evitable result of equilibrium on the apex has followed, viz., an unstable equilibrium, and that consequently English Christianity had to be propped all round. It is now time to change our course, and to try whether we cannot attain a stable equilibrium by setting Christianity on its base. He wished prosperity not only to this College, but to Dissent itself; understanding that prosperity to be in giving the best example of the purity and orderly method of the Christian faith. After the Students work had been reported by Professor Reynolds, congratulatory addresses were delivered by the Revs. J. Stoughton, Dr. Raleigh, Archdeacon. Sandford, &c. At a later period in the day the Dean of Canterbury presented some prizes and certificates to the students, and advocated the cause of ministerial education, more especially in the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures.

Passing from this old institution to one of the largest belonging to the Congregational body, we come to what is called "NEW COLLEGE," at whose anniversary there was a large evening attendance. After devotional exercises the Professors gave in their own reports, amidst the hearty greetings of their students, and then followed the business report of the Secretary. From this it appears that thirty-two students returned to the College at the beginning of the session, that twelve had since been received, and that eleven lay students had joined the classes, thus making fifty-two in all. Sometimes as many as twenty-five had been engaged in Sunday preaching.

The

finances have suffered through the deaths or removals of old subscribers, and the smallness of the public collections. Resolutions were spoken to by the Revs. J. C. Harrison, R. P. Clarke, J. S. Pearsall and others. An Address to the Students was delivered by Dr. Raleigh, for which he was thanked in speeches by the Rev. Thos. Binney, and by the President, Dr. Halley.

Situated on Mosley Heath near Birmingham is the spacious College known by the name of SPRING HILL. Its anniversary was held in the College Library. The Rev. G. B. Johnson read the thirtieth annual report. Seven new students had been admitted; four had left or were leaving, and ten candidates are appearing for examination

before the next session opens. The year began with a balance of £412 in the hands of the treasurer, and ended with a balance of £404 against the College. But this deficiency of income was satisfactorily explained. A contribution from those present of £183 was made to free this valuable property from the building debt. The Revs. T. B. Barker and H. Gower, tutors, presented their reports. Professor Bubier was stated to be out of health. The Rev. Enoch Mellor, of Halifax, addressed the students on simplicity in preaching; and the Rev. R. W. Dale, who was warmly thanked for his advocacy of the cause of the College, bade farewell to three of the students who are now leaving.

The LANCASHIRE COLLEGE held its twenty-fifth anniversary in the Library of the Institution. The first business was the reading of the reports of the Examiners. The Rev. E. Mellor, the Examiner in Theology, highly commended the papers prepared by the students. The Rev. Dr. Ginsburg reported on the Hebrew studies, and contrasted the reverent tone which pervaded the examination papers with that of the German students at Halle and elsewhere. He expressed his preference for the tone of English Theological Students to all the learning of Germany. Reports, equally pleasing, were presented on the Greek Testament classes, the classes in logic, philosophy, and mathematics, by the Revs. J. A. Macfaden, Watson Smith, and R. Jessop. Professor Henry Rogers moved a vote of thanks to the Examiners, which was seconded by Hugh Mason, Esq. The Rev. R. W. Dale addressed the students, and insisted on the value of individual reading. Referring for an example to Mr. Bright, he said he had acquired his remarkable eloquence, in a great degree, by the study of our more illustrious poets; that it had been his practise for many years, after returning from the House of Commons at night, to spend three quarters of an hour in the quiet enjoyment of an English poet: that he chooses his poet every session; and that probably one reason why he has been, as it is thought, calmer and more moderate during the last two years, might be that instead of drawing his inspiration from the volcanic fires of

Byron, he had been reading Cowper's Task, or Wordsworth's Excursion. Adverting to liturgical forms in public prayer Mr. Dale confessed that he had once wished for their adoption, but subsequent experience had convinced him that no greater blow could be inflicted on the life and progress of our churches than to permit free prayer to be supplanted by any such devices, and he rejoiced in thinking that the desire for liturgical forms was passing away, and would altogether disappear. He urged on the students the paramount claims of dogmatic theology. For its mere intellectual interest there was no study at all equal to it. It was as important to trace the progress of the Athanasian Creed as that of a fossil found in limestone. The productions of theologians, from Augustine onwards, were as remarkable as the history of the tertiary strata. terms of theology could not be intelligently used without an intimate knowledge of early theology. After this address appropriate reference was made to the death of Dr. Vaughan, formerly one of the College Professors. Mr. Rogers pointed to him as a pattern of literary industry, and observed that it was in virtue of his laborious toil that he had done so much for his denomination and for the church.

