till they reach food and rest,--now running up the river in a
steam-tug, scrambling eggs in a wash-basin over a spirit-lamp as they
go,--now groping their way, at all hours of the night, through torrents
of rain, into dreadful places crammed with sick and dying men, "calling
back to life those in despair from utter exhaustion, or again and again
catching for mother or wife the last faint whispers of the dying,"--now
leaving their compliments to serve a disappointed colonel instead of his
dinner, which they had nipped in the bud by dragging away the stove with
its four fascinating and not-to-be-withstood pot-holes;--and let the
sutler's name be wreathed with laurel who not only permitted this, but
offered his cart and mule to drag the stove to the boat, and would take
no pay!

The blessings of thousands who were ready to perish, and of tens of
thousands who love their country and their kind, rest upon those who
originated, and those who sustain, this noble work. Let the people's
heart never faint and its hand never weary; but let it, of its
abundance, give to this Commission full measure, pressed down, shaken
together, and running over, that, wherever the red trail of war is seen,
its divine footsteps may follow,--that, wherever the red hand of war is
lifted to wound, its white hand may be lifted to heal,--that its work
may never cease until it is assumed by a great Christian Government, or
until peace once more reigns throughout the land. And even then,
gratitude for its service, and joy in its glory, shall never die out of
the hearts of the American people.

* * * * *

_The History of the Supernatural, in all Ages and Nations, and in all
Churches, Christian and Pagan, demonstrating a Universal Faith_. By
WILLIAM HOWITT. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co.

There has been a great change of late years in connection with the
science of Pneumatology and with the manner of treating it. There was a
revolution of opinion on this subject in the middle of the last century;
there is a counter-revolution to-day.

The superstitions and credulities of the Middle Ages eventuated, during
the course of the eighteenth century, in the Encyclopaedism of French
philosophy. The grounds upon which the Church based her doctrine of the
supernatural were fiercely attacked. The proofs brought forward to prove
the insufficiency of such grounds were assumed to prove more than lack
of logic in the Church; they w