where the species of labour is far more severe and disagreeable than that of sugarboiling! latest published statistics of this branch of British industry, and glance at the capital and energy employed in it. Look at the property and cash used in carrying it on; think of the immense numbers of human beings to whom it is the only means of labour and support, and conceive, if you can, the curse that would follow its sudden cessation. Some faint idea may be formed of it from a consideration of the grievous evils which even a small decrease in the demand creates in the manufacturing districts, and throughout the country generally. And if depression tells so fearfully on the nation, what, we shudderingly ask, would be the effect of total suppression? The only resource of a nation, when de proportion does British soil bear to British population? Positively the most fractional that can be imagined.' 'It is clear then, both from reason and experience, that the primary effect of immediate emancipation, would be the almost universal cessation of negro labour; and is it possible fully to estimate the deplorable results that would follow from this one circumstance? In a commercial point of view, such a fact as the stoppage of the growing and manufacturing of cotton, would be crushiug in the extreme. What a shock would it not send over the whole of the United States! Their splendid resources indeed, in soil and territory, would enable them, in time, to surmount the commercial revolution; but what a strug-prived of commerce, is the soil; but what gle would be undergone, ere the energy and enterprise at present concentrated on the cotton trade could be turned into a different channel! What years of re-organization and reconstruction would require to be spent, both by the government and the people, ere such a change as that involved in the abolition of their staple trade could be overcome! Such a realization would throw the country back to all the difficulties and dangers of infancy, and render the progress of the last two hundred years an accumulation of lost labour. The wheels of national progression would be not only stopped, but positively turned backwards; and all those noble institutions which have been reared and are maintained by the commercial prosperity of the Republic, would wither and decay, while the source of their existence and support was being demolished and rebuilt. 'So much, then, for the effect immediate emancipation would have upon the commerce of America herself; but we must take a yet wider range, ere we can fully perceive the extent of the evil in this direction. Let us come to Britain, and measure if we can its influence there. We almost shudder as we contemplate it even in idea, seeing, as we do, that it would level a blow at this great country which would at once sink her in the dust. No one, we think, will deny that the corner stone of British wealth and power is her cotton trade. The importation, manufacture, sale, and exportation of this article of slave produce, forms the chief source of our prosperity; so that, despite the boast we make that we have shaken hands with the odious system, we are so closely connected with it, that its immediate abolition would at once cut away the locks of our strength, and throw us helpless and hopeless into the power of continental despotism. 'Let us imagine, if we can, the position into which this country would be plunged were our cotton trade to cease. Take the After examining and deploring the unholy system which stains so deeply the Republic of America, and with which Britain is not a little involved, the author refers to the difficulties which beset immediate emancipation, and, among others, notices the fact that the talented Mrs Beecher Stowe, who had made herself so minutely acquainted with the details of the detestable system, has not in her popular work even hinted at a remedy of any kind for its extinction; and, notwithstanding the extraordinary interest which 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' has created, that interest has as yet failed to produce any practical plan by which the chains of the enslaved may be broken. The first step towards the attainment of that object may be the one which the author of the 'Problem of the Age' suggests; but, at any rate, we think that the wide circulation which the merit of this pamphlet is certain to secure for it, will lead to some practical results. We, however, prefer giving the suggestions of the author in his own words : 'But something remains to be done, before the American Government can speak so decidedly on this question; and till this something is done, the AntiSlavery movement will make no practical headway. We therefore advise those engaged in this noble cause to concentrate their efforts in the accomplishment of what is such an evident necessity-viz., the construction of an abolition theory. This is a terrible task, and one only to be achieved by the united energy, intellect, penetration, and humanity of the AntiSlavery party; but it must be done, and that as soon as the nature of the work will permit. So long as such a plan is awanting, the intelligent and humane statesmen of America will not dare to speak out their convictions, or give their support to the side of liberty. They are far-sighted enough to perceive that a declaration of Anti-Slavery principles on the part of the Legislature must be followed by abolition; but seeing as clearly the dreadful result of such a measure, from a consideration of the present position of the slave, they refuse to commit themselves by such an utterance. But provide the country with a reasonable, promising, and fairly practicable method for getting rid of the enormous evil, in consistency with justice and humanity, and the thousands of St Clares that are to be found in the Southern States will at once join the cause, and assist in working out the plan. The conviction that slavery is at variance with the holy claims of justice and the spirit of the American Constitution, lurks in the hearts of very many slave-holders, despite the specious defence and sham apologies