acknowledged piracy of sermons? What can one even think of the value and the durability of a popularity that is gained by such means? If, when a late chancellor of the exchequer was found guilty of plagiarism, the whole press opened against him in reproof, shall we not speak out as plainly against the same dishonesty in the pulpit ? Other things might be added, but I stay my pen. Less ought not, more, perhaps, need be said. Well will it be if anything should lead us to have a truer "trust in truth," and a greater courage in "being ourselves." Yours, &c.,

LITERARY NOTICES.

SCRUTATOR.

INFIDELITY its Aspects, Causes, and Agencies; being the Prize Essay of the British Organization of the Evangelical Alliance. By the Rev. THOMAS PEARSON, of Eyemouth. Partridge and Oakley.

THE plan of this volume is remarkably good: it is at once clear and comprehensive. All the sections, which are numerous, seem to us placed in their right logical relation, and are well defined; the execution is equal to the scheme; and the whole superstructure stands before us as a goodly temple, where earnest sceptics may find a solution of many of their most soul-pressing problems, and be taught to worship and adore. The writer develops an extensive acquaintance with the views and tactics of modern infidelity as it is found both in England and on the Continent. He has traced it through many of its metaphysical labyrinths, brought it out, taken off its mask, and held it up in the broad daylight of reason and consciousness. We do not say that the author has done all that is necessary; indeed, infidelity has some questions he has never mooted, and his replies to others are sometimes based upon postulates whose truth may be fairly questioned, and are consequently inconclusive and unsatisfactory. But we do aver that he has done much with great ability and rightheartedness that has never yet been done in this discussion.

The style is very superior: it is a deep and translucent river flowing calmly on without surge or ripple, mirroring the precious lights of the truths that hang above, and exposing, at the same time, the muddy depths of error that lie beneath. Its spirit, too, is much to our taste; it has nothing of the arrogance and acrimony that have hitherto disgraced theological polemics. It has all the calm candour of conscious faith, and all the kindly feeling which true faith ever inspires. It is free from the insolence of a mere hereditary creedman, and displays the respectfulness which ever characterizes the debater who has wrestled earnestly with the difficulties himself. We have read the book once, and we propose doing what few books save the Bible tempt us to do-read it the second time.

THE CHURCHES FOR THE TIMES, AND THE PREACHERS FOR THE PEOPLE; or, the Bible, the Churches as they were, as they are, and as they ought to be, and the People. By WILLIAM FERGUSON, Bicester, Oxon.

THE title will put the reader in possession of the general scope and aim of the author in this volume. Although we demur to some things in this book, and are not always pleased with the manner in which other things are stated, we have no hesitation in cordially and strongly recommending it to our readers. It is a book of startling revelations and rousing earnestness. The writer sees much that is wrong in connexion with the Church, feels it deeply, and manfully exposes it, and we honour him for it. He has a right to be heard. He is neither a cynical theorist, nor a sentimental lover of his race whose compassion dies away in words. He is one of those self-denying, practical, and comprehensive philanthropists, whose heart swells with sympathy for the poor and ignorant of our own land, and who carries the Bible in one hand and bread in the other. Let the voice of such a man be heard! Let its bold, earnest, and honest tones ring through the heart of a selfish and material church!

SAINT PAUL: Five Discourses by the Rev. ADOLPHE MONOD, Translated by the Rev. W. G. BARRETT, of

of Paris.

Royston. Arthur Hall, and Virtue and Co.

THOSE who read the leading homily in our last number will not require any recommendation of a book written by the same author on such a subject as SAINT PAUL. This little volume abounds with noble thoughts and fine suggestions.

LAWFUL STRIFE; a Sermon preached in Surrey Chapel, on Wednesday Morning, May 11, 1853, before the London Missionary Society, by SAMUEL MARTIN. Ward and Co.

