firmness of hand and distinctness of outline that are not to be surpassed. From The Spectator. THE UNITED STATES' CHRISTIAN COMMIS- There is something amusingly characteristic of the century in Richardson's prefatory assurance that "it will be proper to ANOTHER of the great charitable organiobserve, for the sake of such as may appre-zations which the late American War brought hend hurt to the morals of youth from the forth-the United States' Christian Commore freely-written letters, that the gentle- mission-has published to the world its men, though professed libertines as to the final record. Perhaps in these long lists of female sex, and making it one of their wick- delegates, balance sheets, summaries "of ed maxims to keep no faith with any of the receipts and values," "of labours and disindividuals of it who are thrown into their tributions," some may miss a little the spirit power, are not, however, either infidels or of the divine command to the almsgiver, scoffers." That there should be any conso-"Let not thy left hand know what thy right lation derivable from this queer combination hand doeth." And yet it would be impossiof unimpeached orthodoxy with unscrupu- ble to wish that the volume, together with lous libertinage is natural in a century in the kindred one of the United States' Saniwhich, as has been said, religion was only tary Commission, had not seen the light. something to be proved, not to, be particu- Of that great conflict, the epic grandeur of larly acted on. Still, that such a creation which looms larger and larger upon us as we as Clarissa Harlowe was possible, and that recede from it, they illustrate aspects which her story should excite unbounded and sin- the ordinary political, military, or financial cere enthusiasm, prove in some sort that, in history cannot render, and which are neverspite of all its artificiality and hollowness, theless most essential to be taken in, if we there was in the over-reviled eighteenth cen- would comprehend the struggle as a whole. tury an honest love of moral beauty to which The present volume, for instance, in direct the formality of its expression did imper- contradiction to the reports industriously fect justice. The fault was, and you may circulated in Europe at the time on the subsee it in Clarissa as elsewhere, that the best ject, which represented the war as becompeople of that time stopped short at morali-ing daily more and more the work of mere ty; they never got to the higher and more mercenaries on the Northern side, shows elevating ground of what, to avoid a long that there was throughout it a constant paraphrase, we may be allowed to call spir- growth of religious feeling and fervour, ituality. They loved virtue in some better both in the armies and at home, probably sense than the mere payment of tithes of beyond all parallel on so large a scale, and anise and cummin; but they lacked the con-only to be compared in modern times to the sciousness of that aspect of things which is best days of English Puritanism in our civil not the mere reflection of social right and wars of the seventeenth century. "It was wrong, but is subtler, less definable, less generally felt," writes Mr. Moss, "especially measureable. Turn from Pope to Words- during the last two years of the war, that worth, and one perceives that in the nine- the Christian character of a young man was teenth century ideas, almost faculties, have as safe in the Army as in any place out of come into the human mind which slumbered it." Again, we read: or were absent a hundred years before. It "Pastors and others, who visited the Army as must be confessed, however, that the sweet virtue and tenderness of Clarissa Harlowe, delegates during the winter of 1863–4, declared that their experience was unlike anything known absolutely free as it is from any nambyor conceived before. There was a, religious repamby element, is so pure and lofty as all vival among the soldiers which made labours at but to transcend the mere moral standard home seem formal and fruitless, and the opinion of the time. And it is just possible, too, was expressed by clergymen of most mature and that the modern sharpening of the spiritual sober judgment that the prospect was more ensense and craving may have given some oc-couraging for the conversion of men in the Army casion for falling away in plain morals. We than out of it. It was felt to be worth a jourare too near to be able to tell, but perhaps ney to the Army to find men who were positively fifty years hence people may reflect that eager to learn the way of salvation, and they the purity, endurance, courage, and tender were found there by thousands." single-mindedness of Clarissa Harlowe made up a type that was too high for a generation of virtuous simperers. sion. By the Rev. Samuel Moss, Home Secretary to Annals of the United States' Christian Commisthe Commission. Fhiladelphia: Lippincott. 