The very

AIRDALE COLLEGE commenced the session with sixteen students and three professors.

One student had withdrawn in consequence of a change in his views, and filteen would begin the next year's course. Professor Harley bad resigned the chair of Logic and Mathematics, in order to become pastor at Bond Street Chapel, Leicester. The receipts, including reserve from last year, amounted to £1,500, and the expenditure to about £1,490. Dr. Fraser spoke of the arduous preaching work of the students in the region of the college as a great power for good. The amalgamation of this college with Rotherham, and their removal to a new locality, were mentioned as questions still undecided.

HACKNEY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY held its sixty-fifth annual meeting in the Congregational Church, Clapton. Chas. Reid, Esq., presided. The report stated that twenty students had been in residence, three of whom are preparing for missionary work abroad.

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The income of the year amounted to £2,506 10s. 3d., of which £73 remained as a balance in hand. The Rev. T. Binney, in moving the adoption of the report, said he had the pleasure to hear that a son of their present chairman, Mr. Reed, after taking his degree at Cambridge, was proceeding to New College for his Norconformist theological training. While not underrating Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, Mr. B. said it should not be forgotten that these young men had to preach in English, and that if they could not preach well and popularly they would not do for nonconformist pulpits.

The WESTERN COLLEGE, at Plymouth, reported a residence of twenty students, an income of £1,050, and an expenditure of £1,142. One gentleman had given £500 to purchase additional land, and in a few weeks it is expected the whole of the college property, only recently obtained, will be free from debt.

In England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, there are 2,425 ministers-but of these 491 are without pastoral charges, including the aged and disabled and those employed at the colleges, or as secretaries of different societies. The vacant churches number only 267.

RAWDON COLLEGE. The annual meeting of the Northern Baptist Educational Society was held on Wednesday, June 24th, at the College, Rawdon, the Rev. S. G. Green, B. A., President of the College, in the chair. The report of the General Committee was read by the Rev. J. P. Chown, of Bradford, secretary, in which it was stated that the session had commenced with twenty students, of whom about seven were immediately to leave. The number of students remaining in the house was thus reduced to fifteen, to whom were to be added five new students received on probation at the forenoon meeting for business. The report went on to state that the services of the students in the neighbouring pulpits had been very acceptable, and that several preaching stations had been wholly supplied by them during the year. The reports of the examiners then followed, and were more than ordinarily commendatory. One of the senior students, Mr. J. G. Greenhough, B.A., had just passed, with much suc

cess, the examination for the higher degrees of M.A. at the London University. The adoption of the report was moved by the Rev. M. Oncken, from Hamburg, seconded by Mr. Geo. Kemp, of Rochdale, and carried unanimously. Various other resolutions were moved or seconded by the Rev. W. Walters, of Newcastle; Rev. James Yoller, of Sydney; Rev. R. Holmes, of Rawdon; Mr. W. Whitehead, of Bradford; and other gentlemen. At the close an essay on the "Sermon on the Mount" was read by Mr. W. H. Perkins, M. A., senior student, and a sermon by Mr. H. Bonner. In the evening an address was delivered to the students by the Rev. J. Makepeace, of Bradford.

REGENT'S PARK COLLEGE.-On Wednesday evening, last week, the usual meeting of the friends and subscribers of Regent's Park College, in connection with the close of the session, was held at the College, Regent's Park, when there was a numerous attendance. A soiree was held in the earlier part of the evening, and the company took advantage of the delightful weather to spend a pleasant hour or two in the grounds. When the time arrived for the business part of the proceedings, the visitors met in the library, under the presidency of Mr. John Candlish, M.P.

