sermons, and pamphlets,* is in itself a great gain. And here we do not limit the remark to those which have appeared on the orthodox side. Thus Lord Congleton is compelled to admit that the denial of regeneration to infants in Baptism, must lead by strict logical consequence, to the denial of infant Baptism altogether. Thus by the pressure of a similar necessity, a Mr. Best of Sheffield, has invented a theory, which we believe to be as novel, as it will by all parties be considered untenable. Like Lord Congleton, he is forced, much against his will, to admit baptismal regeneration to be the doctrine of the Church; and then adds this extraordinary limitation, that regeneration implies forgiveness of sins, but not the gift of the HOLY GHOST! In other words, we have one of the Evangelical" party become the advocate of Justification by Baptism! While, intermediate between writers such as these and those who receive the entire dogmatic teaching of the Church, it is something to have such writers as Dr. Croly, and Mr. Vaughan of Leicester, come forward as champions on the right side.

These are strong reasons why we should not despair: yea, they are grounds of hope, that if we can of God's mercy rid ourselves of this most dishonest judgment, the Church will have before her a future of great promise. Still as yet that judgment remains, and the court that ruled it. And while they do remain, the Church is both tolerating heresy, and the probable source of further deviations from the truth. How long a Church may continue in such a state by compulsion, without forfeiting the promises of GOD, is a question that will be very differently answered by different individuals. Mr. Gresley looks forward to a few more such cases" as indispensable preliminaries to our success. If this be merely to say that we should not venture to put limits to the long-suffering of GOD, the statement may be allowable; but he should be careful, we think, not to appear to justify the apathy of the indifferent: if Bishops and Priests are not aroused now to the dangers of the Church, we can scarcely see what further warning is to be expected. Or, rather, if we turn a deaf ear now, may not God most justly reply hereafter, "Because I have called and ye refused, . . I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh ?"

* Among many that have interested us, we may specify "A few Remarks on the Gorham case, by a layman," published at Philadelphia. It quotes largely from two previous articles in the "Ecclesiastic."

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

Philip the Second. A Tragedy. By N. T. MOILE.

London; Lowe.

THERE is much real poetic talent displayed in the composition of this tragedy, and we are therefore the more disposed to regret that it should be expended on so ill-chosen and unworthy a subject. All gifts of the intellect are designed to work for the glory of GoD or the good of man, and we cannot see that either of those ends are promoted in a poem which from its very power and beauty excites our compassion for the victims of unlawful affection, and displays before us the triumph of the passion of revenge, over the holy tie that should bind the father and the son in love. The portraiture of evil can never be advantageous, except it be shown to us in all its native hideousness with a view to excite our abhorrence, and even then the experiment is a very doubtful one. There is a far safer and more legitimate exercise of talent, in seeking rather to allure men to that which is good by causing the fire of genius to light up the beauty of holiness. We sincerely trust that the author will cultivate his great natural powers; but we would earnestly recommend him in future to choose for his theme instead of the crimes of a Spanish king, some of the holy and noble deeds of Christian men of old, for which we think his high-wrought tone of feeling and graphic style peculiarly fitted.

Faith and Practice. Being sundry thoughts in Verse. By a Country. Curate.

THE title given to this little volume of very tolerable verses seems to us much too comprehensive and important. The entire Faith and Practice of Christians would indeed require a far more extensive and powerful enunciation than we could expect to find in a work like this. For all else, so far as it goes, we will gladly recommend this pleasing little book. The actual poetry is not very striking, nor the doctrinal teaching strongly marked; but every line breathes so pure and excellent a spirit, that we cannot but reverence therein the evident traces of that deepest wisdom which is attained by the practice of holiness. We doubt not it may be a soothing pleasure to many to find in these little poems the echo of those thoughts which are stirred in the heart by the contemplation of holy things. We could wish, however, that the author had abstained from treating in mere verse of a matter so infinitely holy and awful as the Blessed Eucharist. It has ever seemed to us the great evil of sacred poetry that it induces the too familiar handling of High Mysteries; although in this individual case there is evidently the feeling and desire of deep reverence.

Cabramatta, and Woodleigh Farm. By MRS. FRANCES VIDAL, Author of "Tales of the Bush.' London: Rivingtons.

THERE is perhaps no class of books in which our English literature is so deficient as in works suitable for servants and persons in a similar rank of life. It is not so much that this branch of useful writing is altogether neglected, as that the Church has allowed it to be monopolised to a pernicious extent by authors antagonistic to her principles. We are certain that to this passive inaction, which has opposed little or no resistance to the heretical teaching so zealously diffused by cheap publications designed for the middle and lower classes, may be attributed mainly the vast amount of sectarianism which prevails among them. It is certain that Church principles are to be found far more widely spread among the very poor who are dependent on the oral instruction of their clergy. We are therefore disposed to consider any work valuable which affords suitable reading for persons in that rank, even if it had no other merit than that of affording them amusement, without conveying along with it the usual quantum of poisonous doctrine. Mrs. Vidal's book, however, has much better claims on our notice. It is adapted, we should say, solely for the class we have mentioned, and may be very practically useful to them. Her remarks

are full of plain, honest, good sense, and there is a tone of excellent feeling throughout the work. It is also satisfactory to find that where she does bring forward religious matters, her views appear to be sound and orthodox. We prefer her first tale (Cabramatta) to the second: both because it gives an interesting picture of peasant life in Australia, which we lose in Woodleigh Farm, where the scene is laid in England, and because the latter contains certain passages we could have wished omitted. They are those in which all the blame of the faults and even crimes of the servants in a large establishment would seem to be thrown on the laxity and carelessness of their master and mistress. However beneficial it might be to the rich to be impressed with a deeper sense of the evils their example may work, it yet seems to us a dangerous doctrine to place before their inferiors, who like all other baptized Christians, must stand or fall on their own responsibility alone. The tale is, however, well told, and contains much that is good and useful.

