this faith acteristics of the opealispeople. Word, a

the Lord; whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's”: and in the evening from the parable of the treasure hid in a field. And thus his public ministry closed, and his Master called him away from active work to learn for himself, in this season of retirement, the reality and the full power of those truths which he had studied in God's word, and had laboured continually to enforce upon his people. How firmly it pleased the Lord to enable him to realise his own personal interest in the saving power of the Gospel, was proved by a remarkable and characteristic illustration which he used when speaking of his faith : “My faith is strong, it will bear any stress. When they built that bridge over the Holloway Road, I watched them testing it. They tried more weight; ‘Yes, it will stand that.' Now another; “Yes, and that too. And they tried weights heavier and heavier, and at last said, 'Yes, that is a good bridge; it will bear whatever weight has to be put upon it.' So is my faith in Jesus; it is like that bridge—it will bear whatever trial He puts upon it, and be quite firm and unshaken.” To more than one friend who visited him in his last illness he expressed his concurrence with the statement made by the Rev. Charles Simeon of his own experience on approaching eternity. It is in these words, as recorded in his life: “I am, I know, the chief of sinners, and I hope for nothing but the mercy of God in Christ Jesus to life eternal ; and I shall be, if not the greatest monument of God's mercy in heaven, yet the very next to it, for I know of none greater. And if we are to bring the matter to a point, it lies in a nutshell; and it is here—I look, as the chief of sinners, for the mercy of God in Christ Jesus to life eternal; and I die adoring the sovereignty of God in choosing such an one, and the mercy of God in pardoning such an one, and the patience of God in bearing with such an one, and the faithfulness of God in perfecting His work and performing all His promises to such an one."

It was thus that this servant of the Lord entered into his rest on November the 22nd. The vast crowds of people, evidently deeply affected, who sought admission to the church on the day of the funeral, and afterwards thronged the way lead. ing to the cemetery, bore remarkable testimony to the influence exercised by a faithful and consistent testimony to the Word of Life. The one special lesson which such an example seems fitted to teach the ministers of the Gospel, is the honour which the Master pnts upon an earnest and persevering determination to adhere closely to His word, and to spare no pains in the faithful and laborious exposition of it.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

The roll of the book for the year 1870 has now closed. Even to the very last its contents have been “lamentations and mourning and woe.” There has been no surcease of the calamities which have more especially afflicted France and Germany. During the month past, these sorrows have fallen with almost equal impartiality upon both the contending parties; for the Germans, although upon the whole victorious, have met with a more determined resistance than in the earlier period of the campaign; and, in some instances, have suffered heavy losses. The most important event we have to chronicle, is the vigorous attempt which was made to relieve Paris from the forces which are beleaguering it, partly by a sortie from within, across the Marne, under General Ducrot, and partly by an effort made by the army of the Loire to form a junction with the Parisians near Fontainebleau. The attempt was manifestly concerted, and the result of long premeditation and preparation, but it completely failed. The army of the Loire, instead of reaching Fontainebleau, has been driven well back across the Loire, evacuating its entrenchments at Orleans, which has fallen once more into the hands of the Prussians; and General d'Aurelle has been removed from his command by M. Gambetta. The struggle near Paris was terrific. The sortie took place on the 30th of November; it was directed against the villages of Champigny, Villiers, Brie-sur-Marne, and Noisy le Grand, which were held by the Saxons and Wurtembergers. During the contest, these villages were taken and retaken, both sides displaying heroic valour. Finally the French retreated across the Marne, destroying the bridges bebind them on their retreat, and have found shelter in the wood of Vincennes. No fresh sortie of any moment has since been made, although we hear of movements on the north side of Paris. The army of the Loire has been broken ap into two fragments, one of which, under General Bourbaki, has fallen back upon Bourges, the other, under General Chanzy, has retreated beyond Vendôme, after fighting eight battles in eleven days. Meanwhile, General Manteuffel has been making head against the army of the North, and has occupied Amiens and Rouen, driving before him, to the north east of Amiens, General Faidherbe. Requisitions have been made in Dieppe, where German troopers exulted, with feelings akin to those which animated the soldiers of Xenophon, at beholding the sea. Havre and Cherbourg even have been threatened, but no attack has yet been made on either place. Phalsbourg, after a gallant defence, has surrendered, and so also has Montmédy. The capture of these strongholds facilitates the German communications. On the whole, therefore, success has been on the side of the Germans; but their energies have been sorely taxed, and their losses, especially near Paris, have been heavy.

Still, however, there is no sign of the immediate surrender of Paris, which seems determined to prolong its gallant resistance to the uttermost, although, in increasing mortality, in scarcity now felt, in waning hope of relief from outside, its sufferings must be great, at any rate among the civilian portion of the population. Symptoms, moreover, are now manifesting themselves, that the Germans do not mean to confine themselves to the slow action of famine alone, as fire has been opened upon Fort Avron, in the neighbourhood of the Bois de Neuilly. An opinion has been broached, that General Trochu is forming a vast intrenched camp under the guns of Fort Valérien, to which he intends to retire when Paris is all but starved, and the population is becoming troublesome. It would be a fearful thing for Paris to share the fate of St. Cloud, and perish by the hands of her own sons.

