eye-witness and his companion, as they trav- | sitions, habits, and manners to be cultivated erse and converse upon every portion of the or avoided by him; the features of his spiritHoly Land associated with the events or per-ual life; his relation to public life and the acsonages celebrated in Bible story. tivities of the world; and his special relation to the particular work of his holy calling. The lectures are noteworthy for their clear, keen, and practical common-sense, and for their manly and incisive, but sweet-tempered and wholesome, criticisms of prevalent defects among ministers and laymen. THAT religion is a consistent and permanent THE second volume of the New Testament portion of The Speaker's Commentary,12 just published, comprises the Gospel of St. John and the Acts of the Apostles. As in the former volumes, the text is that of the Authorized Version, and it is accompanied by critical and explanatory notes, which put the general reader in full possession of whatever informa-growth, moulding, building, and toughening tion may be requisite to enable him to answer objections resting upon misrepresentations of the canon, and also furnish him with amended translations of passages that have been found incorrect in the accepted version. The introduction to St. John's Gospel, comprising dissertations upon the authorship, composition, characteristics, and history of the Gospel, and on its relation to the other apostolic writings, is from the pen of Canon Westcott, Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, who also supplies the commentary and critical notes. The introduction to the Acts is by the editor, Canon Cook, and consists of brief sections discussing the title and contents of the book, its plan and object, the internal and external evidences of its authorship, its historical character, the authenticity of the discourses reported in it, the sources from whence its author derived his information, and the place and time of its first publication. The commentary and critical notes to this book were furnished by the Bishop of Chester, Dr. Jacobson. character, under the pressure of discipline and conflict, and through the exercise of an energetic living faith; that solid goodness and consistency of conduct are not necessarily evinced by emotional raptures, or by mere activity in church work; and that there is both dignity and sweetness in duty through its relation to the Saviour-are the fundamental thoughts which are announced with equal vigor and gentleness in a series of sermons by Dr. Vincent, now collected in a volume entitled Faith and Character. Each of these sermous illustrates the relationship of faith and character, and emphasizes the thought that the principle of faith in the unseen is the only durable basis of character. The first three sermons are more especially lessons and aids to faith, and the others are devoted to a practical consideration of character in the several aspects of its integrity as a whole, its development, its risks, its independence, its attitude toward men, its active side, and its eternity. MR. EUGENE LAWRENCE very appropriately closes his useful series of Literature Primers with an outline of the literature of our own country.15 After a brief account of our early immigrants, an epitomized estimate of the effect of American landscape scenery upon the imagination, a concise biographical and critical review of the life and writings of the ac IN seven lectures delivered before the Yale Divinity School in the course of Lectures on Preaching for 1879-80, Dr. Howard Crosby has drawn the portrait of a Christian preacher13 in accordance with his conception of what a preacher ought to be, at the same time indica- | ting very distinctly what he ought not to be. Although these lectures were primarily intend-complished Anne Dudley, and terse essays on ed for theological students, they are affluent of criticisms, counsels, suggestions, and admonitions that may be profitably pondered by the pulpit veteran as well as by the novitiate. Dr. Crosby emphasizes those points of character which he esteems most important in one set apart to be a preacher of the Gospel of Christelists, humorists, journalists, and historians. and a standard-bearer of His truth among men, and he ranges them under the following heads: the physical prerequisites or qualifications of the preacher; his mental prerequisites and qualifications; his capital of general knowl-criticisms are generally thoughtful and sensiedge and of argumentative power; the dispo 12 The Holy Bible, According to the Authorized Version. With an Explanatory and Critical Commentary, and a Revision of the Translation. By Bishops and other Clergy of the Anglican Church. Edited by F. C. Cook, M.A., Canon of Exeter, etc. New Testament. Vol. II.— St. John; The Acts of the Apostles. 8vo, pp. 534. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 13 The Christian Preacher. Yale Lectures for 1879-80. By HOWARD CROSBY. 