pic, as including both the Divine and the human elements of Scripture, will commend itself to the great bulk of our readers. His thoughtful and well-considered remarks will prove of great service to all who wish to acquire an intelligent idea of the origin and composition of the Divine revelation. By INSPIRED ETHICS. A Revised Translation and Topical Arrangement of the Book of Proverbs. John Stock, LL.D. London: Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row. 1877. OF Dr. Stock's translation of the Proverbs we can speak in terms of cordial approbation. It never departs from the authorised version without an adequate reason; but it is a decided improvement on it and preserves better the spirit of the original Hebrew. The classification of the Proverbs into seven separate groups (with sub-divisions), according to their subjects, is a capital idea, and the author has evidently bestowed great pains upon it. We may get from the Proverbs a complete ethical system-a system which covers the entire range of human life, and brings all its aspects and relationships into connection with the Divine will. A student of this little volume will find it fruitful in suggestions; on whatever point of human duty he wishes to acquire knowledge, he will find here the most apposite laws and illustrations. LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. Being Addresses delivered to the Students of the Pastor's College. By C. H. Spurgeon. Second Series. London: Passmore & Alabaster. 1877. How Mr. Spurgeon can find time to do so much work, and to do it so well, we are at a loss to conceive. His Lectures to his Students are simply inimitable, and while the first series necessarily "take off the cream," there is in the second series no lack of vigour, raciness, and pith. Every minister, as well as every student, will not only be quickened in spirit by these stirring words, but learn much for the improvement of his methods. Some of the Lectures are on the spiritual aspects of the ministry; the Holy Spirit in connection with the Ministry; the Necessity of Progress; Earnestness; Conversion as our Aim, &c. Others are occupied with minor, but at the same time important matters, such as Posture, Action, Gesture, &c. This section is enlivened by illustrations, which have evidently been produced at great cost, and which will warn men of mistakes which often mar an otherwise useful ministry. "The Blind Eye and the Deaf Ear" contains some of the wisest and most helpful counsel to which we have ever listened. The first series is already in its twentyfifth thousand; may the second soon be so too. ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By James Martin, B.A. Third edition. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1877. THIS small book, written by one whose name we recall with regretful affection, has deservedly won for itself a high place in Biblical literature. It is scholarly in design and execution, candid in tone, and exquisitely simple in style. We have no other work which, in such small compass, gives so much useful information on a subject of the first importance, and we trust that the third edition will be exhausted as quickly as the first and second have beem Sunday-school teachers, conductors of young men's classes, and others will do well to secure it. MEMORIALS OF THE LATE REV. WILLIAM BEST, B.A. With Introductory Reminiscences, by the Rev. C. M. Birrell. London: Yates & Alexander. Price 1s. 6d. A PORTION of these touching memorials appeared in this Magazine in the earlier months of the present year. The intrinsic worth of the "Letters," and the interest they have awakened, amply justify their republication in a separate form. A selection from Mr. Best's poems has been added to them, and the whole prefaced by a delicately written. biographical sketch from the pen of Mr. Birrell. The modest pamphlet thus produced will have a peculiar value wherever Mr. Best was personally known, but it will also bring many, who did not know him, into contact with his singularly noble and tender nature. A many-sided character is abundantly indicated in the letters. From the first William Best was an independent enquirer after religious truth, and almost from the first a loyal defender of "the things most surely believed amongst us." While he was heartily at one with his denomination, his heart did not wait for any Shibboleth before it went out towards a likeminded friend. He was a staunch Nonconformist, but one whose native courtesy and fairness always secured the respect of his opponents. The fibre of his mind had nothing weak or flaccid about it, yet surely no letters of consolation were ever more gentle and heart-full than some of those printed in this volume. His piety was devout and manly, and along with this there was that keen sense of the ludicrous which is one of the elements of power, and almost essential to success in public life. Indeed, the only criticism we feel prepared to pass on these selections is that they show us the different facets of the character without being full enough to make up the whole form. It is possible for some persons to feel a difficulty in piecing into one whole the grotesque humour of one passage with the plaintive seriousness of another. The picture is deficient, not the man. The poems strike us most in their musical versification. The thought is not tame, nor is it specially profound; but the rhythm is always sweet, and sometimes exquisitely so; e.g. "The worldless music of the air, The flowing streamlet's liquid lays, Stand not instead of conscious praise." The "Lines Written at Midnight" seem to pant and throb with power; and there is a tender, quiet beauty in the stanzas headed 66 Waiting" which many will not fail to appreciate. But the most striking poem is that which comes last, and is in reality a retrospect of years of change and trial. It is impossible to select from it. It is a whole, and must be read as such. The sonnets were evidently produced under the spell of Wordsworth. They are all, judging by the dates, the product of early life, and show that intense appreciation of natural beauty which always characterised Mr. Best to the end, when he revelled in the beech trees and parks of Hertfordshire. Mr. Birrell's reminiscences have only one defect: they are too brief. William Best was a youth in Mr. Birrell's congregation at that critical time in a young man's life when, to quote one of his own beautiful phrases, "Doubts, which are the dusky dawn of faith," were troubling his enquiring spirit. He went from Pembroke Chapel to college, and Mr. Birrell closes his sketch by saying that at the last communion service Mr. Best conducted, little more than a week before he died, he himself was present. "Just twenty-five years before, I received him at his first communion, and now he received me at his last." We lay down the small volume with the feeling that we have been in communion with one of those pure and true-hearted men whose words possess a peculiar power over us because of the noble life which is behind them and rings in every accent. Here strength and sweetness seem combined in equal measure, but that which makes itself felt above and through all is the "beauty of holiness." "His place above was ready, and the memory of his life has yet fruit to bear on earth." THE QUIVER. An Illustrated Magazine for Sunday and General Reading. Vol. XII. Cassell, Petter & Galpin. 1877. 7s. 6d. THERE is not a better magazine for family use extant than the "Quiver." It meets the wants of old and young in all classes of society, and blends the grave and the gay without compromise of truth, and with a delightful freedom from dulness. The wood engravings which embellish the volume just published are befitting, the superior literature which they illustrate. CHRISTIAN SUNSETS; OR, THE LAST HOURS OF BELIEVERS. By James Fleming, D.D. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternosterrow. Price 5s. WE Congratulate the excellent indefatigable minister of the Congregational Church at Kentish Town on the academical distinction conferred upon him, and for the first time made known to us by this volume. May he long be spared to rejoice in everything that can add to his usefulness, honour, and comfort. His volume now before us is a collection of instances of the power of religion in the last moments of life. The examples are derived from all classes of society, commencing with Prince Albert and terminating with the case of a French governess. This department of Christian literature is by no means to be despised, but it is supremely difficult to employ for the highest spiritual advantage. The evidence is So encumbered with the shadows of the grave, that we rise from the contemplation of this and kindred works with the intensified conviction that it is the LIFE, and not the death on which all human prospects depend. Nevertheless we wish all success to Dr. Fleming's well-meant work. : It HOME TO GOD: A GUIDE ON THE WAY. By Samuel Pearson, M.A., Liverpool. London Religious Tract Society. Price 1s. 6d. THE design of this book, as its title implies, is to render help to the soul in returning to God. It is written with marked ability, is Scriptural in its directions, lucid and impressive in its style, and will command the respect of the most cultured readers. We confidently recommend it to be placed in the hands of the thoughtful and anxious, and believe it will attain to the usefulness of Doddridge's "Rise and Progress of Religion" and James's Anxious Inquirers." Notes THE BIBLICAL MUSEUM: Explanatory, Homiletic, and Illustrative, on the Holy Scriptures. Old Testament Vol. II. By J. Comper Gray. London: Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster-row. WE have so repeatedly spoken in commendation of this work, that we need only announce this volume and say that it betokens the care and skill which distinguished its predecessors. Mr. Gray