cnmbent of Harrow Weald. It is original only in the plan; for the passages have been chiefly selected from the standard divines of the English Church, since the Reformation, so as to present to the reader a few of their more striking, practical, and contemplative writings. But the author's preface, which we here extract, will speak better for his plan and purpose than any recommendation of ours will. The following pages,' he says, 'contain a compilation of passages from different writers, illustrative of points of Christian doctrine and the passion of our blessed Lord; to which have been added a prayer for each day, and a brief extract from the biographies of good men. These passages are chiefly selected from some of the early Fathers, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, Bishop Wilson, the works of Mr. Isaac Williams, and the lives of holy men from various sources. There are some passages also from Pascal and St. Thomas a Kempis.'

'The Daily Services' are most excellent in themselves and well selected; and they may be most usefully applied to the whole Christian year, as well as to the season of Lent. Should other editions be called for, which we hope may be the case, we would recommend the addition of an Index or Contents, which would greatly facilitate the means of finding the particular subject to which any one may be most desirous of calling his attention. It will be found an excellent family book for daily meditation and prayer. Although the names are not given of the authors cited, yet we can distinguish the plenary language of that great Father in the Church-Bishop Jeremy Taylor-predominating, which, to the sound Churchman, will be a strong recommendation.

SERMONS BY REV. JAMES COPNER, M.A.
London: James Darling.

In his preface, the Author of these superior Sermons informs us, that his object in the composition of a sermon, whilst making it interesting and instructive to the better informed and educated classes, has ever been to make it also so plain, both in language and argument, as to be clear and intelligible to the most unlearned.' We are bound to say that he has most admirably succeeded; for we have seldom met with better or more intelligible discourses. The sermon on the third commandment is much to the point, and shows in how many ways it is daily broken by thoughtless levity, as well as by profane swearing. As a sample, we quote the concluding paragraph of the discourse for Easter Day: 'I have brought before you to-day the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, as a fit subject for our contemplation at this joyous season; for we commemorate, as you know, to-day, the resurrection of our blessed Saviour; as on this day He rose from the dead, and became the first fruits of them that slept. All nature, too, is rising around ns. The genial Spring-time is clothing the hills and valleys with new verdure. All creation is coming forth with new life. warned, brethren, by these types-these emblems of the coming resurrection. Rise in a moral sense. Rise from sin. Rise from the cold state of death-like apathy to the genial state of living righteousness. Rise above the fleeting shadows of this passing scene, to those realities which are at God's right-hand, for ever and ever.'

Be

No 14, FALSE HONOUR; 15, OLD JARVIS' WILL, are two of Messrs. John and James Parker's deservedly popular Monthly Tales. The former is the history of a footman of right principles, who acted up to and upon his principles-who suffered all manner of persecution from his fellow-servants; but who overcame all, and finally settled down, a prosperous man, in the 'Village' near his master's mansion. Every family ought to have it for the perusal of their servants, that they may see and be fortified against the maxims of 'false honour,' which are but too prevalent among them. The false honour was the witnessing and conniving at another servant stealing and selling his master's property from the cellar; but who, from a false notion, made it a point of honour not to inform against him, whilst the servant of principle openly informed his master of the depredations which were committed on his goods and chattels. No. 15 is an interesting illustration of some important branches of the second commandment, of which most people are but too apt to be guilty. We mean too great love of, and trust in, money, which the highest of all authority has declared to be 'the root of all evil.' The story is prettily told, the incidents are natural and well wrought out, and the conclusion is pretty much as might be expected. The first of these should be in every servant's library; and the other, among the books of the avaricious and the legacy hunters.

A HYMN-BOOK FOR THE SERVICES OF THE CHURCH AND
FOR PRIVATE READING. J. H. & J. Parker.

Part I. contains hymns that are proposed to be used in the Church Service, on the different feasts and fasts, by those who choose to do so. The hymns in the second part are to be read or perhaps sung, at home; and they are of a devotional character. Like most of those who prefer modern hymns to the inspired Psalms, the compiler of this Hymn-Book cannot avoid a sneer in his preface at the metrical versions of the Psalms attached to our Prayer-Books; 'perhaps the worst' he says, 'of their many serious faults, is the omission of anything like a Christian meaning. This alone ought to preclude their use. Notwithstanding this unchristian disclaimer, he gives the old version of the hundredth psalm-All people that on earth do dwell,' without acknowledgment, as one of his Christian hymns. The psalms of the Temple were not Christian, but Jewish compositions; most of them were prospective of the Redeemer, but many of them were historical narratives of past events. In almost all cases, the name of David might be changed into Christ; but Tate and Brady had no authority, as far as we know, to do so. In fact, this derogatory slur on the metrical Psalms was first ventilated by aspiring young pedants of the Newman and Pusey School; and it has been taken up and continued by those who have hymnals of their own to recommend. Surely there is as much 'Christian meaning' in the metrical version of the 10, 11, and 12 verses of the fifty-first psalm as there is in the original,—

11. Withdraw not Thou Thy help,
Nor cast me from Thy sight;
Nor let Thy Holy Spirit take
His everlasting flight.

12. The joy Thy favour gives,
Let me again obtain ;

And let Thy Spirit's firm support,
My fainting soul sustain.

There is as much, if not more, Christian meaning in the lines above cited, as in the version of the psalm which the compiler has put into his collection as a Christian hymn. In the hymns for Baptism and Confirmation, there is not the slightest allusion to regeneration nor any of the other graces of the Spirit then conferred. The first hymn for the Communion is the same as is to be found in many Prayer-Books, the second verse of which ought to be expunged. When it is sung at our parish church, albeit not much of a singer, we always close the book during the singing of that verse; it is a metrical prayer to the material elements; ergo, idolatrical. Notwithstanding what he has provoked us to say, we consider many of his hymns beautiful specimens of poetry, and not deficient in 'Christian meaning.'

