a wider circle of intelligent readers, interested in the several subjects which are promised to be dealt with before the series is exhausted. The present volume deals with Presbyterianism in its different phases, and Irvingism inclusive, the first and last developement of Protestantism. The editor, however, has assigned a different reason for the apparently incongruous juxta-position; and we might add a third parenthetically, that the two sects mentioned stand together on a common ground in virtually denying the Divine institution of the episcopate as the Apostolical succession. The editor himself justifies his arrangement on another ground, in the following crushing passage:

"I am compelled to classify it in order under Presbyterianism, because of its founder, Edward Irving, who was a Minister of the Established Presbyterian Religion of Scotland. Its claims, however, are so different from those of the other sects, its specious appearance in cultivating the arts of embellishment and decoration, both in the services and house of GOD-the very opposite of Presbyterianism, its vaunting claims in setting forth Catholicity for its object while in reality it fosters dissent, its extraordinary if not blasphemous assertion of possession of miraculous gifts of the Spirit, its strange infatuation in imitating the authority and assuming the office of the very apostles, above all, its unaccountable inconsistency in maintaining with one hand a union with the Catholic Church even in the Blessed Sacrament, while with the other it builds separate conventicles, and rears altar (so called) against altar. All these features place it far above the common history of ordinary schism, and claim for it special notice."

Elsewhere Mr. Bennett very reasonably remarks of the latter heresy, that

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were it ever so much made out, that there ought always to have been apostles in the Church, not one step is thereby gained towards establishing that Mr. Drummond, M.P. for West Surrey, was a successor to the office of S. Peter and S. Paul; that he and his associates had apostolic authority to rule the whole Church of CHRIST; or that GOD the HOLY GHOST ever spake through any of these who thus claim to be moved by Him."

We read these papers with great interest at their first publication, but with renewed freshness, and, under the altered circumstances of the times, with an enhanced appreciation at the present critical

moment.

The Intermediate State. A Poem. London: Masters, 1867.

THE reader's attention is at once attracted to this poem by the information on the title page that it is dedicated "with permission from himself to the late author of The Christian Year,' "" and further by an introduction by Mr. R. Brett, in which he tells us that it also received the high approval of the late Dr. Neale, who selected some portions of it to form part of "The Joys and Glories of Paradise." Such commendation as this renders it needless to say more. We feel with Mr. Brett, that it would be only presumption in us to endorse favourable opinions on which Mr. Keble and Dr. Neale have set their seal. We must add,

however, the qualification that there is a good deal of inequality in the poem, and some parts of it fall short of the beauty of the rest. It consists of three parts, treating respectively of "The Garden of Eden," "The Mansions of Repose," and "The Worship of the Elect." We cannot do better than let the poem speak for itself, by quoting one or two short extracts.

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"Apart, in deep recess of distant glen,
Seeking seclusion even from holy men,
In contemplation such as seraphs know,
Once all defiled, now veiled in vest of snow,
Sits Magdalene, the pardoned and the saint.
I can but dare her chastened charms to paint
In symbol and in figure, but unfold
The form celestial under earthly mould.
Her hair immortal, for it touched His Feet,
When with the Pharisee He sat at meat.
Her lips undying roses, for their kiss
Hath pressed the LORD of beauty and of bliss.
Her eyes which wept upon that Holy One,
Eternal blue through faith they then did own.
Her grace those ever od'rous hands declare
Likest to alabaster pure and fair.

Thus dwelleth aye in love that cannot vary,'
Good angels near, the 'sometime sinner Mary.'
Once it was, 'Tell me where that He is taken,'
The grave all dark, and her dark soul forsaken;"
After Touch Me not, I am not ascended,'
But now most truly have those high words blended,
'MY FATHER, therefore yours; My God, your GOD.'
And well she knoweth that from earthly sod
The Resurrection and the Life will give
Her brother and herself with Him to live.
Thy own Rabboni, they will say, is come
And calleth for thee hence to take thee home."

