Still later, some one divided the whole into four books, and named the first two, Books of Samuel, and the two others, Books of Kings. Of these, the first contains the life of Samuel, the administration of Saul, David's election, and his misfortunes until Saul's death; the second contains the greater part of the history of David's administration.

Of the Books of Kings, the first commences with the last occurrences of David, and the nomination of Solomon as joint ruler, contains the history of the administration of the latter, particularly of the building of the temple; the partition of the kingdom after his death, under Rehoboam his son, as the first king in the kingdom of Israel, and his successors, to Ahab. The second continues the account of the rulers of both kingdoms. The history of the two prophets, Elijah and Elisha, is interwoven in this, and several speeches and poems are inserted.

For modern readers these books are instructive, 1, as illustrations of many passages in the Psalms and the Prophets; 2, as, particularly for rulers, a remarkable picture of absolute government; 3, as peculiarly rich in noble and in ignoble characters.

The Two Books of Chronicles.

In a certain measure, the Books of Chronicles (Journal of the times) deliver a repetition, in part a gleaning of that which the preceding historical work contained; they were, at a later period, divided into two parts. They contained partly genealogies, partly the history of the rulers of the people, to the overthrow of the kingdom.

The unknown author used in part the same sources, in part others, as the compiler of the preceding historical work, to which it is very similar in manner, purpose, and worth, as in the contents, although here and there it differs in brevity or in fulness as well as in respect to the events.

The Book of Ezra.

It takes its name from the principal person, the leader, empowered by Artaxerxes, of many considerable Jewish families who returned from the Babylonish captivity to Jerusalem, Ezra, the reformer of the worship of God and of morals. It contains what was done before his time by Zerubbabel and afterwards by himself.

Ezra was the author, if not of the whole, yet of the greater part which relates to himself. He also added the existing fragments, so that a part of the book (Chapter iii. 7—Chapter viii. 18.) is written in Chaldee.

The Book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah, who employed his respectability at court for the benefit of his nation, carried forward with untiring and very disinterested activity, partly in connexion with Ezra, what his predecessors had commenced. He appears to have written himself the accounts of his patriotic activity, which could not have been without interest, especially for the nation.

The Book of Esther.

The coloring of Persian manners is faithfully preserved.

REVIEWS.

Memoir of Mrs MATILDA SMITH, late of Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope. By JOHN PHILLIP, D. D. London: F. Westley. pp. 189. 8vo.

No quarter of the world affords more interesting scope for research than Africa. Our ignorance of its contents and the disappointment which has almost invariably connected itself with efforts to explore that vast continent, only serve to sharpen curiosity, and throw fresh attractions in the path of African discovery. The most interesting associations are blended with that continent, and when we gaze on its map we immediately think of Park and Lang, Bowditch and Clapperton, and a long train of other martyrs to the service of discovery.

And Africa is most interesting to the eye of the philanthropist and the Christian. The thousands of Israel are pressing the accomplishment of prophecy at the mercy-seat, and their prayer is, May Ethiopia soon stretch out her hands unto God. The schools have sent out the sons of science to explore the wilds of Africa, and tell of creation's wonders in her deep recesses, and the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ have sent forth brethren beloved to turn the wilderness into a garden, and spread the beauties of a new creation.

Travellers have told us of the amazing solitudes of the country, and the rude features which it exhibits; and they have portrayed its romantic beauties in glowing colors. Our missionaries, too, have described the mournful moral wastes abounding far and wide; but even in the wilderness they have met with lovely plants and trees of righteousness, which God himself hath planted; and as we are peculiarly alive to the perception of natural beauties, when found in association with desert wastes, so we are delighted to gaze on the triumphs of grace and the fruits of piety, when we behold them amid the gloom and darkness of surrounding heathenism.

Ever since we read the travels of Campbell, and learned from him the successful operations of the missionary stations in Southern Africa, we have loved to think of the hills of Zion that are planted in her waste places

"The little spots enclosed by grace,

Out of the world's wide wilderness."

And it was with no ordinary pleasure that we took up this volume, which contains the life of one of the chosen few to whom the distinguished honor was allotted to aid in casting up a highway for the Redeemer in that field of his future glory.

