distillation there remains in the retort a liquid known as Vinasse. It was until lately wasted; but it contains salts of potash, and is now utilized to obtain these. The vinasse is evaporated to dryness and burned, and the ash is known as salin, rich in compounds of potassium; and by this means two thousand tons of carbonate of potash are produced by the French distilleries.

But this is not all. There is yet a residual matter, some of which is nitrogenous. During the calcination of the dried vinasse the organic matter is decomposed, leaving a porous carbonaceous mass associated with the mineral residues. If this be subjected to destructive distillation in iron retorts, the volatile products of the decomposition may be secured just as in the process of gas making. On condensing these products they are found to be mainly tarry and ammoniacal liquors. But the ammonia water obtained during distillation of the vinasse-ash contains, among other products, large quantities of the salts of a substance known as trimethylamine; and upon the presence of this, the new manufacture is based. It was discovered thirty years ago, and is one of the compound ammonias: that is, a gaseous compound of nitrogen and hydrogen. Ammonia may have one of its hydrogen atoms (in combination) replaced by an organic radical like methyl, thus we get methylamine. Then a second atom of hydrogen may be replaced by methyl, and thus a body is formed which is termed dimethylamine.Finally, the last atom of hydrogen may be replaced by this radical, and in this way is formed trimethylamine. This has been looked upon merely as a chemical rarity, and even now it has no industrial value; but it has been found that its hydrochlorate may be easily decomposed by heat into free ammonia (a very useful product), free trimethylamine and

chloride of methyl. This chloride is a combustible gaseous body easily condensed into a mobile liquid, and capable of preparation to any required amount. The interesting feature of this substance is that it is a powerful refrigerating agent. By rapid evaporation of the condensed liquid a very great reduction of temperature is produced; and as the liquid is neither poisonous nor corrosive, it may prove of very great importance in a commercial sense. Already M. Vincent has produced a refrigerating apparatus which is practically a freezing machine, in which, by the evaporation of chloride of methyl, as low a temperature as fifty-five degrees Centigrade below the freezing point may be obtained-a temperature below the freezing point of mercury.

The uncertainty of any calculations at present made as to the actual age of the world is constantly manifest by the conflict of conclusions drawn by the Physicists on the one hand, and the Biologists and Geologists on the other. It is instructive to note the nature of the calculations made very recently by a Geologist distinguished for such reasoning and conclusionsMr. Millard Reade. In a paper contributed to the Royal Society, heestimates the age of the world as enormously in excess of the limits assigned by the Physicists, and allows ample time for the production of all the changes of the organic and inorganic world postulated by the theory of evolution. Limestones, he remarks, have been in course of formation from the earliest known geological periods; but it would appear that the later formed strata are more calcareous than the earlier, and that there has, in fact, been a gradually progressive increase of calcareous matter. The very extensive deposition of carbonate of lime over wide areas of the ocean-bottom at the present day is attested by the soundings of the Challenger. Ac

Epistles to the Corinthians as the index of his power. Exegesis is not Mr. Brooks' taste, so it is not likely to be his forte. To him the Bible is a book of mottoes: a text is a thing to be talked about, in as ethical, interesting, able and generally pleasing and profitable a manner as possible. He usually shows an utter indifference to the context, and does not much trouble himself with correlating the saying of the sacred writer which he has chosen as the basis or starting-point of his remarks with the other utterances of the same inspired writer. The frequent result of this is that some secondary truth is thrust into the foreground, whilst the primary teaching of the passage is either cast into the shade or lost sight of altogether. This is glaringly the case in his otherwise very edifying and, of course, very striking Good Friday Sermon on: Then were there two thieves crucified with Him,' and 'I am crucified with Christ.' In treating of the latter text, the truths which were uppermost in St. Paul's own mind, at the time when he first spoke and then wrote those words (as is clear from the immediately preceding verses); the spiritual facts which were always uppermost and most influential, as proved from the whole tenor of his writings -namely, the substitutionary scrifice of Christ and justification by faith in Himthese are conspicuous by their absence. Now it must be seen at once that this is

