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nor was it until he added to them the murder of his own wife, that he was confined as a state prisoner, instead of being brought to trial for his life, as Mr. C. suggested. Indeed, little doubt can be entertained that the seclusion of female slaves in the harems of Musalmans of rank too often precludes complaint, prevents redress, and cloaks crimes at which Europeans would shudder." - p. 168, et seqq.

From the statements of the whole chapter, we should infer that slavery in the East, among both Mohammedans and Hindoos, assumes a much milder form than it ever does among Christians, even the enlightened Christians of our own land of equal rights.

The topic of the last letter is "Unsuccessful attempts to ameliorate the law and practice of slavery in British India, Abolition of slavery." An Appendix closes the volume. We have room, in conclusion, only to express our hope, that the volume, which Mr. Adam has prepared with so much labor, will be extensively circulated and read. It concerns the English more than us, it is true, but it concerns us also. We wish him all manner of success in the prosecution of the benevolent poses which have prompted him to this work.

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Esther, a Sacred Drama: with Judith, a Poem. By Mrs. E. L. CUSHING. Boston: Joseph Dowe. 1840. 12mo. pp. 118. THE success of the author of Esther and Judith has been considerable, where from the nature of the case failure seems almost inevitable, and any success a proof of no common powers. No attempt in literature strikes us as so hazardous, as to clothe in verse, blank, or rhymed, the events of Scripture history. What genius can hope to add anything to the native picturesqueness, of both the language and incidents, of the Old Testament narratives. A tale, drama, or poem founded upon some tradition, or invention, into which Scripture characters of any chosen period should be introduced, and Scripture history and events alluded to, illustrated, or partially used, would seem at once to afford a freer scope to the imagination, and be exempt from those disheartening comparisons, suggested by adopting the other course. It would possess its most important advantages, and be relieved from most of its difficulties -or impossibilities rather. The poems of Mrs. Cushing-comparison with the Books of Esther and Judith being set aside afford great pleasure in the reading. We have found in them beautiful poetry, elevated thought, affecting sentiment. They are never chargeable with the stiff and wordy pomp of Mrs. More's Sacred Dramas. The language is of a simpler and

more natural cast, yet graceful and expressive. We could fill many pages, and we wish we had them to spare, with verses moving and sweet as these, being a part of Esther's reply to the urgent importunities of Mordecai to offer herself a candidate for the favors of Ahasuerus, and the throne of Persia.

"Esther. Alas! my father, think upon my youth, My gentle sex, my humble, quiet life,

Reared amid birds, and flowers, and loving hearts,
From which mine drank, as from a gushing fount,
Full draughts of bliss. From dawning infancy,
Where'er I turned, fond eyes met mine with smiles,
Kind arms upheld, and gentle voices blessed, -
While like a clinging vine I closer twined,
And threw my tendrils forth, seeking support,
And basking in the ever radiant glow,
That like a sunbeam pure affection wore.
For such a lowly cherished one as this,
The task thou nam'st is all too vast and high.
It asks a mighty hand, a lofty soul,
Stern and experienced, wise in council,
Armed at all points with courage and resolve,
A fitting instrument for heaven's high will.

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"Esther. I praise Him ever, when the rising morn
Sends light and beauty through the wakening earth,
And when the evening dews gently distil,

And the fair moon with all her host of stars
Come forth to keep their silent watch above.
And, dearest father, 'mid the temple's pomp
My prayers and thankful songs ascend to Him.
But in the quiet of my own dear home,
My purest offerings on his altar rest,
For there my cup o'erflows, and my full heart
Pours forth its grateful tribute for the love
Which in a thousand forms blesses my life,

And crowns each day with joy. Each day, till this, -
When thou wilt force me from thy arms away,
And change my bliss to wo!" - pp. 24, 25.

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ERRATUM. In the foot-note to p. 315 of the last volume, Article, Strauss's Life of Jefor "Rosencrantz," read "Bruno Bauer."

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THE

CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

NOVEMBER, 1840.

ART. I.-1. Adam in Paradise; a Sermon by ROBERT SOUTH, D. D., with an Analysis and Preface by BASIL MONTAGUE, Esq. London. 1840.

