the medium of advertisement; but for such works to be published under the special patronage of the Sovereign of England as having been a source of comfort and edification in deep and overwhelming sorrow," is a circumstance These of surprise, grief, and alarm. volumes can administer no comfort," which is not false, and no "edification," which is not delusive!

The work is radically, fatally, and wholly defective in its representations of the Divine character. God, in the author's view, is simply a God of mercy without the slightest element of justice. He says:

"All the nations of antiquity have said it: God is the wisest and purest Love. The most enfightened as well as the least civilized peoples of the present day profess it."-P. 40.

Now we know that the nations of antiquity and the nations now existing under the dreary dominion of idolatry have said nothing of the kind. They were even "without God, and had no hope." No representation can be more inaccurate. But our author, referring to the evils of life, says:

"Many Christians, seeing the many ills that afflict humanity, explain these by conceiving of God as a God of vengeance, as an angry God, a jealous and inexorable God, who punishes the faults of a moment (for is man's life on earth more than a brief moment?) with the sufferings of eternity, and who takes revenge for the sins of the fathers on their innocent offspring-actions which, if committed by a human being, would rightly be considered as execrable and unjustifiable."-P. 42.

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The writer adds by way of finishing his portrait, what he considers as the teaching of Jesus Christ. He says:

"And He, the eternal Son, described the Father as the purest Love, in whom there is no particle of evil-as the all perfect Being, in whom consequently no human passion or weakness can dwell, who is alike incapable of jealousy, of anger, of vengeance, and of repentance. He blames the outbreak of such passions in man-how then could he find them praiseworthy in the highest Being, in Him who is most emphatically Love and Goodness?" -P. 44.

The incorrectness of this statement or rather jumble, is plain even to a child well read in the sacred scriptures. Our author contradicts himself in the most explicit terms, and repeatedly; he says:

"God and immortality are irrefragable truths! The belief in retribution is a necessary result of this conviction, and it is one of the oldest beliefs entertained by the human race. It was embodied in the heathen religions of antiquity, as it is in those of the present day. All religions teach, in accordance with the deep-seated intuitions of mankind, that there is a heaven and a hell-an abode of bliss for the good, a place of punishment for evil-doers. Without retribution, the immortality of the spirit loses all meaning, all value; without immortality, the existence of the Diety loses all importance in our eyes. Belief in the one is founded in belief in the other; the one cannot exist without the other - they are indeed identical."-P. 279.

As if this were not enough the writer elsewhere, after quoting certain texts, says:

"In these similes and parables the Divine teacher revealed the future destiny of our souls, the inevitable consequences of our acts, our dispositions, and our sentiments, of our virtues, and our sins. In each He expressed the eternal truth: Retribution awaits you!"P. 280.

Once more, strangely enough, the author has expressed himself thus:

"Retribution is the law of Thy kingdom, O Lord of the Universe! Father and Judge of our spirits! I also shall receive my reward and my punishment. The harvest I am to reap in eternity is sown here upon earth. I shall die-but not cease to exist.”— P. 288.

To this strange confusion the writer adds gross absurdity. He lays it down that the creature who was thus to be punished in a future state will, in that state, be perfectly happy; and as a climax to the whole, he elsewhere declares that he will be annihilated! Let us hear him :

"Therefore is sin the death of the spirit! And can a spirit, that has not lived a true life on earth, continue to live when its body dies? Does it not sleep the eternal sleep? Will it not be as if it had never existed?" -P. 338.

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"Eternal sleep" the foundation of eternal happiness! "Eternal sleep the foundation of eternal misery! Such are the "comforting," "edifying" lessons. The book is radically, fatally defective in its views of human nature. Man is taught, that by simply obeying the commandments, his spirit will be ennobled and rendered worthy" of entering into the realm of glory. Again, "to the hope of eternity is joined the feeling of the necessity of rendering ourselves worthy of a higher life hereafter." Again, "there are hours and days when even the consciousness. of our uprightness, the sense of our own worth, the remembrance of our own virtues, far from soothing our distress only increases. "In such an hour it was that Jesus bowed in the dust, and shed drops of bloody sweat." This is simply language without meaning, which can neither "comfort," nor edify." The same idea is enlarged on as follows:

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"How unutterably happy must not the man feel, whose heart has not one thing to upbraid him with in respect to any of his relations in life; who does not permit his mind to be unduly disturbed by cares of any kind; who does not allow either unbridled anger, or unrestrained affection, to lead him into any excess! In him dwells a sublime calm, of which ordinary men can hardly form a conception, that calm which is the true peace of God."-P. 90.

man?

The same notion is subsequently expressed thus:

The experience of every age thus proves and makes manifest, that the highest happiness of which man is capable, does not depend upon whether he has much or little, but upon whether he has a pure heart. In the moments of his highest bliss his sense of virtue is always most strongly excited. In such moments he is good; he rises above selfishness, malice, false pretences, and impure desires." 'Pause, wonder, reflect upon the heavenly hours thou hast enjoyed in life, and ask thyself how they came to thee. Not to rank, nor riches, nor fine clothes, nor meat, nor drink, didst thou owe them, but to thy pure heart."-P. 96, 98.

