed that Mr. James Cassells, merchant in Oporto, and a British subject, has been tried by the local courts for teaching Protestant doctrines to the inhabitants of that town, and has been banished from Portugal for a period of six years. That your memorialists are also informed that the said sentence has been appealed against to a higher court. Your memorialists therefore pray that your lordship may be pleased to cause the representatives of Her Majesty's Government in Oporto to watch over this case, and to take whatever steps may be deemed judicious and necessary, to secure religious toleration in Portugal as is afforded to Roman Catholics in this country."

Lieutenant Warren is continuing his excavations at Jerusalem with equal zeal and labour. He has discovered that the foundation wall of

the platform of Mount Moriah, upon which stands the Mosque of Omar, as once stood the Temple of Solomon, was originally 1,000 ft. long and 150 ft. high, nearly the length and height of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. He traced the enormous masses of stone which are still visible at the southern end, to a depth of 45 ft. below the present surface. Behind this wall there are the remains of vast tunnels, arches, and chambers, which Lieutenant Warren refers to the old Jewish Jerusalem, before the time of Herod. A survey also of Mount Sinai is being proceeded with; and it is expected that in a short time an accurate map of that portion of the Arabian peninsula will be constructed. We may hope that our knowledge of Bible lands will soon be rendered much more perfect than it is at present.

Amongst the many wonderful undertakings of our time will probably be reckoned an attempt to girdle the broad Pacific from California to China with an electric cable. The Pacific at that parallel is about seven thousand miles across and bottomless for many miles of its middle depth. The scheme has advanced so far that a bill providing for a loan of eight million dollars on its behalf has been introduced into the American Senate. California is no longer contented with the monthly service of the Pacific mail steamers; her communications with China are becoming so important, that she must have instantaneous news of the tea market and the opportunity of putting her agents at Hong Kong or Shanghae in possession of the latest gold quotations of Wall-street and San Francisco. San Francisco is itself so far west of New York, that the telegrams from the Atlantic coast precedes the sun by half-a-dozen hours, and the Californian merchants, when they go down to their offices in the morning, are already aware what the price of gold is going to be that day at four. Considering that China is seven or eight thousand miles west of the Golden State, the recipients of telegraphic news in that country would be so much further ahead of time,' " and a startling thought suggests itself here. What if Eastern telegraphic lines should be extended to China simultaneously with the Pacific cable, and the girdle should be put completely round the earth? Hong Kong would know what New York was doing about twelve hours before the things were done, and New York would know what Hong Kong was doing (through the Atlantic Cable and the Indian lines) twelve hours in advance of that. The Americans, therefore, by getting their news from the eastward, and forwarding it on to the westward, would be able to inform their correspondents how they were to-morrow!

Reviews and Notices of Books.

"Lifted up." The Life of Walter Douglas. London: Morgan and Chase, Ludgate Hill.

WE pity the man who could read this wonderful narrative without tears. The simple facts are these. Some years ago (to use the words of her then infidel husband when speaking of his dying wife), "she lay fading away, her face beamed like the face of an angel. I was an infidel; and, as I looked into the cold grave, my heart was filled with despair, and I said wherever her spirit was gone, I would soon follow her and seek it out." She died in the Southern States of America. Her husband then took to

drinking, ran through the large property he had accumulated, returned to England, was robbed at Liverpool of a fifty-guinea watch and its appendages, and was reduced to street beggary and absolute pauperism. Shattered in health, and all but naked and bare, he became in turn an object of dread or commiseration. "In the month of June, last year, I was sitting in Hyde Park," says the poor man whose history this precious little book furnishes, "with my back against a tree, feeling very ill, and said to myself, 'DOUGLAS, what have you come to?' I thought of my loved wife, of home, when she used to play the piano and sing (for she was an accomplished lady); and sometimes I sang too-sometimes could only sit and listen, loving her too much to sing. But I was a dark, dark infidel, and no ray of hope or joy lit up my painful recollection. Two nurses passed whilst I was waiting there. After they had passed I heard one say, "I should be afraid to go near him.' I knew they were talking about me, and I felt angry, though even in Whitechapel my strange appearance frightened the women. The other nurse, however, said, 'I am not afraid of the poor man; he is not going to hurt us.'" She approached him in consequence, and spoke such words of sympathy and kindness as induced him to tell her his whole history. "The first tears," he says, "I remember to have shed for years were under the soothing, searching words of that dear Christian nurse. 'Ah, sir,' she said, 'God wants you for some special work. I believe He will raise you up from this sad condition, and make you know better days than you have ever thought of.' She put a shilling into my hand and left me. I have never seen her since, and I suppose I never shall till we meet in glory. Think what God has wrought! I was a fool because of my iniquity. I said there was no God, and God was breaking me to pieces, and bursting the bonds of my infidelity, to prove to me that there was a God of love." Reader, what a lesson does this set before us as to how we ought to deal with strangers, and to treat our poor fallen fellowcreatures. Mark the blessed effects of that dear Christian nurse's conduct. The work further states, that "a few evenings later it happened, in the course of providence, that this same poor man, after wandering about aimlessly during the day, turned into Gosset Street, Bethnal Green, and stopped before a blacksmith's shop. It was a dingy wooden shed, with a small square window, in which might be seen a number of Scrip

ture texts:

"ALL HAVE SINNED AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD.'

