The Deacons, Messrs. Hall and Chellice, then most affectionately and earnestly commended the missionary to God in prayer.

Mr. Taylor wished to add that the Lord's hand had been most graciously put out to assist the work. A gentleman, a perfect stranger, had, through a friend, most kindly offered a free passage to China to Mr. Barchet and another missionary who is going out with him. He begged the friends' prayers that the Lord would abundantly bless their kind helper.

The Four Chapels.

PROPOSED in our March number that by the aid of all our friends, we should endeavour to erect four places of worship in or near London, that we might be doing some little to meet the direful spiritual destitution of our great metropolis. The work is to be carried on in real earnest, and I beg my readers to come at once to my aid. The foundation stone of the first chapel, to be erected in the town of Ealing, was laid by our friend, John Olney, Esq., who has pushed on this project with vigour, on Wednesday, April 26th. The building will not cost more than £800, and with the contributions of friends on the spot, Mr. Olney's liberal assistance, and the aid we shall render ourselves and expect from others, we hope to open Ealing chapel free of debt.

The second meeting-house is to be built on a piece of ground which we have taken in the Drummond Road, Bermondsey, in the midst of an immense and growing neighbourhood. This will be a larger building, but we hope by strict economy to complete it for £1,500, of which we hope to raise £1,000, and leave the congregation with the easy burden of £500 to be paid off in future years. I am compelled to cease from labour for a few weeks, and to seek repose for my jaded mind in foreign travel. I am enabled by the noble generosity of a friend, to offer £250 towards this Bermondsey Chapel, and I think I see my way to another £250. This leaves £500 to be raised, and if my friends will all work together to raise this sum to put on the foundation stone on my return, I shall be indeed grateful. I leave England hoping and praying that this may be done.

subjects of his address were the love which should exist among all true believers of Christ's gospel-the nature of gospel-faith-the peace and confidence with which it should always be attendedand its practical effects. On these topics he dwells with his usual sweetness and

simplicity. The principal charm of the book, to many, will be the definition and description of saving faith. Honourable mention is made of Mr. R. Haldane, to whom Mr. Malan was indebted, instru

In the first of these little volumes, the elements of grammar are adapted by familiar illustration to an early period of the youthful mind. In the second, the principal facts in English history are accommodated to the capacities of children of a larger growth. In both there is a praiseworthy attempt to dimin-mentally, for his evangelical clearness. ish the task of acquiring what is not very attractive in itself, and the attempt has not, we think, been made in vain.

Conventicle of Rolle. By CESAR MALAN, D.D. James Nisbet & Co., 21, Berners Street.

THE Conventicle here referred to was a social gathering for religious intercourse, in which Cæsar Malan took the principal part, and during which he gave a clear and full statement and defence of his doctrinal sentiments. The principal

the Romans he acknowledges himself To his Commentary upon the Epistle to to be indebted more than to any other book, next to the Bible, for his theological sentiments. We cordially unite in recommending that Commentary to all students who aspire to be sound in

the faith.

The Junior Clerk. By EDWIN

HODDER. Jackson, Walford, and Hodder, 27, Paternoster Row. WAs the parable of the Prodigal Son, as uttered by the great Teacher, a fable

temptation palliates the prevailing fol lies of our young men; or that the bitter repentance and reformation to which, in some instances, it leads, renders a course of dissipation less appalling. These are but the few saved from the

or a fact? In either case it might become a parable, and in the latter better than the former; as realities are more like realities than fictions can be. It is by no means impossible that this parable should have been founded upon fact. It is more probable than other-wreck in which thousands are lost. With wise that such a series of incidents might have happened in the course of the world's history; and if so, it must have been known to our Lord. It is so

these precautions, we know of no better book to be put into the hands of young men when first entering upon city life.

Central Truths. By CHARLES STAN

true to nature, that it can hardly fail to
have been a reality. This is precisely
what
FORD.
be affirmed of this narrative
may
before us. To the author and its readers
it assumes the aspect of the parable of
the Junior Clerk; but it is too unlike
fiction not to have had its foundation
in fact. The writer will have no need
to say, with Ezekiel, "Ah, Lord God!
they say of me, doth he not speak para-
bles ?" All who know anything of the
subject upon which he writes, will say
that "He speaks that which he knows,
and testifies that which he has seen.'
He has placed before us a type of a large
class of the young men who officiate as
clerks in the mercantile and other

Jackson, Walford, and Hodder, 18, St. Paul's Churchyard. MR. STANFORD is well known, both as a preacher and a writer. All his productions are characterized by elegant language, and by refinement and originality of thought. They are not less remarkable for piety and Scripture truth. There is an appearance of a laborious attention to the beauties of composition; but what might be so elsewhere is, we believe, natural here; it has become the natural result of a highly cultivated mind. The book before us contains

imitation of every one who aspires, not are well worthy of the attention and to be a sharp sword merely in the hand of the Lord, but a polished shaft in his quiver.

establishments in large cities; and who the substance of a series of well-prefail to realize the hopes which their pared discourses upon Scripture docparents and friends had cherished re-trines, and privileges, and duties. They specting them. The gradual stages by which the innocent and unsuspecting are drawn into the vortex of dissipation are faithfully pourtrayed. Amongst these some may be surprised to find literary institutions, not in themselves indeed, but in the frequent abuse of The Divine Footsteps in Human them, in the formation of injurious History. William Blackwood and friendships and the effects of long absence from home. To those of our Sons, Edinburgh and London. youth, who are far from home, these THIS book is more attractive in its subinstitutions have provided both instruc-ject than in its style. Its object is to tion and an asylum from more perilous places of resort; but to others they have too often proved temptations to violate the rules, and destroy the comforts of their families and friends. In proportion as moral and religious influences are brought to bear upon the exhibitions of science and art, the less of course these evils are to be appre-paid to that portion of Church history hended; but the general tendency, we fear, is to substitute amusement for instruction, and to gratify, rather than to refine, the taste. We are thankful to the author for pointing out these rules. It must not be supposed, however, that

trace the over-ruling hand of God in all the revolutions in the history of the human race for the developement of great principles, and the accomplishment of certain great and definite ulterior designs. This lofty aim is pursued with a vast amount of diligent and patient research. Great attention is

of which we have no inspired record, and the reason why we have no clear revelation upon many questions of Church policy well known to us is properly affirmed to be because the circumstances from which they arose

had not then existed. We are indebted |
to the errors and irregularities of the
early Churches for much of the infor-
mation received from the writings of
the Apostles, both upon Christian doc-
trine and discipline. No patronage of
Christianity by civil powers had then
occurred, but the very opposite state of
things, and, consequently, no direct and
special revelation is given upon the
subject. Inferentially, it is granted,
sufficient may be gathered for our
guidance, and great principles are laid
down for this purpose. Our author
says, "In the Primitive Church the
question of state connection was not
mooted. And when that alliance was
ultimately entered into, the Church had
become so degenerate as to make its
act a most unsafe precedent to follow.
What does history say as to this
question of state Churchism? Why
it proclaims with a trumpet tongue
that the principle of a state adopting a
religion, whether true or false, and
giving its ecclesiastics a privileged poli-
tical status, has in its practical working
been uniformly productive of individual
injustice and civil wrong. The principle
may be innocent, and the fault may rest
with its administrators; but true it is,
beyond all controversy, that history pro-
nounces it to be the prolific parent of
persecution and intolerance. It has
been tried and tested under every con-
ceivable form of government, and in
connection with all kinds of religion,
false and true, with a wonderful uni-
formity of result." This quotation may
suffice to show that this volume is
founded upon wide and liberal views.
Our Eternal Homes. By A BIBLE
STUDENT. Frederick Pitman, 20,
Paternoster-row.

A "BIBLE READER" would have been
a better title for the author of this book
than a
"Bible Student." It has peculiar
notions respecting the trueness of the
invisible to the visible world, which
may, or may not be true; but the appli-
cation he makes of them to the subjects
of redemption, leads him far away from
their real character and design. That
angels have human forms, that there is
real music in heaven, that we are now in
the midst of heaven and need only an
additional sense
to discern it, that

physical death is not the consequence
of sin, that there is no other resurrection
than at the moment of death, and that
there is no other judgment than the
decision of man's own conscience, are
the principal revelations which this
"Bible Student" finds in his Bible. If
he has discovered the leading principles
of evangelical truth there, it must have
been in a few scattered grains, or in such
an infinitesimal proportion to the rest as
to be unworthy of distinct notice. We
do not wonder that this book should
have reached a third edition, since it
accommodates the things of the Spirit of
God to the natural man.
Philosophy of Religion. By HUGH

DOHERTY, M.D. Trübner and
Co., 60, Paternoster-row.
HERE, too, we have a misnomer. Instead
of "Philosophy of Religion," it should
have been "Religion Philosophized."
We object not to the principles main-
tained, but to the scientific and mystic
terms and reasoning in which they are
presented. They are beclouded with
such a fog of words and ideas that we
should hardly have known them. Oh
how unlike "the simplicity which is in
Christ!"

Davy's School Days. By D. D.

Dean and Son, 11, Ludgate Hill.
THIS is a good and useful tale for school.
boys. It shows how a tender conscience
cherished and strengthened by maternal
solicitude, and if not hardened by evil
companions, may be deceived by false
colouring, and led into dangerous paths.
We can cordially recommend it both for
its sentiments and its design.
Joyful Sunday Stories. By FRANCES

UPCHER COUSENS. Dean and
Son, 11, Ludgate Hill.

EACH part of the Lord's prayer is here
illustrated by short narratives well cal-
culated to profit and please little
children. The principle upon which
this little work is founded, of instructing
children in the meaning of a form of
prayer before it is uttered by them, has
our hearty concurrence.
By the Rev. T. W.
Rays of Light.
MEDHURST. Halifax: Milner &
Sowerby.

MR. MEDHURST's aim, both in preaching