Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

So far as this little book aims at this we can commend it, but we are not advonovels. We want sterner weapons than cates for attacking error by means of

these. We have read the tale with interest, though a young lady suddenly finding water-coloured sketches for sale in her sketch-book, and a piece of gold in the mud, to meet her present necesof fiction, though they are eminently so sities, are not incidents new to us in works in the matter-of-fact world in which we

Secular Annotations on Scripture Texts. | happiness involved in mixed marriages. By FRANCIS JACOX. Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row. OUR readers are perhaps acquainted with a popular dish which goes by the name of Irish stew," composed of a great variety of first-class ingredients strangely combined under one cover. Such is this book. With a text as a motto, the author has gathered from secular sources extracts to make a feast for his readers: Conceive of scraps of French, Greek, and Latin, interlarded with quotations from Shakspeare, and other ancient or modern poets, with here and there a slice from Charles Dickens, or some less famous novelist, all blended together with more or less of connection, and you behold the book.

[ocr errors]

A set of themes with fugue-like variations,
Of divers saws with divers applications,
Of texts with near and far-fetched annota-
tions."

Bible Lore. By Rev. J. COMPER GRAY.
Hodder & Stoughton, 27, Paternoster
Row.

Mr. GRAY has made himself so well
known as the author of valuable books
for teachers, that our readers will be
prepared to accept any production of
his pen without hesitation. All we
need to say is, that this book is equal

to his other works in interest and solid
matter.

Baptist History. By J. M. CRAMP,
D.D. Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster
Row.

A VALUABLE addition to our denomina-
tional literature. It is far more interest-
ing than a mere work of fiction, though
possibly we think that some of its pages
might be classed under that head. Fifty-
eight engravings render this edition
admirably adapted for a present to our
young folk, whose minds ought to be
well stored with the deeds and sufferings
of our holy ancestry.
For Conscience Sake.

London: John F. Shaw & Co., 48, Paternoster Row. WE deplore the tendency in the present day to ignore the scriptural injunction, which confines the marriage of believers to those "in the Lord," and we heartily support any attempt to point out the dangers to personal godliness and future

live. B.

Life Problems. By LEIGH MANN.
Hodder & Stoughton.

THERE is a weird power, and strange
but forced beauty, about these sermons.
The author dives deep, for he stirs up
the mud; he soars high, for he gets into
the clouds; and he wanders far, for he
loses himself in the wilds of specula-
tion. The theology is not that of the
Bible, as we read it; and the doctrines
of grace are strange subjects to the
author. We can suppose that to some
ears there are tones of the eternal
melodies" in this book, but if so they
are so mingled with discordant notes
of what we deem serious errors, that we
fail to catch the melody. They will
charm many, we have no doubt, but we
have no eyes but for the beauties of
truth. B.

The Theology of the New Testament.

By Rev. J. J. VAN OOSterzee.
Hodder & Stoughton, 27, Paternoster
Row.

A GOOD book, designed as a handbook
for Bible students, and quite worthy of
their attention. We of course demur
to the author's exposition of baptism.
He says, "Infant baptism is in Paul's
epistles just as little forbidden as en-
joined." Quite true, for he had no
commission to enjoin it, and no one
had then thought of it, so that there
was no need to suggest the error by con-
demning it. The author in the same
sentence says that he (Paul), how-
ever, lays evident stress upon the fact
that there is but one baptism, as there
is but one saving faith." So say we, and
we therefore keep to the immersion of
believers; and reject so different an or-
dinance as the "Rantising of Infants."

Anti-Nicene Library. Edinburgh: T. Hints and Helps for Parents and and T. Clarke.

Two more volumes of this very valuable series have come to hand, and we have done our best to read them, but find it hard work. We are disgusted with the childishness and the errors which are massed in the writings of these socalled Fathers of the church. Nevertheless we thank God for it, as it serves to set off the superior power and purity of Holy Writ. The change is as great when we pass from the apostolic epistles to these, as it must be for a lark to descend out of the bright, clear sunshine into a London fog. You drink in health in the one case and are stifled in the other. We are glad, however, to have these translations, and again

commend them to our readers. B. The Picture Gallery of the Nations. Religious Tract Society.

WE cannot imagine a more interesting or desirable book for a young person. Our advice to all our friends is, buy it, as it will suit everybody. Even romping Robert will be glad to read it, and it will keep him out of mischief and impart instruction about the peoples of the world in a way which is sure to be remembered. If this is not a royal road to learning, it is very like it, only perhaps a great deal better. The engravings are numerous and well executed,__quite deserving the name of the "Picture Gallery of the Nations."

Evidences of Christianity. By ALBERT BARNES. Blackie & Son, Paternoster Row.

ALL Sunday-school teachers know and esteem Albert Barnes, and any production of his pen will never want for volume before us is quite equal to the established reputation of the author. It is the first course of lectures delivered at a Theological Seminary, and a more valuable set we do not know. They are eminently interesting, and we have read them with unmingled satisfaction. The style is popular and yet scholarly; the matter full and varied, exhausting as far as the space permits the topics touched upon in the lecture. We hope that it will be read by thousands.

readers this side the Atlantic. The

Teachers. By J. GREEN. Hamilton, Adams & Co.