"THE SOUL THAT SINNETH, IT SHALL DIE.'

"THIS IS A FAITHFUL SAYING, AND WORTHY OF ALL ACCEPTATION, THAT CHRIST JESUS CAME INTO THE WORLD TO SAVE SINNERS.'

"THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST, HIS SON, CLEANSETH US FROM ALL SIN.' "Inside the shop, at that moment, the blacksmith was on his knees in prayer, and the burden of his petition was the salvation of the people among whom he lived. On rising, he looked through the window, and caught sight of the dejected countenance of the poor wanderer." Alluding, we presume, to this circumstance, in another part of the narrative, we read again the man's own words: "A short time after this I was passing through Bethnal Green; I saw a notice in a shop-window, which I stopped to look at. It was a bill inviting soldiers to. Christ. This thought came into my mind, I wonder if Christ would have anything to do with me!' Some one tapped at the window, the door was opened, and out walked a man, who took me in, and spoke to me of Christ. I felt

here was a man who cared for me. This melted me down, and I wept, and told him all. He said, 'God can raise you up, and He will, if you trust in Jesus.' He asked me to meet him the next evening at a prayermeeting. I went, and it was not words merely, it was real prayer."

Space forbids our dwelling at any great length upon this deeply interesting narrative; suffice it to say, that, after a short time, pardon and peace were brought home to the poor wanderer's heart and conscience; and then, as a blessed fruit and consequence, he had an intense desire to go to New Zealand, there to

"Tell to sinners round,

What a dear Saviour he had found;
To point to His redeeming blood,
And say, Behold the way to God."

In the good providence of God, this he was able very speedily after to accomplish. Means were promptly supplied; his passage was taken on board an emigrant ship; he was made eminently useful on his outward voyage among his fellow-passengers, in reading the word, and the simple proclamation of the Gospel of the grace of God. Speaking of his reaching his destination, in his first letter after his arrival, he says:

"I scarcely know how to commence, but this I shall state, that, when our ship dropped her anchor, on Saturday, Sept. 10th, about half-past two p.m., poor DOUGLAS was in his cabin, asking the Lord, 'Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do?' In a few minutes He answered, by sending the steward of the ship with a message, 'A young gentleman is asking for Mr. WALTER DOUGLAS,' who answered, 'Here I am.' Upon meeting him on the ship's deck, 'Are you Mr. WALTER DOUGLAS ?' 'I am, sir.' 'You don't know me, Mr. DOUGLAS, but I know the Lord; and, having providentially got a copy of The Revival, in which you were spoken of, I have been looking out for some weeks for the Mary Warren; and, fearing you might not have any acquaintance in Auckland, I came off to invite you to partake of my uncle and aunt's hospitality until Monday, when we shall try to find you a quiet home after your long voyage.' I said, 'Walk into my cabin for a short time, brother in Christ.' And, on the very same spot where you asked the Lord to guide me, on the very same spot did that precious young brother pour out his heart in prayer and praise to Him who had safely conducted me."

The work then goes on to narrate the wonderful way in which the Lord blessed the labours of this once infidel to the spiritual and eternal welfare of multitudes of precious souls. We cannot but add, that the book is a God-glorifying testimony. We contemplate with adoring wonder the precious details it contains. Although we might not be able to endorse every sentiment expressed by WALTER DOUGLAS in a doctrinal point of view, yet, as observers and admirers of the Lord's gracious and providential dealings, we cannot but stand with adoring wonder as we contemplate this remarkable man-as first accumulating large wealth as an infidel; then sitting by the bedside of a Christian woman with whom he had passed twelve years in matrimonial bliss, who, he says, "he never heard speak an unkind word, and whose face I never saw ruffled with an angry look.' [What a pattern for wives and mothers!] Next we see him drinking ardently to drown reflection, and again and again upon the very verge of self-destruction! "Soon after this," he says, "I came to London, and wandered about without shirt or shoe. Strange to say that, though at Liverpool and on my way to London I had often walked all night, having nowhere to lay my head, after I arrived here God always sent me enough

to pay threepence for a bed. For eight weeks I never ate but as a bird, picking up a crust off your streets, and getting a drink of water. Without friends or food, my favourite resort was Hyde Park, with its green carpet and blue ceiling. Yet I was never more proud than then. The thieves in Whitechapel hated me because I would not steal, nor condescend to associate with them." Next we see him (as already stated) befriended by the Christian nurse, whilst sitting in pensive musing; then glancing at sundry Scriptural texts in a blacksmith's lowly window; then mingling with various Christian brothers at a humble prayer-meeting; then, with a heart brimful of zeal and overflowing with holy joy and gratitude, bidding farewell to Christian brethren, and entering upon his long sea-voyage; then ministering to the spiritual necessities of his fellow-voyagers; and at length travelling, both on foot and horse, through the length and breadth of foreign climes, "preaching the faith which he once destroyed.' We ask what praying father, what wrestling mother, but must acknowledge and admire the good hand of a kind and gracious God in all these matters, and add, Oh, that in like manner our Ishmaels may live before Thee!"

