of perpendicularly, and into a mountain-side instead of the "bowels of the earth." In running a cut for the tunnel they struck a large stream, and will doubtless, as things appear, find enough before going much further, to supply a large population. It is thought that the water-mine will pay much better than the silver-mines.

TERRIBLE CALAMITY.-One of the most fearful tragedies that ever occurred took place in Santiago, Chili, on the night of December 8th. The feast of the Virgin Mary had been celebrated for several days with great pomp, and on the last night of the festival the temple, in which the worshipers of the Virgin assembled, was lighted up with thousands of lamps and candles, and decorated with paper hangings and festoons on all the walls and the roof. Three thousand persons, mostly women and girls, were crowded together in the church, filling every nook. They were the flower of the beauty and fashion of the capital, and were waiting for the religious services to begin; when suddenly the drapery around the great image of the Virgin above the altar took fire. Almost in a moment the festoons of paper and pasteboard devices to the wooden roof rolled a torrent of flame. The suddenness of the fire was awful. The dense mass of women, frightened out of their senses, many of them fainting, and all entangled by their long swelling dresses, rushed, as those who knew that death was at their heels, to the door, which soon became choked up. Fire was every-where. Streaming along the wooden ceiling, it flung the paraffine lamps hung in rows there among the struggling women. In a moment the gorgeous church was a sea of flame. Michael Angelo's fearful picture of hell was there, but exceeded.

Help was all but impossible. A Hercules might have strained his strength in vain to pull one from the serried mass of frenzied wretches who, piled one above another as they climbed over to reach the air, wildly fastened the gripe of death upon any one escaping, in order that they might be dragged out with them. A few were rescued from the fire; but imprisoned as it was by the immense thickness of the walls, it devoured every thing combustible by 10 o'clock, and hurried two thousand souls to the judgment-seat of God. History records many terrible calamities, but none in modern times like this. Almost every family in Santiago mourns the loss of some one of its members-a loss the more overwhelming because their dead could not be identified amid that mass of charred and blackened corpses.

NATIONAL ALMANAC.-The National Almanac and American Record, for the present year, is announced by the publisher, George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, and before this notice reaches our readers will be on sale. It exhibits the political, financial, economical, and military condition and progress of the United States for the years 1862 and 1863, and gives a statement of the finances, debts, banks, schools, charitable and reformatory institutions, Churches, etc., of the several States. It likewise contains a history of current events, and embraces the miscellaneous statistics of outside nations. It is printed in 12mo, and numbers over 500 pages.

NEW BOOKS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS.-The book trade bas of late been quite active, and nearly all the pub

lishing houses in the country have added largely to their lists of publications. The publishers of the Western Book Concern have recently added to the General Catalogue the following new works: Home Views of the Picturesque and Beautiful, and Portraits of Celebrated Women with Brief Biographies, edited by Dr. Clark; Literary Characteristics and Achievements of the Bible, by Rev. W. Trail, A. M.; Temptation and Triumph, with Other Stories, by Virginia F. Townsend; Rosedale, a Story of Self-Denial, by Mrs. H. C. Gardner; Outposts of Zion, with Limnings of Mission Life, by Rev. Wm. H. Goode; Jottings from Life, or Passages from the Diary of an Itinerant's Wife, by Helen R. Cutler; Extracts from the Diary of a Country Pastor, by Mrs. H. C. Gardner; and Maple Grove Stories, Series 1, for Little Readers, by June Isle, conThese works have taining ten volumes in a box. all been very successful, and within a few weeks of their publication second editions of Outposts of Zion, Temptation and Triumph, Rosedale, and Literary Characteristics of the Bible were required to meet the demand for them,

The following books are in press and will shortly appear: The Two Sabbaths, by Rev. E. Q. Fuller; Colenso's Fallacies, by Rev. C. H. Fowler; Lectures and Addresses, by Dr. Dempster; a new Body of Divinity, by Dr. T. N. Ralston; Contributions to the Early History of the North-West, including the Moravian Missions in Ohio, by the late S. P. Hildreth, M. D.; Man All Immortal, by Rev. D. W. Clark, D. D.; and Dr. Nast's Commentary in English.

THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN QUESTION.-In the year 1326, after a long contest, the territory of Schleswig was declared to be independent of Denmark, and never to be again united. When the ducal line of Schleswig became extinct, the Duchy was ceded in 1387 to the Count of Holstein; and in 1460 the King of Denmark, by a solemn covenant, secured to the two estates of Schleswig and Holstein their eternal union. By a complication, of which history gives numerous instances, the right of succession to the government of Schleswig-Holstein and the throne of Denmark came at last to be united in one person, just as from 1714 to 1837 the crowns of both England and Hanover were worn by the Georges. The independence of the Duchies remained, however, undisturbed; but it has been the policy of the royal dynasty in Denmark so to unite these outlying States with the monarchy that the crown of the Duchies may never revert to another family. The efforts of the King to secure this end were unsucc:ssful till the year 1852, when the revolution which had broken out in Germany and the northern kingdoms of Europe gave the Danes the power to declare the annexation of the Duchies to the Danish kingdom. Though annexed, they are not united with the kingdom; and the sovereign of Denmark still allowed them to retain each its own Diet, benevolent institutions, educational enterprises, and individual charities. The present King of Denmark holds the Duchies only by operation of the law allowing succession in the female line, but this law was never acknowledged in the Duchies, and has not been binding on them. Hence the claim of the Prince Augustenberg to the Duke dom, as he is the next heir-male after the late King.

"

(1.) FIVE YEARS OF PRAYER, WITH THE ANSWERS.Bu Samuel Irenæus Prime. 12mo. 375 pp. $1.25. New York: Harper & Brothers. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co. We have read the present volume with scarcely less interest than we read the Power of Prayer" by the same author some five years ago. It embodies a large number of answers to prayer" that were reported from time to time in the "daily prayer meetings" in New York city. Some of them are most striking in their character-illustrating the special providence of God in answers to prayer. Over 100,000 copies of the "Power of Prayer" have been circulated. We trust this may have an equally wide field of usefulness.

(2.) PAPERS FOR THOUGHTFUL GIRLS, with Illustra tive Sketches of some Girls' Lives. By Sarah Tytler. 12mo. 344 pp. Boston: Crosby & Nichols. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co.-This volume contains fifteen papers discussing the following topics: Youth, Intellect, Beauty, Favor, Ambition, Pleasure, Friendship, Love, Godliness, Kindness, Fashion, the Life of Pride. and Levity, the Life of Sense and Heaviness, the Life of Sarcasm and Bitterness, and Consolations. They are written in a thoughtful, earnest spirit, exhibiting not only a keen insight into the thoughts, feelings, impulses, and habits of the class addressed, but a wonderful skill and fertility of suggestion adapted to the great variety of individual cases. The volume is also possessed of high literary merit, being written in a style of great literary excellence. Some of the topics are illustrated with appropriate narratives. Solidity, sense, adaptation, and strong impelling force are characteristics. Let us excerpt a passage from the paper on Godliness:

"Without some form of godliness there can be no sure virtue, no firm principle. All excellence, not built on the foundation of the conception of God, the fear of God, the love of God, is the foolish man's house upon the sand- the wind blew, and the storm rose, and great was the fall of it.' Even irreligious men and women have a dim, restless, inconsistent perception of this fact. A woman without God in the world is an awfully sad and strange spectacle. By woman came sin and death into the world; the seed of the woman bruised the serpent's head; the Lord was born of a woman; women followed his footsteps; women ministered unto him; women were last at the cross and first at the sepulcher. And of the Master's exceeding tenderness for women we have proof in his generous, mindful, touching speech, even, on the Dolorous way, fainting under his own mighty sorrows and humiliations, 'Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but rather weep for yourselves.' A woman's heart, unsoftened by that divine love, unmelted by that incomparable sacrifice-we repeat it, an unbelieving, reckless, crafty, vain, light woman is an awfully sad and strange spectacle

Brothers. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co.-Whoever buys this volume expecting to obtain a treatise on bullion, coins, or coinage, will be disappointed. It is a coinage from the brain of a novelist, and not from the Philadelphia mint. It is said to rank among the best of Mr. Reade's productions.