1868. Again : "That there was abundant badness in the Army is indubitable, for where men abound sin will abound too. But it is not too much to say that the world never saw so moral an army as the mighty host enlisted in the cause of the Union; never such an assemblage of men arrayed for war with so little of those vices that are the cankerworm of armies-drunkenness, profanity, and uncleanness. And there were, besides, a sufficient number of men of such deep religious character that they . . . were felt as a positive power." In And Mr. Stuart, the President of the Commission, was able, after the close of the war, to say at the meeting of our own Bible Society in 1866, "I have seen the returns that were made in answer to official inquiries throughout one State, Massachusetts, and, with a few exceptions, the soldiers have returned better men than they left." This is, however, but one aspect of the facts. The gradual strengthening of the nation's faith in the war, as one of religious obligation, seems to have been no less remarkable. The mere statistics of the Christian Commission would suffice to show this. During its first year (November, 1861-2) it had hard work to keep alive. In July, 1862, it had not "funds sufficient to rent permanently even the merest corner of an office," and there was a talk of selling up its assets, a miscellaneous assemblage, comprising one table and two chairs; whilst its total receipts for 1862 were 40,160 dols. 29 cents. 1863 they rose to 358,239 dols. 29 cents; in 1864 to 1,297,755 dols. 28 cents; and during only four months of 1865 they were 828,357 dols. 70 cents. That this increase in money receipts represented no buying-off in money of the duties of personal self-devotion is clearly shown by the parallel increase in the number of" delegates." These were volunteers - "members in good standing of evangelical churches"-who gave their services for at least six weeks, their expenses only being paid, in the field, in the hospital, or on the battle-ground, for the "instruction, supply, encouragement, and relief" of the soldier; distributing stores, circulating good publications, aiding chaplains, encouraging prayer-meetings, en couraging and aiding the men to communicate with their friends, aiding the surgeons on the battle-field, praying with the dying, "in short, striving to do all that man can do to meet the wants of brethren far from home and kindred." Now the number of these delegates rose from 374 in 1862 to 1,189 in 1863, 2,217 in 1864, and during the four months of 1865 was 1,079; progres 66 sion, though not the same as that of receipts, yet quite as satisfactory. The Christian Commission, moreover, claims not to have, like the Sanitary Commission, encouraged "the use of fairs and other similar expedients for raising money," although a few reasonably successful" fairs were held by friends of the Commission upon their own responsibility; and it is thus alleged on its behalf that whilst its total receipts were less than half the nearly five millions of dollars received by the Sanitary Commission, yet that deducting Pacific coast contributions, the proceeds of Sanitary fairs, and a few other sources of income of. which the latter body availed itself, the "spontaneous contributions" to the Christian Commission more than quadrupled those paid to the elder body. Such comparisons would be invidious if used to disparage one of these admirable institutions at the expense of the other; they are only useful as showing the strength of the distinctively religious element in the war charities of the time. The two Commissions, indeed, appear to have worked harmoniously together, though their fields of operation to some extent overlapped each other. Thus Mr. Moss says of Sherman's Georgian campaign: "In all this campaign the co-operation of the United States' Sanitary Commission was most hearty and helpful. During the first two weeks, while their supplies were largely in excess of those of the Christian Commission, the delegates were allowed to distribute freely from their stores." The name of Sherman recalls that of the General whose recognition of the services rendered by the Commission seems to have been the most grudging and tardy. The most humorous portions of Mr. Moss's big volume are those in which he appears on the scene, as in his endorsement on a request to pass two of the Commission's delegates to the front. "Certainly not. There is more need of gunpowder and oats than any moral or religious instruction. Every regiment at the frout has a chaplain," (the latter assertion of which is shown in a note to have been completely incorrect, as there were no more than 80 chaplains to 150 regiments and 40 batteries, of whom not one-half were at the front); or in the exquisite story of the agent of the Commission who, having to preach in a church which had been used as a hospital, for want of help set to work himself in his shirt-sleeves, with thermometer at 90°, to clean it out, when he had finished his labours by clambering up into the belfry and striking the bell (the rope having been cut away), in dropping down again lost, through a treacherous nail, an important part of one leg" of his pantaloons, and then found himself suddenly summoned by a corporal and two bayonets : 'I did.' — 'I am For what?'