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not be very anxious about its ever being stolen, then; you need not put it under lock and key; there is not enough to tempt the devil himself to come and take it from you. A man who can keep his godliness to himself has so small a proportion of it, that it will be no credit to himself, and no blessing to other people. But you do sometimes, strange to say, meet with fathers who do not interest themselves in their children's salvation any more than they do about poor children in the back slums of St. Giles's. They would like to see the boy put out well, and they would like to see the girl married comfortably; but as to their being converted, it does not seem to trouble their heads. It is true the father occupies his seat in a place of worship, and sits down with a community of Christians; and he hopes his children may turn out well. They have the benefit of his hopes-certainly a very large legacy: he will no doubt when he dies leave them his best wishes, and may they grow rich upon them! He has never made it a matter of anxiety of soul, as to whether they shall be saved or not. Out upon such religion as that! Cast it on the dunghill; hurl it to the dogs; let it be buried like Koniah, with the burial of an ass; cast it without the camp, like an unclean thing. It is not the religion of God. He that careth not for his own household, is worse than a heathen man and a publican.

Never be content, my brethren in Christ, till all your children are saved. Lay the promise before your God. The promise is unto you and unto your children. The word does not refer to infants, but to children, grand-children, and any descendants you may have, whether grown up or not. Do not cease to plead, till not only your children but your great grand-children, if you have such, are saved. I stand here to-day a proof that God is not untrue to his promise. I can cast my eye back through four generations, and see that God has been pleased to hear the prayers of our grandfather's father, who used to supplicate with God that his children might live before him to the last generation, and God has never deserted the house, but has been pleased to bring first one and then another to fear and love his name. So be it with you and yours. In asking this you are not asking more than God has promised to give you. He cannot run back from his promise. He cannot refuse to give you both your own and your children's souls as an answer to the prayer of your faith. "Ah," says one, "but you do not know what children mine are." No, my dear friend, but I know that if you are a Christian, they are children whom God has promised to bless. "But they are such unruly ones, they break my heart." Then pray God to break their hearts, and they will not break your heart any more. "But they will bring my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave." Pray God then that he may bring their eyes with sorrow to prayer, and to supplication, and to the cross, and then they will not bring you to the grave. But," you say, "my children have such hard hearts." Look at your You think they cannot be saved: look at yourselves; he who saved you can save them. Go to him in prayer, and say, Lord, I will not let thee go except thou bless me;" and if thy child be at the point of death, and, as you think, at the point of damnation on account of sin, still plead like the nobleman, "Lord, come down ere my child perish, and save him for thy mercy's sake." O thou that dwellest in the highest heavens, thou wilt ne'er refuse thy people. Be it far from us to dream that thou wilt forget thy promise. In the name of all thy people we put our hand upon thy Word most solemnly, and pledge thee to thy covenant. Thou hast said thy mercy is unto children's children of them that fear thee and that keep thy commandments. Thou hast said the promise is unto us and unto our children; Lord, thou wilt not run back from thine own covenant; we challenge thy word by holy faith at this time, and plead with thee, saying, "Do as thou hast said."

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Reviews.

Traits of Character and Notes of Inci- | is evidently the settled conviction of

Ident in Bible Story. By FRANCIS Mr. Walker. He sets forth his own JACOX. Hodder and Stoughton. views with considerable power, but we THIS is the book from which we have cannot endorse them. We preach the made the long extract which closes our gospel to all mankind as freely as he first article. Mr. Jacox appears to does, but we hold the doctrines of elechave read through the Bodleian and tion and predestination most tenaciously, all other collections of books; he does and we are persuaded that he who fights not talk like a book, but like the against them goes to war with the word British Museum Library. He quotes of God. We do not believe that the far more from works of fiction than we wings of the angel of the church are like, but his gatherings upon the sub-pinioned by Calvinism; we might retort but we will not. jects which he takes up are quite marvellous. We do not know any books in modern times at all like Mr. Jacox's, they are unique; in fact, they are curiosities of literature. Spirituality we have not, but versatility, cleverness, research, and suggestiveness. The man must be a cyclopædia; we expect to come across him one day, and to find He him bound in cloth, lettered. ought to be in several volumes, but we suppose they are bound up in one thick royal octavo, and contain more matter than a hundred volumes of Dr. Going or Dr. Septimus Losequick. It is a literary treat to read such a work. The motto upon the frontispiece, odd as it is, is accurately descriptive :

"That from all books the Book of books
may gain

He mingle-mangles sacred and profane:
Quotes Swift with DANIEL; Byron with
SAINT PETER;

EZEKIEL with the English opium-eater:
Hood with HABAKKUK; Crabbe with
ZECHARIAH;

Landor with JOB; and Lamb with
JEREMIAH;

The prophet SAMUEL with 'his name-
sake Pepys;

Bunyan and Jean Paul with th' APOCA-
LYPSE;

King SOLOMON with Shakespeare, Scott,
Racine;

ESTHER with Edmund Spenser's Faery
Queene;

With MOSES. Dryden, Dante, Doctor
Donne;

'Accomplish'd St. John with divine
SAINT JOHN.".

