SUNDAY VERSES. By JOSEPH TRUMAN, London: W. Macintosh, 24, Paternoster Row.

THIS little book contains ten poems, the subjects of which are: The Country Sermon; the Pilgrim; Walking by Faith; God in the Mountains; the Benediction of the Voice from Heaven; the Name of Jesus; the Stillness of the Sea; Going Away; Not Seeing, yet Believing. Some writers say that there is a peculiar faculty of mind necessary to detect a true poet when he appears, and to ascertain the genuine from the counterfeited poetry. Though we do not pretend that we have this faculty, we are disposed to say that in the compositions before us we have something that looks to us as much like poetry as appears in the compositions of some of the men whom the judges on poetic benches pronounce to be veritable bards. The sentiment of these poems is religious, the imagery is often beautiful, and the verse is melodious.

"

A COMMENTARY ON THE WHOLE BOOK OF PROVERBS BY PETER MUFFET.. Edinburgh: James Nichol.

THIS Volume contains three distinct works-one on the Proverbs, by Peter Muffet; one on Ecclesiastes, and another on the Canticles, by John Coton. As we are going through the Proverbs ourselves we have been somewhat disappointed in the little help that Peter Muffet affords us. He does not throw much light upon the text, although his remarks are always sensible and thoroughly practical. We prefer John Coton's commentaries. He has not only more learning, but more insight; more grasp. Sometimes he is not a little suggestive; all his paragraphs are full of thought. Many of his comments on the Canticles are too luscious and fanciful for our taste. The Canticles is pre-eminently a book for the sensuous and oily preacher.

THE BIBLE CLASS BOOK. By CHARLES BAKER.

Second Edition.

London: Wertheim, Macintosh, and Hunt, 24, Paternoster Row. THIS is the second edition of a work very useful for schools, teachers, and families. It contains explanatory notes on places, customs, arts, antiquities, and natural history; also poems on the subject of the history. Both the history and the notes, though exceedingly condensed, seem very accurate and well told. The history takes us down from the creation to the end of the Old Testament, 400 years before Christ. We heartily recommend it as one of the best of the kind we have seen.

ON THE CONSTITUTION OF PAPAL CONCLAVES. By W. C. CARTWRIGHT. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas. This volume is an expansion of the article that appeared in the ninetieth number of "The North British Review." The work contains much rare and valuable information on the subject which it treats. It is ably written, and elegantly got up.- -THE NEW ENCYCLOPÆDIA ATLAS. London: William Mackenzie. This is a splendid atlas, embracing in its sketches geographic discoveries up to the present time.

A HOMILY

ON

Christ Teaching us how to Think about Himself.

'Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." -John xx. 17.

HE first part of this text naturally gives rise to the question, why did our Lord deny to Mary the privilege which He accorded to Thomas? To Mary He said, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father," but to Thomas He said, "reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach

hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side;

and be not faithless, but believing." Able biblical expositors have given many answers to this question: the following may be regarded as the most simple and satisfactory. Mary had fallen at our Lord's feet, and, in the way common in the East, clasping his knees, worshipped him. (Matt. xxviii. 9). Jesus forbids this. First, because now there was no need to touch Him, as she already believed. Secondly, our Lord

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was entering upon a new kind of life, which would neither admit nor require the evidence of a touch, and Mary must be taught that the freedom of intercourse which had been appropriate to his earthly life, must now give place to a more elevated and spiritual fellowship. But, Thirdly, and principally, our Lord would not have her occupy time, that was so precious, in manifesting love even to Himself. Every moment in which she indulged her affectionate adoration of her Lord, his disciples would remain in the darkness and the distress of unbelieving fear.

Freely paraphrased, our text may be read, "Hold me not; consume not the precious moments in expressing joy and affection, but hasten to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend, &c. I shall not immediately depart, and adoration can be expressed at another time, and in a different manner.

There is not unfrequently a species of refined selfishness in indulging religious feeling. A dreamy or sensuous expression of love to Christ, however sincere that love, must never be allowed to take the place of active service. Duty must ever be our pole-star. To spend hours gazing on a crucifix, with our thoughts occupied with the bodily sufferings of our Lord, is a sensuous luxury, that some indulge at the expense of the more robust and active duties of the Christian life. Adoration and praise is a gratification that must be denied, when the voice of authority says, "Go to my brethren." It was not our Lord's pleasure that Mary should now employ time in expressing her affection for his person, she was required to show this by speed in his service.

The theme of our text is, Christ teaching us how to think about Himself. He is emphatically the Alpha and the Omega of his own ministry. To Himself He attracts the thought, the faith, and the love of his people.

I. WE ARE TAUGHT, BY OUR LORD'S MESSAGE TO HIS DISCIPLES, TO THINK OF THE STRENGTH AND CONSTANCY OF HIS

LOVE. “My brethren," a term of endearment. (1.) Applied to those who had but recently acted towards Him in the

most cowardly and cruel manner. Peter had denied Him, when being condemned to a cruel death, after boasting his constancy. "Though all men," &c. All had forsaken Him and fled, when a word, or even a glance of sympathy would have been of inestimable worth. (2.) Applied to those whose state of mind was most dishonouring to Himself. Forgetting, or treating as false, his repeated solemn declarations respecting his death and resurrection, they gathered together, cowering and alarmed, as birds when the eagle or the hawk hovers in the air. (Mark xvi. 10-13; Luke xxiv. 11-21.) Thinking, probably, of cruel deception, of hopes and prospects wrecked, of the peril of ending their lives by crucifixion, as their leader had his, they hide themselves in the upper room for fear of the Jews, and "mourn and weep." Yet Jesus calls them, "My brethren." (3.) They are addressed thus in a momentous crisis of his own history. It is the moment of conquest over sin, death, and the grave. The crown of victory is about to be placed on his brow amid the hosannas of the admiring universe, yet He is sufficiently composed, and at leisure, to think of his doubting distressed disciples, and to send a special message calculated not only to assure of forgiveness, but also to open up a prospect of glory and honour beyond any they had expected in their most sanguine moments. (4.) They are called “My brethren" without the slightest hint of their unworthy conduct towards Himself. When Joseph revealed himself to his brethren, he not only said, "I am Joseph," but, to prove his identity, or inadvertently, not thinking of the painful thoughts which his words would occasion, he added, "whom ye sold into Egypt." But when Jesus sent to his disciples, there is not a hint of their recent conduct. They are in trouble, that is enough; He sends to them a message overflowing with kind interest, and ardent love; denying the messenger the gratification of adoring at his feet, that not an unnecessary moment might be lost before they are assured that there is no cause for the fears that thrill their bosom.

What a contrast to human love, how disinterested, how tender, how enduring! How serenely his people may repose in Him, whose love is from everlasting to everlasting!

II. WE ARE TAUGHT, BY OUR LORD'S MESSAGE TO HIS DISCIPLES, TO THINK OF THE COMPLETION OF HIS EARTHLY WORK.

"I ascend unto my Father, and" &c. This clearly teaches that the work which brought Him from heaven to earth had been carried on to completion, and that his longer stay was unnecessary. As the labourer leaves the field when it is cultivated, awaiting the results of his toil in the abundant harvest; as the mariner leaps on shore when, the voyage being over, the vessel casts anchor in port; as the warrior returns home when the foe is subdued and the field won; so our Lord turned his attention to heaven immediately on the completion of his earthly work. For three and thirty years He had been a voluntary exile in our world, engaged during that long period in a work such as no human nor angelic being could ever have presumed to undertake, a work fraught with the mightiest interests to God, to man, to the world, to the universe; the results of which will extend to untold myriads, and to the ages of eternity.

(1.) In his own pure and noble life He had presented a perfect example of what men should be. (2.) In his person, teaching, character, and works, He had supplied the most advanced revelation of God, (3.) In his death He had atoned for the sins of the world, and laid the basis for the universal offer of pardon and eternal life. (4.) In his resurrection from the grave He had given the pledge that his people also should rise, and that the last enemy should be destroyed. His work is finished; and now He who so long and patiently waited his Father's will, and did his Father's business, turns his eyes homeward, saying, "I ascend unto," &c. His disciples who mourned, because He was dead, are taught to think of Him as alive. They were well nigh in despair thinking his work frustrated; but they are taught, henceforth, to think of it as finished, and stamped with his