Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle

already the July edition is nearly sold. With the energetic sympathy of ministers and deacons especially, I feel sure we might still press onward. I am continually hearing that there is no future in this age for denominational magazines; but be it remembered ours is not an entirely denominational magazine. Before our Presbyterian friends had an organ of their own (of course, the word 'organ' is only used in a literary sense), we had a good Scotch circulation, especially amongst our United Presbyterian friends. They now have a capital magazine of their own-the United Presbyterian, and we wish it evergrowing success. Still, however, we are privileged to have a fair circulation in Scotland; and we should be very grateful to our brethren across the Border, if they would say a kind word for us, as our friend Mr. Cullen always has done. Let me call attention to the fact that the day on which I write this has been our half-yearly Fund distribution day, and we have forwarded cheques for upwards of £400 to the widows of ministers, and in January we shall do the same! £800 per annum goes direct to the widows of ministers, and many a widow's heart is thus made to sing for joy. Part of this large sum is raised from year to year by SACRAMENTAL COLLECTIONS. Some churches send us the whole, and some half of a Communion Collection; but we are behindhand in this respect this year, and fear that we may not reach the average. Dear friends, pastors, and deacons of our church, you can come to our help and cheer us in our work even now, this year, if you will but kindly send us a contribution. If all, or even half of our churches sent us something, from ten shillings to ten pounds, we should be able immensely to increase the number of our gifts to the widows of ministers. Bethink you what that means! We already help to keep more than a hundred little homes together in England, Scotland, and Wales; but alas! we have many cases, needy cases, waiting for help. I could give a touching sketch of some cases aided by our funds! widows of some most honoured brethren are amongst the recipients. All is done quietly, and with delicate sympathy; but few amongst our readers have any idea how precious the aid afforded is; in many cases, it goes to those who have been left wholly destitute. Mr. Viney, our esteemed treasurer, will gladly receive any collections or subscriptions; and Mr. Mummery, whose address is 16, Christchurch Road, Hampstead, will forward all such sums to him, and give any information to inquiring friends. Excuse the fervour of this appeal, brethren. The editor can only do his best in a competitive age to preserve and increase the power and influence of a time-honoured magazine; but you can do much, very much, to increase our circulation, and to aid our charitable

funds. The editor cannot close these remarks without expressing his sincere thanks to many friends who have recently written and spoken many kind words about the Evangelical.

N.B.-The reason why a sketch is not always appended to the ministerial photograph is to be found in the fact that the brethren themselves often feel great delicacy in being the subject of comment, and greatly prefer to be known simply through their life and work.

Concerning Sacramental Collections, would not the September Communion, when many have returned from summer rest and holiday, be a good occasion for the kindly remembrance of ministers' widows?

PRACTICAL COUNSELS.

Anonymous Letters.

NEVER write one of these, even in what you may conceive to be a good cause, for the anonymous letter-writer belongs to one of the meanest and most ignoble tribes of mankind; he sets at nought the distinct counsel of our Lord to go and tell his brother, which is a personal duty and a manly act; and he sets at nought the chivalry of religion. I cannot acknowledge the man who can write an anonymous letter as a Christian or a gentleman. I decline his friendship-I dishonour his name. Open warfare is fair. The unmasked tournament has some courage, to say the least, in it. But who respects the Italian assassin, who masks his face and strikes you with his stiletto in the dark? Public opinion ought long ago to have ostracized the man from decent society who is given to such ignominious and dishonourable deeds! For, rest assured, he who is discovered in conduct so craven-hearted and cowardly, so injurious to the peace of society, and to the honour of humanity, will receive, as he deserves, the contempt of the noble, the resentment of the righteous, the indignation of the fearless, and he will be consigned to a Coventry from which it will take open confession, honest humiliation, and manly declaration that he will never, never, do so mean and wicked a thing again, to deliver him.

The Half-Inebriate.

There is nothing much more unpleasant than to travel with and have to listen to a man who is in a state of 'vinous loquacity.'

Slovenliness

Hinders progress, harbours dust, and destroys that love of order which is essential to true comfort. I do not know why genius and learning should be supposed to be above care for appearance? And yet there is still a great deal of 'uncombed erudition.'

Want of Punctuality.

No man, however great, has a right to waste the precious time of the poorest or humblest soul. Nothing would work a better reformation in some offenders in this respect, than to let the late comers come in vain-find somebody else in the chair, or the bank of opportunity closed.

Books and Umbrellas.

Why do people so seldom return these? From want of thought? No; from want of conscience. Verbum sap., etc.

Encouragement.

This is somewhat an age of ease, and therefore an age of criticism. No faculty is more easily worked than that; it wants only the eye to see defects. To encourage by sympathetic feeling, appreciative counsel, and self-sacrificing co-operation, is the nobler work.

Finish.

Let this reside in the subject and come naturally as the quiet crown of the work. A picture that has 'pit pat' on it afterwards is a poor picture, and it is the same with a sermon. Finish is the perfection of ease, not the effort of toil.

LITERARY NOTICES.

I'VE BEEN A-GIPSYING. BY GEORGE SMITH, of Coalville. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1883.

This volume consists of a most interesting record of rambles among our gipsies and their children in their tents and lawns. It is opposed, as the author says, 'to the example of daisy-bank, sentimental backwood gipsy-writers, whose special qualification is to flatter the gipsies with shadows of misleading twaddle to keep them in ignorance,' and is an earnest and honest endeavour to give both the lights and shades of a gipsy's wandering life.' There is much to awaken sadness at the morals of such a life, much to awaken sympathy in the sorrows incidental to it, and much to awaken Christian endeavour to do some practical work in ameliorating their condition. and to improve their physical and moral condition. The volume is well illustrated, and is graphically written. We heartily commend it to all true philanthropists and to all who want to know the actual condition of our large gipsy population.