12mo, pp. 195. New York: A. D. F. Randolph and Co. the Puritan authors and on the originality of American authors, the sketch proper opens with a review of the writers of the eighteenth and the present century who have enriched our literature as theologians, political and scientific investigators, poets, prose writers, orators, nov A large amount of useful and not generally accessible information is condensed within small compass, without sacrificing the clearness or impoverishing the interest of the relation. The ble. Besides this, Mr. Lawrence's unpretending little volume is pervaded by a tone of manly patriotism which makes it peculiarly suitable as a manual for popular enlightenment. 14 Faith and Character. By MARVIN R. VINCENT, D.D. 12mo, pp. 376. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 15 A Primer of American Literature. By EUGENE LAWRENCE. "Harper's Half-hour Series." 32mo, pp. 136. New York: Harper and Brothers. POLITICAL. UR Record is closed on the 23d of March. -The House Committee on the Electoral Count, February 25, submitted a joint resolution in favor of an amendment to the Constitution providing that the President shall be elected by the people of the several States. It prescribes that "the electoral votes and | fractions thereof of each person voted for as President in any State shall be ascertained by multiplying his entire popular vote therein by the number of the State's electoral vote, and dividing by the sum of all the votes cast in the State, and the quotient will be the required number." When the returns have been sent to the President of the Senate, they are to be counted by that officer in the presence of both Houses sitting in the Hall of Representatives, and it shall require the concurrence of both Houses to reject. The House, February 26, passed the Star Route Deficiency Bill, appropriating $1,070,000. The Senate, March 17, voted to make the sum $1,100,000, and the bill was sent to a conference committee. A bill to enable Indians to become citizens was reported from the Senate Committee on Territories March 4. A bill for the organization of Alaska as a Territory was reported in the Senate March 5. President Hayes sent a message to Congress, March 8, in regard to the interoceanic canal, declaring that it is the duty of the United States to assert and maintain such supervision and authority over the enterprise as will protect our national interests. The Senate, March 8, passed a bill so amending the smuggling laws as to prevent the forfeiture of a vessel when neither officer nor owner is privy to the offense. A bill to appropriate $300,000 for the relief of Ireland was reported in the House March 10. The House, March 19, passed the Special Deficiency Bill, with a clause appropriating $600,000 for the payment of United States marshals for the current fiscal year, and providing that special deputies appointed hereafter shall be appointed by the judges of the Circuit Courts, and chosen from both parties equally. The Senate, March 12, passed the Fortification Appropriation Bill, making the sum $600,000 instead of $425,000, as provided by the House. The New York Republican State Convention met at Utica February 25, and passed a resolution instructing delegates to the National Convention to use their most earnest and nuited efforts to secure the nomination of General Grant for President. The Rhode Island Democratic Convention met at Providence March 22, appointed delegates to the National Convention, and nominated Horace M. Kimball for Governor. The Iowa Legislature has adopted a constitutional amendment prohibiting the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors, wine, or beer, except for medicinal purposes. The Czar of Russia, February 25, appointed General Melikoff as head of the new Commission of Supreme Control, with powers virtually making him dictator. On the 3d of March the General was shot at by a man named Vladetsky, but was not hurt. The criminal was hanged two days afterward. M. Jules Ferry's Education Bill passed the French Senate March 15, and the Chamber of Deputies the day after, with clause seven stricken out. A motion expressing confidence in the government, and relying on its firmness to enforce the laws against unauthorized congregations, was adopted by the Chamber by a vote of 330 to 147. The British Parliament was dissolved March 23. The Irish Relief Bill passed both Houses. The budget shows a deficiency this year of £3,356,000. The Chilian fleet has destroyed the guano launches and platforms of Viega Island, in Independencia Bay, and attacked Arica, an important Peruvian seaport. The commander of the iron-clad Huascar was killed. The work of piercing Mont St. Gothard was completed on the morning of February 29. The famine has killed many of the inhabitants of Armenia. Fifty-two persons have died from starvation in Van alone. DISASTERS. March 5.-Boiler explosion, Glasgow, Scotland. Thirty-three persons killed. March 8.-Twenty-four persons burned to death and twenty-nine injured by fire in the weaving works, Moscow, Russia. March 11.-Ten men killed by the explosion of a flax mill at Frankfort, Indiana. OBITUARY. February 20.-In Havana, Cuba, Mariano Riva Palacio, Mexican statesman. February 28.-In Cincinnati, Ohio, Hon. Charles D. Coffin, member of the Twenty-fifth Congress, aged seventy-six years. March 1.