was directness about it that carried conviction of its truth to every heart. She was rigidly cross-examined. The counsel asked her many troublesome and awkward questions, but she varied from her first statements in nothing.

The truth so spoken by that little child was sublime. Falsehood and perjury had preceded her testimony. But before her testimony falsehood was scattered like chaff. The little child, for whom a mother had prayed for strength, to be given her to speak the truth as it was before God, broke the cunning devices and matured villany to pieces like a potter's vessel.

I need not say that the man was found guilty, and that he was sent to prison for nearly two years. I hope he was a better man when he came out.-

The Mystery of Growth, and other Discourses. By Rev. EDWARD WHITE. London: Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster-row. Cloth. Pp. 443. THESE discourses are selected portions of a series commencing with the elements of religion, and ending with the final results of faith in the formation of Christ's image in the individual and in the church. Many of them have been published before, during past years, in periodicals with which the author was connected; but they are here presented in a form diligently revised. A glance will suffice to show that the aim throughout is practical, and neither scientific nor theological.

Whatever proceeds from the pen of Mr. White is sure to be marked by freshness and vigour, and both of these qualities more or less characterise every discourse in this volume. Some of them contain passages which are truly beautiful. Take the following as an illustration :

"The mind that draws nigh to God in the patient and reverent study of these (inspired) books, as Mary drew near to Jesus with tears of penitence and love, shall find the fulfilment of the promise, "God shall draw nigh to you." The under

standing shall see, and the heart shall feel that "the word" which is " nigh" is the voice of God; that the Bible is in very deed the voice of Omnipotence; not speaking to the angels in distant thunders, or rolling among the far-off spheres, as when by His word the heavens were made; but talking with us close at hand, 66 as when a man talketh with his friend." It is the whole Church of Christ who shall exclaim at last, when retracing their earthly journey and their Bible studies, "Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked with us by the way, and opened to us the Scriptures? Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. The Bible, which is like the sleeping face of Jesus to a sinner, opens its eyes, and smiles ineffable love upon the saint, as when Jesus awoke radiant in the storm at the disciples' cry." (P. 26.)

We have been much struck, too, with Mr. White's power of realising the scenes and events which he describes. He makes them visible to the imagination by his wonderful faculty of wordpainting. The discourse entitled "The Great Asiatic Revolution in the Age of Nebuchadnezzar" consists of a series of descriptive photographs most admirably executed. Touches of illustration are scattered over the entire book which really sparkle like a South

Devon trout stream in the summer sun.

Mr. White's spirit, too, is devout and reverential. He believes, and therefore he speaks. With his views on "the punishment question" we do not agree, but we have not met with a passage in any of these discourses that we have read, in which those peculiar views are broached. The Sermon on Ephesians i. 1-8, is a clear assertion of the great principle of sovereign grace in man's salvation. "Every true Christian, as a member of Christ is thus a predestinated person, and as such has been, along with Christ himself, an object of thought to the Almighty Lord of Life in the eternity bygone." (P. 242.) On the principles of Nonconformity, Mr. White gives no uncertain sound. But he " goes in" for Union Churches, and in this is far more consistent than open communion Baptists are, who keep the church close, and the table open.

Mr. White's book will prove stimulating and suggestive to all who thoughtfully read it, and we wish it a wide circulation. He is one of our best writers.

Aids to the Divine Life, Day by Day.

By Rev. JOHN BATE. London: Elliot
Stock. Cloth. Pp. 400.

THIS book contains a meditation for every day in the year. It is a thoroughly good, manly volume. The style is plain, but forcible, and the sentiment is thoroughly evangelical. There is not much controversial theology in it. It says very little on points, concerning which evangelical Christians are divided; but on the fundamental verities of the gospel, it gives no uncertain sound. Christian people will find this book an admirable companion volume to our brother Spurgeon's "Morning by Morning." To men in business and professional life who have little time for reading, it will often suggest profitable thought amid their toil. There is nothing sensational about its contents, and, we may add, nothing very striking or profound; but the thoughts are all sensible and judicious, and the spiritual tone is excellent. The book is admirably suited for presents. It has our most cordial commendation.

Sure of Heaven. A Book for the Doubting and Anxious. By THOMAS MILLS. Fourth Thousand. London: Elliot Stock. Cloth, gilt edges. Pp. 278.

THIS admirable volume is intended to assist the doubting and anxious soul to the exercise of a Scriptural faith in Jesus as the only and sufficient way of salvation. The very simplicity and freeness of the gospel plan of salvation is a stumbling-block to many convinced sinners. That, which is in reality its chief glory, is too often the reason why enquirers hesitate to rest upon it. They think they must feel more, or suffer more, or do more, before they may believe that God for Christ's sake has forgiven them. The book before us was written to aid such souls. It follows the workings of the anxious but doubting mind through all its difficulties, and mightily persuades to an immediate and confiding reliance upon Jesus.

