but suspect, some reserve, some secret article in the treaty, the state of Italy, of the papal dominions, and indeed the whole question of the papal supremacy, is still pregnant with danger. The duchies are placed in a cruel position, and Napoleon is acting basely towards them; first inviting them to assert their independence, and now remitting them again to their Austrian rulers. His conduct to the Romagna has been, if possible, still worse. It is now distinctly told, that it must submit once more to its papal tyrant. In each case, however, there is this slender ground of hope or consolation, the absconding dukes are not to be restored by force of arms; and the pope is to be compelled, under the guarantee of the two emperors, to reform his administration. But the insincerity of one of these potentates requires no comment; few Englishmen any longer affect to doubt it. The indignation of the Italians begins to be deep and stern; and more bloodshed will, in all probability, soon result. The pope, for the present, is in better health, and the infamous Antonelli is again his chief adviser.

At Constantinople, an insurrection was planned a month ago, which, if not detected, might have ended in the downfall of the Ottoman empire; an event which its rapid decay must lead us to anticipate at no remote period. Scoffers at prophecy, and public writers to whom the Revelation of St. John seems as little known as the Vedas or the Shastres, remark with astonishment the coincidence; the false prophet of Mecca and the harlot of the seven hills trembling at the same time each in their capitals; each waiting for its certain and not very distant doom.

Spain appears to be on the point of going to war with the emperor of Morocco, for insults and outrages similar to those which provoked our own bombardment of Algiers. The quarrel seems to be of little moment; but, in the unsettled state of Europe, it adds to the general gloom. There is a secret misgiving that Spain is the cat's-paw of a greater power; and remote as the proof may be, it is sufficient to depress the money markets of all Europe. In the inflammable state of continental Europe, it is felt that a little matter may light up a terrible flame.

The great event of the month, at home, has been the annual meeting of the Social Science Association under the presidency of the Earl of Shaftesbury. Some admirable addresses were made, and subjects of great interest occupied day by day the attention of large and intelligent audiences. We are neither disposed to depreciate these meetings on the one hand, nor on the other to assign to them too much importance. To practical men the cui bono question at once presents itself, and we must confess it does not admit of an immediate answer. In all public conferences the work actually done bears, we fear, but a small proportion to the eloquence displayed. Yet something is accomplished, if the mere waste water of idle thought and idle conversation is directed into useful channels. Great truths thrown broadcast on the world, are never lost. They bear their fruit, and often where we least expect it.

It is a curious circumstance, that while the Wesleyans, at their last conference, began to entertain the idea of curtailing Itinerancy, the church of England should be vigorously attempting to adopt it,

Yet both are right; they have probably too much of it, and we have certainly too little. We cannot believe that an unceasing change of ministers, even if every change were from an inferior to a more gifted one, could be beneficial to the spiritual interests of the parish: but we can easily understand that the occasional introduction of a stranger, of gifts and piety, to the incumbent's well-accustomed pulpit, may often prove a spiritual refreshment to the household of faith, and still more frequently be the means of exciting religious affections in those who, through long custom, have grown indifferent to the wellknown voice of their own pastor. A society was formed in 1858 to promote this movement within the church of England. And it is time, we feel, that so important a step should be commended to the notice of our readers. In the idea itself, let us premise, there is nothing new; it is at least as old as the Reformation. Elizabeth, under the advice of her wise bishops and privy council, sent itinerating preachers two and two throughout the land, and it was no good day for the national church when their labours were permitted to die away. The Church Home Mission, or Special Services Aid Society, arose out of the interruption of the Exeter Hall Services. Its mode of operation is very simple. A committee was formed in London of clergymen and laymen, with corresponding members, all of known evangelical principles, in the country. A resolution was taken to employ as preachers those only of distinctly evangelical principles. Beyond their expenses, the services of the preachers are gratuitous. In setting to work, the committee seek out parishes where the respective incumbents consent to a short service, consisting, in general, of the Litany, followed by a sermon, the whole being generally concluded within an hour. It arranges such parishes in the order of circuits, which are traversed in succession by the missionary brethren, according as they are able to redeem time for the work from their own regular labours at home. And in organizing circuits, care is taken to begin by securing a station in the parish of some clergyman of known devotion to the work of the ministry. And of such men, who covet the benefit, and are ready to hail it with a cordial welcome, there is no want.

To ensure a due succession of preachers, measures of course are taken beforehand. The committee approve of those to be invited, and then communicate with them. There is no occasion for any staff of clerks, or even for a regular office. Very happy results have already followed. There are now six circuits in different parts of the countrySurrey, Sussex, Herts, Wilts, and Berks, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, and Suffolk; these comprise thirty-four stations, which.are visited during the season once a fortnight. They have an average attendance, in the aggregate, offrom 14 to 15,000 people of all classes; and more circuits are about to be opened; the interest created is encouraging; both clergy and laity are refreshed by the welcome visits of their brethren. As many as twelve clergymen have been observed to be present on one occasion, and the letters from the incumbents, in whose parishes the mission is received, are of the most grateful character; while, as to the people, the incidents related are cheering and significant of good. Dissenters, drawn to the parish church, express their wonderment to find such preaching in the church of England. Nor is it an unimportant, though again

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it is an incidental result, that the disinterestedness of the clergy, as [Nov. they traverse the kingdom, gratuitously doing the work of evangelists, strikes the most indifferent observer; so that, as Dr. McNeile remarked at the first public meeting of the association, "if only the principles and influence of the church of England are brought to bear on the middle classes of the community, we shall soon hear no more of churchrates, or any other subject of alarm for our national church.”

