same Scripture, which are so often quoted to prove eternal punishment." It is presented in the form of a letter written to a friend whose mind had been unsettled on this subject. The writer affirms his sense of the responsibility he incurs in "dissenting on such a question from the current creed of Christendom," and declares that "nothing but his most assured conviction that the popular notion of never-ending punishment is as thorough a misunderstanding of God's Word as the doctrine of transubstantiation, and that the one as much as the other conduces directly to infidelity, though both equally claim to stand on the express words of Holy Scripture, would have led him to moot a subject which cannot even be questioned in some quarters without the charge of provoking heresy."

The "Nature of Scripture," and the "Destiny of the Human Race," are the two subjects discussed. The "Mystery of the Incarnate Word" is held to be the key to the written Word. "Like Christ's flesh, and indeed like every other revelation which God has made of Himself, the letter of Scripture is a veil quite as much as a revelation, hiding while it reveals and yet revealing while it hides." "In no other way could God's Word come in human form. In no other way could it come out of human nature. But it has humbled itself so to come for us, out of the heart of prophets and apostles; in its human form like Christ's flesh, subject to all those infirmities and limitations which Christ's flesh was subject to-thoroughly human as He was; yet, in spirit like Him, thoroughly Divine, and full of the unfathomed depths of God's almighty love and wisdom."

In dealing with the second topic, "the apparently contradictory" statements of Holy Scripture are given; "the orthodox solution of the mystery" is rejected, and the following is proposed as the true one. "The truth which solves the riddle is to be found in those same Scriptures which seem to raise the difficulty, and lies in the mystery of the will of our ever blessed God as to the process and stages of redemption :-(1) First, His will by some to bless and save others; by a firstborn seed, the first-born from the dead,' to save and bless the later born (2) His will therefore to work out the redemption of the lost by successive ages or dispensations; or, to use the language of St. Paul, according to the purpose of the ages':-and (3) Lastly, His will (thus meeting the nature of our fall) to make death, judgment, and destruction, the means and way to life, acquittal and salvation; in other words, through death to destroy him that has the power of death, that is the devil, and to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.'"-P. 28.

Christ is the "first-fruits," and His Church "a kind of first-fruits." "To the Church therefore belongs the same promise as first-fruits with Christ, not to be blessed only, but to be a blessing in its own heavenly and spiritual sphere." "Here, then, is the key to one part of the apparent contradiction between mercy upon all,' and yet the election' of a little flock;' between all the kindreds of the earth blessed in Christ,' and yet a strait and narrow way' and' few finding it.' Here

Literary Notices.

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is the answer to the question, Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise Thee? Shall Thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave, or Thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark, and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?' The first-born and first-fruits are the few' and little flock;' but these, those first delivered from the curse, have a relation to the whole creation, which shall be saved in the appointe times by the first-born seed, that is by Christ and His body, through those appointed baptisms, whether of fire or water, which are required to bring about the restitution of all things.' St. Pau expressly declares this when he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ . . . that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth, even in Him.' The Church, like Christ its head, is itself a great sacrament, an outwar and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto men; ordained by God Himself, as a means whereby they may receive the same and a pledge to assure them thereof. . . . Thus when He comes with ten thousand of His saints,' He will not only by them 'convince all ungodly sinners of all their hard speeches, which they have spoken against Him for if the thief be saved, and the Magdalene changed, who shall dare to say that the lost are uncared for, or beyond the reach of God's salvation?-but He will by them also, as His royal priests, joint-heirs with Christ, fulfil all that priestly work of judgment and purification by fire, which must be accomplished that all may be 'subdued' and 'reconciled." "—P. 44.

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"A new creation which is only brought in through death, is God' remedy for that which through a fall is held in death and bondage. Therefore both the earth and heavens' must perish and be changed.' Therefore God Himself turns us to destruction,' that we may return' as little children. And God's elect accept this judgment here, that their carnal mind may die, and the old man be slain with all his enmity. The world reject God's judgment here, and therefore have to meet it in a more awful form in the resurrection of judgment in the coming world. For while here, through the burdens and infirmities of this vile body,' our fallen spirit is more easily broken, and we die to sin more quickly, though even here we need both fires and waters, to make us die to that self-willed life which is our misery. Who can tell how much harder this death may be to those who, having gone hence, have not the burden of this vile body,' to humble the pride of that fallen spirit, which, while unbroken, is hell, and which must die in us if we could reach God's rest? ”—P. 75.

"The view, therefore, which has been accepted by some believers, as more in accordance with Scripture than the popular notion of never-ending torments, that those who abuse their day of grace will, after suffering more or fewer stripes, according to the measure of their transgressions, be utterly annihilated by the second death,' though a

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great step in advance of the doctrine of endless woe, is not a perfect witness of the mind of God, nor the true solution of the great mystery. God has not made man to let him fall almost as soon as made, and then, in a large proportion of his seed, to sin yet more, and suffer and be annihilated, but rather out of and through the fall to raise him to higher and more secure blessedness; as it is written, As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive; ' not all at once, but through successive ages, and according to an appointed order, in which the last, even as the first, shall be restored by the elect; for Christ is not only the first,' but also with the last,' and will surely in the salvation of the last' bring into view some of His glories not inferior to those which are manifested in the salvation of 'the first-born,' who are His body.' He is the first' both out of life and out of death, and as such He manifests a peculiar glory in His elect first-born. But He is also thelast,' and with the last,' and as such He will display yet other treasures hid in Him, for in Him are hid all treasures' and riches unsearchable,' which He will bring to light in due season."-P. 81.

We have made these extracts that our readers may form their own judgments of the spirit and aim of this book. In vain have we looked through this volume for sufficient support to the theories which it so confidently affirms. To accept those theories would require us not only to recast entirely our theology, but to entirely change our methods of interpreting Holy Scripture, for which we have failed to derive from this work a sufficient warrant.

What will our readers think of the following, which is a natural sequence to the opinions of the book ?-" But who can tell but that as death is the way of life for us, so also it may be with that first great offender, who robbed his father, and said it is no transgression.' Who but Adam and Lucifer are the two thieves crucified with Christ? and though to one only it was said, 'To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise,' what proof have we that the other shall never find mercy? Was not the blood of the Lamb of God shed on the cross to take away the sin of the world'? If so, what is the sin of the world? When did it commence? and why is not the sin of the prince of this world' to be included in the sin of the world'? Is not Christ the head of all principality and power' as well as a Lord both of the dead and living.' Nay, more, is not even the Church called with her Head to judge angels'? And if the judgment of the earth shall be its restoration, why should not the judgment of angels in like manner be their restoration, according to the promise, 'By Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven '?". P. 132.

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Apart from the peculiar sentiments of the book, we have a very grave objection to raise against its method. We refer to the frequency with which the words of Holy Scripture are used to give a turn or finish to a sentence, at the imminent risk, as our extracts must have shown, of sacrificing the true meaning of the words. In some instances this almost approaches to punning. Few things weaken the authority

of Holy Scripture more than this licentious use of its words-a practice far too common with many who have no desire to dishonour the Sacred Word. Sentences, on the accurate interpretation of which the world's life so greatly depends, ought never to be quoted but with the most scrupulous regard for their exact meaning.

This book is another evidence of the anxiety with which the human heart strives to trace beforehand, or shape in its own way, the untrodden paths of its own destiny. What wonder if it err!

Report of the Jubilee Fund of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, 1863-8, with List of Contributions received, Grants, Balance Sheet, &c. London: Published by the Wesleyan Missionary Society, at the Wesleyan Centenary Hall and Mission House, Bishopsgate Street Within, and sold also at 27, City Road, and 66, Paternoster Row.

The Report of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society for the Year ending April, 1869; with an Account of the Contributions received from January 1st to December 31st, 1868. London: Published by the Wesleyan Missionary Society, at the Wesleyan Centenary Hall and Mission House, Bishopsgate Street Within, and sold also at 27, City Road, and 66, Paternoster Row.

THE JUBILEE REPORT.-One hundred years ago Mr. Wesley sent two preachers to America, who, with their successors, were the clergy remaining in the United States when, in consequence of the Declaration of Independence, the clergy of the Established Church of England deemed it their duty to retire. Mr. Wesley's societies beyond the Atlantic eventually expanded into the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States, destined in Divine providence to become one of the largest Protestant communities in the world.

While these two preachers were on their way from Leeds to New York, Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica, August 15th, 1769. The recent purchase of Corsica by France in 1763 made Bonaparte a French subject, and thus gave to France its future Emperor, and in succession the Emperor who now holds the reins of that country's government.

It was an interval of peace. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 had secured to Great Britain the possession of Canada, or the greater part of British North America. Germany was reposing after her Seven Years' War. In France the luxurious profligacy of the Court of Louis XV. was at its height, and, as was well remarked by a writer in the Times newspaper, August 14, "there was hardly a worse date in the history of the human race than that marked by the combination of Louis XV., Rousseau, and Voltaire." But there was no indication at that time of the revolutions about to take place in America, by French

assistance, and afterwards in France itself, to be followed by the memorable period of war and tumult in which the Corsican, then an infant, was to act so important a part. And there appeared as little probability that John Wesley's collection at the Conference at Leeds should be the germ of the mighty system of Methodism in America, now taking an active part in the evangelisation of the world.

The Jubilee Report of the Missionary Society passes rapidly over the early history of Methodism in the American Colonies. In 1770 the two preachers in America had been increased to four, in 1775 to eleven. Ten years later America is reported as containing fifty-four circuits, to which ninety-eight preachers were appointed, Dr. Coke and Francis Asbury being "Superintendents" of the whole. In 1785 the West Indies, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland appear on the "Minutes" for the first time. The United States of America had now become independent of the mother country, and their statistics were no longer reported in the "Minutes." And yet at the Conference of 1813, the year in which the first missionary meeting was held in Leeds, there were reported thirty missionary stations (exclusive of the new mission to the East), to which were appointed fifty-eight ministers, while no less than 17,025 members were enrolled as the first-fruits of a blessed and still increasing harvest.

From 1813 the Jubilee Report takes its commencement. It narrates the "Formation of the Wesleyan Methodist Society," on the 6th of October, 1813, in the town of Leeds. It furnishes a brief sketch of the Society's history during the Jubilee period. It relates the development of some of the missions into "Affiliated Conferences," still in connection with the British Conference and the General Missionary Committee. Throughout ten most interesting pages it traces the recent progress of the missions; and winds up the whole by a most lucid account of the "Jubilee Celebration," and the liberal and gratifying results. This report will be a boon to every lover of the Society, and will afford the opportunity, seldom equalled, of furnishing to members of other churches some clear idea of Methodist history and Methodist work.

THE MISSIONARY REPORT.-The time may come when "Vacation Tourists" may not think it an unsuitable occupation to visit the missions among the heathen in many lands, and collect from personal observation particulars relating to their history and their present condition. They would find much to interest them. The character and appearance of the native converts, their contrast with the surrounding heathen, biographical sketches, anecdotes in plenty of persons and places, would enhance the readableness of their notes. Their work would be all the more attractive if illustrated by photographic portraits, and landscapes now known only by verbal description. Where are papers more sought for than those now in the course of publication, by Dr. Norman Macleod, pictorially describing his travels in the East? Why should not the Missionary Report meantime be enriched by copious illustrations? The increased expense would be more than covered by the additional