6 AUGUST 1864, Page 22

Missions Apostolic und Modern. By Frederick W. Briggs. (Hamilton, Adams,

and Co.)—This book is really a commentary on the 13th and 14th chapters of the Acts of the Apostles,—the reference to modern missions being of a very cursory and unsatisfying character. As is usual in vague statements of this kind, the practical results of mis- sionary labour especially in India is grossly exaggerated. Indeed, Mr.

Briggs attributes every improvement in the social life of the Hindoos not to the example of Christians in India, but to the missionaries.

If the book is narrow and professional, it is not, however, sectarian in spirit ; but we must say that if the several chapters are not, as the author assures us, "sermonic in structure," they are amazingly so in tone.