“I gaze still onward where in tenderest rapture,
Escaped for ever from death's short sad capture,
Each baby folded on a snowy arm,
Pillowed on swelling bosom safe from harm,
Knows its own mother, and each mother's care
Clasps to her breast an infant martyr there.
Far more than mortal pang of birth o'erpaid!
Ye who in earlier times lament have made,
Forgive that cruel word, that gleaming blade.
One hour's sharp weaning and short agony,
One mailed embrace, then shouts of victory.
And for dear mother's milk they know no more,
The milk aye flowing on true Canaan's shore.
And for that in their mouth no guile was found,
No fault in their short lives, GOD's throne around
Hereafter shall they sing the unlearnt song,

The living creatures and the twice twelve crowns among."

The Wood-cart, and other Tales from the South of France, (Mozleys,) form a very_charming little book, quite above the average of children's books. Indeed there are few grown-up people who would not find them well worth reading, abounding as they do in graphic and picturesque sketches of the Pyrenees and the surrounding country, and teaching lessons of obedience, dutifulness, love, and unselfishness, in the most attractive manner.

Archie's Ambition, (Masters,) is a very high-toned little tale, and one which cannot fail to interest all who read it.

The Rev. W. E. HEYGATE'S pamphlet, Consider the Consequences ; or an entreaty not to make any change in the Prayer Book without the consent of the Church, (Masters,) is, like all that comes from him, accurately learned, well reasoned, and completely thought-out. Our only suspicion of pamphlets is, that there are so many of them that their stings neutralize one another-as the stings of a whole swarm of bees, which once settled on a child, are said to have done.

The Present Crisis in the Church; with its bearings on Re-union : a Letter from a Country Priest to a London Priest, (Longman and Co.) is an admirable brochure, (though the title reminds us of Horace's mice.) Written professedly by a young man, it proves the advancement, not only in literary ability, but in practical wisdom, of the Catholic school. It is very good indeed," a wholesome doctrine and necessary for these times."

The general character of Nine Sermons on the Lord's Supper, with a special reference to controversies of the present times, by the Rev. ARTHUR WOLFE, M.A., &c. (Longman and Co.,) will be sufficiently described by a single brick out of the building :- "Were it not better that the Sacrament should even be put aside, treated as was the brazen serpent by Hezekiah, rather than be made an object of superstitious regard, causing us to forget that which it was intended to bring before ourselves and display to others?"

Two seasonable reprints of the late Mr. KEBLE's Sunday Lessons : The Principles of Selection; being No. XIII. of "Tracts for the Times;" and An Argument against immediately repealing the laws which treat the nuptial bond as indissoluble, have been published by Messrs. Parker.

Communities of female Religious have always been a prolific source of set devotions. Many Sisterhoods among ourselves possess their own translations of the Hours and other Offices. Mr. CARTER of Clewer now edits a valuable collection of Memorials (Masters) of various occasions; suitable, not only for persons living in communities, but for family and private use.

Of single Sermons we have received a sound plain one by the Rev. GEORGE D. NICHOLAS, Assistant Curate of Clewer, entitled The Key of the Sacramental System, (Church Press Company ;) and a characteristic one by Canon TREVOR, preached at York Minster, on The New Ritualism, with a note on the Eucharistic Doctrine of the Church of

England, (Mozleys.) The former quotes a sentence of Bishop Taylor: "When we say we believe CHRIST'S Body to be really in the Sacrament, do we mean that Body, that Flesh, which was born of the Virgin Mary, that was crucified, dead, and buried? I answer, I know none else that He had or hath; there is but one Body of CHRIST natural and glorified." We commend the extract to the study of Canon Trevor before venturing on a re-issue of his note.

Another treatise on Ritual is The true limits of Rubrical or Ceremonial Revival in Divine Service, (Parker and Co.;) a Paper read at a Ruri-decanal Meeting, by the Rev. F. S. BOLTON, B.D., Perpetual Curate of Salt in the diocese of Lichfield. The writer adopts for his motto Certi denique fines, &c., but the object of his pamphlet seems to be, to reduce rubrical interpretation to the most uncertain of all criteria, viz. usage, when a diversity of usage may be found in almost every church. If past usage, however, is to decide the question, irreverence

and slovenliness must be the rule.

