in the avoidance of drunkenness, but in the avoidance of gluttony as well. Physical intemperance is not only a sin against the body, but against the soul also. Fifthly: That their children may be filially loving. "Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, despise not thy mother when she is old." The man who has lost his love for his parents, especially for his mother, has lost the last germ of goodness; or rather lost that moral soil of nature in which alone virtue and piety can take root and grow. Sixthly: That their children may acquire the truth. Buy the truth, and sell it not." The words imply (1.) that truth is a precious thing; (2.) that truth, to be obtained, must be purchased; (3.) that truth, when once obtained, should never be parted with. Notice II. The ARGUMENTS of the appeal. Parents might enforce many arguments to urge their children to follow their counsel. A few only are suggested in these words. First: Their own happiness, "My son, if thine heart be wise, mine heart will rejoice; yea, my reins shall rejoice." Is it nothing to make happy the instrumental authors of our being, those who have loved us most tenderly, and served us most self-denyingly? Secondly: The approaching end. "Surely there is an end.' An end to domestic relationsan end to all means of improvement. Yes, there is an end, and it is not far off. Thirdly Freedom from poverty. "Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags." The implication is, that where these evils are avoided, and where virtue is practised, there will be no poverty. "Godliness is profitable unto all things." The Pulpit and its Handmaids. TIME. Depredations of Time. "Time is the most subtle, yet the most insatiable of depredators, and, by appearing to take nothing, is permitted to take all. Nor can it be satisfied until it has stolen the world from us, and us from the world. It constantly flies, yet overcomes all things by flight: and although it is the present ally, it will be the future conqueror, of death. Time, the cradle of hope, but the grave of ambition, is the stern corrector of fools, but the salutary counsellor of the wise, bringing all they dread to the one, and all they desire to the other; but, like Cassandra, it warns us with a voice that even the sagest discredit too long, and the silliest believe too late. Wisdom walks before it, opportunity with it, and repentance behind it. He that has made it his friend will have little to fear from his enemies-will have little to hope from his friends." -COLTON. Neglected Time.-"Many sitting up long at play have to go to bed in the dark. Life here is a play, whose bed is eternity. Let us, then, give over play before our candle is out, and we, left in darkness, have to take up our bed in hell to all eternity."-SPENCER. Time Never Recovered.-"Lost wealth may be restored by industry, the wreck health regained by temperance, forgotten knowledge restored by study, alienated friendship smoothed by forgetfulness, even forfeited reputation won by penitence and virtue; but who ever looked upon his vanished hours, recalled his slighted years, stamped them with wisdom, or effaced from heaven's record the fearful blot of wasted time."-MRS. SIGOURNEY. Picture of Time.-"It was wittily said, that, by some, Time was thus pictured of old: Time to come had the head of a fawning dog: time present, the head of a stirring lion; time past, the head of a biting wolf: so teaching, that though silly souls fancy still their best days are to come, yet, if they bestir not well themselves in their present ones, they will be very miserably torn and bitten in their future."-BURGESS. escapement we have carried so long beneath our aching foreheads. If we could only get at them, as we lie on our pillows, and count the dead-beats of thought after thought, and image after image, jarring through the over-tired organ! Will nobody block those wheels, uncouple their pinion, cut the string which holds those weights? What a passion comes over us, sometimes for silence and rest, that this dreadful mechanism, unwinding the endless tapestry of time, embroidered with spectral figures of life and death, might have but one brief holiday!"-C. W. HOLMES. "Consider the state of this present life-a true dream which hath only the disturbances, but never the rest of sleep. A childish sport-a toil of burthensome and ever-relapsing actions, where, for some one rose, we meet with a thousand thorns; for one ounce of honey, a ton of gall; for apparent good, real evil. The paths here to the highest honours are all ice, and often bordered only by precipices. Its felicities are floating islands, which always retire when we but offer to touch them. They are the feast of Heliogabalus, where are many invitations, many ceremonies, many compliments, many services; and at the end of all this we find a table and banquet of wax, which melts at the fire, whence we return more hungry than we came. It is the enchanted egg of Oromares, in which that impostor boasted that he had enclosed all the happiness of the world; but broken, there was found nothing but wind." N. CAUSSIN. Literary Notices. [We hold it to be the duty of an Editor either to give an early notice of the books sent to him for remark, or to return them at once to the Publisher. It is unjust to praise worthless books; it is robbery to retain unnoticed ones.] THE REVIEWER'S CANON. In every work regard the author's end, Since none can compass more than they intend. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORLD. Edited by JAMES COWPER GRAY. London: Elliot Stock, 62 Paternoster Row. BIBLE LORE. By J. COWPER GRAY. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row. THESE volumes are from the same author, addressed to the same class, although from different publishing houses. The first volume, the Sundayschool World, is an encyclopædia of facts and principles, illustrated by anecdotes, incidents, and quotations from the works of the most eminent writers on Sunday-school matters. The author has brought into the volume extracts from various English and American works bearing on the various departments of Sunday-school labour; extracts referring to the superintendent and the secretary, to the teacher, to the scholar, to the infant class, to the children's service, to the librarian, as well as to other incidental departments. The other volume "Bible Lore," is of more general interest; it treats of "rare MSS. of the Bible, ancient versions of the Bible, celebrated commentaries on the Bible, famous English translations of the Bible, the Authorized Version of the Bible, historical copies and curious editions of the Bible, peculiar words and phrases of the Bible, obscure customs mentioned in the Bible, remarkable predictions in the Bible, striking coincidences in the Bible, the apocryphal books of the Bible, the literary features of the Bible, notable places mentioned in the Bible." This is a very valuable little work; it contains within a small compass what the reader would have to find out in volumes elsewhere. The information is given, not only with great condensation, but with remarkable clearness. It indicates extensive reading, considerable scholarship, and superior literary ability. All believers in the Bible, who have not an extensive library, should procure this little volume. Mr. Gray deserves the thanks of all Sunday-school teachers for the very able and extensive service which he has rendered them. SECULAR ANNOTATIONS ON SCRIPTURE TEXTS. By FRANCIS JACOX, B.A. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 27 Paternoster Row. ARE there any of our readers desirous of perusing a volume of rich and varied information, touching the most vital interests of humanity? If so, here is the book for them. The author's field of reading, as displayed in this volume, is not only marvellous in extent, but in the worth, the beauty, and almost endless variety of its productions. From this field he has culled some of the choicest things, and with remarkable adroitness has used them to illustrate important passages of Scripture. The publishers of this work should make an effort to get it into all the public libraries of England. No reading society or circulating library should be without it. It abounds with striking anecdotes, and every page flashes with genius. AN EXPOSITION UPON THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL TO THESSALONIANS. By JOHN JEWELL, Bishop of Salisbury. Edited by the Rev. PETER HALL, M.A. London: William Macintosh, Paternoster Row. BISHOP JEWELL was, indeed, the brightest jewel in the theological literature of the sixteenth century. Of him the great Hooker said :-"The jewel of bishops, the worthiest divine that Christendom hath bred for some hundred years." He was, indeed, one of the greatest lights that the Reformed Church of England produced. In looking into the Exposition of his, contained in this little volume, we are really amazed at the vigour of thought and expression. There are sentences in every page that are proverbs. His knowledge of human nature is Shaksperian; nor is his fancy and aptitude of language scarcely inferior to England's renowned dramatist. The editor deserves thanks for having raised this Exposition from the tomb of forgetfulness; and, in giving it a body, in which it may do service to this and future generations. BAPTIST HISTORY: From the Foundation of the Christian Church to the Present Time. By J. M. CRAMP, D.D. With Introduction by the Rev. J. ANGUS, D.D. London: Elliot Stock, 62 Paternoster Row. THE history of a great man has always more charms for us than the history of a society, either civil or ecclesiastic. Men collectively sometimes do stupid, and often intolerant, things: and this is especially the case when the society is organized on some rite or dogma that detach them from the genuinely Catholic in religion. For this reason we don't care much for reading the history of Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Wesleyans, or even Baptists. To us the history of such communities is interesting only in the measure of the great men, men of God and truth, who appear on the page. Our opinion is, that the sect principle is essentially destructible, as well as destructive of some noble things; and that no sect would live long, were it not for the sustaining power which it borrows from the influence of the truly great men who from time to time appear and lend their sanction to it. Haste the day when all religious sects shall be lost in a Christianized humanity! Many noble men, men of giant intellects and heaven-born charity, appear in this volume, and the record of their utterances and deeds cannot fail to interest and to bless. TWELVE MEDITATIONS AND TWELVE SPIRITUAL SONGS ON THE TWENTYTHIRD PSALM. By JAMES PATON, B.A. London: Passmore and Alabaster, 18 Paternoster Row. THIS is one of the best books we have seen on the 23rd Psalm: it is not only learned, but devout and tender. A SUGGESTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT, Part I, Romans. By REV. THOMAS ROBINSON. London: R. D. Dickenson, 73 Farringdon Street. MR. ROBINSON has followed very closely the plan of Van Doren. Though that plan is undoubtedly good, we think it capable of improvement in some important respects. We think, for example, that room should be left for a homiletic classification of the general truths of the passage explained. The author, however, seems to have done his work admirably, equal in every respect to his model. We trust that he will be encouraged to go on as he has begun; for works like these are of more value to preachers than cart-loads of elaborated sermons. LEAVES FROM THE TREE OF LIFE. By the Author of Divine Communion. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 27 Paternoster Row. THIS little volume contains thirty-three plans of sermons. We cannot recommend them as models. They contain, however, many good suggestions on the texts discussed. THIS TRANSITORY LIFE. BY REV. WILLIAM HUDSON. London: Elliot Stock, 62 Paternoster Row. AN excellent little work on the transitoriness of all human affairs. It is tender, truthful, and practical. BEN RHDDING. By JAMES BAIRD, B.A. London: A. G. Dennant, 34 Southampton Street, Strand. We recommend heartily all persons in search of health to read this very interesting work on the Amenities, Hygiene, and Therapeutics of Ben Rhydding. We have not the slightest doubt that if men whose health is beginning to fail were to resort to Ben Rhydding, they would get more good in a month than all the doctors in London could do them at all. Read the book. LOVE-LAND. And other Poems concerning Love. By WADE ROBINSON London: A. G. Dennant. As to Love-Land, it contains many fine conceptions of love, poured out in rolling melodies; indeed some of the parts of this book seem to be equal to the best poetry in our language on the subject. |