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colorings of many of the popular religious journals of the day, and to erect a barrier against a sweeping and spurious liberality, which threatens to carry away, with a headlong current, the most impor: tant distinctions, and jumble together truth and specious error. The Presbyterian Review amply fulfills our desire, and we hail the coming forth of this champion on the Lord's side. No time-serving policy, no sickly sentimentalism, no spirit of accommodation be. tween truth and error, actuate its conductors. All is straight-forward, manly avowal of sound principles, and masterly exposure of specious falsehood, under whatever garb, or sanctioned by whatever name. The Reviews are luminous, and, in our judgment, most just and impartial; and the Intelligence is select and interesting. Were we to particularize, we would say, that with the re. views of Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers, and Davison on Prophecy, in the first number, and with those of Marshall on Ecclesiastical Establishments, and Edwards on the Freedom of the Will, and with the information respecting the Dutch Presbyterian Churches, we were much gratified. Thanks to the reviewers also for the able and satisfactory vindication of our much-loved version of the psalms;-with all the trifling defects in versification that the most keen-sighted scrutiny has been able to discover in them, the Scottish psalms of David are infinitely preferable to the flimsy and swollen compositions of hymnmakers, many of whom are most imperfectly indoctrinated into the mysteries of the gospel, and not

unfrequently in their effusions prefer sound to sense. As we can only afford space for a very brief notice, we conclude by expressing our earnest wish that the work may have an extensive cir. culation. Every Presbyterian minister, and lover of sound principles and good order, of whatever denomination, should be a subscriber to the Presbytetian Review.

2. LIBERIA by William Jones. Edinburgh, Waugh and Inness, 1831. This neat little work, which has just been pub. lished, contains the history of the establishment, progress, and present state of a colony of emancipated negroes, planted by the American Colonization Society, on the western coast of Africa.

3. SHIMEALL'S SCRIPTURAL CHART;-Sleight and Robinson, N. York. This chart presents the history, genealogy, geography, and chronology of the sacred scriptures, in one connected view. It is well arranged, and accompanied with a compendious history in the catechetical form. It has been recommended to public patronage by the pious and learned of the land: and it is believed, that it must, when known, succeed by its own merit. Hereafter, we shall bestow upon the work a more extended analytical review.

4. THE VOW :-a sermon by James R. Willson, D. D., Newburgh, 1831. C. H. Cushman, pp. 39, octavo. This discourse is from Eccles. v. 4., and was delivered after the dispensation of the Lord's supper. The text prescribing a general duty is fitly applied to the oath of sacramental

fellowship. The extent of our sacramental vow-the temptation to violate the engagement-and the duty of keeping our covenant -are illustrated by the author with plainness and force. We recommend it to the perusal of communicants in the church of God of every land.

5. SALVATION BY GRACE ;—a Sermon, by the Rev. William Symington, Stranraer; price 6d.—It gives us sincere pleasure to notice another sermon from the pen of our much esteemed friend, Mr. Symington, since the publication of our last number. Again must we express sorrow that our space does not allow us to do justice to the merits of the discourse be-fore us. It is really an able and excellent vindication of the method of salvation by grace, in opposition to Arminianism on the one hand, and Antimonianism on the other. Designed to bear witness against specious errors, that, in some places, seemed to threaten the peace and prosperity of the church, the author, with his characteristic clearness and unction, has exhibited all-important truths in an attractive light, and has completely refuted the sophistry of gainsayers. We doubt not that the general circulation of this valuable discourse will do much good. Salvation by grace is the inscribed character of all God's gracious dealings with sin. ners-it is the subject of constant and all-engrossing interest to the redeemed on eurth, and it enters into all the songs of the glorious company that surrounds the throne in heaven. Should not the friends of truth rejoice to see this topic illustrated, and handled

so as te build up and edify the faithful, and call into exercise the best feelings of the renewed heart? This has been effected by Mr. S. in his sermon—and therefore do we warmly recommend its perusal.

