rectification to bring the example of Christ frequently before our minds. We have much of His verbal teaching transmitted to us. It is presented in various forms. Like other men, He asks questions for information. He answers inquiries. He makes personal remarks in reference to scenes and events transpiring around Him. He states His opinions and convictions with the utmost freedom respecting persons and classes of persons with whom He comes in contact. He speaks to instruct, to guide, to comfort, and to console. He utters words full of righteous indignation. He opens His mind and heart, in the humble home and at the frugal meal, with all the sincerity, tenderness, and kind consideration of a true friend. He speaks to the multitude in more extended discourse, and by graphic and wonderfully suggestive parables. He puts Himself into daily contact with all classes and conditions of society. He is tried by the severest tests-the constant malignity of His enemies and the repeated follies of His disciples. How does He demean Himself in all these changeful aspects of His public life? We are irresistibly compelled to pronounce Him free from all those faults, follies, and sins of speech into which even the best of men often show themselves too ready to fall. We shall search in vain-if we search even to the utmost-for any words proceeding from the lips of Jesus which are expressive of arrogance, self-glorification, censoriousness, rash judgment, groundless anger, disregard to truth, justice, or universal love. His words were always morally appropriate and well timed. His extraordinary wisdom is especially seen in the peculiar adaptation of the brief sentences and more expanded discourses which fell from His lips to the peculiar circumstances in which He and His auditors were placed. He always spoke the word which was in season; He never spoke out of season. The speech of Christ never indicated want of moral forethought and discretion, and therefore never needed rectification. Morally perfect Himself, the proofs of such perfection were never wanting-not even in any one sentence which ever fell from His lips.

This, then, we are clearly taught by the example of our great Master-that holiness of character and purity of speech are indissolubly connected. If we possess "the mind of Christ," and seek for the constant replenishment of divine light and love, then "no corrupt communication will proceed out of our mouth, but whatever is good for needful edification, that it may minister grace to the hearers."

J. SALISBURY.

DRESS.

DRESS as plainly as your parents will allow you, but in bright colours (if they become you), and in the best materials; that is to say, in those that will wear longest. When you are really in want of a new dress, buy it (or make it) in the fashion; but never quit an old one merely because it has become unfashionable. And if the fashion be costly, you must not follow it. You may wear broad stripes or narrow, bright colours or dark, short petticoats or long (in moderation), as the public wish you; but you must not buy yards of useless stuff to make a knot or a flounce of, nor drag them behind you over the ground. And your walking dress must never touch the ground at all. I have lost much of the faith I once had in the common sense and personal delicacy of the present race of average English women, by seeing how they will allow their dresses to sweep the streets, if it is the fashion to be scavengers. JOHN RUSKIN.

The New School Hymnal.

CONVERSATION IN A PASTOR'S FAMILY.

Eldest Son.-Have you seen Mr. Stevenson's interesting and useful paper in the February G. B. Magazine on the charming School Hymnal he has edited? I went over the book last month, and was struck with the feature to which attention is drawn in the Magazine, i.e., the great variety of authors; but had not then observed that as many as 13 of the 150 authors whose hymns enrich its pages are Baptists, and that their contributions number more than 30 out of 343. Probably that proportion is not exceeded by any other denomination save the Episcopal. Whilst, however, the number and variety of authors is remarkable, the hymns of the older English writers are few in number-Dr. Watts, for instance, appearing only two or three times in the whole book, and Dr. Doddridge not at all.

Elder Daughter.-Are you sorry for that? Don't you think that freshness is needed in our school hymn-books even more than in our congregational hymnals?

E. S.-No doubt; yet Dr. Watts' Divine and Moral Songs, and such hymns as See Israel's gentle Shepherd stands (Dr. Doddridge's), as also the Hymns for Infant Minds by Ann and Jane Taylor, have exercised a powerful influence ever since they were written, and are still held in high regard.

Youngest Daughter.-Yes, brother; but we do not now want to be always singing, Whene'er I take my walks abroad; and, Let dogs delight to bark and bite; or hymns of that sort.

E. S.-Perhaps not; and certainly no one can complain of too much old material in this delightful new book. Possibly and probably some will complain that there is too little; for, after all, such hymns as Dr. Watts' Blest be the wisdom and the power; What blest examples do I find; and Jane Taylor's Lord, teach a little child to pray, are worthy of a place in any school hymnal.