(4.) NEW MUSIC.-Our thanks are due to W. W. Whitney, music publisher, Toledo, O., for three pieces of music just published by him-" Realm of the West"-30 cents-words by Amanda T. Jones, and music by Charles G. Degenhard;"Touch not my Sister's Picture"-25 cents-words by Mrs. G. S. Kellogg, and music by T. M. Towne; "We'll Conquer or Die"25 cents-words by Maggie Kilmer, and music by H. Gordon. Our readers will perceive that one of our own contributors is complimented by the first piece of music named above.

(5.) LIFE AND CorrespondencE OF THEODORE PARKER. By John Weiss. 8vo. 2 vols. Pp. 478, 530. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Cincinnati: Rickey & Carroll-The frontispiece of the first of these volumes is a portrait, not remarkably well-engraved, of the subject at the age of thirty-six. The second has for its frontispiece an engraving of W. W. Story's bust of Mr. Parker. Several additional engravings illustrate each volume. The three years devoted to the preparation of this work Mr. Weiss has industriously occupied, not only in gathering the incidents of his life, but also in calling in his letters, scattered, in a voluminous correspondence, all over this country and England. These letters constitute no small portion of the bulk of these volumes, and, we may add, no small portion of the interest that attaches to them. For here we read the interior, every day life of the great theologico-political agitator. While much in these letters are mere common-places, they are interesting from their simplicity of style and the frankness with which they unfold the thoughts and feelings, as well as the life-experiences. of the author. And then, in many of them, there are flashes of brilliant thought, dashes of keen criticism, and grave dicta, quaintly but strongly enunciated. They, more than any thing else, indicate the wide range of his study and the vast amount of his reading. In his narrative Mr. Weiss affects the style of his subject. This perhaps is well, as one would desire to see Theodore Parker in his own garb and attitudes. The history and character of this great but eccentric man-how he became what he was his antagonisms to sound theology and religion-his deification of self, and yet his intermixture of broad humanitarian views and freedom-loving aims-all these may afford lessons worthy of study. The keen eye of the student, however, should be directed not merely to the energy that in his youth bore him upward and onward amid poverty and discouragements; not only to his independence of character and his daring assertion of the rights of thought; not only to the intellectual championship attained by him; but also to the quick.

sands upon which he was stranded, the rock upon which he split, so that he may learn why gifts of intellect so noble, acquirements so rich and varied, resulted in so little fruit to the cause of religion or humanity. That Theodore Parker made an impression upon his age all must admit; that his talents were often employed in vain effort to undermine the sure foundations of religious faith makes us regret less the ephemeral nature of his influence and his fame.

(6) HARPER'S PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION-Number 6 of this great work begins with the secession of seven States and the organization of the Confederacy, and brings the history down to the battle of Carnifex Ferry, in Western Virginia.

(7) BLACKWOOD, for January, contains, Captain Speke's Journal; Tom Butler-Part IV; The Mind and the Body: Chronicles of Carlingford: The Perpetual Curate Part VIII; Winchester College and Commoners; Letter from Poland-Number IV; A Song of Proverbs; The European Crisis. L. Scott & Co., New York city.

upon our table: 1. The Charter of Liberty. A Thanksgiving sermon preached in the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church, by Rev. Wm. Major, of the Philadelphia Conference. 2. The Present Crowned with Goodness, the Future Full of Hope. A thanksgiving sermon preached in Liberty Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Pittsburg, by Rev. W. A. Davidson, of the Pittsburg. Conference. 3. Purgatory. A sermon preached at Barnesville, Md., by Rev. Samuel V. Leech, of the Baltimore Conference.

(9.) CONFERENCE MINUTES. 1. Minnesota-Bishop Ames, President; Jabez Brooks, Secretary. 2. SouthEastern Indiana Conference-Bishop Baker, President; J. B. Lathrop, Secretary.

