for advancement in the harmony of the Gospels; and he is anxious in his undertaking to avoid the faults which he has observed in preceding writers on the same subject, who have undertaken "at once too much and too little."

"Topics," he says, "in themselves comparatively trivial, and if relevant at all to the end contemplated, only relevant in the most remote degree, are handled with disproportionate assiduity and copiousness; while inquiries, vital to the argument, are slurred over with the most cursory mention. Of both extremes I have been anxious to keep clear; whatever topic seemed cognate to the main design, has received my best attention: whatever seemed cumbersome or excrescent, I have not scrupled to discard."

The author has availed himself of the researches of preceding writers, and has proposed his own view from a comparison of the facts and arguments supplied to his hands. Space does not permit us to do more than commend the general execution of the work as highly creditable to the author, as a scholar, and a divine. We extract the following remarks on the local origin of the Gospels:

66

Long before the close of the first century, as we have seen, each of the patriarchal cities had been furnished with what we may call its own use of the primary and purely historical Gospel. Jerusalem, receiving St. Matthew's narrative, had supplied it, not only to Palestine in the Hebrew, but to the Jews of the Dispersion in Greek; Antioch, receiving St. Luke's, had spread it throughout Syria, Asia Minor, and the Grecian Peninsula; Rome and Alexandria, receiving St. Mark's, had given it to the suffragan Churches, not only of Italy and Egypt, but of Europe and Asia generally. The original circulation of the earlier Gospels, I hold to have been precisely analogous to that of the ancient Liturgies."-p. 55.

This is a very striking remark, and opens out a field of thought. It seems an opening into the history of times on which so much obscurity rests, as those which immediately followed the history of the Acts of the Apostles.

xx.-The Lord's Prayer. Nine Sermons preached in the Chapel of Lincoln's Inn. By F. D. MAURICE, M.A., &c. London: Parker.

WE own to a slight sensation of surprise in opening the first of these sermons, where we find this Professor of Divinity in King's College, giving the Lord's Prayer the title of "the Pater-noster;" a mode of speaking which might induce a cursory reader to do a great injustice to Mr. Maurice's views. Judging from the volume

before us, this author cannot be suspected of any predilection for the Church of Rome, or indeed for any other system. "Priests" and "priesthoods" are his aversion, though he has experienced the misfortune of having been ordained "a priest." It is unfortunate for writers holding Mr. Maurice's views, that the Ordination Service is in existence, as their language on the subject of the priesthood is simply contradictory to the language of that formulary of the Church, as it is indeed to the Book of Common Prayer generally. Mr. Maurice censures the Church of England severely for her alleged neglect of the poor.

"Beneath all the distinctions of property and of rank lie the obligations of a common creation, redemption, and humanity; and these are not mere ultimate obligations to be confessed when the others are satisfied. .... The Church proclaims tacitly by her existence-she should have proclaimed openly by her voice-that property and rank are held upon this tenure; that they can stand by no other. Alas! she has not spoken out this truth clearly and strongly here or any where. She has fancied that it was her first work to watch over the protection of those who would have protected themselves well enough without her, provided she had been true to her vocation of caring for those whom the world did not care for, of protecting them continually, of fitting them to be citizens of any society on earth, by showing them what is implied in the heavenly filial citizenship into which God has freely adopted them. Failing in this duty, she has become powerless for the one she ignominiously preferred. She can give but feeble help to the rich in the hour of need, because she ministered to them with such sad fidelity in their hour of triumph and prosperity."-p. 65.

XXI.-An Abridgment of Wall's History of Infant Baptism. By the Rev. WILLIAM HENRY SPENCER. London: Rivingtons. THIS will be found a very complete and useful manual on the subject on which it treats. It contains an account of the works written in answer to Wall.

XXII.-The Youthful Christian Soldier; or, The Younger Members of the Church admonished of their Baptismal Vow, &c. By RICHARD, LORD BISHOP OF DOWN AND CONNOR, AND DROMORE. Dublin: Hodges and Smith. London: J. W. Parker.

THIS work comprises several Charges delivered by the Bishop of Down to candidates for Confirmation. They will be found useful, as furnishing hints for elementary instruction to young people by parish priests. There is much poetry in various parts of the volume, which will gratify many readers; indeed, throughout

there is little of stiffness or superfluous dignity. The right reverend author condescends to enlist our sympathies with the poet and the man, quite as much as he commands our respect for his religious sincerity and plainness of speaking.

XXIII.-Israel's Journeys and Stations in the Wilderness, considered as illustrative of the Christian Pilgrimage. By the Rev. W. CARDALL, M.A., &c. London: Hatchards.

THE Volume before us contains a series of lectures, in which the different events of the journey in the wilderness are regarded in an allegorical sense, as referring to the various events of the Christian's life on earth. Undoubtedly much pious and moral instruction may be connected with Scripture thus viewed, and the ancient Fathers wrote very generally in this way; but we think that it should be cautiously used; and that there may be doubts as to the expediency of pursuing it so far as Mr. Cardall has done in the work before us. Mr. Cardall is a disciple of the school of Mr. Simeon, and is familiar with its phraseology. His work appears to us to be written in a tone which is calculated to promote religious feelings in the hearers; but it has not much pretension to a high order of literary merit.