Youngest Son.-Yes; but, you see, nearly everybody knows all those good old hymns by heart, and the editor could not fill the new book with all such like, because he would thus be keeping out a lot of the grand new hymns which we all want to see and to have. What do you think, papa?

Father.-Well; I think any one who examines this book must agree that, for freshness and variety, it is unsurpassed, and probably unequalled.

E. D.-Yes; and the style of the book; the printing; the binding; the absence of errors; the taste evinced in the choice of the hymns; the high standard of excellence maintained throughout; the arrangement of subjects, and the convenient alphabetical order of the hymns under each subject, render it altogether "a thing of beauty, and"you know the rest.

Y. D.-It is a good idea to have a penny edition for those schools which have large infant classes, with separate services in a place by themselves; and the complete book at threepence, or in cloth limp at fourpence, is not dear; but it is unusual (is it not?) to charge double

price for cloth boards. Would not sixpence have answered better than eightpence ?

Y. S.-O, you know, there are never so many copies of the best editions sold, and therefore the publishers cannot afford to cut the price fine; but doubtless there would have been a larger sale of that edition at sixpence than there will be at eightpence.

*

Mother. Speaking again about authors, it would be interesting to know how the book is made up; i.e., what author or authors have the largest number of hymns, seeing that there are so few by the favourite authors of our childhood.

F.-Miss Havergal takes the lead, having thirteen hymns; Mr. T. Goadby has nine; W. W. How (now Bishop of Bedford), eight; F. W. Faber, seven; E. H. Jackson, seven; The Countess of Jersey, six ; Mrs. Alexander, six; Sarah Doudney, five; A. N. Blatchford, five; Annie Matheson, five; J. Ellerton, five; Mrs. Van Alstyne, five. All the other writers have a smaller number.

M.-It appears, then, that not only is a lady at the head of the list, but that quite one-half of those whose hymns are most numerous are women.

F.-Yes; and I believe it will be found that at least one-third of the entire list of hymns are by female writers, of whom there are nearly fifty acknowledged in the book, and their hymns are amongst the most beautiful in the whole collection. I am not at present aware of any other school hymn-book, or even a congregational hymnal, which contains nearly so large a proportion of hymns composed by women.

E. D.-How may we account for the fact that the proportion of gifted female hymn-writers is now so much greater than at any former period, and apparently increasing?

F. Perhaps the general encouragement now given to the development of talent among women may have something to do with it; but probably a truer philosophy will regard it as a token of the larger outpouring of the Spirit in these latter times, and the purpose of God to make women more largely useful than ever before in the quickening of His church, and the bringing in of the latter-day glory.

Y. D. Are such hymns as Around the throne of God in heaven, and There is a happy land, found in the new book?

F-Yes; but the proportion of that class of hymns (I refer to There is a happy land) is happily smaller than in some hymn books. Don't you think we have rather too many hymns about the "happy land far away;" and that some of them might with advantage give place to hymns about the happy state, now and hereafter, of those who follow the Lamb?

E. D.-Do you think that unspiritual ideas about heaven and the heavenly life are fostered and diffused by hymns of that kind?

F.-There is danger. The imagery employed in the Apocalypse to set forth the redeemed church in glory, by the figure of a city with a river flowing through it, is used in many hymns in such a way, and with such frequency, as to leave untaught minds under the impression that the shadow is the substance, and that the earthly imagery is the heavenly reality. In this new School Hymnal there are not more than *Since the preceding was written an Edition has been published at sixpence.-See Advt.

THE NEW SCHOOL HYMNAL.

139

twenty hymns on the subject of heaven; but even some of these seem rather too material, as, for instance, a line in one of the beautiful hymns of a chaste and acceptable writer, Come where the spray of the river is falling, which looks too much like the reproduction of the earthly idea presented in a well-known and too well-worn hymn

"On the margin of the river,

Washing up its silver spray," &c.

Y. S.-A novel feature in the new book is the section for Band of Hope Meetings in connection with Sunday schools. This seems a very good idea.

E. D.—Yes; and it is pleasing to find a section for Juvenile Missionary Meetings, but unfortunately the number of hymns is exceedingly limited, there being only seven for Bands of Hope, and fourteen for Juvenile Missionary Meetings. Still the recognition of the Band of Hope in the School Hymnal is itself a step in advance and in the right direction.

