excite devotional feeling, gratify their imaginations with the charm of novelty. By degrees they neglect the word of God, for treatises which at best are only deduced from it, and are often mingled with mistakes and misrepresentations. Thus systems are gradually established, in which true religion has but little share; and on one hand are formed the delusions of fanaticism; on the other, the garbled and imperfect exibition of religious belief, which is little better than infidelity.'

The twelfth Sermon, On the Preparation requisite before the Lord's Supper, relates to a subject of great moment, than which scarcely any doctrine or ordinance of Christianity has been so much abused within the pale of Secular Establishments of religion. In the practice of Protestant Churches, as well as in the Church of Rome, it has been the grand viaticum for heaven! The hoary sinner and the profligate of fewer years, have had the holy wafer, or the consecrated bread and wine put into their quivering lips, to complete the greatest and most wretched of all delusions-that external communion with a Church, and a participation in its rites, seals the title of the dying sinner to the heavenly bliss! Taking the Sacrament,' is, with thousands, the substitute for renovation of heart, and for all the causes by which it is produced. If any persons need admonition conveyed in the clearest and strongest form, to guard them against a delusion as fatal as it gross, it is the attendants in parish churches, and at Popish altars. We are truly glad in finding Mr. Wayland so attentive to this part of his duty, in the discharge of which we doubt not he felt himself urged by motives strong and affecting. After expressing his fears that, in too many cases, self-examination will be delayed, till the conviction of guilt and of its consequences, force itself upon some of his hearers with instantaneous quickness,-that the interests of earth will still appear all substantial, and those of eternity but dreams and shadows, till the solemn hour, when that which is now visible shall pass away, and the unseen world be disclosed in its terribleand appalling reality,-the Author proceeds as follows:

When so many mistakes prevail in the world respecting the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; the first point, in which self-examination seems necessary, is, whether we have proper ideas of its nature.

Do we then consider it as a kind of mysterious charm sufficient of itself to extenuate the guilt of sin? Do we make it a substitute for the essential requisites of Salvation; repentance, faith, and universal obedience? Do we think, that however careless or abandoned our lives may have been, if we receive it on our death-beds, though we have despised or neglected it before, it will be to us a passport to heaven? Do we, at least, consider it a highly meritorious observance, with whatever disposition of heart it may have been performed; and imagine that it will atone for many of the errors and vices of our past conduct? If we indulge any of these flattering surmises, we

deceive ourselves: we "speak peace to our souls, when there is no "peace." The God whose servants we are, is a Spirit; and requires a spiritual worship. With him, forms are nothing; except as they conduce to important realities; to renovation of heart, and to amendment of life.' p. 241.

To persons of another description, they who have a notion that they must by their own efforts attain some superior degree of holiness, before they venture to approach the sacred table," Mr. Wayland addresses the following considerations.

They do not reflect that the Lord's Supper was instituted, in remembrance of the sacrifice offered for sin and sinners: that it was intended, not for the upright, not for the self-righteous, not for the proud and the secure; but for the contrite, for the humble, for the meek in spirit, for the lowly in heart. To such, it is one of the noblest means of spiritual improvement; fostering the graces after which they aspire, elevating their thoughts, correcting their tempers, purifying their de sires, and regulating their lives; producing, in short, the character, which others seek without obtaining, because they seek it not in the way and by the means, which God has appointed.' p. 243.

Our extracts are fair specimens of the contents of this volume of discourses, and they are sufficient to enable our readers to appreciate its value.

Art. VII. An Address to the Nation and People of the God of Abraham. By the Rev. Melville Horne, Curate of St. Stephen's Salford, Manchester. 8vo. pp. 51. 1816.

W E can assure at least our Christian readers, that they will read this address altogether with a great deal of pleasure. We have no disposition on such an occasion to descend to minute criticism. There is eloquence in many passages, and much of warm, honest, hearty feeling throughout.

