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unhappy and conscience-stricken from that moment, and pines so that no one understands her malady, while even her betrothal to Percival does her no good. By-and-by Percival finds out the reason why his cousin had lost the favour that he had gained. Of course he makes full explanation to his uncle, and, moreover, when Sissy confesses to him, there is a severity and sternness in his manner that make her feel so utterly base and unworthy that she shrinks away and breaks off her engagement, feeling the standard of Percival's mind above her reach.

Still all would have been made up, if at that very time a bank failure had not made Percival penniless, so that he would have felt it mercenary and dishonourable to approach her again. His grandfather dies suddenly without making any provision for him; Horace has the whole property, and Sissy, in her remorse, makes a will, the day she comes of age, leaving her 800l. a year to Percival. Poor child, ere many months are over, she is fatally injured by an accident. Percival is sent for, and as she lies dying, she implores him to accept her fortune. Then comes the truth, stern truth, once more. During this time, he had met the one woman who, seen for a moment, had been his ideal, before his engagement to Sissy. He cannot feel it honest to accept the bequest without letting her know that he is engaged to Judith Lisle. It is hard! The dying girl faints-Percival is banished from her room almost as a monster. He watches. A day and a night go by. People come and go. The vicar is casually mentioned among them. At last there is the call to the bedsideSissy says, softly, 'My love to Miss Lisle,' and while giving the one sweet look of pardon, her mind sinks into the last unconscious murmurs about childish wanderings in the woods and fields, and all is soon over.

We cannot but ask, which story of these three is likely to leave the reader a better Christian?

Records of a Girlhood. By FRANCES ANNE KEmble. (London : Bentley and Son.)

THERE is even less occasion to enter on the delicate subject of conjugal difficulties in dealing with this book, since it concludes with Fanny Kemble's ill-starred marriage with Mr. Pierce Butler. It is in fact a compilation by her own hand from the letters and journals of her youth, beginning with her childish recollections, and going through her brief theatrical career. It is in the nature of things that such a record should be garrulous and gossiping, but it is full of interest, and the home portraits it gives are very striking, from their being so utterly different from preconceived notions of a theatrical family. The hard-working, practical, half-educated, but very clever mother wins our hearts, especially by her exceeding carefulness of her daughters and her quick intuitive clearness of judgment. The father, Charles Kemble, borne down by heavy difficulties and losses, and bravely struggling against them with gentlemanly uprightness and, pathetic perseverance, comes out gallantly. Then we have the good maiden aunt, an actress herself for a short time, but much

happier in attending to her sister's children, and so tender-hearted even to fictitious woes that, though she daily chaperoned her niece Fanny to the theatre, she never but once saw her act. The elder brother, afterwards the celebrated Anglo-Saxon scholar, comes in occasionally with his friends of the élite of Cambridge, and we go along with the family anxieties when he shared in the Quixotic expedition to assist the Spanish constitutionalists, which was halfludicrous, and wholly melancholy, in its results. And the younger brother makes one amusing appearance, when there was an attempt to make him Romeo to his sister's Juliet, and after rehearsing the part in a stolid school-boy tone, he celebrated his signal failure by a series of exulting cock-crowings. Good, conscientious people they all were. Theatrical talents were the inheritance of most, and therefore fixed their profession, and, when acting, they could not but be the persons they represented, at the cost of a terrible wear and tear of feeling. But strong religious feeling and high principle went along with the whole. Mrs. Kemble, as a Swiss, inherited much of Calvinistic strictness of training, and Fanny, though more catholic in sentiment, had much of the same grave self-control. Thus, at seventeen, she voluntarily gave up reading Byron, because of the sense of intoxication the poetry gave her. And though forced on the stage by family difficulties, the excitement acting caused her was the subject of conscientious scruples, and in after times she was far better satisfied to read than to act.

The Directorium Anglicanum: being a Manual of Directions for the right Celebration of the Holy Communion, for the Saying of Matins and Evensong, and for the Performance of other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to Ancient Uses of the Church of England. Fourth edition, carefully revised, with numerous emendations. Edited by the Rev. F. G. LEE, D.C.L. (London: John Hogg and Co., 1879.)

