FIRST READINGS: CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. Sunday School Union. London: Wesleyan Methodist This is a small but very valuable book of 32 pages. The type is large and clear, the pictorial illus. trations are admirable, and the doctrinal teaching excellent. It is a most successful compilation from creeds, catechism, and standards in language understood by children; and its value as a first lesson book in theology cannot be over-estimated. In the hands of skilful teachers it may be mode a great power for good. We hope it will be extensively used in Sunday school classes, and in Christian families. MEMORIAL VOLUME. Gervase Smith, D.D. LECTURES, SPEECHES, SERMONS, ETC. By Rev. The contents are varied. We have an Historical Sketch of Dr. Smith by one minister, Personal Recollections of him by another; and an address delivered at the funeral by a third; all interesting but very different productions. There is also a good likeness of Dr. Smith, and then come his lectures, speeches, and sermons; so that we have a book that really deserves its title of Memorial Volume. We are glad to have it. Dr. Smith was not an ordinary man; these productions of his give ample proof of that; he was a brother minister, a friend, an acquaintance of whom people would wish to have some remembrancer beyond a photograph or autograph, and nothing of the sort could be given better than this volume. ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. By E. E. Jenkins, M.A., President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, 1880. London: T. Woolmer. "All the pieces composing this volume, except two, were prepared for certain occasions of a Wesleyan President's year of office;" and Mr. Jenkins has done well to put them in permanent form. Some of them are of peculiar interest, notably so the masterly, eloquent, and appreciative addresses delivered at the funerals of Dr. Punshon and Rev. W. O. Simpson. The Valedictory Address to the Students of the Westminster and Southlands Colleges is an admirable one, and deserves to be well read by teachers of youth throughout the churches. As a preacher Mr. Jenkins has taken first-class rank for many years, and the sermons in this volume will maintain his high reputation. We welcome the book as a valuable addition to our Connexional literature, as a characteristic and welcome gift and reinembrancer of its author to his troops of friends, and as a sad but worthy memorial of three such good and distinguished men and ministers as Luke H. Wiseman, William O Simpson, and W. Morley Punshon. From the Wesleyan Conference Office several small story books have recently CHARLES G. FINNEY: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. London: Hodder & Stoughton. This new edition has been specially prepared for English readers, and is published at 5s. It will be particularly interesting to those who remember the wonderful work of revival with which Mr. Finney was for so long and so successfully associated. If it has some of the faults of most autobiographies, it certainly has the advantage of giving us a clear insight to much of Mr. Finney's secret life with its earnest yearnings for the salvation of souls, and it explains many of his theological views, and exhibits his methods of work. Pastors and Evangelists especially may read it with great profit; whilst all earnest Christian workers may learn good lessons from it. SACRED SONGS AND SOLOS. Nos. I. and II. combined. Compiled and Sung by Ira D. Sankey. London: Morgan & Scott. It would be superfluous to describe these songs and solos; words and music alike are familiar to people all through the land. We are glad to see this combined edition, it forms a useful and handsome book, and we hope it will have such a circulation as it deserves. It contains more than 400 pieces; the old favourites are of course in it-some of them hymns and tunes that have had wondrous influence over human destinies-and there are several recent additions which will be welcome. This edition will be very convenient for use in families, for pianists, and organists. It is published at various prices. The copy before us is well bound, and does the publishers great credit. LINKS IN REBECCA'S LIFE. By Pansy. London: Hodder & Stoughton, Pansy is an American writer. She has written several books for children, and some of her tales are very good. LINKS IN REBECCA'S LIFE is a story for those of larger growth. It tells a good tale well, and shows how powerful for good the life of a sensible, godly young woman may be. It will be a welcome addition to the tale shelf of our school libraries. NEW PUBLICATIONS AND NEW EDITIONS. ABBOTT'S HISTORIES FOR THE YOUNG: LIFE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, FIJI AND THE FRIENDLY ISLES: SKETCHES OF THEIR SCENERY AND GUY SYLVESTER'S GOLDEN YEAR. By Rev. James Yeames. MINIATURE CARTOONS: LIFE OF JESUS. New Edition, Revised and Extended. dozen. We have received the FOLLOWING, BUT DO NOT NECESSARILY RECOMmend them, From Messrs. Bemrose & Sons.-The Student's Concordance to the Revised Version of 1831 From Messrs. John Hogg & Co-A Book of Boyhoods, by Ascott R. Hope, 3s. 6d. Facts From the Authors.-Red Lights on the Steps of the Sanctuary, by Rev. T. Whittaker, 1s. 6d. From Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton.-José and Benjamin: A Tale of Jerusalem in the Time Messrs. Hildesheimer & Faulkner, of 41, Jewin Street, London, have issued a large number Single illustration. † Group of four illustrations. Group of six illustrations. THE IMPORTANCE "D THE NEW CATECHISMS. OF DOCTRINAL TEACHING FOR THE YOUNG, AND THE BEST MEANS OF MAKING IT ATTRACTIVE AND EFFECTIVE. (BY THOMAS DURLEY.) OCTRINE" is, no doubt, literally, "a thing taught ;" and teaching is indoctrinating. Doctrine has been, and is, often used in the sense of a principle of belief. But the sense in which we wish to use it is this: the teaching of the Scripture on any given subject. It is used in the Bible itself to express both the act of teaching and the manner of teaching. For instance, it is said, "When Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine; for He taught them as One having authority, and not as the Scribes " (Matt. vii. 28). On another occasion, "Jesus answered (the Jews) and said, My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me. If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of Myself" (John vii. 16, 17). The Bible is brimful of doctrine-of teaching-practically exhaustive on all questions which it is necessary for man to know. God is-Man is-The Law of the Lord is-Sin is-Heaven is-Hell is--My duty to God is-My duty to my neighbour is-Redemption is-Holiness is? Such are the kind of questions which men ask, and which canonly find their complete answer here. The Bible is in fact a Divine gift to this end; and taking it in hand with this idea deeply implanted in the heart, the Divine Will thus meets us :-"Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; specially the day when thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, 'Gather Me the people together, and I will make them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children" (Deut. iv. 9). And again, "Ye shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" (Deut. xi. 18, 19). That "which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us, we will not hide from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done" (Psalm lxxviii. 4-6). In these and many other similar Scriptures, scattered up and down, we are reminded of our obligation to teach the children the incomparably important and interesting facts and doctrines of the whole Word of God, and especially of the Gospel of Christ. The Divine Revealer of Truth has seen fit to give us His revelation not in any cut and dried fashion. The Bible is not a logically arranged system of Truth. Truth is revealed to us in it under the greatest possible variety of form-in Poetry and Prose-in Prophecy and Vision-in History and Proverb-in Law and Gospel-in Sermon and Letter. All classes of minds, every kind of talent, all forms of human expression have been pressed into the service of the Great Inspiring Spirit, and by Him hallowed and consecrated. And is not this the Divine method in the great Book of Nature? The impress of God's hand, the touch of His finger is everywhere. It is on the ten thousand times ten thousand forms of shell and shrub, of flower and feather, of bird and beast, of fish and fowl, upon the earth, and under the earth, and above the earth. The myriad shapes of life and beauty are scattered with a profusion in itself Divine, arresting our attention and evoking our admiration at every step we take. But the profusion is not confusion, and likenesses, and analogies, and contrasts, and affinities have been noted and classified in department after department of nature, until we find that every shell, and every bird, and every flower has its place, and is part of one great whole. Scattered broadcast, yes, that man may study and collect, arrange and admire, and bit by bit find out that which has been order in the Divine Mind from the beginning. And so we accumulate evidence of Divine Prescience, and Wisdom, and Love. And so we wisely beguile our children as we do ourselves, into a love of Nature, until she bewitches us and them. And is it not for the same purposes, in the higher realms of the Spirit, that God has presented the Bible in the form He has, that we may not only take up a parable, a miracle, a narrative, a prophecy, or a letter, and extract its own sweetness; but that we should here also note and classify, study and collect and admire, in department after department of Divine Truth, until we arrive at a sense of its absolute completeness and perfection? If this be so, if we cannot too soon teach the young admirer of Nature to be a true naturalist, can we too soon begin to teach the young learner in the Bible School, who has already been bewitched by Bible Pictures, to form his own little systems of the great things of God, his own little museum of Divine Truth, to which he may daily add some newly found treasure? Has it not been the Divine purpose and method to compel men to search if they would know either His Word or His World? The Church has led in this work of research of all ages-sometimes wisely and well, sometimes clumsily enough. And so we have the summary of the Christian Faith known as the "Apostles' Creed," of which Ruffinus says, "There was an ancient tradition that the Apostles, being about to depart from Jerusalem, first settled a rule for their future preaching, lest after they were separated from each other they should expound different doctrines to those whom they invited to the Christian faith. Wherefore, being all assembled together, and filled with the Holy Ghost, they composed this short rule for their preaching, each one contributing his sentence, and left it as a rule to be given to all believers." Another author even professes to tell us what article was contributed by each apostle. This statement is, however, rather amusing than dependable, as the Creed was, there is little doubt, composed at a much later date, but is none the less valuable on that account. Of the same class of summary we have the "Thirty-Nine Articles" of the Church of England, which may be considered its confession of faith. They were drawn up at the time of the Reformation, with an immediate reference to Romish and other errors. The sixth of these Articles teaches that "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith." The Greek Church has its confession of faith; so has the Church of Rome; so have the Lutherans; so have the Calvinistic Churches. The powerful system of Jesuitism--of which Abbé Boileau says:- They are the people that lengthen the Creed and shorten the Decalogue" has always made it one of its essential aims to control the education of the youth wherever it could get a hold; and with what effect the world knows. It was the very early practice of the Christian Church to gather together those young people who were about to be baptized, to instruct them in and to catechize them upon their religious faith and duties. "It is doubtful whether in the early Church there were books prepared answering to the present significance of the word Catechism,' but it is certain that catechetical instruction was common."-(J. Farrar.) In the Church of England, before Confirmation, there is a regular course of doctrinal teaching. In the Roman Catholic Church, old and young are gathered together in classes on the Sunday afternoon, and most diligently instructed in the doctrinal teaching of their church: which is, however, not always based upon the Word of God. Some years ago the writer had the opportunity, one Sunday afternoon, of listening to some of this "Dottrina," in the spacious and beautiful Cathedral of Milan. In the class to which our attention was chiefly called, a young priest was giving instruction, with much earnestness and zeal, in the mysteries of the Inquisition, its importance and reasonableness. He failed, of course, to find a Bible warrant for his teaching, and probably did not care to do so. (To be continued.) HYMN AND NEW TUNE.-XXIV. ANGELS FROM THE REALMS OF GLORY. "And let all the angels of God worship Him."-Hebrews i. 6. Hymn-J. MONTGOMERY, 128, M. S. S. H. B. Tune-T. WALLHEAD, 395, For copy in Tonic-Sol-Fa Notation, see Our Boys and Girls for December. 395. ANGELS FROM THE REALMS OF GLORY. Hymn 128. 8.7.8.7.4.7. T. Wallhead. Angels from the realms of glory, Wing your flight o'er all the earth; |