Now is always a good time! These brethren are delighted to have it, and they furnish inspiration alike for the pulpit and for pastoral toil. Subscribers can send the names of the ministers they wish the Magazines forwarded to, or they can leave it to us to make the best selection we can. This is a world of mutability and mortality, changes continually occur, and we need to replace departed friends with new subscribers. Each year sees the new and attractive magazines taking their place in our literature, so that the competition is very great. But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that some magazines have agonistic articles in them which will tell terribly on the religious life of our young people. Surely our congregations will hardly think us in earnest as ministers if we feelingly deplore the pernicious influences of some modern reviews, if we do not also press upon them a practical interest in inculcating earnest Evangelical literature. There is probably a bookseller in most of our congregations, and surely he would take the trouble, if asked, as a representative of his own Church, to take charge of a subscribers' list, and to see that the numbers are regularly forwarded. A few more Mr. Goundrys, and we should be filled with pleasant wonder and surprise; and better far than this, we should be able to tell an age which judged by facts like these, that the Evangelical faith is still a power in the literature of the land. Help us, dear friends, to begin the year 1884 with the inspiration which comes from the cheering words and practical help of ministers, deacons, and subscribers.

THE EDITOR.

POVERTY.-The sufferings of poverty are not confined to those of the squalid, common, everyday beggars, who are inured to hardships, and ever ready to receive charity, let it come to them as it will. There is another class, on whom it presses with still heavier power; the generous, the decent, the self-respecting who have struggled with their lot in calm silence, bearing all things, hoping all things, and willing to endure all things, rather than breathe a word of complaint, or to acknowledge even to themselves that their own efforts will not be sufficient for their own necessities.-H. B. Stowe.

BELIEF AND UNDERSTANDING.-I was riding on day in a railway carriage in company with a man who talked loudly, and boasted often that he never believed anything he could not understand, especially upon matters concerning religion. After a pause, I asked him if he could tell me what animals were grazing in a field we passed? He readily answered, 'Why, sheep of course.' After another pause, I repeated the question, when the irritable answer, Why, horses of course.' Pray tell me then why wool grows on the back of the sheep, and hair on the back of the horse, and yet they are both grazing upon grass?' He could not understand and explain the mystery, yet he believed it. Tis a vain boast of men so to talk, for their very existence gives the lie to their assertions.-S. Coley.

PRACTICAL COUNSELS.

Humility.

ALL the shining worlds above us are palaces of the Great King, but His favourite temple is the humble heart.

Plagiarism.

A man who walks abroad in other people's clothes finds the attire clumsy to move about in, and there is always something stiff and unnatural in the style of those who use borrowed sentences.

Pity.

It becomes us all as

The ancients had an altar to Pity. Christians to remember that we have no cold altar to it, but a living embodiment of it in Him who moved with compassion, put forth His hand. Compassion did not come and go, but dwelt in Him. Most of all does it become woman. A pitiless woman can never be a winsome woman.

'For all unfinished is love's jewelled ring
Till set with this soft pearl.'

Silence.

Preachers have often to learn the hardness which characterizes a too hurried, noisy style, and the power of the pause. How many of the most powerful things are silent! Thought. Sleep. The foot of Time. The motion of the air. The growth of flowers. How powerful, too, in their expressiveness are Midnight, Death, and the Grave! In sacred services we often speak too much, and at the sacrament of the Supper of the Lord the most potent factor in influence is silence.

Sorrow.

Sometimes the storms of tribulation sweep away the veil that hid God and heaven from us. So sings Ruckert

'My tree was thick with shade. O storm, thine office do,
And strip the foliage off to let the heavens shine through'!'

Estrangement.

Miserable must be the man who in life's last hour remembers that he has scornfully set at nought the friendly hand that toiled to bridge the stream that separated ancient friendships.

What do you Like?

