nitude of the subject which fascinated them. The work of Kraus marks the progress of the science through these three intervening centuries. After the introduction, the general divisions are: Book First, "The Origin of the Catacombs." This contains a general description of the catacombs, the political and social condition of the first Roman Christians, Roman law and usages, with reference to burials, and the beginning of the catacombs. Book Second treats the "History of the Catacombs," giving their condition in the first and second centuries; then from the beginning of the third century to the toleration of Constantine, in 312; then to the plundering of Rome by the Goths in 410; and then to the oblivion of the catacombs for a long period of centuries. The Third Book is employed entirely on the most important catacomb, that of St. Callistus. Book Fourth discusses "Ancient Christian Art," its symbols, allegorical images, liturgical tracery, and sarcophagi. The Fifth Book is occupied with the construction and development of the catacombs. Book Sixth is a full description of the inscriptions; Seventh, of the contents of the graves of the catacombs; and Eighth, a general survey of all the Roman subterranean life. The illustrations of the work of Kraus are of a high order, and are the best reproduction of the exceedingly costly work of De Rossi which has appeared. In addition to these, the author, by his living in Rome and having access to all the antiquities, and especially by his intercourse with De Rossi himself, has given many inscriptions and diagrams which had never before been presented to the public. These illustrations are of two kinds; those on wood, distributed with the letter-press throughout the work, and those in colors, on large plates, at the end of the volume. The last of these is a full descriptive map of the whole of subterranean Rome, as large and full as Murray's or Baedeker's map of the city above it. The work closes with a rich glossary, explanatory of all the inscriptions contained in the catacombs, and a copious index of the whole work. We should like to see this book of Kraus translated. It has something of the coloring which would naturally come from the Church of which he is a member, but it is of such scope and scholarship that one can readily overlook the author's confessional standpoint. To the honor of the American Church it must be added that this important study has not been forgotten by us. Withrow's work is a classic, and it is a matter of congratulation that his excellent book on the catacombs has been issued by our Book Concern. Ursprung und erste Entwickelung der Kirche Chirsti, in Vortrügen ürber die Apostelgeschichte des Lucas. Von Dr. H. V. Andrea. Frankfort-au-Main: Heyder & Zimmer. Dr. Andrea is a layman, who has devoted his entire leisure to theological study. He is known to Americans through his work on Job, but the present work is the ripest fruit of his busy pen. His plan is to give the argument of each section of the Acts of the Apostles, and then to illustrate and elucidate it. He does not introduce textual criticism, or broaden his pages with copious foot-notes or exegetical terms, but aims at a popular exposition of the book. He seems to have examined the whole department of exegesis on Acts, to have grouped the leading thoughts around a common point, and to aim at a forcible presentation of the general ideas of the writer. The work consists of fifty-eight lectures, each with a general title. We then have a genealogical table of the Asmonean and Idumean families, a complete table of chronology of the apostolical period, and an exceeding beautiful colored map of the missionary tours of Paul. A full index closes the work. The value of Dr. Andrea's important contribution to biblical study consists in its combination of thorough scholarship and perspicuous and popular style. We hope he will yield still more such fruit, on other New Testament books. Miscellaneous. The World of Prayer; or Prayer in Relation to Personal Religion. By Dr. D. G. MONRAD. Translated from the Fourth German Edition by the Rev. J. S. BANKS. 12mo., pp. 239. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1879. The Interpreter's House; or, Sermons to Children. By WILLIAM WILBERFORCE The Chautauqua Text Books. Paper Covers. Small 18mo.-No. 16. Roman His- New Songs from the Published Writings of Alfred Tennyson, Set to Music by Various Composers. Edited by W. G. CUSINS. With a Portrait and Original Illustrations by Winslow Homer, C. S. Reinhart, A. Fredericks, and Jessie Curtis. 4to. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1880. A magnificent exhibition of the poet laureate. Philosophy of Methodism. By Rev. WARD W. HUNT, A.M. Watertown, N. Y. 1880. Studies in the New Testament. By CHARLES S. ROBINSON, D.D. 12mo., pp. 316. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1880. Sporting Adventures in the Far West. By JOHN MORTIMER MURPHY. Illustrated. 12mo., pp. 469. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1880. English Men of Letters. Edited by JOHN MORLEY. Nathaniel Hawthorne. By HENRY JAMES, JUN. Pp. 177.-Robert Southey. By EDWARD DOWDEN. 12mo., pp. 197. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1880. The Holy Bible, According to the Authorized Version, (A. D. 1611,) With an Explanatory and Critical Commentary and a Revision of the Translation, by Bishops and other Clergy of the Anglican Church. Edited by F. C. Cook, M.A., Canon of Exeter, etc. New Testament, Vol. II: St. John-The Acts of the Apos tles. 8vo., pp. 534. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1880. Christian Union Necessary for Religious Progress and Defense. Address before the Evangelical Alliance, in Basle, Switzerland. By JOHN F. HURST, D.D. 8vo., pp. 35. Paper Covers. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. 1880. The Three Brothers: Sketches of the Lives of Rev. Aurora Seager, Rev. Micah Seager, Rev. Schuyler Seager, D.D. By Rev. E. LATIMER. With an Introduction by D. P. KIDDER, D.D. 12mo., pp. 58. Paper Covers. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. 1880. The Expositor. Feb. 1880. Edited by Rev. SAMUEL COX. Contents: 1. The Value of the Patristic Writings for the Criticism and Exegesis of the Bible, by Rev. W. Sanday, D.D. 2. Christianity's First Invitation to the World, by Rev. George Matheson, D.D. 3. The Call and Commission of Isaiah, by Rev. P. Thomson, M..A. 4. Two New Testament Synonyms: vior and TEKVOV, by Professor John Massie, M.A. 5. Brief Notices. London: Hodder & Stoughton. Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Fall Conferences of 1879. 8vo., paper. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. The Catholic Church in the United States. Is Rise, Relations with the Republic, Growth, and Future Prospects. By Rev. I. T. HECKER. 8vo., pp. 26. Paper. New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1879. Studies of the Greek Poets. By JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS. 16mo. Two Vols. Vol. I, pp. 488; Vol. II, pp. 419. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1880. Probably no work in the English language gives a view of the Greek poets with such mastery of the literature, such a critical spirit, and such a beauty of English style, as these two volumes. FRANKLIN SQUARE LIBRARY, 4to. paper: Memoirs of Madame De Rémusat. 1802– 1808. Edited with a Preface and Notes, by her Grandson, PAUL DE REMUSAT. Translated by Mrs. CASHEL HOEY and Mr. JOHN LILLIE, Part II. The Munster Circuit: Tales, Trials, and Traditions. By J. R. O'FLANAGAN.-Queen of the Meadow. By CHARLES GIBBON.-Friend and Lover. By 1ZA DUFFUS HARDY.— Mademoiselle De Mersae. By the Author of "Heaps of Money."-The_Nineteenth Century, a History. By ROBERT MACKENZIE.-A Sylvan Queen. By the Author of "Rachel's Secret," etc.-Tom Singleton: Dragoon and Dramatist. By W. W. FOLLETT SYNGE.-The Return of the Princess. By JACQUES VINCENT. Notices of the following books are postponed to the next number: Haupt's Epistle of John. Scribner's. Samson on Wines. National Temperance Society and Publication House. Walter on Space and Matter. Estes & Lauriat. METHODIST QUARTERLY REVIEW. JULY, 1880. ART. I. BISHOP WILEY'S VISITATION OF CHINA AND JAPAN. China and Japan: A Record of Observations made during a Residence of Several Years in China, and a Tour of Official Visitation to the Missions in both Countries in 1877-78. By Rev. I. W. WILEY, D.D., one of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Illustrated. 12mo., pp. 548. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. New York: Phillips & Hunt. 1879. To one standing casually upon the ocean beach there seems to be only the same eternal roar, and wave after wave dashing apparently upon the same strand. But if that observer, in his childhood, knew some rock far beyond the reach of the stoutest surge, and now beholds it embraced by the ocean, he irresistibly draws the conclusion that the continent is yielding to the sea; and if such a process were known to be rapidly going on in every part of the earth, natural philosophers would not hesitate to express apprehensions that at some day, more or less distant, land would entirely disappear, and this globe become one vast sea. When a great Church like the Methodist Episcopal is known to have been without a strictly foreign mission until thirty years ago, but has now its Conferences in all quarters of the globe, and its thousands of members and hundreds of preachers redeemed during that period from heathenism, and when it is known that like success has attended the missions of numerous other evangelical bodies, our faith rises to positive assurance that if the Church is faithful to her great commission FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXXII.—27 "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." In the volume now under review, we have the testimony of an intelligent witness with respect to one of the most important missions of the world. He saw it first in 1851, and spent three years there faithfully discharging his duty as missionary physician of the Foochow Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church, forsaking his post only when sickness and bereavement left him no ability to continue his work. He saw it again in the year 1877, when, as a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he went to Foochow in the discharge of his episcopal duties. Nearly a year in all was occupied with this official visitation, and he, therefore, had rare opportunity for observations of a most careful kind. What of Methodism did this missionary leave in China in 1854? and what did this same missionary, worthily exalted to be a bishop, find on his return to China in 1878 ? The entire China mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the departure of Dr. Wiley, in 1854, was in Nantai, and on Middle Island, both suburbs of Foochow. The great city itself had not so much as been entered. When Bishop Wiley revisited the mission, in 1878, the performance of his duties required him to skirt nearly the whole coast of China. He had to take in the capital of the empire, and extend his supervision to the farthest north, for the North China Mission had "some appointments as much as four hundred miles away from Peking, reaching up north to the great wall, and south into the province of Shantung." In the intervening space there were constant and faithful itinerations on the part of the missionaries, after the style of the fathers of American Methodism. complete his visitation the Bishop had to sail five hundred miles up "the wonderful river Yang-tsze-Kiang to Kiukiang, in the province of Kiang-si, one of the largest and richest of the provinces of China," and go the length of the picturesque Po-Yang Lake for one hundred miles, with industrious millions lining its shores. The three districts that compose this Central China Mission extend we learn not how far westward, for the Bishop's time did not admit of prolonged or minute visitation. The old mission at Foochow had penetrated, as he says, within the walls of the imperial city, and well-nigh covered the Το |