he did. Now,' she added, 'I have no fears about him, if he will only continue as he has begun.' No. 27, p. 24.-"A woman, whose husband had been greatly improved by joining the Association, said to the Reader, There's many a man's wife would give their all, if some of their husbands could be persuaded to join a place like the one my chap has. . . . I can assure you, I never knew what it was to have a bit of supper with him till lately; his supper was drink, drink every night. I have many a time wished myself dead, because of his drunkenness; his tippling has been fearful, but I'm glad he's left it off, and he's glad too. I know now what the comfort is, by having him at the fire-side of a night, when he's done work; and when he's not here, I make myself content he's got to the News-room, and shall have him shortly, which has always proved the case.' But perhaps the most striking benefit which has resulted from this Association is, that it has given birth to a Parochial Mission by Working Men. It consists of about forty of the more earnest and devout members of the Bible Class, who on Sunday mornings, two and two, go round various districts in the parish and distribute tracts to their fellow-workmen, and urge them to attend the means of grace, and thus prove most efficient pioneers for the Clergy and Scripture Readers. The two other Working Men's Associations, at Lichfield and Newcastle, appear, from their Reports, to supply the same advantages, only by a somewhat different channel. In them, the direct religious element is less on the surface; the members are not clustered round Scripture Readers; and the institutions are nearly, or quite, self-supporting. They certainly seem to be more attractive to the working men, if we may judge from the numbers who are members of them, compared with the numbers of that at Birmingham. In No. 31. p. 25.-The Scripture Reader in charge of the room says," During the week not fewer than 182 visits have been paid to the room, and out of these about 40 have been most evenings." In No. 34. p. 26.-"I was much pleased this week with the goodly number of working men who attended, viz., 264, and of these only 36 did not attend each evening." These were the numbers in a parish of 44,000, in a town of 250,000, where no charge was imposed on them. But at Newcastle-under-Lyne, with a population of only 9800, the First Report of the Working Men's Association states that it numbers 180 ordinary members paying fourpence per month, and therefore, we may fairly presume, visiting the Reading-room regularly. And in Lichfield, with the still smaller population of 5000, the Second Annual Report states that in fifteen months 375 men have been ordinary members, some only for one month, and some for all the months, but with an average of 150 each month paying sixpence per month. It has been our object, in these few observations, not so much to enter on the general subject to which we have frequently referred, as to direct the attention of our readers to the several works which stand at the head of this article. Let these and other similar statements and reasonings be duly weighed; and let every one endeavour to discover the plan best suited to his own case. One coat will not fit every body; but in the wardrobe of benevolence there are, we believe, coats for all, and the naked must step in to fit one on for himself. It is one of the honours and comforts of the age that the public mind is aroused from its slumbers as to these questions, and that our duties to man, as to a common family of which the Lord Jesus is the Great and Glorious Head, are more largely and feelingly recognised. At present, our upper and lower classes present a painful opposition, the golden head and the clay limbs, forced into connexion, but still disunited, or, as Lord Bacon expresses it, "cleaving" together without any real "incorporation." We hope again and again to call, especially our clerical readers, to the consideration of these subjects, believing, as we do, that in their best forms they will prove to be the cement of society, and that the hand which is to bind up the wounds of human nature is chiefly to come forth from the Sanctuary. BRIEF NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. Consideration of Church-goers as Reflections on Church Music, for the in General. By Carl Engel. THE object of this little work is to show what Church Music ought to be; and turning to it, as we happen to do at this moment, with a set of most incongruous Hymns and Symphonies ringing in our ears, we harmonize with the Author strictly as the very finest musician can desire, in his observations. Mr. Engel does not ask for first-rate performances in public worship, but he pleads for music which is strictly devotional, grave, intelligible, with simple and frequently recurring melodies, -no sing-song, nothing elaborate, but that which meets the promptings and aspirations of those who sing melodies with their hearts to the Lord. The music of some of the finest German composers is often too elaborate and complicated; that of France, too trifling; that of Italy, too sentimental and tricky; but the ancient Church of Christ, Luther, and some of our old English composers, supply airs which will find a place in Psalmody as long as songs of prayer and praise ascend from the wilderness, and will never cease till they are lost in the harmonies of the ten thousand times ten thousand around the throne of God. Liturgical Purity, our Rightful Inheritance. By John C. Fisher, M.A., of the Inner Temple. London: Hamilton and Co. MR. FISHER'S line of argument is much out of the common beat. His object is, first, to prove that the formularies of the Church of England are unequivocally Sacramental; next, to show that the Evangelical members of the Church sin against common sense and honesty, in asserting the contrary; and next, that these formularies being such as he asserts them to be, they ought to be extinguished for ever, and such formularies substituted as would meet the lean, unchurchlike, and, we may add, unscriptural views of the Author. The Author is a layman and a lawyer; and he displays much zeal, industry, and reading, in the statement and defence of his positions; but adduces, we think, no such arguments as ought to shake the attachment of any one so-called Evangelical Theologian, either to his own views, or to the Church of which he is a member. Of course, the whole question turns upon the fact, whether the theology of the Church, as exhibited in her formularies, is such as the Author asserts it to be; and we by no means affirm that all classes of theologians would not do well to weigh the whole of his statements. But a careful consideration of them will, we think, bring an honest mind to the conviction, that the expositions given of them by both those classes of Evangelical writers-the one of which, taking the word Regeneration in its lowest sense, contends that it is accomplished in Baptism; and the other, taking it in a higher sense, regards it as merely hypothetical-are interpretations which no honest mind need repudiate. The extent of the Author's prejudice upon the subject on which he writes, may be judged from the following sentence:-" We say real or corporal presence, for it must be plain to every unsophisticated mind, that these two terms in the Eucharistic Controversy mean virtually the same thing." Such a declaration, of course, assumes that nothing can be real but what is corporeal. Is then the soul corporeal? Is spirit corporeal? Is the Great Spirit who rules over the universe, corporeal? And, yet, the Author will not surely deny the reality of these existences. Thus far we are ready to admit that the language of our formularies is not always distinct and uniform. The Catechism itself, to our mind, is not altogether free from a measure of antagonism in its several parts; and we might be glad to see the preclusion of all possible mistake, by the introduction of a more careful phraseology. But as we deeply apprehend that all attempts at an expurgated or amended Liturgy would probably inflict far greater evil than good, we are disposed to leave it untouched, and to hope that the Church system, under the guidance of which uncounted millions have CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 233. 2 Z lived well and died happily, may be perpetuated to our children's children. The Christian Cosmos. The Son of God the Revealed Creator. By E. W. Greenfield. London: 1856. FEW persons are better entitled to be heard than the Author, as a man of considerable learning, and diligent use of it; but his danger appears to us sometimes to be such an absorption in a particular theory, as to leave scarcely enough space for anything else. This work is founded, as it seems to us, on the unwarrated assumption, that the Blessed Jesus is rarely treated of by any class of divines as the "Creator of the Universe." Is that the case? If many preachers and writers are indisposed to give special prominence to the idea of Christ, as the solitary agent in the great work of Creation, it is because that work is equally ascribable to the two other Persons of the Sacred Trinity. But it is difficult for us to admit that His claim as Creator is not constantly urged on the hearers of those who most constantly refer in any way to the Son of the Most High God. Their delight is to do Him honour in every way; and, amongst others, as the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, in all the frame-work and constitution of the universe. Surely the Author is wrong in his theory, that it is only to Christ, as to the God-man, that human passions and emotions are ascribed in speaking of the Deity. Such language is essential in describing the dealings of God with a creature utterly incapable of apprehending the interior nature of the First Great Cause and Father. The emphatical language of Mr. Greenfield on the subject on which he here mainly treats, might induce some of his readers to imagine that he leaned to the ancient error, of the absorption of the Father and of the Holy Spirit in the one Being of the Son. But such is not really his mind. Orthodoxy has, we believe, nothing to fear from him; and all of us may rejoice to receive counsel and instruction at his hands. The First Principles of the Oracles of God, Vindicated from the Aspersions of Professor Jowett, and Authors of the Rationalistic School. By the Rev. C. R. Alford, M.A., Principal of the Church of England Metropolitan Training College. London: Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday. THE Metropolitan Training College has won for itself such a reputation in the general Examinations, as to make all praise of its Principal superfluous. But here we have the administrator of the College in another character,-that of an Author. The title of this little book sufficiently describes it, and it is executed in such a way as to fit it for the office it especially assumes,that of instructing the young persons at the College. The work is rather of a practical than a profound character; but what is most practical is, in many instances, the most really profound, inasmuch as it is an appeal to the deepest workings of our nature. And, moreover, no works are more important than those which are calculated to arm young and intelligent minds against unseen enemies. Professor Jowett and Mr. Maurice have done much to unsettle such minds in their belief; and he is a real benefactor to society who supplies them with a new standing-place, and a reason for the faith that is in them. The "diruit" and the "ædificat" are, in this case, of infinite importance. Deeply grieved should we be to have on our conscience the guilt of the one, but we are delighted to share in the labours and triumphs of the other. 1. Self-Deceit. A Sermon, preached at Oxford, March 4, 1857. By W. F. Hook, D.D., Vicar of Leeds. 2. Our Lord's Desertion by His Disciples. A Sermon, preached at Oxford, March 6, 1857. By C. J. P. Eyre, M.A. Oxford: J. H. Parker. THESE are two of the Sermons preached in one of the parish churches of Oxford, on the successive Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent, by a body of Clergy, with the Bishops of Oxford and London at their head. It is impossible not to do honour to the motive which has prompted the arrangement which has given birth to these Discourses. Nothing, so far as we see, can have suggested the scheme but a sincere desire to accomplish two good objects: to bring together good men of somewhat distinct views on theology; and to reach the conscience, especially of the younger members of the University. The motive is one thing, but the mode of carrying out the plan is another. It is surely a more than doubtful experiment to subject young minds to great variety, and perhaps contrariety, of religious statement. But it is not our in tention to examine and criticise the Sermons. One fact it is curious to notice, and we think it undeniable, the inferiority of these to other Sermons of the same writers. We ourselves sat down to them with somewhat raised expectations, expecting to be taught, by these masters in Israel, how to preach; anticipating from Dr. Hook clear statements of some truths, somewhat obscure enunciation of others, and forcible exhibitions of all; and from Mr. Eyre all the force of thought and language by which he draws enormous and sympathizing congregations at Bury. But, on the whole, we cannot hesitate to say, that if we had seen no other addresses of these masters in pulpit eloquence, we should have been unable to |