ponent of those great doctrines of the Bible that are true to man as man, irrespective of creeds and sects, the world over. But in most cases we have left the church with regret and disappointment. In some instances the sermon has been a manufacture woven out of some flimsy philosophic moralizings and dyed with all the attractive colours that the imagination could invent. The fabricating of such productions must have cost the preacher at least a week's hard labour. He looked so worn and wan that no Gospel shone on his face; still people who were fond of the gaudy and grand liked it. In other cases the preacher has been a mere actor, flinging out stolen thoughts as if they were his own, and assuming the attitudes and the looks of one on whose soul there rested an unearthly afflatus. On other occasions the whole discourse has been made up of Calvinian perversities and evangelic slang hooted forth with much animal fire and force. Dr. Parker's sermons stand in sublime contrast to all these. Every sentence has the true chime-the chime always tuneful to genuine souls. We cannot enter into a minute criticism of his discourses here; this shall be done in our "PREACHER'S DISSECTING ROOM" in some future number, and that by hands abler than our own.

ON SOME POINTS IN DISPUTE BETWEEN JEWS AND CHRISTIANS. Being an Examination of Twelve Sermons by Dr. Hermann Adler. London: Longmans & Green.

DR. HERMANN ADLER is a minister of the Old Testament: he is a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He is an able man, a scholar, and an authority in the - Synagogues. His book of twelve sermons is designed to prove that the Christ of the Gospel is not the Messiah of the Old Testament. He has selected some of the principal supposed Messianic passages of the Old Testament, and examined them with this intent. If his interpretations are accepted and his conclusions admitted, the world is yet without a Messiah, and it must, like old Simeon, yet wait for the "Consolation of Israel." The author of this pamphlet follows Dr. Adler step by step, with the keen eye of scrutiny, over the whole of his literary path. With that controversial generosity which springs only from a consciousness of having truth on one's side, he grants to his opponent much that justice would deny. As a controversial production this pamphlet is of rare worth. The author shows himself to be a Hebrew scholar capable of dealing with Dr. Alder on philological grounds, a reasoner capable of discovering fallacies and demolishing them, clearly propounding propositions and demonstrating them, and a gentleman superior to that base spirit which delights in misrepresenting and torturing an opponent. The investigation is searching, the reasoning is vigorous, the spirit is catholic, and the style is clear and trenchant.

A METRICAL STUDY OF THE BOOK OF JOB. By HENRY JOHN MARTEN. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

LAST week we travelled in a railway carriage with one of the most distinguished of our theatricals—one of the greatest tragedians of the age. In he course of conversation he referred to the Book of Job as one of the

grandest dramatic poems in all literature,—and so it is ;—so grand that we confess ourselves often afraid to select any portion as a text for comment or remark. It is not enough that a man be a scholar or a saint to handle this book aright: he must be a genius-he must have that faculty which will bear him up to the summits and down into the abysses of sen. timent it contains. He must have a soul that thrills with all that falls beneath his eye.

In the work before us the author shows himself to possess this faculty in a very high degree. The Book of Job does not suffer in any part from his treatment, whilst in some portion it gains a fuller if not a sublimer utterance. This is saying much. Mr. Marten has been exceedingly fortuuate in the selection of his metre; by it he preserves the loftiest expressions of the original, and oftentimes gives a sharper point to the argument in hand. Whilst thanking the author for this admirable production, and wishing for it what it richly deserves a large circulation-we cannot but express the hope of meeting him again in our literary walks.

I. SERMONS PREACHED IN RAMSGATE. BY HENRY BEVIS.

John Snow.

London:

II. SERMONS PREACHED IN CHRIST CHURCH, BRIGHTON. By the Rev. JAMES VAUGHAN, M.A. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row.

III. THE SOUL'S LIFE. By EDWARD GARBETT, M.A. London: The Religious Tract Society, 56, Paternoster Row.

IV. THE CHRISTIAN LIFE MANIFOLD AND ONE.

By BROOKE Foss. WESTCOTT, B.D. London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co. V.-CHRISTIAN FAITH. Five Sermons. By WILLIAM SAUMAREZ SMITH, M.A. London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co.

VI.-SERMONS PREACHED IN PLYMOUTH CHURCH, NEW YORK. BY HENRY WARD BEECHER. London: Richard D. Dickinson.

VII.-THE PROPHECIES OF OUR LORD and HIS APOSTLES. By W. HoFFMAN, D.D. Translated by Maurice Estans, B.A. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

We put all these volumes of sermons together, not because they belong by any means to the same class, for they differ widely in ability, doctrine, and spirit; but in order to economize space.

Volume No. I. are the sermons of a well-known Nonconformist minister, and they reflect credit upon his intellect and heart. We heard the author once many years ago, and we were greatly impressed with the thoughtfulness of the discourse. These sermons, though not marked by any striking originality, philosophic analysis, or rhetoric force, have qualities of a high order. They are intelligent, meditative, catholic, and devout. This volume will be welcomed by thousands from all parts of the country who have visited Ramsgate, and availed themselves of the ministry of this excellent man and able preacher.