Parochial Sketches, in verse. By the REV. R. W. WILSON EVANS, B.D., Author of the "Rectory of Valehead," &c. London. Rivingtons. 18mo., pp. 260.

We always meet Mr. Evans with greater pleasure in verse than in prose. Possessed of right feelings, he seems constitutionally unable to carry them out to definite results. In poetry this defect is not perceived; but bring him to the plain prose of dogmatic statements, and his weak points become apparent. In the same way, though we have never been at Heversham, we feel quite certain that Mr. Evans' prac

tice as regards the Order and Services of the Sanctuary would be found to fall far short of what his books seem to sanction and recommend. Here happily we have nothing to do but to approve. The "Sketches" are not likely indeed to emulate the popularity of Mr. Evans' first work, but they will be acceptable, we are sure, to a large circle of readers,— to all indeed who can admire an ardent love of nature, combined with a fund of genuine religious feeling.

We have never read anything more utterly false than the so called True Idea of Baptism, by LORD CONGLETON, who, it appears, is an antinomian dissenter, and wishes the Church to abandon the practice of Infant Baptism. His lordship is of opinion that "the possibility of the new life (that everlasting life) being lost is no small error," since "the result of the benefit being a thing that it is possible to lose, is, that the baptized are put under a covenant of works," &c. &c. Confidence of assertion is usually proportioned to the density of a man's ignorance, and we have no fear that any decently educated Churchman should be led astray by Lord Congleton's absurdities: nor have we much hope of converting one who, with so small a knowledge of the Inspired Word of God as his lordship possesses, has the Antichristian selfconfidence to treat with contemptuous neglect the concurrent testimony of the Saints of all ages to its true interpretation. We beg to ask his lordship, whether those who find texts for him ever directed his attention to S. John xv. 1. 2; 1 Cor. iii. 17; vi. 15; ix. 27; x. 1—12; xii. 13; Gal. iii. 26—28; Heb. iii. 12—19; iv. 1, 11; v. 9; &c. &c. for we should transcribe best half of the New Testament were we to attempt to show his lordship the extent to which it teaches that the regenerate are in such sense under a covenant of works, that unless their will co-operates with the grace of GoD so as to bear good fruit, they will become "twice dead," S. Jude 12. If he is not "wise in his own conceit," but only misguided, and will condescend to learn from those who really have searched the Scriptures to some purpose, we would refer him to Mr. Dodgson's Controversy of Faith, and Archdeacon Harrison's recent Charge for the true meaning of some of those texts which he utterly misunderstands.

:

Uncleanness the ruin of body and soul, (Masters,) is the title of two sermons, which in these squeamish days it must have required not a little courage to preach and to print. We will only say of them that they greatly enhance our respect for the writer, as well as for the system which is reaching to so deep-seated an evil as that of juvenile impurity.

With several of the answers to the inquiry, What has hindered the Anglican movement in the Church of England? (Baldwin,) we quite agree. Bad sermons, and indistinct utterance of prayers, have been but too common faults with High Churchmen. In some respects, however, the line which the writer recommends would be to the full as offensive as that which he condemns; in others it is altogether without warrant.

MR. RICHARDSON, Head Master of Appleby Grammar School, can afford to make merry with Mr. Goode and the Gorham heresy. In this frame of mind we are as far as possible from sympathizing with him, and are sure it must render his Letter to Mr. Goode, (London, Ollivier,) distasteful to all religious persons. The indifferent, however, who have reached those

"templa serena

Despicere unde queas alios, passim que videre
Errare, atque viam palantes quærere vitæ,"

and from the height of their philosophy, view the whole controversy as a matter of mere literature, which in no way concerns the welfare of souls, will find in it a very real exposure of the incredible absurdity of many of Mr. Goode's arguments.

The Church Musician, (Edwards and Hughes,) is a periodical much of the same kind as "the Parish Choir." It is conducted evidently by persons well skilled in Church Music, but appears wanting in that temper which should distinguish whatever professes to be an organ of the Church. There is a very offensive and unworthy notice of Mr. Helmore's Psalter.

MR. SEWELL has published a very striking volume of Whitehall Sermons, entitled "The Character of Pilate and the Spirit of the Age.” (J. H. Parker.) It is a most providential circumstance that at this very critical time the congregation of Her Majesty's "Chapel Royal" should possess so able and faithful a Preacher.

A new edition of a book that has done good service to the Church has just been published by Rivingtons,-Mant's Commentary on the Prayer Book.

MR. THOMAS CARLYLE, the author of a little Tract On the Sacrament of Baptism, (Bosworth,) is, we presume, an Irvingite. His statements on the doctrine of Baptism are nevertheless sound and forcible.

MR. GRUEBER's Complete Statement of the Church's Doctrine of Holy Baptism, (Masters,) is a most useful "Tract for the times.' The author first states the doctrine in the Church's own words, and then illustrates it by a comment on the different passages of Holy Scripture which refer to it. We strongly recommend it for circulation in neighbourhoods where unsound views prevail.