back, I should say from fourteen to sixteen years of age. He had no bridle, and merely held on by the horse's long flowing mane. Insensible

of danger, he laughed and shouted at the top of his voice, as he urged the animal forward at its utmost speed.

Now I saw that he had just come through a wide gate, that the road was very broad, and that throngs of gailydressed people were pressing on in eager haste.

Just outside the gate I observed two elderly persons, a man and a woman, in tears, looking after the lad, and calling to him to come back. Also there was a young man, with a book in his band, gazing sorrowfully. Another individual stood on a little eminence, above the rest of the crowd-he, too, cried after the youth.

Still on he went, giving no heed.

Now there was set across the road a very high fence, and I thought to myself, the horse will surely stop when it gets there, and the foolish boy will have had riding enough on so furious a creature. My surprise was unbounded, when I perceived that the horse gave a tremendous leap, with its rider on its back, and cleared the barrier. However, it came down on the other side with such a fearful fall, that I thought horse and rider too must be killed. They were not. They were much bruised and shaken, but after resting awhile they went on as madly as ever.

There were ten of these fences, and the horse and his rider leaped them every one.

Presently I noticed a sudden bend in the road, so that I could not see anything beyond. Coming up to this point, and turning round sharply to the left, my eye caught sight of a strange looking house of business. It was an establishment in which a large trade was done in exchanging apparel.

What greatly perplexed me was, that people rushed in, wearing the most costly garments, garments right royal to look upon, and foolishly bartered them for others which were moth-caten,

By the side of this house there were several pits, into which very many who had thronged in at the gate, fell, and I saw them no more. As they fell, I heard sometimes a sudden shriek of despair, and a loud cry for help. What became of them I could not tell-for the pits were deep, and I could not see the bottom, or learn whither they led. I tried to sound one of them, and threw in a stone, thinking that when it came to the bottom, I should hear it strike. However, I listened intently for a long, long time, and it seemed to me that the stone never reached the bottom.

Whilst a great number of travellers fell into these places, just at the bend of the road, a few, and they were comparatively very few, still journeyed on. The way soon became exceedingly rough, and it was a way that abounded with robbers.

At last, in the distance, I thought I espied a great city. It was cloudy and dense at the time. Still I could not be mistaken at the dim outline of which now and then I momentarily caught a glimpse.

I drew near to the city. It was surrounded by a wall so high that I could not see the top of it. It reached to the very heavens. The wall was moreover exceeding thick. I never saw so strong and massive a piece of work. The gate at which travellers entered was kept by a tall general and his soldiers. I noticed that it was so made that it went round and round upon a pivot-and it went round only in one direction. It would move easily, and let you in. There was no reversing its movements to let you

out.

Looking through its bars, I saw some of its streets, and they were very wide. I saw, too, that they were thronged with people. Some I knew. The faces

of most I had never seen before. As I was about to go away I heard some one calling to me from within.

On turning in the direction from whence the voice came, my astonishment was great, at recognising the very youth, whom I had seen some time ago rushing by me mounted on a fierce and fiery steed.

He spoke, evidently, at the top of his voice, and made many earnest gesticulations. What he said I could not hear. Nor could I understand the meaning of the signs which were made.

With heaviness of heart I was compelled at last to go away.

What the vision all meant, I was perplexed to know. I tried to solve the mystery, and because I could not, I dreamed that I sat down and wept.

Now, at this moment, in my dream, I saw some one coming towards me. His eye beamed with loving compassion. He spake in the tenderest of tones. At the first glimpse which my eye caught of him, my confidence was won.

r My friend," said he, "I perceive that you are in trouble. Why weep you so ?"

"Sir," I said, "the mystery of the things which I have seen perplexes me, and this is why I weep."

"Be of good courage," he answered, "I am an angel of God, and the Lord of Hosts hath sent me to interpret to you the dream."

"Hereupon I became glad. My heart leaped for joy, and I cried out in the greatness of my ecstasy.

"You observed," said the angel, "when you first caught sight of the horse and his rider, rushing so furiously along the road, that they had just passed through a gate."

"Yes," I said, " and I noticed that it was very wide."

"That," said he, "is the gate of destruction. 'For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction.' You observed, moreover, that the road was thronged. 'And many there be which go in thereat.'"