The style, too, is eminently adapted to the subject. It is nervous, earnest, and persuasive. There is no waste of diction, but every sentence drives the thought which it contains right home. It is our practice to recommend every enquirer to read Newman Hall's "Come to Jesus;" but Thomas Mills's "Sure of Heaven" is an excellent sequel to that invaluable publication. It leaves the doubter no excuse for his despondency. We commend the book with all our hearts. Ministers of the gospel will do well to put it into the hands of every member of their enquirers' classes. Established Christians, too, may find much in these pages to rebuke their fears, and to confirm their faith.

somewhat chafed by that review, and smartly responds. We believe, however, that he had laid himself open to some of the criticisms to which he so warmly replies. In opposition to our author, we maintain that the idea of salvation by sacrifice cannot have been an original idea or instinct in man's soul; for the obvious reason that man was made perfectly pure and holy, and therefore could have no moral consciousness of need of either sacrifice or salvation. How could a spotless being, who knew no sin, have such an original intuition? The idea is simply absurd. Man never would have conceived this thought, if God had not directly revealed it to him. It was thus made known to the first transgressors, and was by them carefully handed down to their posterity. This sufficiently accounts for the early and general spread of the idea of salvation by sacrifice. Thus we can account, too, for the fact that nations have been discovered, the Bechuanas for example, in which the idea had utterly perished for ages. But no original and natural intuition could thus perish.

The author is evidently a man of reflection, and possessed of a certain amount of originality. Both his former and present works are well worthy of attention. They will be sure to excite investigation. It is refreshing to find Wesleyans thus venturing on original veins of thought upon theological matters.

before the young. Parents and teachers of schools will find it of great service. It is beautifully got up; a credit both to author and publisher.

Capital Punishment is Murder Legalised. By JAMES C. L. CARSON, M.D. Second Edition. London: Houlston and Wright, Paternoster-row. Cloth. Pp. 269.

OF the first edition of this book, we expressed ourselves in the highest terms. It gratifies us exceedingly to see it in a second edition, and in a much more attractive form. It is certainly the ablest defence of the Abolition of Capital Punishment that has yet been published. We can give it no higher praise, and to give it less would be unjust.

We have also received the following: The Curate in the Crucible. By an Atherstone Nonconformist. London: Elliot Stock. Pp. 16. Price Twopence. Smart rather than forcible.

By

The Anti-Ritualistic Satire. MARTIN F. TUPPER. London: Simpkin and Co. Pp. 30. Price Sixpence. An exposure in verse (?) of the Jesuitry of the Ritualists

Is not the Church of Rome the Babylon of the Apocalypse? London: Protestant Association. Pp. 16. Price One Penny, or 7s. per 100. Reprinted from Archdeacon Wordsworth's Union with Rome.

Christian Vows. By J. LEONARD POSNETT. London: Elliot Stock: Pp. 32. Sponsorial vows for children in baptism, we believe to have been an invention of the Devil, to obscure the great dootrine of the personality of religious obligation. The author on other matters writes much that is valuable.

We have also received and cordially commend sundry numbers of The Christian Times, Partridge and Co.; and The Little Gleaner and The Sower, Houlston and Wright.

VOL. XXV.-NO. CCXCV.

P

THE IRISH CHURCH

AND THE

"NO POPERY" CRY. "THE Disendowment and Disestablishment of the Irish Church, and the No Popery' Cry" was the subject of an able lecture delivered at Morice Square Baptist Chapel, Devonport, on the 21st May, to a very large audience, by the Rev. John Stock, LL.D. The attendance was most influential, including the Mayor (Mr. W. Peek), and Messrs. J. W. W. Ryder and J. May, borough magistrates, and many ministers of the town.

The rev. gentleman stated that his object in the delivery of the lecture was to set aside the false issues that some were seeking to raise with regard to the question that was now so largely occupying public attention. It had been said that the disestablishment and disendowment of the English Episcopal Church in Ireland would be a heavy blow and a great discouragement to Protestantism in that country; but he should endeavour to show them that that fear was perfectly visionary, and that, on the other hand, there was every reason to expect that the adoption of Mr. Gladstone's resolutions would issue in a glorious and blessed revival of sound Protestantism in the sister island. He must express his surprise at the very idea that the disestablishment and disendowment of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Ireland would be an injury to the cause of Protestantism itself, and he should further like to know how that effect was to be produced, because it should be remembered that it was not intended to touch a single doctrine of that church, a single rite, a single rubric, a single church service. It was not proposed to meddle with the church itself, but the arrangement was simply with respect to the loaves and fishes, and he had yet to learn that the loaves and fishes constituted any part of the moral power of any church in this kingdom. But it was strange that the people would run

away with the idea that the moment they began to meddle with the loaves and fishes of the Church they were laying their hands upon the very ark of God's covenant, and were going to stab the Church to death. When they bore in mind that that Church would remain a Church, that all its moral power would be still more efficient for good by the proposed change, he did not see why people should indulge in any fear for the progress of Protestantism, in view of the adoption of Mr. Gladstone's resolutions. In short, what there was that was good in that Church would become all the more powerful for good by the change which they contemplated. He asked them to look at the early history of the Church of Christ, when it was neither established or endowed, but was cruelly and bitterly persecuted by the State. The records of the Church bore testimony to the fact that during the first three centuries of her history she won her noblest triumphs, and what she did then in the face of persecution she could surely do now. If they looked at the early history of Protestantism they would see how its glorious principles won their way into men's hearts under persecution. They would recollect how Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and Hooper had sealed their testimony with their blood. Had they lost their faith in these truths? Surely if Protestantism could secure itself an influence in men's minds at the beginning of its history, disestablishment would not affect it now. Had Protestantism lost its power over men's hearts and consciences? Let them look at what the establishment and endowment of that Church had done for their Protestant principles in Ireland. One thing was clear, they were no nearer converting Ireland to the Protestant faith now than they were when they began. They could not be worse off than they were. Anything would be better than the existing state of affairs. They could lose nothing in Ireland, for the fact

was they had gained nothing to lose, and that, too, after three hundred years trial of the existing system. Surely the time was now come for demanding a change. For three

hundred years they had been trying to convert Ireland to Protestantism, by richly endowing the Protestant Church, and at present it occupied not one whit better position than when they commenced this process. He maintained that there would be a material gain by the adoption of the course proposed by Mr. Gladstone. He wished to put himself right with respect to the Irish clergy, and would say that he believed them to be the best samples of their class, and in this opinion he was borne out by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, as shown by the letter which was read at the great meeting at his tabernacle. The Irish Church, however, had been more than a failure, it had been a positive hindrance to the conversion of Irishmen to Protestant principles. The existence of that establishment in Ireland being a manifest wrong, and a badge of conquest, had irritated and prejudiced the Irish people against their principles. All Nonconformist missionaries testified to that fact.

The

whole of the Irish Roman Catholics declared as one man that the great wrong in their country was the existence of the Church establishment there, and truly they had reason for saying this. Irishmen were not specially difficult of conversion to the Protestant faith, away from Ireland. They were susceptible of Protestant influences. The United States of America had absorbed ten millions of Roman Catholics from all nations within the last thirty years, the greater portion of that number having gone from Ireland. Now, however, there were only four millions of Roman Catholics in the whole of the United States. That fact pointed its own moral; for it proved that when the Irish people got away from Ireland they were as hopeful subjects to work upon as any other men. In America they did not find the Irishman the bigotted Roman Catholic that they found him in his own country, because there was not that huge Protestant

establishment exasperating him and filling him with prejudices which made him all the more inaccessible to the truth of Christ. Even the Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland were cognizant of the fact that the Irish were converted away from the country, and in their pastorals they had stated that the people should not be encouraged to emigrate, because it led to their becoming heretics. Another point he was desirous of mentioning was that so long as the Irish establishment stood, the endowment of Maynooth would remain with all other connected endowments of the Church of Rome, and more than that, they might expect to have this principle of endowing Popery still more fully incorporated with their national legislation. That was the point urged in the petition to Parliament sent by his own church and congregation and other inhabitants of Devonport-a petition which was adopted by several other congregations in different parts of the kingdom, and which the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone honoured with quotation almost entire in his speech on Thursday, April 30th. The object of that petition was to fix in the minds of earnest Protestants the conviction that so long as the Irish Establishment existed they might give up all hope of getting rid of Maynooth endowments by the State, and other grants to Popery; and more than that, might expect to have to add much heavier grants to that system of error and delusion, in order to cover over somewhat the injustice of the Irish Establishment. They had an illustration of the correctness of this anticipation in the alarming fact that the present Ministry had proposed to create and endow a new sectarian Roman Catholic University in Ireland; and that, too, when the English Universities were becoming less and less exclusive, and were sure before long to be in every way worthy of the name of national institutions. The present Ministry were supposed to be pre-eminently the defenders of Protestant institutions, yet even they found themselves when in power politically obliged to originate such antiProtestant proposals as these in order