Volume II. contains thirty-two short sermons. They are popular evangelic, and practical.

Volume III. contains twenty sermons by a well-known author, the vicar of Christ Church, Surbiton, and the able editor of the "Christian Advocate." He is just the man to write for the Religious Tract Society, thoroughly evangelical, in the conventional sense of that word, and very positive on all the points which he discusses. Those who appreciate the sermons of the late Frederick Robertson will have but little sympathy with these, but those who hold to the old standards will regard them as models of pulpit teaching.

Volume IV. contains six sermons preached in Peterborough Cathedral. The author says, "These sermons, the first-fruits of new work, are printed, partly that I may through them ask for the active sympathy of those among whom I have been called to labour, in the discharge of duties which at the present time may, as it seems, be made by God's blessing of peculiar benefit to the English Church; and partly that I may be myself reminded hereafter in times of failure and despondency of the thoughts which were ministered to me in the first cathedral services in which I was allowed to take part." The subjects of these sermons are :-Life Consecrated by the Ascension." 66 Many Gifts: One Spirit." "The Gospel of the Resurrection. "Sufficiency of God." "Action the Test of Faith."

66

Progress from the Confession of God." The author of these discourses is one of the ablest scholars and divines in the Episcopal Church of England, or indeed any other Church of England. Every page of his, whether we agree with him or not in sentiment, commands our respectful attention.

"The

Volume V. contains five sermons, the subjects of which are-" Christ's Question Concerning Himself-Christ Recognised." "Faith Struggling, or Honest Doubt." "Faith Triumphant, or Honest Assurance." Work of the Church of Christ." These sermons were preached before the University of Cambridge. The first two have especial reference to the Person of Christ; the next two relate to the inner life of Christians; and the last refers to the outward development, through the Church of Christian Faith." They are of the same class as Canon Westcott's, and can be heartily recommended.

Volume VI. Different opinions prevail as to Mr. Beecher as a preacher. Some write of him as the most wonderful man in the world, and his utterances the most divine that ever fell from human lips. Others speak of him as a man of boundless egotism, and reckless speech, uttering sometimes brilliant things and sometimes arrant nonsense, and all for popular effect. One thing 18 clear, that as we cannot do justice to our own cɩnvictions of him as he appears in these sermons, we must leave him for the present. He may appear one day in our "DISSECTING ROOM."

Volume VII. This volume contains twenty-one discourses. The central thought of all is-the great hope of the Apostolic Church, the glorious coming of the Lord for the completion of His kingdom. The author is a reverent and loving expounder of God's Word. We cannot endorse all his conclusions, but his discourses are pervaded by a large amount of quickening and refreshing thought.

A HOMILY

ON

Vails.

"But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart."-2 Cor. iii. 15.

HE whole of this chapter is a kind of episode in which the Apostle vindicates his apostleship both in its authority and dignity. It I would seem as if, among the Corinthians, there were some who had ventured, on some ground or other, to throw suspicion on the validity of his apostolic function. Now there were more ways than one in which he might vindicate that validity. He might adopt the historic method, as indeed he did on some occasions, and give a full history of his life, his conversion on his way to Damascus, and his supernatural call to spread the faith he once destroyed. He preferred, however, at present, a method more direct and practical. He reminds the Corinthians that he needs no letters of commendation either to them or from them, as if he were a suspected man. The certificates of his apostolic authority are found in the results of his apostolic labours. 66 Epistles," he says "I need no epistles to tell the world that I am Paul, a servant of Christ by the will of God, and a divinely appointed preacher of the Truth.

VOL. XXVI.

F

Ye are our epistles, written in our heart, known and read of all men. Nay, you are more than an epistle. We are but the pen, and another has held it. Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink or any such fading substance, but with the very Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart." And well might he declare the Corinthians to be his epistle, when on another occasion he reminds them of what they were when first he saw them: "Thieves, adulterers, fornicators," and such like, and what they have been made by the Gospel. "But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified;" what better testimonials did the Apostle need than men who had thus passed from death to life? But he disclaims all personal honour: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit-for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Then his imagination takes fire, and he proceeds to contrast the two dispensations of the Divine revelation, showing in several striking particulars the surpassing glory of the dispensation of life through Jesus Christ. Not that this surpassing glory is seen by all, for some of the Jews not perceiving that the coming in of a better hope abolished the economy of types and shadows, still cling to that abolished economy, and this because their eyes are blinded; for when Moses is read the vail is on their hearts. This expression is so remarkable and so profound, and points so strikingly, not simply to a fact which is true of the Jews, but to the same fact as still exemplified on a wider scale, that I venture to press it upon your attention this morning.

It is a question which cannot well fail to arrest a thoughtful mind, how it comes to pass that notwithstanding the fact that the Gospel is the truth of God, and the only truth by which we can be made wise unto salvation, the number of