NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

Bible Inspiration Vindicated. An Essay on "Essays and Reviews," by John C. Miller, D.D., Honorary Canon of Worcester; Rector of St. Martin's, Birmingham. J. H. Parker, Oxford, 1861.-Dr. Miller tells us that it has been his object in these pages to set forth simply and in popular form the true doctrine of inspiration. Few men living are more competent to such a task. Few are capable of producing within the same limits, on a subject so confessedly difficult to ordinary readers, a treatise at once so readable and so complete; neither content with superficial views on the one hand, nor too abstruse on the other. Dr. Miller considers the question of inspiration, what it is; and then passes on to the discussion of the inspiration claimed by the Bible for itself; shows the actual extent of Bible inspiration, both in the Old Testament and in the New, and with the utmost fairness meets the difficulties raised against it. Nothing is taken for granted here. There are plain proofs for every assertion, so made and stated as to be quite within the compass of men of ordinary education; and we have no doubt this treatise will be read with satisfaction, as, indeed, it ought to be, by thousands of the class for whom it seems more specially designed; not but that men of the highest education, who have no time for extensive research, will probably find in it all they need. We cannot regard Dr. Miller's pamphlet at the present crisis as less than a boon for which the church may well be grateful. Dr. Miller disclaims originality; "his pages," he says, "have little pretence to be more than a compilation and digest of what has been urged more fully by the great writers on the subject," still when a writer of high scholastic and theological attainments condescends to a labour of this kind, where little renown is to be gained and the object is simply the good of others, he will lose nothing in the estimation of wise and really learned men.

Night Scenes of the Bible. By the Rev. Charles D. Bell, M.A. Wertheim, 1861.There is something touching in the thought that events bearing not alone on the fate and fortunes of individuals, but on the destinies of the world, and of the church, are related in the Bible as having taken place during the still and solemn hours of night. Mr. Bell has seized upon many of these events, and made them the subjects of many interesting chapters, in a very profitable and interesting volume. Its very title may commend it to the midnight student, the night watcher, or the sleepless invalid, and each will find in it, if his own heart be in tune with sacred things, something to profit withal. The sleepless night of Ahasuerus, Belshazzar's night of revelry, Daniel's night in the lions' den, will interest some. Then there is the night of weeping for the sorrowful in heart, and the night of the nativity, bringing eternal day in its train. These and many other subjects are treated with much feeling and good taste, and, what is better, with spiritual wisdom and discernment. And the book deserves a place among the very few which we would recommend for the bedroom of a Christian household, as well as for the study.

A Brief Memoir of George Tyrrell, B.A. By Claude S. Bird, B.A. James Nisbet and Co., Berners-street, London. 1861.This brief memoir, being written by a school-fellow and college friend of the deceased, possesses a more than ordinary interest; and is, moreover, free from that strain of unqualified praise which, too frequently, pervades writings of a similar description. It is the simple narrative of a humble Christian, whose life was devoid of striking incident, excepting his conversion from infidelity to the faith of Jesus.

To some of our readers a rough sketch of the life of George Tyrrell may not be altogether unprofitable. His character seems to have been of unusual natural beauty-sincere, warm, and affectionate, yet extremely sensitive and gentle; he describes his infancy as being a prey to dreadful imaginations, and his boyhood as infidel and unhappy, and before he was fifteen he had induced a school-fellow to become, and remain, an infidel. While at school at Rugby he distinguished himself for talent and ability. Having left Rugby to prepare for college, a much esteemed relative died: he then prayed, and studied the Scriptures, and says, "I was moved by the Spirit of God to wash away my sins in Christ's blood by faith, and then I felt like a little child who has returned to his father's arms. I wept over the sins of my past life, and began to feel what it was to have peace with God. For about a fortnight after this, I had the most heavenly joy and peace, in having at last found out the true God. My emotion, however, at this joyful discovery was so great, that it became too much for me, and I was attacked with a violent brain fever."

His old school-fellow, meeting with him at Cambridge, thus describes him,-"His petulance had been exchanged for exceeding meekness and forbearance; his pride for self-renunciation; his satire had been subdued into quiet stingless humour-external faults remained, but were rarely visible, least of all in trying times, for then he prayed against them most."