-At Owing's Mills, Maryland, Surgeon-General William Maxwell Wood, U.S.N., aged seventy-two years. March 7.-In Paris, France, M. Adolphe Lemoine Montigny, dramatic author. March 8.-In Newark, New Jersey, Rev. Dr. Robert L. Dashiell, Missionary Secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, aged fifty-four years. March 17.-In London, England, Thomas Bell, the English scientist, in his eighty-eighth year. March 19.-In Philadelphia, Major-General Hector Tyndale, aged fifty-nine years. Editor's Drawer. S a writer of testimonials, commend us to | tion of the nice points of his adversary, exGail Hamilton. Recently an Irish girl claimed, "My brother opponent, Adam Riddle, applied to the principal of the State Normal I must be allowed to say, in the curious and School, at Salem, Massachusetts, for a situation cumbersome points which he has raised, is a as cook, and exhibited with pride the follow-dam Riddle to me, begging the indulgence of the ing testimonial from G. H.: Court for apparent profundity—I mean pro ately interrupting, arose and said, "I excuse the brother for not understanding me and my law points; but if the Court will permit, I pronounce him, in his land law points, a dam Hodge-podge, sir." Both were equally indulged, as being equally pointed. "Margaret F has lived with me four-fanity." Whereupon Brother Riddle, immediteen weeks. I have found her invariably good-tempered, immunda [dirty], cheerful, obliging, exitiosa [destructive], respectful, and incorrigible. She is a better cook than any Irish girl I have ever employed, and one of the best bread-makers I ever saw. With neatness and carefulness and economy, she would make an excellent servant. I heartily recommend her to all Christian philanthropists, and her employers to Divine mercy." SPEAKING of Boston and Boston folk, how deftly Henry James, Jun., in Confidence, hits it off: "He learned that Mrs. Vivian was of old New England stock, but he had not needed this information to perceive that Mrs. Vivian was animated by the genius of Boston. She has the Boston temperament,' he said, using a phrase with which he had become familiar, and which evoked a train of associations. But then he immediately added that if Mrs. Vivian was a daughter of the Puritans, the Puritan strain in her disposition had been mingled with another element. 'It is the Boston temperament 80phisticated,' he said; 'perverted a little-perhaps even corrupted. It is the local east wind, with an infusion from climates less tonic.' It seemed to him that Mrs. Vivian was a Puritan grown worldly-a Bostonian relaxed,” etc. A Bostonian relaxed is good. A FRIEND in Iowa sends us the following: The Drawer will doubtless appreciate the compliment paid to it by a certain Dr. who travels between several country towns in one of our Western States, looking after the health of the citizens thereof. He lately called on me, unofficially, at my room in the hotel where I was stopping. Taking up a copy of Harper's Magazine which was on my table, he perused its contents for some time, evidently with interest. Finally, laying down the book, he turned to me, with the following critical remark, "Well, Mr. Harper certainly does write wonderfully fine." JUDGE CARTER, of Ohio, who has been contributing to the Cincinnati Commercial some reminiscences and anecdotes of the old-time members of the Cincinnati bar, speaks of Adam Riddle and Adam Hodge, who were on one occasion engaged on opposite sides in a land case, and in their legal discussions were both very learned and astute. They succeeded, both of them, in bothering the Court, each other, and themselves in their attempted analysis of the intricate legal questions and points involved in the obdurate land cases. At last Brother Hodge, in total despair of apprecia A MINNESOTA correspondent, mindful of the pleasure the Drawer has given him, sends as a recognition the following: We have had for many years in this county, as clerk of the District Court, an intelligent and careful German, who during the sessions of the court is very fastidious about violations of decorum. Recently in an important trial a somewhat "bumptious" young man from the rural districts was called as a witness, and took his place on the stand without removing his hat. He was told to hold up his hand, which he did, and the clerk proceeded to administer the customary oath, reading it from the statute. He had read about half way through, when, happening to glance up over his spectacles, he noticed that the witness had not removed his hat. The clerk slowly lowered the book, and gazing intently at the young man, said, "Look here, sir, when you swear before me and Gott, take off your hat, sir !” Ir may not be generally known even to Biblical students that St. Paul is accounted the patron saint of upholsterers. Such is the fact in England. His credentials are probably supplied by Acts, xviii. 