the rock of safety! The people at large, however, can have no reason for despair: for let them be but true to themselves, and an ultimate triumph will be engendered from the very depths of their present difficulty. Brief Notices. The Leisure of some Winter's Hours at Genera, devoted to a few Sermons. By the Rev. George Kennard, M.A., of St. Alban's Hall, Oxford, and Gayton, Northamptonshire. London: Hatchard and Son. Whenever we can we enable our readers to form their judgment of the works noticed in our pages, by allowing their authors to speak for themselves, and by introducing them with fair specimens of their talents and pretensions in the form of quotations. Mr. Kennard will have no reason to blame us if we pursue this method in his case. We shall give two extracts from his volume, one from the preface, and the other from his sermon, The Two Sisters.' • In a small bark I have here freighted the inmost convictions of my soul; they are my all of earthly treasure; if it contains his precious truth, and is likely to bring souls to a knowledge of Christ's redeeming and saving love, then I know no sea can be so rough, and no wind so adverse, but that it shall glide over its surface and reach many a distant port, and be again, as the angel messenger to the Palestine shepherds, a herald of good news. But if it is not thus, if too little of heaven is discernible, then let it sink in the calmest waters, and be lost in the depths of the ocean. ΘΕΩ ΜΟΝΩ ΔΟΞΑ. We are living in days of economy and rigid parsimony, and when we plead for the house of God that it should be set apart with honor, and decorated as becometh the most high, oh, then, we hear of nothing but plainness, and neatness, and simplicity. Hypocrites, selfish hypocrites that we are! We dwell in houses of cedar, we spare no expense to embellish our dwellings; we take as much pains to bring from every quarter of the globe the rarest and most precious ornaments as ever Solomon did for the temple of the Most High; we clothe our floors with carpets that hardly from their softness give back the treading of the foot; we drink out of silver, and the golden plate gleams from the sideboard; we have the songs of minstrels to cheer our evening hour, and we sit on velvet: I speak not of ourselves, but of the rich and noble in our land. And how do we treat God? We put him off with the cheapest, the most ordinary, the most common materials that we have; we take no pains to do him honor-any thing will do for him. The rich carved mouldings, the polished oak, the beauteous screen, the colored glass that at evening sun sheds its hallowed light and wakens a deep religious emotion, in the feeling heart, of solemnity 2 M VOL. X. and awe; the strains of music, practised to rehearse his praise; the finest voices that can be procured; the men singers and the women singers that make the harmony breathe of heaven, and which were heard in our churches-all gone! In a few of our cathedrals still preserved, but now deserted. A few stragglers that passing through the town would observe the beauties of the architecture, saunter with careless gait and unmeasured step, and stare about as if the song they heard was to do them honor, and not the Being by whose word they breathe. This is the modern way of honoring God; and if we ask, when a church is building, for funds to ornament it, for carved work, for a grand and tuneful organ, for decorations worthy of our Benefactor, we are replied to in the language of the traitor Judas; for nothing that we have is ours, all being God's to be used in his service; but because we have the bag, and bear what is put therein, and purloin, like Judas, for our own wants, and our own luxuries, and our own depraved tastes and comforts, we cry, 'Why was all this waste of money?'' We cannot forbear exclaiming, Why all this waste of ink?' Mr. Kennard tells us: the work,' he says,' was suggested to him by a masterly reviewer in the Quarterly on the sermons of the late lamented Augustus Hare, where the editor lamented the degeneracy of modern sermons; and that from no lack of qualification in the writers, but because they, either by using abstruse terms wrote above the capacity of their hearers, choosing argumentative and doctrinal subjects of little real practical bearing; or on the other hand, mistaking prosiness for plainness, enlisted none of the graces of literature, and, content with proclaiming the truth, made it as little attractive as they could; and thus glided over the surface without engaging the careful attention and influencing the heart.' Peace for the Christian Mourner; or Extracts from Various Christian Authors on the Subject of Affliction. Selected by Mrs. D. Drummond. With a Preface by the Rev. D. Drummond, B.A., Oxon., and Minister of Trinity Chapel, Edinburgh. And an Original Paper on 'Christian Consolation, by the Rev. Hugh White. London: J. and G. Seeley. As every house, sooner or later, becomes a house of mourning, and as every child of Adam must drink of the cup of bitterness which he bequeathed to all his posterity, the season must arrive to every one of us when we shall stand in the most absolute need of religious consolation, and happy they who, before they enter into the dark valley of affliction, have secured to themselves the possession of christian piety; for peace is the privilege of the christian mourner, and of none besides. This even he must seek in God's appointed way; and every line that is written to point out this to him, and to encourage him in it, ought to be received as an invaluable treasure. In this view the varied contents of this portable manual are above all price. These contents are well arranged. The portions selected are from eminent christian writers, and there is no condition of human sorrow that is left un touched. The editor is quite correct in stating that while many admirable works have been written on the subject of affliction, the greater number of them, for the most part, take up only certain sections of the subject, while others, again, from their size, are not fitted for general use; and we think such a work as the present was needed to fill an important place in the library of the christian which has hitherto remained vacant.' The Centurions, or Portraits of Roman Officers. 12mo. pp. 250. London: Seeley and Burnside. 