the Church militant. He entered the ministry in 1851. He was President in 1885 and discharged his onerous duties with great acceptability. As a preacher and platform speaker, he had not many equals. Rev. J. C. Ogden, of Nova Scotia Conference, was preparing to remove to his new circuit, but was called to his eternal home. He came from Yorkshire and was received as a candidate for the ministry in 1874. He was a minister of more than ordinary ability. Heart failure was the cause of his death. Rev. G. P. Story, Newfoundland Conference, was suddenly removed from earth to heaven. He was Book Notices. The Picturesque Mediterranean, its Cities, Shores and Islands, with illustrations on wood. By J. MACWHIRTER, A. R. A., J. FULLEYLOVE, R.I., J. O'CONNOR, R.I., W. SIMPSON, R. I., W. H. J. Boor, S. B. A., C. WYLLIE, E. T. COMPTON and others. Quarto, two volumes. New York: Cassel Publishing Co. Price, $17.00. Unquestionably the most interesting sea in the world is that to which the ancients gave the name of Mediterranean-In-the-middle-ofthe-earth." He who knows the story of this sea and its adjacent shores, knows in large part the history of the world's civilization. Bordered by Europe, Asia, and Africa, with their many diverse races and dynasties, it has acted and reacted in shaping the course of history from the earliest times to the present day. Of it Byron spoke: "Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they? Thy waters wasted them while they were free. And many a tyrant since; their shores obey The stranger, slave, or savage; their decay Has dried up realms to deserts." The sumptuous volumes under review are the most adequate treatment of this storied sea with which we are acquainted. Neither illustrations nor text proceed from one pencil or pen. That would be impossible. It is only by division of labour, by distributing its different parts among experts in these different departments, that this theme, or group of themes, can be successfully treated. Hence the descriptive parts of this magnificent work are discussed by such accomplished tourists and descriptive writers as M. Betham-Edwards and Canon Tris tram, for the Syrian coast; Charles Edwardes, for the Grecian Islands and Calabria; Miss Lucy M. Garnet, for the Dardenelles; T. G. Bonney, for the Adriatic and Tuscan coast, and our own Canadian Grant Allen for Marseilles, Nice, the Riviera, and Algiers. The illustrations number many hundreds, and we think have never been surpassed as magnificent specimens of the engraver's art. They owe almost as much to the excellence of the press work and the sumptuous, thick, cream-laid paper on which they are printed. For those who have visited those classical shores these volumes will prove a delightful souvenir of many well-remembered scenes. For stayat-home travellers, who must do their touring at their own fireside, they will prove one of the best substitutes for foreign travel. Indeed, with their ample descriptions and graphic illustrations of the things best worth seeing, from the best points of view, and under the best conditions, the attentive reader may derive a more intelligent appreciation of very many of these places of interest than restless globe-trotters, whose impressions of travel are blurred by the kodak-like rapidity with which they are snatched, without, however, the kodak's accuracy and retentiveness of impression. From a somewhat extended ac quaintance with most of the places portrayed and described in these pages, we can bear personal testimony to the photographic accuracy with which they are delineated with pencil and with pen. Footprints of the Jesuits. By HON. R. W. THOMPSON, ex-Secretary of the Navy. Author of " "The Papacy and the Civil Power." Cincinnati : Cranston & Curts. New York : Hunt & Eaton. That subtle and sinister system, which, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had belted the world with its missions, and won renown and execration in almost every land, gained some of its greatest success in the United States and Canada. The Jesuits had numbered as converts hundreds of thousands of baptized pagans in India and the Moluccas, in China and Japan, in Brazil and Paraguay. They almost entirely controlled the religious education of youth in Europe; and kept the consciences of kings, nobles, and great ladies, who sought at their feet spiritual guidance and counsel. They had won well-merited fame for attainments in ancient learning, for modern science, for pulpit eloquence, and for subtle statecraft. Under the disguise of a Brahmin, a mandarin, an astrologer, a peasant, a scholar, they had compassed the world to make proselytes to Rome. Deciphering ancient manuscripts or inscriptions, sweeping the heavens with the telescope, or digging the earth with a mattock, editing the classics or ancient Fathers, or teaching naked savages the Ave or Credo, they were alike the obedient and zealous servants of their order, to whose advancement their whole being was devoted. They were at once among the greatest friends of human learning and the most deadly enemies of civil liberty. Mr. Thompson has given years of painstaking study to the Jesuits. His treatment is thoroughly judicial. He quotes very largely from recognized Catholic authorities. He does not write as a Protestant against the religious teaching of Romanism. He does not allow himself to be tempted into a discussion of the loose moral code of the Jesuits. He writes as a patriot in defence