After devotional exercises, conducted by the Rev. S. H. Booth, the Rev. Dr. Angus presented the reports

of the various examinations which had just been conducted. These were of a most satisfactory character. It appeared that the forty-six students had attended the college during the year, forty of whom were resident, and thirty-six ministerial. The subscriptions amounted to £700; for the rest the college depended on collections, donations, and legacies. The chairman advocated the claims of the college, and Mr. Good and Mr. Clarke gave details of the success which had followed the labours of the students, the former speaking of their ministerial efforts in Australia, and the latter of their work in Italy. The Rev. John Aldis, of Reading, closed with an address to the students, selecting as his subject the temptations arising out of the intellectual side of student life.

BAPTIST COLLEGE BURY. - The second anniversary of this young institution was held in a tent adjoining the college at Chamber Hall. The Rev. H. Dowson, President, read the report, which stated that the last session closed with ten students; that during the session they had delivered more than one thousand sermons or addresses, many of them in the openair; that the serious illness of Dr. Evans had prevented the delivery of his lectures in ecclesiastical history; that the total income of the year had been £888, and the payments to £789, leaving a balance in hand of £101.

THE WRITINGS OF CYPRIAN, BISHOP OF CARTHAGE. Vol. I., containing the Epistles and some of the Treatises. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark. THE conflicts of the early church with the heathen world changed the character of Christian authorship. The apostolic fathers, who were the earliest Christian writers after the Apostles themselves, found sufficient motive and scope for the use of their pens in the immediate requirements of practical life. But when heathenism began not only to lose its votaries, but to be threatened with extinction, it roused up its remaining energy to enter on a

sanguinary contest with the new religion. This antagonism to Christianity by its heathen opponents was the occasion of that series of works which is known by the name of Apologies, i.e., Answers or Defences. But a third kind of writing soon succeeded, called forth by either Judaizing or paganizing heretics. Aberrations from sound doctrine, on the part of some, stimulated others to become valiant in its vindication; and these champions of the faith were so numerous and eminent as to be distinguishable into different schools, such as the school of Alexandria, the school of Asia Minor, and the

school of North Africa. To the last of these schools belonged the illustrious man, the first volume of whose writings we have now to notice.

The date of Cyprian's birth is usually fixed at about 200 A.D.; of his conversion at 246; of his becoming bishop of Carthage at 248; and of his martyrdom at 258 A.D. Of his life previously to his becoming a Christian we have no records, and we now only know that he was born of respectable parents, that he was highly educated, and that he followed the profession of a rhetorician. How he lived, and what he did after his conversion, are things better known, chiefly from his copious writings, but partly also from the brief biography of Pontius, his deacon, whose "Life and Passion of Cyprian" is prefixed to this volume. Commencing his labours as a Christian with the matured powers of an educated man, he rose rapidly to the position of a pastor, and was ushered into the highest episcopate while still a Christian neophyte. Nor were the acclamations which greeted him at his entrance on his sacred functions the demonstrations of a blind and fitful enthusiasm. He continued to be revered and beloved; and when his course was cut short by a furious and fatal persecution he was held to be one of the greatest in the glorious army of martyrs. To quote the words of Pontius: "No one reaps immediately upon his sowing. No one presses out the vintage harvest from the trenches just formed. No one ever yet sought for ripened fruit from newly-planted slips. But in him all incredible things concurred: the threshing preceded the sowing-the vintage the shoots-the fruit the root." The breaking out of the Decian persecution in 250 A.D. compelled his retirement from public labours, and during his privacy he wrote numerous letters to ministers and others, living in Rome and Carthage. These letters were carefully preserved, and after the long period of sixteen hundred years they retain a value but little diminished in the estimation of the Christian antiquarian. The rising ministry of the present day may be congratulated on having such precious documents reproduced with all the attractions and facilities of good translations, superior type, and very

