one by one overboard, and this was continued, day by day, till forty had perished.

The feebleness and inefficiency of the means hitherto made by Government to check the traffic, had been repeatedly pointed out by the admiral on the station and the officers employed on the coast, but it had failed to attract attention. The admiral had pointed out that those engaged in the traffic did not believe that the English Government was in earnest in its efforts to put it down, and it was this conviction which had encouraged them to carry it on with increasing boldness. That impediment to its extinction will now be removed. The feeling of the nation has been roused by the revelations recently made, and the Government has adopted the most energetic measures to suppress it. Sir Bartle Frere, the late governor of Bombay, who in that capacity, had charge of all the official communications with Zanzibar and Muscat, is proceeding to those ports in an iron-clad, with a commission from the crown, and a dignified staff. The imposing character of the mission will strike terror into the minds of all who are in any degree connected with the trade, and this is half the battle. We are omnipotent in the Eastern seas, and whatever we think fit to command, the two Arab potentates must comply with. It was under the award of the Governorgeneral that the ruler of Zanzibar has for more than ten years reluctantly paid the sum of £8,000 annually to the Emaum of Muscat, and there can be no doubt that he has sought compensation for the heavy burden imposed on him, however equitable, by encouraging the slave-trade. We cannot expect him to co-operate with us heartily in extinguishing it, unless we take this payment on ourselves; but, compared with the magnitude of the benefit to

be secured by our interference, it will be a mere "flea-bite; " in half a century it will scarcely exceed the cost of an ironclad of the first-class, and, if one-half of it is to be charged to the revenues of India, Mr. Lowe cannot begrudge the other moiety. Having thus secured the aid of the ruler of Zanzibar, the squadron on the coast must be strengthened, and we are happy to gather from a recent speech of Mr. Goschen, that the Admiralty is fully prepared for such an arrangement. The Banians, who are the mainspring of this nefarious traffic, are our own subjects and amenable to our authority, and two or three examples will be sufficient to put an end to their vocation. What is required is firmness and vigour, and it is to be hoped that on this occasion, Sir Bartle Frere, who is proverbial for the kindliness of his disposition, will adopt that stern resolution which the occasion demands, and in which he will be fully supported by the public voice in England; and we may then hope to see in the course of eight or ten years the complete extinction of this traffic, and the restoration of peace and prosperity to the coast of Africa.

RELIGIOUS STATISTICS OF ENGLAND. The Nonconformist has done essential service to the country by a laborious inquiry regarding the religious accommodation at preser provided in the large towns, as com pared with that which existed twenty years ago. The result of this investigation shows that, whereas in the twenty towns with a population of from 50,000 to 100,000 this accommodation has more than kept pace with the increase of the population, and whereas in 1851 the sittings numbered 423,600, in 1872 they had increased to 666,443, and that, while the people have increased 42.4 per cent., the increase in public worship accommodation

has been 44 per cent. This is a most significant and gratifying fact. It affords strong evidence that, notwithstanding the boast of scepticism that Christianity was losing ground in the country, and that the age had become too liberal and enlightened any longer to place confidence in the Bible, the religion of the Bible has a firmer hold on the higher and middling ranks of society than at any period since the days of Puritanism. If this increase of religious edifices had been provided by the State, this truth might have been open to controversy, and it might have been alleged that the multiplication of churches had been dictated by public policy, under the impression, current in the days of Pitt and Eldon, that the Church was one of the most valuable buttresses of the State; but it is nearly half-a-century ago, since Parliament voted public money for building churches. The edifices chronicled in the Nonconformist are owing entirely to the spontaneous and voluntary efforts of private individuals in the church and beyond its pale, to men with strong religious convictions, who have given unequivocal evidence of the vitality of their religion by their efforts to diffuse the truths of the Bible through the country.

The Nonconformist proceeds further to classify this increase of religious accommodation, and states that, while 43.6 per cent. has been provided by the Established Church, 66-4 is to be credited to the various Free Churches; and, as the members of the Establishment assert that Dissent is on the wane, these statistics are keenly controverted by them, and pronounced to be fallacious. Dr. Lee and the society of which he is the mainspring, have therefore undertaken to subject the statement of the Dissenting journal to a rigid scrutiny, and we shall

therefore soon be in a position to test its accuracy by the counterstatements of its opponents, and we have little fear that their veracity will be shaken.

Whatever may be said against this mode of ascertaining the relative strength of the Established Church and the Free Churches, it appears to afford the best chance of the nearest approach to accuracy. Under any other arrangement, all who are not actually enrolled as Dissenters would be counted as belonging to the National Church, and the millions who are as ignorant of the truths of Christianity as of the doctrines of Buddhism, and the hundreds of thousands whose only sanctuary on the Sunday is the ale-house, and even the thirty thousand roughs in London, who certainly are not Dissenters, would be placed in the scale of the Established Church. It is the men who frequent the house of God to enrich their minds with Divine truth, who form the backbone of our commonwealth, and the strength of each section of the Christian Church, and their respective numbers cannot be more accurately ascertained than by an enumeration of the number of seats provided by their communities. But on a higher and wider consideration, it is a matter of national importance to ascertain the accommodation for religious instruction which is available, from time to time, in proportion to the existing population, without reference to any sectarian distinctions. It is therefore to be hoped that when the period for the next decennial census comes round, a column will be added to the return, to exhibit the amount of sittings in each parish, in the Established Churches and the chapels of each denomination.