. 'To "Did you ring the bell?' ordered to arrest you.'bring you to General Sherman's head-quarters. - But, corporal, I can't see the General in this plight. I am an agent of the Christian Commission, and am to preach here this morning, and was ringing the bell for service. If you will tell the General how it is it will be all right.'That's not the order, Sir.''Well, corporal, send a guard with me to my quarters, till I can wash up, and pin together this rent.' That's not the order, Sir; fall in.'" And so, "without hat or coat, and with gaping wardrobe, preceded by the corporal, and followed by the bayonets," the luckless agent had to state his case, and was met by the question, “Is this Sunday?" The following words complete the picture: "As I entered, General Sherman was drumming with thumb and finger on the window-sill, and when the corporal announced his prisoner, the General commanding fixed his cold grey eye on me for a moment, motioned to his chief to at tend to the case, and without moving a muscle Allatoona Mountains." 66 the battle-field, the hospital, no sham faith could pass muster, the truths of Christ's Gospel shone out with new power. "Never shall I forget," writes a delegate of his Army audience, "the look of those earnest eyes, and the devouring intensity of those eager countenances. It was a new thing, an experience never to be forgotten; an experience that will inspire many a heart, and strengthen the courage of many a Christian man, to do that sort of preaching at home which clinches the nail, and makes it stand fast in a sure place." Thus, as one of them wrote, their own congregations were “greatly benefited" by their absence; and as on their return they continued to work for the Army, delivering, it is said, as many sermons and addresses about the soldiers as they had previously delivered to them," they contributed to keep up a common religious purpose and fervour throughout the country. It is hardly worth while to dwell on the distinctive religious views which influenced the Commission. Mr. Moss says of it that "it stands before Christendom as a monument of the faith of the American Church in the great doctrine of man's ruin, and the great fact of God's complete salvation." Apostles and prophets would probably have, at least, interverted the two elements of the sentence, if indeed the idea of faith in the doctrine of man's ruin" could ever have entered into the creed of either, in whatever sense they might have admitted the fact. Fortunately, however, the works of the Commission were larger than its professed faith. It was not faith in the doctrine of man's ruin, but brotherly love for man, that invented the "coffee waggon," of which a woodcut is given, capable of giving ninety gallons of tea, coffee, or chocolate on the march every hour, -"What you might call the Christian light artillery," as a soldier said of it. It is admitted repeatedly that Yet, after the close of the war, and on the winding-up of the Commission, General Sherman bore his testimony to its labours, admitted having" displayed an impatience" when its agents "manifested an excess of zeal," and expressed his belief that their charity "was noble in its conception, and applied with as much zeal, kindness, and discretion as the times permitted." From General Grant, on the other hand, as well as from President Lincoln and Mr. Stanton, the practical charity of the Commission was the Commission received unvarying kindness and support, as well, indeed, as from the great bulk of the superior officers of the Army. Grant tersely expressed the position and work both of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions in saying that to them the Army felt the same gratitude that the loyal public feel for the services rendered by the Army." 66 But the work of the Christian Commission has yet to be considered in another aspect. Its reflex action," we are told, upon the delegates was very great. They received for themselves an intellectual and spiritual quickening that remained as a permanent element of their future efficiency." Amidst the terrible realities of the camp, the true passport for its creed. "The delegate could not speak well of the soul until he had cared for the suffering body." And the very sight of that suffering often brought with it a very different faith from that in the doctrine of man's ruin. "I had an exalted view of human nature," writes one of the delegates, from a Fredericksburg hospital after the battles of the Wilderness, "as I contemplated these noble men, wounded and bruised for our sakes and the country's, and enduring their sufferings without a