3: he came unto Aquila and Priscilla at Corinth, "and because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tent-makers." This year the festival of the Apostle of the Gentiles occurred on January 25 (Sunday), and it was not professionally commemorated by the upholsterers of York, England, until the following evening, when they met and discussed "a capital dinner"; and a York paper assures us that "after the usual loyal and patriotic toasts had been duly honored, the craft drank to the memory of St. Paul.” OLD soldier-man in Michigan sends this: During the late unpleasantness the Connecticut Fifth was at one time stationed at Kelly's Ford, Virginia, and while there received some recruits, among whom was Jones, an ideal Yankee. Jones was not familiar with firearms, and when posted as a sentinel for the first time, deliberately sat down and dissected his musket. While thus engaged, the officer of the day approached, expecting the usualness of the old National Road. Be memories recognition of his presence, instead of which of him kind, and let his ashes rest in peace! the sentinel continued his investigations. The I turned over a leaf, and there stood the old officer was naturally indignant. "What are house as natural-looking as in days of old. I you here for, sir?" he demanded. again lived in the past, and forgot that it was time to retire. "Wa'al," was the reply, "I expect I'm a kind of a sort of a guard here. Who be you?" "Wa'al," said the officer, imitating him, "I expect I'm a kind of a sort of an officer of the day here." "Wa'al," replied Jones, "you jest hold on till I git this musket together, and I'll give you a kind of a sort of a s❜lute." Our school-house was half a mile from town; it stood on the rocks by Beerbower's mill. I was the messenger whom our teacher usually sent to the post-office for the neighborhood mail. Many a time, no doubt, I ran up in front of that coach to the post-office, and though the artist did not put it there, I egotistically Officer didn't wait, but went off admiring the and vainly imagined this to be shown in the vivacity of the American character. picture! That was the "age of stone." Men were constantly quarrying and breaking stone to keep up the travelling condition of the road, and I used, by way of juvenile enterprise, to walk on the new beds of broken stone, seeth NOWHERE excepting in this free and beautiful country of ours could an incident combining the humorous and practical have occurred like the following. It was between Mr. Bliss, a conductor on the Chicago and Rocking in the hot sun, just to test the temper of Island Railroad, whose height is five feet, and bare feet. It was a success-a triumph of Mr. Henry, a passenger, who stood seven in his the "stone age"! stockings. Mr. Henry put his ticket in his hatband, and stood himself up when the brief conductor came along. Mr. Bliss could not reach the ticket, even when standing on his toes, and his unavailing efforts to do so made all the passengers "laugh consumedly." But he rose to the occasion. Without changing countenance, he brought a step-ladder, leaned it against the elongated Henry, climbed up to and picked off the ticket, and went on as though nothing had happened. Rather good, and very American! THE Drawer is again indebted to St. John, New Brunswick, for an anecdote: During a trip down the River St. Lawrence, and just as the steamer was running the Grand Rapids, a Methodist clergyman on board and a Presbyterian minister were taking in the scene with great delight. "Truly," said the Methodist, addressing his clerical brother, "this is magnificent!" "Yes, yes," answered the Presbyterian; and after a brief pause he continued, "I wish David had been here." "Why so?" 66 In the spring of 1876 I stopped to see the old homestead near Hancock, from which my parents had moved to the West forty-three years before. I wanted dinner, and I made choice of the Barton House because the face of it looked so familiar. Before leaving, and speaking as a stranger thereabouts, I said, "This used to be a great old road when it carried so much freight, and Clay and Jackson and other great men had to travel over it to get to Washington." The landlord said it was. I continued: "General Jackson, I believe, sometimes stopped at this house, when the people thought it a grand thing to shake hands with him." I remembered once, during Jackson's first term, when my father, Scotch-Irish and Democratic, and in these respects akin to Jackson, came home from Hancock, and was in great glee, for he had seen the President, and shaken hands with him; but I did not tell the landlord this, lest it might lead to "Yankee questions." Gentleman that he was, he made not the least effort to draw me out of my shell, but reached for a register of the house for the year 1834, and turning to a page apparently easy to find, showed me the immor "Ah! if he had been here, what a psalm he tal name of Andrew Jackson! would have written about it!" THE OLD NATIONAL PIKE. The writer of "The Old National Pike" seems to have placed Sideling Hill on the wrong side of Hancock. It is a long, long WE have received the following letter from ridge, running far into Pennsylvania, and by an Ohio correspondent: Only a few days since the November number of Harper's Monthly fell into my hands. It was the time of evening to retire, but I took up the journal, and