CHRISTMAS BOOKS AND PRESENTS FOR THE YOUNG.

The following have our cordial recommendation:-Faithful but not Famous. An Historical Tale. By the Author of "Soldier Fritz," &c. London: Religious Tract Society, 56, Paternoster Row.-Marcella of Rome: A Tale of the Early Church. By FRANCES EASTWOOD. London : J. F. Shaw & Co., 48, Paternoster Row.-Robin Tremayne. A Tale of the Marian Persecution. By EMILY SARAH HOLT. London: J. F. Shaw & Co., 48, Paternoster Row.-Charley Hope's Testament. London: The Religious Tract Society, 56, Paternoster Row.-Our Forest Home: Its Inmates, and what became of them. London: The Religious Tract Society, 56, Paternoster Row.-The Young People's Pocket Book for 1873. London: The Religious Tract Society, 56, Paternoster Row.-Miriam Rosenbaum.

A Story of Jewish Life. By DR. EDERSHEIM. London: Religious Tract Society.-The Home and the Synagogue of the Modern Jew. London: Religious Tract Society. Margaret's Choice. London: The Religious Tract Society.

Lectures and Sermons. By the late ALEXANDER DYCE DAVIDSON, D.D., Minister of the Free West Church, Aberdeen. Edinburgh T. and T. Clark. 1872.

THE Author of this volume was one of those men (and the Free Church of Scotland has had no small number of them) who, while not enjoying a national reputation, are, nevertheless, exercising in their own neighbourhood a powerful and intense influence for

Christ; and who, in fact, deliberately neglect the paths of ecclesiastical leadership, and devote their whole energies to the prosecution of their direct and immediate calling. For forty years, Dr. Davidson ministered to large and warmly-attached congregations: first, in the Established Church; and afterwards in the Free Church in Aberdeen. He was universally revered and loved for his ardent piety, his ripe and extensive scholarship, and his remarkable power as a Christian teacher and preacher. We have not, for a long time, read a volume of sermons with greater, or even with equal, satisfaction. They are very largely of the expository class, and everywhere display a thorough and minute knowledge of Scripture; indeed, as a Biblical critic, Dr. Davidson had few equals. He must have studied the whole text of Scripture with a keen and eager delight; determined to pierce to its innermost

deeps, and clearly to understand its mutual relations and its bearings on the incidents of our daily life. In doctrine the sermons are strongly evangelical; not, however, because the author was unacquainted with the different phases of modern thought, but because, after prolonged and prayerful study, he felt constrained to adhere to the old paths. The subjects of the discourses are various; a selection having been made from considerably over a thousand manuscripts, and they are all written in a clear and forcible style; they are pleasingly and pithily illustrated, and have a most stimulating effect on both the intellectual and spiritual life.

In England there is a neglect of the expository method'of preaching to an extent which is altogether unaccountable. Were it adopted, our congregations would not only be better instructed, but would likewise be stimulated to aim at a manlier and more vigorous type of Christianity than, as a

rule, they now possess; and we are, moreover, convinced that they would soon be deeply interested in it. We rejoice to know that many of our ministers are resolved to adopt the method at least, once every Lord's l's-day; and trust that, before long, that which is now the exception will become the rule. With this end in view, we cannot too strongly recommend the study of these admirable lectures and sermons-the product of a mind which was, in no ordinary degree, "mighty in the Scriptures."

The Interproter; or, Scripture for Family Worship. Being Selected Passages of the Word of God for every Morning and Evening throughout the year, accompanied by a Running Comment and Suitable Hymns. Arranged and Annotated by C. H. SPURGEON. Part I. London: Passmore and Alabaster.

OUR readers will probably be surprised to see the notice of another work, and a work of such magnitude as this, by Mr. Spurgeon, and they will be still further surprised when they know the circumstances under which it has been produced:-"I have performed this labour," says the beloved author, in his preface, "between the writing of two volumes of the TREASURY OF DAVID, as a relief to my mind from the severer study which that work involves." The capacity for work implied in these words, is almost beyond conception. How our brother can get through the duties which devolve upon him in his Church, his college, and his orphanage, and yet find time for such extensive literary labours, we are at a loss to imagine.

May his valuable life long be spared, and may he exercise an ever-increasing power for the dissemination of Christian truth, and the salvation of human souls.