Mr. Ruskin truly says, 'The entire object of true education is to make people not merely do the right things, but enjoy the right things-not merely industrious, but to love industry-not merely learned, but to love learning-not merely pure, but to love purity-not merely just, but to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Taste is not only a part and index of morality, it is the only morality. The first and last and closest trial, question to any living creature is, What do you like? Tell me what you like, and I'll tell you what you are.' Exactly! So says the Gospel. Out of the heart are the issues of life.' 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.'

LITERARY NOTICES.

A PRACTICAL COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. By JAMES MORISON, DD. New edition revised. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row.

We took occasion some months since to review this author's 'Commentary on St. Mark,' as one of the most scholarly, suggestive, and useful of Evangelical commentaries, and we are equally gratified with our perusal of this wonderfully well-got-up 'Commentary on St. Matthew.' Dr. Morison calls it a 'practical commentary,' and it is so in the best sense. Admirably fitted for use by those who conduct Bible-classes and for ministerial use in general, it must not be supposed that being 'practical' it is not also scholarly and learned: it is both of these. The style is crisp and fresh, the condensation is excellent, and the resources open to students, through the scholarship of the past and the present times, is admirably made use of. We trust that Dr. Morison will be long spared to go on with this kind of work. We should not praise the volumes so warmly if we did not feel that they were the very best of a useful kind that have yet appeared. To students, teachers, and ministers they are simply invaluable. We cannot forbear praising, too, the type and the paper and the size of the volume, which is dignified in character without being cumbrous in handling. We wish the volume, which is a new edition revised, the ever-increasing circulation that it deserves. CHRISTIAN WOMANHOOD. BY MARY PRIOR HACK. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row.

This is an excellent gift-book for our girls at Christmas-time. The anthoress has already written Consecrated Women' and 'Self-surrender,' so that she has won her laurels as an earnest and able Christian writer. In this volume she seeks to gather up fragments of teaching from some comparatively unknown lives, and from others well-known and often portrayed. The volume cannot fail to interest, and what is more, to aid in creating a noble Christian womanhood.

MY BATTLE-FIELD. By M. A. PAULL. London: Bible Christian BookRoom.

A very interesting 'Temperance' tale, and one that will be a useful little 'gift.' It is a good story, as well as a good moral.

ASPECTS OF SCEPTICISM. By JOHN FORDYCE, M.A. London: Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row.

This is a remarkably able volume, by one who has for years made the subject on which he treats a special study. The chapters on 'Scepticism, Some of its Causes,'' Materialism,' 'Religion, and Science,' are profoundly interesting, as also is the chapter on Secularism.' Mr. Fordyce has a remarkably clear style, and not an 'involved' one-the reader always knows the exact thought of the author, and has not to 'read back' to understand him. In addition to clearness, there is great beauty of thought in the work, and nothing meretricious in it. There are no tricks of rhetoric; and the thing that pleases us most is the exceedingly fair way in which the author quotes the opinions of his opponents, and the honesty of mind which disdains to make the worst of an adversary's case. The 'notes' which accompany the volume testify to the author's wide reading, and there is great felicity in his way of prefacing the chapters with little extracts from modern teachers and poets. There is much Scepticism abroad, and nothing does more harm than answers to it by those who are not well panoplied for the war. We would commend this book especially to Christian parents who wish to counteract the insidious infidelity which finds its way into our modern light literature, for we can but hope and believe in the words of Mr. Fordyce's modest preface, that the Master will graciously accept this humble attempt to lead doubters to Himself.'

THE HOME IN ITS RELATION TO MAN AND SOCIETY. By the REV. J. BALDWIN BROWN, B.A. London: James Clarke and Co., 13, Fleet Street, E.C.