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RECEIVED This Day Month. By the Rev. P. B. Power, M.A. (Macintosh)-Peace with God; or, The Sinner's Refuge (Penny)—Going Home; or, A Brief Memoir of Edith E. By her Father (Christian Book Society)-The Anti-Ritualists and Protestants' Defender (Macintosh, Paternoster Row)-The Churchman's Monthly Penny Magazine (Christian Book Society, Strand)-The Gospel Watchmen (Yapp and Hawkins)—We spend our Years as a Tale that is told (Macintosh)-The Voice upon the Mountains (S. W. Partridge and Co.)— Babylonianism (Morgan and Chase)—The Revelation: How is it to be Interpreted? (Morgan and Chase)-Jesus in the Midst of Us (Macintosh)-The Mother's Friend (Hodder and Stoughton)-The British Juvenile (Hall and Co.)-Grace's Dream. By Isa Bell (Morgan and Chase) Topics for Teachers. By James Cowper Gray, Halifax (Elliot Stock)-Letter to a Sailor (Jarrold and Sons)-The Cross, but no Crown; or, Cross Breaking, not Cross Bearing (W. Yapp & Co., Welbeck Street)-Dying in the Lord. A Sermon by Rev. Rowley Hill, M.A. (H. T. Cook)-Daily Trials, and How to Bear Them (The Book Society)Called at Even. By Isa Bell (Morgan and Chase)-Like Jesus. By C. L. J. (Macintosh) -Dixon's Spiritual Miser (Williams and Norgate)-The Three Great Cities. By Elizabeth Lancaster Parkyn (Houlston and Wright)—Commentary on the New Testament. By James Morison, D.D. (Hamilton, Adams and Co.)-Feed My Lambs (R. T. White, Printer, 45, Fleet-street, Dublin)-Is Thine Heart Right? By a Layman (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., Stationers' Hall Court, London)-The Friend. By Rev. W. Andrews, Kilkenny (William Hunt and Co., Holles Street, Cavendish Square, London)—The Banner of Love. By Rev. W. C. Purton, B.A., Rector of Coombe, Author of "Trust in Trial," &c. (Hatchards) The New Leaf: What will You Write on It (The Book Society, Paternoster Row)-Millicent (Morgan and Chase)-A Great Multitude which no Man could Number (W. Macintosh)-Who can Forgive Sins (S. W. Partridge)--A Happy New Year to You (English Monthly Tract Society)-Who is your Priest? A Question for the Times (S. W. Partridge)-Will Christ return to reign upon the Earth (Elliot Stock)-The Life-Boat; or, Journal of the National Life-Boat Institution-The British Juvenile (Elliot Stock) The Wiltshire Protestant Beacon. Are You a Real Christian ?-Pentecost; or, The Revival of the Work of God (Morgan and Chase)-The Question of the Day: The Irish Church (Seeley)-Tracts on the Irish Church Question. By Rev. S. A. Walker (Macintosh)-Ride and Read (Brown and Co., Salisbury)—The Watchmen of Ephraim. By John Wilson (Macintosh)-The Voice of Truth; or, Baptist Record (Elliot Stock)-The Gospel Advocate (Houlston and Wright)-A Witness for Jesus (Morgan_and Chase) It is Time to Seek the Lord. By Author of "I will Help Thee," &c. (Macintosh)— The Eighth Together. By Charles G. Robson (Partridge and Co.)-Your Election. A Tract for the Times. By Rev. J. C. Ryle, B.A. (William Hunt and Co.)-He Came to Save; or, The Mission of Jesus. By H. J. W. (Macintosh)-Thy Future. By H. J. W. (Macintosh)-The Mother's Treasury (The Book Society)-Personal Religion. A Letter to Sound Young Friends. By the late Jane Taylor, of Ongar (Hodder and Stoughton)-The Little Gleaner (Houlston and Wright)-Getting the Better of it (Partridge and Co.)—The Sower (Houlston and Wright)—Protestantism: What is it, and What should it be. By Author of "The Straight Road" (Macintosh)-Sacerdotalism. By Rev. Aubrey Charles Price, B.A. (James Nisbet)-Building from the Top. By Rev. W. Haslam, M.A. (Partridge and Co.)