(10.) MISCELLANEOUS PAMPHLETS.-1. Catalogue of the Biblical Literary Society of Alleghany College. 2. Twenty Seventh Annual Report of the Ohio Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb. 3. Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the National Association of Local Preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 4. Address of Bishop Simpson te

ENGRAVINGS-VEXATIOUS DELAYS.-As intimated in our last number, we were subjected to very unexpected and vexatious delays in getting out our January and February numbers. Our patrons have borne with the delay with a patience that demands our hearty thanks. We trust the present number will be "on time," or very nearly so, and that hereafter we shall be guarded against the mishaps that have embarrassed us the past two months.

INCREASE OF CIRCULATION.-Our friends will be glad to learn that our circulation has received quite an enlargement with the opening of the present volume. Our increase bids fair to reach seven thousand. This does not quite carry us up to our old standard— ante bellum of 40,000. But we trust another year of prosperity will go even beyond that limit. The men and women are living now-and in middle life toowho will see the Repository with a circulation of more than a hundred thousand.

Pardon us if, at this point, we select a single item, showing how the work may be done up. Rev. J. D. Norton, of the Erie Conference, stationed at Newcastle, says:

I am happy to be able to say, that by some little effort I have secured ninety subscribers in my charge, where only seven were taken last year. I am fully satisfied that a faithful and persevering effort on the part of all the agents would give this worthy magazine a circulation of at least 100,000. Who can make a better report than that? Thanks to our brother ministers! thanks to their noble, self-sacrificing wives! thanks to all our friends, lay and clerical, who have borne us so successfully through another campaign! May the Repository be a missive of blessing in every family-a messenger of good to every individual.

NOTE TO CONTRIBUTORS.-It is often difficult for us to determine, at the first reading, whether we will use an article or not. We may have a surplus of its class, or a paper discussing the same theme, or, which is more common, among a number of articles it is often difficult to determine which will be best adapted to our use, and we are compelled to wait to see if this particular article will come in well, before we can determine definitely whether we will use it or not. Hence we can not and do not respond to the frequent requests for an immediate answer whether we will use a com

munication. We wish our correspondents, one and all, to understand that our main endeavor is to make up each number of the Repository with suitable variety and out of the best material on hand. That end secured, our next aim is to accommodate ourself to the wishes and claims of all.

ARTICLES DECLINED.-The following articles are respectfully declined: Prose. The Holy Messenger; Gray's Elegy; Nellie Enfield; Franklin; Shadows and Song; The Patience of Hope; In Silence; Anecdotes of Dr. Beecher; Twilight Musings; Henry Kirke White.

Poetry. Light in Darkness; The Widow's Son Restored to Life; Twilight; The Soldier's Mother; The Autumn Breeze; To Emma; The Soldier Boy; Acrostic; The Welcome Rain; What God Did; Friendship; Alone; The Winter Storm; Come, Mamma; Words; To S. D. L.; O, Freemen, Look upon this Flag; Go, Dearest, Go; My Sister's Grave; My Sister Mary's Death; Estella; The Pearl of Great Price; Little Alice; Pleading; In the Furnace; Brave Men are Falling; The Martyr of Freedom; A Fragment; A Call; Twilight Musings; Little Annie; United; A Sermon in the Wood; Changed; The Trouble; Fresh Flowers; Sing to Me; Sad and Weary is this Heart; The Soldier's Wife:

A Dream; The Midnight Guest; An Angel's Visit to the Earth; Song of the Work-Woman; Marah; Sleeping.

DEATH OF MRS. DR. THOMSON.-Our readers are already apprised of the death of the wife of Dr. Thomson, formerly editor of the Repository, and now editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal. Though in poor health for the past few years, her departure was sudden and unexpected, especially to her distant friends. Others will tell the story of her life and depict the excellent traits of her character. It is ours to utter the word of sympathy for the bereaved. And here we only express what thousands feel; for both the departed and the bereaved shared largely in the confidence and love of their wide circle of acquaint

ances.

