Toward the close of 1852, Dr. Godwin was requested, by a great number of his fellowtownsmen, to re-deliver and re-publish them, as they had for some time been out of print. This he fortunately consented to do, and they are now issued under a different title, considerably altered and better adapted to the present state of the controversy. Of the spirit in which they are written we cannot speak too highly. The object of the author is so clearly dispassionately to discuss the merits of the case that any Athesists who may read them will give the Dr. credit for the utmost courtesy and candour, and will feel that the arguments of their party have neither been avoided nor unfairly represented-whether they have been met and fully answered, we leave to the determination of the reader.

The arrangement of the lectures have the advantage of being remarkably simple. In the first two the writer shows that the principles of Athesism are without foundation, unnatural and repulsive. He then goes on to the examination of Atheistic Hypotheses to the proofs of the existence of God-to the consideration of Atheistic objections (in which he has principally met those of Mirabaud and Hume), and concludes the course with a comparison of Atheistic Philosophy and Christianity. From the vast field of illustration of which the subject admits, and of which the author has availed himself, the lectures are rendered extremely interesting, and from the singular clearness of their style-a most important but rather uncommon desideratum in argumentative works-and, from their logical connection, they will be easily understood and remembered by all who may peruse them. It is with the greatest confidence that we recommend to our readers this book. It is the production of one who, through a long life, has been a faithful servant of the cross, and who, now makes, what he tells us in the preface is probably, the last public labour in which he will engage in defence of those principles which, for many years, he has so ably advocated, and that Christianity which, in the evening of life, he still unhesitatingly trusts.

Lectures on the Catacombs at Rome. By BENJAMIN SCOTT. London: Longman and Co. p.p. 222.

THE three lectures of which this book is the substance, were delivered in 1852, to an audience of working men. They excited much interest in their delivery, and were productive of good. The lectures were entitled, Paganism, Christianity, and Popery; and while carefully revised for publication, this division of subject has been preserved. Our readers must not conclude that because these titles open up subjects too large to be thoroughly treated in three lectures, Mr. Scott has merely retailed the usual common-places, one has to listen to in our "Halls of Science," "Temples of Reason," and "Philosophic Coffee Rooms." Mr. Scott's aim in the work before us is, to explain what light the contents of the Catacombs of Rome throw upon these subjects, more especially upon the 2nd and 3rd. The author could scarcely have had a more popular subject, and we feel bound to say, he has handled it right well.

This is a subject which our friends, the Secularists, might study with advantage to themselves, and even George Jacob might gain instruction from the pages of Mr. Scott or of Dr. Maitland.

Our readers probably know, that frequently, for the first three centuries, the Roman Christian was safe under no roof but the low vaults of the Catacombs. These extensive excavations offering great facilities for concealment, extending, as they did, over an area of about fifteen miles, were inhabited by many of the early disciples. In the year 314 A.D., a Christian Emperor gave those caverns to the Church, as her right, and here, where lay the remains of their kindred, and among the tombs of the martyred, the Christians often celebrated their love feasts, and partook of the Supper of their Lord.

The Catacombs were closed after the irruption of the Northern Barbarians until 1590 A.D., when they were re-opened, by command of Pope Sixtus the fifth; but it was left to Dr. Maitland to have the honour of first elucidating the character of the early Church, from the tombstones and inscriptions in this Lapidarian Gallery. Mr. Scott is a worthy follower in the same task. We wish space permitted our giving extracts from Mr. Scott's valuable little work, which we most cordially recommend to our readers.

In saying this, however, we do not mean, that we agree with all the opinions advanced. On the contrary, we object to many parts of the lecture on Paganism. Only the dark side is given, and in our opinion, even that is too deeply coloured. We question the worth of many of the authorities cited, and do not believe all we find related of Roman Emperors in Platt's Universal Biography. We think, also, a little more study of good authorities would have excluded several statements in this lecture. To give an example:

On page 9, Mr. Scott observes, that the system of Paganism (in which term he has before explained, he includes the religion of the Greeks), like that of the Jews, was sacerdotal, that is, it was administered by a priesthood. Now, amongst the Greeks, as Heeren has conclusively shown, in his Political History of Greece, there never was, at any known historical period, a distinct caste of priests.

But it seems unkind, where there are so many excellencies, and so few faults, to dwell on the latter, therefore, we conclude, by thanking Mr. Scott for his timely production, and urging our readers to peruse it.

The Religion for Mankind. By JAS. SPENCE, M.A. London: John Snow. p.p. 271. Or the truth of the Christian Revelation there are two kinds of evidence. The external and the internal; neither of them are unimportant. Dr. Chalmers, in his early writings, strangely overlooked the value of the latter, but afterwards laid great stress upon what, to the majority of Christians, must ever be the foundation of their faith. To the feeling mind, the Bible is full of testimonies to its truthfulness, and to the philosophic mind, the adaptation of its glorious doctrines to the nature of man and wants of humanity, must ever form a powerful argument. To put part of this argument, Mr. Spence has written the book before us. We can conscientiously assert the intention has been ably carried out. The author appears to us to have well meditated his subject matter, and he has expressed his thoughts clearly and beautifully.

In the first part of the book the arrangement is very similar to that of Dr. Legge, in his lectures on Christianity. We must say, however, there are in Mr. Spence's work no marks of mere imitation. There are nine chapters in the work, embracing, 1. What is Christianity.

The book is exceedingly well got up, and reflects great credit both upon the author and the publisher. We earnestly advise all our readers to obtain it.

Truths for the People. By JOHN H. RUTHERFORD, Minister of the Gospel. pp. 192. Manchester: William Bremner.

THESE "Truths," twelve in number, were originally issued in the form of a monthly serial. Though now assuming the shape of a book, they are not connected by any sequence of subject. Their chief object is to throw light on the question of a personal salvation, and this they are admirably calculated to do. There is scarcely any refuge of the careless that they do no not expose, or difficulty of the anxious that they do not satisfactorily clear up. While most of the tracts are of an exclusively religious description, some of them bear on secular subjects, such as "The People's Holidays," "The Press and the People," "The Education of the Poor," &c.; giving them, however, a spiritual turn. The composition, upon the whole, is good-occassionally eloquent. The style is nervous, without being too vehement for such a class of subjects, and such an object. It is, however, rather turgid here and there, and betrays a few extravagancies, indicating the enthusiastic temperament of the author. While cordially recommending the book to all, we would especially

direct to it the attention of tract societies.

I.

CHRIST'S RELIGION.

"Probe all things; hold fast that which is good.”-1 THESS. v. 21.

LECTURES TO THE WORKING CLASSES.

BY THE REV. H. W. PARKINSON.

CHRISTIANITY GENIAL IN SPIRIT AND SOCIAL IN TENDENCY..

THESE lectures present Christianity in two aspects, which mutually strengthen each other, and may not be readily dissociated. I mean, the truth and the value of the principles contained in the Bible. If Christianity possessed either of these characteristics, and not both of them, I could not so confidently commend it to working-men. If it were a merely abstract belief-a matter of speculative opinion-devoid altogether of influence upon the moral growth and daily energies of society, it would be presumption in me to ask you, after a hard day's work, to listen to philosophical disquisitions and theoretical speculations, which sent you away neither happier nor better, while questions of politics and social improvement, affecting you so closely, remained in doubt or perplexity. Neither, on the other hand, could I condescend to ask your suffrages for anything which seemed expedient, although it was not truth; which proposed to secure some temporal advantage, at the expense of a deviation from those great principles, which it is the glory of man to possess and to vindicate. Nothing which is false can be expedient, and though a departure from highest rectitude might raise us for a moment to some not-to-be-coveted elevation, it is because better men would not care to climb to it by so questionable a road. The higher we mount the ladder of expediency the heavier will be our fall when it is taken from under us. It is neither the truth, nor the value of Christianity-separated from each other-which I seek to represent as its claim to your adoption, but the one founded upon the other. If it were only true, and not valuable, you might as well occupy yourselves with an argument to shew, that Jupiter had five moons instead of four; and, if it seemed valuable but not true, I might as well try to prove that dishonesty consisted not in stealing-but in being found out. Christianity is the highest truth and the highest good, and he, who would seek to commend it fairly to your acceptance, The second of a course of Lectures, delivered to the Working Classes at Rochdale, by the Rev. H. W. Parkinson

U

must shew both its innate excellence and glory, and its power to elevate and bless mankind.

The former lecture was occupied with an attempt to sum up, briefly, the outlines of that comprehensive body of evidence which satisfies us of the reasonableness of resting our faith on the New Testament Scriptures. We believe, that among the many systems that profess to reconcile human life with the requirements of the invisible future-this only brings with it trustworthy credentials--this only is consistent with itself-this only speaks with intelligible voice-this only reproduces itself on the life of humanity-and that, while others are but reflections of frailty caught from the worshipper, this only, rising upon the mental and moral darkness in luminous and broad proportions, "giveth light." We believe, truth and value to be the right and left hand of this Divine teaching, by which it first establishes its rule and then dispenses its mercy. We believe, Christianity to be the current coin for both worlds, bearing, on the one side, the impress of its author-God, as an evidence of its truth; and, on the other, the promise of perfect reconciliation to Himself, as an assurance of its value. We believe, that this light is adapted to the human eye-this gift may be grasped by the human hand-this remedy will prevail against the disease of the human heart. We believe, in short, that Christianity not only came from God, but was intended for man.