SOME men speak with more force than they write: the energy of their soul passes with greater effect through the tongue than the pen. Others put forth more power, and do themselves more justice, in writing. Mr. Martin belongs decidedly to the former class Not that he does not write well-his healthy sentiments, genial spirit, and fascinating individualities, in connexion with a style ever chaste, pointed, and sententious, give a great charm to his literary productions -but so powerful is his speech, that, when he throws the oral into a written form, it appears tame to him who has heard it. His appearance is a sermon. As he stands before you, he does not strike you as one who eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and lives the ordinary life of mortals, but your mind connects him at once with the unseen realms of holy abstractions and divine communings. And then his voice, too, is like an echo from eternity its touching tones, modulated by the deep thoughts and deeper feeling, of a reflective and an exqusitely sensitive nature, carry his ideas right home to the heart. heard this discourse, and we write under the impression. We have heard many discourses in the same place, on similar occasions, but none ever approached this in its soul-subduing power, and that apart from all those prettyisms, fineries, and oratorical attempts, which are too frequently associated with such performances. We earnestly recommend this excellent sermon, of an extraordinary man, to the perusal of our readers.

We

Let religious societies try themselves by the principles here laid down; and "long life" to the man who preaches like this!

ROGER MILLER; or, Heroism in Humble Life. A Narrative, by GEORGE ORME. C. Gilpin.

THIS is a deeply interesting biography. It is well written, for the writer is lost in his hero, and the hero is worth looking at and following.

CHRISTOPHANEIA.

The Doctrine of the Manifestations of the Son of God, under the Economy of the Old Testament. By the late Rev. GEORGE BALDERSTON KIDD, of Scarborough. Edited by ORLANDO J. DOBBIN, LL.D., M.R.I.A. Ward and Co.

To the Christian mind no theme can be more interesting and important than the subject matter of this volume. But for the pre-ordained "manifestations of the Son of God," mankind would not have existed, nor the earth itself, we think, been called into being. The formation of our globe; the creation of our race; the rise, progress, and fall of nations; the varied, vast, and wonderful schemes of Providence; are, therefore, according to God's eternal purposes, "which he purposed in Christ Jesus." Just as the radii of a circle meet in the centre, and the rivers of the earth flow toward the sea, so nature, providence, and grace, centre in the divine Man of Nazareth-the incarnate, redeeming God. The apostle John, in the visions of Patmos, beheld Christ as "the Lamb in the midst of the throne"-as the centre around which revolve all the orbs of material, mental, and spiritual being; and as the sun from which they derive their vitality, light, and glory. If these things are so-if Christ is the "Prince of the kings of the earth;" if he possesses "all power in heaven and in earth;" if "all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made"; if he is "the brightness of the Father's glory," "the Desire of nations," the

alone Sacrifice for human sin, and the alone Saviour of human souls--how interesting and important the effort to follow the benignant and sublime pathway of "the manifestations of the Son of God" as they shine in the pages of the infallible word. This good work our author has undertaken, and undertaken it in a spirit becoming such a sacred occupation.

The result is before us in a production of no common order. It contains an examination of every passage which refers to the Redeemer in the Old and New Testaments; and the research is prosecuted with an amount of acuteness, learning, and labour, which deserves much praise.

We do not mean to assert, however, that the book is without blemishes-1. Some of the dissertations might have been spared, seeing that we possess the substance of them in Dr. Smith's immortal work, "The Scriptural Testimony of the Messiah." Not that we accuse Mr. Kidd of plagiarism; but on such a subject the mind of the student is sure to revert to the Doctor's work, in the footsteps of whom our author has been laudably ambitious to follow, though, in some parts of the journey, he has not walked æquis passibus. 2. The work is not well digested and arranged. It has rather the appearance of raw material than of a finished fabric. Not only does the building bear many marks of the hammer and the saw, but some parts of it are unglazed, and without roof. It contains many "orient pearls at random strung." 3. The other drawback from the perfection of the work is an excessive tendency here and there to spiritualize, and to seek for Messianic references in passages where no such references were, we think, intended to be found. But here we would be very gentle in our censures, for the author errs upon the right side. In such a matter we would rather go astray with Cocceius than with Crellius; we would rather with the former " find Christ everywhere in the Bible," than with the latter "find him nowhere."

We can conscientiously commend this work to every thoughtful reader of scripture, as containing much interesting and instructive information upon the most important subject which can occupy the human mind.