"The Interpreter" is to be published in twenty-one monthly parts, and is intended to supply readings, &c., for family worship throughout the entire year. From our examination of the first part, we have little hesitation in saying that it will be the most

widely useful of all Mr. Spurgeon's devotional works. Many Christian men, who are fully convinced of the importance of family worship, have felt an insuperable difficulty in it. They have not always known on what principle to select passages to read, and how to explain some of the things they have read. Mr. Spurgeon endeavours to meet this twofold difficulty by making selections of appropriate length, and inserting those short, pithy comments, in which he is unquestionably facile princeps. He aims to give the gist of the whole Bible, and, as far as practicable, adheres to the chronological order. One feature of great excellence in the work, is its interpretation of Scriptures by Scrip

ture. Thus Genesis i. 1-5 is read in connection with John i. 1-14; Genesis i. 14-23 is followed by that magnificent song of praise, Psalm cxlviii. After the account of the creation of man, we have Psalm viii. The narrative of the Fall is elucidated by doctrinal exposi tions from the Romans, and so through. out. The collocation of passages has been made with singular judiciousness, and will, in itself, throw great light upon the readings. The hymns, also, are admirably selected; and if Mr. Spurgeon had felt himself at liberty to add prayers, they, too, would have been extremely useful. His conscience would not allow him to do so, and we honour his fidelity to conscience, but, for our own part, we cannot see that there is anything more sinful in forms of prayer than in forms of praise; and we know of instances in which both alike have rendered inestimable service to Christian parents.

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We sincerely trust that the author's devout expectations in regard to the Interpreter" may be realised, and we most heartily wish it "God-speed." Disciple Life. By the Rev. D.

MACCOLL. Glasgow: James Maclehose, St. Vincent Street. 1872. MR. MACCOLL'S work in the wynds of Glasgow has proved him to be one of the most earnest and successful of living evangelists, and those who know the record of it, will agree with the estimate of Mr. Spurgeon, that "it is really most wonderful," and deserves

to be read in all our Churches. The present volume shows that its author 18 no less wise and efficient as a teacher. He has, in no small measure, the gift of edification, and thus combines qualities which are not, as a rule, found so conspicuously together. Conversion is but the beginning of the spiritual life, and that life must be nurtured and developed; and hence the need of presenting in the pulpit the manifold aspects of Christian truth, and of leading on the minds of the hearers from stage to stage. Mr.. Maccoll has given us, in this volume, a view of disciple life as portrayed in the Gospels, in the history of the first disciples, and of Christ's treatment of them. The work is, in fact, an exposition of the main teachings and incidents of cur Lord's earthly career as they bear upon the subject in hand. The plan is well conceived, and equally well executed. We know of no work which brings out more: clearly the true nature of Christian discipleship the relation in which, as disciples, we stand to our Lord, and the methods by which our life is perfected. The author is evidently a man of thoughtful and scholarly mind. He writes with a calm and dignified eloquence, and compresses into smallspace the results of protracted thought.. It is an admirable book to place in the hands of young Christians.

Present-Day Lectures to a Baptist Congregation. By T. HARWOOD. PATTISON. London: Yates and Alexander, Symonds Inn, Chancery: Lane.

we

MR. PATTISON's subjects are as follows: Why are we Baptists? Why are we Congregationalists? Why are we Nonconformists? Why are Protestants? Why are we Christians? Clear in argument, vigorous in style, scriptural in sentiment, we think these lectures of great value on account of the faithful representation they give. of our distinctive principles in connection with each of the five points discussed. There are vast numbers of our church members who need to be. indoctrinated by such essays as these, in the reasons for our Nonconformity and denominational dissidence. We

hope, however, that Mr. Pattison does not make it a practice to address his Sunday evening audiences without the employment of a portion of God's Word as the ruling topic of discourse.. The absence of any text of Seripture from the headings of these lectures would lead the reader to such a conclusion. We can have nothing to say to our flocks that is not elicited from Divine teaching; nor can we expect Divine honour upon our labours unless they put the highest honour upon the Divine Word.

The Training of Young Children on: Christian and Natural Principles; addressed to Mothers. By GEO. MOORE, M.D., M.R.C.P., &c. London: Longmans, Green & Co. DR. MOORE is already known to many of our readers as the author of some. valuable works on the relation of the Body to the Soul. He has conferred a benefit on society by the publication of this excellent little volume, whose counsels cannot fail to afford great help to mothers, in the physical, mental, and moral training of their children. The author has given copious illustrations of the pithy motto he. has adopted from George Herbert: "One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters."

Walking with God: The Life Hid with Christ. By J. J. PRIME, D.D. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row.

AN excellent treatise,, elegantly printed. Our Puritan forefathers. would have constructed a great folio,. theme; but albeit brief, Dr. Prime is with a thousand pages, on such a. weighty and good. An admirable book for the pocket on a journey.

The Road to Destruction. An Allegory, etc. London: Elliot Stock, 82, Paternoster Row.

Of all forms of writing, allegory is most difficult. We may say of its author, nascitur, non fit. There is a great deal that is clever, and good, very good in this work; but we fear it will not meet with the reception it deserves.