at the last visit to England, after his real work had begun and after his terrible illness, he was infinitely more gentle and tender. It was one of the natural defects smoothed away by Grace through suffering. And his superabundant spirits and vitality were gifts to bear him. through all that he had to undergo. I suppose no one ever fulfilled more truly the Gospel command to be ready to forsake wife, children, and everything else.

S. His wife must have been equally noble never to be a hindrance. A. She must. She bravely supplemented his work both in his home ministry and his missionary course. There must have been something about him that inspired immense love. The leave-taking at Hurst by all the roughest characters in the parish is most touching. Such a man might well be the salt of the earth.

S. Bishop Titcomb's life is less interesting, 'A Consecrated Life.' I can't bear fancy] names for biographies, it just hinders one from getting the right ones!

A. Hindrances from his own health and his family's hindered his work at Rangoon, but he was a kindly, pious man, though not remarkable. We pass to Bishop Fraser of Manchester. His life by Tom Hughes is well worth reading, as that of a thorough-going, hard-working practical Englishman, doing with all his might whatever he had to do. I do not think his nature was eminently fitted for the Episcopate, but when made a Bishop he worked nobly and most beneficently among his people.

S. And what a good son he was.

A. Yes, the conscientious eldest son of a young widow has a grand training in considerateness through early responsibility.

S. The book somehow gives a sense of hurry and want of repose. A. I do not know whether it is the effect of the busy life that Bishop Fraser led up to the last, or whether Mr. Hughes has sacrificed the devotional side of the character to the popularity of the book. Be that as it may, he did his work nobly, and was a most faithful and vigorous witness for the truth, leaving a great mark in his diocese. Such biographies bring home the saying that, Wisdom is justified of all her children.'

S. You are thinking of Lord Shaftesbury.

A. Yes. Those three thick volumes of his life fill me with many thoughts, in which admiration for his own character predominates. Never was there a more thorough or consistent impersonation of Christian chivalry.

S. Yet surely he was thought an enemy of Church feeling.

A. He meant to be a devoted champion of the Church, and he loved her, but he did not understand her cause. He had very little time for theological study, and growing up when the old evangelicalism was the religion of earnest minds, his opinions took their colour from them, and never varied. But one beauty of the book is his perfect absence of rancour against his opponents, and his

readiness to meet them on common ground. Compare his relations to Dr. Pusey with those of Bossuet to Fénélon, and you feel how truly Christian both our contemporaries were. The memoir makes me feel too that if he failed to understand our principles, we failed to understand him, when his philanthropy was thought unreal by those who had seen the cottages on his estate, little knowing that this was all his father's fault, and that he was denying himself to the utmost to be able to improve them. Nothing is plainer than the folly of hasty judgments.

S. It was his championship of the desolate and oppressed that was the glory of his life.

A. Yes; to look back on the terrible white slavery of little children in factories, mines, brickfields, and the like, the chimney-sweeps, and all the other sufferers, makes us feel that the man who persevered in this cause, year after year, was verily as great a redresser of wrong and cruelty as ever existed.

S. To read Social Arrows makes one hope that the beneficent championship has been taken up by Lord Meath.

A. May we never be without a brave defender of the weak to step into the place left empty. And many there are at work now, whose names we shall never know, in all the many agencies for one branch or other of the great work of aiding our neighbours to be Christians in faith and practice.

S. And to come to other books. Here is Mrs. Townsend's What to Read the catalogue of books useful for the G. F. S. Did you see

that the Saturday Review called it a list of what not to read?

A. Either not in the least understanding the purpose of the list, or wilfully overlooking that it is not intended to mention books for their literary merit, but for their safety and possible benefit to young half-educated girls.

S. But there are many real standard books mentioned.

A. Yes, and it is very desirable that these should be read; but there is also an immense class of readers for whom it is well to suggest the wholesome, though perhaps commonplace tale; and this is well and carefully done. The National Society is bringing out another book something of the same stamp, but suggesting food for a somewhat inferior stamp of readers, such as school children and the clients of parish libraries. It is called What Books to Lend and What to Give. The National Society has some very nice books this autumn fit for all readers. Miss Bramston's Uncle Ivan is a political exile, long before the days of Nihilism, whose nieces have to defend his papers from a spy, and very delightful young people they are. Miss Peard's Prentice Hugh is about the carving of the lovely capitals of the columns in Exeter Cathedral. Miss Yonge's Under the Storm gives the doings of a farmer's orphan family during the great rebellion, when they have to guard the church plate. Esmé Stuart has a nice story of a little waif from Portsmouth, called

For Half-a-Crown, the price actually paid for the poor child, and the best of all is Miss Palgrave's A Promise Kept. It is a very striking story of a young girl, whose enthusiasm stirs a youth into devoting himself as a missionary in Africa, and when it comes to the point, fails in courage, and will not go with him. Ever since I read it, I have thought of the right explanation of St. Paul's conclusion about the Isthmean Games: Lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. Lest when I have called others into the arena, I should be unworthy to do my part.'

S. It must be like Holme Lee's The Title to Honour.

A. Only there Eleanor did not profess any enthusiasm from the first. S. There's a whole batch of pretty books for the Jubilee from S. P. C. K., with covers with bells ringing, only I am afraid they will wear out very soon. Mrs. Macquoid's are all foreign storiespretty; but I don't think they will be half so useful as Mrs. Sitwell's. Baby's Prayer-book and Northcape Cave are just what I like for the school-children. The Railway Garden is more 'grown up,' but very good indeed; and so is Mrs. Walford's Polly Spanker's Green Feather, which is very funny too. Then there is Mrs. Molesworth's pretty story of The Abbey by the Sea, and also Stories of Three Girls of the wild laundry sort.

A. The poor Lavenders.' Yes; we are well off for books for the parish this winter, counting in also two admirable books of Mrs. Lawson's for the women, The Black Copse and Two Old Women (S. P. C. K.), also a capital book of larger size, By Northern Seas (Church Extension Society), and as an adventurous tale, Devon Boys, by Manville Fenn (Blackie).

S. Another tiny book I must show you, Chips from the Royal Image (Masters)-beautiful selections from the Eikon Basilike. Every one has heard of the Eikon Basilike; but I am afraid few believe in it, and fewer read it.

A. Those who read it are nearly sure to believe in it, and here the choicest passages are consecutively arranged in subjects.

S. I had nearly forgotten that I found our old friend Madame's Grand-daughter has been republished in that capital series of tales of Hatchard's. Likewise a very charming Irish story of Miss Meade's, The O'Donnels of Inchfawn, thoroughly Irish and not overdrawn.

A. If you want a book for your lads, Manville Fenn's Devon Boys (Blackie), is capital and spirited. Indeed, both Manville Fenn's and Henley's may all be safely used for boy literature-gentle or simple. They are published some by Nelson, some more by Blackie.

S. Before all these I meant to ask you about Mrs. Jerome Mercier's book, The Story of Salvation (Rivington).

A. It is a very admirable deep-thinking book, excellent in its design of showing educated girls how to study the Bible. One or two things I regret, i.e. the taking Dean Stanley so much as her guide in the Old Testament. Dr. Edersheim, though much less

brilliant, is safer. I do not understand the treating the sun and moon standing still as though the extract from the old poem might be untrustworthy. I wish, instead of casting a slur on it, she had suggested the explanation borne out by the Hebrew, that the call to the sun to stand still, really was 'be silent,'-namely, continue concealed by the clouds of the great hail-storm that was doing so much damage to the flying enemy. And again, there is an explaining away of Saul's evil spirit, instead of showing that his indulged passions did really 'give place to the devil;' but as one of the girls of the conversation is supposed to live with sceptical people, perhaps it is in concession to her, though an unwise one. Nor should Samuel be pronounced unhesitatingly no Levite, when the Book of Chronicles. makes him a Kohathite; and this perfectly agrees with his mother's gift of sacred song, and his functions at the tabernacle. Also to say that Luther put forth the full truth about justification by faith is a dangerous thing. There is once, too, a confusion between the Cross and Crucifix. Haman was assuredly not hanged on the latter! These are, however, very slight blemishes in a very valuable book, showing the way to real study of the Holy Word, and entering well on some popular difficulties, as well as showing in what spirit they should be met.

VOL. 14.

26

ᏢᎪᎡᎢ 82.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MONTHLY PACKET.'

MY DEAR

Will you kindly grant me space to tell your readers of an admirable Society which was formed sixteen years ago, but which is scarcely so widely known as it deserves to be?

It is called the Guild of Friends of the Infirm in Mind,' and its object is to give help of various kinds to the insane; the means proposed for this being as follows:

1. Intercessory Prayer.

2. Visits to friendless patients in Asylums, in conformity with the regulations of the establishment.

3. Correspondence by post.

4. Seeking situations for convalescents.

5. Promoting Convalescent Homes for temporary rest after mental illness.

6. Maintaining friendly intercourse with discharged patients. 7. Recommending efficient attendants.

Members are not, however, bound to give assistance in any one of these ways, except the first (much less in all), the conditions of membership being merely 'communion with the Church of England, and willingness to promote the objects of the Association by prayer and help, according to opportunity.' The following beautiful prayer is suggested for frequent use, and a copy of it supplied to each Member

'O Blessed Lord, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, we commend to Thy Fatherly goodness all those who are anyways afflicted or distressed in mind: cheer the melancholy; restore hope to the hopeless; protect the unconscious; calm the violent; suffer them not to do harm to themselves, or others, and let no one do injury to them; dispel all vain delusions; confirm the health of the recovering; comfort the sick; receive the spirits of the dying; lay not to their charge whatever evil any of them may say or do in time of their affliction; bless the endeavours of all who labour and pray on behalf of the afflicted in mind; and bring us all to Thine everlasting kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.'

Further particulars regarding the Association will be gladly given by the Warden, the Rev. Henry Hawkins, Chaplain's House, Colney Hatch, N. No annual subscription is required, but a contribution of one shilling towards expenses of printing, postage, etc., is payable on