Phases of Belief. By the Rev. JAMES
WALKER. Hamilton, Adams, and Co.
WE have no desire that our belief
should pass through that phase which

Light from Beyond to Cheer the Chris-
tian Pilgrim. By CUNNINGHAM
GEIKIE, D.D. Strahan and Co.
SOME thirty excellent sermonettes, with
a brief prayer or a piece of poetry at
the conclusion of each. We do not see
the appropriateness of the title, for
several of the brief discourses are of
a warning or hortatory character.
Much confusion arises from the absurd
practice of naming books of sermons
after the title of the first discourse. It
is not only an idle way of saving the
author the trouble of seeking out a
fitting title, but it misleads the public.
In the present case the error is less
glaring than in any other we have met
with, but we mean to protest against the
practice in every case until it is dropped.
We have much pleasure in commend-
ing both the matter and manner of Dr.
Geikie's book.

Christian Edification; The Sheltering
Blood, or the Sinner's Refuge. By
W. POOLE BALFERN, author of
Glimpses of Jesus." Passmore &
Alabaster.

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MR. Balfern is issuing in monthly papers, price two-pence, a work which aims to show the way of peace, and to unmask false theories of the Atonement. He always writes well. As an author he is not of the flimsy school, but thinks out his subjects, and is not afraid of the deep things of God. Experience has also its due place in his testimony, and the whole is perfumed with love to "the Master." We wish him much success in this new work.

Some Present Difficulties in Theology: | The Oxford Methodists. By Rev. LUKE being Lectures to Young Men, delivered at the English Presbyterian College, London. With Preface by the Rev. J. OSWALD DYKES. Hodder and Stoughton.

Messrs. Dykes, Lorimer, Gibb, and Chalmers have done their work well, and we doubt not that many young men will be the better for studying these defences of the outposts of the faith which is now so fiercely assailed on all sides. We are not, however, sure that anybody comes to faith, or is strengthened in faith, by these dis

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cussions of difficulties: we admit their usefulness, but there is a more excellent way. The Holy Ghost is the best witness to the truth of Christianity, and his present works among are the most convincing evidences. Feel his power, and doubts vanish; preach Christ in his power, and tics believe. All else may be good, very good, but short of the mark. We do not say this to depreciate this particular work, which is admirable, but we are alluding to the whole class of treatises of this order; they are more numerous than effectual, and the time and power spent upon them might, we think, be better applied in other directions.

The Christian's Diary: Comfort of the Scriptures for the Young and Old. By Dr. J. T. LOTH. Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.

ANOTHER of those birthday text-books which young people are so fond of. It is neatly got up.

"She Spake of Him," being recollections of the loving labours and early death of the late Mrs. Henry Dening. By her friend, Mrs. GRATTAN GUINNESS. Book Society, 28, Paternoster Row. A GLORIOUS life well told, its perusal will stimulate and encourage. Mrs. Dening's blessed irregularity as a woman preacher seems to us to be no more censurable than Deborah's prophesying. The rule, so far as we are concerned, is that men only should preach; but God is bound by no rules, and may employ a woman if he wills, as he certainly did employ Mrs. Dening.

TYERMAN. Hodder & Stoughton. A VOLUME of great historical value and rare interest. We merely mention it now for the benefit of all book-lovers, but we hope to review it at length at our earliest possible convenience. Mr. Tyerman is doing grand service to Methodist history. Perhaps if his works were not quite so full, and therefore lengthened, he would command more readers; still it is well to have such a work done thoroughly.

Pisgah Views; or, the Negative Aspects of Heaven. BY OCTAVIUS WINSLOW, D.D. Shaw & Co.

NOTHING very striking or instructive, but very good and sound. Thousands of good people are comforted and edified by Dr. Winslow's numerous works, and "Pisgah Views" will be valued by

them as all the rest have been. The

Doctor's works appear to us to be admirably adapted for evening reading for persons suffering from sleeplessness. Lives of the British Reformers from

Wickliffe to Foxe. New and revised edition. Religious Tract Society. ACCORDING to the public declarations of certain divines of the present Church of England the Reformers were monsters of iniquity. We wonder that the church whose bread these traitors eat should be so fettered as to be unable to uproot such ill weeds and fling them over her wall. If any man had prophesied fifty years ago that clergymen of the Anglican Church would be allowed to abuse her founders he would have been laughed at as imbecile. The present volume deserves an extensive circula

tion, and will do much to strengthen Protestant principles. We must, however, confess that we cannot away with Cranmer, let his life be written how it may. When he burned his right hand and called it unworthy, we think he was very correct in his judgment. Had it not been for the undoubted faith which was manifest in his death, we should have questioned his piety altogether If he, and such as he, had let the Reformation alone, and allowed it to run on to its honest issues, we should not now have been plagued with this idolatrous ritualism.

thians II. By ADOLPH SAPHIE. Nisbet and Co.