Mr. Brown does not reproduce here his teachings on 'The Home Life in its Divine Idea,' but in the present volume endeavours to adapt his argument to the new state of things which is establishing itself for the time among us, under the influence of a philosophy which we may fairly describe as "falsely so called," if we are to rate it according to its own claim as the system of the future.' We are glad that the author says 'for a time,' as we feel sure that there is steadily coming back a tide of noble Christian influences which the world soon becomes conscious of the loss of. 'Society is in the main what its homes are,' says Mr. Brown. Most true, as is also the statement that the sanctification of the home is in the end the sanctification of the state.' This volume treats of The Foundation of the Home;' 'Its Place in the Order of Society;' 'Its Discipline; The Children of the Home; The Principles and Methods of Christian Education;' 'The Sacred Sorrow of the Home;' 'The Sacred Burden of the Home; The Dependents of the Home; The Duty of the Home to the World.' We need scarcely say that this book pulses with life; it is exactly the volume that all parents should peruse and pray over. We have no hesitation in saying that it is one of Mr. Brown's very best productions, full of ripe thought and rich eloquence. The thorough culture of the author enables him to contrast well Christian and heathen beliefs, Christian and heathen character. Thus the volume takes a wide range of view, and may be specially commended to all thoughtful persons. Its wide circulation would be an immense boon to England's sons and daughters.

THE COMPREHENSIVE GOSPEL HISTORY. BY CHARLES BRIDGMAN. Second edition, illustrated. London Bible Christian Book-Room. A very healthy endeavour to give an abridgment of the New Testament throughout, but too much is attempted; still, it will be useful to many who cannot procure larger volumes.

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF ENGLISH LITERATURE BY HENRY GREY. London Griffith and Farran, St. Paul's Churchyard.

This little volume gives a sketch of our leading authors from the seventh century to the present time. On the left-hand side is the author's name, and on the right a short description of his principal works and his social position. It is very condensed, but must be the result of much painstaking labour and research. It is certainly a capital shilling's worth.

SACRED STREAMS. By PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. New edition revised. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row.

This is a volume on 'The Rivers of the Bible,' with forty-four engravings and map. The very mention of the names of the rivers will excite inquiry amongst many who have scarcely noticed the names of the rivers and streams of Palestine and the neighbouring lands. The rivers Euphrates, Hiddekel, Chebar, Ulai, Jordan, Jarmuk, Jabbok, Arnon, Zered, Cherith, Kedron, Siloam, Kishon, Elah, Eshcol, Besor, Nile. Procure it at once ye readers who want fresh themes for your classes, and note the rich associations of fact and doctrine which the author introduces into his interesting volume. It is able as it is Evangelical, and the illustrations are excellent. Not only will it aid the teacher, but it is a capital volume for Sunday reading at home. THE NEW AND COMPREHENSIVE SCRIPTURE CATECHISM. By CHARLES BRIDGMAN. Third edition. London Bible Christian Book-Room. That this little modest volume has been found useful is evident from its production in a third edition. It is an honest endeavour to make the Old Testament furnish questions and answers that will leave lasting impressions on the youthful mind.

A GOOD MAN'S FALL.

WHEN a good man falls into sin, there are different ways of regarding his transgression. We may sneer at him and his goodness. Or we may experience a shock, and become sad lest religion should turn out to be not altogether what we had been led to believe it. Or we may try to make light of the sin, try to persuade ourselves that because he who has committed the deed is a good man, that therefore his act cannot be so very bad; and thus attempt to justify the sinner at the expense of our conscience. But there is another and more excellent way of viewing the matter. We may approach the whole subject from the standpoint of the mixed character of human nature. Regarding no man as perfect, alive to the weaknesses that exist in the best, we shall be prepared to find faults in the lives of the holiest. We shall thus be shocked and grieved at the fall. But we shall not be tempted to make light of it, or to shift it off on that religion which is designed not for the whole,' but for those who, by reason of their sin-tainted nature, require its aid.-From 'The Quiver' for March.

WIDOWS' FUND.

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

Hornsey Rise, by Mr. W. Grinling
Headingley, by Mr. R. Shapley

...

£14 18 3 6 13 4

Dewsbury United Communion Service, by Rev. W. T. Moreton 5 156 Northfleet, by Rev. T. Davey

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