various, and very vital. Inspiration-The Preparation of the World for the Gospel-The Jewish Doctrine of The Messiah-The Origin of the Gospels-Their Characteristics-The Gospel of John-The Difference of Detail in the Synoptical Evangelists-Their Difference also in Arrangements,—and the Difficulties of the Gospels. Such are the leading subjects herein discussed; and the New Testament student will perceive that they embrace points of difficulty which are pressed with special force upon his intellect by the sceptics of the age. This is a work whose merits cannot be exaggerated. As an introduction to the Gospel it has no equal. By THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM. the Rev. W. M. MITCHELL, of Toronto. Second Edition. London: William Tweedie. THE author of this is a man of color, a native of North Carolina, United States; who spent his early years under a heartless trader in human beings. He is now a missionary amongst the escaped fugitives in Toronto, Canada West. This little book brings out into the broad daylight of common sense justice, the abominations of the fugitive slave law, and some of the hideous cruelties of the slave trade. It also supplies much information concerning that mysterious place which the divine genius of philanthropy has created for the successful escape of the fugitive, called the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. The book is another link in that mighty chain of justice, which will soon be long enough as it is strong enough, to bind the devil of slavery not for a thousand years merely, but for ever. HALF HOURS WITH THE LITTLE ONES. By the Rev. N. T. LANGRIDGE. London: Elliot Stock. THE excellent author of this little volume informs us that he has in connexion with his Church a School, numbering twelve hundred children; and that these are some of his "half-hour" addresses. Twelve hundred children! What a magnificent audience for the man who can command their attention, and indoctrinate their hearts with the truths of Jesus! But few of our most eminent ministers could do it, and yet no work more sublimely great. Judging from these addresses, we should say that Mr. Langridge is pre-eminently qualified for this mission. They are equal to those of the celebrated Dr. Todd. This little work will command an immense circulation if justice be done it. NEOLOGY NOT TRUE, AND TRUTH NOT NEW. By the Rev. CHARLES HERBERT, M.A. London: James Nisbet and Co. WHATEVER may be thought of the correctness of the interpretation which Mr. Herbert puts upon some of the statements of the distinguished men he sets himself to criticise, or the theological opinions which he proclaims as his own; there can be no doubt about the purity of his motives, truthfulness of his spirit, and the urbanity of his bearing. He controverts as a christian gentleman and scholar. MYSTERIES OF LIFE, DEATH, AND FUTURITY. By HORACE Welby. London Kent and Co.-This work contains a very large amount of interesting matter selected from various authors, on the great subjects of Life, Death, and Futurity. It is a book, that, from its contents and aims cannot fail to interest and improve the reader. THE RICHES OF DIVINE MERCY.-A sermon delivered in the Primitive Methodist Chapel, Tunstell, Staffordshire. By THOMAS KING. London: Richard Davies.—Here is a sermon by a Primitive Methodist, worthy of being preached in a cathedral. It is far better than many that are delivered in those old glorious ecclesiastical edifices. We heartily rejoice in the growing prosperity of that most living, active, and useful section of the Christian Church, to which the author of this sermon belongs. THE BRITISH CONTROVERSIALIST: London: Houlston and Wright.—We are glad that this able periodical continues as fresh and vigorous as ever. Young men would do well to study its pages from month to month. BRITISH WORKMAN. Yearly Part, No. 6, 1860. London: 9, Paternoster Row.-One of the cheapest, most interesting, and useful series of which our age and country can boast. THE SHIP'S CAREER AND OTHER POEMS. By G. J. WILLIAMSON. London: Judd and Glass.-This book reveals the heart of a true man in unpoetic poetry. The history of his life, however, has a charm. LIFE STORY. A Prize Autobiography. By JAMES HILLUCKS. London: William Tweedie. This is the life of an athletic soul in a weak body, wrestling for long years, with amazing energy, against disease, poverty, domestic trials, political wrongs, social slanders, and other evils. He deserves laurels and is receiving them. THE LAST WEEK IN THE LIFE OF DAVIS JOHNSON. By J. D. WELLS. London: James Nisbet.-This little book records the experience of a young man who received mortal hurt in July, 1857, while bathing in the East River, Williamsborough, Long Island. He lived only a week after the injury, and died before he was twenty years of age. The efforts made for his salvation and the results are here recorded, and they are worth reading. THE SIMPLICITY OF FAITH AND ITS FINAL TRIUMPH. London: James Nisbet. -A loving and intelligent narrative of the memories of a brother. A HOMILY ON, The Intellectual Poverty of Life. "For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow."-Job viii. 9. W E are far enough from claiming infallibility of judgment for the man who uttered these words; but a truth loses none of its reality or importance because enunciated by a fallible individual. Truth is truth, whether groaned out by a fiend, or chanted by a seraph. The two unquestionable truths that Bildad here expresses are the transitoriness and the intellectual poverty of our mortal life. "We are but of yesterday." True. There are, peradventure, creatures in the universe, who can date back, through millennial ages, the birth of their being; and even men before the flood could count their centuries. But the oldest man in these last ages of the world, can only go back as it were to "yesterday." The most venerable patriarch amongst us, in looking back upon the dawn of his consciousness, feels that it is but as "yesterday" he bounded in the sports of childhood, and felt the wild poetry of youth. In sooth, no sooner do we open our eyes thoughtfully on the universe, and receive some truthful impressions of life, than we close them in the deep shadows of mortality. Verily, our days on earth are a shadow. No one of all the men, whose words, about the unsubstantial and transitory character of life, VOL. X. are recorded in this Divine volume, ever hit upon a figure more expressive of its nothingness. What is less than a "shadow"? A vapour, all but intangible, is still something. It sometimes darkens the heavens, overshadows the meadows and the mountains, and then condenses into showers to revive and beautify the earth. But a "shadow"-what is it? It implies a something that rolls under the sun, but in itself is nothing;a passing shade, that is all. All the generations of men that are gone were only shadows. Their conquerors speaking in thunder, their royalties throned on ivory, and their aristocracies with their high sounding titles-as well as the plebeian millions were only as shadows passing over the earth. The old sun under which they moved shines as ever; and the earth, on which their shadows fell, remaineth as from the beginning, but they are gone. We are the passing shadows now, and will soon give place to others. Tennyson, in his "Farewell to the Brook," glowed with the inspiration of this solemn thought : "Flow down cold rivulet to the sea, Thy tribute wave deliver : No more by thee, my steps shall be, But here will sigh thine alder tree, A thousand suns shall stream on thee, But the other solemn truth here expressed, is the intellectual poverty of our mortal life. We "know nothing." Bildad seems to indicate that our ignorance arises partly from the brevity of our life. We have no time to get knowledge. Scarcely have we learnt the language, opened the great book of truth, and begun to spell out a few sentences, before death approaches, and bids us begone. Had we time, had we a few centuries at our disposal, feeble as our intellects may be, we should know something more about God and His great universe. : Now it is on this truth,—the intellectual poverty of our mortal life, that I am anxious at present to fasten your attention. We "know nothing." This language must of course, be taken in a comparative sense. The most ignorant of us know a little. We may say in the way of explanation :First That we "know nothing" compared with what is to be known. Indeed this may be said of all created intelligences, even of those who are the most exalted in power and attainment. Take the oldest and most diligent student spirit in the creation; one who commenced his investigatory career thousands of years before Adam lived, and you might truly say that he knows nothing compared with the vast knowable unknown. There are immeasurable scenes he has never visited, there are heights he has never scaled, depths he has never sounded, worlds and systems over which he has never swept his lustrous wings. If the language would be true of such an intelligence, how much more so is it of us! How little does the wisest philosopher amongst us know, even of the few things that come within the range of his own observations here. How little does he know about the essence, uses, relations, laws, and dependencies of those things that come within the sweep of his notice every day. As the late Sir Robert Peel said in his first famous oration at the Glasgow University: "Each subsequent advance in science has served not to contract the field of enquiry but to extend it on every side. It has served, like the telescope, to make us familiar with objects before imperfectly comprehended; but at the same time by the obscure vision of things unknown, of relations and dependencies of which we had no conception, it has shown us the comparative nothingness of all human knowledge.” Secondly: We "know nothing" compared with what we might have known. There is a vast disproportion between the knowledge attainable by man on earth, and that which he actually attains. Our Maker sees the difference. Had |