gravely wrong. In the first place, it is, from a merely literary and critical point of view, leaving out of sight the authoritative inspiration of St. Paul, an altogether indefensible misrepresentation of St. Paul's real views and sentiments. Mr. Brooks professes to be giving St. Paul's views and sentiments; in reality and in effect, he is paring down both the teaching and the experience of St. Paul to make it fit into the mental preferences and moral aesthetics of the Rev. Phillips Brooks and his Boston audience. Moreover, this is a most griev ous practical mistake for a sincere and earnest Preacher to be betrayed into by intellectual self-indulgence-a man with an obvious and intense desire to be really helpful to his hearers in striving to be and do what they ought to be and do. The simple and robust believer cannot but feel how much more powerful, how much more real, all this fine Christian sentiment would be, if it were vitally connected with the revealed verities with which it was associated in the mind and the personal experience of St. Paul. A diluted Gospel is an enfeebled Gospel. If Divine truth be first maimed and then crutched by a speculative, self-evolved, self-pleasing dogmatism or doubtingness, it is, perforce, crippled, both on the march and in the field of fight.

Hence the silver trumpet which Mr. Brooks puts to his muscular and skilful lips too often gives an uncertain sound,' which cannot but bewilder the man who is summoned to prepare himself to the battle' with evil, error, denial, and doubt. The evil spirit will not heed the most exquisite minstrelsy, if incertitude makes 'a rift in the lute,' so that neither the patient, in his paroxysm, nor the fiend in his fury, can know what is piped or harped.' Mr. Brooks-athlete as he is sometimes, happily not often, so fights as one that beateth the air'; strikes blindly and confusedly right and left, as if he could not clearly make out whether the form before were a friend or a foe. Aggressive, dogmatizing doubt seems to him to come in 'such a questionable shape,' that he must challenge it with the demand, 'Be'st thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned?'

Our readers must not for a moment suppose that these strictures apply to all, or even to most, of these remarkable discourses. More than one-third of the book is read before the slightest misgiving is aroused as to the completeness or the firmness of the Preacher's faith in the Scriptures, or the absoluteness of his deference to them. The first apprehension is awoke by a faintly-hinted, airily-syllabled universalism. This finds less indistinct articulation in the antepenultimate sermon, that from: Brethren, the time is short,' where the indefinite prolongation of life as a term of probation and a season of salvation after bodily death, is regarded as quite an open question in Christian theology. The obvious fact that this, to say the least, greatly enfeebles both the argument and the appeal of the Apostle, does not disconcert Mr. Brooks at all, but we wonder he does not feel its weakening effect even on his own reasonings and admonitions. How nebulous in his theological system, if he have a theological system at all, are some of the grand, stupendous, basal truths of Christianity is shown in his sermon for Trinity Sunday, where, after stating his views of the doctrine of the Trinity, he adds: 'To other worlds of other needs, and so of other understandings (for our needs are always the avenues for our intelligence), other sides of the personal force of the Divine life must have issued.' If this do not mean that other Persons in the Trinity besides the Son and the Spirit, or instead of the Son and the Spirit, must have issued' 'to other worlds,' we cannot make out its relevancy or its signification in this connection.

The first two sermons-on The Purpose and Use of Comfort; and on The Withheld Completions of Life-are very touching

and consolatory; the third-on The Conqueror from Edom-is grandly dramatic. But the best sermon in this volume is the fourth, on Keeping the Faith. We wish this could be separately printed and circulated by thousands. Strangely enough, the weakest discourse is that on The Present and Future Faith. One could hardly believe the two to have been written by the same man, in however different moods. Alas for the Church and the World if the Future Faith is to be the result of the cession as debatable ground-the not keeping so many integral portions of Divine Revelation! The sermons on The Man with one Talent and on Unspotted from the World, are very useful.