Calculating, so far as we are competent, upon the probable impression of these pages on the minds of the people to whom they are immediately addressed, we wish the vituperative style of some sentences had been considerably softened. Of scolding, as a suasive means, we have, in fact, a very poor opinion in any case. Where the mind of the subject is already inflated with self-importance, and wounded with the consciousness of aggravated injury, this manner seems peculiarly inappropriate. We only wish that every Jew who may read Mr. Horne's pamphlet, could know as well as we do, how very little of bitterness or malignity there is in the swellings and breathings of his wrath. This tract has been, or is to be translated for dissemination on the Continent. The foreign Jews, more particularly those of Germany and Poland, are, generally speaking, superior in their moral condition, and consequently in their delicacy of feeling, to their English brethren. We would hint the propriety of a few

emendations on this ground, The Jew, it is undeniable, is sunk into the very dust; he lies under the feet of all nations; but there is a dignity-a delicacy which belongs to him as an Oriental, a dignity and a delicacy which are derived to him from the consciousness of the antiquity, the religious greatness, and the distinguished destiny of his nation. In our opinion, when Christians address Jews, they should never lose sight of the fact, that the feelings of that people are much akin to those of a dispossessed and degraded nobility; and, in truth such they are: their fathers were princes, their sons shall be princes, and they shall rule the nations.

Had we room, we might extract many passages written with considerable force and feeling.

The end of time is coming upon us, and what your Fathers were eighteen hundred years ago, ye are this day; only, with this difference. Lately cast down from their proud pre eminence, they were high-spirited, indignant, restless, turbulent, seditious, and ready to follow every pretender to the name of Messiah, in the most desperate enterprise. Broken down by long afflictions, spiritless, hopeless, sunk in apathy, you have forgotten Messiah, and all your god-like progenitors. Mere muck-worms, you crawl on the dunghill, and your only concern is to amass wealth. Mixt in with all nations, you assimilate to none; but hate and distrust all, and are hated and distrusted by them. True Christians only are your cordial friends, for Christ's sake. They respect you, as his Brethren according to the flesh; as descended from Abraham, the friend of God; and miraculously preserved, as chosen instruments of Providence, for the noblest purposes. While they commiserate your external circumstances, the hopelessness of your spiritual state produces the strongest feeling: and when they consider your welfare, as identified with that of Christianity, and your conversion, as connected with the universal spread of the Gospel, they break out in this animated language: For Zion's sake, I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. Indeed, could you hear the prayers and see the tears, with which they make intercession for you, or observe the cheerfulness with which they contribute their mite to serve you, you could not but feel some touch of brotherly kindness They cannot brook to see you perish, while no man careth for your soul. They strengthen themselves in their God, and boldly attempt what he alone can effect.' pp. 17-18.

·

Mr. Horne has fallen into a single error, which, we dare say, he has by this time himself detected. If he will refer to his Hebrew Bible he will see, that, in the 110th Psalm, it is not as he states it p. 32. "Jehovah said unto my Jehovah; but "Jehovah said unto my Lord."

נאם יהיה לאדני

570

Art. VIII. The Narrative of a Mission to Nova-Scotia, New Bruns wick, and the Somer's Islands; with a Tour to Lake Ontario. To which is added, The Mission, an original "oem, with copious Notes. Also a brief Account of Missionary Societies, and much interesting information on Missions in general. By Joshua Marsden, late Missionary to Nova-Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Bermudas. 8vo. pp. 289. Price 8s. 1816.

THE

HE Author of this Narrative appears to be a man of good sense and warm piety, under few obligations to learning or books for the preparation with which he entered on the service of a Missionary, or for the qualifications which he discovered in the prosecution of its duties. He does not, however, attach a value to his work above its real worth, satisfying himself with its pretensions to be considered as a useful manual of Missionary information; and to this commendation it is well entitled. The following description might, we apprehend, serve as a suitable delineation of the Author himself.

