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was one of the most fragrant flowers in the Lord's garden of sweet flowers, to which the Beloved so often cones to gather lilies. He was not a Boanerges-not after the quality of Knox and Luther, but a Barnabas, a son of consolation, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. He had a singular elegance and refinement of style, in which metaphors the most novel and charming abounded, like golden grains in Afric's sunny fountains, in his utterances he gave forth a pleasant sound, as of one that playeth well upon a goodly instrument; he was always

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musical with harmony of poetic illustration, but always musical with the notes of Christ, always sweet with the perfume of the atoning blood. He was a cedar in our Lebanon-alas! the axe has laid low his glories; he was a gem of purest ray serene, but he shines no longer in the coronet of the church below. He was a nursing-father to full many of the Lord's little ones, and now we mourn because they lack his help. May they find in God's Spirit an abundant supply of all-sufficient grace

Literature.

STARS OF EARTH; OR, WILD FLOWERS OF THE MONTH, by Leigh Page, is a delightful book, well written, excellently printed, charmingly illustrated, and elegantly finished in all respects. Its purpose is to entice the young to a country ramble each month, and to show them what loveliness adorns the earth in woods and lanes and sunny meadows, on the streamlet's banks, or on breezy moors. It has a further design; viz., to trace the power and love of the Creator in His works, and to assist in learning the lesson which is taught in every flower. But in place of any prosy preachings with a view to inculcate pious thoughts amidst these exploring rambles, we have well selected passages from our best poets, which most admirably suit the moral purpose of the author, and which minister wholesome entertainment to the reader. To all who have a bent for botanizing, and who feel their need of a silent instructor in their earlier essays in this most pleasing science, we recommend the purchase of Leigh Page's "Stars of Earth."

NOBLE RIVERS AND THEIR STORIES.* By Anne J. Buckland, Author of "The Little Warringtons," &c. In a style somewhat plainer, but not less neat than the foregoing volume, is this well conceived and equally well executed

work on Rivers. Beginning with the Jordan, which, running through the Land called Holy, may be regarded as the most sacred of rivers, the author notices in succession the Euphrates, the Nile, the Cyduns, the Tiber, the Rhine, and lastly our own Father Thames. Without any detailed description of the peculiar features of these familiar streams, such as most Cyclopedias contain, we are told what is most interesting about them in connection with important historical events, and with the lives of illustrious men. Biblical narratives are used where they are available, and more modern information is added from the researches of recent travellers. A good knowledge of these rivers may be got from this handy volume, and the acquisition of the knowledge is rendered all the easier by the lively stories which are told of them.

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* Edinburgh: Johnstone, Hunter, & Co.

drawn, and the incidents have such an air of reality about them, that welleducated readers may find in this small book what is both fascinating and useful.-A still more attractive book, especially to youthful readers, issued by the same Publishers, is the one called, "DOWN AMONG THE WATER Weeds." Here we have a few plates giving the forms that are to be found in stagnant waters, and five brief chapters descriptive of the marvels of Pond Life. For the special benefit of our younger readers, we give one of these chapters in another part of the Magazine, as a specimen of the manner in which science may be taught.

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THE HOLY CHILD,* a Poem in Four Cantos, and other Poems, by Stephen Jenner, M.A., professes to be founded on Holman Hunt's celebrated picture of "Our Saviour in the Temple.' Good poetry, though it may be less striking in its creations than good painting, is certainly more instructive, and as sister arts they may assist and supplement one another. Mr. Jenner has rightly judged that as paintings are very dear and poems are usually cheap, thousands may read the latter who might never see the former. But in undertaking to compose a poem designed to be a fit companion of so fine a picture, his muse takes a very adventurous flight, and he may be supposed to have some misgiving about his success. In the Preface the author professes to rely for public favour more on the merit of the subject of his performance than on the manner in which he has treated it. This, to say the least, is a very simple sort of plea; for no one deserves any credit for choosing a lofty theme unless his thoughts and style are on something near a level with it. If, however, our author's plea be inadmissible, his frankness may be admired in acknowledging the defects and blemishes of his work, and promising an attempt to improve it should general approval be shown to it. A lover of poetry, he disclaims all pretension to the "faculty divine." But this seems to be disclaiming too much. "The Holy Child" is a Poem, and its writer could not have made it half as good as it is if he

London: Longmans, Green, & Co.

had been wholly lacking in poetic genius. Acute criticism may discover faults which it will tax his skill to amend; but our cursory reading leaves on the mind an impression of the superior excellence of the work.

THE AUTUMN DREAM,* by Mr. Sheppard, is a fine old poem in a new edition enlarged. Besides much beautiful poetry, the volume contains no small amount of sound theology and genuine philosophy. The venerable author deserves thanks for reviving the pleasing recollections of older readers, and for supplying what is in effect a new book to the rising generation. Mr. Stock, the publisher, has issued the work in the clearest type, on good paper, with the additional merit of having its edges smoothly cut.

DAILY DEVOTIONS FOR CHILDREN,* by Mrs. Hinsdale, is a small collection of hymns and prayers suggested by her own domestic experience as a mother. Other Christian parents may be glad to know that there is so good a little book to be obtained as a monitor and help to their children to form in childhood the habit of daily prayer.