[ocr errors]

A VERY laudable attempt to introduce a book to meet deficiencies in Sundayschool teaching. Much of the advice is sound and practical. We wish that catechisms were more in use, and our young people's minds were more stored with hymns, and better still, with passages of Scripture; but we are not so sure that Dr. Watts' "Moral Songs are the best now available. The Sunday-school Union publishes notes which will be of more service to the country, as a whole, than these hints and helps. Rome and the Council. By FELIX A SEASONABLE book, written with all the BUNGENER. Hamilton, Adams & Co. vivacity of a Frenchman, and especially valuable as the utterance of one who has lived in the midst of popery in all its strangely mingled might and weakness. Here are many facts and cogent arguments, a capital quarry for lecturers and sermonisers, yielding ample materials for the skilled workman.

The Doctrine of the Atonement.

By

Rev. GEORGE SMEATON, D.D. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clarke.

THIS second volume completes the author's design, and is fully equal to the first one, which dealt with the doctrine been greatly profited by the masterly as expounded by our Lord. We have expositions of the apostles' sayings which this book affords. It is preeminently a work for thinkers, and our ministerial brethren will sit down to it as to a banquet, which will afford food for meditation through many days. The publisher's name is so complete a guarantee for the excellence of type, etc., that we need add nothing in its praise.

The Life of the Rev. Dan Taylor, a

Monograph By W. UNDERWOOD, D.D. President of Chilwell, College. Simpkin and Marshall.

SOME months ago we absorbed this book into our mental constitution and felt the better for it; we ought however to have commended the feast, but by some very accountable means we forgot to do so. When a man is beset by ten thousand cares he cannot but omit something.

[ocr errors]

their Maker, by the aid of these sweet familiar melodies.

In this little monograph we have the life of a plodding, persevering preacher of the word, whose personal influence and We find some old friends with new piety saved the General Baptist De- faces, in "Melodia Divina," in many cases nomination from utter destruction, and the names being altered, and the harraised upon the ruins which Unitarianism mony remodelled, we certainly do not had made, a noble and useful Christian see the necessity of this change in community. We belong to another nomenclature, and while the new arrangeschool of thought, but our General Bap-ments are sometimes corrections, they tist Brethren are so thoroughly evan- occasionally deprive an old friend of its gelical that our differences are lost in our best known features. Why this rage for unities. Dan Taylor will be better known re-harmonising where so little necessary? through this book,and better appreciated, Why not let us have our old tunes, as while the pains-taking author will gain we heard them and learnt them in our not a little in liter ry reputation; for it childhood? The diamond re-set may be is no small achievement to have cen- a trifle more brilliant, but always loses densed so much into such narrow space, something in the process of re-cutting. and yet to have avoided the disorderliness of overcrowding.

The Voice of Time, a word in season.
By JOHN STROUD. Cassell, Petter and
Galpin.

QUITE a little bijou in appearance. The
striking point in the book is that the au-
thor has endeavoured to associate certain
texts with the strike of the clock, and
has added some very fitting reflections
upon each of the twelve subjects for
meditation. When the clock strikes, I.
it says
"Watch;" II. "Fear not;" III.
“Lord, remember me;" IV. "Thy will be
done;" V. "Ye must be born again"
VI." Lo, I am with you alway;" VII.
"What must I do to be saved?" VIII.
"I go to prepare a place for you"
IX. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the
Life;" X. "What shall a man give in
exchange for his soul?" XI. "Believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved;" XII. "Now is the accepted
time; behold, now is the day of salva-
tion."

Melodia Divina. Comprising the most
popular Psalm and Hymn Tunes,
Chants, Anthems, &c., Edited by
JOSH. HART. Arrangement for voice
and Pianoforte or Harmonium, by
J. FAWCETT. London, F. Pitman, 20,
Paternoster Row, E.C.

CONTAINS many of the old tunes, which together with the elegant gilt cloth binding, and clear type, will be sure to recommend it to the public. As a companion to the Harmonium and Pianoforte it will doubtless induce many to spend much of their leisure time in praising

We recognise in the tunes now for the first time published, a certain appreciation of melody, so often slightingly have its weight in rendering them poptreated in modern psalmody, which will ular, but we feel obliged to take exception to some of the extraordinary melodies introduced, in which the constant use of minor divisions of time, long intervals, turn and runs, will in many cases require a fairly cultivated and flexible voice to render them. The adaptations from the great sacred masters seem profuse, even for a work like the present, and the frequent repetition of both tune and words declare" Melodia Divina" to belong to a class of sacred music ofa past day.—By a musical friend. Old Merry's Annual, 1871.

and Stoughton.

