5 OCTOBER 1889, Page 26

Colloquies on Preaching. By Henry Twells. (Longmans.)— Various people talk

together in these pages about a subject which really interests people more than they are always willing to allow. In the first we have a clergyman telling us why he is going to publish a volume of sermons, and why he is going to give them the title of "Lost Labour." This dialogue is an excellent intro- duction to the rest; it states the difficulty, and it suggests the answer. The preacher thinks that- his sermons are wholly ineffective. But if each, if any proportion of them, produced a visible effect, what a revolution would be produced ! The advance of the world does not go on by "leaps and bounds." In the next, a " Merchant" gives some good advice to a " Lawyer " and a " Doctor;" and in the third, a " candid friend " gives some very

plain speech to a Curate. Then we have a conversation at aclub, and then, by way of contrast, the discussion at a ruridecanal

meeting. Altogether, many views are set forth, and set forth in a way from which those who preach and those who listen can hardly fail to learn something.