THE PAPERS read at the late Autumnal Session of the Baptist Union are printed in a pleasant form, under the title of the "Cardiff Memorial." The names of the writers are a sufficient guarantee for the value of the volume, and all Baptists who are interested in these autumnal assemblies of the united body should possess it.

THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CHRIST TO THE CHRISTIAN BELIEVER was the topic of a sermon by the Rev. F. R. Young, of New Swindon, before the General Baptist Association at Dover in August last. Discarding, for the most part, what is critical and controversial, the preacher applied himself to one purpose that of maintaining that to every believer in Christ He is and must be precious. To shew this, in agreement with the experience of millions in the past and the present, Mr. Young frames a series of independent propositions, and defends and illustrates them in a clear style and an earnest spirit. That a sermon like this should have been heard with such high favour

London: Elliot Stock

in the Old Connexion as to be printed at its cost, is to us an additional proof that evangelical doctrine has not been entirely eliminated from it. We thank the Assembly for this salutary publication. At the same time we qualify our commendation of it by demurring at the author's confession, "that he never yet saw any arguments to convince him that the doctrine of a Tri-personality of God, including the doctrine of our Lord's Deity, is either Scriptural or true." We humbly suggest that "arguments" to work conviction on this subject are not needed. Whatever is contained in Scripture is Scriptural, and what is Scriptural is true. The Deity of our Lord is a matter of pure revelation, and must be accepted on the same testimony as that which teaches His perfect Humanity. If we remove the doctrine from the higher region of faith, and reduce it to the lower province of reason, we may wrangle about it for ever without any proper result. The preciousness of Christ to us is both realized and regulated by our knowledge, love, and trust; or, in one word, by our acceptance of Him. And we must "receive" Him, not as the Christ of History or of Dogma, of the Schools or the Churches, but as 66 Christ Jesus the Lord" of Divine Revelation.

THE CHRISTIAN MOTHER AT HOME; her Duties and Delights, is the title of a goodly little book by one eminently qualified to write it. Our never to be forgotten friend, the late Mr. Winks, of Leicester, while acting much in public, and while widely known abroad, was eminently domestic in his tastes, and a special lover of home life. Few men have laboured longer and more efficiently to promote education in schools, particularly in Sunday schools. But he was equally anxious to promote the best welfare of families. posthumous work is a proof of his abiding solicitude for the succession of "a godly seed" in religious households, and we anticipate for it a wide circulation and a beneficial influence. topics treated of are, the Mother and her Babe-Mother's First LessonsMother in the Family-Mother the Best Teacher-Mother's Loving Influence-Maternal Success, and the Importance of Maternal Efforts. These points are discussed with pertinency

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and force, and the discussion is enlivened with appropriate illustrations. A preface to the book by Thomas Cooper, though too brief, enhances its value, and supplies information as to the early days of Mr. Winks, which all who knew him will read with interest. We strongly recommend the work not merely to Christian mothers, but to Christian fathers, and to all who would help in promoting family religion.

From the Religious Tract Society we have received THE COTTAGER, with its large type and pictorial embellishments; and as this is the only one of the Society's many works which has been forwarded, we may well afford it unmodified praise.-CHRISTIAN WORK gives us the last of the twelve months' instalment of the "News of the Churches," and completes a volume of great value. THE SWORD AND TROWEL, at the end of its third year, seems as sharp and as bright as when it first began to be wielded by its dexterous handler. THE SCATTERED NATION, the only organ of converted Jews, has a special sphere, and is do-ing well its own work within that sphere. But it speaks some truths which require to be regarded by Gentile Christians, and it deserves general support.

THE CHRISTIAN SPECTATOR, after sixteen yearly volumes, on which some of the highest talent of the Nonconformist bodies has been employed, is coming out in an enlarged form, and under a new name. As the Free Churchman —a good title—we shall be glad to see it elevated to the position occupied in days of yore by the "Eclectic Review." The sphere so well filled by that old favourite of our dissenting forefathers has been, for some time past, nearly vacant; and we shall be simply doing what is due to our ancestry, to ourselves, and to our descendants, by insuring the widest possible circulation of the "Free Churchman," at one shilling monthly.-THE HOMILIST is to have the benefit of some new contributors; and the PULPIT ANALYST, during the present year at least, is to have some new Editor in place of Dr. Parker, its originator.-For Sunday school teachers Mr. E. Stock is providing a storehouse of materials, in a new penny monthly called THE Hive.

Poetry.

PRINCIPIUM ANNI.

"My days are passed away as the swift ships."-Job ix. 26. Fugit irrevocabile tempus.

THE advent of another year
Rekindles hope, and wakens fear;

Resolve, my soul, the sum of life,
The meaning of its ceaseless strife.

How brief-the animal survives,
In cases known, our longest lives;
Before me was that spreading tree,
And destined after me to be.

For ages that poor grain of sand
Has glittered on its sea-washed strand;
Beneath those venerable spheres
I dare not count my foolish years.
How swift-we shudder to look back
Upon our closing fading track;

O! why this rush through time and space?