Things become worse, if possible, as we proceed. Again, he says:

"Life itself has not more value in his eyes than duty. He fears not death; and he who fears not death, nor poverty, nor the judgments of men, what power can fate have over him? He is a spirit like God; he bears his happiness, his highest good, within himself, and no fate can destroy it. Like unto a divinity he stands above all the storms of life, fearing them not in the consciousness of his innocence and his righteousness. This is to be like unto God; This is the destination of man!"-P. 175.

Thus it is that our author teaches humility and self-prostration. Not so the Prophets and Apostles. Once more he breaks forth in the following ebullition of pride and folly. Referring to the martyrs, he exclaims:

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"And I, Jesus Messiah, I will do as they! I will purify myself of every evil tendency, of every weakness; I will stand forth in word and deed as a perfect man, who prizes Thy word and Thy truth above all things. When occasion offers for serving my fellow-men, I will not first selfishly consider what would be to my own advantage, nor timidly give up what duty bids me do, because of the obstacles and the trouble I may have to encounter. In the end I shall succeed. And my reward I carry in my bosom; for that which is holy will triumph!"-P. 357.

The publication is radically, fatally defective in its views of life. Let us listen:

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'Self-bestowed blessedness!" The bliss of Lucifer, son of the Morning! Here is stoic philosophy with a witness. We might greatly enlarge our quotations on this head, but we hasten on to a point still more vital and serious.

The work is radically, fatally defective touching the atonement of Christ, which he completely misrepresents, or rather, we should say, utterly ignores. Redemp. tion, in the mouth of our author, has nothing to do with law and justice, with the sinner's exposure to the Divine

displeasure, the forgiveness of sin, the imputation of righteousness, and the Spirit of adoption. Here is his own theory of redemption :

"I will seek redemption through Jesus, for in no one else is there salvation. To be redeemed through Him, is to become like unto Him; to be pure in mind, and to do good; to be free from every sin, and to live for God alone; to act in my appointed sphere with godlike nobleness of soul, without selfishness, without base motives; to recognize in the world of spirits my home, in the Creator of the boundless universe my Father, and my kindred in all created beings like myself."P. 337.

Here is full-blown rationalism! This is all the atonement known to our author. Poor blind guide of the blind! Men are represented as having simply to do with His" example." He died upon the cross a martyr to truth to prove His sincerity; as to atoning blood, and justifying righteousness, these things make no part of the religion here set forth. The author elsewhere lays this doctrine down in the most explicit

terms:

"He was doomed to suffering and death, to seal the truth of His doctrine with His blood, to fall a willing victim for the sins of the world, and to bring the sacrificial worship of the Hebrews to an end by His death. He suffered the death of the World-Redeemer. His blood was, as it were, required to make the seeds of godliness germinate, which He had sown in the rough soil of the human heart."-P. 335.

These words, as explained by the whole of the book, exclude every iota of Evangelism.

Once more he thus utterly ignores the merits of the Redeemer and exalts his own doings as the ground of hope, and the means of recovery. Again, he

says:

"Have I lived in the Lord? Ah! I must veil my face from Thee, O Searcher of hearts, O Omniscient God, O most Holy Avenger! For I feel, when examining myself, that I am not quite blameless. I have still to repair much evil that I have done. I have still to make amends 'for many things which it behoves me not to forget."-P. 216.

Positive, or doctrinal theology is thus held up to scorn :—

"They have been less intent upon becoming like unto Jesus in feeling and actions, than upon disputations about their fancies and opinions. They have hoped more from long and formal prayers, from sacrifices and outward discipline, from fastings and purifications, than from following the example of Jesus in virtuous sentiments and works of love. Finally, they have placed the value and essence of Christianity more in certain dogmas and in faith, than in doing those things that are pleasing to God, as they are enjoined to do by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount, and by the Apostles in all their speeches and epistles."-P. 195.

We have surely said enough to show that the work has no religious value whatever, nay,that it is amply replenished with the deadliest dogmas of Infidelity! The author is radically at fault on the subject even of diabolical agency, a point every student of Scripture will consider so perfectly settled as to exclude all reasoning on the question. His system makes no provision for the existenee of either Devil or Angel. Speaking of men in earlier times and in rude conditions, and the existence of evil, he propounds the following theory :

"In consequence, the idea of a mighty evil spirit, opposed to God, was introduced among the Jews also, when they dwelt among the heathen during the Babylonian captivity; and this notion of a Devil, as the author of all evil in the world, was again transmitted from the Jews to the Christians, Jesus and His apostles having, when addressing Jews, made use of figures of speech which would be likely to be understood by the people. This ungenerous notion, so incompatible with the omnipotence and omniscience of God, is perhaps hardly worthy of a refutation."-P. 41.