For those who find interest or edification in the present fashion of rationalizing about almost every religious question, Historical Religion and Biblical Revelation, (Parker and Co.,) by HENRY HARRIS, Rector of Winterbourne-Bassett, Wilts, and late Fellow and Tutor of Magdalen College, Oxford, is a well written and less offensive essay in this direction than ordinary.

:

The Historical Character of the Mosaic Account of Creation, (Dublin Hodges, Smith, and Co.,) by HENRY JELLETT, A.M., Rector of Ahinagh, is a well-meant endeavour on the other side of the same question.

A Reply to a Letter of the Lord Bishop of Capetown, by CONNOP THIRLWALL, D.D., Bishop of S. David's, (Rivingtons,) is, of course, clever and sarcastic; but though as smart as anything that we remember to have read of his, we must say, deliberately and with equal sincerity, that we do not recollect anything else of his so apparently uncandid, flippant, and sophistical, and destitute of the y☺ɩkỳ #íoτis.

Tracts for the Day; No. 4, Miracles and Prayer, edited by the Rev. ORBY SHIPLEY, (Longman and Co.,) is an able reply to Professor Tyndall's shallow theory.

We regret that The Month for August, (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.,) commits itself more decidedly than ever to the ultramontane paltry abuse of the authors of the "Eirenicon," and "Christendom's Divisions."

The Penny Post, (Parker and Co.,) and The British Churchman, (Church Press Company,) for August are fair average numbers. The latter contains a very good paper on "Praying, and saying Prayers."

The Principles of Trades Unions, (Mozleys,) a paper read before the Rotherham Literary and Scientific Society, by the Rev. H. MASTER WHITE, M.A., Incumbent of Masbrough, late Fellow of New College, Oxford, &c., is a thoughtful and well written little tractate, adapted for distribution especially in manufacturing districts.

Mr. PERCEVAL WARD'S Five Letters upon the Bishop of Salisbury's late Charge, to a Layman of the Diocese, (Church Press Company,) are plain and clear-headed expositions of some of the chief points of Catholic doctrine treated of by his Lordship in a less popular way. We trust they may reach and help to enlighten the inveterate ignorance of even the most prejudiced Wiltshire and Dorsetshire churchwardens.

Mr. LIDDELL has published two admirable sermons on The Church's Belief in the Real Presence the Key to her Ritual, and The Duty of Loyalty to the Church as our Mother in God, (Hayes.) We cannot too highly commend them both to the attention of our readers, as showing forth in simple but forcible language the deep truths which lie at the root of the principles we contend for; but the latter especially is most valuable at the present day.

NOTICE TO READERS.

THE Proprietors of the Ecclesiastic have, for some time past, had under their serious consideration the question of continuing to publish it in its present form, or of combining it with some other Magazine of a popular and less distinctive theological character; or even of stopping its publication altogether. Deeply as they would regret either of the latter alternatives, but especially the last, the monthly expense of publication has been hitherto so far in excess of the proceeds of sale, that they have scarcely felt justified in continuing it any longer. Yielding, however, to the advice of several friends who, for many years past, have taken an active interest in the Ecclesiastic as it exists in its present form, and as filling a place in ecclesiastical literature which no other Church periodical now published would properly supply, they have determined, at their own risk, to make a further trial, and to continue the publication as it is at present. They consider that its peculiar character consists in the learned treatment of grave and, no doubt, to many readers, somewhat dry theological questions of the day; that therefore its circulation must be necessarily limited. On the other hand, they perceive that this peculiar and useful character would be lost by the introduction and admixture. of lighter and more secular matter suited to the popular taste. They have resolved, therefore, to preserve the publication in its present form, in the confident hope that the friends and supporters of the Magazine, who have really valued its firm, consistent, and judicious maintenance of Catholic principles in the Church of England for many past years of difficulty and trial, will, at the present anxious crisis, use their best endeavours to promote its wider circulation, by obtaining additional subscribers among their own immediate acquaintance, and making it known in every quarter where its thorough Catholic and yet Church-of-England principles are likely to be appreciated. Communications for "The Editor" or Proprietors" should be so addressed, to the care of Messrs. J. MASTERS AND SON.