1841. The portraits' here drawn are those of the centurion present at the Saviour's crucifixion-the chief captain Lysias-Centurion Juliuscenturion at Capernaum-and Cornelius, The author appears to be a person of amiable character and good intentions; but we cannot think his book is very important or valuable. He possesses no great skill in portrait painting, nor any great sagacity in analyzing motives and delineating character. There is much fancy in the work; and the incidents recorded by the inspired writers are used as pegs to hang little episodes upon, or to suggest remarks on the manner in which persons suddenly called to act in a public capacity, should demean themselves. He is too prone to assign conduct to religious principle, when a due regard to official duty would satisfactorily account for it. This is a serious defect, and especially belongs to his sketch of Lysias.' He admits that in his letter to Felix, respecting Paul, 'he condescended to make a statement which was not true; and if previously to this occurrence his conduct towards the apostle had not been humane,' we should be obliged to attribute all the courtesy we have been admiring, not to a conscientious disposition, but to a desire of consulting his own interests and further on we find this remark: Little did Lysias imagine that this whole transaction would be transmitted to future ages, to be descanted upon so long as the world should last, or he never would have permitted his name to descend sullied by a meanness, for which, even in its committal, he must have despised himself.' That is, he did a thing for which, had he known it would have been made notorious, he would have despised himself;' but as he did not know that it would become notorious, he did it, and did not despise himself.' We certainly cannot see any decisive evidence of the piety of Julius. His conduct towards Paul during the voyage, amidst the storm, and when the vessel was wrecked, any centurion of ability and virtue might have exhibited; and we do not think it safe, in these days, when religion is said to walk in silver slippers,' to rest our convictions of the piety of any one on such slight grounds. The other two characters are not equivocal; and in the hands of an able, practised, christian writer, the centurion at Capernaum and Cornelius might be made deeply interesting and profitable subjects for meditation. The last sermon but one which the late Robert Hall preached was on the subject of the former of these two, taking the language of the Jews to Christ as his text; For he loveth our nation and he hath built us a synagogue;' and besides a beautiful exhibition of the facts and characters contained in the story, he presented his audience with a beautiful dissertation on the origin, progress, and influence of synagogue worship. But he touched every thing with the hand of a master. We highly commend the spirit and design of the writer of this little book, though we cannot, and we are sorry for it, speak highly of the execution, or approve of many of the opinions he has expressed. Literary Entelligence. Just Published. The Second Annual Report of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, with an Appendix. The Scottish Congregational Magazine. New Series. No. IX. The End of Living and the Gain of Dying to the faithful Servant of Christ. A Sermon on occasion of the death of the Rev. Greville Ewing. By Ralph Wardlaw, D.D. Conferences of the Reformers and Divines of the early English Church on the Doctrines of the Oxford Tractarians. Biblical Cabinet-Annotations on some of the Messianic Psalms, from the Commentary of Rosenmüller, &c. Facts and Feelings illustrative of Interior Religion, accompanied by Memorials of Madame Guyon, Fenelon, and other spiritual Persons. By Mary Ann Kelty. Proceedings of the General Anti-Slavery Convention, held in London from Friday, June 12th, to Tuesday, June 23rd, 1840. A Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art. General Editor, W. T. The Farmers' Encyclopædia. Part I. By Cuthbert W. Johnson, Esq. Ward's Library-Essays on the Christian Ministry, selected from American Canadian Scenery Illustrated. Part 17. Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland. Part 8. Illustrations of Arts and Manufactures. By Arthur Aikin, F.L.S., F.G.S. The Objects of the Voluntary Church Society stated and defended. A Animal Magnetism: its History to the Present Time, with a Brief Account of the Life of Mesmer. By a Surgeon. A Review of the late proposed Measure for the Reduction of the Duties on Sugar so far as it relates to Slavery and the Slave Trade, addressed to Sir T. F. Buxton, Bart. By Joseph Beldam, Esq. Wealth not Happiness, or Vain Expectations destructive to Peace. By Miss Mary Ann Everitt. Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul. By the Rev. Octavius Winslow. THE ECLECTIC REVIEW, FOR NOVEMBER, 1841. Art. I. History of the Corn Laws. By J. C. PLATT. London: Charles Knight and Co. OUR UR Corn Law system is evidently destined to engage public attention for some time to come. Recent events have rendered this matter of certainty, and given the utmost fixedness and determination to the views and purposes of the mass of our people. It is no longer a vague and intangible notion which is floating in the public mind, but a veritable principle which it has long been searching after, and which, having found, it rests in, with all the assurance of truth, and the certainty of effecting its ultimate adoption. For several years past an impression has extensively prevailed that there was something radically unsound in our commercial system,-some great and all-pervading error which weighed down our energies, and rendered unproductive the skill and industry of our people. What this error was, and how it might be corrected, was matter of dispute. Men equally honest and equally intelligent differed on these points, and proposed and argued for theories which were subversive of each other. Some even denied the existence of any such general error, and attributed the commercial derangements which have been experienced to temporary causes, against which no skill could provide. Amidst these conflicting speculations, however, the public mind has been steadily advancing towards the truth. It has occasionally wavered, has sometimes mistrusted the soundness of the conclusions which were being forced upon it, and has been ready occasionally to relin VOL. X. 2 |