By such teaching as this the author at once sets aside the doctrines of the. sacred Scriptures. He will know nothing of "angels who kept not their first estate," nor of " the prince of the powers of the air, the spirit that now worketli in the children of disobedience."

The volume before us is the last book in the English tongue that we should think of placing in the hands of a disconsolate mourner. To this author and

all such, the suffering portion of mankind might well say with Job, Miserable comforters are ye all!" There can be no comfort apart from the Spirit of God, and the Spirit comforts only by means of the truth concerning the person, offices, and work of Christ. The afflicted soul may in its agony, grasp the cup of deceit held out to it, but that cup will impart no real and lasting consolation. The Gospel was the very thing that was required to meet at every point, the necessities of a suffering world. The very first address Christ made in public was based on the wants of a race plunged in hopeless sorrow. Ho said:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."Luke iv. 18, 19.

What language! What a fountain! How manifold its virtues, and how ample its sufficiency to meet the wants of an afflicted world! The mission of the Holy Spirit in its ultimate purposes, is mainly one of comfort. His person, like that of the Lord Jesus Christ, is designated by his work. Jesus addressing his servants, said, "If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, the Spirit of Truth""The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." The book before us possesses not one single element of the Spirit's teaching, the sole means of spiritual consolation. The work and offices of Christ, the person and offices of the Holy Spirit are expressly ignored as things unnecessary to the system of our rationalistic author, No two objects can be more unlike than the book before us and the New Testament.

We now reach the most delicate part of our duty, which, if we dared, we

should pass over in silence, but we feel that to do so would be at our peril! In this matter, fidelity is loyalty of the purest type. The Christian millions of these kingdoms have, with intense sympathy, witnessed the grief that has so wrung the heart of their widowed Queen. Among sovereigns, so far as the lights of biography and history can. guide us, there has been no sorrow like unto the sorrow of Victoria! We know nothing to be compared with it. It long threatened to settle down into blank despair, or incurable▪ melancholy! The stroke which filled the palace with darkness, and the nation with sorrow, was, doubtless, overwhelming; yet the grief was without one peculiar aggravation. It was, moreover, only such as is common to all flesh, to sovereigns and to subjects, great and small, rich and poor, and in addition to that it was attended with alleviations such as rarely happen to the most favoured of the human race. Nothing was wanted to Her Majesty, but "the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus:" this alone could have stanched the bleeding wounds of the royal heart. This would have enabled Her Majesty to walk in the paths of ancient piety, and even under this most awful dispensation, to say, "It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.

"Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation."—Habakkuk, iii. 17, 18.

subsequently authorised their publication for the benefit of her subjects. In the meanwhile the royal eye seems to have been wholly averted from the Homilies, the Liturgy, and the Holy Scriptures, where she would have found saving truth, and boundless consolation.

The book in German from which the selections were made was, we learn, a favourite with Chevalier Bunsen, the Prussian Ambassador, the special friend of the late Prince Consort, and probably, in no small degree, on that very account, it was so highly prized by His Royal Highness himself; and thus it found its way to the closet of the Queen, who was led to view it as the perfection of excellence. Her Majesty, in the hour of her anguish, seems to have repaired to it for succour and solace; but in selecting such a guide, the error of the seed of Abraham was counted, who "forsook the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Descending from the palace to the cottages of the poor and the mansions of the rich, illustrations innumerable present themselves. Humanity is one : the heart of the Queen is simply the heart of her humblest subject: the same the wound the same the balm, if that wound is ever to be healed. The patriarch supplies the following most striking and beautiful illustration. Speaking of a sufferer, Job says:—

"He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain: So that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out. Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto men his uprightness: Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth: He shall

pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him and he shall see his face with joy; for he will render unto man his righteousness." Job xxxiii. 19-26.

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Here, then, is exactly the case of Her Majesty; it is grief at the lowest point of depression, and here is the heavenappointed means of deliverance, prompt, complete, and perfect. Would that our monarch had but obtained among her bishops and chaplains, " an interpreter, one among a thousand," to point out to her the uprightness," that is, the righteousness of God, the righteousness whereby He is "just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly." In that event, the darkness which enveloped the royal mind would at once have been dissipated. The burden which crushes her groaning spirit in the dust would have been removed; she would have experienced the "peace of God which passeth knowledge," and have rejoiced in the hope of eternal life! God is glorified, not by the settled gloom, but by the cheerful submission of His afflicted children, whose very bereavements, by His grace and love, are constituted the highest blessings! Her Majesty would then have listened to the Apostle, and have been cheered by the fact that eternity is at hand, "where there shall be no more pain, nor sorrow, nor crying; where the former things shall have passed away." She would have listened with calm satisfaction to the admonition of the Apostle, "It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none, and they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, for the fashion of this world passeth away."

Such is our deliberate, well-weighed, and most conscientious opinion of the work before us, which is eminently fitted to advance the rationalistic system now so rapidly spreading throughout the land.