XXIV.-The Ministry of St. John the Baptist, and the Baptism and Temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ. An Exegetical Essay upon the First Three Gospels. By the Rev. EDGAR HUXTABLE, B.A., &c. London: J. W. Parker.

MR. Huxtable has, we think, afforded, in this essay, evidence of attainments and powers which are of no ordinary character; and which yield promise of valuable results hereafter. The style of this essay is pointed and condensed, and the research which it evidences is very considerable. We are glad to observe that he contemplates a more extended work of the same kind.

XXV.-Devotional Aids; being Reflections and Prayers intended to occupy the time and engage the attention of devout worshippers previous to the commencement of Divine Service. By A CHURCHMAN. London: Longmans.

A WELL-INTENDED little work, and one which appears perfectly unexceptionable in its contents. The idea strikes us as new. We should have supposed that the Prayer Book itself would furnish subjects enough of study and reflection to piously-disposed

persons.

XXVI. A History of Rome for Young Persons. By the Rev. SAMUEL FOX, M.A., F.S.A., &c. London: Masters.

THIS is just the history of Rome which ought to be put in the hands of children. It retains the old traditional history, to which we have all been accustomed, and which, though we know now to be in its earlier portions greatly mingled with fable, is yet necessary in order to enable young persons to comprehend the allusions and references of classical and other works. On this ground we should recommend a well-written compendium, like Mr. Fox's, in preference to any works conveying more critical views, reserving the latter for a more advanced stage in the course of education. Mr. Fox's book is the best work of the kind that we have seen.

XXVII.-Reflections on the European Revolution of 1848. By a SUPERIOR SPIRIT. London: Longmans.

WE certainly think the writer of this little volume was quite right in attempting to give an explanation of the meaning of his somewhat ambitious title. His meaning is, that he has contemplated the subject "from the highest attainable point of elevation," and not that he possesses "any mental or moral superiority." The "Superior Spirit," however, is not gifted with any prophetical power, and the whole aspect of political affairs in Europe has changed almost as rapidly in the last month or two as it did at the beginning of the year. Europe is a Kaleidescope in the multiplicity and rapidity of its changes; and there seems a prospect of the spirit of revolution being ridden down in the greater part of the Continent, either by the old monarchical principle, or in mere desperation at its results.

XXVIII. A Short Course of Grecian, Roman, and English History; written for the use of the lower classes of the junior department of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. By H. Le M. CHEPMELL, M.A. London: Whittaker.

THIS seems to be a well-executed compendium of history. One of its merits consists in the Chronological Tables which are prefixed to each chapter.

XXIX.-Instructions on Confirmation. To which is added a Manual of Devotions, &c. By the Rev. George Nugée, M.A. Curate of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge. London: J. H. Parker.

MR. Nugée has added another to the long list of Manuals of Confirmation already in existence. We think about twenty new

manuals per annum would not be too large an estimate of the number added. It is in some respects very satisfactory to see so many works on the subject. They are all very good, no doubt -but their number is becoming somewhat bewildering. Mr. Nugée's Manual is a very respectable one: but what chance has it of attracting notice amidst so many others of about equal pretensions? The swarm of publications on this subject is becoming nearly as dense as that of new sermons.

Xxx.-English Repetitions in Prose and Verse. For the use of the Senior Classes of Schools; with Introductory Remarks on the cultivation of taste in the young, through the medium of our own writers. By J. F. BOYES, M.A., &c. London: Whittaker. THE object of the work before us, is to furnish a collection of short passages from our best poets and other writers, to be committed to memory by children, with a view to create a taste for the beauties of literature. There is a very long and well-written Preface on the subject, deserving of much attention.

XXXI.-Scholia Hellenistica in Novum Testamentum, Philone et Josepho Patribus Apostolicis aliisque Ecclesiæ antiquæ Scriptoribus necnon Libris Apocryphis maxime deprompta. Instruxit atque ornavit Novi Testamenti Hellenistice illustrati Recens Editor. Londini: Pickering.

THE title of the volumes before us sufficiently explains their general object. They consist of a series of short extracts, in the original Greek, from Philo-Judæus, Josephus, the Apostolic Fathers, and occasionally from Chrysostom and other early writers, and from the Apocryphal books of the New Testament, interspersed with remarks of Grotius, Carpzov, Valckenaer, and other modern writers on Sacred Criticism. The extracts are arranged in connexion with each verse of the New Testament, and are accompanied by Scripture references. Mr. Grinfield must have bestowed a vast amount of labour in bringing together such a mass of erudition, bearing on the subject of the illustration of the New Testament; and we feel assured that his labours on so great a subject will be justly appreciated by the Church. His work is the fruit of a ripe scholarship, and we rarely meet now with such elegant Latinity as in his Preface, which it is a positive pleasure to peruse.