dencies of mere scepticism and in favor of positive Christian faith, in their present practical relation to our country and its prospects. He is hopeful, believing that unbelief has already done its utmost. He scruples not to say of "many of our modern sceptics" that they "hate religion with the hatred which the carnal mind always feels toward spiritual forces and results." We like his direct and fearless onset. Touching a smaller matter, we add that "our midst," on p. 13, is an 66 Americanism" at the best.

THE MINISTRY WE NEED.*-In keeping with the title, this work of Dr. Sweetser is designed to set forth the qualifications required of Christian ministers, especially at this day. "Confidence in the Truth," "The Love of Christ," "The Peculiarity of the Times, "The Intellectual Activity of the Age," are among the subjects that give names to the fourteen chapters. The standing of the respected author, as well as the office of publication, will be regarded as a guaranty of the evangelical and conservative views represented. We have examined it enough to see that the treatment of the theme is earnest, judicious, and timely. Especially we commend the estimate put, in the second chapter, on strong convictions of the truth. But the designation of the writer on the title page is needlessly curt. Why omit his well known honorary title, and even reduce his Christian name to the initial?

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY.t-Besides discoursing from the pulpit to large assemblies, Dr. Hall is known to have conducted a "Ladies' Bible Class" in the congregation under his care, with the happiest success, and referring to it in a "prefatory note," he tells us that during the past winter it was sought "to bring the principles of the Holy Word to bear on some of the questions which, in greater or less degree, occupy attention at the present time." The preparations for this class, he tells us, have furnished chiefly the twenty-five chapters of this volume. Modestly disclaiming effort toward "curious felicity" of expression, and that sort of discussion which would have been unsuited to his pupils, he has sought to bring the instructions of the Bible to bear on subjects

* The Ministry we need. By S. SWEETSER. Published by the American Tract Society. 16mo, pp. 123.

+ Questions of the Day. By the Rev. JOHN HALL, D.D., Pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York, author of "Papers for Home Reading," etc. New York: Dodd & Mead, 762 Broadway. 1873. 12mo, pp. 343.

now more or less debated. Some of the titles of the chapters, which are all in the form of questions, are : Is the Human Race

"What

one ?" "Should we pray?" "Who can forgive sins?" is the Baptism of Fire ?" "What altar have we ?" "Is Spiritualism in the Bible ?" "What have the Old Catholics' to do?" The instructions, it will be seen, are directed against diverse errors, whether of superstition or rationalism. They are marked by the clear good sense, candor, simplicity of style, and devoutness of spirit, that make the author indeed a model preacher, as well as one of the most popular in our time and country.

RESPONSIVE WORSHIP.*" This little book," as the writer modestly calls it, is a sermon, in a revised form, preached by Dr. Budington-whose name alone will sufficiently recommend it to our readers-in connection with the introduction, in the congregation under his care, of the responsive reading of the Psalms as a part of public worship, with a preface showing the "order of service" now established among them. It is an argument for the ancient, scriptural, and edifying character of this usage. As a discussion, it is marked by the genial temper, considerateness, persuasive style that distinguish the writer, and is well fitted to serve elsewhere, as in its original use, to recommend the practice among the most conservative of our Congregational and Presbyterian churches. The discourse itself is followed by seventeen pages of illustrative notes, and twenty-five more of letters addressed to the author by nine clergymen, in sympathy with his design, after reading the address in an earlier form. The appearance of the volume is every way pleasing.

PARTING WORDS OF ADOLPHE MONOD.-The eminence of the preacher as one of the chief ornaments of the French Protestant pulpit in our day, the tenderness and sweetness of the addresses themselves, and their evangelic richness, and even more the occasion that called them forth, cannot fail to win attention here to this work in the translation, as before in France to the original. The portrait, obtained through a daguerreotype of the saintly

* Responsive Worship; a Discourse, with Notes, by WM. IVES BUDINGTON, D.D. A. S. Barnes & Co. 1873. 16mo, pp. 84.

Les Adieux d'Adolphe Monod.-The parting words of Adolphe Monod to his friends and the Church, October, 1855, to March, 1856. [Translated from the fifth Paris edition.] New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1873. 24mo, pp. 205.

1873.]

Notices of New Books.

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and eloquent man as he thus preached from his sick bed, would itself disarm criticism. Every Sunday, for nearly six months before his death, after a long and severe illness, desiring to set forth the gospel to the last, he addressed a circle of thirty or forty friends, including his own family, and varied to accommodate as many as the bedroom would allow, partaking with them of the Lord's Supper, in accordance with his liberal spirit ministers of different denominations presiding in the ministration. The discourses here brought together were transcribed from notes taken by his children, and the English style betrays no such disadvantage as is often felt from the process of translation. The print and paper befit the unique interest of the contents.

MISCELLANEOUS.