of professing Christians; and it is our sincere conviction, founded chiefly on the facts contained in the "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin," that the system would long ago have perished had this method been adopted. There are, no doubt, many slave-holders bound down to it by the strong ties of a dehumanizing selfishness, who would resist all attempts at abolition; but we cannot for a moment think that this class is a majority even in the Southern States. We confidently believe that the system is supported more from a regard to the consequences that would follow its sudden destruction than from considerations of a grossly selfish nature, and that any honourable and proper way of escape from its intricacies would be hailed and adopted by a number large enough to constitute the Anti-Slavery party a decided majority. How earnestly, then, should those who hold this view, labour to put it to the test, by doing all in their power to promote the development of such a theory! For the encouragement of those who might be inclined to devote themselves to its organization, a fund should be raised for the purpose of offering prizes for the best essays on the subject. Let subscription lists for this object be opened both in America and Britain, and let the competition be open to the intellect of both countries. Never, we undertake to say, has there been a rivalry so noble, or so sacred, as this would create. The chivalrous strivings in the tournament or the battlefield, the bygone struggles for national, physical, or intellectual pre-eminence, would all pass into the shade, or shrink into nothing, before the encircling glory of such a campaign. The object is the very highest that could possibly engage the Anglo-Saxon mind; and the age which accomplishes it will shine in the firmament of history like a bright and beautiful star for ever and ever. 'And it is right that both Britain and America go hand in hand in this matter. Our country has been far too long under the idea that she is free from the shame and guilt of the western slavery. Under this false idea she has stood on a proud pharisaical eminence, and cast jeering taunts and mocking exhortations across the Atlantic, without either a regard to the true nature of the position in which America is placed, or a reflection on the origin of that position, and the fact that she is one of its strongest bulwarks. This country should never forget that the upas tree of slavery, which now casts its deadly shade over the States, was planted by her own hand, and is still watered by her means. Were she truly to realize her own responsibility in the matter, methinks her feelings towards 'Jonathan' would be changed, and instead of taunts and insolent reproach, she would express sympathy and offers of assistance. 'Tis well then that she, along with the country in whose bosom it exists, should work earnestly and diligently for its eradication; and 'tis also fit that the construction of the theory by which this object may be effected should become a matter of emulation between the two nations. 'As we before stated, we do not suppose that one mind will plan a successful practical theory for negro emancipation; but we have every hope that, from the suggestions that would likely be put forth in these various prize essays, the statesmen of America would be able to construct such an one. The problem is deep, terribly deep, and probably cannot be fully solved by any intellect of the present time; but one mind may grasp one part of its mystery, and another another, till from amid the scattered fragments Congress found materials for the erection of a fair and beautifully proportioned temple of liberty for the African race. In conclusion, we entreat the attention of the Anti-Slavery party to this proposition. Perhaps a few of the more wealthy and liberal would head the subscription list, and we have no doubt whatever that round this nucleus, the generosity and bounty of Britain and America would throw an increasing circumference, till a sum sufficiently large was obtained, and many a scheming head and fluent pen set to work for the amelioration and elevation of a long-oppressed and down-trodden people. And should the influence of such a plan be perceived in the same light in which we see it, surely our friends of the Anti-Slavery party need not be urged to expedition and energetic action.' 1 HISTORY of the PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH in IRELAND. By J. S. REId, D.D. Concluded by W. D. KILLEN, D.D. Vol. III. London: Whittaker & Co. THIS is the concluding volume of a very elaborate and talented work. The esteemed author, Dr Reid, was not permitted to complete the History he began. Having published two volumes, he contemplated a third, but died in March 1851, leaving materials sufficient to constitute but half of the volume in a state fit for publication. In these circumstances, his executors applied to the Professor of Ecclesiastical History for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland to finish the work, to which proposal Dr Killen very readily and generously assented. The consequence is, that a chasm is now filled up which has long existed in the ecclesiastical history of the empire. Although it is only the third and concluding volume that presently lies before us, we may inform our readers that the first volume commences with a sketch of the progress of the Reformed religion in Ireland, during the sixteenth century, and then proceeds to trace the history of the Presbyterian Church from 1603 down to time of the Westminster Assembly and the swearing of the Solemn League. The second volume brings down the history to the siege of Derry, and to the period of the arrival of William III. in Ulster; and the third, to the present day. The work as a whole is entitled to the highest commendation. Dr Reid left nothing undone which it was in his power to accomplish to supply a full and accurate account of the portion of the Church of which it treats. And he has succeeded. We have read the work with the deepest interest, and rose from its perusal with