cannot predict any extensive popularity; but there is sufficient power and beauty in it to make us very cordially hope that ere long we shall meet its author again. As a concluding extract we cannot do better than bring before our readers a sonnet on Keats. "Thy life was like a gorgeous summer day: Athwart thy fields of fruitful song unshorn, Stood o'er thy sea of verse, thy realm of thought, The sands of man's performances: soon brought Tempered: and thence mankind an image caught We could hardly find anywhere a greater contrast to the poems of Mr. Gidley than is furnished by those of Mr. Oxenham, whose volume is a second edition, with some additions, of a justly popular book. Graceful and highly devotional thoughts; smooth musical versification and poetic imagery, make his poems pleasant to the ear and soothing to the mind. There is no great grasp of thought in them, no especial depth, viewing them as intellectual productions; yet they nevertheless well fulfil their province, which is no mean one in the vast realm of poetry. We give a short poem of Mr. Oxenham, which we do not remember to have seen in the first edition, as a specimen of his style. "THE MARTYR BOY.1 'Consummatus in brevi explevit tempora multa.' "Dearest to me of all the Martyr Host, Whose name, like some strange spell of memory, Darkly erewhile on doubt's tempestuous sea! "Champion of truth! in truth's predestined home, Glory of boyhood! in the deepening gloom 1 Pancrasius, martyred at Rome under Diocletian, aged 14. Joying to consecrate the first fresh bloom "To Him who loved thee, Flower of Innocence, He still was by thee, making darkness light; Owning thy triumph in the unequal fight. "And fiercer far than they, the expectant crowd, The unearthly lustre on thy virgin brow. "Mirror of chastity! as years roll by, Fresh votaries press to kneel around thy grave, "Saint of our Saxon sires! thy cherished name "Return once more to this dear land, return, Bid the old love in our cold bosoms burn, REVIEWS AND NOTICES. A Digest of the Doctrine of S. Thomas on the Sacraments. WE strongly recommend this second "Fasciculus of Angelical Doctrine" to the study of the Clergy. The true doctrines of the Faith are illustrated by S. Thomas with a skill and clearness that cannot be surpassed. But of course he had to defend the whole Roman system, and therefore at times his arguments are not convincing. Thus, speaking of Confirmation he says, "The fit matter of this Sacrament is oil mixed with balsam-oil signifying the fulness of the HOLY GHOST; balsam signifying the odour of sanctity." The lack of Scriptural authority for this theory is thus got over. First our LORD, it is said, dispensed with any matter, of the excellence of His power; and next, "fire" is represented as the equivalent of oil, because it is "fomented" by it, and " tongues are said to be the same as balsam, because both have " a communicative power!" This mixture of strength and weakness is what of course must be looked for in all Mediæval Books of Theology; and when rightly understood, it does not at all detract from their usefulness. In Sections 55 and 58 our correspondent, Mr. Grueber, will find that S. Thomas does not support Archdeacon Denison's theory of Regeneration being given to adults in Baptism irrespectively of Faith and Repentance; and we would refer Mr. Pagan (whose book is elsewhere reviewed) to Section 1 for a better etymology of the word Sacrament than the classical term Sacramentum, a military oath. It means simply something holy; and is so named because it conveys holiness. By an accident we have omitted for several months to notice a very useful compendium, called An English Primer, compiled under the superintendence of Dr. LowE, the well-known Head-Master of S. John's School, Hurstpierpoint. (Wakeling, Brighton; Parker, London.) It contains the elements of Christian Doctrine, of Arithmetic, Geography, and Grammar, treated concisely in such a manner as a scholar and divine alone can teach them. A more useful book for self-education could not be devised. But Dr. Lowe's object in preparing it appears to have been to secure throughout classical schools the imparting that kind of elementary knowledge which is too often assumed by masters to exist, and does not. We do not know who Mr. C. T. CORRANCE, M.A., may be ; nor does his pamphlet, Episcopacy; its Origin, Claims, and Present Position, (Parker,) show what he is. The opinions which he puts forth seem to us to coincide very nearly with those advocated in the seventeenth century by Richard Baxter, who, it is well known, invented the distinction between Scriptural and "Diocesan" Bishops. Together with these views Mr. Corrance seems to mingle a little spice of Irvingism. Mr. Corrance, indeed, speaks of our Church; but certainly he is not a wellaffected member of it. The Chorister Brothers, (Masters,) by the author of "The Children of the Chapel," is a well-written and right-principled tale, of goodly proportions. It is evidently the work of a refined mind. Two more volumes of the Ante-Nicene Library have appeared from the prolific press of Messrs. Clark, of Edinburgh; viz., the first volume of S. Clement of Alexandria, the Remains of Tatian and Theophilus, and the "Recognitions" ascribed to S. Clement of Rome. These two volumes complete the subscription for the first year. Two volumes by the late Dr. NEALE have appeared, from the presses of Messrs. Rivington and Mr. Hayes respectively. The former is entitled, Readings from S. Margaret's, East Grinsted, and is a medley of allegories and sermonets addressed to the children of the orphanage. They are printed just as they were delivered, and abound therefore in local and temporary allusions, and serve remarkably to bring out the varied features of the author's mind. The other