Hodder

WHAT a volume! A flower from the field of the cloth of gold. The outside reminds inside-well, we cannot give much of an us of Solomon in all his glory; as to the opinion, for we have some barrow-loads of volumes to try with our book-taster, but it seems to us that Old Peter Parley must have risen from the dead, or perhaps he never died at all, or more likely still, Old Merry is his first cousin. We are glad to learn that Old Merry's waistcoat grows bigger every year, but we hope he will pause in time lest he be mistaken for Falstaff. Try Banting, Mr. Merry.

"At Jesus' Feet" A series of papers on Christian doctrine, life and work. By R. C. MORGAN. Morgan & Chase. VERY good and gracious, but not very new or striking.

[blocks in formation]

training for the ministry, should they be called to it. With very great delight we took the chair at the annual meeting, when about seventy men were present, and we listened to about a dozen speeches from the men themselves. It was amusing to watch some of them try their wings, and yet delightful to see evidence of great power here and there. Some of our best men have come into the ministry out of these classes; while others are teachers in our schools, and some have risen to positions of importance in trade, and are now deacons of churches. Dear helpers, if you could have seen how your gifts to the College were training street-preachers, evangelists, teachers, and other workers, you would have been rewarded indeed.

V. F. is informed that the tales he has heard about us have not even a vestige of truth in them. We never said, "How is your poor soul?" by way of parody on "How are your poor feet?"-the story is a silly fabrication. "Hooks and eyes for believers" is a very old business, known and laughed at before we were born. We are quite willing to take our fair share of the current criticism allotted to public men, Sut we cannot help saying, that we very seldom read in print any anecdote connected with ourselves, which has a shade of truth in it. Old Joe Millers, anecdotes of Rowland Hill, Sydney Smith, and John Berridge, and tales of remotest and fustiest antiquity are imputed to us as they have been to men who went before, and will be to men who follow after. As a specimen of bare-face lying, we remember a person's declaring in a public room, that he saw us slide down the rail of our pulpit at Park-menced. street to illustrate backsliding, at a time when the pulpit was in the wall, and no stairs whatever existed. That very story had been told of Lorenzo Dow, many years before. On the whole, we are inclined to believe that the trade in falsehood is rather brisk, or so many untruths would not be manufactured.

A hopeful effort has been made to form a Baptist church in Barnet. Mr. Dickerson, whom we hope one day to receive into the College, is preaching there.

Our friends at Helston in Cornwall, are making a gallant effort to remove their debt. We wish them guidance in their time of need, and every possible success in the future.

One part of our College work is the maintenance of evening classes for young men in business, who there receive an education fitted to aid them in ordinary life, or to prepare them for a higher course of

A movement for preaching the gospel in Portslade, near Brighton, with the view of raising a Baptist church, has just com

We have spent much labour during the past six weeks in aiding the churches of the London Baptist Association to remove their debts, and we hope the ball once set rolling will not rest.

Our friends at Vauxhall chapel have done bravely. They have renovated and almost rebuilt their schools, which will now accommodate four hundred chi'dren. The schoolroom was re-opened December 6th. We understand that our friends have contributed so liberally, that with a little aid they would finish this admirable work without debt. We rejoice in the prosperity of our friend, Mr. Hearson.

On December 6th we preached the opening sermon of our new chapel for our es teemed elder, Mr. Field, in James' Grove, Peckham. A congregation was gathered by him in the Assemby Room of the Rosemary Branch Tavern; the friends have now removed to their new house. It

is an excellent building, but the debt is heavy. The dear brother who raised the cause has hitherto received no salary from the people, for he has been helped by us, but his people must soon maintain him, and, therefore, the sooner the debt is gone the better.

The next day we opened a new chapel for our dear brother, J. A. S., at Croydon. A very beautiful building it is inside. It will hold nearly six hundred persons, yet our beloved deacon, William Higgs, Esq., only received £1,300 for the whole erection. Our brother has gathered a good church, and everything about it locks brightly hopeful; he does not, however, relax his labours with us at Tabernacle.

the Christmas festival of the Orphanage, for which we and all the other boys return a thousand thanks.

In October last a testimonial was presented by the Elders' Bible Class and the Young Men's Society to their president, Mr. W. G. McGregor, one of the elders of the church. It consisted of three volumes of Dr. Kitto's Bible Dictionary, and a handsome Writing Desk. A small token of deserved esteem. This friend is president of both these institutions; and we can cheerfully recommend young men not otherwise occupied to unite with one or both of them.

Baptisms at Metropolitan Tabernacle by Mr. J. A. Spurgeon:-December 1st, Many kind friends have sent us gifts for twenty; 15th, eighteen.

Pastors' College, Metropolitan Tabernacle.

PRESIDENT-C. H. SPURGEON.-NUMBER OF STUDENTS, 85. Amount required for Students during the year, about £5,500; the rest will be devoted to building Places of Worship.

Statement of Receipts from November 20th, to December 19th, 1870.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Stockwell Orphanage.

Statement of Receipts from November 20th, to December 19th, 1870.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »