that now, under the influence of its present high-souled President, it is fulfilling a mission of which many colleges of older and larger growth might well be ambitious.

Dr. Alliott entered, with a very willing sympathy, into the temporal, mental, and spiritual circumstances of his students. He not unfrequently assisted from his own purse any that were poor, and strenuously exerted himself for the advantage of all. In this he was a contrast to many of the cold, distant, and ceremonious professors, whose influence students have often deplored, and languishing colleges have developed. Perhaps no tutor ever aimed so earnestly at making his students industrious. Sunrise, and even sunset, have found us listening to and transcribing his lectures-which continual verbatim transcribing, was, by the bye, a drudgery that no professor, who would live in the unclouded memory of his students, need imitate. These lectures were valued highly by a great majority of his students; some there were, of course, who infest colleges as well as churches, whose dismal Aristophanean tones were βρεκεκεκεξ, ΚΟΑΞ, ΚΟ'ΑΞ. Such, however, were chiefly dyspeptic, indolent, or eccentric.

The value of his lectures arose from this. The eye of his mind was very keen, and the hand of his mind, especially when it held the knife of criticism, very agile. With two of the first philosophers of our time, J. D. Morell and Sir William Hamilton, he had the honor of a passage of arms, and their works, and those of a similar kind, were delicious prey to his voracious logical appetite. His Congregational lecture on Psychology and Theology bears witness to this. But this very point of his strength was the source of his defects. Logic, and that too of a somewhat formal type, was his tyrant, not his servant. And hence imagination, all spiritual analogies, and every form and phase of poetry, was as foreign to him as telegraphy probably is to the inhabitants of Timbuctoo. This was, doubtless, a deformity, and its influence was moral as well as mental. But though he had a metaphysical creed and habit, that, in many things, cramped and dwarfed him, Dr. Alliott was by no means narrow or sectarian in religious matters. As we are writing for the "Homilist" we are reminded that his was one of the first pens to commend publicly this magazine, and his subsequent gift of all its volumes to Cheshunt College library showed the continuance of his sympathy. The Biblical Liturgy, too, met with his warm approval and encouragement. We remember his saying that very early in his ministry he had the honor of being branded as a heretic, on account of some magazine article which he had written. Hence, though he was believed by his denomination to be "sound" enough to be raised to the highest of their pinnacles, as Chairman of the Congregational Union, he still had a heart that would always secretly welcome, and in his bravest moods a hand that would openly help, any genuine and free struggle after truth and devotion. And so, now, as we place this last stone on the pile,-for we feel this is

neither a wreath nor monument, only an honest rugged cairn,—we say

Peace to the Memory" of one of the most earnest, active, and withal, humble, kindly, and unselfish of lives; and we know the heart of many an old student of his will affectionately say "Amen."

Theological Notes and Queries.

OPEN COUNCIL.

[The utmost freedom of honest thought is permitted in this department. The reader must therefore use his own discriminating faculties, and the Editor must be allowed to claim freedom from responsibility.]

Literary Notices.

[We hold it to be the duty of an Editor either to give an early notice of the books sent to him for remark, or to return them at once to the Publisher. It is unjust to praise worthless books; it is robbery to retain unnoticed ones.]

THE REVIEWER'S CANON.

In every work regard the author's end,

Since none can compass more than they intend.

STUDIES OF DIVINE THINGS. By the REV. WILLIAM NEWTON. London : Houlston & Wright.

It seems to us that the sermons of this age are formed on three very different plans. The first plan is, to bring a number of ideas, supposed to be in the Bible, into harmonious blending with some theological system; to run thoughts, professed to be got out of the Scriptures, into the Calvinistic, Arminian, or some other mould. Those who produce sermons on this plan, and they are perhaps the majority of preachers, degrade the great Book of God by making it the organ of some poor human system of doctrine. Another plan is, to bring supposed Biblical thoughts into harmony with the popular sentiment of the so-called religious world. These sermons are run in the mould of the current religious sentiment. These are always the popular things. The people like them because they gratify their vanity by echoing the crude things of their own nature. These sermons teach nothing; do nothing but gratify the self-esteem of thoughtless religionists; crowd the church of the preacher, and bring financial help to "the cause." Few things are greater curses to the world than such sermons. The third plan is, to bring out, by diligent study and honest criticism, the thoughts of the Bible into vital contact with the common sense, deep spiritual wants, and every-day life of men, thus making "The Book" a power to existing men and women. Such sermons, though comparatively few, are, thank God! increasing, and their increase is one of the most encouraging signs of the age. The discourses of Mr. Newton, or rather, "studies," as he wishes them called, belong to the last class. They are fifteen in number, and their subjects are fresh, various, and of vital interest. These discourses are remarkably free from all commonplaces, rhapsodies, windy declamation, vulgar fineries, sentimental moonings, and such like. They are the productions of a man who has evidently sought out the truth with his own eyes, felt it with his own

heart, and expresses it as it has shaped itself to him in his most earnestly-thinking, and profoundly-devout moods. The thoughts are life-thoughts; the spirit is chaste, catholic, reverential. The style is clear as crystal, often sparkling with the brightest rays of mind.

COUNSEL AND COMFORT SPOKEN FROM A CITY PULPIT. By the author of "Recreations of a Country Parson." London: Strahan and Co.

THE subjects of this volume are:-"Thoughts on the Pulpit: Thankfulness: The Blessed Comforter: Man Come to Himself: The Wellgrounded Hope: Nothing Without Christ: The Prospect Painful, yet Salutary Departed Trouble and Welcome Rest: Continuance the Test of Religious Profession: The Desire to be Remembered: The Redeemer's Errand to this World: Consequences: No More Pain: The Victory over the World: The Limits of Human Experience: The Personality and Agency of Evil Spirits: The Needfulness of Love to Christ." A work produced by the author of "Recreations of a Country Parson," in its ninth thousand, does not require us to characterize it, and is independent of our recommendation. A short extract from the introduction to the second discourse, on the text "Be ye thankful," we give as a specimen of the writer's style :-"There is a picturesque tract of the Western Highlands of Scotland, in passing through which, the traveller has to ascend a long; winding path, very steep, very rough, and very lonely, leading up a wild and desolate glen. The savage and awful grandeur of the scenery, with its bare hills and rocks, is hardly equalled in this country. But if the traveller goes up that glen on foot, and it is hardly possible to go up otherwise, his appreciation of the scene around him is gradually overborne by the sense of pure physical fatigue. Not without a great strain upon limbs and heart, can that rugged way be traversed. At last you reach a ridge, whence the road descends steeply on the other side of the hill. You have ended your climbing, and you may now begin to go down again from whichever side you come. And there, at this summit, you will find a rude seat of stone, which bears the inscription, in deeply-cut letters, Rest and be thankful.”

THE SONGS OF THE TEMPLE PILGRIMS. By ROBERT NISBET, D.D. London: James Nisbet & Co.

CONSIDERABLE speculation and discussion have prevailed, at different times, concerning that portion of Holy Writ called the Songs of Degrees. The author supposes them to refer to the stated journeys of the devout Jews up to the temple; and, looking at them in this light, they appear to him most "admirable manuals of instruction." "There is not," says he, "a chord to which the soul has ever vibrated that is not