greatly enlarged information respecting the religious history of the Sister Isle. The last volume is peculiarly interesting to Scottish Seceders, as it contains very ample details respecting the bearing of the Secession of 1733 on the Irish Presbyterian Church. This part of the work is the composition of Dr Killen, and does him the highest credit. We have given a considerable extract from this section of the History in the present Number (see pp. 263-65.) While we thus express our high approbation of this History, it will not be supposed that we approve entirely of all the views held and advocated by its authors, nor of all the movements to which they give their support. But neither our space nor our inclination allows of our entering at present on certain quæstiones vexate, and we close our notice by very warmly recommending the History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland to the attention and perusal of our readers. THE CABINET. THE CHIEF SUBJECT OF SCRIPTURE. And ONE commanding object prevades the Scriptures, and rises to view on every page: this recurring theme, towards which all instructions and histories tend, is the great and anxious question of condemnation or acquittal at the bar of God, when the irreversible sentence shall come to be pronounced. 'How shall man be just with God?' is the inquiry ever and again urged upon the conscience of him who reads the Bible with a humble and teachable desire to find therein the way of life. In subserviency to this leading intention, the themes which run through the sacred writings, and which destinguish those writings by an immense dissimilarity from all the polytheistic literature, are those of guilt, shame, contrition, love, joy, gratitude, and effectionate obedience. moreover, in conformity with this same intention, the Divine Being is revealed, if not exclusively, yet chiefly, as the party in the great controversy which sin has occasioned. The intercourse, therefore, which is opened between heaven and earth, is almost confined to the momentous transaction of reconciliation and renewed friendship. When the Hearer of prayer invites interlocution with man, it is not, as perhaps in Eden, for the purpose of free and discursive converse, but for conference on a special business. 'Come now, let us reason together, said the Almighty; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' Natural History of Enthusiasm. SELF-EXAMINATION. In order to unmask our hearts, let us not be contented to examine our vices, let us examine our virtues also, 'those smaller faults.' Let us scrutinize to the bottom those qualities and actions which have more particularly obtained public estimation. Let us inquire if they were genuine in the principle, simple in the intention, honest in the prosecution. Let us ask ourselves whether in some admired instances our generosity had no tincture of vanity, our charity no taint of ostentation? whether, when we did such a right action which brought us into credit, we should have persisted in doing it had we foreseen that it would incur censure? never deceive ourselves by mistaking a Do we burial, in token of complete humiliation under the adversary of man-these are but the prominent features of his history; but what heart can dwell on them without emotion, or fail to acknowledge, that if, according to the Scriptures, this was the Son of God, verily he has offered a satisfaction more precious than language can express, or angel conceive?-Rev. James Buchanan. THE PRIVILEGES OF THE CHRISTIAN. constitutional indifference of temper, for Christian moderation? Do we never construe our love of ease into deadness to the world? our animal activity into Christian zeal? Do we never mistake our obstinacy for firmness, our pride for fortitude, our selfishness for feeling,our love of controversy for the love of God, our idolence of temper for superiority to human applause? When we have stripped our good qualities naked; when we have made all due deduction for natural temper, easiness of disposition, self-interest, desire of admiration, when we have pared away every extrinsic ap-lege of a true believer! That he has pendage, every illegitimate motive, let us fairly cast up the account, and we shall be mortified to see how little will remain. Pride may impose itself upon us even in the shape of repentance. The humble Christian is aggrieved at his faults, the proud man is angry at them. He is indignant when he discovers he has done wrong, not so much because sin offends God, as because it has let him see that he is not quite so good as he had tried to make himself believe.-Mrs H. More. THE HUMILIATION OF CHRIST. THE history of Jesus' humiliation, whereby satisfaction was rendered to divine justice, is replete with details of the lowest debasement, and most excruciating sufferings. His humble birth-his persecuted infancy-his continued poverty during the whole of an arduous ministryhis incessant exposure to obloquy, as the son of a carpenter, a Nazarene, a friend of publicans and sinners, a deceiver of the people, a blasphemer and a sorcererhis violent struggles with Satan-his contest with the bigoted rulers and cruel populace of Judea, who threatened to throw him headlong from a precipice—his public apprehension as a malefactor, through the perfidy of a traitor-his agony in the garden, when his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death-his desertion by the very friends whom he had tenderly cherished-his violent arraignment and unjust trial-his buffetings by the very menials who surrounded himhis appearance before the judgment-seat of a heathen-his spiteful coronation his mock honours, when with devil's malice they bowed the knee, and said, 'Hail! king of the Jews!'-his suspension on the cross, where his bodily torments were only exceeded by the agony of his soul, racked by the withdrawment of his Father's countenance, and the malice of Satanthe suffering which was condensed in that 'hour of the power of darkness,' when he exclaimed, 'My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?'