The Enlarged London Hymn Book. | Christ Crucified: Lectures on 1. CorinEdited by C. R. H. Shaw and Co. WE commended the "London Hymn Book" as a very useful little collection for special services, and we are glad to see that four hundred thousand of it have been issued. We do not know what particular sphere the Enlarged book will be likely to fill, for by this time most churches have their own hymn book, but it is a good collection and likely to be popular. Some of the hymns we suppose have special tunes to them, and are endeared by their use at revival meetings, otherwise we do not see why they were inserted. We are not at all apprehensive that it will rival "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK;" it is a different kind of book, and in its own way a very good one.

The Missionary Work of the Church;
its Principles, History, Claims, and
present Aspects. By W. H. STOWELL,

D.D. Revised and enlarged by Rev.
E. STORRON. Snow and Co.

A WORK greatly needed. Missionary
zeal burns low just now, and such a
treatise is adapted to stir the fire. It
appears to us to be well and fervently
written, and to strike the nail on the
head.

MR. SAPHIR has a refined and deeply spiritual mind. He deals with both the roots and fruits of truth, digging deep and yet blossoming out. His theology is soundly evangelical, but it does not lead him into the wearisome platitudes of the common run of evangelical writers; he looks at things with his own eyes, a rather rare thing nowadays, and then he speaks about them with that childlike simplicity which seems to be the natural accompaniment of sublime truth when it is loved as well as taught. We consider these Lectures to be a valuable commentary, and shall value them as a noble addition to our stores of exposition. The Praise Book. By the Rev. W. REID. Nisbet & Co.

for hymn-book makers. Many of the A VAST Collection of hymns. A mine hymns are very beautiful, but others are theological doggrel, and we hope will never be sung; indeed, they are made according to no measure known among common mortals, and must be sung to tunes of their own. The book as a collection of religious poetry is unique, and has a value all its own.

Notes.

WE joyfully record the wonderful help which the Lord has sent us towards the erection of our new College Buildings. We greatly needed them, or we would not have set about them. Many large contributions have been sent, and among them a bank note for £1,000 from an unknown donor, whom we hereby thank from the bottom of our heart. If the £1,000, which the students are trying to raise should all come to hand, we shall not need more than another £4,000 to complete the buildings, buy the ground, and furnish the rooms. If every reader of the magazine and sermons, would do us the personal favour of sending something the work will be achieved more easily than anything else we have ever undertaken, for which the Lord's name be praised. As yet the Tabernacle friends have not come forward in any number, but the

deacons are leading the way right generously, and the whole sum will be raised readily. We rejoice thus to see the love of our friends made manifest in aiding our life-work.

Our health has been very precarious, for we have been exhausted by May meetings; but just now we are in better condition, though quite unable to preach in a tenth of the places to which we are invited.

We have received letters from our two brethren in Spain, who are now moving to Madrid. We will write them when we have their address.

We have also a cheering letter from Mr. Groombridge in China; and have a valuable paper on China from Mr. Harvey, which came too late for this month.

We are glad to hear of the success of Mr. H. C. Field at Newcastle-under-Lyne;

he deserves the aid of all friends in that region.

Mr. Tydeman has had a very interesting service of recognition at Devonport.

At Melton Mowbray and Maidenhead new chapels have been opened with encouraging services.

Mr. Collins at Penge has had a happy anniversary service. Friends are working hard to purchase the freehold of the chapel, and deserve liberal aid.

Our beloved brother Banks at Jarrow is labouring, and the divine blessing is with him. He needs a chapel. The friends have raised about £600, and have a promise from Geo. Angus, Esq., that if they can raise £950 by January, 1874, he will make it £1,000. They could then proceed. Every month's delay is injurious to them, and also increases the cost at which the chapel will be built. God's cause here needs liberal aid.

We shall proceed with the enlargement of the Orphanage during the month of June. The boys are in good health,

and the Lord graciously sends means for their support. The summer months are dull times for donations, but we hope that our friends, knowing this, will not allow us to run high and dry this year as we did last. We hope to be saved all necessity of any special appeals for the current expenses.

Letters have come to hand from Mr. Griffin of Zanesville, Mr. Hibbert of Woolloomooloo, Mr. Dyke of Toronto, and others; to whom we will reply as soon as possible.

Mr. Orsman acknowledges the receipt of the munificent donation of £1,000 for the Golden Lane Mission, from "An Unknown Friend," a reader of our magazine. Ad donor! Mr. Orsman has a number of A

thousand blessings rest on this friend

the illustrated annual reports, entitled, "After Office Hours," and will be happy to send them to any address free of charge. Baptisms at Metropolitan Tabernacle by Mr. J. A. Spurgeon: — April 28th, sixteen; May 1st, seven.

Pastors' College, Metropolitan Tabernacle.

Miss Burgoyne Misses Dian-field Charlotte Ware

Mr. J. Neal...

Mr. Stiff

Statement of Receipts from April 20th to May 19th, 1873.

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Messrs. Hitchcock, Williams and Co. Mr. J. Beardsley

Per Mr. Mounsey:

Mr. James Houghton

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Stockwell Orphanage.

Statement of Receipts from April 20th to May 19th, 1873.

A. G., a Friend

Boxes at Tabernacle Gates

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