"You saw that the lad was mounted

on a high-spirited, furious horse, did you not ?"

"I did," I answered, "and I feared lest he should be thrown off, and so break his neck. What made me more alarmed was, that he had neither bit nor bridle by which to rein in his steed."

"That horse," said he, 66 was sin. And moreover, as you noticed that the youth had neither bit nor bridle, there is no knowing when once a man mounts that creature, whither it may carry him."

on,

"Up to that bend," the angel went

"there was gaiety and mirth. The pleasures of sin are but short-lived. They are very captivating at first, but the sinner quickly finds that there is a sudden bend in the road to the left, and his delights come to a speedy end."

"I was much perplexed," I said, "at the house which I saw, on turning that corner, and at the people who were exchanging their garments. It seemed to me that they gave the richest apparel for such filthy clothing, that it would make me shudder to put it on. Can you explain this ?"

"That establishment," he answered, "is kept by the Evil One for all who walk in his ways. He is a robber, and he robs those who pass through his dominions. Yet he does it, as it were

under the influence of an enchantment, so that the people willingly make the exchange that he wishes. The garments which you noticed bartered away were these-or, these were some of them :The beautiful grace of hope they exchanged for despair-the grace of liberality for a spirit of selfishness-the grace of contentment for a murmuring spirit-holiness they bartered for sinhonour for disgrace-love for hatredpeace for wretchedness-the love of God for the love of Satan."

"I thank you," I said, "for this explanation. One of the things that most perplexed me was, the exchange of raiment made by those who went along this road. How foolish their bargain!"

"Can you also tell me what those pits were, which I saw just at the bend of the road ?"

"They are the diseases," the angel replied, "to which multitudes fall a prey, soon after entering in at the broad gate which leadeth to destruction. By them they are cut off in youth. Those pits communicate with the pit of death, into which many fall to their everlasting ruin.

"I need not tell you, need I," the angel asked me, "about the city? You know that that was 'Destruction.""

session. Some people bless God that they are Churchmen. Some bless God that they are Methodists. Some bless God that they are Independents. Some bless God that they are Baptists. This is foolish. Many such are walking those streets that you saw in the City of Destruction. Is a man a Christian? That is the all-momentous point. Through losing sight of this, many cling to the skirts of an earthly Church, instead of Christ, and so perish everlastingly.

"As to the youth," said the angel, “I have several things yet to say. The two elderly people you saw calling him back in tears, as he entered the broad gates, were his father and mother. The young man with the book in his hand, who beckoned to him to return, was his Sabbath-school teacher. He who stood on a little eminence, and cried after him, was his minister, preaching to him the Word.

"You noticed that he made earnest gesticulations and seemed speaking aloud to you, although you could not hear. He was asking you to try if you could get him out of that place, because he was so full of misery and anguish. He kept bewailing his lost opportunities, and saying how he should like to get back to his parents, and to his Sundayschool teacher, and to his minister.

GOD IS LOVE.

'God is love.' How oft we repeat this, yet how little we enter into it! A threefold love-the Father is the expression of the abundance of love, its giving nature-He gave us Christ. Christ expresses the suffering nature of love, and this, again, enriches the idea of 'giving,' for the Father knew to what suffering He was giving Him. The Holy Spirit teaches it all to us,-leads us to it. And what a glorious office it is when we reflect how utterly incapable we are of understanding it! how all human culture and learning fail here!"

GOD'S RELIGION INDESTRUCTIBLE. "A sparrow does not fall unheeded. You cannot extirpate the meanest of God's creatures, they live on in spite of you. How much less can you turn God's religion out of the world? I believe it is just the one thing Satan cares about, the one end he has in view. In reading the early attacks on Christianity, you find precisely the same accusations that you have now; they have been urged ever since, and will be urged again."

AN ATHEIST.

"Why, the man disowns his manhood -a dog or a cat sees the sun as well as he does; its organs are just as perfect, but it does not rise to a First Cause: his philosophy brings him to the same level. It is the distinctive privilege of man that he can know God."

THE ANCHOR OF THE SOUL. "How very beautiful that expression is, 'An anchor of the soul.' Life is such a tossing, changeable thing, we need an anchor, but our anchorage is within the veil (under the water, for the image is that of a ship), we cannot see it, but we feel its steadfastness."

SUNSET ON THE SEA-SHORE. "How small a space the setting sun seems to occupy; one can hardly believe

it is seen by tens of thousands all over Europe; from our limited stand-point we seem to see the whole of it. Of course the illusion is in the eye, the limitation is in the organ. I suspect it is so in all God's works and in His word. We seem to have a complete picture of Christ, and we talk and preach accordingly. But if we could open our eyes a little wider, we should find out our mistake. It is a good illustration of the Scripture, 'Out of the mouths of babes and suck-, lings thou hast ordained strength,' the strength of simplicity-it is there our power lies."

RITUALISM CHILDISH.

Genesis, or the First Book of Moses; together with a General Theological and Homiletical Introduction to the Old Testament. By JOHN PETER LANGE, D.D. Translated from the German. With Additions by Prof. TAYLER LEWIS, D.D. and A. GOSMAN, D.D. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark.

THIS is not one of Clark's ordinary volumes, but an imperial octavo, double columns, containing three or four times the quantity of the volumes with which we are familiar in the Foreign Theological Library. It is printed in New York, though it bears the superscription of "T. and T. Clark." Dr. Schaff, the general editor, describes the undertaking, of which it is a first instalment, as follows: "The favour with which the volumes of the New Testament division of Dr. Lange's 'Bible-work' have been received by the American public has encouraged the editor and publishers to undertake also the preparation of the Old Testament division on the same principle of enlargement and adaptation to the wants of the English reader. A good theological and homiletical commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures is even more needed than on the Greek Testament

No

The Commentary on Genesis, which is now presented to the English reader, involves a vast amount of labour, both on the part of the author and on the part of the translators, and will, no doubt, command, in no ordinary degree, the respectful attention of Biblical scholars. No other book of the Bible stands more in need of an exhaustive commentary just at this time. one is so much exposed to the attacks of modern science in its temporary conflict with revealed truth. We say temporary conflict; for there can be no essential or ultimate discord between science and religion, philosophy and theology. The God of reason and the God of revelation is one and the same, and cannot contradict Himself. The difficulty lies only in our imperfect knowledge and comprehension of the Book of Nature, or of the Bible, or of both. The mighty problems which the interpretation of Genesis involves are here discussed in a manly and earnest spirit; and I venture to assert that no single commentary on this Book presents so much original thought as the combined labours of the author and the translators of this volume."

We heartily endorse the judgment contained in the last sentence. It is in a "manly and earnest," and, we may add, in a devout and humble spirit, that the great questions involved in the interpretation of Genesis are here discussed. From some conclusions arrived at we differ. Some others we must hold in suspense. But agreeing or differing we admire the spirit of the whole. The additions to the volume, in the shape of Excursus or Essays on some thirty topics, by Professor Tayler Lewis, one of the ablest classical and Biblical scholars in America, are written with great freshness and vigour of thought, and form one of the most valuable features of the work.

Analytical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, tracing the train of thought by the aid of Parallelism, with Notes and Dissertations on the principal difficulties connected with the Exposition of the Epistle. By the Rev. JOHN FORBES, LL.D. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark.

THIS work is entitled to the attention and study of critics and theologians; but it is not easy to estimate correctly its real value. Its object is twofold: "First, to furnish a specimen of such an analysis and arrangement of the text as seems most desirable for the reader to possess when first entering on the study of a difficult book of Scripture, in order to give him a clear and comprehensive view of its main scope and design; and, secondly, by the application of the principles of parallelism to an entire book of Scripture, to give the public an opportunity of verifying the correctness of the eulogium pronounced by the author, in a former work, on the importance of Bishop Lowth's discovery of the Parallelism of Scripture." We cannot help the impression that much of Dr. Forbes's parallelism is imaginary and not real. And we are not yet prepared to accept many of his conclusions. We are somewhat surprised at his adopting the cant of Broad Churchism in describing the forensic theory of justification as a legal fiction. There may be a "form of imputation" which is "cold and lifeless;" but there is a form of it which is not. Those who hold by the forensic theory should not be described as holding that believers are justified by "the mere outward reckoning of Christ's