laid on our table from time to time. The one before us is admirable. The author informs us that his object in this work has been to furnish an exposition of the parable, which should be intelligible to persons without much education, and explain the real difficulties which the parable represents. He has attained his purpose. Whilst the little volume indicates the cultured thinker in every page, and whilst its logical channels are filled with flowing thoughts, that sometimes surge with mental grandeur; the whole lies within the intellectual compass of all. The author never bounds into those cloudy regions of grand words and misty speculations, at which the common intellects look up in wonder, but despair to reach. THE TWO SERMONS of the same author we have read with considerable interest. They contain much, but suggest more.

MODERN STATESMEN; or, Sketches from the Strangers' Gallery of the House of Commons. By EWING RITCHIE. London: William Tweedie.

MOST of our leading modern statesmen are here photographed by the light of the author's genius. Whilst we agree, generally with the writer's judgment upon the mind, character, oratory and political influence of the modern statesman, we are by no means at one with him in some of the political sentiments. He who procures this book is sure to read it through, and that with interest. The sketches are short, graphic, and often brilliant; set off by many telling illustrations, indicating an extensive general reading. Mr. Ritchie only requires an audience to be heard with unflagging interest. He is never dull. He is always smart, intelligent, and genial.

A BOOK FOR THE SORROWFUL; or, Divine Truth in its Relation to Human Suffering. By the Rev. Edmund HeyнOOD. London: Judd and Glass.

THIS book has impressed us with two thoughts :-First: That Providence can inflict no wound upon the human soul that Christianity cannot heal. With admirable skill has Mr. Heyhood shown that the Bible has a balm for every wound; and with the delicate tenderness of one who has passed through the refining school of affliction, does he administer the antidotal element. The other thought with which this work impresses us is, that the book that does well a needful work for humanity, will live. Since the first edition of this work was published, many thousand volumes of various authors have appeared on the sea of literature, and were only launched to sink. It is truly humbling to the vanity of human genius to think upon the literary barques of all sizes, some grand and gorgeous in their aspect, that

"Float a moment and are seen no more."

What adds to the humility is, that but few of the vast fleets sink from

force of outward tempests, but either because they are too light or to leaden. The few books that survive are generally books that are fitted to meet the pressing wants of man. Such is the little work before us. Humanity has its sorrows, it needs consolation, the work that will minister most effectively to this need will live the longest. In all sincerity we say we know of no work, taken as a whole, that will serve the purpose so completely as the one before us. Anyhow, it is the one we shall commend to the sorrowful; and when trial comes to us, as come it must, it is the one next to the we shall seize unless-which is not likely—a better comes. SPECIMENS, WITH MEMOIRS OF THE LESS-KNOWN BRITISH POETS. With an introductory, by the Rev. GEORGE GILFILLAN, Vol. III Edinburgh: James Nichol.

Bible that

HERE are the remaining two volumes of the less-known British Poets. The three volumes contain specimens of almost all the authors whose writings were at any time appreciated. Never before, as we know, was there so much of deeply interesting matter in the biography and creation of poets, brought within such a narrow space. Here within the covers of three volumes, in large type and on excellent paper, you have upwards of one hundred of comparatively unknown British poets. Not a few of those are entitled to rank with the most illustrious of the departed sons of song. We thank the accomplished Editor, and his enterprising Publisher, for introducing to our library such hosts of long-forgotten bards, whose varied strains have charmed away many a gloomy thought, and stimulated to many a mental feat. The man who keeps these British poets out of his house in this prosaic age, when genius is rare, and when its fires go off in the smoke of commerce, does himself and family an injustice. THE BUNCH OF KEYS. "A Christian Review" for the People, conducted by the Rev. WILLIAM KNOX. London: Elliot Stock. This is a new serial, and we welcome it with a brother's grasp. We like the name. A good name is a rich dowry to any periodical. May the keys never rust, and may they unlock those gates of ignorance, prejudice and selfishness, that exclude the millions from the true, the virtuous, and the useful! The first number of a periodical is generally poor compared with its successors. How different, for example, was the first number of the Dial to its matchless merits at the present moment, when the first literati in the kingdom are enriching its pages with their contributions! The first number of the Homilist will not bear comparison with the last. There is a resolve, a muscle and an adroitness in this new comer, which we like much, and which fit it for signal service in the great cause of human progress.

