sary for this purpose, but the very fact of the non-intervention being, under ordinary circumstances, a sufficient ground for the belief that the sins of the individual who dispenses with priestly aid are retained.

The conclusion at which Mr. Davis arrives, and which he supports by many strong arguments, is, that the power conferred upon the Apostles in these words was not a judicial and absolute power designed to be arbitrarily exercised on indivi. duals, but a power authoritatively to declare the terms on which sins are remitted or retained by God.

Mr. Davis fully recognises the miraculous powers conferred upon the Apostles, and the exercise of those powers in certain instances on individuals, both in the communication of spiritual gifts and in the infliction of temporal chastisements; and he is inclined to think that the powers thus exercised were included in the words under consideration. When thus understood, as well as when understood to imply infallibility in the exposition of the Gospel terms of forgiveness, he limits the application of the words to the persons of those to whom they were originally addressed.

Mr. Davis then proceeds to discuss the sense in which the same words are used in the Ordination Service of the English Church; and adduces many and strong reasons for showing that, whether understood ecclesiastically or declaratively, these words, as addressed by presbyters of our own Church, must be understood in an inferior and modified signification.

He adduces the terms of the Westminster Confession as proving, that when interpreted in both these senses, the English Church assigns to her ministers no higher powers than those recognised by other Reformed Churches; and he quotes a very remarkable parallel to the form of absolution retained (unwisely, as we venture to think) in our own Service for the Visitation of the Sick, from the Liturgy of John Knox, for the use of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, in 1564. The terms are as follows :-"In the name and authority of Jesus Christ, I the minister of His blessed Evangel, with consent of the whole ministry and Church, absolve thee, N., from the sentence of excommunication, from the sin by Thee committed, .... and pronounce thy sin to be loosed in heaven; in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”

Mr. Davis adduces the fact, that the use of the Absolution in our daily services is limited to presbyters, as an argument, inasmuch as deacons are not permitted ex officio to preach, that it must be understood of the declaratory power of absolution involved in the proclamation of the Gospel terms of forgiveness. We think, however, that Mr. Davis would do well to consider

the arguments adduced by Dr. Blakeney, with a view to show that deacons are not forbidden to use this portion of our daily Service.

We trust we have now afforded our readers sufficient oppor. tunity of judging for themselves of the general drift of Mr. Davis's pamphlet. We think he has done good service to the cause of Protestantism by its compilation, and we heartily wish him success in his efforts to counteract the teaching of those who wrest isolated passages of the English Prayer Book from their context and historical meaning, and adduce them in support of views diametrically opposed to those which can be conclusively proved to have been held by its compilers.

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

Letters to Madras. By Elachistos. London: Macintosh. 1870.There are few now-a-days who have not children or relatives in our Colonies, or in the far East. Even the “ Christian Observer” can lay claim to such off-shoots from itself. For a quarter of a century, at least, there has been a “Madras Christian Observer,” bearing our name, and upholding the Evangelical principles which we have ever sought to maintain. Those who know India, and the difficulty in maintaining periodicals there, will best appreciate the vitality which such a form of existence indicates. Among the principal contributors has been the much-beloved and highly-honoured writer of these Letters, who will be recognised by many old Indians under the title of Elachistos. Since his return to England he has acted as “Our Own Correspondent” to his former friends. The Letters we are now noticing were written between 1866 and 1869. Many of the topics and allusions will, of course, only interest old Indians; but there are reflections interspersed, and opinions advanced about the dangers menacing religion in England, which are well worth preserving and perusing. We shall be glad to find that the “ Letters to Madras" find acceptance in the land from which they were written.

Detained in France; a Tale of the First French Empire. By Agnes Giberne. London : Seeley. 1871.-Bitsche, Verdun, Metz-names which in the days of our fathers caused many a heart in England to ache-have become once more familiar to many who had become wholly indifferent to the existence of such places. In the wellwritten tale which Miss Giberne has just published, we have a graphic account of the sufferings of English détenus in those strongholds. Some of the incidents which she describes are facts. The scenes delineated are not, however, exclusively laid in France. There is some attempt to reproduce social feeling and manners as they existed in the early part of the present century, and at times

Vol. 70.-No. 397.

we are transported to the scenes of Wellington's triumphs in the Peninsula. Miss Giberne writes in a reverential spirit, and with a religious tone, which the “ Christian Observer” may justly commend, although her book is not, in the common acceptance of the term, a religious novel. Just at the present time it will be read with especial interest, when the horrors of war are raging around us. Deplorable as they are, we may hope with some confidence that there has been, within the last fifty years, such an amelioration of feeling that the atrocious practices recorded in this story would not be reproduced either in France or Germany, even in moments of excitement, much less in cold blood, and as part of a calculated plan of cruelty,

The Mutineers of the Bounty, and their Descendants in Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands. By Lady Belcher. London: Murray. 1870.Among the stories of which people do not tire is that of the Mutiny of the Bounty. In four years, more than seventeen thousand copies of the Rev. T. B. Murray's “ Pitcairn” were put into circulation by the Christian Knowledge Society. Lady Belcher has, from private documents in her possession, now published what she “ ventures to believe will be found to be a more impartial and connected narrative." Amongst these documents is the diary of James Morrison, boatswain's mate of the Bounty, one of those who went on shore at Tahiti, and did not follow any further the fortunes of Fletcher Christian. It is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the subject, and will be read with much interest. Lady Belcher's judgment of Lieutenant Bligh is decidedly unfavourable to him: he does seem, even making allowance for the roughness of the times, to have been very deficient in temper and self-control. The account of the descendants of the matineers in their new settlement at Norfolk Island is brought down to the present time. The volume is throughout a pleasing record of sterling piety developing itself under most trying circumstances, and will not be the less welcome to Churchmen, when they find how dearly the ordinances of our beloved Church have been prized and upheld among a people isolated from their fellow-men, and how valuable an adjunct they have been found to the maintenance of spirituality of mind and wholesome morality,

The Leisure Hour. London : Religious Tract Society. 1870.The Sunday at Home. London: Religious Tract Society. 1870.The Cottager and Artisan. London: Religious Tract Society. 1870.Our Own Fireside. London : Nisbet; Hunt. Edinburgh : Johnstone. 1870.-Year by year these welcome visitors to so many households claim kindly notice at our hands. We rejoice in giving it: it tells well for the purity and intelligence of our English homes that books of this class—which minister to no folly, and pauder to no vice: which avowedly seek to instruct and profit, rather than amuse-find such hearty and wide acceptance. It would be obviously impossible for us to give even a brief sketch of their contents. We can only repeat what we have in substance said before, that they are admirably adapted for the objects indicated by their respective titles, and that no falling-off in excellence is perceptible in any of them. With the prospect of a further spread of education such works assume increasing importance, and we trust that many will heartily co-operate in promoting the circulation of them, that supply may keep pace with the fresh demand. We ought, however, to note that the “ Leisure Hour” especially makes provision for readers of a higher class, and will not disappoint them. The stories are well written, the miscellaneous information is judiciously selected, and the illustrations are of a high order of merit. “Our Own Fireside” is superior in many respects to the volume of the previous year.

OBITUARY.

THE REV. W. B. MACKENZIE. BEFORE the close of the year 1870, a faithful and most useful servant of Christ was added to the number of the blessed dead who die in the Lord, and whose works do follow them,

The Rev. W. B. Mackenzie was not only well known and highly esteemed in the immediate sphere in which for many years he had exercised his ministry; but throughout the country his name was had in honour, and his writings read and admired by many who valued distinct, practical, and earnest statements of the Gospel of Christ. Filling for many years the post to which the providence of God had called him in the parish of Islington, his life was not one of varied incidents; but there are few men probably, in the present day, whose pulpit ministrations have been more largely blessed, or who have more uniformly maintained the sound Protestant principles of the Church of England, to whose evangelical teaching he was thoroughly attached.

Mr. Mackenzie was born at Sheffield, April 7th, 1806, and consequently was in his 65th year when he was called to his rest. He had the great blessing of the early training of a pious mother, but was deprived of both his parents when only sixteen years old. His mother died of consumption, and shortly after her death he was very ill for a year or more, and it was feared that his illness would terminate in the same complaint; but the Lord had work for him to do, and during his many years of labour, his health, which he at that time slowly recovered, was mercifully preserved. He was a student from his boyhood. At first it was intended that he should follow the legal profession, and he read law with a relation; but his mind was afterwards, by the grace of God, directed towards the work of the ministry, and he assiduously prepared for his studies at Oxford, where he entered in the year 1830. He was admitted to Magdalen Hall under the presidency of the excellent Dr.

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Macbride, who was at that time in his full health and vigour. He maintained a Christian course during his college life, and taught in the Sunday School at St. Ebbe's, where the present Dean of Lichfield was curate, and he was often heard to say that he had learnt from Mr. Champneys'example how to talk to a class of children. He began his ministry in the year 1834, as curate to the Rev. T. T. Biddulph, at St. James's, Bristol ; and under his wise guidance and direction, in the merciful providence of God, he was fitted for the important work which he was afterwards permitted to carry on for so many years in the district of St. James's, Holloway, to which he was appointed, by the present Vicar of Islington, in June 1838, and where he took charge of the newly built church in that part of the parish.

During the thirty-two years of his ministry in that sphere, he was, until his last illness, a most assiduous and faithful preacher of the gospel of Christ. This was the work to which he applied his mind with the utmost care and diligence. His sermons were elaborately prepared; the statements of divine truth were very distinctly made in them; and his most pointed and practical appeals to the conscience were, in numerous instances, owned and blessed of God; large numbers of attentive hearers from week to week received his faithful admonitions and sound scriptural instruction. His own mind was rather inclined to be severe; but, notwithstanding that tendency, there was a force of persuasion in his teaching which had a powerful influence, with the Divine blessing, on the younger members of his flock, in whom he took a special interest. His own estimate, in looking back on his work from his dying bed, was strikingly expressed in these words: “He will say to me, Well done, faithful servant.” “Good and faithful,” was suggested. “No no," he replied, “not good, but faithful. Yes, I think I have been faithful. I have taught my people to know Him. I have been very unworthy, very very imperfect, but I have not been slothful or neglectful. No, I have not neglected my work, or done it carelessly ; I did as much as I knew how to do.” His style was clear, distinct, and pointed; and he appears to have spared no pains in his endeavours to make the truth plain to his hearers, aiming constantly at their consciences as well as at their hearts, and not shunning to speak faithfully of those sins and dangers to which the class of those whom he had to address were most exposed.

The first symptoms of illness showed themselves in the spring of 1868, and continued, with some variations, but without laying him aside from work, till March, 1870, when he was taken suddenly very ill. He preached for the last time on the 20th of March, in the morning, from the text, “Whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto