the evil influence of Satanic power is horribly discernible, like the Egyptian darkness, which could be felt; and the only way to express their keen perception of it is to say, that they see upon the countenances of the slaves of sin the marks, and lineaments, and stamp of the evil one; and they smell with their nostrils the horrible fumes that arise from their vices and uncleansed heart, driving good angels from them in dismay, and attracting and delighting devils. It is said of the holy Sturme, a disciple and companion of Winfrid, that in passing a horde of unconverted Germans, as they were bathing and gambolling in a stream, he was so overpowered by the intolerable scent which arose from them that he nearly fainted away. And no doubt such preternatural discernments are sometimes given to saints, that men may understand how exceedingly offensive a sinful man is in God's sight.”

A little girl, whose chief fault was over-fondness for play, was gaily amusing herself with a ball near the monastery, when to her great affliction she found the ball, as she caught it from her companions, stick to her hand as if glued. She ran in grief to pray at the shrine, and was freed from her fright by the ball loosening and coming away. The same reproof was thrice repeated to a woman who continued her spinning on festival days: the distaff clung to her hand. At last, being frightened out of her wilfulness, she was freed from her punishment and cured of her disobedience at Walburga's tomb.

"A person who came into the church to pray, thoughtlessly and irreverently kept his rough gauntlets or gloves upon his hands as he joined them in posture of prayer, and he felt them suddenly stripped off him and gone; he was much terrified and ashamed of his negligence, and afterwards, as he recounted what had happened to him, they appeared lying before him, restored by a miracle."

The grave comment of the Newman scribe upon these aniles fabellæ is-" All these have the character of a gentle mother correcting the idleness and faults of careless and thoughtless children with tenderness."

If the lives of our Saxon saints were uniformly of the puerile character indicated by the legendary nonsense we have quoted, we might safely leave them to contempt; we should not fear their infecting any mind with a passion for Popery. But there are interspersed among these idle tales some verging upon blasphemy, which we cannot pass by without our grave censure. There was never but ONE who rebuked the winds and waves, and bade them be still. St. Paul was content with commanding that those "who could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land; and the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship." But a Saxon lady-saint adopts a loftier course :—

"Walburga prayed to God her Saviour, and rising from prayer full of holy power, bade the elements be still. The winds and waters

heard the voice of God speaking in his servant, and obeyed, and there succeeded a miraculous calm, as if the peace and gentleness that dwelt in her bosom had spread itself like oil over the sea. Shortly they came to land, and put into port overjoyed, giving thanks to God, and regarding Walburga with veneration.

We have said that had these volumes been merely fraught with the legendary nonsense, some specimens of which we have quoted, we should have left them to contempt; neither should we have incurred the risk of bringing them under the observation of those who might peradventure, without our notice, have missed them, merely to express our condemnation of some objectionable passages, such as we cannot help considering that in which Walburga's imitation of the Saviour is recorded. But there are ever and again passages of such thrilling pathos, descriptions so picturesque, and scenes of such exquisite tenderness-the expression, moreover, of thoughts so profound, piety so ardent, and zeal so self-devoting and self-denying, that we cannot refrain from warning the young and unwary against the subtle form under which the worst errors of Popery are presented to them. Mr. Newman has been long openly charged by many of our contemporaries with disingenuousness. A reluctance to impute sinister motives to any man, and a rooted hatred to all personal attacks, have hitherto restrained us from doing more than condemn such portions of that gentleman's writings to which we entertained objections; but truth now constrains us to say, that not the most subtle and unscrupulous disciple of Loyola, who ever garbled truth or mixed a noxious compound so as to deceive the eyes of the simple, ever acted more disingenuously than Mr. Newman has done in the matter of the "Lives of the English Saints."

The Order of Daily Service, Vol. II.: containing the Psalter, with the Eight Gregorian Tunes; the Burial Service, with Musical Notation; an Appendix of Ancient Music, &c. London: J. Burns. 1844.

THIS Volume completes the splendid and unique edition of the Common Prayer edited by Mr. W. Dyce and published by Mr. Burns, the first portion of which we had the pleasure of noticing in our number of last October. For typographical excellence, for the beauty of its wood-cut borders and initial letters, both as regards the design and execution, it is equally admirable. The editor also has enriched this portion of the work with an appendix of very curious and interesting matter relative to ancient Church music, which, in the present fast increasing taste for that very important subject, will be found well worthy of attention.

Conciones Basilica on the Second Advent. By T. MYERS, M.A. London: Painter. 1844.

IN the "introduction" to these discourses the author endeavours to obviate some of the objections he foresees to his mode of interpreting Scripture, and to the doctrine of the second advent:

"He who ventures to apply the apparatus of verbal criticism to the correction of erroneous yet prevalent opinions will be deemed a setter forth of strange novelties, while he is simply a restorer of old beliefs. It is really surprising how frequently the restoration of ancient doctrines is required in the world, and how often specious objections are ignorantly raised against them, as if they were novelties of one's own manufacture. And thus it will ever be till the time of the end. Another cause, too, why the members of our own branch of the Catholic Church are behindhand in the apprehension of the advent of Christ may be this—that their thoughts have lately been occupied with views about things, rather than with the things themselves-with abstract notions, rather than with life-sustaining realities. ... We have magnified differences of opinion among ourselves, rather than attempted to realize our union with the person of our Lord. I am persuaded that it will be impossible for the student to comprehend the views advocated in this small volume without previously realizing in his own experience the idea of St. Paul: To me to live is Christ." (ix.)