A HOMILY

ON

The Peculiarities of Christ's Manhood.

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham."Heb. ii. 14-16.

HESE passages occur in the conduct of an argument, on the superiority of the Christian dispensation to the Jewish economy. The object of the apostle in establishing this point was, to guard the Hebrew converts against defection from Christianity, and relapsing into Judaism. Of this they were in danger. For it is evident, from the apostle's reasoning, that a disparaging comparison has been instituted between the Jewish and Christian dispensations, and to the prejudice of the latter. The unbelieving Jews urged as an objection to the claimed and alleged pre-eminence of the gospel economy, that its founder was inferior to the angels by whose "disposition the law had been given on Sinai." Their premises the apostle denies, and as a matter of necessity their inference. The first chapter of the Epistle is devoted to an enumeration of several important particulars, which prove the superiority of Christ to angels, and which,

VOL. X.

L

at the same time, establish, on the opponents' own grounds of reasoning, the pre-eminence of the new dispensation. The principal argument for the pleaded inferiority of Christ to angels seems to have been the fact that He was a man. This fact the apostle concedes, but denies the conclusion they drew from it-that it affected the higher and superseding qualities claimed for the Christian economy. Human nature in the person of the Messiah, he represents as being raised to a position of greater elevation and authority in the superintendence of the new dispensation, styled by the writer "the world to come," than the angels ever occupied, as internuncios, under the old; and that the circumstance of Christ's having "partaken of flesh and blood," far from being an objection of the validity and tendency they supposed, was absolutely necessary in order to enable Him to die and make atonement for the sins of mankind, and intimately connected with His elevation to glory.

I.

Permit me to direct your attention to a quiet unpretending examination of the first of the three verses chosen for the purpose of making a few plain observations upon them, as the conclusion to which that examination may conduct us, will, more or less, determine the form and complexion of the remarks we shall have to offer on the succeeding passages. The verse reads thus:- "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." The language employed is, to say the least of it, unusual, and detached from the connexion in which it stands and applied to one of the prophets, or apostles, or one of our contemporaries, would strike us as singularly incongruous, if not absolutely ridiculous. Substitute for the name of Jesus, or the He in the text, that of Moses, or of Paul, and introduce another slight alteration, and how strangely the declaration in the text would sound. "Forasmuch then as the children

of Israel were partakers of flesh and blood. Moses himself likewise took part of the same." Suppose there had been such a passage on record, and that we now met with it for the first time, what impression would it be likely to make upon our minds ? Having been always accustomed to regard Moses as only a man, however highly commissioned, and extraordinarily endowed, should we not be likely to be struck with the statement as somewhat singular? The first thing that would occur to us, in setting about examining it would be, the enquiry what occasioned the use of such a style in describing a circumstance, which, till now, had been regarded so much as a matter of course, that a special reference to it had not been deemed necessary. Why should this mode of speaking be used in reference to Moses in particular? Why should he be signally designated in this way? Had any one maintained that Moses was not a real man, but a phantasm, or, had popular enthusiasm elevated him into something superior to man, and, was it necessary to correct these erroneous views by stating that Moses was, in all respects, save his endowments, like his brethren? The most satisfactory way of ascertaining whether such was the object for which the passage had been written, would be to examine the connexion in which it stood, and gather, from the context, its primary reference and meaning. Supposing that the result of this examination should be the discovery, that to prove the sole humanity of Moses was not certainly the object of its introduction. That the fact of Moses's being a man was freely conceded and represented as necessary for specified purposes, but that the writer did not prove it-that he only vindicated it from a wrong use that was made of it. Let us now turn from this imaginary, to a real case of the sort in the text. What is the purport of the language employed here? Was the passage written to prove the actual and sole humanity of Christ in opposition to the opinion that He was a phantasm or divine. Was its purport to disabuse men's minds of the mistake of supposing that Christ was anything but a man. The context forbids us to