The sermon of which we have reproduced the dingy title-page seemed worthy of rescue from half a dozen handfuls of booksellers' rubbish. The treatise itself is solid, and a trifle heavy according to our modern ideas, but its existence proves that a solution was found in London nearly two hundred years ago for a difficulty which to-day perplexes ministers of all denominations. Young men would come to church, and were willing to be taught and, even further, to be questioned when they got there. "Consideration" is hardly a subject that would appeal to a youthful audience at the close of the nineteenth century. But there are signs that the strenuous efforts made in every department of the Church are winning back young men to exhortation and worship, though the methods pursued are probably more lively than those adopted with such apparent success by the Rev. Mr. Billingsly of the Old Jewry. That divine, however, had not to cope with the comparative secularisation of Sunday, and with what somebody has cleverly called the "era of cyclisation."
"A Mother's Bible."
In our December number we published some touching lines under the above title, which were sent to us by a correspondent who was unaware of the authorship of the poem. Since their publication we have received several inquiries as to the author's identity, and if any of our readers should be aware of the name of the author, we should be very glad to hear from such, and to pass on the information to the inquirers.
ROLL OF HONOUR FOR SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORKERS.
The Special Silver Medal and Presentation Bible offered for the longest known Sunday-school service in the county of Wiltshire (for which applications were invited up to December 31st, 1898) have been gained by
Mr. Matthew Henry Trent,
Berry Cottage, Holt, near Trowbridge,
who has distinguished himself by fifty-nine years' service in Holt Congregational Sunday School.
As already announced, the next territorial county for which claims are invited for the Silver Medal is
DURHAM
and applications, on the special form, must be received on or before January 31st, 1899. We may add that Devonshire is the following county selected, the date-limit for claims in that case being February 28th, 1899. This county, in its turn, will be followed by the territorial county of Kent, for which the date will be one month later—viz. March 30th, 1899.