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in it. These societies of young men have done already a mighty work in the world; they are working noiselessly, but certainly, and their fruits shall hereafter be glorious. We regard not now so much their effects on the minds of their members—their tendency to produce social and moral elevation, to rescue them from the many snares which beset them, and the many evils which oppress them; we rather look at them as aids to our common Christianity, as raising up an army of soldiers who will fight manfully against infidelity and sin, when the present combatants have passed away. Their existence is one of the brightest spots in the horizon of the future; for we are persuaded that the great battle between the Church and the world must soon come to a crisis; the time of conflict seems to loom close before us, and when it commences we shall feel our need of union. Infidelity makes war not upon this or that section of the Church, but upon Christianity at large, and before its onset can be driven back, Christians must be bonded together by some closer tie than at present binds them. We are therefore delighted to think that there is a prospect of a large section of the Christian laity, throughout the world, rising up for Christ simultaneously and in union; that in the shops, and countinghouses, and offices of every large town in Christendom, there is in training one vast and mighty host which shall roll back, by God's help, the flood of iniquity and unbelief, showing to the world at once the power of united strength, and the efficacy of Christian faith. God grant that the confederation may be blessed!

INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATIONS.

We have before treated at some length on the proposed changes in the appointment of Writers for the Civil Service of the Honourable East India Company. The first examination of candidates has since been held, and the rich prizes at stake, the high character of the examiners, and the importance attending the selection of the future governors of our Indian Empire, attracted considerable public attention. The results were on the whole most satisfactory, although they afterwards met with a most searching scrutiny; not that their fairness was impugned, but that the methods by which they had been obtained crossed debateable ground. The controversy mainly resolved itself into two points; first, the prominence due to mathematics, secondly, the necessity for a vivâ voce examination.

With regard to the former, we think, with all our reverence for mathematics, that the place assigned to them by the examiners was the right one. The object of the examination is, to ascertain which of the candidates possessed a good general knowledge of many subjects, or an exact knowledge of one or two. Accordingly, a man may gain one of the appointments by a thorough knowledge of English or the classics, because, in fact, each of these (especially as treated by the examiners) forms a cluster of many subjects of indefinite extent-such as history, antiquities, geography, &c.; whereas mathematics form but a single subject, with no collateral branches,-so that a man may be a very good mathematician, without knowing a jot of any other subject whatever. If the intention of the examination were simply to confer an honorary distinction, mathematics ought, undoubtedly, to have a higher place; but of the two points necessary to attain the end proposed, riz., first, a mental training, based on an accurate knowledge; secondly, the power of expression; the former only is furnished by the exact sciences, while both are necessary to enable a man to answer well the classical questions of the late examination.

With regard to the other moot-point-that of viva voce examinations-we regret that so serious an omission was made. The Company does not require awkward, nervous, or shy men for her magistracies and collectorships; and yet a mere paper examination may admit many such. A ready judgment, a quick perception, and a fluent tongue, are quite as essential as an accurate knowledge; and we hope that some opportunity will hereafter be afforded for allowing the examiners to place them in the scale of merits, for we are convinced that but little good will result to India from the change, if the race of dashing ignoramuses is supplanted by a race of learned simpletons or cowards. A viva voce examination, when conducted by a thoroughly competent examiner, is probably the finest possible test of a man's intellectual qualities; since it not merely brings out his knowledge in all its fulness, but also throws light upon those most valuable gifts the gifts of prompt apprehension and clear expression.

WELLINGTON'S MONUMENT.

THE execution of Wellington's Monument, in St. Paul's Cathedral, has been at length definitely fixed upon. Two English sculptors sent in models, by invitation of Government; but neither of them being deemed worthy of the

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hero, the commission was entrusted to Baron Marochetti. This is but an act of public reparation to that eminent sculptor; for our readers will recollect the disgraceful treatment which his magnificent equestrian statue of _Richard Cœur de Lion received last year, when Sir Charles Barry ordered it to be removed from its position in Old Palace Yard, because, forsooth, "it spoiled the look of the Palace!"

We have full confidence in Baron Marochetti, and we indulge in the hope that he will not desecrate God's holy temple by adding another to the many marble effigies of pagan deities, which are as hideous to behold as they are heathenish to think of. A Christian monument to a Christian hero! Although we need no sculptured marble to remind us of Wellington. His momnuent is around us on every side. Our busy streets, our thronged exchanges, our peaceful homes, ought to stand before us as perpetual memorials of him, who, under God's blessing, stemmed the tide of Napoleonic conquest, and spared our land from calamities which we dare not now conceive.

Literature of the Quarter Classified and Reviewed.

SO great has been the dearth of really good books this quarter-so engrossing has been the interest of the war and its consequences-that there has been but little time or inclination to attend to anything else; we shall therefore not attempt this quarter our usual division, but dwell rather more at length on the principal points of the chief works which have appeared since we last addressed our readers. Of these, one of the most deeply interesting is the new volume of "Bampton Lectures."

New Testament Millenarianism; or, the Kingdom and Coming of Christ, as taught by Himself and his Apostles Set forth in eight Sermons, preached before the University of Oxford in the year 1854, at the Lecture founded by the late Rev. John Bampton, Canon of Salisbury. By the Hon. and Rev. Samuel Waldegrave, M.A., Rector of Barford St. Martin, Wilts, and late Fellow of All Souls College. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. 1855.

We shall not enter at present into the question discussed by this most valuable volume, nor will we express ourselves convinced by all its arguments; but we shall point out two or three topics on which the author has evidently thought deeply and reasoned accurately. He accepts the idea of a Millennium, but believes that the personal appearing of the Lord shall be at the close, not at the beginning of the thousand years, or rather at the close of that additional period during which Satan shall be loosed. We have no hesitation whatever in awarding to Mr. Waldegrave the praise of great fairness and candour, of much calm logical power, of a thorough acquaintance with all that has been written on his subject, and of being right in many points where others have been wrong. Let us hear his observation on the Restoration of the Temple worship, so zealously contended for by so many Pre-Millennarians :

"Nor can the ritual wall of partition between Jew and Gentile be raised up again.

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Many modern Pre-Millennarians, striving, though after all but ineffectually, to be consistently literal throughout, assert that it shall. Their expectation is confirmed, they say, by passages like this, David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; neither shall the priests the Levites want a man

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before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.' But it is in the latter portion of Ezekiel's prophecy that they discover the surest evidence that they are right. The fortieth and six following chapters of that book contain, they say, a very full and particular description of that temple which is yet to be built in the land of Israel. Nay more, the Lord condescends to do that a second time to Ezekiel, which once he did to his servant Moses; he condescends to prescribe the ordinances of the sanctuary, and that with a very remarkable minuteness of detail. For example; he specifies the number and position of the tables on which the sacrifices are to be slain; he gives directions concerning the places where they are to be boiled; he even provides for the hooks that are to be fastened round about.'

"It were easy to point out, in reply, how the literal interpretation of these and similar prophecies will involve its adherents in conclusions seriously at variance with each other. Thus one passage brings all the nations up to Jerusalem for to worship, while another authorizes their presenting to God in every place incense and a pure offering. One passage throws open the temple with all its services to the thronging Gentiles, while another forbids that they should enter there until they are circumcised not only in heart but also in flesh. Ezekiel again confines the priesthood to the sons of Zadok, while Jeremiah extends it to all the priests of the tribe of Levi; and Isaiah, stretching it far beyond either of these limits, confers it even upon strangers of the Gentiles."—pp. 95—97.

Another doctrine which requires a great deal of sifting and examination is that of the first resurrection; and we cordially recommend to all students of New Testament prophecy the remarks which follow :

"Here let me ask, whether it is not plain that the dead in Christ are said to rise first,—not in respect of the rest of them that sleep in the dust of the earth, but in respect of the saints who are alive and remain till the coming of the Lord. Those living saints shall not prevent, shall not meet the Lord sooner than, those which are fallen asleep. No: before any can be caught up to meet him in the air, the departed saints must first arise in bodies fashioned like unto the glorious body of their great Redeemer. Then, saith the apostle, we which are alive and remain being changed, and the whole church of God being thus individually perfect, and corporately complete, we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

"But the wicked are not even mentioned here,' some would rejoin. Yes, they are! Let us resume the broken thread of the apostolic argument;—that argument does not terminate with the fourth chapter: it is carried on to the end of the eleventh verse of the fifth chapter. I will however read but part of it. But of the times and the seasons,

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