The death of the eminent non-conformist, the Rev. John Angell James, must not pass unnoticed. Whatever his sentiments in former years towards the church of England, he has now long been known as the lover of all good men: and often have we heard him express his earnest longings for "a world in which," as he said, “the very terma conformist and non-conformist, churchman and dissenter, were never heard." His speeches were thoughtful, practical, and truly eloquent; and we have no doubt that his sermons were so too; since he ministered for more than fifty years to one of the largest dissenting congregations in the kingdom. But it is by his writings that he is known best. His "Anxious Enquirer" has been translated into many languages; probably no book that was ever written, not excepting Baxter's Saint's Rest, or Doddridge's Rise and Progress, has been so blessed to the conversion of souls to God during its author's life time; and we cannot easily tell our readers whether, in his dying hours, the knowledge of this circumstance filled him with the holier joy or the deeper humiliation. His funeral was perhaps the most affecting sight ever witnessed in the town in which he lived and laboured; and even those who have been most opposed to him allow, that he well deserved at least the eulogium which Johnson assigns to Dr. Watts; he was a man to be imitated in everything but his non-conformity. The Tract Society alone have circulated three million copies of his various writings, and more than half a million of his Anxious Enquirer.

The month has closed with a short but terrible storm on the 26th. On all our coasts the sacrifice of life and property has been great; but the wreck of the Royal Charter, homeward-bound from Melbourne, in the bay of Anglesea, with the loss of four hundred passengers, is deeply affecting. Thus to perish in sight of home, and upon the shores so ardently sought, is one of the saddest tragedies of even nautical experience. The spiritual needs of sailors and passengers is becoming a great national question; and such occurrences force us to think of it seriously.

THE reader of this interesting and difficult portion of Holy Scripture, in an English version, does not fail to derive from it both comfort and instruction, especially in the hours of sorrow and trouble. He may not be able to understand some passages, which however he might not more clearly fathom with all the aids of ancient and modern learning. For, in these respects, as Luther said three centuries ago, "Job sits upon his own ash-heap, and admits of no interpreters." But such a reader will peruse the history of a tried and approved man of God, under almost unexampled afflictions; and yet of one who was a man in all his sympathies and infirmities. With such an one, therefore, the reader can feel that he has fellowship-" one formed of the clay." He reads the historical narrative of his trials, and their triumphant issue, in the plain language of Mosaic prose; and he feels assured that it is "well with the righteous;" that the path of patient suffering and abiding faith is that which "will bring a man peace at the last."

But when the ordinary reader enters upon the controversial or poetical portion, he meets with difficulties. He is not able to reconcile many expressions of the sufferer with his character for patience and piety; he finds in the arguments of his well-intentioned friends much solemn truth, though mingled with a harsh treatment of the unfortunate. Yet he gathers many blessed gems of divine wisdom. And with these impressions he rises from the book, not as from a moral treatise or philosophical romance, but as from a divine revelation, which antedates the clearer discoveries of the gospel, and affords him that consolation which springs from "a hope full of immortality."

Now such a reader may be well content, albeit he have not waded

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through the enormous tomes of the Fathers, or mystified himself with the cold and metaphysical subtleties of German neology. The critical testimony which satisfied Schulteus, Peters, Rosenmüller, Kennicott, and Lowth, in the last century; Magee, Lee, and Pye Smith, in the present-may well outbalance the latter, while the profound erudition of the illustrious translators themselves left nothing of patristic learning unsought.

It may not, however, be useless to strengthen these convictions by a few facts, in confirmation of those points which modern infidelity has assailed; if, indeed, it has left anything untouched, beyond the natural history and the poetical language which have commanded the admiration of all ages.

Some of these objections to the received interpretation have of late been advocated in popular reviews, and introduced into books of elementary instruction on the sacred scriptures; and in one instance, where the general tone and execution of the book is excellent, and the character of the author high in esteem, the celebrated passage which meets us when we are conveying our departed friends to their last earthly resting place, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," &c., has been surrendered as a mere anticipation of the issue of Job's calamities, in the vindication of his character in this life. This is even going further than some very unsparing neologists, who have interpreted it at least of a future state, when "without the flesh" man should see God.

We purpose, therefore, to lay before our readers a concise view of our reasons for maintaining-1. The existence and reality of Job; 2. The patriarchal antiquity, origin, and authorship of the book; 3. Its references to a future state and the way of salvation; and 4. Its divine inspiration and canonical authority.

1. That Job is not a poetical or imaginary, but an historic character, appears from the mention of him in connection with Noah and Daniel, in Ezekiel xiv. 14, 20; and the allusion of St. James, chap. v. 10, 11. Here we think it may be inferred that Job was among "the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord," and who, he says, "were to be taken for an example of suffering and patience;" for he immediately adds, "Behold we count them happy who endure" (itself a reference to Job v. 17). "Ye have heard of the patience of Job, &c., and seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." It has been suggested that this quotation does not refer to Job's faith, but his patience. But surely faith is the foundation of patience; and the divine writer would not have cited him, even as an instance of suffering, if he had not have been a real character. We find no such personifications of our Lord's parables in the Epistles. It has also been objected that Job is not among the instances of faith in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. But this was probably because the apostle was addressing arguments derived from the law and the writings of the Hebrews; and an obector might have refused to bow to Job, who would yield to