The second part of Simple Lessons (London: Mozleys) being an Explanation of the Ten Commandments, is deserving of high commendation both for its plainness of speech and Catholicity of teaching.

The anonymous pamphlet Utrum Horum, the Book of Common Prayer or the Directorium Anglicanum? etc., (London: Riving. ton's) is alone remarkable for its ponderous dullness-oppressive and disagreeable in the highest degree. The class for which such publications are issued-thank God and the Saints! -is growing" small by degrees and beautifully less."

The account of All Saints Church, (London: Hayes,) reprinted from that excellent publication the Orchestra, will be welcome to many, as it provides an interesting guide to, and record of, a very remarkable Christian Sanctuary.

The Net and Mission Life continue their useful careers. The Church Magazine (Birmingham: Sackett) is a most interesting publication-the reverse of dull, ponderous, or pedantic.

Mr. Mann's tractate, The Lost Treasures of the Church reclaimed, (London: Hayes,) will be found a valuable compilation for distribution prior to the making of external ritual improvements in country parishes. Its tone is temperate and its facts telling.

Hints for Harvest Festivals (London: J. Parker & Co.) is a most admirable publication, eminently practical, by an experi enced hand. Its tone is excellent, though as a matter of detail we differ from Mr. Baines in holding that the Christian Sacrifice, whether there be communicants or not, ought not to be offered on the day itself.

Norman's Blast, (Edinburgh: Maclaren,) a clever poetical satire on a well-known Presbyterian teacher, more interesting probably beyond, than on this side, the Tweed, has deservedly reached a second edition.

The author of God's Church on Earth (London: Masters) gives, in a slight historical sketch, a considerable amount of dogmatic truth, calculated to be useful to the Parish Priest for circulation amongst the intelligent and enquiring.

Those who desire to possess themselves of a small but golden treatise on pure theology, would do well to obtain Memoranda of Angelical Doctrine from Lady Day to the Ascension digested and done into English by a Scottish Priest, (London: J. Parker & Co.) It is one of the most valuable tractates we have seen for many a day, being the result of a careful study of the dogmatic writings of S. Thomas Aquinas. It is to be regretted that it has not been printed in the ordinary pamphlet shape-small quarto being peculiar and not very convenient.

Mr. Barham Zincke's treatise On the Duty and Discipline of Extemporary Preaching (London: Rivingtons) is unfortunately cast in a mould that makes its author appear somewhat too egotistical. An autobiographical sketch is certainly not the best form for a practical manual, which we suppose is what Mr. Zincke intended this book to be. Scattered up and down a volume, that might with advantage have been compressed, are found some really valuable hints, remarkable both for their point and shrewdness, which every young clergyman would be the better and wiser for considering. The "Studies for Sermons" at the end are decided failures. Without dogma, preaching becomes platitudinizing,—weak, valueless, and wishywashy.

To students of the Parables we recommend a very curious pamphlet in the form of a Letter to the Archbishop of Dublin, (London: Bosworth,) which sets forth with learning and ingenuity a new interpretation of a really difficult parable; fully deserving the attention of the biblical student.

The Messrs. Parker's most handsome reprint of Prebendary Sutton's Godly Meditations on the Most Holy Sacrament, a really standard work, will be acceptable to that large class of persons which reasonably prefers devotions of an Anglican type to those of any other character. Any one who has read them, must admit the beauty, solidity and value of a book, which is here sumptously re-issued at a truly reasonable price.

A reprint of The Liturgy of S. John Chrysostom, with an excellent translation, which Mr. Masters has just published, will be acceptable to many. We commend it in all sincerity to every Re-unionist as eminently calculated to widen their sympathies, and eliminate Anglican insularity.

The two volumes of Catechetical Lessons which Messrs. Parker have issued will be found of great practical use to many engaged in teaching the Faith. The most satisfactory part is that relating to the Morning and Evening Services-the least satisfactory that on the Anglican Articles. For ourselves we cannot realize the state of mind of a clergyman who can seriously hold that catechising on the latter can produce any results whatsoever but a spirit of disobedience, and the practice of putting a Local Church and its modern peculiarities in the place of the One Universal Church, infallible, unchanging and unchangeable. Notwithstanding this mistake, however, the books are well done and valuable.

Mr. R. M. Benson's small treatise, The Divine Rule of Prayer, (London: Bell & Daldy,) containing an introduction of great power and value, and several beautiful paraphrases of our Lord's Prayer, will be acceptable to many as well for what it actually provides as for what it indirectly suggests.

We can, in all sincerity, say that we have seldom read modern discourses so excellent in every respect as Fire Plain Sermons on the Sacrament of the Altar, (London: Masters.) They are systematic, lucid, full of dogma, well reasoned, and written in good English. Moreover, strong statements and startling paradoxes being avoided, their value is enhanced by the calm tone of certainty which pervades them throughout, and by the devotional spirit everywhere apparent.

We are glad to see from the notice among our advertisements that the second part of Mr. Ffoulkes' Christendom's Divisions will be soon out. We observe from its title, that it will extend no further than the Reformation: but will be confined to questions between the Greek and Latin communions, embracing a history not merely of their overtures for Re-union till then, but of the rise and progress of their dissensions. The author, we understand, has been led to adopt this course, from having observed that no account of their schism had ever yet been given from first to last in a connected form-and he has discovered so many misrepresentations to correct, and facts to bring out, not generally known, in connection with it, that he feels it would have been impossible to have made their overtures for Re-union intelligible to the general reader, without acquainting him beforehand how, when, and why, they really separated. So that all overtures for Re-union from whatsoever quarter, subsequent to the Reformation, will now form the subjectmatter of a third part by themselves. Among the points which we may expect to see carefully sifted in the forthcoming volume are, 1. the true causes of the schism: 2. when and by whom it was really consummated; 3. why none of the various negotiations for Re-union succeeded; 4. to whose instrumentality the reception of the interpolated form of the creed in the West was due; 5. the general treatment of the Greeks by the Latins. On this last head, if we are informed rightly, the author has formed, and will express, a very decided opinion. As the Eastern question is becoming more and more imminent every day, it is probable that this volume may prove to be of very general interest.

Mr. Hayes of Lyall Place has recently published a set of Altar Cards, containing the Prayer of Consecration and other Secretæ from the Sarum Missal, well selected, beautifully printed, and illuminated by the reproduction of an ancient wood-cut of the Crucfixion. It is a publication of great excellence and considerable practical value.

The Invalids' Hymn Book, from the same publisher, being a judicious selection of Dr. Neale's most appropriate hymns, with a preface by Dr. Littledale, is printed in bold and clear type, and will be found remarkably useful for the class for which it

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designed. We need not say that the hymns are all exceedingly beautiful.

Mr. Norbert Sweeney's Lectures on Catholic Faith and Practice, (London: Richardson & Son,) a Roman Catholic publication, in three volumes, is deserving of very high praise. It sets forth in clear and Saxon English the whole system of the Universal Church, touching every detail with ability and judgment. Its arguments are well put, and there is an entire absence of that snarling and snappish spirit which too frequently disfigures similar works. The hits at the Anglican Church from the writer's point of view are not unjust, nor are many of the criticisms unfair: though we cannot but think that, being ephemeral, their total omission would have been a great improvement. The various lectures appear to have been printed separately, as they were each delivered. The third volume is the least interesting, because so many "objections" are considered. But, taking them as a whole, their ability is unmistakeable, and it is wonderful to mark how extremely little, as regards dogma and not opinion, a sound Anglo-Catholic would object to, and how much-even the common Faith of the undivided Church-is held equally by people on both sides of the ugly wall of separation. If Mr. Norbert Sweeney is not a Re-unionist, like the late Cardinal and Father Lockhart, he certainly ought to be. There is only one solution, alike divine and reasonable, to both portions of the Christian Family, and that is to labour for Corporate Re-union.

Mr. Hayes has issued an exceedingly well-arranged tract, entitled A Few Words as to the Reasons why all the Congregation ought to remain in Church until the End of the Service, whether they communicate or not, written, as we learn, by a Prebendary of Lichfield. Its sound arguments are forcibly put, while the excellence of its temper and lucidity of its statements will commend it, for practical use, to those who are vigorously assisting in the great Catholic Revival.

The supporters of a mischievous Puritan tradition are naturally up in arms at the restoration of Catholic practices in the Christian sacrifice. Nothing vexes their pious souls more than the increasing practice of celebrating before and not at the end of the altar. Mr. C. J. Elliott is thus afflicted, and consequently writes a pamphlet, long, laboured and ponderous, in which he attempts to combat Dr. Littledale's well-known tractate. He writes in a good spirit, but contributes nothing new to this vexed question; and we should not be at all surprised-considering the extreme weakness of his case and the feebleness of his arguments-to find him on some future occasion (as we frequently find once-noisy Protestants) a warm supporter of Catholic principles and practices in the Church of England.

Mr. Talmadge's Letters from Florence on the Religious Reform Movements in Italy, (London: Rivingtons,) however open to criticism, will be read with interest by many. Written in good English, with some ability and in a temperate spirit, the book will be welcome mainly to that small section of restless Anglicans who are Conservatives at home, who would keep the "good things" of the English Church for themselves and their friends, but are ecclesiastical Radicals and Revolutionists abroad. All that Mr. Talmadge recounts of the dissatisfaction, grumbling, and strong sayings of Italian priests and laymen, might well be paralleled here. Nor is there much doubt that the movement is almost universally sceptical, i.e., the sceptical principle is mainly at the bottom of it. Now it may be quite easy to fan the flame of dissatisfaction and change, and to stir up such a spirit of rebellion against legitimate ecclesiastical authority as shall lead many to approve of all the scandalous and barbaric outrages on religion and the religious of Victor Emmanuel's anti-christian Government; but who can seriously foster such proceedings, and who, again, can say where they will end? To recommend Anglicanism as it at present exists, with its three divisions of High, Broad, and Low-or as a witty outsider recently remarked, of Attitudinarians, Latitudinarians, and Platitudinarians—is a mark of insular self-satisfaction, but

scarcely of Christian wisdom. Since the period of the Anglican Reformation, the National Church has notoriously lost half the population of the country, while of the remaining half which she has nominally retained, only about twelve-and-a-half per cent., taking towns and villages together, are communicants. As regards dogma the Cases of Mr. Voysey in the diocese of York, of the Essays and Reviews, and of Dr. Colenso in the colonies, are not such as to warrant Anglicans in blowing very loud blasts on their own spiritual trumpets. More work in restoring and rebuilding both spiritually and materially must be done. Instead of hiring apostate Roman priests and unexperienced Anglican prigs to foster disobedience and discontent abroad, we should be earnestly working at home to remedy our own manifold defects. Our first duty is to England and not to Italy, however others, the meddlesome and fault-finding may preach and maintain the contrary. Mr. Talmadge writes in the interest of the Anglo-Continental Society, an organisation for fostering spiritual pride in its promoters and for shaking the faith of Italian and other foreign Catholics amongst whom its emissaries labour. His book will be mainly useful in pointing out to what preposterous extremes the unhappy people have been induced to go, who have been deluded, misled, buoyed up with false hopes, and then deserted, by a series of ecclesiastical freebooters, whose pockets have been filled and their wants supplied by staid, solemn, respectable, well-to-do, place-loving