The earliest missionary laborers in South Africa were the simple hearted and holy brethren known by the name of the "Unitas Fratrum," or Moravians. They made a settlement at Bavian's Kloof, and gathered souls to Jesus.

The London Missionary Society turned their attention to the Hottentots in 1799, and sent out Dr Vanderkemp, Mr Kitcherer, and another in 1801. The little band was reinforced by the brethren Vanderlingen and Reed at Graafrenet. In 1802 this sta

tion was moved to Algoa Bay, and the settlement received the appropriate name of Bethelsdorp, and to many a Hottentot it has been a place of bread-a house of God-the gate of heaver.

In the prosecution of their designs the Missionaries have met great opposition from the Boors, and from the incursions of the Bushmen and Caffres; but their numbers have been augmented, and their stations multiplied. God has blessed them; he has made the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of wrath he has restrained.

As many of our readers will have no opportunity of obtaining an acquaintance with the character of Mrs Smith, but by this notice of her Memoir, we shall aim to condense the narrative, and afford a general view of her life and actions, and trust the tendency will be to produce not a mere admiration of her virtues, but to allure to the imitation of her example.

Mrs Smith was born at the Cape of Good Hope, in 1749. Her maiden name was Kornbrinck, and her parents were worthy characters. She wrote a memoir of her life up to her fortyninth year, and her biographer has drawn largely from this source, She was induced to undertake this from a deep impression made under a public discourse, when the Lord's dealings towards her from earliest infancy were brought to her mind and appeared to be written in a book.

At six years of age she was preserved from sudden death. While playing on the shore with other children, a wave of the sea carried her to a considerable distance; her screams brought her assistance, and she was spared. Shortly after this, she lost her father; and the mother and six children were all afflicted with the small-pox. About this time she was in great danger from suffocation, but the Lord preserved her soul to the day of grace and salvation. Up to her ninth year she writes, "vanity and folly strengthened with my natural growth." At about nine she was under serious conviction, and studied the Bible so that at fifteen she had acquired much scriptural knowledge, and after learning her catechism she was admitted a member of the Dutch Reformed church in Cape Town, but had no proper idea of her lost state by nature. She approached the Lord's Supper as "a thorough Pharisee," and regarded reading, prayer, and fasting" as righteousness.

At twenty-two she entered on the matrimonial state "with a heart full of vanity. The loss of her child and husband affected her deeply. He had sought the Lord and found mercy, and now she appeared anxious for a sense of pardoned sin. Her heavenly Father saw fit again to inflict the rod; her remaining child and beloved mother were taken from her. Providence once more brought her into the matrimonial state; but trials awaited her and she was called to weep for her children because "they were not;" but the Lord enabled her to bow to his will.

At length her mind became greatly distressed; she deemed her trouble so great that God himself could not relieve her. She had no idea how the divine attributes were magnified in the salvation of sinners through the death of Christ; but the period of her de

liverance was at hand. In her thirty-seventh year, her husband died in hope. His conversation was sanctified to her. "At his death," she writes, "I felt deprived of every earthly refuge, and at this moment of anguish the Lord looked in mercy on my soul and revealed his glory as the Saviour of sinners. This I trust was the period of my conversion."

An intimate acquaintance which she now formed with her pastor, the Rev. H. R. Vanlier, was very advantageous to her growth in grace, and she advanced in knowledge. She now earnestly besought the gracious Master to show her "the continued witness of the prophets from Genesis to Malachi; and the weight of their united and glorious testimony to the Saviour." And now a sense of God's comforting presence and love refreshed her under every burden. She felt lively concern for the interest of the church and the world, and was laborious in her efforts to bring sinners to the cross of Christ.

Providence called Mrs Smith to leave Cape Town, and fixed her habitation at Rodezand, a village sixty miles from the Cape. Here she was enabled to execute the dearest wishes of her heart, by attempting the conversion of the heathen. Here she became a zealous helper to the Rev. Mr Vos. In company with him and another friend she made an excursion to the Moravian settlement at Gnadenthal, and like Barnabas, when she saw the grace of God, she was glad.

But a knowledge of her temper and feelings can be best obtained by a perusal of a few extracts from her journals:

January 4th. 1800. This morning at family prayer the sixty-ninth Psalm was much impressed on my heart. At 10 o'clock a female slave came to visit me, and we had delightful conversation, she being a sister in the bonds of the gospel. This being the first Monday in the month, I bowed my knees, united in spirit with multitudes of praying Christians, fervently entreating for the welfare of Zion, especially for the enlargement of Christ's kingdom among the heathen, and for the preservation and furtherance of missionaries in their work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope.

'20th. The interests of the church of Christ, and especially of one individual in it being heavy on my heart this day, I cast myself before the mercy-seat and pleaded with the Lord God of Israel to make bare his holy arm as he was wont in days of old, remembering for my encouragement that Elijah was a man of like passions with myself, and that at his believing request the heavens were shut up and were opened. Then turning to the scriptures, I read the awful, yet animating description of the discomfiture of the Lord's enemies, contained in the first and second verses of the sixty-eighth Psalm.

February 5th. Very lifeless and afflicted with wandering thoughts. I was at length relieved from this barren frame, and felt enabled to believe that my name is in the book of life; for which lively acting of grace, I returned thanks to the Father of mercies.

13th. Pursued our journey, and rested a few hours at the house of a friend, where I wrote to Brother Vanderkemp with the view of affording him some comfort under all his labors. Then I endeavored in my humble manner to edify those around me, by representing the Lord's exceeding great love to sinners, which I was permitted to do with a sense of it shed abroad in my own heart. Remembering

the words of my Saviour, "other sheep I have, which are not of this fold," I had much liberty in speaking to all around me, concerning the good Shepherd of the sheep.

August 17th. Stepping to day into another year of my earthly pilgrimage, I renewed my gratitude, beseeching pardon and peace, through the sacred blood shed on Calvary.

In 1805, Mrs Smith left the Cape, and removed to Bethelsdorp, that she might assist the missionaries. The following is an extract from her journal on the route:

'I was refreshed this evening by many pleasing and useful meditations whilst contemplating the starry heavens. I thought of Abraham-of him who was called the father of the faithful, and the friend of God; to whom the Almighty promised that his seed should be as the stars in multitude, when as yet he had no child. O wondrous strength of faith which against hope could believe in hope, and rest in full security upon the naked promise, though all things in nature were directly opposed! But that which dim sighted reason could not behold, faith clearly discerned; faith saw and was strong, and staggered not. Ages have passed away, during which this promise was accomplished, and still faith remains; and through the same infallible medium of divine revelation, sees and exults in that bright morning star which assures a more glorious day than that of Abraham, even the universal diffusion of gospel light. Already does it dawn upon multitudes who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; and although clouds of difficulty to the eye of nature yet remain, faith looks through them all; and, leaning upon the arm of the God of Abraham, goes on her way, rejoicing to work by love, and to be instrumental whether by actual missionary efforts, by the mighty efficacy of prayer, or by other appointed means, to chase away those clouds; and thus to hasten the approach of that glorious day of promise when the Sun of righteousness shall arise on all nations with healing in his wings; when the everlasting gospel shall be preached to every kindred and tongue and people; when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever an ever.'

It was to the praise of Mrs Smith, that she espoused the missionary cause when other friends abandoned it. Thus when Dr Vanderkemp was exiled by the Dutch government, and many friends were lukewarm, she felt for the little band at Bethelsdorp, and offered her services, to supply, as far as possible, the place of the banished ministers.

She

But her compassion and zeal embraced many objects. She opened a Sabbath and day school for the Cape Town slaves, instituted an African Missionary Society auxiliary to that of London, the funds of which amounted to near fifty dollars per annum. formed a school at Bethelsdorp for the Hottentot females, which was productive of the most happy results; and in 1810 set on foot the Cape Ladies' Society for the Relief of the Poor." In 1813 she commenced a Juvenile Missionary Society, and here indeed she proved a mother in Israel.

In 1818 her health failed, but she was permitted to behold the arrival of Messrs Campbell and Phillip, the delegates from the London society, which took place in 1819. Dr Phillip writes:

'On my arrival in South Africa, in meeting Mrs Smith, I expected to meet a zealous good woman; but I was scarcely introduced to