known chiefly to their own sect, who have carried abroad the principles of our Baptist brethren into the remotest parts of the country. A large proportion of these are in the south and southwestern States; and the account here given shows the incredible labor and patience with which this great denomination bas been spread throughout our land.

The Baptists of this country have most of them adhered tenaciously to the principle of close communion, and this tenet is prominently brought forward in many of these accounts. They can sympathize heartily with Christians of other communions; they have not the least doubt that the grace of God is in their hearts; they very often invite clergymen of other denominations to fill their pulpits; but they reject them all from the Lord's table! We need not say how different this is from the conduct of a large proportion of Baptists in England. Spurgeon's late noble letter shows the tendency of things in that country, which we hope yet to see exemplified among our Baptist brethren in America. For our own part we shall always hold that he who is fitted to sit down with Christ above, is fit to sit down with him at his table here below.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MILBURN.*-The popular Methodist preacher who gives us these lively sketches of his diversified ministerial life, has long enjoyed the full sympathies of the public, not only by reason of his eloquence and intellectual vigor, but of the fact that from early childhood he has been almost totally blind. The story of his loss of sight by an accident at five years of age, and of his subsequent protracted sufferings, is touchingly told, and his sketches of preacher life at the west and south, as well as while chaplain of Congress, are full of instructive incidents, and well repay perusal. The book abounds in appreciative sketches of men with whom he came in contact, from A. H. Stephens, S. A. Douglas and others at Washington, and S. S. Prentiss in Mississippi, to pioneer preachers of Methodism in the backwoods of the west and south. At one period of his life he became enamored of Carlyle, and of German Philosophy and Theology; and after working his way out of the slough of Rationalism, he gives the following sensible hints to those who find themselves in a similar perplexity. "But truth, what is it? and where? At the bot tom of the well? I had very nearly broken my neck, and got drowned

* Ten Years of Preacher-Life; chapters from an autobiography. By WILLIAM HENRY MILBURN. New York: Derby & Jackson. 1859. pp. 363. 12mo.

besides, seeking it there. No. Truth is in your home, among your neighbors and in the fellowship of the church; and clear views of it can be acquired more easily and wisely by carrying the heart into practical life, than by stretching the neck and straining the eyes in gazing at the milky way, or at its reflection in a mud-puddle. Eat more, sleep more, and take tea with your parishioners; romp with the children, talk to the negroes, and believe that a man should read to live, not live to read. Go fishing, visit the sick, and become heartily interested in the poor and ignorant. Get the materials for your sermons out of the lives of the people, rather than from speculations of the sages. Read John Bunyan for his English, and the Bible not only for its English, but because the entrance of that word giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple.' Cultivate the charities and sympathies of common life; apply yourself to the rhetoric of the market-place; be able to discuss the making of bread and darning of stockings with a good housewife, and relish that discussion too. I have heard somewhere in the rural districts the following prescription for invalids: 'Let the patient go to the 'bars' at milking time and stand so close to the cows that they can breathe in his face.' I cannot tell how this may operate in chronic disorders of the body, but I know that a hearty interest in homely things and a genuine love of the common people, are the best cure for neology, the chief element of which I take to be egotism, and the sublimest manifestation of which is doubtless somewhat dependent on dyspepsia, neuralgia, or the liver complaint. When the diagnosis of doubt is fully set forth, I fancy that physiology will have as much to do with it as psychology."

LIFE OF JAMES WILSON.*-There have been so many distinguished men of the name of Wilson, particularly in Scotland, that the subject of the present biography has often been confounded with one or the other of them, and the author has found it necessary to explain at some length that the person whose memoirs he writes, was not Alexander Wilson the American ornithologist, though, like him, an ornithologist, and born, also, in Paisley, Scotland; not James Wilson, the author of "Continental Tour in 1816-18," though traveling on the Continent

* Memoirs of the Life of James Wilson, Esq., F. R. S. E., M. W. S. of Woodville. By JAMES HAMILTON, D. D., F. L. S., author of "Life in Earnest," "Mount of Olives," etc. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1859. pp. 399. 12mo.

and taking notes in those very same years; not James Wilson "the Paisley poet," though himself a writer of poetry; nor James Wilson a member of the first Congress, though by profession a lawyer; nor James Wilson, author of the "Water Cure" Manual; nor even John Wilson, the distinguished Professor of Moral Philosophy and Editor of Blackwood's Magazine, though a frequent writer in Blackwood, and closely resembling its famous editor in many of his mental characteristics and tastes. But the James Wilson whose memoirs are here given us in so readable a form by the well known pen of his friend and fellow countryman, Dr. James Hamilton, was a brother of the professor, and a naturalist of distinguished attainments, particularly in Zoologythe author of many important articles on Natural History in the Encyclopædia Britannica, and of various scientific and literary articles in the North British Review, Blackwood's Magazine, etc., in addition to several independent works on Zoology, Entomology, and kindred topics.

He was a zealous and accurate student of Nature, yet contemplated nature with the eye and heart of a poet and a Christian. His biography is instructive as well as entertaining, and a worthy tribute to the memory of a modest, genial, accomplished, and truly Christian gentleman and man of science, who was deemed worthy of the chair twice vacated in 1854 by the successive deaths of Professors Jameson and Edward Forbes; which chair, however, he did not accept; and he only survived these distinguished and cherished friends till May, 1856, when he died at Woodville, in the 61st year of his age.

