11 NOVEMBER 1893, Page 23

The Godly Life. By W. E. liumphry, D.D. (Rivingtons.)— These

sermons, preached in the church of St. Martin's-in-the- Fields, though not notable for any special intellectual power, though they do not recall King,sley, much less Maurice, are carefully and yet simply written, and may be heartily commended from their containing the sort of preaching calculated to do good in a large metropolitan parish. Most readers of this book, however, will find the biography which is prefixed to the sermons the most interesting portion of this volume. It is the story of a man of a singularly gentle and sweet nature, and of considerable culture. At Cambridge he was Senior Classic and second Chancellor's Medallist in 1837, as well as twenty-seventh Wrangler in a strong mathematical year—who forsook the law for the Church, and devoted himself absolutely to its work. In 1855 he was called to the cure of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and retained it till his death. We can well believe that "those who knew him best could tell also of the beautiful simplicity and purity of his character ; of the tenderness of heart which lay concealed. under a calm exterior, though never far below the surface —tenderness which was brought out in a wonderful way by the

sight of suffering, and which was coupled with a power of 'righteous anger' in the presence of cruelty or any low form of vice, not easily to be forgotten by those who saw it revealed." Dr. Humphry's work as a pioneer, mainly in connection with New Testament revision, will never be forgotten. This volume ensures the immortality of his work as a parish incumbent.