2. Twelve Sermons by ROBERT SOUTH, D. D. In 2 vols. London. 1692.

THE bold assumptions of the Oxford Tracts have drawn the attention of the English Theologians more fully to their early divines. The Protestant establishment looks back with interest to know whether its founders were almost Papists. The Homilies have been consulted more in the last five years than in the preceding fifty, and the sentiments of the early fathers have been the source of a controversy, more vivid than any since that which twice drove Athanasius from the Episcopal throne. We believe that the same elements, which were hen at work, are now in motion. When the Legate, who conducted the controversy which was meant to give a gloss to Henry the Fourth's intended conversion, told one of his Protestant brethren, that the whole matter in issue could be summed up in one word, “crede,” the Calvinist answered, that his faith also could be brought to a point, and that was "proba." There have been in the Church, as there have been in the council, two continual counteracting forces; — the one driving all things to the centre, the other to expansion; the one tending to bring back the energies of the human race to the point from which they first arose ; and the other to give them fuller scope, and force them farther on, in the track of advancement. Such do we believe to be the character of the contest now raging in the bosom of the 18 3D S. VOL. XI. NO. II.

VOL. XXIX.

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Anglican Church. It has been reformed too much to suit the more conservative of its clergy; too little for the more rational. We can imagine among the latter a class of men, who sincerely love the liturgy and the articles of the establishment, who prefer its constitution to that of any of the dissenting persuasions, and who therefore conscientiously subscribe to its forms; but who, when they have been admitted within the fold, would divest it of its useless trappings, and reduce its dimensions to a degree suitable to its plan and objects. But, on the other side, the favorers of old things because they are old, the maintainers of the divine right of kings, the relics of the non-jurors, the conforming among the Jesuits, are necessarily collected in the Church of England. Such a party naturally looks upon itself as the barrier by which the spirit of the times is to be stemmed; while its opponents consider themselves as the locks and aqueducts by which it is to be conducted. The one stands on the road side throwing its awful imprecations on the approaching army, the other marches in its headmost ranks, shriving them and cheering them in their progress. Oxfordism and Puseyism can never conquer in this age. Had they stopped the Penny Magazine before it dropped into the peasant's cottage, or expurgated the Bible before it illuminated the peasant's mind, they might have continued in the place of the light of which this century is witness, the gloom and superstition of five centuries ago; now we do not fear their efforts. The Pope can never bring his battery to bear against English faith. It is too bravely garrisoned and too honestly watched, to yield either to his bulls or his baits. But the dust which the battle is raising, and the uproar which it creates in the libraries of its champions, will succeed in raising up and bringing into note the good old Theology of the Reformation, which the one side so boldly claimed, and the other so weakly yielded. We are glad to see the Protestants in the Church of England parry the Oxford tracts with the Homilies. Old George Herbert is full as good a poet as Keble, and much sweeter, and we are proud to see him sailing before the public in the plumage of a new edition, looking as green and as young, as if he had just issued from his river-side parsonage. And for richness of eloquence and grandeur of thought, the subtle casuists of the Oxford school grow pale before the weather-beaten worthies of the Reformation. We know no illustration so strong of the necessity of a consistent whirl in the Theological stream to keep it from stagnation, as the fact, that Cud

worth and Chillingworth were safely moored on high ground, out of the way of use or alliance, till they were lately dragged down to be marshalled against the new armada. Chillingworth will always remain the great champion of the Protestant faith, the triumphant vindicator of its doctrines; but his triumphant vindication and his fierce invective were naturally distasteful to a class of men, who were unwilling to be convinced away from their most darling opinions. So he was admired, and printed in a colossal edition, which the poor man could not buy, and the child could not hold, and at length was fairly perched, like the statue of St. Mark at Naples, on a pillar so high, that it could never be told by the vulgar eye, whether he was a Saint or a Saracen. To the enlightened spirit, which has been manifested by the reforming portion of the Church of England, do we owe the resuscitation which has been undergone by Cudworth, as well as by his great companion; for they will always rank together as the defenders, the one of Christianity as it was before it was corrupted, the other of Christianity as it ought to be after it is reformed.

Oxfordism, however, has not been willing that the vantage ground shall be seized by its opponents. Its priests have ransacked the arsenal for armor of their own capacity. Modestly declining to notice the first Protestant writers, under the plea, that till the new doctrines had ceased to oscillate, their true bearings could not be known; - they passed with a bow by the martyrs of Mary and the prelates of Elizabeth; they turned with a frown from the elders and prophets of the Protectorate, and settled finally on the era, when the English Church had been glutted with the spoils of a sudden victory. It is rather odd, by the way, that the church which refused to find anything divine in the honest Christianity of Elizabeth, should have extolled, as a providential interference, the godless profligacy of the second Charles. Nobody heard of the divine right of kings, till kings became so weak or so wicked that they had no other prop to lean upon. But at once, when it was discovered that the Court of Charles the Second was one of utter licentiousness, and that it therefore could not claim merit from its virtue, and that his government was one of corrupt oppression, and therefore could not command support by its patriotism; a new reason was found for its continuance, and the Frogs were told that since Jupiter had given them a Crane for a king, they must worship it in silent humility. We regret that the high

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