"A Missionary to a foreign land should rather be a diligent than a contemplative man; his object should be more to save souls than gain knowledge. Activity is the soul of a mission! I would rather see a Missionary travel ten miles to preach to a dozen solitary souls in a thicket of trees, than descant never so beautifully on polite learning. A diligent man may glean much rare and profitable knowledge while in the prosecution of his duty; and I would have him not to let any thing interesting escape his observation, but make minutes in his pocket memorandum book of all useful and lively incidents. I have often in a log-cottage heard the most singular and striking occurrences fragments of such conversations as I have noticed in the solitary wilderness; details of curious adventures and experiences from many who live in the bosom of the forest, would agreeably and beautifully adorn the pages of a narrative, or the numbers of a magazine. The Moravian Missionaries have filled their journals with many simple, beautiful, and interesting details, hereby affording an excellent model to all who go upon this blessed errand. Crantz's history of the mission at Greenland, is full of these interesting and heart-touching details." p. 76.

Instances, we believe, might be furnished of candidates for missionary service, being excited and stimulated to the work by glowing descriptions of the beauties and luxuries of the scenes and situations to which they were invited. Representations of this kind, were the place of destination a paradise, might well be spared in an appeal to Christian missionaries. The zeal which under the direction of sound wisdom is prompted to action only by the purest motives, can neither be impelled nor deterred by considerations of the attractive or repulsive forms in which nature may be arrayed. Of this spirit of Christian enterprise, Mr. Marsden appears to have possessed no inconsiderable portion. The scene of his labours was not, our readers may believe, a para

dise, since the questions which he would have to be addressed to candidates for the mission in which he was employed, are of the following description: Will you trudge through the snow? Can you ride upon the ice-carry your saddle bags upon your shoulders? Are you afraid to cross a rapid river in a log canoe? Can you sit in a smoky hut, and eat buck-wheat cakes? Will your constitution bear cold 14 or 20 degrees below the 'freezing point-ride through solitary woods-bear thousands ' of musquitos - and put up with poor lodgings and a cold bed?' That these interrogations are not dictated by caprice, may be very satisfactorily inferred from the details which the Author has recorded of his own experience; among others from the following account of the severities of the winter in New Brunswick in 1805.

The winter was the coldest I ever knew; the frost was intense, and the snow fell six feet deep. It was often my morning work to dig a passage from my house to the street; in doing which, I have had to stand up to my girdle in the snow. Frequently the lower windows of the house were blocked up, so that at one time, we received our dim light through the medium of snow, which had drifted against the side of the house, and was seven or eight feet deep. So severe was the weather, that our meetings were imperiously suspended. We have been obliged to take our bed and put it under the stove pipe, in order to keep ourselves from freezing. Several persons were frozen to death this winter.-A man and his daughter, a girl about ten years of age, who were travelling from one settlement to another, at a little distance from the place, were arrested; the girl died in her father's arms, and he, poor man, lost both his legs; before and after the amputation, I visited this mournful sufferer; and never in my life did I see a fellow creature so mangled by the frost; his feet literally dropped off, and his hands, face, nose, and ears, were all dreadfully scorched by the tremendous cold: however, I had great reason to believe that the shocking calamity, was a mercy sent to heal his soul. Several vessels coming upon the coast were so laden with ice, that they foundered; and others having all their ropes, blocks, and sails frozen, were driven on shore, and the crews perished in the woods, being frozen stiff as blocks of marble. I had some Madeira wine in the house that became thick as jelly; an intensely cold vapour hovered over the earth and water, through which the sun endeavoured to penetrate with cold and sanguine beams. Iron, if exposed to the weather, was so frozen, that it became quite brittle. Vessels, in which water was left during the night, were found broken in the morning. My ink has frozen while I have been wriing. I have had to wear my surtout during breakfast, though sitting before a large maple fire; and have seen the spilled tea upon the table become cakes of ice. If I walked out, my whiskers and my eye-lashes were fringed with ice. The houses and the streets would crack with such violence as to alarm one. The thermometer was from 15 to 20 degrees below the freezing point; and I think it was sometimes as low as nothing. While reading the funeral service over a woman, who had died during the severe cold, my nose and ears had frequently to be rubbed, to prevent their freezing: and so much had the cold pene