universe now furnished and ready made, with its entire apparatus of earth, sun, moon, and stars! What, then, is this multiform universe? It is but an harmoniously arranged expansion of primordial principles and qualities. And whence are these? Educed or evolved from the divine substance of Brahm. Hence it is that the universe is so constantly spoken of, even by the mythologists, as a manifested form of Brahm himself, the supreme invisible spirit."

It is well here to remember that fundamental truth in Christian theology: Before this world began there was nothing but an infinite GOD. As He, the Creator of the world, alone has being, essentially and of Himself, and is independent of any other, so no creature has any being at all of itself, but is wholly dependent upon GOD, without whose continual conservation no creature could subsist for one instant, and were GOD for a moment to withdraw His Almighty hand from any creature, it would immediately fall back to its primitive nothing. "He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." (Col. i. 17.)

How like are these legends of the "Mundane Egg" to an echo of the sublime text of Scripture, "And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of GOD moved upon the face of the waters." As Milton has it :

"with mighty wings outspread,

Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss,
And madest it pregnant."

Surely these old-world stories seem like the truth seen through the fog of ignorance; and they are extremely interesting as showing the progressive steps, or rather, we will say, wanderings of the human mind in religious speculations. There was evidently a time when men, either, grown up without a knowledge of the manner in which man reduced his condition on earth by failing to observe the commands of his Maker, were puzzled to account for the presence of moral evil in the world; or, in the pride of their hearts, unwilling to acknowledge their fault, blasphemously laid the blame on the GOD Whom they had offended. Thus we find the Peruvians speaking of a virgin who, led astray by a god, gave birth to two eggs, the one containing Apocatéquil, the prince of evil; the other containing Piquérao-catéquil, who raised up his mother from the dead; the one evil, the other good; the one death, and the other life. This legend might be read, it is true, as representing the Fall through the temptation of the woman,

and the Redemption through her seed; but it has a family likeness to the manner in which the ancient Persians accounted for the mixture of good and evil in the present state, by the breaking of two eggs. One of these contained twenty-four genii which had been enclosed in it by the evil principle, Ahriman; the other contained a like number of genii which had been enclosed in it by the good principle, Ormuzd.

Everybody is familiar with the old classical dispute as to whether the hen proceeded from the egg, or the egg from the hen—the form in which the Gentile world debated the question of the First Cause. And one might go on multiplying examples of an attenuated survival among rude and widely scattered races of the myth of the Mundane Egg, where eggs, and cocks and hens, are used in religious ceremonies. Enough, however, has been said to show how, in its purely cosmological import, the egg has been adopted by a large body of Eastern Christians as an appropriate emblem at a season which they have set apart for the commemoration of the manifestation of Divine Love by the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, of whom S. John says: things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made."

All

W. C. BLAKE.

Reviews and Notices.

Eighteen Centuries of the Church in England, by the Rev. A. H. Hore, M.A., Trinity College, Oxford. Parker and Co., Oxford and London. (Pp. 679.) If any one desires to gain a clear and comprehensive view of the English Church during her long and eventful history, we commend to him this goodly volume with great confidence. It is written with sufficient learning, and at the same time with candour, and in a popular style. It may be necessary to make special studies of detached periods of history, whether we look to the country or to the nation to which we belong,—but just as it would be too absurd to commence the study of our Constitution from the Revolution of 1688, or from any other date, so would it be most inexpedient to take the Reformation or the Conquest, or any other period, as the point from which to start in our investigations. But this unfortunately is often done, and the result must be that the sense of proportion is materially lost. Mr. Hore wisely guards the reader against this mistake, by showing that though there are various epochs, the history of the Church is continuous throughout. Thus he divides the eighteen centuries into seven chapters, which are named respectively, The British Church, The Anglo-Saxon Church, The Anglo

Norman Church, The Anglo-Norman, The Church of the Reformation, The Church of the Protestant Era, The Church of the Present Day, and each period receives fair and discriminating treatment: of these the two last appear to us specially valuable, and if our space permitted we would gladly quote from them. The volume is really a library in itself.

It may be admitted that it is rather unusual to write of a person during his lifetime. There is no rule, however, which does not admit of exceptions. And so we heartily welcome Mr. Skinner's Memoir of the Incumbency of Mr. Robert Liddell at S. Paul's, Knightsbridge, which is to be found in the Letter (rendered more interesting from the fact that the writer was himself taken from us before the Letter was published) which he addressed to Mr. Villiers on his acceptance of the Incumbency (Masters and Co.) Very eventful and full of interest have been the years included in Mr. Liddell's Incumbency, and specially as they were connected with Mr. Bennett's work in the same parish. Amiability which never degenerated into weakness was Mr. Liddell's chief characteristic, and we are specially glad to learn from Mr. Skinner's memoir that this was accompanied by very considerable power in speaking to the hearts of men, and by a true zeal for GOD, and love of souls. No one who reads this short Memoir and Mr. Lowder's Life can fail to see that what many persons speak of contemptuously under the term of Ritualism had its origin in the most genuine spirituality of mind.

It

The Rev. John Scarth, the founder of the S. Andrew's Waterside Mission, deserves to be well remembered by all good Churchpeople. He has done very valuable work for that large class of our population who go down to sea in ships, and is now, we are glad to see, endeavouring to found permanent ministrations for our sailors in our fast-increasing stations in the Red Sea. He has now lent his name to a small manual entitled The Pilot, (Hodges,) which consists of a considerable selection of hymns bearing on sea life, together with various prayers and devotions selected from the best sources. will be a welcome little volume in the libraries of our fleets of steamers. The S. P. C. K. has commenced what promises to be a very useful series, called Colonists' Handbooks, in the furtherance, we suppose, of the Primate's Letter, calling attention to the needs of emigrants. No. I. is devoted to Canada, and contains a great deal of very useful information concerning that country which is destined to occupy so important a position in the world's future history. It remains now to be seen what the S. P. G., the other Society mentioned in the Archbishop's Letter, is prepared to do. We fear that this is a portion of the missionary field which has not been duly cultivated by the venerable society. And the consequence is that the clergy are few in number, and do not all come up to the standard either of the mother country or of the United States. The S. P. C. K. has voted £3000 for the emigration service.

We are always glad to meet the Religious Tract Society on neutral ground, whenever they venture on it. Three Present Day Tracts have just reached us, which seem well suited for meeting certain phases of the sceptical spirit.

Prebendary Row writes sensibly, as always, on the Historical Evidence of the Resurrection of CHRIST, and Principal Cairns (where he writes from we do not know) gives us one tract on the Person of CHRIST, and another on Christianity and Miracles, both of which are well argued.

The King's Garden, an Allegory, (Masters and Co.,) gives a poetical picture of the Church of CHRIST militant in this world and surrounded by the enemies of her LORD, and of the work which each of her members has to perform amid temptation and trial before they can reach the eternal sanctuary above. It is very simply written, and therefore quite within the comprehension of children who are of an age to appreciate allegorical illustrations of religious truth.

Correspondence.

[The Editor is not responsible for the opinions of the Correspondents.] To the Editor of the Churchman's Companion.