31 DECEMBER 1881, Page 24

Robert Hall. By the Rev. E. Paxton Hood. (Hodder and

Stoughton.)—It is not likely that many people now-a-days read Robert Hall's sermons, but the man himself is not by any means for- gotten. Mr. Hood does good service, when he tells the story of his life to a younger generation. In this story there are strange things, but nothing that diminishes our admiration for this brave and gifted spirit. But bow strange the system which allowed that when not yet seventeen he should have made his first success, and suffered two painful failures as a preacher. In many respects things went hardly with Robert Hall. His ministry at Cambridge was a great success, and among those who are seldom to be seen in a meeting-house ; but then he hated Cambridge. It ought, he said, to be "the very focus for suicides." At Leicester he was happier, but a cruelly painful dis- ease continued to torture him. Mr. Hood gives as a striking picture of his courage, his disinterestedness, and his liberality. What would be said now to a Baptist minister who invited Unitarians to fill his pulpit ?