6. THE SCOTTISH MARTYRS.A discourse delivered in St. Michael's church-yard, Dumfries, on occasion of a collection for a monument commemorative of one who suffered in the cause of reformation, by the Rev. William Symington, Stranraer. Dumfries, June, 1831, pp. 57. octavo.

From the Covenanter.

REV. SAMUEL ALEXANDER.

The Rev. Samuel Alexander, the subject of the following biographical sketch, was born in Tyrkeeveney, parish of Glendermott, and county of Londonderry, in the year 1748, and was licensed to preach the everlasting gospel by the Reformed Presbytery in Ireland in the year 1782. He was soon after ordained. at Bready, to the office of the holy ministry, and pastoral oversight of a widely extended congregation, whose boundary at present includes three congregations, viz. Bready, Faughan, and Derry; where he labored faithfully and successfully for the space of ten years, and died, in the same place which gave him birth, on the 17th of July, 1793, aged only 45 years.

His parents, who were respectable and pious, were not wanting in duty and affection in leading their two sons, Samuel and Jacob, in the way they should go, training them up in the nurture

and admonition of the Lord; but they were removed by an early death from the charge committed to them, before they enjoyed the unspeakable comfort of seeing the promising fruit of their pious care ripen into full maturity. Their excellent father was removed first, and their widowed mother having found it expedient to form a second matrimonial connection, which she did not many years survive, the two brothers were left orphans. Under this double bereavement, however, the God of Jacob, to whom they had been devoted in baptism, and to whose gracious care they, no doubt, were often commended in fervent prayer, did not fail to take them up. Jacob, the younger, who survived his bro. ther more than thirty years, was distinguished by an extraordinary measure of religious knowledge, reputation for piety, wis. dom, and address, and filled the office of ruling elder in the Reformed Presbyterian Church for half a century, with much ability. Whether the father, previously to his death, had conceived and signified the design of having his son educated for the sacred ministry, we know not. The circumstance with whom it originated is quite immaterial. The event itself, and the testimony of many a soul's sweet experience to his singular usefulness, amply attest that, like the devoted son of Elkanah, and Aaron the priest, he was called of God; and by him separated from his mother's womb, like the apostle Paul, to reveal his Son in him.

The fact, that he had arrived at the age of manhood previous

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ly to the cemmencement of his course of education for the ministry, inclines us to determine in favor of the opinion that the design originated with himself. By comparing the date of his birth with that of his license, it is evident that he must have com. pleted his 34th year prior to his entering upon his public work. The advantage, therefore, of an early liberal education he did not possess. Perhaps, also, owing to the same circumstance, his classical and collegiate curriculum may have been rather hurried and circumscribed. A late and hasty education is a double disadvantage. But in Mr. A. it was counterbalanced by good natural gifts, and what was wanting in literature, science, and philosophy, was compensated by his thorough acquaintance with the oracles of God, with which, from a child, he had, like young Timothy, been daily conversant. classical eloquence and refined taste, his composition certainly had no claim. But in grammati cal accuracy and facility of utterance, he was excelled by few contemporaneous preachers. To the grace of oratory, embellishment of style and gesticulation, almost none in this country, at that period, had any pretensions, and their effect was little known. If his discourses were not enriched with various knowledge-if they did not savor strongly of scientific lore, or a profound acquaintance with philosophy, they were never disgusting with affectation or pedantry. Full of the richness of the marrow of the gospel, they were a sweet savor of life unto the believing soul; and

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bearing evident marks of having been diligently composed, by a judicious comparison of spiritual things with spiritual, they conveyed solid instruction to the understanding, whilst, by a skillful distribution of the sincere milk and the strong meat of the word of life, they were alike adapted to the sanctified taste of the babes and strong men in the Redeem. er's family. His sermons, like those of the divines of the olden time, generally, were rather diffuse. In proof, it is barely necessary to state, that he usually delivered a series of discourses from a single text only a few texts of scripture, therefore, would have been discussed in the course of a year. This discursive method of sermonizing is clearly not the best adapted to the end of edification. Its numerous divisions and subdivisions must have burdened the memory not a little; and yet, perhaps, it was less exceptionable than that which modern fashion would substitute in its room, studiously avoiding and keeping out of view any division at all. Besides it manifestly infringes that unity and continuity of design which should be undeviatingly pursued in every popular sermon. I mean to cast no slur on the memory of our excellent divine, by remarking, that the great number of sermons preached from a sin. gle text is not a legitimate standard for measuring the quantity of a preacher's theological know. ledge. That it is, is one of the popular errors of former times, by which few at present are in any danger of being misled. It has also been remarked, that his VOL. I. FEB. 1832.

