has been interpreted in a variety of ways by the adherents of the popular theology, the sin being variously defined, the Independent has the following sensible comment and explanation:

Christ, on a certain occasion, healed a demoniac, exciting the wonder and astonishment of the people, who said: "Is not this the Son of David?" The fact came to the knowledge of certain scribes and Pharisees, who aro spoken of as having come "from Jerusalem,” who did not dispute the fact, but who explained it by saying: "This fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub, the prince of devils." They attributed the miracle which had been wrought by the power of God to the power of the prince of devils." (Mat. xii. 22-37; Mark iii. 19-30; Luke xi. 14-23.)

Is was this act on the part of these scribes and Pharisees that led Jesus to say with direct reference to it:

"Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.'

Such was the language of Jesus as stated by Matthew. His language as stated by Mark was as follows:

"Verily, I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme; but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation."

Mark adds the explanatory remark: "Because they said he hath an unclean spirit." Luke reports the Saviour as saying at a subsequent period: "And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him; but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven."

What these scribes and Pharisees did, as shown by the Gospel record, was to attribute to Satan that which was manifestly a miracle wrought by the power of God. This was a malignant perversion of the miraculous evidence which God himself had furnished, and was evincive of the highest form of depravity toward God; and of this act, as distinguished from other sins mentioned by Jesus which, upon repentance, might be forgiven, he speaks as being blasphemy against the Holy Ghost for which there is no forgiveness, without specifying

any particular reason, except that involved in the act itself, why it could not be forgiven. The occasion furnished the precise sin which he thus describes, of which he thus speaks; and we have no authority for extending blasphemy against the Holy Ghost beyond the limits fixed by this occasion and by the words of Christ himself. This particular sin can be committed only in an age of miracles, and is committed when one in such an age ascribes to Satan an unmistakably supernatural work of God, and thus insults the Spirit and power of God.

-The "Statistical Abstract" for 1887, just issued, gives the follow ing interesting figures in regard to the schools of the United States, In 1871-'72 there were in this country 12,828,847 children of schoolage, of whom 7,479,656 were enrolled in the public schools. These pupils were taught by 81,509 male, and 124,180 female teachers, to whom aggregate salaries of $37,503,309 were paid. The total expenditure for the schools that year was $70,891,374. In 1884-85 the school population had increased to 17,764,658, and the number of pupils enrolled in the public schools to 11,464,661. The number of male teachers was 109,632, and of female 199,422, to whom salaries amounting to $73,932,068 were paid. The total expenditures upon the schools for the latter year were $111,521,542.

-The Congressional Committee on Educationand Labor, submitted to the Senate in July last a recommendation that the following amendment to the Constitution of the United States be proposed to the States for their ratification:

ARTICLE

SECTION 1. The manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation, and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage shall be, and hereby is, forever prohibited in the United States and in every place subject to their jurisdiction. SECTION 2. Congress shall enforce this article by all needful legislation.

The Committee in submitting the report and recommendation are frank to say that some of their number would not advocate the adoption of the Amendment, but they must defer to the immense mass of petitions for the amendment, coming as they do from the people in all parts of the country. The report adds:

"It can hardly be doubted that at least ten millions of the Ameri can people are desirous of national legislation for the destruction of poisonous, that is to say, of alcoholic, drinks.

"These people represent a power of thought and a moral force far

greater than their mere numbers. Whoever expects to withstand the shock of their charge will yet regret that its irresistible power was not seasonably realized.

"These petitions for the opportunity to amend the National Constitution must be heard and will be heard. Those who will oppose them in the States will yet demand that they shall be heard in the States upon the proposition of a prohibitory amendment of the National Constitution.

"To deny this is to subvert the republican form of government, and the honorable opponents of the measure will not always refuse to its friends that hearing in court which is the sacred right of every American, and especially in a matter of so great national concern.

"It is claimed by the advocates of this amendment that the liquor traffic is a unit of evil which submerges the whole nation, and that there can be no complete and certainly no permanent elevation of any part above this "sea of trouble," which is not the result of a lifting force exerted continuously by the nation in its organic capacity everywhere throughout the whole country, co-operating with and supplementing, and, when necessary to accomplish the end, overruling and subordinating the action of the States."

"At the present time the police power in the States is fettered and thwarted in its efforts to suppress this, evil within the limits of the States, respectively, by the national guaranties of protection to transportation and the rights of manufacture and sale existing in all the States and localities which decline to impose the necessary restriction.

"This evil runs with the blood throughout the whole system of national life, and nothing but national constitutional treatment will cure it."

The Pope has at last drawn on the Papal Gueranty Fund, established by the Italian Government in 1871. By this fund the Pope was to receive an annual grant of $600,000. Pius IX would not touch it, but Leo XIII has been driven, it would seem, by financial exigency to draw on it. As to the attitude of the Government toward the Vatican we have the following from a recent speech of Premier Crispi:

"We are prepared to make the concessions demanded by the Church, but not just yet not, in fact, until the Vatican raises its voice to bless our Italy, instead of cursing it as hitherto; not till the Holy See assumes an attitude toward us which is at once kindly, peaceful and human, and abandons that of undisguised antagonism, which has characterized it until now."

John Ward, preacher. By Margaret Deland. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York. 1888. 12 mo. pp. 473. $1.50.

This is a novel of great power; perhaps the most attractive, realistic and suggestive story that has been laid before the public for many years. It is thoroughly American, and has the genuine New England flavor. The title indicates the hero, a Presbyterian preacher, who thoroughly believes the theories of election and reprobation, and is never conscious of inconsistency in ascribing to God motives and purposes which would disgrace any man to whom they should even on the smallest scale be attributed. He is affectionate in his nature, but morbidly gloomy in his religious thought and conscientious in his conviction that salvation is impossible to all who cannot reach the same theological conclusions to which he has arrived. He marries a young woman of very lovely traits of character, strong intellectual power, and with religious notions which, while they are destitute of positive definiteness, are strongly agnostic, or at least are intensely antagonistic to what he regards as fundamental and essential to salvation. His affection for her is beautiful in its tenderness, but it is manifest that to convert her from her dangerous errors is one of his most earnest and affectionate aims in their marriage.

For a long time he tries to compromise with himself by holding firm to his purpose of saving his wife, yet by withholding from his sermons the harsh dogmas of his creed which are so repulsive to her. Meanwhile she gives her whole heart to encourage and help him in works of practical and helpful Christianity in a rude and unattractive parish. But in a time of great trouble in one of the families of the parish, the sudden death of an intemperate husband, — she offends an ignorant, officious and intermeddling "elder," by bidding the heart-broken widow believe that there is no endless hell; and the "elder" raises a contention with Mr. Ward for putting so little "hell" in his preaching. Though indignant with this officiousness, the preacher's own compunctions' second the rebuke, and he begins to unfold the terrors of the law. As he persists, her repugnance to the dogma of eternal hell grows stronger and is more emphatically pronounced, and she indignantly declares, and makes good her declaration, that she will absent herself from the prayer-meetings at which the elder exhorts. So the breach widens, till separation is insisted on by the husband as a temporary resource, he believing that affection for him will cause her to assent to doctrines from which her reason revolts. She returns to her father, an easy-going Episcopal rector, and her husband plies her with letters full of arguments and entreaties, hoping to win her belief to the dreadful dogma. His arguments produce no impression, and she is more than his match in logic as she urges the unanswerable moral objections to his impugnings of the wisdom and love of our Heavenly Father. So far as depends on her holding to her earnest protest against an endless hell, the separation is final. But sickness comes to the preacher; death is near, and he summons her home, expecting that his death will do for her what his life had failed to accomplish.

Mrs. Deland manifests wonderful power in her searching end consistent analysis of the central characters in her story, and her treatment of the development of their conduct displays uncommon perceptiveness and power. The realism of her literary art is at once refined and complete. One of the most pleasing features of her book is the manner in which she relieves the painful elements of the central portion of her story by frequent and charming interludes of incident and character in the grouping of scenes, speakers and actors. Nothing could be better than the pictures drawn of Mr. Denner and his uncertain, mixed, yet genuine, even pathetic affection for Deborah and Ruth Woodhouse, whose peculiarities as they divide their gifts between model housekeeping and a mild æstheticism, are marked and unique. Nor are the other characters which are introduced any the less interesting. In short we may say that the story of John Ward, Preacher, can hardly be improved upon in any particular.

Days Near Paris. By Augustus J. C. Hare. New York. George Routledge & Sons. 12 mo. pp. viii., 359. $3.00. Walks in Paris. By Augustus J. C. Hare. New York. George Routledge & Sons. 12 mo. pp. viii., 532. $3.00.

These two books have already attained great popularity and won an amount of praise that must be very gratifying to the author; certainly both are fully deserved. Mr. Hare is well acquainted with the localities which he describes, and has in eminent degree the happy faculty of making his descriptions both instructive and interesting. His books afford most delightful reading.

The first volume supposes an excursion around Paris, and takes the traveler, in the order in which the localities encircle the city, to St. Cloud and Sèvres; Versailles; St. Germain; Rueil, Malmaison, and Marly; Poissy, Enghein and Montmorenci; St. Leu Taverny, the Abbaye du Val, and Pontoise; Ecouen, Royaumont, St. Lew D'Esserent, Creil, Nogent-les-Vierges; Chantilly and Senlis; Compiègne and Pierrefonds; Nantouillet, Dammartin, and Ermenonville; Vincennes and Brie-Comte-Robert; Meaux, Fontainebleau; Corbeil, Savigny-sur-Orge, Montlhèry, Etampes; Sceaux, Chevreuse, and Limours; Mendon, Bellevue, Port Royal, Rambouillet; Montfortl'Amaury and Dreux. The numerous citations from French writers of history or memoirs, in illustration of the various historical edifices that still remain, have been translated into English in this edition, and contain most valuable information respecting the France of prerevolutionary times. Information which we may confidently say is not to be found in any other single volume.

The book bearing the second title deals with localities within the city. The preparation of these two books occupied the author two years, and they are, as far as it is possible for such works to be, exhaustive. Almost all educated Englishmen, remarks the author, visit Paris some time in their lives, yet few really see it. They see the shops and the theatres and the Bois de Boulogne, and leave with the impression that Paris is a charming modern city, from which the picturesqueness of a past age has wholly disappeared. Of course a great