a broad street, terminated at both ends by a magnificent gateway, runs through its centre; a continuation of which street leads on in the form of a broad road, through the parks of the Dilkusha, and between mosques and other palaces to "Constantia," or the "Martiniere," as it is now called. This extraordinary edifice, which formed the great outwork of the rebels in that quarter, was built by the French adventurer, General Claude Martin, of the King of Oude's service, at a cost of £150,000, and was by him left, with a large sum of money, as an endowed educational institution. It has been truth. fully described as a strange fantastical building, of every species of architecture, and adorned with minute stucco fretwork, enormous lions with lamps instead of eyes, mandarins and ladies with shaking heads, and all the gods and goddesses of heathen mythology."

On the right hand of this broad street and road leading from the British Residency, lies the Begum's palace, stables of the royal elephants, &c., &c. On the left hand of the street, and between it and the river, lie the late King's Palace, with its numerous open arcades, gardens, marble reservoirs, and ever-streaming fountains. There are other notable buildings with wide spaces around, adorned with innumerable pieces of statu. ary-the Observatory, the King's Library, the Menagerie, the Palace for viewing the wild sports, with many others, and parks well stocked with deer, antelopes and peacocks.

XXIV. THE PIONEER BISHOP; or, The Life and Times of Francis Asbury. By W. P. STRICKLAND. With an Introduction by Nathan Bangs, D.D. New York: Carlton & Porter. Philadelphia: Perkinpine & Higgins. 1859. pp. 495.

We have been studying Methodism in the lives of its founders in England, and in that of its first bishop in America. It is a wonderful development. That creatures as diabolically selfish as men are should, by the power of the Holy Spirit, be filled with a fiery, self-denying zeal, which poured itself like lava over a whole continent, is one of the most interesting things in the history of this world. Methodism in its most characteristic branch, Wesleyanism, has always been very narrow, but it was the narrowness of a stream in a mountain gorge, pouring itself, with a force and velocity that was irresistible. All other motives and forces, in the early history of Methodism, were drawn into one vehement impulse-the Society. "God and Methodism" was the war-cry. It is curious to note how every other Church was considered as formal and inefficient. Asbury and his compeers came in contact with Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Quakers, and Moravians, but the very small modicum of grace they see in them is something amazing; the blaze of their own mission made everything else dim. Even at Bethlehem, the good Asbury, forgetting, or ignorant of the fact, that Methodism was founded upon Moravianism, and that Wesley had sat at the feet of Zinzendorf, writes in this way:

"Daniel Hitt and two gentlemen from York, who had given money for the sights shown here for money, went to the church meeting. And what did they see and hear? A man read in German, they knew not what, and sung and played upon the four thousand dollar organ; but sermon or prayer they heard not. I doubt much if there is any prayer here, public or private, except the stated prayer of the minister, on the Sabbath day. The "Breth

ren" have a school for boys at Nazareth, and one for girls at Bethlehem, and they have a store and a tavern. The Society have worldly wealth and worldly wisdom, and it is no wonder that men of the world, who would not have their children spoiled by religion, send them to so decent a place."

Can anything be more narrow or uncharitable?

Yet this man was accustomed to travel on horseback or in a little wagon, five or six thousand miles a year, fifty years ago, when the roads baffled description, and penetrated to many places where there were no roads. His salary was sixty-four dollars a year, for he always remained unmarried, and, for a considerable portion of the time, he was the only bishop of the Church, having the absolute disposal of the location of every minister in the connection. When he had the most assistance, it was either Dr. Coke, who was in England a large part of the time, or subsequently, a single colleague; first, Richard Whatcoat, and on his death, Bishop McKendree. His privations and physical sufferings were probably, on the whole, as great as those of any man who ever was called into the ministry.

And, in addition to this, his temperament was rather morbid, and ultra-subjective. He was occasionally oppressed by low spirits, and the suspicions and charges which so prominent a man had necessarily to endure, affected him much more than was wise or necessary. Yet he was not an unhappy man. He trusted in God; he felt his mission; he loved his work; he had a statesmanlike satisfaction in his charge of a continent; power was by no means distasteful to him, and activity, even to restlessness, was the breath of his nostrils.

Bishop Asbury was not a brilliant man; all even of Dr. Strickland's, or Dr. Bangs', or Bishop Janes' partiality for him, does not lead them to think so. The biography is not very discriminating, nor are the facts classified, nor is sufficient care taken to avoid repetition, or to bring the incidents into some lucid order. There is, however, material enough to form a judgment, and as we greatly admire Asbury, we shall endeavour to do what none of the gentlemen concerned in this book have done, indicate distinctly the traits of his character.

We should say that the first thing in Asbury was that which he had in common with the Methodists of his time, and the generation immediately succeeding him, a settled faith in his call from God to spread holiness through the world, by the Methodist societies. This was everything to him. He passed through the Revolutionary War, and the French Revolution, without being very greatly interested in them; the rise of a new literature and of a prodigious practical science were scarcely noticed; the vast expansion of the nation and of other

religious denominations made but little impression upon him, except as they bore upon Methodism. This passion was absorbing.

Next, it is our opinion that Francis Asbury had great administrative or constructive power. He was not, perhaps, a creator, like Wesley. But we think Bishop Janes is right in saying: "His agency in planting, and his influence in promoting the progress and perpetuity of the Methodist Church in the United States, were primary. I doubt whether it will be contended that any other man has contributed so much to the weal of Methodism in America.

"If men who lay the foundations of empires, who contribute largely to the prosperity and glory of nations, may be properly and usefully represented to succeeding generations as worthy examples of political sagacity and patriotic devotion, may not the eminent servants of God, who by their wisdom, their labors, their sufferings, and their piety, planted the Methodist Church in this country, be presented to after generations of Christians in their spirit, their sacrifices, their untiring activities, and their heroic achievements, with edification?"

It is not, to be sure, of much consequence to Asbury now, what people think of him, but it is of great consequence to the Church itself to appreciate its heroes. The appreciation of heroes makes men heroic.

Bishop Asbury was a man of wonderful industry and persistency. Though beginning, as we Presbyterians would call a minister, very illiterate, he learned to read both the Old and New Testaments in the original, and continued, though hardly a week at a time in any one place, to read a respectable portion of theology and history. There are short criticisms in his journals of "upward of a hundred books." Among them were Edwards on the Affections, Sherlock's Sermons, and our Confession of Faith and Catechism, of which he says, "There are some good and other very strong things in it. These books are calculated to convert the judgment and make the people systematical Christians." Then there are Robertson's Scotland, Marshall's Life of Washington, and Park's Travels, &c., and of poetry, Thomson's Seasons, in which he finds "a little wheat and a great deal of chaff." But his industry and steadiness appear vastly more in what he constructed. He came to America when the Methodist Church was a feeble infant, and he left about two hundred thousand church members. He ordained, by the laying on of his hands, three thousand ministers, and preached seventeen thousand sermons. Such prodigious constructions show power and labour. And who but Asbury gave form and shape to all this? Dr. Coke was but a fitful worker.

Wesley appointed Asbury superintendent in 1772. Whatcoat was elected bishop in 1800, and died in 1806. McKendree was elected in 1808. Asbury died in 1816. Thus for about thirty years he had no colleague but Dr. Coke.

The Methodists took measures in 1856 to build a monument to Francis Asbury at Baltimore. It is full time it were done.

XXV.-THE NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPÆDIA: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. Edited by GEORGE RIPLEY and CHARLES A. DANA. Vols. IV and V. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1859. pp. 766, 770.

Of this splendid work we may say, crescit eundo. It grows in reputation, and we think it improves in the solidity, weight, value, and orthodoxy of its Articles. It would be a mistake to suppose that it expresses the views of any special clique. The authors are of all professions, and of all views, the principle of the work being, apparently, to confide each specialité to the kind of person most familiar with it. Thus the sketches of the Cabots were written by Mr. Bancroft; Chihuahua and Camanches by Mr. Bartlett, the boundary commissioner; James Buchanan, by Judge Black; Blackstone, by Judge Daly; Coins, by Mr. Dunning, of the New York Assay Office; Lord Ashburton, and Lord Clarendon, by Mr. Everett; Athens, by Prof. Felton; Total Abstinence, by Horace Greeley; Fine Arts, by Mr. Hicks; John Adams, Caucus, &c., by Mr. Hildreth; Mrs. Browning, and Mr. Choate, by Mr. Hillard; Christianity, by Dr. Sears; De Witt Clinton, by Mr. Seward, &c. &c.

One of the excellences of this work is the large number of American Articles. Turning to the beginning of the fifth volume, for example, we find Dr. Irah Chase, Bishop Chase, S. P. Chase, Samuel Chase, Chateaugay, Chattahoochee, Chattanooga, Chattooga, Chaudiere, Commodore Chauncey, &c. But this does not by any means imply the neglect of foreign Articles. Taking the beginning of the fourth volume, we have Admiral Bruat, Robert Bruce, Lord Bruce, James Bruce, Michael Bruce, Brucia, Baron Bruck, Bruckenau, Brucker, Admiral Brueys, &c. &c.

Another excellence of the Cyclopædia is, that it brings its intelligence down to a very late point, everything being well "posted up." The Articles being written by so many different persons, are, of course, of different degrees of merit, but, as a whole, there is a vast amount of information, and, in the main, it is judiciously set forth. It is beautifully got up by the Messrs. Appleton, well printed, on good paper, and elegantly bound.

BY ROBERT S. CANDLISH, D.D. Philadelphia:

He

XXVI.-LIFE IN A RISEN SAVIOUR. Lindsay & Blakiston. 1858. pp. 410. Dr. Candlish does not write a book of philosophy or theology. preached a series of expository discourses to his people on the 15th Chapter of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, and now gives them to the public. Each discourse is comparatively short, and each of the twenty, with a supplementary one on the Church's final victory on earth, discusses a different point of the subject.

The discussion, on the whole, is able. While steadily practical, it yet keeps in view the giving of a clear and distinct statement of the Apostle's real meaning, which is of course the ultimate object of all exegesis, philosophy, and theology.

We will endeavor to give the reader an idea of the author's method of thinking.

When the Apostle says, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable," Dr. Candlish does not suppose that the hope of the resurrection merely is meant, but our hope in Christ generally, our hope of eternal salvation, with all which that implies.

If our hope is dashed; if it be found to be a hope which, however we may cling to it for a while, must fail us at the last; we cannot fall back again upon the fat, contented slumber of easy unconcern and worldly security. Our natural peace has been broken; our consciences have been aroused; our hearts have been stirred; we have been made to know ourselves and to know our God.

They still keep Christ's body in the grave, which, being himself righteous, he made with the wicked. They must keep us, soul and body, in the doom which we, wicked as we are brought on him, the Righteous One. They must keep us, these sins of ours, in that doom of guilt and ruin evermore. What matters this present life, with its gleam, its spark of hope, kindled by the death of Christ, if that is to be the end of it?

On the surrender of the kingdom by Christ to the Father, Dr. Candlish says:

It is plain that now, in these new circumstances, the reason for the present widely extended sweep of sovereignty ceases. Having all his people with himself; having his body whole and entire; there being no longer any more, any evil power or principle outstanding that can touch them; there being now no possibility of their being assailed or injured from without; Christ, their King, need not now, in the character in which he is their King, claim or retain any kingship outside of them. His sovereignty over them, the sovereignty which he has bought so dearly-buying them to be his subjects with his own precious blood-he will not and cannot relinquish. They themselves could ill brook the idea of his relinquishing it. But it would seem that for the exercise of that sovereignty, in his capacity of their redeeming King, over others besides them, on their behalf, there is really no occasion now, and no room. It may be fitly merged, therefore, in the general sovereignty which the Godhead has over all things.

On the Baptism for the Dead, Dr. C. is equally judicious:

That meaning which, perhaps, most commends itself-at least to the fancy and the heart-is the one which, retaining still the general idea of substitution, gives it a different turn, making it not a vicarious representation of the persons of the dead, but, as it were, a vicarious occupancy of the position which till death they filled.