Many of you may have long been regarding Christianity as a hard, dry, unlovely system, which, having risen up at a time when Europe was barbarous, and being adopted at first by fanatics and enthusiasts, was afterwards seized upon by the few, as giving them a new power over the many, and assisting them in their views of self-aggrandizement. You are inclined to believe, (you don't exactly know why,) that Christianity discouraged learning, ruined literature, and extinguished liberty, and that if it could, it would have put out the sun and moon into tlie bargain. You hold that there are very few evils which it has not been at the bottom of, that it has been slaying and persecuting ever since it was born, and that the greatest service which could be done to mankind would be, that this monstrous fiction should be banished from the face of the earth. As for Christians, you consider them to be for the most part, a long visaged society who live upon the dry chips of old theology, and get rich on chapel collections-who are opposed to everything hearty and genial-whose narrow souls have no genuine sympathy with ought that is fresh and freewhose language is made up of cant terms-who would interfere with the working-man's home and deny him his recreation-whose orbit is the conventicle and the meeting-house-who think to atone for the ways of a wicked week by the Psalm-singing of a solemn Sunday-whose charity covers their own sins, but nobody else's-whose zeal is chiefly on behalf of number one-whose faith consists in their believing themselves to be pious, when they are the only persons who entertain that opinion-and whose keenest enjoyment is to commit their fellow creatures to that destruction which they believe themselves to have escaped.

Now, I should wish to put before you the contrary of this, and to convince you, that Christianity is genial and unselfish in its influence, and that its tendency is to unite man to his fellows in bonds of brotherhood and peace. And, our first position, I think, you will admit-viz., that if

Christianity be destined to universal reception, there must be in it a point of contact with human nature. Christianity ought to have its point of contact with human nature before it can lay claim to the character of being genial. Man possesses faculties and passions, the exercise of which is not necessarily wrong. They belong to his identity. They are what constitute him a man. He came into the world endowed with these perceptions, and it is quite out of his power to divest himself of any one of them. He carries them with him into every department of thought or of action. To human nature, thus constituted, Christianity makes its appeal, and there must be a point of contact between the two. Faculties evolve themselves in a regular and systematic developement, making past attainments the starting point of new acquisitions; thought stretches forth into wider compass, adding what it conquers to what it possesses; spiritual apprehension, growing with what it feeds upon, asks for fresh verities, which it may hold as its own, and we fairly demand full exercise for these faculties, an ample field for the excursions of this thought, and a satisfaction of the demands of this spiritual apprehension. With this human consciousness of right-innate or derived, we do not stay now to argue-we approach our religious teaching, and demand, that it shall not degrade that nature with which we are invested. If it lower the platform on which we stand, if it be itself beneath the standard to which we have attained, if we can measure it and fathom it, and trace out its springs, and it appears to us, on good evidence, to be a very little thing, we do not care to be further acquainted with it. We are conscious, that there is within each of us a nobler and a baser principle, striving for the mastery. How they got there, what they mean, to what issue they converge, is immaterial. It is a fact, that notions of right and wrong, and tendencies towards the one or the other, are a part of our human endowinent, whether we are products of a creating hand, or luckily came together in a fortuitous concourse of atoms. Now, if we find that, that which comes before us as a Divine revelation feeds the baser, gives employment to the baser, let us give it its full weight, as our reason for rejecting this revelation. Whatever we do, let us hold fast by what is pure, and since a clear idea of purity, whether it owe its existence to Divine teaching, or has been arrived at by human induction, is now one of our possessions, since here, at least, we have a standing place of solid ground, let us receive nothing into our belief which would compel its sacrifice. Now, keep this thought of purity in your minds, and then cast your eye over the world, and see which of its religions you would have to resign. You would find Idolatry and degradation well nigh convertible terms. Buddhism a compound of mysticism and bestiality: and Mahommedanism a perpetual pandering to the carnal and the gross, whose greatest incitement to fidelity, is a sensual paradise. Such degradation we know to be incompatible with truth, and we utterly reject their claims. But it is not sufficient for us that our nature should not fall, it must not even be content with its present level. A waste and barren flat is no satisfaction to our consciousness. To pace for ever the dreary round of what is already ascertained would be insufferable weariness. A religion without progres would be despair. A spirit without power to push its flight into a loftier sky would be like eating one's heart out in despair. We want mountains