Lamps, Pitchers, and Trumpets. Lectures delivered to Students for the
Ministry on the Vocation of the Preacher. By Edwin Paxton Hood (Jackson, Walford, and Hodder.)—Undor an extremely affected title, and in a book of intolerable size, Mr. Hood has given some good advice to preachers, and told some amusing stories. Advice and stories would be more likely to be taken and read if there had been 300 pages, instead of 700. The copious extracts from what Mr. Hood considers model. sermons were no doubt useful when his lectures were delivered, but have a different effect in a printed volume. If, as we might almost infer from the tone of many passages, Mr. Hood does not wish for readers beyond the circle, or rather the obtuse-angled triangle, of his own denomination, he has done wisely. But the omission of a few of those sneers at others which he resents so much when aimed against himself, a little moderation in quoting, and more than a little compres- sion in writing would make his book generally useful. We should have thought some of his anecdotes were addressed to a profane audience. They must appear unsanctified to the pious.
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