WILLIE KINGSLEY.-Our co-laborer, Dr. Kingsley, has been sadly afflicted in the death of a lovely and promising son, nearly six years of age. The angels came down and bore him away. He loved, young as he was, to sing the sweet songs of Zion here. Are we not warranted in the belief that he now sings them with still sweeter melody among the angels of God? The comfort of this faith belongs to the Christian. It is not designed to remove the agony nature suffers in such bereavements; for that would be to make us stoics. Its higher office is to tone and elevate the sorrow of the heart, and make it a source of spiritual discipline and nurture. From our own deep and sad experience we have learned to feel for those who sorAnd we thank God, not that we have been bereaved, but that we have learned the value of the spiritual discipline of sorrow.

row.

NOTE FROM THE WIDOW OF A SOLDIER.-It is sad to think that there are probably not less than a hundred and fifty thousand who are companions in similar bereavement with the one who penned the following touching letter:

Although a stranger to you, I am no stranger to your valuable Repository. It was a New-Year's gift from my dear husband in 1861-the year in which he enlisted in the cause so sacred to every lover of justice, right, and freedom-since which time I have continued to take it, and find pleasure and profit in perusing its pages.

My beloved husband fell in the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, and O, how dark and heavy was that cloud which overspread my sky! But did I look in vain for the bow of promise? No, it was there; and in the darkest hour of my life the promises came out in hallowing, sanctifying, comforting influences; they were "yea and amen in Christ Jesus." The widow's God did not desert me.

I had a beautiful babe, the pet of the household, the youngest of three, the sight of whose sweet face had never gladdened her father's eyes. All who saw admired her; her mind was far in advance of her age, and when only fourteen months old it was a lovely sight to see her, soon as undressed, slide off my lap untold, kneel down, put her little hands together, and try to say a prayer before going to sleep; and if put into her cradle without having first performed her little duty, she would not lie still, and several times during a day she would in like manner kneel down beside a chair. When placed at the table she would wait with clasped hands till a blessing was asked. Perfectly healthy and strong she bid fair for life; but, alas! disease fastened its deadly fangs upon her, and in three days hurried her away from my arms, before she was sixteen months old. Thus, within five short months, I have been twice bereaved, and far away from my kindred and my native land I have been called to drink deep, deep of the cup

of sorrow. The waves and billows of affliction have gone over me, the waters have entered into my soul, but I have not been destroyed. He who placed the bow in the cloud has been with me; yes, unworthy, sinful as I am, I know he graciously sustains and strengthens me, or most assuredly I should sink. In all my trials I have still cause for much thankfulness; would to God that all the thousands of wives, who have suddenly been made widows, were in possession of the same rich consolations! Having long ago sought and found the Savior, my husband was prepared for death, and I have no doubt but he left the bloody field of strife and carnage for the glories, peace, and happiness of heaven. He was heartily devoted to the cause of his adopted country. He lived beloved and died regretted by all who knew him. My little darling is removed from suffering, temptation, sin, and sorrow, and is still "my baby" in heaven. Thank God for the glorious Gospel which gives me the hope of meeting my loved ones again, where "there shall be no more death."

M. A. N.

THE INDIANA ASBURY UNIVERSITY.-A brother sends the action of the four Indiana Conferences, unitedly resolving to raise, as their great centennial offering, $400,000 to complete the buildings and endow the departments of the Indiana Asbury University. We had overlooked this movement when we made our editorial note in our January number. But it is a movement in the right direction. It is not only grand in its conception, but feasible in its execution. Let the preachers and leading members of the Church rally to the work unitedly and heartily, and the scheme will be consummated. We have too many sickly colleges-absolutely dying for want of means. The time has come for something better. Ohio and Indiana are the States to lead off in the matter, and their two favorite institutions present claims that can not be ignored.

REPUBLICATION OF THE BRITISH REVIEWS AND BLACKWOOD.-The American literary public have for years been under obligations to Leonard Scott & Co., of New York city, for the republication of the four leading British quarterlies and Blackwood's Magazine. The politico-religious complexion of each may be gathered from the following classification:

The London Quarterly-Conservative.
The Edinburgh Review-Whig.

The North British Review-Free Church.
The Westminster Review-Liberal.
Blackwood's Magazine-Tory.

Notwithstanding the increased cost of printing, they are published at former rates, as follows: