THE HADJI IN SYRIA, or Three Years in Jerusalem. By Mrs. SABAH BARCLAY JOHNSON. Philadelphia: James Challen & Sons.

Jerusalem, the City of the Great King, is attracting a great deal of interest in the religious world. Men and women, old and young, ministers and laymen, are exploring Jerusalem and adding to the information, which seems so acceptable to the public. Mrs. Johnson has done her share in this good work, and her readers will appreciate her intelligence, and her general diligence in collecting and arranging her interesting

materials.

ONLY BELIEVE, or The Sure. Way of Peace. By the Rev. ALFRED HAMILTON. Presbyterian Board of Publication.

To believe is the great requirement of the Gospel. This duty is well unfolded in this admirable little volume. The design is to afford light and counsel to an inquiring mind. The worthy author has exhibited the subject, clearly, impressively, and ably. The conversation between the Inquirer and the Pastor, is well seasoned with doctrinal and practical remark.

ESSAYS IN BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM. BY PETER BAYNE, M.A., author of "The Christian Life, Social and Individual," &c. Second Series. 12mo. pp. 392. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman & Co.

1858.

Peter Bayne is rapidly rising to eminence in the world of authorship. The basis of his popularity is a strong, discriminating mind, which boldly seizes the striking points of his subjects, and connects a just analysis of them with appropriate philosophical and religious reflections. A great deal of valuable literary and historical information is communicated to the reader in this volume. The Essays are not as splendid as those of Macaulay, but are nevertheless fine specimens of scholarly criticism. The characters of Kingsley, Macaulay, Alison, Coleridge, Wellington, Napoleon, Plato, and others, are brought under rigid examination; and there is an appearance of candour and impartiality throughout the discussions. These Essays will undoubtedly claim the study of all who wish to take a full survey of the subjects of which they treat. We wish we had space for several extracts, which we had marked for quotation.

NOT A MINUTE TO SPARE. By S. C. Presbyterian Board of Publication.

This little volume, with a striking title, is made up of fragments of thoughts, and boldly and earnestly pleads for immediate attention to religion. It concludes with some timely suggestions on "How to have a minute to spare."

PICTURES OF TRUTH, PORTRAYED IN PLEASING COLOURS. Compiled for the Board of Publication.

This volume, designed for youth, and for Sabbath School Libraries, is a fine specimen of its class. It contains many great truths, portrayed, indeed, in "pleasing colours." Our excellent Board of Publication is doing a great service to the rising generation in providing for their religious instruction.

Che Religious World.

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY.

THE anniversary meeting was held on May 12th. The following is an abstract of the Annual Report.

New Publications, in eight languages, 46, of which eleven are volumes, including Locke's Commonplace-book to the Bible, Memoirs of Mary Lyon, W. T. Biddle, and A. Meneely; and Pilgrim's Progress in Italian : whole number of publications, 2268; besides 3315 approved for circulation in foreign lands.

Circulated during the year, 747,844 volumes, 9,890,486 publications, or 250,400,722 pages; total since the formation of the Society, 13,098,013 volumes, 188,971,408 publications, 4,753,741,573 pages.

Gratuitous Distribution for the year, in 3328 distinct grants, 59,523,421 pages, and 12,018,720 pages to members and directors; amounting to upwards of $47,000. Monthly circulation of the American Messenger, about 198,000; Botschafter, or German Messenger, 27,000; The Child's Paper, 300,000.

Receipts in donations, including $23,006 83 in legacies, $120,243 35; for sales, including $19,352 98 for periodicals, $262,910 19. Total, $383,153 54.

Expenditures, $386,855 85; including $186,922 70 for issuing books and periodicals, $94,100 24 for colportage, and $10,000 remitted to foreign and pagan lands.

