great progress in this country, and that the Church of England is one of its effective promoters. Those best informed assure us that there is scarcely a newspaper in England which has not on its staff writers of papal sympathies and aims. The Tichborne trial," which increasing multitudes of our fellow-countrymen are beginning to feel was grossly unfair and tyrannical, was such a revelation of papal influence in this country as may well fill us with alarm. To those who require to be informed what the spirit and aim of Romanism are, we heartily recommend this work. The author writes with intelligence, for he has mastered the subject, and with earnestness, being deeply impressed with the errors of the system against which he contends.

A POPULAR COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT. By D. D. WHEDON, D.D., Vol. III. Acts to Romans. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row.

"The series of volumes," says the author, " on the New Testament, of which this is the third, was undertaken by the author in accordance with a resolution of the Quadrennial General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America (the highest ecclesiastical legislature of the largest religious body in that country), directing that such a series should be prepared. So far as the book of Romans is concerned, far the greater number of later commentaries have accorded with the Augustinian theology. The notes in this volume coincide, upon the points most extensively discussed, rather with the theology prevalent in the primitive age, before the influence of Augustine was felt in the Western Church. It may be called also the theology of the great majority of the orthodox Church of all the Christian ages." We called the attention of our readers to the author's Exposition of the four Gospels some time since, and heartily recommended it. This volume heightens our judgment of him as an expositor—it is a very valuable Exposition on the Acts and the Romans.

Infant Baptism, AND ADMISSION TO THE CHURCH. By H. L. M. London: Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row.

This pamphlet consists of three subjects, Baptism in Relation to its Proper Meaning; Infant Baptism in Relation to Christian Education; and Infant Baptism in Relation to Personal Confession of Faith. It contains a great many sensible thoughts on these subjects.

FOOD FOR FAITH; or, Remarkable ANSWERS TO PRAYER. London: Book Society, Paternoster Row.

This is an interesting sketch of a pious woman.

"What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?"-MATT. viii. 29.

HERE are three several accounts of this singular miracle, varying in minute particulars, yet presenting substantially the same story. St. Matthew speaks of two afflicted men; St. Mark of one. A discrepancy? No. One of the men has a life history that extends beyond the healing word of Christ, and is recorded. In a crowd there may be men-and the man. So the narrator's eye sees the one most prominent. This man passes through a wonderful transformation. He was naked, or in rags; he is clothed. His dwelling-place was among the tombs;-he has found a place at Jesus' feet. His strength of madness was so great that chains did not hold him; he has come to so sweet and gracious a spirit, that he asks to follow the Lord. "In his right mind." That is emphatically a right mind that says, "Lord, I will follow Thee," etc.

But the Lord has a work for him, as for so many young

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converts. Don't begin to preach just yet. A man from whom some demon of theft, or blasphemy, or intemperance has been cast out, is not quite ready for ordination. Go home, show piety there; tell your friends what great things God has done for you. It is sometimes more difficult to speak to a brother about personal religion, than to exhort a crowd-to be religious in the home sphere, than to profess religion among Christ's disciples.

I do not attempt to explain this miracle. We want more light on the whole subject of demoniacal possession, to understand what is meant by the devils leaving the bodies of men to enter into swine; but I do not see how, by less than such an overmastering power, creatures like sinners in this, that they love to have their own way, were driven on such a devil's way as this, down a steep place, to perdition.

But the demoniacal possession of men is not so extraordinary. There are respectable sins, quiet devils, that possess men, none the less deadly,-mean spirits of envy and covetousness and pride; but there are ferocious passions too. Much sin is madness-e.g. a brutalized man kicking his wife, clenching his huge fists at his children, boiling over with blasphemies and threats. There, altering the name, you have a Gadarene demoniac. A woman under the power of intemperance, her character dead, her influence dead, dwelling among the graves of past moralities and joys, etc.

Take two lines of thought suggested by the text.
I. A WRONG SOCIAL IDEA.

There is a feeling that finds expression in the cry of these evil spirits, echoed by the prayer of the people, asking Christ to leave them-that evil is not be interfered with in its possession of humanity.

a. The devils acknowledge Christ. While men are saying, "Jesus, Son of Mary," "Nazarene," "Galilean,"

and a few, "Master," "Lord," these spirits confess Him Son of God. Intellectual knowledge will not save. (James ii. 19.)

b. They recognize the limit of their power. Sin is for a time. God sees in the ages to come its boundary line. Satan is to be bruised under the feet of God's saints; the devil to be cast into the lake of fire. Intimations of this there are, on the side of penal judgment, but more in the promises of grace and of our Lord's universal reign.

But in the meantime these devils seem to claim the right of possession to this man's soul. They have a lease of occupancy, which even the Lord of life is not to terminate "before the time." It was a miserable tenancy, the body of a maniac. A wretched dwelling-place, the tombs; a ghastly society, the dead! and worse, the bodies of swine. Yet does it seem as though evil spirits go out of the body to a state more miserable.

Beyond the lowest depths, a lower deep."

But have we not here a wrong social idea, that evil is to exist unmolested anywhere even for a time?

1. Men dwell in filthy and degraded conditions. They crowd together in alleys and courts. They love the darkness rather than the light, etc.

If you seek to bring the daylight into these dark places of the earth, if you touch them towards a moral or social elevation, or enter with the strong hand of law, they perhaps meet you with a growl or a roar-"Leave us alone, what have we to do with thee?"

2. Men get their living by distilling poisons, by adulterating articles of food, to ruin men's bodies; they pen and print and publish immoral literature to the ruin of men's souls; they open haunts of evil and dig pits for the unwary. It is their living. Interfere with them, and you hear this cry, "What have we to do with thee?"

A large mass of society is indifferent to religion. Visit them, speak to them of God, of His law, His love, His claim to our worship and service, they resent your wellmeant endeavours, and say, "Go to your church, keep your Sabbath; we respect your liberty, respect ours."

It is possible to adopt unwise and injudicious methods in our attempts to do good, etc.

But we cannot, must not, dare not, leave evil alone.

1. Sin in society does not leave us alone. It pollutes the atmosphere we breathe, it endangers our life and the lives of those dear to us. It mars our happiness. We must meet the mighty agencies of aggressive evil and the negations of all good that chill the air and wither the beauty of goodness, with agencies of aggressive truth, with lives of holiness and righteousness, and the sunshine of love. War for war, stroke for stroke; we have part in the incessant conflict waged in this part of God's universe; and woe to the sleeper, the recreant, the coward.

2. Every man who has influence must use it, and does in fact use it. If we know more than our fellows, we are bound to teach. If rich among the starving, we ought to feed them. If we possess the divinest truth, and others are in ignorance, "No man liveth to himself." The light must shine into the darkness; and we have positive command, and the example of our Lord. "The Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil." He who came to seek and to save must meet all forms of evil, and come across the track of its violent and ferocious spirits.

Christ could not leave even devils alone. He was tender to the sinner, but inexorable in severity to the sin. His very presence was enmity to all evil. So must ours be, though our interference be an offence, and our bestmeant efforts resented as an intrusion into the sphere of