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low charges. If they are wise they will not forego the opportunity of placing on their bookshelves the whole series comprised in the "Ante-Nicene Library," and of making themselves familiar with what constituted the standard literature of the early church. Some of Cyprian's letters are superior to many modern lectures and sermons, for which a high price is often paid; and if they do not admit of so easy an appropriation to ministerial use as these more recent productions do, they will furnish the mind with thoughts, and store the memory with facts, which will be found convertible to many an important purpose belonging to the Christian pastorate. Most of those cases of irregular proceeding in churches which disturb them and unsettle their ministers, had their parallels in primitive times, and so we find distinct references thereto in these early writings, and can learn what steps were taken in dealing with them. For example, long before the close of the second century, some began to refuse the use of wine at the Lord's table, and confined themselves to pure water, on which account they were known as the Hydroparastati, or Aquarians. Cyprian's sixty-second epistle treats of the whole question in the way of argument, showing in opposition to the Aquarians that not water alone but wine mixed with water was to be offered; that by water Baptism, and not the Eucharist, was designated in Scripture. Having maintained the position that no one ought to preach and teach otherwise than as Christ commanded, and as the Apostles announced, Cyprian wondered whence had originated this practice to offer water in the Lord's cup water by itself cannot express the blood of Christ." If, again, evidence as to the nature of baptism, or, as we commonly say, its mode, is debated, we can prove from such writings as his that it was administered by immersion. In sundry places we meet, in this version of his epistles, with such phrases as-" those who have been dipped"—after “their dipping" "whosoever is dipped." Such early witness to what we deem Scriptural has its worth, and it is well to know where to find it. That some chaff should be found mixed with the good grain which these works contain

"since

is no more than might be expected, and so a wise and wary reader of them must do a little winnowing before he appropriates the fruits they yield.

THE FIXED CHARACTER OF GOD'S DEALINGS IN NATURE AND GRACE, IN THIS LIFE AND THE LIFE TO COME. Lessons from the Healing of the Paralytic. By the Rev. Geo. St. Clair, of Banbury. London: E. Stock.

THIS discourse on the narrative of one of our Lord's miracles deals with the general question as to what miracles are. The preacher demurs to the ordinary definitions of them, and, following the sense of the New Testament words, he calls them by the names which onr translators have employed respecting them-signs, wonders, powers, or mighty works. The natural philosopher has no objection to wonders as such, but he is offended with definitions which speak of them as suspensions or supercedures of Nature's laws. The philosopher himself, by his mere knowledge of nature, is now a far more potent person than any mighty magician of old who was unacquainted with those methods of nature which are figuratively termed its laws. He is able, by experimental science, to use the forces of nature, and to employ its properties so variously, that they may seem to be conflicting, and at direct opposition to one another. But truth and modesty alike forbid him to profess that he has abolished or suspended, or even altered any fixed laws of nature. And as human knowledge enables some men to do what amounts to the marvellous in human science, so superhuman knowledge in Christ enabled Him to do those superhuman acts which, for the admiration they elicited, were fitly designated His miracles. Physical occurrences are always more nearly or more remotely connected with physical canses, whether we can trace the connection or not but while sceptics are right in asserting this relation of cause and effect, they are wrong in denying that the Son of God could heal diseases without the aid of medicine-restore lost limbs and senses without the help of instruments-and resuscitate dead bodies without any other weapon than a word!

Mr. St. Clair justly remarks that "in the memoirs of Christ which have come down to us, so many miracles are recorded, and the story of them is so intimately interwoven with the rest of the narrative, that we can neither understand the Saviour, nor trust his biographers at all, unless we believe in His miraculous power." But he thinks the explanation of this miraculons power has been faulty, and that it has given offence to the mere physicistthe denier of the supernatural. He is satisfied in saying that "Jesus Christ, in the house of Capernaum, by a method that we are still too ignorant to trace, but yet without any suspension or violation of Nature's laws, spoke strength into the body of a palsied man; and the exertion of such power was with Him a thing of every day.

After a brief treatment of the general subject of Christ's miracles, the preacher proceeds to gather up the lessons which this one miracle teaches; but his leading purpose throughout is to show the settled order of things in the universe, and the absence of anything like what men consider arbitrariness in the dealings of God. As the sermon is out of the common line of pulpit effusions it may not suit some readers; but we have read it with considerable pleasure, and thank its author for publishing it.

THE MAGAZINES of the month demand a passing notice. We have been specially interested by the "Scattered Nation." It has many different papers, which are too short to be tedious, and on subjects too important to be read carelessly. The notes on the Epistle of St. James, by Dr. Edershiem, while particularly addressed to the dispersed Israelites, are worthy of the attention of every Biblical Student. The Editor has wisely given much space to an account of the meeting held in the preceding month on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and to the observations of one of the Daily Papers thereon. As Lieutenant Warren, the head of the explorers, was present in Willis's Rooms, he was called upon to speak, and proceeded to explain the works which are being carried on. Two corporals of engineers and seventy