murmur, indeed, in some cases, with cheerfulness, singing to soothe their pains, and smiling in order to hide them from others." Yes, thanks be to God! This human nature of ours, which the Son of God did not disdain to take upon Him, is a nobler, higher thing | earth and time; an object not of faith, but than it takes itself for. It bears stamped of sorrowful experience. If the religious upon it the image and superscription of its formulæ of the Christian Commission were Creator; in its Saviour and Head its life is narrower than its self-sacrificing love, the gathered up; it is the temple of the Eternal Lord of Love knows His own; and that Spirit. Whatever it bears about it of they are not His the less, though their eyes "ruin" is not its very self, but a thing of may not be fully opened to His light. Notes on the Psalms. Vol. I. By Albert | Barnes. (Hamilton, Adams, and Co.)- Many of our readers are probably acquainted with the character of the commentaries on various books of Scripture which Mr. Barnes has published under the title of "Notes." This volume, which is the first of three, will complete his labours. That they are works of considerable merit and usefulness we have no wish to deny, but we cannot affect to have any great admiration for them. Perhaps we like Mr. Barnes less than usual when he is dealing with the Psalms. His verbose practical comments especially obscure a beauty which surely does not need all this talk to make itself felt. Can any human being be better for this, on "Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him,”—“Kings, princes, people all, of every age and every land; the poor, the rich, the bond, the free; white, black, copper-coloured, or mixed; all in sickness or health, in prosperity or adversity, in life or in death," &c., &c.? Mr. Barnes is, as we might expect, a very conservative critic. All the headings of the Psalms, for instance, he considers to be part of the inspired This is one of the untenable positions which it is so irritating to see taken up by a writer with whose general aim one sympathizes. How untenable it is we can see from the fact that so cautious a commentator as Mr. Thrupp, following herein the example of the orthodox German critics, abandoned it. record." unless its professors believe it truer than other creeds, and if they so believe, they must either try to make it universal or abstain from a recognised duty, i. e., suppress their own consciences. Do Wesleyans believe that the Church of Christ would be corrupt if all men belonged to it? If so, why spend millions to bring all men in? THE attempt to cultivate cinchonas in the island of Jamaica has been attended with success. The Standard gives a report of this interesting scheme upon reliable authority, from which we make the following extract : — "Under the direction of Mr. Robert Thomson, operations were at first confined to propagation, which was undertaken in a systematic way in the early part of 1866. In March of the following year progress had so far been made that there were some 800 plants fairly growing. It was then decided to cultivate the trees on a more extended scale. With this view plantations of from 100 to 200 acres were marked out in the Blue Mountain range, and propagation was again carried on in contiguous sites, ranging, as regards elevation above sea level, from 3,500 to 6,500 feet. The fact that certain plants, few in number it is true, had been growing here and there since 1861, and that one or two of these had actually attained the height of 20 feet, proved that the island in some parts was well suited to the growth of certain cinchonas. At THE gentleman who is reporting for the Times the present time, as the result of the growth of the proceedings of the Wesleyan Conference, and cuttings and of seed furnished by Dr. Hooker who is clearly a Wesleyan, gives a remarkable ac- from Ceylon, there are about 25,000 plants in count of the decline among them of propagand- vigorous growth. In May, 1867, a score of ist feeling. "The Wesleyans cannot advocate one cinchona simarubra were transferred to a site of universal Church, for two reasons— - first, it is an altitude of 3,700 feet, when they were about clear to them that the New Testament prescribes six inches in height; at the beginning of the no one form of Church government; and, second, present year they had actually grown to that of they do not believe it would be practically good for three feet. The larger number, however, of the mankind. Wherever one Church has had all its 25,000 were in pots, 500 only had been planted own way and reigned without a rival, that Church out at a height of 5,200 feet. Mr. Thomson, we has become corrupt, fallen, and apostate. This understand, is fully impressed with the opinion is the Wesleyan view, and they mean nothing that the cultivation of the cinchona will be unkind by it to others, for they apply it to them-highly remunerative.' He is not prepared to