He appears, from the time of his conversion, to have had but one aim in life. He died when scarcely twenty-five.

Lady Elinor Mordaunt. Edmeston and Co.-Fiction, when properly employed, may serve the highest and noblest ends; of this the Pilgrim's Progress is an admirable example. But when the purposes of fiction are abused so as to affect an air of religion under the guise of irreverent language, few productions of the pen can be more pernicious. Familiarity in sacred matters is very apt to border upon profanity. Of this evil the work before us furnishes a specimen. If religion is entitled to be treated with decency by its foes, it cer tainly deserves something approaching to reverence at the hands of those who volunteer to make it the vehicle of romance. These pages, though smartly written, are defaced with expressions such as, to use the mildest phrase, are exceedingly unbecoming. Familiar appeals to the name of Jesus Christ, and invocations to the Almighty, abound throughout the work. Such imprecations are ill suited to the lips of an English lady, much less should they be deliberately committed to paper by the author of a so-called religious novel. Quotations from the Holy Scriptures are introduced with a tone of flippant irreverence, as little to the credit of the taste as of the piety of the author.

The Medical Missionary in China: a narrative of twenty years' expérience. By William Lockhart, F.R.C.S. &c. Hurst and Co. 1861.-Most of the recent accounts of our missionaries-and they are many endorse Mr. Lockhart's statement, that a medical missionary's work in a heathen land has a powerful influence in affecting the minds of the people among whom he may labour, and that such work is very valuable in giving facilities for the more direct preaching of the gospel. Experience has shown to us that medical men have reached places where the clerical missionaries dared not go. In China this is especially the case, for there the inhabitants, though so well educated in most things, are lamentably deficient in the knowledge of medicine and surgery. They receive with courtesy those who can relieve them from their physical infirmities, even where they have in a great measure secluded themselves from others. Our missionaries have as yet had but few opportunities of preaching the gospel in that populous country; but since the termination of the late war, the introduction of Christianity into China has become more feasible. We see that the Council of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, taking advantage of the recent treaty, has determined upon the establishment of a Christian mission at Pekin. The prospect is a promising one, for the people though barbarous, are nevertheless intelligent, and we cannot but think that before long Christianity will have a firm footing in that hitherto inaccessible country, provided always that the whole gospel, and nothing but the gospel, be preached among them.

Apart from missionary subjects, Mr. Lockhart's work is an interesting one. It contains, as its title indicates, a narrative of the experience of a man who, during a twenty years' residence among the Chinese, has observed their manners and customs and mixed with them in social life. It will be more particularly useful in dispelling many of the erroneous notions which are entertained by Europeans concerning that remarkable race.

Messrs. Bagster and Sons have republished, under the title of The Bible of Every Land, in a handsome quarto, a history of the Sacred Scriptures in every language and dialect into which translations have been made, illustrated by specimen portions in native characters; a series of alphabets; coloured ethnographical maps, tables, indexes, &c. The interest of such a volume to biblical students, and especially to those who recreate themselves in such studies as the origin, formation, and affinity of languages, we need not point out; but there is One use of such a volume that we must point out, and on which, if our space had not failed us, we could say much. The present state of the platform is discreditable to our great societies. Intelligent Christians are wearied out with dawdling speeches, trifling anecdotes, and fustian eloquence. There is no use in mincing matters, public religious meetings must improve or perish. And in a late number gave, we think, sufficient reasons why their discontinuance would be a serious calamity. Now if the speakers at a Bible or Missionary meeting will be at the pains to master a chapter of this volume, and then to digest it well, they will have the materials of a most useful and instructive speech. They will communicate real instruction,

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Vol. 60,-No. 282.

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and religious meetings will soon become attractive. Neither sermons nor speeches are worth listening to, if there is no food for the understanding.

History of the United Netherlands; from the Death of William the Silent to the Synod of Dort; with a full view of the EnglishDutch struggle against Spain, and of the origin and destruction of the Spanish Armada. By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., Member of the Institute, &c. &c. 2 Vols. J. Murray. 1861.-We are at some loss how to deal with these two large octavos. To do the slightest justice to them, or to the subjects on which they treat, would require a much larger space than we can possibly afford. They have already passed through several editions, and seem to have received the stamp of very general approbation. A good deal of our own English history is interwoven with the story. And those who have had their blood stirred by Macaulay's verses on the Spanish Armada-the best he ever wrote-will be pleased to find the story admirably told in prose, in the second of these volumes. We say much in saying that this is, in the proper sense of the word, a history, executed with great ability, complete and full. We are sorry, though the fault is but a trifling one, to see the style defaced with some strokes of that sort of vulgar writing which bears the same relation to dignified vivacity of style as pertness to real wit. Let one instance suffice to explain our meaning: "It is astonishing, in that breathless interval of history, that so much time could be found for quill-driving and oratory." It is a curious phenomenon in our recent literature, that our best writers relieve themselves from time to time with these vulgarities; as if grace and refinement sat heavily upon them, like good manners on a clown. This, we admit, is but a trifling fault, and the work is one of sterling value.

The Roman Catholic College of Maynooth: its Immoral, Uncon stitutional, and Anti-Social Teaching exposed, in the Speeches of Richard Spooner, Esq., M.P., &c. Wertheim and Co. 1861.-The real hero is the Christian. There are, however, circumstances which add to the heroism even of a Christian; the quality of the courage must be tested by the peculiarities of the case.

The man who all his life has been used to the courtesies of good society, and can well appreciate the aristocratic "cold shoulder," but who dares to stand coolly and patiently upon the floor of our House of Commons to be sneered at as "a pious fool;" who, amid all, keeps his temper in good order, and quietly parries and adroitly returns, and that with great effect, the thrusts of his adversary; but who, in all the arduous conflict, upholds divine truth-who stands calmly, but with conscious strength, before a nation's representatives, to charge upon them "a national sin,"-displays a moral courage which sometimes, though rarely, redeems our national council from the too well-merited charge of indifference to the word and will of "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords."

Such a man has the venerable Member for North Warwickshire proved himself. Men who love the word of God, of whatever denomnination, ought to reverence Richard Spooner, who for seven years

never ceased to impeach the infatuated policy of the government and the legislature, in lending the national aid to a popish college.

Well has that venerable octogenarian fought the battle of truth. The grounds of his indictment against Maynooth have been supplied by its own authorized books and teachings, and from the evidence of its professors and apologists. There was no escape from the just conclusion, except by the crooked by-way of "expediency." Justice, consistency, loyalty, and, above all, Christian sincerity, stood over the culprit to condemn, but the voice of expediency, "Let us do evil that good may come," has so far prevailed.

The first assault of Mr. Spooner, in 1852, was signalized by a remarkable providential incident. On the evening prior to his motion, as he was returning to his quarters from the House of Commons, he was thrown down and run over by a cab. He was dreadfully bruised. Surgical aid was quickly at hand, and his ever faithful friend and fellow member, Mr. Newdegate, was ready to go on with the motion; Mr. Spooner's medical friend having positively forbidden his attendance at the House. But the courage of Mr. Spooner was not easily to be put aside. He rode down to the House in great pain; every motion of the vehicle was excruciating. With great difficulty he was assisted up the stairs, and supported to his place in the House. But there, on that memorable evening, did the aged and bruised man stand for two hours to make good his charge and vindicate the truth. Ably did he perform his task. And he waited when this was over, to reply!

Even his adversaries were constrained to admire his "pluck," but he had gone to other sources of support: never having engaged in that arduous conflict, until he had first solemnly committed the business in prayer to an Omnipotent guide and mind.

Mr. Spooner's mode of attack was unassailable. "Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee," was his motto. His quotations were such as dealt only with social morals, and national interests. Though confining himself to these, he boldly charged upon the church of Rome all her errors of principle; but it was his great point to show that the support of Maynooth, besides being "a national sin," was repugnant to social morality, to religious liberty, and to constitutional safety. May his successor fight as good a battle and with more success!

PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

THE suspense which has so long overhung Europe now extends itself to America. On the continent we have still to report that war Seems everywhere inevitable, yet nowhere breaks out; across the Atlantic, the two republics, into which the United States are now divided, prepare and threaten; and in various places blood has been