E. S.-Another feature in the new book is the remarkable variety of rhythm-a variety which demands the very useful index of metres which the editor has thoughtfully provided. Perhaps the absence of the important distinction between iambic and trochaic metres may cause some confusion and disappointment in the choice of tunes; but apart from that liability, the index will be a boon to tuneful teachers.

Y. S.-It appears from the editor's paper in the G. B. Magazine that those who use the book will need to consult Dr. Allon's Tune Book for Children's Worship, as well as the Bristol Tune Book, and even then some hymns will require tunes from other sources. Will not this be rather troublesome ?

F.-True: but such is always the case with a new hymn book, at least for a time; and teachers who are in earnest will not be beaten, but will seek out the best tunes for the best hymns, and will get the scholars to learn and sing them.

E. D.-But what about teachers who are not particularly in earnest, and who would be apt to say, like a certain character in the Book of Proverbs, "there is a lion in the way;" or who would object to the adoption of a hymnal containing so many hymns for which tunes could not easily be found? Would it not be worth while for the Hymnal Committee to prepare and issue a companion Tune Book?*

F-That might make things easy for the schools, but it might not be a very easy thing for the Committee to accomplish, and the undertaking would not be free from difficulties.

Y. D.-The School Hymnal is so nice and good a book that I hope it may be adopted in our Sunday school, and in many others. How could we promote its circulation?

F-By speaking about it; asking people if they have seen it; showing it; getting some of its choice hymns recited in the school, and sung on special occasions; and by giving copies of the book as prizes to the scholars. It has been already shown to our superintendent, and will be submitted to the teachers for adoption in due time.

J. COMPSTON.

* The Publication Board, at its recent meeting, decided to take steps for issuing a TUNE BOOK; and have made arrangements accordingly.-ED.

THE following is extracted from the Report of our Church at Mansfield Road, Nottingham. It certainly deserves a larger audience.

"I would give much, and I should think I had rendered you a priceless service, if I could make you understand and feel that hearing is itself a kind of speaking, and that a minister never opens his lips but that all who listen to him forthwith betake themselves to preaching a sermon; yes, and even those members of the congregation who are not present begin to preach too. That sounds paradoxical, I admit; it is a paradox in form; and yet it is strictly and manifestly true. For is it not clear, is it not obvious, that by their very selection of the place of worship they attend, by simply attaching themselves to one church rather than to another, men proclaim what those forms of Christian truth are which they value, and what the spirit they approve in those who are called to preach those truths? Is it not clear that, by your regular and punctual attendance on any public ministry, you are setting your seal to that ministry? Is it not obvious that, by the interest and sympathy with which you listen to the words spoken from the pulpit, you are giving them weight and force? What harm, what infinite harm, has been wrought by men who have continued to attend a ministry long after they had discovered that it did not meet their wants, nor kindle and inflame their spiritual energies, nor breathe a spirit they could admire !

"Ah, that good men everywhere would but consider that by their attendance on any public teaching they are saying: 'These are the truths which I believe; and this is the spirit in which, as I conceive, they ought to be urged.' Ah, that you would understand, and act on the understanding, that by your eagerness to come to chapel, and to come regularly and punctually, by your keen attention, by your evident sympathy, by your hearty enjoyment both of the teaching and of the worship, you are inviting your neighbours to come with you, to listen as you listen, to receive the truth you love, and to share in your heartfelt devotion; while, on the other hand, by permitting yourselves to be kept away by trifles which you would not suffer to keep you away from business or even to make you late for it, by your indifference or your merely perfunctory participation in acts of worship, by every moment of failing attention and flagging sympathy, you are virtually saying to your neighbours: 'I don't think you would get much good from coming with us, or by being very much in earnest if you came.'

"It is the congregation that preaches quite as much as the minister, therefore, though too often they seem to be preaching in quite opposite strains; while those who are absent from any service which they could attend are preaching their sermon too, and exhorting all whom it may concern not to go to a place to which they themselves do not care to go, or do not care enough to make their presence regular, punctual, and effective. And I do verily believe that if there were but one Christian congregation in this town, every member of which was thoroughly in earnest, and took a keen, constant, and sacred delight in the worship and the Word of God, that congregation, however poor and small it might be, would soon become a great power of God for good.

"S. Cox."