-and finally, his How great and honourable is the privi neither wisdom nor strength in himself is infinite wisdom and almighty power. no disadvantage; for he is connected with Though weak as a worm, his arms are strengthened by the mighty God of Jacob, and all things become possible, yea easy to him, that occur within the compass of his proper duty and calling. The Lord whom he serves, engages to proportion his strength to his day, whether it be a day of service or of suffering; and, though he be fallible and short-sighted, exceeding liable to mistake and imposition, yet while he retains a sense that he is so, and with the simplicity of a child asks counsel and direction of the Lord, he seldom takes a wrong step, at least not in matters of consequence-and even his inadvertencies are overruled for good. If he forgets his true state, and thinks himself to be something, he presently finds he is indeed nothing; but if he is content to be nothing, and to have nothing, he is sure to find a seasonable and abundant communication of all that he wants. Thus he lives, like Israel in the wilderness, upon mere bounty; but then it is a bounty unchangeable, unwearied, inexhaustible, and all-sufficient.— Rev. J. Newton. GODLINESS. Where the GODLINESS is the worshipping of God in the inward motions of the heart, and the outward actions of the life. spring of the affections is clear, and the stream of the affections runs clear, there is true godliness. The Egyptians, of all fruits, would make choice of the peach to consecrate to their goddess; and they gave this reason for it: because the fruit thereof resembleth an heart, and the leaf the tongue. As they gave heart and tongue to the false god, we must to the true GodHeart-godliness pleaseth God, but lifegodliness honours him most; the conjunction of both makes a complete Christian.Swinnock. THOMAS GRANT, PRINTER, EDINBURGH. THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. THAT God is everywhere present, is one of those first principles which lie at the foundation of religion, and which are admitted by all who do not absolutely deny the being of a God. This truth enters largely, perhaps more largely than any other, into our idea of God, into our conception of his nature and the mode of his existence; and is proclaimed aloud by all his works in all places of his dominion. Wherever there exists a creature of any kind, animate or inanimate, corporeal or spiritual, the fact that it does exist there, and that it possesses such properties as it does possess, is a proof, as clear and strong as demonstration, that God is there. In every page of the Bible the same truth is either tacitly implied, or is expressly inculcated, and frequently in the most sublime and emphatic manner. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?' says the Psalmist, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.' In proof of this, we need only refer to the effects which are instantaneously and irresistibly produced by preternatural appearances, or what are deemed to be such. Were an inhabitant of the invisible world to indicate his presence by the slightest external token-by the falling of a leaf, or the turning of a straw-the pale faces and erect hair of the stoutest-hearted among us would bear witness, in a moment, to the awe and terror which that presence had inspired. When the angel, with a countenance like lightning, and raiment white as snow, showed himself to the Roman soldiers who guarded the Saviour's tomb, they shook for fear of him, and became as dead men. When the fingers of a man's hand, writing on the wall of But are the minds of all men habitually the king of Babylon's palace, indicated impressed with the belief that God is pre- the presence of an unearthly being-that sent with them, and do they live under proud and impious monarch, in the midst the practical influence of that belief? By of his guards, and feasting with a thousand no means. When the doctrine of the of his lords, was struck with dismay and divine omnipresence is presented to them horror. 'His countenance was changed, in the form of a proposition, when it is and his thoughts troubled him, so that expressed in so many words, they admit the joints of his loins were loosed, and it,-it forms a part of their creed; and if his knees smote one against another!' it be questioned or denied, they will con- The effect which such extraordinary aptend for it, and, it may be, will produce pearances produce is partly owing, no arguments in proof of it which no adver- doubt, to the suspicion which naturally sary can baffle. But with most men, after arises in the guilty mind, that they foreall, it is little more than a vague notion, bode some unknown and direful calamity; recollected now and then as a thing which but independently of that suspicion-an they have been taught, and to which they overwhelming emotion of unearthly awe have yielded an indolent assent; but it is irresistibly excited by the conviction has no place in their hearts as an abiding which flashes on the mind, that a being and deeply felt sentiment, and even the superior to man is really present. And defined and vivid perception of it is seldom is not this a proof, that men are very present with their understandings. Of little under the influence of that faith this, their conduct is a mournful proof. which is the evidence of things not seen? How feeble is the restraint which their Is it not a proof, that their words are not professed belief in the presence of God sincere, when they profess to believe exercises over their conduct! When no that the invisible God surrounds them human eye is upon them, how much do continually with his presence, and is perthey feel themselves at liberty to act ac- fectly acquainted with all their thoughts cording to their own pleasure, though and ways? they profess to believe that the eye of God is continually upon them! But if they really felt themselves in the presence of that great and dreadful Being, is it! No. XII-NEW SERIES. What lamentable evidence have we of this practical infidelity, this atheism of the heart, even in our worshipping assemblies! When men stand up before the VOL. I. |