the site of the Holy Sepulchre could only have been within the Second Wall, he is at once believed to be lying under the deepest folds of such darkness as encompasses the Spanish or the Russian pilgrim."

With this prologue she decides in favour of the existing sites. A recent discovery has brought to light, at a depth of thirty feet beneath the surface, the foundations of what appear to have been the second or outer wall of the city. Assuming this to be the case, our author argues thus :

"Supposing the line of the second wall to be identified with that of these ancient stones, I think that any unprejudiced observer must acknowledge the distance between that line and the site of the church of the Holy Sepulchre to be more than fifty yards' named in the Talmud as the prescribed distance from the walls of the city for the interment of criminals-a Talmudic yard being equal to two feet, the distance would be consequently only one hundred feet. It is true that our Lord was not buried in the place where criminals were usually interred, but in the tomb hewn for the rich man of Arimathea'; the bodies of criminals would probably have been removed further from the city than those of men less unclean and impure, and the objection, that none could have been buried so close to the walls, must fall to the ground. The place chosen for the crucifixion of our Lord was certainly not the usual place of the execution of criminals; since it is not likely that in that spot a 'rich man' would have made a 'garden'; even though it were but a graveyard, he would have chosen some place he could visit without risk of becoming unclean. The usual place, the Talmud says, was to the south of the city; but this would have been too far to reach, hurried as they evidently were to get all concluded. The priests, as Dr. Barclay observes, were afraid of the voice of the people,' and would not have hazarded sending Him right across the city, as the path from the Judgment Hall to the Dung Gate would have led: it was not only 'nigh to the city,' but the priests, it is said, looked on, reviling Him while He hung upon the cross; and one need only mount on the roof of the Serai, or on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre itself, to see how well they could have seen all that took place on its site from the wall of the Temple, without leaving its precincts, and thus defiling themselves on the eve of the Passover, by approaching an execution, or entering an unclean place."

It is

We cannot lay down these two volumes, and part from the something more than agreeable society of our author, without a word or two upon graver matters. She is evidently a lady of a religious spirit, and yet it is not spiritual religion. There is often a fine, warm tone of piety; but it is too much the piety of sentiment to be satisfactory to us. something to have got free from the Lady Morgan school of travellers. English women are no longer ashamed of their religion when they are abroad; and this is something. Nor is their religion so heartless and formal as it was once; and this is something more. But it is too often, as in this instance, the

loose theology of what we may term, when ladies have adopted it, the demi-semi-German school, - Vere-street theology en deshabille. We fear, in the present instance, that the seed of the Maurician heresy has fallen upon congenial soil. Having described a Mahomedan, for example, as in a state of darkness, she thinks it necessary to apologize for her severity in a long note, which, long as it is, we must transcribe:

"I hope I shall not be misunderstood by using the word darkness, to wish to characterise the religion taught by Mohammed as darkness, save in comparison to that clearer light of Christianity which has been given to us by revelation; the Moslim knows not Christ as God, and therefore, however far he follows the light that he has, it will not bring him to the foot of the cross, wherefrom, as a glorious privilege of the sons of Christ, we have received complete salvation; he knows but in part, and can but see through a glass darkly; but in as far as a religious Mooslim has sought after God, be sure he will have found Him. He who seeks me shall find me,' saith the Lord; and He is near to all that call upon Him, yea all such as call upon Him faithfully. It is shocking to hear those Judo-Christians, whose hearts are full of anything but the infinite Love which alone unites us with God (the Love which loves goodness before all) condemning to eternal damnation all those who, not knowing the law of Christ, yet have 'showed the work of the law written in their hearts,' who have done by nature the things contained in the law,' (Rom. ii. 14), who have striven with self-discipline and self-restraint, with fasting and with prayer, with earnest humble sincerity to keep the truth as they know it. Are they to be eternally punished by a God of justice (not a God of vengeance) for not keeping a law they knew not? or rather, is there not to be 'glory, honour, and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile?' These unchristian Christians, who believe themselves far more enlightened than the inquisitors of old who condemned both body and soul, turn away their eyes from what is good, because forsooth it is not dressed in the costume in which alone they choose to see it, and which they call religion; as if good feeling, purity and self-denial, and devotion to a Supreme Being, when made a ruling principle of life, are not religion, even though the man who acts up to them may never have heard the name of Christ, an incomplete religion, indeed, but true in its own integrity, whether it be of Osiris, or of Bouddha, or of Muhammed. . . . . 'Faith,' says one of the clearest-minded among our modern divines, 'is no new, strange, peculiar power, supernaturally infused by Christianity alone,' but the essence of the divine nature, implanted in every immortal soul (which may indeed be choked), without which we could have no part in the eternal salvation promised by God to all who serve Him faithfully, and without which our life can never be hid with Christ.' In the day when God shall judge the secrets of all men by Jesus Christ; when the Pharisee who kept the law by the letter, and thanked God, 'shall be humbled,' and the Publican who kept the law by his heart, shall be exalted,' the God-fearing earnest Mooslim may be found ready for the weddinggarment, which the proud, unloving, so-called Christian will seek for his own shoulders, and will not find there."

When ladies forget themselves and condescend to rail, the courtesies of life impose silence on those who have the misfortune to form their audience. We shall not violate the wholesome rule. Here, within one page, are crowded together some of the worst characteristics of the new theology-if new that may be called which is merely a repetition of the nonsense which Pope reduced into euphonious periods a hundred-andfifty years since, when he taught us that the Eternal Father was with equal acceptance, if not with equal truth,

"In every place, in every clime adored

By saint, by savage, or by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord."

The careless quotation of some Scriptures, the flat contradiction of others, the rudeness and peevishness, and, in the midst of large assumptions of catholicity, the narrow, vulgar abuse with which the note closes, all these are the patois of the Broad party. The only difference is, that the leaders clothe their sentiments in well-smoothed periods; we have them here, as we said before, en deshabille.

OUT-DOOR PREACHERS: BY REV. GEO. S. BULL.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

SIR,-Your reviewer's remarks on Dr. Shaw's somewhat eccentric Travels in England have led me to look a little into his book, and to conclude that he is a well-meaning gentleman, but a little warped against the Church of England by some Town and City missionaries who are not very scrupulous in their statements respecting the clergy of "The Establishment."

May every malevolent remark urge us on in more zealous exertion, and draw from us more earnest prayers for those who have evil will against our Zion.

It is, however, useless to deny the fact, that in all our large towns, the propagation of the gospel does not keep pace with the population, and that thousands of precious souls, that ere long must pass away to a changeless eternity, have little more knowledge of Christ and his only way of salvation than the habitants of heathendom.

Will you permit one who has spent nigh forty years as a minister among "the masses," to offer a few out of many thoughts on this subject?

I would view it practically, and refer to 1st, the paucity of adult males especially in attendance on our public services. This is a complaint not more sad than true; and considering the vast numbers that pass through our Sunday and Day schools into adolescence and manhood, it seems all but unaccountable. How comparatively few of

the females are to be seen in our Lord's-day gatherings, and how almost completely we lose sight of the males! How is it; what are the causes ?

First; I conclude that our vast parishes and small agencies prevent our keeping up a pastoral connection with the out-going scholars-a few become teachers, and a few settle with us, chiefly through Confirmation instruction, as communicants, and the rest disappear, never to meet again, except perhaps in the chamber of sickness and death! Another cause of this estrangement is the very rare and brief opportunity for any personal intercourse with our adult parishioners generally. In reference to the working classes, the male adult is at his work from early morn to dewy eve: we cannot see him before he leaves homewe dare not intrude at meal times-and when he returns at seven, eight, or nine at night, he is, if orderly, more ready for rest and for bed, than for visitors; and in too many cases more likely to be found, as soon as he has washed himself, at the Fox and Goose,' where we cannot follow him. As to the adult female, if not at work in a factory or warehouse, she is busy at home, washing, ironing, mending, scouring, and perhaps scolding amid a group of little children.

About two evenings in a week-Thursday and Friday-there may be some lull in the struggle, and husband may be at home, and the tall son and the womanly daughter; but on the whole, the practical opportunity for a quarter of an hour's talk upon the hearthstone is rare indeed.

Our Scripture readers or lay assistants can very seldom catch a glance of the father, or head of the family, or of the grown up children. From seven to eight there is tea or supper; from eight to nine seems to be the only hour, and that at most thrice in a week, when a family, as such, can be visited, and then there are often so many disturbing causes that you cannot always feel yourself welcome. For myself, I can say, that I have never had any but a kind reception; but I have carefully studied my best manners when in a poor man's house, where your coming in and going out, and your whole behaviour and discourse, are all very closely observed.

Then it should be remarked, that ministers of large parishes have many calls on their time and strength the livelong day; and the study, and the sermons, and schools; and much "serving of tables"-laymen's work by good rights-falls to our share: then there are evening schools, classes, and meetings public and parochial; so that if labouring John is ready to see us, we are too often unable to embrace that privilege.

From all these causes we see so very little of the adults at home or at church; and the education that has been gained (if it amounts to the ability of reading fairly) at our schools, is employed, for the most part, on the Lord's-day, in the perusal of political or imaginative publications; and the exciting novel, in which intrigue, seduction, and murder or suicide, and all the details thereof, are served up for a vitiated taste: the very highway to hell is thus strewed with the flowers of a morbid sentimentality.

"Then," you say, "is it a lost case, and can nothing be done?' Oh how much might be done, if well instructed and christian laymen would come forth to our assistance! and I would hope they might be more generally induced to do so, if parochial ministers and evangelists

would shew them a more excellent way, than has hitherto been trodden.

We read in the first days of gospel propagation, that "daily in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ."

Where they began we must begin, and so be able to say with St. Paul, "I taught you publicly and from house to house."

Of "Out-door preaching." Let me suggest that a system of house to house, court to court, street to street preaching, should be thoughtfully prepared for and arranged.

This, I think, might be done under proper episcopal sanction, and with due allowance of parochial ministers, with but few exceptions in such a vast town as this, and therefore in any other.

First of all, we require the preachers. These must be picked men. Pioneers are always picked men. Good health, a pleasant voice, an agreeable presence, a clear head, a ready tongue, and that versatility of mind or ready adaptation, which can pleasantly take up and turn away opposition-above all else, fervent personal piety and a yearning love for souls of immortal destiny, setting forth Jesus Christ in all his glorious offices-these are the men for the times. But you ask, where are they to be found? I believe they only require to be looked up, and somewhat trained for this work; for it is peculiar, and requires special agents. I will suppose one such evangelist duly licensed by our diocesan, to be ready for work in this town, and that five parishes contiguous to my own were prepared to accept his services.

In this case (I am all along only suggesting) let each incumbent nominate a christian friend, a layman, to act with himself and the incumbent as a board of home missions, to regulate the circuit of this evangelist. When weather and daylight permit, let three of the largest courts in three of these parishes be selected-let leave be obtained of the residents (it would seldom be refused); and, accompanied by a small choir, let the street preacher go to these stations, morning, afternoon, and evening. During six months of the year, with occasional suspensions from foul weather, this might be effected, and would give one out-door service to each parish fortnightly; or, if two evangelists were employed, one weekly on the Lord's-day, and the same in other localities on the week day.

On each of these occasions a free distribution of short tracts might be made, and a kind invitation given to attend the house of God. Can it be doubted that these court sermons would tell upon the house of God and its attendance ?

Supplemental to this plan for preaching, I would form a goodly number of evening schools, generally in a part or in the whole of an ordinary dwelling house. Suppose what is called a three-quarters house, having four rooms, each capable of seating ten persons, and suppose but thirty on an average to attend for forty weeks in a year, (at least twice in a week,) the rent would be more than provided for by their weekly payments.

To these evening schools for male adults might be added afternoon schools for females (who can be best spared from three to five), or afternoon Bible classes, or both; and on Sundays these school houses might be occupied at the usual hours by adult Bible classes.