And whither tends our rapid race?

What change-but yesterday a child;
To-day sweet hope on youth has smiled;
To-morrow comes with thin white hair;
And feeble steps oppressed with care.

Uncertain-shall I hear those bells

A twelvemonth hence? Their music swells With hope; but then saith fear

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O thus with mingled hopes and fears
We cross the limits of the years;

What is the end of this brief life?
The wherefore of its feeble strife?

I've seen a distant sail gleam white
Against the sky, then fade from sight,

Much musing whence at first it came,
And what fair shore it yet might gain.
Swift sailing o'er times solemn sea
My whence, or where, I cannot see-
The gateless vast horizon round,
And depths beneath I cannot sound.

speak and signal as I go,

But fellow-sailors little know;

They who have reached some unseen

shore

No tidings send, return no more.

No answer from the old gray sea,
The wild winds nothing tell to me,
When asking-" Wherefore am I hear?
And where go they who disappear?"

Yet answer comes-the Life of Life
Speaks when we call-speaks o'er the strife
Of inward fear and secret doubt,
And wildest wind and wave without.
E. H. J.

Correspondence.

N.B.-The Editor disclaims all responsibility for the opinions expressed, and for the language used, in the letters inserted in this part of the Magazine. He wishes to encourage proper freedom of discussion, and hopes nothing will find favour with any reader but what is true and pure in thought and word.

STATE OF THE DENOMINATION. TO THE EDITOR

Dear Sir,-As there has been a good deal of correspondence lately in the

Magazine upon the Decrease of the Denomination, perhaps you will allow me to refer to one thing which has not at present been touched upon, but which in my judgment, occupies a very prominent position in connection with that decrease, viz., the small stipend of many of our ministers.

Now sir, I know many, perhaps most, of our churches are poor, and I know they cannot do so much in this direction as larger and more wealthy denominations; but do they do so much as they might?

I am inclined to think they do not, and I am persuaded that while such is the fact we must necessarily decline in numbers and denominational status.

One of the most important concomitants of a successful and flourishing denomination is an educated as well as an earnest ministry; but how can we expect men of ability and classical attainments to continue in a connexion upon the miserable pittances which are offered by many of our churches as the salaries upon which they are expected to live, and on which they are expected to bring up their families? Sir, it seems to me altogether unreasonable.

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I know some people have a stupid, I could almost say heathenish, sort of notion that ministers should never be so well off as other people, but should be kept in a condition of respectable poverty, believing that thereby they must be more "pious." But it seems to me that piety is a thing that is independent of either threadbare coats "seedy" trousers, and that it may develop as 'thoroughly under a covering of best "West of England" broadcloth as under any poor substitute for it the unfortunate wearer may have to put up with. There is nothing, in my judgment, inconsistent with "heavenly-mindness" in a good dinner every day as well as once a week, and a man may be as

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exemplary a saint" when his toes are inside his boots as well as when they are out. Ministers should preach for heavenly. crowns, but that is no reason why they should not have as many earthly "crowns" as are necessary before they are privileged to get there; and to my thinking a man must have made very bad use of his New Testament, and his Old one too for the matter of that, who endeavours to maintain otherwise.

But sir, there is a serious aspect to this question. "Cheap and nasty" go together in connection with the ministrations of pulpits as well as in the building of "London houses;" and if people will have their pulpit supplied so much on the former they must expect to have a good deal of the latter, and they cannot have that without seriously injuring their various causes and the denomination at large.

The time is fast going by when intelligent people will submit to listen to empty puerilities or doses of theological

balderdash, whether from "regular" or "occasional ministers," and if churches will keep the former on such a miserable stipend, and offer to the latter such a paltry pittance for his day's services in connection with their pulpit they must expect to have men who indulge somewhat in both, and as the result to lose most of the best people in their congregations, as well as a great deal of their spiritual power.

For I believe many of our churches, and especially those in the villages, are going absolutely "to the dogs" through nothing but their niggardliness. They seem to have set up this niggardliness as though it were a Christian virtue, and to act upon it to such a degree that, in some caes only such men as would almost pay to hear themselves talk can be got to stand in their pulpits.

If the General Baptist denomination would know one means for preventing any further decrease in its members, let it pay its preachers, both stated and occasional, better than it does at present, and it will ascertain it at once. Yours faithfully,

JARVIS READ.

Leicester, 9th Dec., 1867.

ISLEHAM CHURCH

WE are asked to contradict the account given in the last Mimutes, or Year Book, respecting the State of the Church at Isleham. This we decline to do, at the same time we give our opinion on two points mentioned in the correspondence to which the published statement has given rise.

The first point is the expulsion of church members. They may be of the school of Diotrephes, or they may be of "the synagogue of Satan;" but to hold a church-meeting respecting them to which they have not been cited, and at which they have no opportunity of speaking for themselves, is a violation of one of the first principles of justice. And to condemn them, by the extreme act of exclusion, before they even know that they are on their trial, is about as criminal a step as could be taken. Surely a church-meeting should be as righteous a thing as a court of law.

The other point is the unauthorized manner in which some annual reports of

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