of the institutions of his own country, as a statesman in defence of civil liberty everywhere, and he writes because the facts which he has gathered from all quarters concerning the origin, principles, and history of "the Society of Jesus," that civil compel the conviction liberty is imperilled by the very existence of this society in any land. These facts he presents, and in so discriminating and withal so forceful a manner that the book must at once take its place as an authority upon this vital subject. An excellent portrait of the author forms the frontispiece, and the book is a beautiful specimen of typographical art. James Inwick, Ploughman and Elder. By P. HAY HUNTER, author of 66 Sons of the Croft," etc. Edinburgh and London: Oliver, Anderson & Ferrier. Toronto: William Briggs. Price, $1.25. By some strange delusion many persons fancy that the Scotch are deficient in humour. They cite the old saw about the need of a surgical instrument to get a joke into their heads. It could be easily established that Scottish writers are pre-eminent for their wit and humour. The immortal Sir Walter, the poet Burns, and Christopher North of the old school, and Robert Louis Stevenson, J. M. Barrie, S. R. Crockett, Annie Swan and the writer of this volume, to mention but a few recent writers, are striking refutations of the outworn saw. "James Inwick, Ploughman and Elder," represents the emulation, not to say strife, between the rival Kirks of Scotland The Free Kirk, the wee kirk, the kirk wi'out the steeple, And the Auld Kirk, the cauld kirk, the kirk wi'out the people. It recites, as a matter of history, the disestablishment of the Auld Kirk which is yet only a matter of anticipation. It discusses the live political issues of the times in a very humorous manner. It abounds in pithy proverbs dressed in quaint Scottish dialect which accentuates their humour and sharpens their point. To attempt to set forth the humour in this book by illustration is like using a brick as a specimen of a house. Take these as sample bricks: "I wad raither keep the door in the Free Kirk," says our hero, "than dwell i' the tents o' the Establishment. "The Hoose o' Lords is juist the draff of the kintra. A wheen auld wives, an' lunies, an' wastrels, sittin' in their gilded chawmer, like clockin' hens on cheeny eggs, no able to hatch onything theirsels an' pitin a stop to a' reforms!" "It's because oor Kirk's like Awron's rod that turned into a muckle serpent, as we're tell't in the Buik o' Exodus, an' wan the warlock bodies caist doun their staves an' they turned into serpents tae, Awron's ane stude up on its hind legs an' devoored them a', an' left naethin but their tails." "Div ye no ken what's the beginnin' an' end o' the politics?grup a' ye can, an' haud on by what ye've gruppit!" "I hae learned to no' discuss politics wi' a woman, especially when you are married till her. And this is reason enough in my opeenion for not giving her the vote. What wad be the use?-she wadna ha' understude it, for thae things are ower deep for the minds o' weemen folk.” Recollections of a Long Life. By JOHN STOUGHTON, D.D., author of "Ecclesiastical History of England"; "Stars of the East," etc. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 27 Paternoster Row. This is a most enchanting volume. The author was born November 18th, 1807, so that he is now nearly eighty-eight years of age. He has seen much of the world, has mingled with all classes, and in this volume of "Recollections," he has described the principal events of the century in a most graphic manner. Dr. Stoughton was born of an excellent parentage. His father was reputed to be an "honest lawyer," and would never undertake any cause if he did not believe in the justice of his client's claim. His father was at least an adherent, if not a member, of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. His mother was a "Quakeress," but when she married she was dismembered from the "Friends," and worshipped in the same sanctuary as her husband. Her father was a Methodist, and she often told her son how she remembered John Wesley visiting at her father's house in her childhood days, and was dandled and caressed by the founder of Methodism. As our author's father died when his son was young, the training of the lad largely depended upon his mother and maternal grandfather, who was a staunch Wesleyan. He received a good education in Norwich, and was intended for the legal profession, but he soon renounced the study of the law, and prepared to become an ambassador of Christ. own words, "attended class according to rule, and I found the practice beneficial, inasmuch as it was а constant spur to self-examination." He had numerous friends among all denominations of Christians, and was accustomed to associate with ministers and laymen of the most diverse views on religious matters. During his extensive travels on the continent of Europe, he spent many pleasant hours with Roman Catholic dignitaries, who gave him free access to their libraries and in other ways acted the part of Christian gentle Our author became a believer in the Congregational mode of church government, and cast in his lot with that denomination, but never renounced his attachment to the Church of his early choice. With Dr. Newton, Dr. Bunting, and many other well-known Wesleyans, he men. The remarks which he makes was always on terms of friendship, and frequently occupied Methodist pulpits, and