volume is a new edition of his Sermons on the Song of Solomon, which were originally published anonymously about ten years since. The volume, however, is enriched with ten new sermons. Under the thin veil of a Fatalism which denies the gift of Free Will to man, Mr. HORACE FIELD, B.A. Lond., in his Heroism, or God our Father, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, seems to us to hide a scarcely concealed scepticism. Doubtless he hides it from himself; but his premises lead only to such a conclusion. Mr. HARRIS, the Incumbent of S. Luke's, Torquay, has published a volume of sermons under the title of Church Seasons and Present Times, (Rivingtons,) to which he has prefixed a preface, showing that the great doctrines which are now so generally controverted flow directly from the personal work of CHRIST. We cannot say, however, that the sermons quite answer to what the preface would lead us to expect. We can understand that Mr. Harris may be a popular preacher but the style is rather too ornate for our taste, and the sermons are after all more subjective than objective in their character. Mr. MASTER WHITE has published (Mozleys) a Paper read by him at the York Church Congress, in which he boldly denounces Church Rates as most injurious to the Church's best interests. There is undoubtedly much to be said for this view, although it will horrify many. We quote the conclusion of his pamphlet. 16646 But can the Church of this country bear the loss of so large a sum as £250,000 a year? The chief part of this sum comes indirectly from the large landowners of England, and they have not asked to be relieved of the charge. Why should they be relieved?' "If they accept the relief, and do not give to the Church in some other way what they now pay in Church Rates, the loss will be theirs. The sun may be easily made up by the Offertory, if out of every £5 earned in wages one penny is drawn by this means into the Church's treasury, the sum raised by Church Rates is more than replaced. "I believe that if Churchmen cheerfully accept the abolition of Church Rates, and boldly meet the call upon them to maintain and to multiply the Parish Churches for the use of all, the abolition of Church Rates will be an era, not in the Church's decay, but in the renovation of her strength and vigour. "I look forward to the abolition of the whole system on which Church Rates rest, as a means of releasing ourselves from false principles which hamper our liberty of action as Churchmen, and of abolishing many of the prejudices which alienate the middle and lower classes of society from the Church. The people do not love the Church the better because they do nothing for it. If we convince them that they have a part to bear in the Church's work, and in keeping their churches open, not as a religious luxury for themselves, but for the common worship of all the faithful, we shall have reason to be thankful for that clamour which made us look into and give up a system which is doing more harm to ourselves than it ever did injustice to others."-Pp. 14, 15. 293 SHIRLEY'S CHURCH OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE. Some Account of the Church in the Apostolic Age: to which is added, an Essay on Dogmatic Preaching. By the late W. W. SHIRLEY, D.D. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press. 1867. AMONG the grievous and mysterious losses which the cause of Divine Truth has sustained in Oxford during recent years, the removal of the late Professor of Ecclesiastical History must hold a prominent place. Connected by antecedents with a type of theological thought which falls far short of the Catholic standard, he steadily rose, by virtue of two conspicuous qualities in his character, to a worthier standpoint and a fuller grasp of truth. Those qualities were, a profound devotional earnestness, and a thorough honesty of mind. On the purity and beauty of his character,—its simplicity, modesty, single-mindedness, and quiet energy, this is not the place to dilate: those who knew him, and hold his memory in their hearts, will long retain a very distinct image of the excellences of a thorough Christian in the combined work of a student and a teacher. The small volume before us is made up of a fragment on the history of the Apostolic Age, and of a paper, or essay, on Dogmatic Preaching, which was read for him before the Church Congress of York, a few weeks previously to his departure. The historic fragment bears evident marks of incompleteness: we shall indicate one or two points which, had life been prolonged, the author would probably have reconsidered. The essay, short as it is, possesses, on the whole, artistic beauty of style, and a deliberate ripeness of judgment, which would make all apologies for its publication wholly superfluous, and which, as we read, increases our amazement at the circumstance, that it was heard at the congress with a scantiness of attention which was far from creditable to the main body of that assemblage. We proceed to give our readers some account of the chapters on Apostolical Church History. The sacred season of the "Adventus Spiritûs Sancti," at which we write, invests with special interest any record, by a thoughtful and pious writer, of the period which followed on the Day of Pentecost. Dr. Shirley exhibits very clearly the spiritual and supernatural basis on which the Church was placed by the Pentecostal miracle: the reality of "the gift of languages;" the intense adoring dependence of the infaut community on its ascended Head; the youthful ardour with which it expected, at first, His speedy return to take His kingdom; the cordial, loving brotherhood of hearts which bound the members together, so that at first they exhibited "a community, not indeed VOL. XXIX.-JULY, 1867. 2 Q |