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sermons were rather short. Perhaps, however, the criticism would have been more just, had the fault been laid on the undue length of the morning exercises; a fault which, in some quarters, needs still to be corrected. But whether they may have been above or below the proper stand. ard of length, they were confessedly, for the most part, pertinently and closely applied in a number of uses of improvement, among which, that of trial was rarely omitted, when the discri minating marks of the saint and the sinner, and the evidences of grace growing or declining in exercise in the believer, were fairly and faithfully given, with accompanying comfort or terror, as suited to the character respectively.

It was in lecturing, in which the speaker may take more scope, and is not so strictly confined to method and rule,certainly, that he chiefly excelled. Some portion of the Old Testament was, for the most part, selected for his text-book, and handled in regular succession. For a number of succeeding years, his people were much edified and delighted by a course of lectures from the last ten or twelve chapters of the prophecy of Isaiah, and the whole book of Hosea. In his lectures on the latter book, he was pecu. liarly happy, particularly in ap. plying the text to the state of Britain and Ireland at the close of the eighteenth century, between which and that of the ten tribes in the prophet's day there was a strikingly perceptible remembrance-exhibiting, as both did, the same common symptoms

of a deep and general decline in religion and morality. As the text was well adapted to inspire him with holy zeal, so it obviously did produce this effect. Accordingly, in his manner he was uniformly earnest and impressive and affectionate, and not unfrequently truly pathetic. About forty-five years ago, when only entering into the stage of my boyhood, I recollect hearing him lecture on the 8th and 9th verses of the 11th chapter of the book of Hosea-"How shall I give thee up, Ephraim," &c., when the genuine pathos of his address, and his godlike earnestness and affection, left an indelible impression on my youthful mind—an impression which, while I record it, I feel, at this distance of time, as vivid as in the hour when first I received it.

As to his private virtues, he was a pattern for uniform piety of deportment and spirituality of conversation. In this respect he had decidedly the advantage of some others, to whom, by the verdict of the public, the palm was deservedly awarded as orators, and of the reality of whose piety there was no suspicion with their common friends. The epithet of godly, therefore, was frequently associated with his name. And if a man of prayer be a godly man, his claim to the epithet was fairly merited. To one privileged, as I often was, to witness the regularity of his secret devotions, lying down and rising up, at home and abroad, and the frequency of his ejacu. lations to heaven on all proper occasions, there could not exist the shadow of a doubt of his con

versation being habitually there, and that his treasure and his heart were nowhere else. In the centre of the constellation of his virtues stood his meekness, which shone with peculiar lustre. It was impossible for those who knew him, and knew Jesus, not to take knowledge of him that he had been with him, and had learned of him who was "meek and lowly of heart." Habitually contemplating the glory of the meekness of the Redeemer, he was "changed into the same image." His countenance reminded me sometimes of the supernatural glory which irradiated the face of Moses when, after conversing with God the Redeemer, he came down from Mount Sinai. The mildness, the gentleness, the suavity of his manner, endeared him much. He was accessible to all, and condescending to men of low estate-and yet, his conversation, even with friends and confidants, was ever guarded with a

prudent reserve. He partook largely of that winning softness and kindness which are found in perfection only in the other sex, and which, in him, were set off to advantage by an aspect rather feminine, his person being slender, his complexion fair, and his visage lengthy. But it was when he visited the couch of the sick, or the hovel of the poor and the destitute, that his condescension and benevolence produced their finest effect. The charm which the combination of all these, with other kindred virtues, gave his conversation, his exhortations, and his prayers with, and for the afflicted, was truly irresistible. For prudence and frugality, and

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