LIFE OF BISHOP ASBURY.*-Methodism has of late years deservedly attracted increased attention from the Christian world. If the last biographer of Wesley be reckoned extravagant in calling it the most important fact in the history of Christianity, yet as a religious movement, in its rise, growth, and results, it is unquestionably among the most memorable and instructive things in modern history. The Methodists of our day have a weighty responsibility put on them by such traditions, and they are watched accordingly with some solicitude, in behalf of the common cause, by brethren of other denominations. Wesley has found worthy biographers among his followers and out of their ranks, and Dr. Stevens' work must keep the high place it at once gained as a history of Methodism. No better contributions to a just view of the subject can be had than from the journals of the men who deserve all honor as the pioneers and champions of so great a movement. Wesley's own journal will repay the reading of every Christian or even every thoughtful student. Bishop Asbury stands high. among his most successful followers, and the book before us is an account of him in that form which, especially since the success of Carlyle's "Cromwell," is understood to be the best sort of biography, letting him speak for himself, or being made up, excepting of course the narrative of his last hours, almost entirely of extracts from his journal. The engraved portrait answers for its

* The Character and Career of Francis Asbury, Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Illustrated by numerous selections from his Journal, arranged in chronological order. By Rev. EDWARD L. JANES. New York: Carlton & Lanahan. 1873. 12mo, pp. 615.

own fidelity in the expression of the face, and as well in the fashion of the dress and the cut of the hair, which, if now obsolete, are still remembered as belonging to the type of the "Methodist preacher." The preface is a just and becoming tribute, and a large table of contents adds to the value of the book for reference. The journal tells its own story, and a wonderful one it is, of "labors," and "perils," and "infirmities," the "work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope." The delineation is apostolic, only needing "stripes" and "imprisonments" and martyrdom so called, to make out a startling likeness to such an evangelist as Paul. About forty-five of the fifty years of his ministry, till his death in 1861 at the age of seventy-one, were employed in this country, and the memoirs from his own pen begin with his coming hither. The editor tells us that "in his unparalleled itinerant career he preached about sixteen thousand five hundred sermons, or at least one a day, and traveled about two hundred and seventy thousand miles, or six thousand a year." And all this was done not with robust health, but rather, as in the case of Paul and so many other laborious preachers, in spite of illnesses and pains. American readers will take particular interest in the notes of such a preacher's visits to some of our older towns, and the introduction of Methodism in contact with things as they were in Church and State almost a century ago, as in what he records of New Haven and New London. It may be observed, also, that he entered upon his great work very much after the manner of the Friends when they go forth on their religious errands, as when he says, "Before this (1771) I had felt for half a year strong intimations in my mind that I should visit America, which I laid before the Lord, being unwilling to do my own will, or to run before I was sent." But we can only refer our readers to the book itself for much more that we should like to speak of, adding the tribute of our reverence to so devoted a servant of the "one Lord," and the prayer that even in these days many may be raised up in a real succession" to this apostleship, not only among those who call themselves Methodists but among all who are 66 called Christians."

LARS.*-Having felt obliged to speak disparagingly, in a former number of this Journal, of Mr. Taylor's "Masque of the Gods," we take the more pleasure in commending this beautiful poem,

* Lars: a Pastoral of Norway, by Bayard Taylor. Boston: James R, Osgood & Co. 1873, 16mo, pp. 144.

with its attractive accessories of paper, type, and binding. It answers to its title, a "Pastoral of Norway," depicting Norwegian scenery and wilder Norwegian manners, and the latter the more strikingly for the marked contrast exhibited as the story advances. The first of the three books delineates the heroine Brita and her two lovers, Lars and Per, between whom she holds the balance. provokingly even till they fight each other hooked together in the fiercest of death-struggles, and then she scornfully rejects Lars, though himself wounded, for the love of his slain rival. The second book describes him going into exile, not through fear of the revenge vowed by Per's brother, but in grief and despair for Brita, and wandering till he comes into a settlement of Friends in Delaware, where he finds relief and attraction in the contrast, and especially in Ruth Medenhall. After inward struggles and through the discipline of contact with the saintly lives about him, he becomes her husband and himself a Friend. In the third book they set out for Norway, impelled by the philanthropic impulses that move the Friends on so many errands, and tarrying a little among English brethren, take up their abode among his own people, where they make converts, and he wins the victory of peace over his former sworn enemy, Per's brother and avenger, by non-resistance, when others have pitted them for conflict, and Brita is herself won by the saintly bride. It will be seen at once that to delineate such a transformation of character and such contrasts of principles and manners was a task of no little delicacy. The chief figures, with their subordinates not here mentioned, are happily drawn, and the effect is harmonious and pleasing. The Friends may well accept the tribute here paid them. And the poem is aptly introduced by graceful stanzas to Whittier.

THE YEAR.*—A series of poems on the successive months of the year and the seasons and Christmas, with a dedication to the now venerable John Neal, whose name we are pleased to see in this connection, and a few pages added of commendatory notices from various prints of an earlier volume of poems from the same pen. We have marked correct sentiment and regularity of measure and rhyme in these pieces, with some fervor of evangelic thought in "Christmas," and from notices that have come under our eye we judge the author to have the esteem and good will of his personal acquaintances. The mechanical execution of the book is excellent.

*The Year. By D. C. COLESWORTHY. Boston: Lee & Shepard. 1873. 16mo, pp. 120.