CHRISTOPHER CRAYON IN SCOTLAND. London: James Clarke and Co., 13, Fleet Street, E.C.

"The Cruise of the Elena' is the heading of this handy little volume. 'From Greenock to Ardrossan;' 'A Sunday at Oban;' 'Oban to Glencoe;' Off Mull;' 'Fast-day at Portree;' To Stornoway Kintyre and Campbeltown;' The Isle of Bute; Up the Canals'--are the headings of the chapters. We cannot conceive a better handbook for such a cruise. It must have been a most delightful time to a London correspondent. Christopher Crayon had a pleasant voyage, and he writes in his usual popular and pleasant style descriptions which fill us with a desire to take the same cruise ourselves; we, alas! only lack the invitation thus to go a-yachting which he was fortunate enough to receive. It 'goes without saying' that all which Christopher Crayon writes is racily done; and from his long experience in this kind of writing, he knows how to keep his style free from wordiness and wadding. This is a capital shilling's worth.

THE CHURCH MEMBER: An Address to Young Communicants. London: Arthur Standing, 18, Paternoster Square.

In a little book of 32 pages, published for one penny, the Rev. J. Reid Howatt has produced a most useful and helpful guide to those young persons who wish to enter, and members just admitted into, our Christian Churches. So clearly, attractively, and impressively are these wise counsels given, that no young convert or young communicant can fail to derive very great help therefrom. Pastors and Bible-class teachers

should see this manual.

ECHOES FROM THE WELSH HILLS. BY REV. DAVID DAVIES. Illustrated by T. H. Thomson, R.C.A. Alexander and Shepheard, 26, Castle Street, Holborn, E.C.

We have here reminiscences of the preachers and people of Wales, and a most interesting volume Mr. Davies has produced. The author need scarcely tell us that he has an enthusiastic admiration of, and love for, his countrymen,' for this breathes forth on every page. He has 'illustrated in a popular form the religious and social life of the Welsh people, their generous hospitality, ardent loyalty, and patriotism, as well as the quaint humour, the poetic fancy, and real pathos of their religious teachers. The conversations come up in 'Shadrach's Smithy; and David Lewis's Parlour,' and capital talk it all is. The illustrations of Welsh preaching constitute a most admirable addition to the volume. Visiting Wales as we have done lately summer after summer, we never tire of its sublime and beautiful scenery in vale and mountain, musical river, and seagirt shores, and we grow in admiration for the noble characteristics of a people who have been nurtured under the influence of such men as we read of in this volume. Nonconformity can point to the sobriety, self-culture, loyalty, and religion of the Welsh people. We thank God for what He has wrought through the Free Churches of the land. This is a capital volume for all who are taking holiday in Wales, and deserves a large circulation alike for its fine tone and its literary qualities.

HOURS WITH THE BIBLE. BY CUNNINGHAM GEIKIE, D.D. London : Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row, E.C.

This indefatigable author pursues his masterly and massive work in the region of Scripture with praiseworthy fidelity. He treats the inspired Word in the light of modern discovery and knowledge, without sacrificing aught of the reverence due to the Word of God. He treats here of the time from Manasseh to Zedekiah, with the contemporary Prophets,

and tries to fulfil the glorious ideal of the late Dr. Arnold, Oh for a true comprehensive popular handbook to the Bible, keeping back none of the counsel of God, lowering no truth, chilling no lofty or spiritual sentiment, and yet neither silly, fanatical, nor sectarian. The illustrations add great value to the work, which, when completed, will certainly be the best modern handbook to study the Bible with for all our classes and Sunday-schools.

MANAGERS' MEETING.

THE half-yearly meeting of the Managers of the Evangelical Magazine was held at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, on Wednesday morning, July 11th, 1883; the Rev. J. VINEY, the treasurer, in the chair. Prayer was offered by the Rev. Dr. AVELING, after which the minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed.

The TREASURER presented his accounts, which had been duly audited, and from which it was seen that an increase in the Widows' Fund' was greatly needed to meet urgent and pressing claims from applicants, some of whom were upwards of eighty years of age.

As the applicants were so numerous, the Rev. Dr. Aveling was requested to draw up an appeal to be extensively circulated, soliciting the increased support of that Fund to which so many needy widows were earnestly looking for assistance.

The TREASURER stated that he had already received several summer Sacramental Collections, and expressed a very earnest wish that a larger number of our churches would adopt this ready way of enabling the managers to help all the widows still soliciting their aid.

Letters were read by the SECRETARY, which had come to hand, speaking in the most favourable terms of the manner in which the Magazine was being conducted by the esteemed Editor.

The Rev. Dr. EDMOND bore testimony to the value of the Magazine, and said that he should shortly be paying a visit to Scotland, when he would gladly do all in his power to urge the increasing claims of the Evangelical upon the notice of his Scotch brethren and friends, not only on account of its intrinsic excellence, but also because of the aid it affords to the widows of our deceased ministers.

The thanks of the meeting were given to the chairman for conducting the business of the day, which was concluded with the benediction.

WIDOWS' FUND.

I. V. M.

THE Managers of the Evangelical Magazine acknowledge, with thanks, the following Sacramental Collections, etc., in aid of the 'Widows' Fund':