spent many delightful seasons with them in the social circle. We cannot withhold the following episode, which we give in our author's own words. "The Wesleyan Conference met in London. Dr. Jobson, an eminent Wesleyan, invited a party of friends to his house. He kindly included me in the number. I found at his hospitable board the President for the year and some ex-presidents. Together with them, Drs. Binney, Raleigh, Allon, and Donald Fraser were present. Our host was a thorough Methodist and very comprehensive in his sympathies, for he had mixed with different denominations. He had many friends in the Establishment, and in early life had studied under an emi nent Roman Catholic architect, at whose house he met bishops and priests of that communion. On the occasion I refer to, he, in an easy way, initiated a conversation which I can never for get. He appealed to his guests, one by one, for some account of their religious life. All readily responded, and this is most remarkable,—all who spoke attributed to Methodism spiritual influence of a decisive kind. To use Wesleyan phraseology, most of them had been brought to God' through Methodist instrumentality. Dr. Ösborne was present and made some remarks, at the close of which, with choked utterance he repeated the respecting some of the services which he attended in several churches are wise and discriminating, and very creditable to the author, who thus proves that he was free from the spirit of bigotry and intolerance. "Recollections of a Long Life" contains a number of photos of distinguished men with whom the author Dean Alford, Dean Hook, Cardinal met-Archbishop Tait, Dr. Magee, Newman, and others are often respectfully mentioned-Dean Stanley was his special friend. Again and again they met at each other's houses. They conferred together respecting their literary labours and aided each other like true friends. Dr. Stoughton was pastor of only two churches, and it is not a little remarkable that both were largely indebted to a servant in the royal household, who had served under Large more than one monarch. congregations always waited upon his ministry, and when he retired a purse of $15,000 was awarded him. He now lives in retirement, calmly awaiting the command of the Master "Come up higher." in the highest degree gratifying. The venerable Dr. Harman's "Introduction to the Study of the Scriptures" has reached a sale of ten thousand, a very remarkable fact in view of its large size and necessarily somewhat high price. The other volumes have also had a very large sale. The present volume is the complement of Dr. Miley's previous volume on "Systematic Theology." The same qualities of broad scholarship and accurate yet independent thought which characterized his former volume marks the one under review. The greater part of the book is taken up with the subject of Christology and soteriology, or atonement and salvation in Christ. More and more is the theology of the age becoming Christo-centric. Within the realm of higher systematic thinking as well as of practical evangelization is the scripture fulfilled, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Dr. Miley discusses very fully the different theories of the atonement, the theory of moral influence, the theory of satisfaction, the governmental theory, etc., and amply sets forth the consistent Arminian theory of the sufficiency and universality of the atonement. The objections and erroneous teachings on this subject are fully and fairly met. In this book the great questions of "fixed fate, foreknowledge, and free will," and the doctrine of free agency are treated in a masterly manner. The distinctly Methodist doctrines of justification, regeneration and sanctification are fully vindicated and set forth. The subject of eschatology is treated with reverence and tenderness and unfaltering faithfulness. Pan Michael: An Historical Ro mance of Poland, the Ukraine, and Turkey. A sequel to "With Fire and Sword" and "The Deluge." By HENRY SIENKIEWICZ. Translated from the Polish by Jeremiah Curtin. Boston: Little, Brown & Company. Price, $2.00. Literature has in this fin de siècle age become strangely cosmopolitan. Sweden, Russia, Finland, Poland, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal. Great Britain and Greater Britain all pour their separate streams into this wide sea. The remarkable Polish writer of this tale is, we suspect, not widely known in Canada. He has been described as combining the genius of Sir Walter Scott and Cervantes, while in dramatic effect and vivid pictures he has been compared to that greatest of French writers, Victor Hugo. For centuries Central Poland was the buffer between the aggressive Turkish Empire and the rest of Europe. Across the great plain of the Ukraine ebbed and flowed the tide of battle. The period of the tale was two hundred years ago, and in the time of the great Sobieski, the last champion of the freedom of Poland. It is an interesting tale of chivalry, romance, and daring, of splendid heroism and devotion, yet, it has well been said, amid the clash of arms there is love as gentle, tender, enduring and overmastering as in the most advanced civilizations, reminding us of the old truth that human nature is the same everywhere and in all ages. ABIDE WITH ME. REACH down Thy hand, O Saviour, Thou art the dearest comfort There is, or e'er has been; Abide with me, dear Saviour, Life's long night-rains begin. -Mrs. M. A. Sutfin. |