Colportage. The operations of colportage throughout the land are conducted mainly by superintendents connected with the eight principal colporteur agencies located at Rochester, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, New Orleans, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Chicago. Notwithstanding unusual obstacles, more has been accomplished than in any previous year: 157 colporteurs and 72 students have laboured the whole or part of the year in the Northern and Middle States; 296 colporteurs and 42 students in the Southern and Southwestern States; and 156 colporteurs and 57 students in the Western and Northwestern States: total in the United States and Canada, 613 colporteurs, and 174 students, from forty-three colleges or theological seminaries--in all, 787. Of the colporteurs, 124 besides a number of students, laboured among the Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Welsh, Irish, and Indians, chiefly among the Germans. The colporteurs visited 724,903 families, with 327,133 of whom they conversed on personal religion or prayed; they found 98,605 habitually neglecting to attend evangelical preaching, 61,803 families of Roman Catholics, 44,972 who were destitute of all religious books except the Bible, and 38,483 who had not the Word of God. In addition to their family visitations, they held 15,832 public or prayer meetings.

Foreign Appropriations, remitted in cash during the year: for Sandwich Islands, $300; China, General Assembly's Board, $600; Fuhchau, $200; Siam, General Assembly's mission, $400; Assam, $400; Burmah, Karens, $400; Northern India, $1200; Orissa, $200; Teloogoos, Lutheran mission, $300; Nestorians, $300; North Armenian mission,

$2000; South Armenian mission, $1000; Greece, mission of A. B. C. F. M., $400; Baptist mission, $200; Italy, Sardinia, $200; Sweden, Missionary Union, $200; Baptist mission in Germany, $400; Lower Saxony Tract Society, $100; Dr. Marriott, Basle, $200; Belgium, $200; Paris Religious Tract Society, $800: total, $10,000.

AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION.

THE anniversary meeting of the American Sunday School Union was held on Tuesday evening, May 4th, at Concert Hall, Philadelphia.

In the Annual Report allusion is made to the late unfaithful officer, and a full explanation given of the manner in which confidence had been betrayed. It is also stated that the managers, with the aid of a few friends, have personally provided for the payment of the entire loss arising from the fraudulent transactions.

While the Society has not issued as many new books the past year as usual, its sales have been $168,701 77, nearly as large as in any former year. It is, however, shown that the institution, after having prosecuted its work for thirty-four years, during which time it has prepared and put into circulation books to the value of two million five hundred thousand dollars, and expended another million of dollars in organizing and sustaining Sunday Schools, has accumulated no capital. All the profits have been expended in planting and supporting Sunday Schools in the destitute portions of the country.

The receipts of the Society, in the purely benevolent department of its operations, for the fiscal year ending February 28, 1858, have been-from legacies, $1470; from donations, $60,605 14. Total, $65,075 14.

There has been a falling off from the receipts of the previous year, in the donations and collections, of $12,377 23.

A suggestive account is given of the sources of revenue to sustain the missionary work, from which it appears that more than one-half of the entire receipts come from the States of New York and Pennsylvania.

Less than one-half of the gross receipts came in the form of church collections, while about $14,000 came from Sunday Schools or juvenile associations, and nearly $18,000 were received as donations.

The following are from the reports of missionaries labouring in seventeen different States and Territories:

For seven years we find that there have been organized, through the direct agency of the missionaries, nearly fourteen thousand new Sunday Schools, containing more than half a million of children, a very large proportion of whom never before entered a Sunday School class.

The report contains extended extracts from missionary correspondence, designed to show that the Sunday School sustains an intimate relation to popular education, public morals, family religion, church extension, Christian benevolence, Bible circulation, and that it bears an intimate relation to all the great reformatory movements of the day.

AMERICAN HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

THE thirty-second anniversary of the Home Missionary Society was celebrated on Wednesday evening, May 12, at the Church of the Puritans. Judge Jessup occupied the chair. The following is a condensed abstract of the reports:

The number of ministers of the Gospel in the service of the Society, in twenty-four different States and Territories, has been 1012. Eleven missionaries have preached to congregations of coloured people, and fortyone in foreign languages. The aggregate of ministerial labour performed is equal to 795 years. Sixty-six churches have been organized by the missionaries during the year, and forty-seven have become self-supporting. The additions to the churches, as nearly as can be ascertained, have been 6784-viz., 3680 on profession, and 3104 by letter. In but three other years, since the organization of the Society, has there been so large an accession to the churches aided. One hundred and fifty-two missionaries make special mention of works of grace in churches to which they minister, many of which are described as of great interest and power, bringing persons of every age and profession and condition in life to the feet of Jesus. Sixty, seventy-five, ninety, and one hundred conversions have taken place in some congregations, until whole families and neighbourhoods were rejoicing together in the love of Christ, with scarce an individual remaining in impenitence and unbelief among them. The number of hopeful conversions reported by four hundred and forty-one missionaries is 3350. Receipts, $175,901 37; expenditures, $190,735 70; leaving $11,046 47 still due to missionaries for labour performed; towards cancelling which, and meeting further claims on commissions daily becoming due, amounting in all to $80,080 59, there is a balance in the treasury of $86,489 07. The large balance in the treasury at the beginning of the year, occasioned by the payment of legacies near the close of the year preceding, in connection with the increased receipts of the last few months, has enabled the Committee to sustain their enlarged operations with less embarrassment, and they trust with less suffering to their missionary brethren, than they had reason to fear. The expenditures of the year exceed those of any other year of the Society's labours by $4124 68; the aumber of missionaries shows an increase over the preceding year of 38; and 1234 more have been added to the churches.

AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY.

THE Forty-second Anniversary of this Society was held at the Church of the Puritans, on May 13th, Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, President, in the chair, and a crowded audience in attendance. After the opening prayer, the President delivered a brief and beautiful address. The Treasurer's report was presented by Henry Fisher, Esq., Assistant Treasurer, and the Report by Rev. Dr. Brigham. We give the following abstract:

During the year past, seventy-two new Life Directors have been added, and 1589 Life Members. In the same time, eighty-nine new Auxiliaries, most of them in the new States and Territories. The receipts of the year

have been $390,759 49. Of this sum, $252,831 04 were from the sale of books, and $137,928 45 from donations and legacies. This income is less than that of last year, the difference being mostly in legacies. The books printed have been 250,000 Bibles and 381,000 Testaments, and 500 volumes in raised letters for the Blind; making a total of 631,500. The issues of the year have been 716,878 volumes; making a total, since the formation of the Society, of 12,808,487. The number of Agents employed in the Home field is thirty-five, including those in California and Oregon. Three also are employed in foreign countries-one in Brazil, one in Spanish America, and one in Turkey. Grants of money for publishing the Scriptures abroad have been greater than ever before, amounting to $31,432 90. These funds have gone to France, Russia, Geneva (for Italy), Turkey, Persia, India (Northern and Southern), Siam, and China.

SEAMAN'S FRIEND SOCIETY.

THE thirtieth annual meeting of this society was held on May 10th, at Dr. Cheever's church. The following abstract of the annual report was presented:

"This Society now celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. In the foreign field it has at present fifteen stations, which are engaged to a greater or less extent in efforts for the spiritual good of seamen, beside four or five others which they hope to occupy as soon as their means will permit. These are not places of mere local effort, confined to the Bethel and the Sailor's Home, but centres of influence extending far around-to the seamen in port, to visitors who resort thither, to the fishing and whaling fleets of the neighbouring waters, to the maritime population of the cities and coasts, and incidentally to people of almost every class and nation who are borne on the current of trade, or travel within their reach.

"These stations are at St. John, in New Brunswick; in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, on the coast of the Baltic; at Havre, and Marseilles, in France; at Aspinwall, Panama, Buenos Ayres, and Valparaiso, on the South American coasts; at Honolulu, Lahaina, and Hilo, in the Sandwich Islands; in Micronesia; at Hong Kong, in China; and at Smyrna, in Asia Minor.

"The details of the work at these stations are full of interest. Bibles and tracts are distributed to the destitute; sick and dying seamen in the hospitals are visited with the consolations of the Gospel, and the Word of God is preached in Bethels and on shipboard, and through every form of influence the sailor is sought to be reclaimed from evil, and saved. Many thousands have thus been made sober and temperate, millions of dollars of their hard-earned wages have been saved from the land-sharks, and hundreds of souls been hopefully brought to Christ.

"In this country the Society grants aid to Bethel operations in several of our seaports, and has recently taken measures for increased effort in behalf of the ports of the South, where more than 150,000, principally northern seamen, annually resort. From these stations, and from nearly all the local Bethels and Societies upon our whole coast, has come to us most gratifying intelligence of the special presence of God's Spirit and the conversion of souls. It may be questioned whether any class of persons