turned to the first article and the first picture-"Ben Bean's (Barton) House!" How odd to see that in print! Ben Bean, a name so fixed in early consciousness that I have no recollection when I first heard it pronounced! In those days, more than half a century ago, Ben was a character. His greatness was commensurate with the great way of the pike it is about five miles west of Hancock. I was born in sight of it, and lived in sight of it for eleven years of my life. Every evening I came home from school I could see its eastern slope stretching away for miles, and when it was covered with snow, bringing into unusual clearness the course of the pike meandering up its side, the view was a pretty one, and not easily forgotten. This was the first ridge we passed over when we started for the West, having already, within half a mile of our old home, passed through the Tonoloma Ridge by a gap which the Little Tonoloma | works. To ascertain if they understood the Creek had torn away in geological times long past. As I said, that was the "age of stone." First, the canal was completed to Hancock, and then the railroad just across the river; and now it is the "age of iron," or, maybe, the still more recent "age of steel." Changed the commerce of the place, changed the industries, changed by the touch of time the people; but the river flows by as beautiful as ever, and these everlasting hills stand round as firmly fixed, and by their changelessness assure the integrity of this little nook, which is something more to me than any other spot on earth, being forever clothed in romance by the memories of boyhood! A YOUNG lady who resides in that part of Pennsylvania which is called "the Switzerland of America" has a Sunday-school class of rather bright boys, averaging between seven and nine years. Recently she requested each pupil to come on the following Sunday with some passage of Scripture bearing upon love. The lads heeded the request, and in turn recited their verses bearing upon that popular topic, such as, "Love your enemies,""Little children, love one another," etc. The teacher said to the boy whose turn came last, "Well, Robbie, what is your verse ?" subject, he asked them, "Now how many can tell me what we were doing this morning?" Instantly little hands went up all about in token that their owners could tell him. "Well, now, what were we doing?" A chorus of young voices answered, "Taking up a collection!" The question lost its seriousness in the laugh which followed. Raising himself up, he responded, "Song of Solomon, second chapter, fifth verse: 'Stay meage?" with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love."" "Yes, miss, the law requires it." Now what could be done with that style of it! Not that I care. No; I had as lief wear it boy! THE best of the few stories introduced into the very interesting memoir of the wife and son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Tait, are of American origin, and were told to young Mr. Tait during his visits to Boston and New York. "In Brooklyn," he writes, "Bishop Quintard, of Tennessee, told a story of an old woman who stole a goose. The minister, meeting her on her way to holy communion, exhorted her to repentance for this evil deed. The old lady (who was no disciple of Zacchens, for she had the goose at that moment safe in her cupboard) impressively replied, 'Do you think that I am going to let that goose stand between me and my Saviour?'" A SHORT time ago a new and handsome Methodist Episcopal church was dedicated in on my bonnet, as a hackman does his number; but I'm a twin, and if my sister has a weakness, it is that she dislikes any reference made to her age; and I could not give my own, because I don't wish to offend her." My friend H- enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment at the first call for troops on the breaking out of the late war. He was captured in an early engagement, and sent to Richmond. When exchanged his health was so delicate that he could not return to his regiment, and he was placed in the War Department at Washington as a clerk. In the fall of 1864, one evening when walking in front of the White House, he encountered a private soldier, who was holding forth in extraordinary language, addressing his remarks to the government and to the somewhat prominent building before him. H, astonished at the singularity of a man thus shouting out in blasphemous terms, approached the soldier and asked what called for all this emphasis. Indiana, by the good Bishop Thomas Bowman. The bishop knows just how to raise money to pay church debts; at least he was very successful in this case. In the afternoon "Why, it's this," was the reply. "You see, the bishop talked to the children of the Sun-I have a permit to go home-to New England. day-school, told them that the house was now I want to vote at home. But I can't get transdedicated to the worship of God, and tried to portation. I've tried and sworn, and sworn impress upon their young minds the impor- and tried again, but it's of no use. Transportatance of dedicating their lives to God and good tion I can't get. And I'll tell you why-blank |