Mr. Brooks' sermons are the opposite of commonplace. Indeed, they sometimes seem to manifest an avoidance of the ordinary, natural, straightforward mode of treating a text. The talent they exhibit fully accounts for and justifies the high reputation of their author, who is, we understand, recognized as the ablest Preacher in the American Episcopal Church. On this account we the more regret the defects which we have felt bound to point out. There is a tinge of Emersonian transcendentalism here and there which does not render more vivid the presentation of the truth. How recklessly loose, to speak mildly, is such a statement as this from the pen of an eminent Christian teacher: 'Shelley, who tried so hard to be heathen, and would still be Christian in his own despite'! We assume that all Mr. Brooks means by this startling sentence is that, rabid blasphemer and fanatical God-hater as Shelley took good care that all the world should know him to be, he yet could not help occasionally giving utterance to a sentiment much more befitting a Christian than a heathen. But what an unwarrantable and misleading mode of saying this! If the best mode of treating fastidious intellectualism is to humour it, then Mr. Brooks has hit upon the right way of dealing with it.

Moreover, the Preacher protrudes the Incarnation to the displacement of the atoning Sacrifice of Christ, and insists on His life to the obscuring of His death. Mr. Brooks has published a very attractive and suggestive volume on Preaching, in which he rightly makes Truth the first requirement in preaching. But, what is the practical use of this axiom unless we are sure of the source and standard of Truth? If an eloquent Preacher-and if one, then of course every such Preacher-be competent to modify or supersede the doctrines of Scripture, then Truth becomes as multiform, unauthoritative and uncertain as error. We are sorry to be obliged to

make strictures on a writer to whom we are indebted for so much consolation, admonition and edification.

The Connexional Economy of WesleyanMethodism in its Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Aspects. By James H. Rigg, D.D., Author of Modern Anglican Theology,' etc. London: Published for the Author, at the Wesleyan Conference Office.-As the General Preface states, 'This volume is mainly a republication'; and very useful and timely it is. The first tractate: Congregational Independency and Wesleyan Connexionalism Contrasted-must ever hold a high rank in the Library of Wesleyan Apologetics. Its polemic character is due, not in any wise to the taste or temper or habitudes of the author, but to the memorable, we might say historic, occasion of its first appearance. During the terrible paroxysm of 1849, some eminent Congregationalists seized the opportunity to attack the basal principles of Methodism in the most resolute, sometimes in the most virulent manner. One of the most distinguished Congregationalist Ministers, at a great meeting in the West Riding of Yorkshire, declared with exultation, The Church of England is tottering to its fall; Methodism is already in ruins, and there will soon be an open field for Congregationalism.

The voice is Richard, Duke of Gloucester's voice, in view of the death of his two brothers:

'Clarence hath not another day to live: Which done, God take King Edward to His mercy,

And leave the world for me to bustle in,'

We will not name the men who, Edom-like, took advantage of our troubles : 'Their pens are rust, Their bones are dust,

to

Their souls are with the saints, we trust.' We recall the unwelcome recollection only to account for and vindicate the severity with which our author exposes the unscripturalness of the Independent theory of Church Government, and the weakness and unprofitableness thereof for all the highest purposes of a Church. To call this exposure trenchant were use a very tame expression; it is terrible. Yet the moderation and candour of the book are equal to its fearlessness and force. As Dr. Rigg nought extenuates, so he sets down nought in malice. But the discomfiture he inflicts is utter. He smites Independency hip and thigh; finds out every vulnerable point, and pounds the whole fabric into fragments. But if

polemics are forced upon a peaceable people, the more vigorous, thorough, resolute, the better. It is of no use going to war'in kid gloves.' We do not commit ourselves to the Doctor's precise view of every text on which he comments. We think he yields too much to Dr. Wardlaw, as to the radical meaning of the word Ecclesia. We cannot, again, see how our Lord's directions with regard to him who 'will not hear the Church, could refer originally' to the Jewish synagogue, since that was clearly not gathered together in Christ's name. Nor does the Doctor, as it seems to us, allow sufficient weight to the fact that the exclusion of the immoral Corinthian was by St. Paul required to be done by the Church in a formal and 'regular' manner.

Dr. Rigg demonstrates that Congregational Independency can only secure mutual help and united action amongst its isolated 'independent' Churches by forsaking its fundamental principles in favour of the Connexional principle. Happily, this is being done to a gradually increasing extent. Independency is Connexionalizing itself -paradoxical and self-contradictory as the very phrase may be-and that with the best results. Clusters of dependent Causes or interests' gather round the strong, rich Churches. Committees, to all intents and purposes, Connexional Committees are being formed. Departments, practically Connexional, are invested with extensive powers of general administration. The formation of dual-Churches in the same town, with a co-pastorate and regular exchange of ministrations, has been attempted, in one case at least with success, though in another with failure. All this we note not twittingly, but thankfully. We confidently hoped that mutual oversight as to Christian doctrine had been initiated by the Congregational Union, so that its 'Doctrinal Basis' should not be altogether a dead letter. The exclusion from the Union of some very able Preachers who attack that doctrinal basis, and in fact preach downright unbelief, seemed to indicate as much, if the significance of the act could be inferred from the course of the discussion; but we are sorry to find The Congregationalist earnestly repudiating this idea, and maintaining stoutly that the disbelieving Ministers were shut out on a mere technicality.

Dr. Rigg's volume is much more than a defence it is also a lucid exposition of the principles on which Methodism is based, or rather out of which it grew,which every one who wishes to understand Methodism would do well to study. The additional paragraphs, the chapters on the Class-Meeting, etc., and Dr. Rigg's Presi dential speech at the first sitting of the

first Representative Conference-most appropriately introduced-add great value to the work. The chapter on the Test of Membership is of special force and value.

Priestcraft and Progress; being Sermons and Lectures. By Stewart D. Headlam, B.A., late Curate of Bethnal Green. London: John Hodges.-The title of this book would lead one to expect an attack upon Priestcraft as a hindrance to Progress. We find instead a defence of Priestcraft as the legitimate pioneer of Progress! But by Priestcraft Mr. Headlam means the craft, or work, which a Priest ought to follow, and refuses to admit into the word any admixture of ecclesiastical craftiness. It is not quite so clear what he means by Progress. The direction he thinks Progress should take is towards Secularism! but he does not indicate either the exact route or the exact goal. The peculiarity of the book is its attempt to ally Ritualism and Secularism. We have as little sympathy with, or faith in, the one as in the other; and the two together make a strange compound. Yet the process by which they have come to lie side by side in Mr. Headlam's mind is very plain. The writer of these sermons and lectures believes the doctrines of Ritualism. Being thrown amongst the poverty-stricken population of the East-end of London, he has learnt to compassionate their woes, and has grown indignant with Society that quietly permits them. He has had free intercourse with working men who have adopted socialistic or semi-socialistic opinions, and sympathy with their miseries has developed into sympathy with their tenets. To win them from dark infidelity he has tried to accommodate religion to their prejudices. So he teaches the baldest possible Universalism; advo cates the reading of secular books in Sunday-schools, that the Bible may gain no unfair advantage over them, but may stand upon its own merits; surrenders the inspiration of the Scriptures, except in the same sense as, though to a higher degree than, Plato and Shakespeare may claim be inspired. Preaching on Sunday evening from: Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh,' he thinks be expresses St. Paul's meaning when he urge his congregation to attend science and ar classes. Yet all the while he propounds ex ceedingly 'high' doctrine as to the priest hood and the sacraments, or rather that the Lord's Supper. He never wearies telling his audience that it is Christ, not the Bible, he recommends, though he does no show how, when he has thrown overboard the New Testament, he can establish the existence and display the teaching of the