It is about twenty years since the first edition of this work was published by the late Mr. Purchas, in an ornate and expensive form, and the issue of three entire editions of a work of this character sufficiently indicates the estimation in which it is held. The present edition is substantially the same as previous ones, though we notice a foot-note here and there. It is perhaps a pity that no reference is made to the eventful history of Ritual since the issue of the third edition in 1866; so that the judgment in the Knightsbridge case is the latest event recorded in it. A second Appendix would have brought up the narrative to the present time.

The Preacher's Storehouse: a Collection of Pithy Sayings and Choice Passages on Religious and Moral Subjects. From the Works of Authors of various Ages and Countries. Alphabetically arranged. By the Rev. J. EDWARD VAUX, M.A., Joint Editor of The Priest's Prayer-Book. (London: G. J. Palmer.)

CLERGY who lack time for reading, or have no access to a good and constantly changing library, will find this book a profitable purchase.

It is compiled, however, on the most eclectic principle possible. Fathers and the medieval writers jostle modern mystics, such as Novalis ; besides Thomas Reid, Thomas Carlyle, Spinoza, Dr. Johnson, Lady Blessington, and the New Republic (pp. 218, 219). And it must not be overlooked that the author's description of 'pithy sayings and choice passages' is no mere paraphrase. Some of the sayings are more pithy than pious, and must be intended to serve as ' awful examples' and reductiones ad absurdum of various prevalent modes of thought. They have all, however, the one quality of force in thought and expression, and will always administer a wholesome fillip to the reader's thoughts, often by direct and valuable suggestion, sometimes by the antagonism they will arouse.

The Homiletic Quarterly. Vol. II. (London: Richard D. Dickinson.) THIS is a periodical which is devoted to the exposition of portions of the Holy Scripture and to the accumulation of matter suitable to be used in sermons. It opens its pages impartially to Churchmen and Dissenters; and indeed, as far as we can see, the Nonconformist divines occupy the larger share of its pages. The 'Clerical Symposium' seems on the whole dull; too diffuse and wordy, and not sufficiently vivid and forceful. But it is a praiseworthy publication with a praiseworthy aim, and will no doubt improve as it goes on. England's Inheritance in her Church; or, the Testimony of many Witnesses to the Value of the Church of England as the National Church. Collated and arranged by the Rev. WILLIAM Webb, B.A., Rector of Allhallows, Exeter. (London: Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday.)

THIS is a commonplace book of the Disestablishment question; rather too long, but very useful nevertheless. It consists of quotations from sermons, speeches, leading articles, books, all bearing upon the advantages of an Established Church, and the real strength of its position, against any attacks but those of dishonesty or treason. It is a very useful lending-book, and the clergy will do well to have it. Our Established Church; its History, Philosophy, Advantages, and Claims (with a Dissertation on the Anglican Form of Ordination). By the Rev. MORRIS FULLER, M.A., Rector of Lydford, and Incumbent of Princetown. (London: Pickering and Co.)

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MR. MORRIS FULLER's work is somewhat more ambitious. It aims to supply not merely the materials of a defence of the Church, but the defence itself, and it discusses the history, the advantages, the claims, and so on, of our Established Church; in every case intelligently and adequately, and yet with sufficient terseness. We have never seen the evidence for the validity of the Apostolic Commission in the Anglican Church better given; and the final chapter, 'Reasons for the Continuance of our Established Church,' is quite worth reprinting for more extensive circulation than a book can obtain. It deserves a most hearty commendation.

Hearty Services: Ten Sermons. By the Rev. J. G. NORTON. (London: W. W. Gardner.)

A GOOD word and hearty recommendation are due to these useful and vigorous sermons. They are the work of the vicar of a suburban parish in the city of Durham, of which the church, after long decay, has been recently restored, and it is the kind of book to be useful in the parish of any clergyman who is trying to revive an interest in Church matters. Vigorous common sense and genuine earnestness mark them throughout, and if we do not concur in some of the views put forward towards the end, we do not know that they will in any way detract from the book's usefulness.

Mission Sermons for a Year. By the Rev. H. WILMOT BUXTON, M.A. (London: Skeffington and Son.)

