in Scotland was not altogether the direct result of its own strength or popularity, but was due quite as much to the conscientiousness-whether mistaken or not, is not the question-of the Nonjurors. If the descendants of these choose so to occupy themselves, an historical novel concerning the persecutions of the Scotch Episcopalians might be produced as favorable to them as this to the Covenanters, and with truth and justice on its side. There is in the last chapter a good deal of declamatory common-place about the Pope. The author lacks the dramatic faculty; he cannot transmigrate himself into the souls of others, think their thoughts, and burn with their passions. Dull sermons are bad enough, but dull tales must, with their leaden weight, sink oblivion-ward.

Iona is a compendium of the earlier history of Christianity in Scotland, characterized, we think, by a spirit of sober Protestantism, faithful presentation of facts, and fair literary execution.

THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES.

By ROBERT BUCHANAN, D.D.

Blackie and Son, Warwick Square.

THE twofold object of this volume, says the author, is sufficiently indicated by its title. The author has used his best endeavors to ascertain, in every instance, the true meaning of the text; and to show forth the grounds on which he has ventured, in any case, to differ from the generally received interpretation. The work is worthy of the learned and thoughtful author, and will be instructive to the Christian reader.

INDIA: ITS NATIVES AND MISSIONS. By the REV. GEORGE TREVOR, M.A., Canon of York. Religious Tract Society. Much information is here comprest within a small compass. Details are given respecting varieties of race, history and religions; and particular prominence is given to the subject of Christianity in India, from the settlement of that curious body, the Indian Syrian Church, down to the various Protestant Missions. Of the importance of these topics, independently of fitful popular interest, there can be no question. It is the duty of every Englishman to familiarize himself and his children with such knowledge as this book imparts.-THE COMING OF CHRIST IN HIS GLORY. BY THOMAS COLEMAN. Judd and Glass. That Christ "shall come from heaven to judge the quick and the dead," has been in all ages an article of the Catholic faith. But, from the days of Justin downward, there have been some, who, without on that account incurring the charge of heresy, have widely differed from the majority of their fellow-christians as to the circumstances of the Second Coming. Like this writer, in their expectations we do not share; thinking them inconsistent with the results of trust

worthy Biblical interpretation, and with a profound appreciation of the essence and power of Christian truth. Agreement with the sentiments of the book is then one ground of our satisfaction with it; another, the ability and sober devoutness with which those sentiments are set forth from Holy Scripture.-THE GIANT'S ARROWS. A Book for the Children of Working People. By J. ERSKINE CLARKE, M.A. Bell and Daldy. This title will be explained by referring to the Prayer Book version of Ps. cxxvii. 5. The little book is very original, and achieves with the apparent ease, and perhaps the real labor, of art, the difficult task of arresting and sustaining interest in children. It is perhaps as much adapted for children in general as for the children of any particular class. We have commended the "Word to the arrows about themselves" to our own tolerably full quiver; and, though ignorant till now that we had a right to the name, we will endeavor to take to heart the "Word to the Giants about their Arrows."-Mr LIBRARY. BY REV. D. J. EVANS. London: Yates and Alexander. The Author introduces us to a splendid library, of which all books elsewhere are mere translations This lecture has the originality of genius, the style of culture, and the thoughts of a well-furnished, vigorous, and independent mind. Let every young man read it.— THE POPE'S DREAM: A TALE OF THE LOWER REGIONS. BY THOMAS PLUMMER. Judd and Glass, New Bridge Street. This small poem, whilst it is very original in conception, breathes many a lofty sentiment, and contains no small amount of poetic beauty and power. LAYS OF THE SANCTUARY AND OTHER POEMS. Compiled by G. S. DE M. Rutherford. Published by Hamilton, Adams and Co., 33, Paternoster Row. This volume contains many scores of short, and charming, poems by various authors. Some of the poets rank amongst the most distinguished writers of the age. The skilful and generous compiler devotes the proceeds of the work to the use of an excellent, needy, and aged lady. It is a beautiful volume. HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS. By JOHN DAWSON HULL, B.A. Ward and Co, 27, Paternoster Row. Though we cannot say much for the poetry of this book, we can commend heartily the devout spirit, and the enlightened piety, which are manifested in every hymn and song.-CARPENTER'S ENGLISH SYNONYMS. By the REV. W. WEBSTER, M.A. William Tegg, 85, Queen Street, Cheapside. The value of this book to all foreigners who are seeking a knowledge of our language, to all Pupil Teachers, and even to all literary men, must ensure for it an immense circulation.-THE BIBLE IN THE FAMILY. By EVAN EDWARDS. London: Hamilton, Adams and Co., 33, Paternoster Row. An excellent little book which it would be well for every member of every family to read.

A HOMILY

ON

The Fifth Saying of Christ on the Cross.

"I thirst."-John xix. 28.

HIS is the fifth utterance of our Lord on the Cross. The apostle John is the only one that has recorded these words. His tender spirit and loving heart instinctively led him to pay particular heed to all the words of his Lord and Teacher in His last agony. He watched with more than a brother's tenderness every expression of His hallowed countenance, and every indication of suffering would make an indelible impression on the tablets of his heart. The tremulous tones of His expiring voice never died away from his memory. He would hear them in the solitude of his island prison with the freshness of present reality, making him to forget his own sufferings in the infinitely greater sufferings of his exalted Saviour, whom he viewed as a Lamb slain.

This cry indicates the intense agony of His body. It comes next to the mysterious utterance that revealed to us the sufferings of His soul. We have endeavored to show from the Word of God that no mental distress and anguish could equal that state of agony which forced that cry from the depth of His soul. Now, the mental cloud has passed away. The sun shines again in the heavens, emblem of the restored light of His Father's face upon Him. The rocks and hills that had trembled like the leaves of the forest in a Vol. IX.

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tempest, are settled down as firm as ever on their ancient foundations. His mind has passed through the tempest. And now He is able to feel His bodily sufferings. So absorbed was His whole being in the spiritual sufferings, that He was unconscious, as it were, of physical sufferings until they had passed away. Now His attention is drawn to the terrible tortures of His body. They are so intense that He gives utterance to them in words of anguish, which excite a momentary compassion even in the hardened crowd that still linger to watch the gradual process of His death. “I thirst.” He, whose words had so often fallen on thirsty souls, like the dew-drops that moisten the parched earth in the heat of summer, is now dying in the agony of thirst. He, who sat at the well of Jacob, and offered water that would become a spring of eternal life in the soul that would accept it, is now dried up and burns with a fever, and cries out in His distress. “And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.” In Matthew and Mark the giving of the vinegar follows the cry of mental agony, but here in the account John gives we see that it was in consequence of the cry of thirst.

Let us observe :—

I. THE NATURE AND CAUSE OF THIS DISTRESSING THIRST. (1) Pathologists say that there is no bodily suffering so distressing as thirst; whether it arises from scarcity of water, as is the case with those who travel over arid and burning deserts, or whether it arises as the result of disease and suffering. In either case the agony is inexpressible. Those who have experienced it to this painful extreme, make use of thirst as a figurative expression for the most excruciating torments of which our physical nature is capable. It is on this principle that our Lord himself has represented the torment of the guilty and condemned in hell, as thirst. They cry out for a drop of water to cool their burning tongues, and

have it not. A brief period of intense thirst brought Samson, the most vigorous hero and the mightiest man, to weep and wail like a little child. To grapple with death is more desirable than to endure the parched lips, the burning throat, and the tongue cleaving to the roof of the mouth. Beneath the torturing power of thirst the sensibility of the body is not weakened but strengthened. Every nerve becomes as it were a red hot wire, vibrating with pain through every part of the body. Man will live for days without food and feel refreshed when his lips are moistened with a feather dipped in water, but in thirst there is no relief. Thus did our blessed Saviour endure this extreme thirst which cannot be described. He endured in His body as He had done in His soul the strongest, keenest, severest, sufferings that it is possible to inflict, or even to conceive.

(2) We wonder not that He cried out for thirst, when we consider the length of time that had elapsed since He tasted anything to eat or drink. The night had passed away and the day was now declining; He had been hurried to the house of Annas, then to the palace of Caiaphas, before the great council of the nation questioned and accused; then dragged before the Roman governor; after that taken to the house of Herod, who, exasperated by His quiet and patient bearing, clothed Him in a mock purple robe and sent Him back to Pilate, amidst the shouts and laughter of the crowd that followed Him. It was impossible according to the constitution of the human body, but that all this would produce painful thirst.

(3) No wonder that He thirsted when we think of the sufferings which He endured, and the treatment which He received at the hands of His tormentors. In the garden when the cooling shades of night were over Him, His sweat, like drops of blood, flowed to the ground. He was scourged, pressed upon by the crowd, made to carry His cross, and nailed upon it, and then left suspended for hours; His blood streaming from His hands and feet, and the burning rays of the sun coming down direct on His sacred head. His mind