The following extract from a letter dated April 28th, 1852, will give a glimpse of the man and his pursuits, and of his position in Edinburgh society:

"I have been a good deal occupied this winter by the Royal Society (of Edinburgh) matters in consequence of Professor Forbes's absence, and my having been called upon (a sad substitute!) to act for him as secretary. I was a little anxious occasionally when there were few papers in expectancy, but on the whole we have got through the session wonderfully well, and I am now arranging the papers and transmitting them to the printers, with the view to the formation of a Fasciculus of the Transactions. I have also had a good deal to do with the Board of Fisheries, and took the latter aud Mr. Secretary Primrose down as far as Ballantræ in March, to examine the great spawning ground for herring there. It is so far as I know the only ascertained bank resorted to by herrings for the pur. pose of procreation, and the Board has been petitioned to stop the spring fishery there as destructive to the spawn as well as parent fish. But it is an awkward thing to nterfere with the sustenance of a poor population, especially when drawn from the sea, which calls no man master. However, I have laid the case

before the Board in a report on its various bearings. In these, and unfortunately many other matters, I am one of the 'great unpaid.' Of literary work on my own account, I have done little or nothing since I saw yon. A few weeks ago, Professor Frazer, the editor of the North British Review, came down in a dilemma regarding a very long and elaborate article on Dr. Chalmers's life, including the forthcoming volume, by Isaac Taylor, which had been promised in time for his May number. Meanwhile poor Taylor had lost a daughter, and his being able to finish his essay in time became doubtful. So Frazer came to me to see if I would run up a natural history article of any kind as a stop-gap, and I set to and got through with an ornithological concern, taking Gould's birds of Australia for one portion, and poor Thompson's birds of Ireland, for another. I am happy to say, however, that Isaac Taylor's article came in time after all; and my poor, though well-intentioned substitute, will not be required till August. "You would see that my brother John had resigned his chair. We all thought it the safest course, as intellectual labor fatigued him, and retarded his recovery. Now that he has nothing to do but take care of himself, I hope he will mend. He has the advantage of being with my brother Robert at Woodburn, a fine, large, airy dwelling near Dalkeith, and walks about a good deal every day. My nephew, (James Ferrier, the late professor's son-in-law,) who has for several years filled with great acceptance the Moral Philosophy chair in St Andrews, is a candidate for the vacant chair in Edinburgh. Dr. M'Cosh of Belfast, the author of a very excellent book of a more spiritual kind than is usual in metaphysics, is also a candidate. I cannot but wish him well, as I am sure he would do justice to the chair; but 'blood is thicker than water,' and as my nephew is regarded by Sir William Hamilton, and other leaders in mental philosophy, as one of the most distinguished metaphysicians produced in these days, I don't think we shall be taking the wrong sow by the ear in doing what we can to serve him."

MEMOIR OF MRS. MARY WINSLOW.*-The Messrs. Carter have done good service to religion in giving to the American public this very interesting and instructive piece of religious biography. It is rich in the records of a varied and profound Christian experience, and is well calculated to quicken the piety and deepen the faith of the true followers of Christ, as well as to awaken the attention of the careless. It is a book to take rank in the estimation of Christians along with the Memoirs of Sarah Lanman Smith, Isabella Graham, and other bright ornaments and exemplars of female piety.

Mrs. Winslow (Mary Forbes) was born in the Bermudas in 1774, married, at the age of eighteen, Thomas Winslow, a Lieutenant in the British army, and a descendant of Edward Winslow, one of the earliest

Life in Jesus: A Memoir of Mrs. Mary Winslow, arranged from her Correspondence, Diary, and Thoughts. By her son, OCTAVIUS WINSLOW, D. D. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1859. pp. 426.

of the Pilgrim Fathers and Governor of Plymouth Colony; and after a long and somewhat eventful life, spent partly in Bermuda, partly in England, and partly in the United States, in all the vicissitudes of which she maintained a walk of faith and a cheerful, active, intelligent piety, she was taken to her rest in 1854, while residing at Leamington, England, with the son whose able and affectionate pen has traced these memorials of her pilgrimage. She had become a widow nearly forty years before; the news of her husband's death having reached her soon after she had taken up her residence, with her ten children, in New York, whither he had expected soon to follow her from England. Her letters, with which the volume is largely interspersed, are of a high order, and breathe the sentiments of a truly Christian heart. The lights and shades of her spiritual life are clearly brought out not only by her biographer, but more fully in her own correspondence and journals. The memoir deserves a place in every religious library.

ESSAYS.

THE HIGHER CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.*-It is gratifying to find a teacher who regards teaching as something more than a mere expedient to earn his bread; who makes it a profession, and has elevated and comprehensive views of its scope and aim; whose lofty ideal is ever before him, and who finds in his earnest efforts to realize it, a satisfaction and joy such as the routine hireling knows nothing of. The book before us is by such a teacher of twenty years experience, and is an outline, in earnest words, of the ideal he has formed for himself of a true education in its best and highest sense. The author writes with vigor, throwing his whole soul into his subject and with the noble purpose of contributing to the formation of a more elevated and more Christian standard of education in its several departments.

The work is composed of five distinct, yet connected Essays: I. The True Work of the Higher Christian Education. II. The True Style and Measure of the Higher Christian Education. III. The True Christian Teacher. IV. The True Christian Scholar. V. The Connection of the Higher Christian Education with the progress and privileges of the people.

The second of these Essays the readers of the New Englander have

*The Higher Christian Education. By BENJAMIN W. DWIGHT, Author of 'Modern Philology, its History, Discoveries, and Results." New York: A. S. Barnes & Burr. 1859.