That portion of the French Government which was at Tours, has removed to Bordeaux, although M. Gambetta, whose energy has been most wonderful, and to whose unwearied exertions the prolonged resistance of France is mainly due, still hovers about the armies which he has created. He deserves the thanks accorded by the Romans to the Consul Varro, “quod de republica non desperasset," however questionable may have been many of the means which he has employed. Tours has asked for the protection of a Prussian garrison, which has been refused.

We observe, with much sorrow, instances of what may be termed ebullitions of spite against England, on the part of the Germans, hardly creditable to their wisdom, and unworthy of their greatness. The most recent instance of this kind is the sinking some English colliers in the Seine, professedly to impede the navigation of the river. We trust that the matter will admit of some satisfactory explanation.

A conference has been proposed by Prussia to consider the Eastern question, so unexpectedly and offensively raised by Russia, To this England has acceded, on the understanding that the justice of the Russian demand is in no respect conceded. Austria has also consented to take part. We trust, therefore, that this untoward complication may yet terminate in a satisfactory manner, although Russia displays no apparent intention of receding from her defiant attitude.

A somewhat similar difficulty has sprung up with Luxembourg, owing to charges brought against her by Prussia of having connived at infractions of her neutrality; but, as in the case of Russia, no overt action has been taken of a hostile character. It would seem as though the intention was to bring such questions upon the tapis for discussion at the proposed conference. Even Switzerland has been menaced. From America, we have the message of the President of the United States, which, in so far as it relates to England, endorses the offensive utterances of General Butler with reference to the Alabama claims, and to Canadian questions. We regret to note the extreme unfriendliness which characterises it. On all hands, “ wars and rumours of war” abound and fill the air. Much, too, of this hostility is directed against ourselves. It would be idle to ignore the fact, it would be wise to take all due and reasonable precaution against worse evil. The prophet tells us, “ that when God's judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” We would fain hope that, in this respect, at any rate, we may be wise betimes. In the creed of fashionable atheism, there is no such thing as God's judicial visitation, and it is idle to seek to recognise His hand in the events which are occurring. We do not, however, believe that this is the creed of England yet, and hope the day is far distant when it shall be.

În home affairs, the most noticeable events are the retirement of Mr. Bright from the Cabinet, to which he is sometimes supposed to have contributed a Conservative element; and the portentous utterances of Mr. Gladstone about the spiritual power of the Pope. This last matter seems utterly incomprehensible. We can just imagine that, in the manifold relations of Governments to each other, the temporal power of the Pope might somehow or other have been a concern to the material interests of England which a statesman might have to consider. There might have been acts of oppression on English subjects which it would have been our duty to resist, or intrigues with hostile powers which it would have been necessary to unravel ; but we cannot conceive what we have, as a nation, to do with the Pope's spiritual status. We have deliberately severed all connection with idolatry in India, and take no heed of the spiritual claims of the Brahmins, notwithstanding that the plea for them also might be urged, that they rule over the consciences of millions of the subjects of the Crown. Why, then, should we seek to adjust, or to uphold, the claims of Jesuits to similar dominion over the souls of men ? Possibly the Premier's answer may, like his amnesty of the Fenian prisoners, have been dictated by a desire to purchase political support in the coming Session; but we much regret it, and trust that England will disclaim it utterly.

We would notice with satisfaction the result of the School Board elections through the country, and would especially congratulate the London Board on their wise election of a chairman in the person of Lord Lawrence. We shall watch their future prcecedings with interest.

Mr. Mackonochie has been again condemned, and sentenced to suspension for three calendar months, for practising ceremonies which are not prescribed by the Church of England, a body to which he professes to belong.

Some very fearful railway accidents have been so disastrous in their results, that they claim a passing notice in our pages.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We would be glad if a Correspondent who favoured us with a brief letter re

ROTHSCHILDS' HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF THE

ISRAELITES. The History and Literature of the Israelites, according to the

Old Testament and the Apocrypha. By A. De Rothschild and 0. De Rothschild. 2 Vols. Longmans and Co. 1870.

The object proposed in these volumes is announced by the writers in few and unpretending words. They have written for the use of the young; and their purpose is to awaken" a deeper interest in the Bible itself,” and to arouse “a greater wish to study the learned authors who have given us their expositions of the Holy Text.” They desire to avoid the evils resulting from the conversion of the Bible into a lesson-book; and to communicate, in an interesting and intelligible form, such information as can for the most part be found only in the pages of writers whose works are of two advanced a character to be consulted with advantage by those who enter, for the first time, upon a systematic course of Bible reading.

We entirely agree with our Authors that the time has come for an attempt to utilize, to a greater extent than hitherto, the results of the investigations of the various distinguished writers of the last half-century upon the history, the literature, and the geography of the Bible.

The recollections of the Bible studies of our own youth will suffice, in the vast majority of cases, to create a desire that the rising generation should be leil, from their earliest years, to form a juster estimate, than that which was imparted to ourselves, of the importance of a thorough acquaintance, not only with the great doctrines of Holy Scripture, but also with the history and the customs of the Jewish nation.

A hasty glance at the best hand-books of Scripture history and geography of the last century, or even at the pictures from

Vol. 70.-No. 398.