The Future of the Human Race. By the Rev. A. B. EVANS, D.D. (London: Skeffington and Son.)

Village Homilies. By the Rev. W. MILLER.

fington and Son.)

(London: Skef

EACH of these three volumes of sermons deserves mention.

As to the first, it seems almost inconsistent with the idea of a Mission Sermon to provide a series of such sermons for the course of the Christian Year, and yet, when we come to read them, we find the idea so well carried out that we cannot but hope the volume will be widely used. There is something so definite, striking, and even piquant in every sermon, that they cannot fail to be serviceable...

The second is a reprint, and a seasonable one, considering the recent decease of its gifted writer, whose many admirers will be glad to buy it as a memorial of him. Somewhat eccentric, alike in style and in matter, as he was, it is needless to criticise the peculiarities of these clever sermons. They remind us of their author alike in his strength and in his weakness.

The third is evidently the work of a beginner. Somewhat florid, and with a style which will improve as time goes on, these sermons give good promise of future usefulness. They must, we think, have been rather 'over the heads' of a village audience.

The Poor Man's Best Friend. By the Rev. F. E. WINSLOW, M.A. (London: Skeffington and Son.)

AN excellent book for parochial use; and in good bold clear type. The Christians and Moors of Spain. By C. M. YONGE. (London : Macmillan and Co.)

AN exquisite piece of historical writing, and one which would instantly command attention at any time, but still more now that contemporary history draws so much attention to the subject of the Ottoman Empire.

Literary Studies. By WALTER BAGEHOT. Edited by R. H. HUTTON. 2 vols. (London: Longmans and Co.)

A GROUP of reviews and essays, not merely well worth reprinting, but

of such an altogether peculiar character of merit and perception, that, however little the writer would have cast in his lot with the Church Quarterly Review, we cannot but wish that they may be read by all our clientèle. Primarily an economist and financier, he was also a man of thorough culture and real thought, and such papers as those on Bishop Butler and the Emotion of Conviction, to say nothing of others on purely literary subjects, merit careful notice. The volume contains a pleasing memoir of the author by Mr. R. H. Hutton, and one by Mr. Bagehot of Mr. James Wilson, who died whilst acting as Financial Minister in India.

Sinai from the Fourth Egyptian Dynasty to the Present Day. By Major H. S. PALMER. (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.)

THIS is one of the excellent series of Ancient History from the Monuments which the venerable Society is now putting forth, and deserves to be widely read. Modest and succinct in form, it gives the results of large investigation and of much independent study and thought.

AMERICAN THEOLOGY.

A PACKET of books from New York has reached us which seem worthy of notice, both primarily in themselves, and further, in respect of the exceedingly low prices at which Messrs. Whittaker are publishing works intended to be useful in the religious education of their countrymen. We hope the evil of high-priced books is gradually being remedied among ourselves; but it is an evil unquestionably still.

The Valley of the Shadow contains eight sermons on the 'Doctrine of Future Punishment,' by Dr. C. H. Hall, which were preached at Brooklyn during the excitement caused among our Transatlantic brethren by Dr. Farrar's sermons on that subject. They are vigorous, clear, and pointed in language, and although occasionally words and opinions startle us with their free and independent-shall we say self-conceit ?-we lay them down with a strong sense of respect for the writer, and thankfulness for the Divine reverence and belief which prevents his dogmatising, or professing to speak with rule and line demonstrations on these awful subjects, so wrapped in mystery by God's providence. S. Augustine meets with scant courtesy, save, indeed, that he is somewhat patronised by his New-World reader; and when Dr. Hall tells us that he does not hold the Prayer-Book to be infallible, we are inclined to ask who does? And to what end such a remark is made?

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The Social Law of God, by Dr. Lashburn, contains sermons on the Ten Commandments, of which those on the Law of the Household,' 'Social Purity,' and ' Social Honesty,' strike us as admirable in their handling their subjects from the practical, nineteenth-century point of view; and we wish that at home our preachers would oftener drive wholesome truths like these into their people's ears. The earlier sermons, touching on worship, &c., are less satisfactory, and betray an ignorance of true sacramental doctrine which altogether mars

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