selves, and believe that their own Church would say which species is likely to be most luxuriant, become as corrupt as any other if they had it all but he has every reason to believe that the ultitheir own way in any country for three hundred mate success in Jamaica will not yield to that years. Many will hardly believe it, still it is of India.' These facts are of great interest, not true that the Wesleyans have no desire for uni- only in regard to the increasing demand for versality for themselves." If that is a true ac- quinine, but the commercial and consequent socount of Wesleyan feeling, the Connexion is on cial improvement of the island. Should the Govthe decline. One or two creeds, like the Jewish ernment experiment be successful, no doubt the and the Hindoo, have lived though they discour-land-owners of the island will follow the example age converts, but then they have been sustained set them, and undertake the culture for themby the pride of birth. No creed ever keeps sweet selves." BOOK THE SECOND. CHAPTER I. INSIGNIFICANT PEOPLE. practical trouble, but no theoretical inquietude. Mrs. Wood was grateful in her cold way to Mr. Eliot Foster, who had done her many and consistent kindnesses of a nature such as she would accept. FROM the time at which Mr. Eliot Foster They had never included the gift, and but accepted the charge imposed upon him by rarely the loan, of money. She had had Julia Peyton, his visits to Lane Cottage much experience of poverty, but it had nevbecame more frequent. The strictness and er beaten down her pride or conquered her conscientiousness of his character had pre- self-respect, and she would not have been vented his ever neglecting the widow and his debtor for any earthly consideration exchild whom Fate had sent in his way, for cept her child's needs. All that her dead whom he felt himself in some degree re- husband's cousin knew of Mrs. Wood made sponsible but Mrs. Wood, though she in- him respect her to a degree in which he had spired him with respect, and though he rarely extended that feeling towards wothoroughly believed her to be a very good mankind; but the feeling stopped there. woman, was dull and commonplace- a She was an unbending, uninteresting woperson whom Mr. Eliot Foster would have man, purpose-like, business-like, who would been perfectly satisfied to benefit by deputy never have admitted brightness into her if the vicarious benefactor could have been own, or added it to any other, life, but who found. But he took an interest in the possessed valuable qualities, and not a little disowned child for whom he had provided delicacy of mind. She displayed the latter this safe, if humble, shelter; and a vague not common endowment with respect to notion-originating he hardly knew how, the boy who had been placed under her but no doubt in his splenetic feeling towards care. She was not, with all her businessJulia- -arose in his mind with reference to like coldness of demeanour, devoid of what the boy's future. What if he observed him is libellously described as 'feminine' curiclosely, found him promising in disposition osity, but she kept it in check as regarded and in ability, and adopted him? It would Henry Hurst. It is Mr. Foster's business,' be a strange combination of destiny, that she said to herself, and not mine; and if which should charge him with the care of, he does not choose to tell me anything beand provision for, Julia's child—all un-yond what he has told me, I shall certainly known to her, undiscovered by her. He had many relations, but their kinship was distant, and he cared for none of them; and though he would be just to them in the disposition of his property, there really was no reason, either in justice or otherwise, why he should not act upon such a wish, should it grow real and strong within him. This was another of the romantic ideas which occurred to Mr. Eliot Foster, and would have astonished that gentleman's friends considerably. Assuredly there was a very soft spot in the middle-aged solicitor's heart, but as there was no corresponding morsel in his head, he did not give the smallest indication of his entertaining any sentiment in particular towards the child, but paid the small stipend for his support with exemplary regularity. The little household at Lane Cottage kept in quiet the even tenor of its way; and the hard-working, painstaking, careful, proud-spirited, grimnatured widow did her duty by both the children well, if not eagerly- thoroughly, if not affectionately. She was hardly more demonstrative to her own child-though she loved her with a painfully solicitous affection, and suffered many silent agonies of apprehension for her future-than to the little stranger, who gave her a good deal of not distress him by questions.' So the sit- 'He is a very clever child,' said Mr. Eliot Foster to Mrs. Wood one day when he had made his accustomed visit to Lane Cottage, and the two little companions had |