A FRIENDLY LETTER ANSWERED.

WE have received a very earnest and persuasive letter from a correspondent who gives no name, or clue by which to find her; who announces herself a member of the Roman Catholic community, and urgently calls on us to join it also; adducing the examples of Mr. Spenser, Miss Agnew, and others. She also charges us with unjust severity, in treating of her religion; and, indeed, with " bearing false witness against our neighbour;" at the same time enumerating several books that she wishes us to read for instruction in what she conceives to be the true faith. All this is couched in language that evidently flows from a heart unfeignedly desirous of advancing God's glory, and benefitting the soul of a fellow-creature; and instead of a brief "notice to correspondents," which she seems to request, we must devote a page or two to her letter, the sisterly kindness of which really awoke a most grateful feeling, and calls for our sincere and affectionate thanks; which we thus offer; most earnestly beseeching the Lord, that the prayers which she puts up for us may be returned manyfold in blessings to herself; more especially in that richest of all blessings, the liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free.

The view that we take of the Romish system, the deep anxiety that we feel for every soul held in its bondage, and for every soul in danger of being in

volved in it, results from the very process recommended and pressed upon us by our unknown friend. More than twenty years ago, we were united in a work of charity with a most interesting nun; and in the progress of that work, the instruction of a poor little deaf and dumb girl, we frequently visited the convent. The Nun was one who had been, like Miss Agnew and others, led to forsake the Protestant more anxious than our

faith, and she was even far correspondent can be to draw one whom she dearly and personally loved to follow her. Acting, avowedly under the direction of a very learned priest, she selected for our perusal the most convincing books that could be pointed out which we honestly and attentively read; never opening a page of controversy on the other side, but bringing every doctrine, every argument, every assertion to the one sure test of all-the Holy Scriptures. On our knees before God, who has so distinctly promised that to all who ask wisdom of Him it shall be liberally given, we sought to be led into all truth; most firmly resolved to follow whatsoever was according to the revelation made of the Divine will in the Divine word. Thus, and thus only, we became acquainted with the depths which before we had not known; and seeing the religion of Rome as it is depicted by its own most wary controversialists, and as it was evidenced in the daily walk of its professors, we still resolved not to form a judgment from these of the system itself. We procured, and carefully studied, the authenticated laws of that body-its creeds; the decrees of councils; and, finally, the books used at its devotional services.

Could our new friend desire a more candid inves

the relation of his hardened deportment, perhaps, rejoice that we are not condemned to have our path crossed by one so depraved, so lost. Lost, that he may be found! This noble, this honoured, this beloved disciple of Him who came to seek and to save that which was lost, takes up the position of a medical officer on board the Convict Ship, and—but let those who love the Lord read the narrative, and pray for grace, each in his or her own little sphere, to go and do likewise. No one need fear to place the volume in the hands even of children: there is not a word in it to shock the most fastidious delicacy ; Severe indisposition has prevented our missionary brother from even re-writing his original notes; but they needed it not.

Our readers might help in this blessed work by assisting to supply books of real, serious, solid instruction, to be placed at Dr. Browning's disposal: they may help by praying for the distant, scattered flock, who are left in the midst of snares and sorrows on the penal settlements; and by asking fresh supplies of bodily strength, and of abounding grace from the Lord whom he serves.

The description of the thunder storm at sea, with its consequences, is of most thrilling interest: and the little memoirs, and letters, of awakened convicts are beautiful. All the good seed gladly received may not abide to the bringing forth of solid fruit: but let Dr. Browning bear this in mind, that, not according to the measure of perseverance in the individuals thus taught, but according as he has SOWED, even so shall HE reap when the Lord of the harvest comes to claim his own. Man may judge us by the success of our efforts; God looks at the efforts themselves.

ARITHMOLOGY; or Theory of common Arithmetic, fully proved without Algebra. By S. E. Caspersonn, M.B.-Dalton.

We are not yet come to the end of all the ologies, it seems; and if they were all as useful as this, we should not wish to do so. Arithmetic, as taught, we believe universally, consists of a number of very dry rules, the indelible impression of which on the memory is necessary to any thing like a decent proficiency in a most necessary science; and this is a hard imposition on some memories! Many an hour is wasted, many a head-ache incurred, many a game of healthful play unfairly curtailed, and valuable opportunities for inculcating far more important truths sacrificed, to the dire necessity of cramming the young brain with what is often most uncongenial matter. To arrive at the philosophy of the thing, to obtain even a why or a wherefore for these despotic rules, the perplexing study of Algebra is needful; and though there are some minds to which it affords high enjoyment, we believe that the majority of teachers, and an overpowering show of hands among the taught, will decide in favour of a most simple, practical, comprehensible exposition of the foundation on which the science rests; enabling the learner who may have forgotten some set of rules to recal them, by a fair knowledge of the theory itself. Such a work is the present. The author is a man of solid learning, complete master of his subject, in all its heights and depths, who has drawn up this admirable little ology (it is a very small book of sixty pages) for the benefit of those who may be neither able nor willing to plunge into Algebra.

We do not praise the work because we well know and dearly love the writer; nor because he is a son of Abraham according to the flesh, and an heir by faith too; but because we see and feel its intrinsic worth, and conscientiously believe that it will, both to old and young, be a real boon, of great and permanent value.

THE SABBATH QUESTION ILLUSTRATED: By a Roadside Enquirer.-Seeleys.

WE have often wished to see this momentous subject treated in a popular style; and graphically set forth in some of its more prominent features. The volume before us does So: a worldly, thoughtless young man, being asked to sign a petition in favour of Sabbath legislation, demands a reason why he should do so; and is persuaded to devote some summer weeks to a home tour, in search of such reason. He falls in with various parties, under a variety of circumstances, all of which bear on the subject in question; and he brings back with him not only very abundant reasons for strenuously aiding in the good work, but a far deeper insight into his own heart, and a purer mainspring of motive and action than he before possessed.

We think and believe that the book will do much good: it can hardly be called a fiction, seeing that every thing represented is actually taking place throughout the country; and though an imaginary person is introduced, it is merely that the reader may sce, with another pair of eyes, what must otherwise