And he also says―

"While discussing the revealed truth of God respecting the first and second advent of our Saviour, I have scrupulously refrained from enforcing a single argument which is not based on the New Testament. The Old Testament has been used by way of evidence and illustration, as necessary to suggest the method by which the New is to be interpreted, but no further." (vii.)

These observations seem intended to justify the literal understanding of our Lord's advent, and also the applying to the Jews, or the literal Israel, passages which have been often thought to refer only to the mystical Israel. One of the parables introduced into the last discourse, on the prospects of Israel, seems to acquire greater clearness and force by such a literal application:

6

"The parable which implies it (the casting off of the Jews during the Gentile dispensation) most fully is that of the unjust steward; and this view gives the only solution of its moral which can be adopted as consistent. The difficulty has always been felt as to the correct interpretation of the words, ' Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.' The address is clearly to Jews-the failure of their economy is predicted, and the everlasting habitations is an expression for that dwelling of God with men which was predicted under

the new covenant, when the Church should be so firmly rooted that no power throughout creation should prevail against it. The unrighteous. mammon was a current expression for that disgraceful extortion which was practised by the heathen oppressors of Israel, and seems here used for the Gentiles themselves. The Jew, then, was the unjust steward. He was on the eve of hearing the alarming summons- Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest no longer be steward.' The pride of the nation was cast down by the prospect of the depth of degradation to which they were to be humbled. Those whom they termed the unrighteous mammon were to become possessors of the everlasting habitations of God's Churches on earth; and when the Jewish polity had failed, they were to sue for admittance, through the door of repentance and faith, into the Gentile privileges." (145).

A Little Treatise demonstrating, from its Internal Evidences, the Divine Origin of the Holy Scriptures; being a Translation, from the Original Latin, of the Letter of Bochart to his Friend Le Seigneur de Tapin. With added Notes and Illustrations, and some account of the Lives of Bochart, Allix, and Lightfoot. By W. L. NEVILLE, a Clergyman of the Diocese of Lichfield. London: Painter. 1844.

VARIOUS Works have been written on the internal evidence of the sacred volume; but still we hail with pleasure the appearance of this little work, inasmuch as it presents the subject to the reader in a concise form, and is a valuable addition to the testimonies already accessible to the public. The notes are rather copious, and add considerably to the value of the work. Much light is thrown by Mr. Neville on the various topics discussed in the treatise. To those who have not access to many books, this small volume will be of much value.

The History of the Church of Scotland, from the Reformation to the Present Time. By THOMAS STEPHEN. London: Lendrum. Parts 10, 11, 12, 13.

THESE four parts embrace the period from the year 1651 to 1677. The author intends to bring the history down to the present time; and we apprehend that the most interesting portion of his labours is yet to be completed. Much interest is felt, by members of the Anglican Church, in the state of Episcopacy in Scotland, from the revolution to the present period. From the manner in which Mr. Stephen has already accomplished his task, we look forward with much interest to the period to which we have alluded. The Episcopal Church of Scotland is but little known. We trust that we shall not much longer have any reason for such a complaint.

The Religious Life and Opinions of Frederick William III. King of Prussia. Translated from the German. By JONATHAN BIRCH. London: Hatchard. 1844.

Ir is not often that we get so near a view of a king, and very few kings, we imagine, would bear so well a close inspection. Moralists have often descanted on the temptations which environ a throne, presenting at the same time a barrier through which it is hard indeed for truth to reach the ear, and harder still to touch the heart of royalty. Frederick owed everything to the misfortunes which befel him, both as a monarch and as a man, and to those good and faithful men whom God threw in his way at the time of his greatest humiliation, and when his heart was opened to receive religious truth in the way of consolation only at the first, but thus introduced, Christianity imparted also that wisdom, firmness, and enlightened patriotism for which Frederick III. became so remarkable.

For seven years, from 1806 to 1813, Prussia and its king had to endure degradations and sufferings scarcely paralleled in modern times; and during that time, when religion seemed a matter of downright necessity to the king, in order to enable him to support existence under his many sorrows, Dr. Borowsky was thrown in his way, and in him the king found, to his great joy, a very apostle of Jesus Christ. The king himself speaks of his favourite in language such as this—

"You must picture to yourself Borowsky, as a prophet of the Old or an apostle of the New Testament; but as that may be saying rather too much, you may value him as a counterpart of those great originals. Everything about him carries the impress of his station-fertile and solid-meek and serene-artless and single-minded-genuine and candid; in him is to be seen the veritable Christian Churchman, void of distasteful affectation and pedantry. Such a man was and is my beloved Borowsky, and for that reason he is so dear to me. He stood by me, and I by him, during the dark and oppressive time, when I had need of comfort, and verily felt a yearning for consolation; but he administered no calming palliatives-his were medical remedies, even when they were harsh and occasioned pain.

"The circumstances that led to the unfortunate times, when I, my house and people, were struck down, he sought not to gloss with opiative excuses, but frankly laid bare the fundamental causes, and placed them in their true colours before my eyes, not sparing me.

"He made me conversant with prophetic theology, of which I was wholly ignorant till then. He proved to me, from the world's history and its annalled transactions, illumined by the light of Biblical prophecy, that, in conformity to the divine government of the world, a regenerated and improved people would always rise again, and that an immoral and arrogant people had ever been abased. With a serene