SELECT SERIES OF CHRISTIAN TRACTS AND BOOKS.

London: Nesbit & Co., and Wertheim and Macintosh. Dublin: Dublin Tract Repository.

About a hundred of these tracts enclosed in an envelope, with a polite note from the publishers requesting an early notice, have been received. To say that we have read them all, would be to tell a lie; but the first that we did read, 'A Simple Narrative,' gave us some suspicion that the Authors of these Christian Tracts do not rightly divide the Word of Truth. The story of this Simple Narrative is the conversion of a poor Irishwoman from a sinful life to a life of righteousness, through the assiduous attention and conversation of the narrator; to which we had nothing to object till we came to his remark addressed to the readers in general, and, of course, to ourselves in particular,— 'MORALITY Wont answer in the day of judgment.' Now this is a daring contradiction of our blessed Lord's twice-recorded declaration, that morality will stand in the day of judgment; for His gracious words are, if ye will enter into life,' and 'if ye love me, KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS; else His Sermon on the Mount and all the Apostles' teaching have, till now, been entirely mistaken by the Christian world. We have also read another of the tracts, Assurance of Salvation,' and we must, with sorrow, acknowledge that we have seldom seen so many and such consolatory texts of Scripture, wrested to such a destructive sense. The writer asks how any one can endure to live in uncertainty on such a subject?' To those who do live in the Author's state of uncertainty, it is surely a most painful and distressing condition; but to a man following in an honest and good heart the teachings of the Church of England, which is the only faithful and pure Church in the world,

there is neither room for doubt, nor difficulty, nor uncertainty; for faithful is He that promised. Our repentance for past sins is both weak and unworthy, fit only to be repented of, and all our own righteousness is only as filthy rags. There is, therefore, nothing in ourselves whence we can derive comfort or assurance; but if we look, by faith, upon our Great High Priest, who was crucified for us, we shall have eternal life; for though our faith, which is only the hand that presents the benefit to us, be weak, yet the hand is not the benefit, the whole virtue of it is in the all-comprehensive and full satisfaction which Christ made for us on the Cross in His own person, and entirely without our participation. We have Christ's infallible assurance, that if we believe and trust in that complete satisfaction which He made for all our sins, with true repentance for them, and our sincere endeavour to keep the Commandments, we shall enter into life eternal; and we have the Divine promise, through Moses, that it shall be our righteousness, if we observe and do all these Commandments.' We have not had time to look at more of them; but we shall notice them in our next.

MORE BISHOPS; WHY WE WANT THEM. Hope & Co.

This is the first of a series of tracts on the increase of the Episcopate in England and Wales, and in which the 'why we want them' is discussed; in the second number will be proposed 'how shall we pay them? The writer is a man of the right sort; and he deals with the subject in the calm, intelligent, and satisfactory manner that shews he is in earnest. "The design' he says, 'of this little tract is to furnish some information to those who are not at present alive to this want of the Church, and to invite the earnest attention of Churchmen to it.' In the Appendix he states, 'much might be added (... > respecting the immense benefits which the Colonies have derived from the planting of bishops in them. A remarkable degree of life and vigour has been infused into the Colonial Church by the extension of the Episcopate in our Colonies. Churches have been built, devout communicants have been greatly multiplied, and clergy have increased beyond all previous example in the history of the Church, in the dependencies of the British crown. The diocese of Melbourne and Adelaide may be mentioned as affording the most striking instances of the extent to which it has pleased God to bless his own ordinance-the Episcopate. In Melbourne diocese there were in 1847, three clergy; in Adelaide four. There are now, 1855, thirty-six in Adelaide and twenty-five in Melbourne.' We shall return to this subject when we have seen the second number; in the meantime, we pray God to speed the good work.

The volume of the Cyclopædia Bibliographica, arranged under subjects, is in active preparation, and will be ready for the press about the end of this year. Besides being very complete in Theological Literature, it will embrace nearly all departments of knowledge, pointing out the best books on each subject. It will be issued in the same manner as the volume already published, on authors, their lives and works.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT.

CHRIST'S DEATH A PROPITIATORY SACRIFICE. BY CHAS. BARING, M.A. THE GOODNESS AND SEVERITY OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN THE ATONEMENT. By E. M. GOULBURN, D.C.L.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT. By C. A. HEURTLEY, D.D. All by J. H. & J. Parker, Oxford.

THE CROSS: a Treatise on the Death of Christ. ANONYMOUS.

J. Nesbit & Co., London.

THE first three of the pamphlets which stand at the head of this paper, are sermons which were preached before the University of Oxford; and all of which have been published 'at the request of the Vice-Chancellor;' so that they come before the public with his imprimatur, as well as the approbation of the University. The last is one of the envelopeful of tracts, which we mentioned last month as having been received, but not then read. They are issued by the Dublin Tract Society, and this one comprehends the doctrine of the Atonement.

All men have been brought near unto God, by the blood of the Lamb which was slain from the foundation of the world; for Christ having been made a sin-offering, is both our Sin-bearer and our Peace-maker. He has reconciled us to God, and purchased peace for us; so that we are no longer reckoned strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens of the household of God. In the condescending capacity of the Son of Man, the co-equal Son of God in whom the godhead dwelt bodily, which is a transcendant mystery, completely expiated the sins of all obedient Christians. He ransomed

VOL. X.

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