has now, in our opinion, passed the greatest difficulties of his gigantic task. No Sunday-school teacher should be without this most valuable work, and there is no minister who would not be the gainer by a frequent consultation of its pages. SACRED HOURS FOR YOUTH. By Rev. Hugh Lawson, M.A. London: J. Snow & Co., Ivy Lane. THE author's design is to instruct and aid young people in practical religion. He has embodied it in about twenty essays on important epochs in life, each having appended suitable stanzas of poetry. The book is one that thoughtful, cultured young people will be sure to appreciate, and will not fail to derive profit from its perusal. We regret that we cannot spare more of our scanty space to commend it to our readers. THE PREACHER'S Six months of this periodical are bound together in this issue. Its contents consist of outlines of sermons; their variety ensures suggestiveness, while the brevity of each of them precludes the encouragement of indolence. ALMANACKS AND POCKETBOOKS. ILLUSTRATED SHEET ALMANACK 1878. 1d.-THE POCKET BOOK ALMANACK. 1878. 1d.-THE ILLUSTRATED PENNY ALMANACK. 1878. THE SCRIPTURE POCKET Book. 1878. Price 2s.-THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S POCKET BOOK. 1878. Price 1s. 6d. London: Religious Tract Society, 56, Paternoster-row. ALL of these publications reach the high standard of excellence which has marked their predecessors. We regret that the space at our disposal does not admit of a more extended notice of them ali. CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR'S PRESENTS. PET'S POSY OF PICTURES AND STORIES, published by Messrs. Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, at half-acrown, and LITTLE TALKS WITH LITTLE PEOPLE, at the same price, are most fascinating books for children. Every alternate page in each of them is a highly-finished picture, and the brief explanations or stories which accompany tl em are full of information-historical, geographical, and moral.-THE DYING SAVIOUR AND THE GIPSY GIRL (Hodder & Stoughton, 27, Paternoster-row), price 1s., is one of Miss Sibree's (Mrs. Hall's) most effective stories, and we are glad that it is published in this detached form.-THE STORY THAT LIZZIE TOLD (Hodder and Stoughton), price 1s., is a very touching account of a poor, crippled girl, very naturally told by her own lips, and well calculated both to show the support afforded by religion, and to encourage sympathy with the afflicted in the hearts of the young.--GOOD OUT OF EVIL: A Tale for Children. By Mrs. Surr. London: T. Nelson & Sons. There is no firm of publishers that more energetically provides sound suitable reading for the young than Messrs. Nelson. For school prizes and family gift books they occupy the front rank. Mrs. Surr is always at home among the birds; and in this, as other of her works, makes them parables for conveying useful lessons to the young.-AUNT EMMA'S PICTURE BOOK, with 100 illustrations (Nelson and Sons), is a nursery album, with descriptive sentences, and is a good shilling's worth.THE MOTHER'S FRIEND, Vol. IX. (Hodder and Stoughton), price 1s. 6d., in the excellence of its letter-press contents, compensates for shortcomings in the artistic portion of this useful work.-THE YOUNG some LLANERO: A Story of War and Wild Life in Venezuela, by. W. H. Kingston (London: Nelson & Sons), is a grand book for boys. Full of adventure and na ural history, exquisitely illustrated, and in all respects a beautiful specimen of book production. Mr. Kingston has] here provided many a boy with his best Christmas present. It would be a curious discovery if we could find out how many boys this veteran of the pen has sent out scouring the wide world. Happily he always writes so as to make them manly, brave, and good.-THE VIVIANS OF WOODIFORD, by M. A. Paull (London Nelson & Sons), charmingly illustrates the truth that human happiness is secured by making others happy. Our young friends who remember "Tim's Troubles" will be glad to see this equally agreeable story from the same authoress.GOLDEN CHRISTMAS. Being Longley's Annual for 1877. F. E. Longley, 39, Warwick-lane. 1s. There is so much worthless rubbish palmed off upon young people under the covers of Christmas Annuals, that it is refreshing to find a healthful collection of stories for the long evenings like those contained in this collection. WAITING FOR THE SHIP. By W. H. Coates. London: Religious Tract Society. Price 18. A vigorous little story, in which a child who has literally understood the familiar expression "When my ship comes home," meets with a judicious friend, who instructs her to seek after surer hopes and expectations.THE TRACT MAGAZINE. New Series. Vol. 8. Religious Tract Society. Price 1s. 6d. are never disappointed with this old favourite. Its contents are always pleasing and profitable, and never more so than in the volume now before us. - THE CHILD'S COMPANION, 1877. London: Religious Tract Society. Price 2s. 6d. We |