The Seven Gifts. By the Archbishop of Canterbury. (Macmillan.) —This
volume oontaina the charge delivered to the Clergy and Churchwardens, by the Archbishop, at his primary visitation, together with some similar addresses (the charge is judiciously divided into portions of moderated length) given under similar circumstances in the diocese of Truro. " Judicious " is, perhaps, scarcely the highest epithet of praise that can be bestowed on such a document. Our Bishops are generally judicious. Indeed, it is more ; it strikes a higher note, seeks to deal with the inside rather than the outside of things, with the spirit more than with the letter, does not make an idol of organisation or overload the hearer or reader with details ; but seeks to purify and elevate the temper in which the Clergy and their lay helpers—for the charge contains some very good advice to church- wardens—are to set about their work. When the Archbishop deals with particulars, he has something valuable and genuinely practical to say. Perhaps he is a little hard on the practice of Evening Communion. "Rashly adventured" it may be, but it was surely the Apostolic practice. On the subject of Communion generally, and the thorny question of Confession, he says some excellent things. The statement of the origin and nature of Church Endowments is admirable. It does not bir the action of the State about them ; but it confutes the ridiculous assertion that they are State gifts. We may also specially commend to our readers some wise words on "Morals," in the seventh discourse.
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