For, while I joyfully concede, that, to a great extent, the spiritual wants of the rising generation are provided for, yet I must contend that the Christian instruction of the vast adult population of our city has been strangely neglected, so that we may adopt the self-reproaching language of the text as our own, "We do not well: for this is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace.” pp. 1-4.

Having thus introduced his subject, the author proceeds to apply it in the following striking manner.—

The metropolis of a great empire must necessarily be, in the present state of human society, the focus of vice. Such was Nineveh, such was Babylon, such was Rome,—such is London. Here, therefore, is to be found, in every district, the theatre, the masquerade, the gaming-table, the brothel. Here are to be purchased, in every street, books that, by the combined influence of fascinating poetry and perverted argument, tend to weaken all moral restraints, and to hurry the excited but unhappy youth who is charmed by them into the snares of pollution, dishonesty, and ruin. O how many manly youths have paid in this city the forfeiture of their lives to the offended laws of the country, who were first seduced from the paths of morality by the lying sophisms of an infidel philosophy, by the entreaties or the villany of improper associates, or by the restless importunities of a polluted and unbridled imagination!

Into this infectious and polluted atmosphere multitudes are introduced from day to day; multitudes, alas, who, by the tendencies of their fallen nature, are most susceptible of its contagious influence; for while the man who possesses vigorous health may expose himself to the pestilential air of an hospital, and perchance escape, he who has a sickly frame inhales the poison for which his constitution was prepared, and languishes and dies. Angelic beings may pass untainted amidst the moral contagion of this our vast hospital, but mere human virtue must sicken and expire beneath its influence. pp. 7,8.

In a vast metropolis like ours, however, suffering is concentrated, for who can describe those woes which result from the depression of trade, the want of employment, the failure of credit, and the effects of villany, which embitter the hearts of thousands? Who can paint the scenes of wretchedness which the dark windings of our city furnish, and which result from the casualties of labour, the progress of disease, the cravings of hunger, the march of crime, the ravages of death? Think, my hearers, of a multitude of sufferers, who, having lost their credit, property, and prospects, in the unparalleled calamities which recently laid waste many country districts, have sought concealment in this Babylonic city, where they hope to spend their few and evil days in the seclusion which poverty and wretchedness so well enjoy! Ah, you are borne along by the animated stream of population, which flows through our splendid squares and noble streets in all its gay and varying hues, and you ask " Where is the distress?" Did you not see that pale, dejected man who glided across the street with a quick step, and as though he dreaded observation? follow him through that dark dirty court to the miserable garret where he dwells, and where his suffering family anxiously await his arrival. See! he throws himself in anguish upon his bed, exhausted by want, and without a friend; he desires "strangling rather than life;" and what will you say to such a man? Will you tell him it is his fate, and that he must exercise stoical indifference? No, Christian, you can comfort him with those consolations" wherewith ye yourselves are comforted of God." You can tell him of that God who has been, in every generation, “a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, and a shadow from the heat." You can tell him of that Saviour who himself became poor that he might impart comfort to all that mourn, bind up the broken hearted, and save the souls of the needy. Let him but receive these truths, which you

can communicate, and his wants shall not tempt him to violate the laws, his sorrows shall not drive him to the last cowardly, desperate, act of the worldling, who plunges into eternal anguish to escape the woes of the passing hour! And will you withhold these? "We do not well; for this is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace."

We possess the means of blessing our fellow-citizens-As they are subject to death.

It is the law of nature, and the sentence of God, that man shall die! and what a harvest for death do these vales of the Thames present. Twelve hundred and fifty thousand human beings now stand ready for his sickle. Twelve hundred and fifty thousand! Ah, the number comes glibly from our lips, but it describes an appalling multitude when we attempt to realize the amount. Well, of this multitude death reaps twenty thousand every year! Thus he puts the sickle every day to the work, and sixty are cut down. What, have sixty died in London to-day! Yes, at this hour, in this street, perchance in the next house, there may be some one enduring the bitter pangs of dissolution. And has he been left ignorant of God and of his Christ? Ignorant of that Gospel which brings life and immortality to light, ignorant of that grace which gives peace, yea, songs of triumph, in the dying hour? O, does he now despair of mercy, and cry, "No man hath cared for my soul."-What shall we say, brethren? "We do not well; for this is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace." pp. 9-11.

The following observations are equally excellent for the judicious instructions they contain, and their spirit of Christian benevolence.

We have been negligent of our duty to our fellow-citizens-Because their relative influence has not been regarded.

London, as the residence of royalty, the seat of legislation, the mart of trade, the field of enterprise, the road to wealth and honour, is the annual resort of multitudes of every class of society. Here the most influential persons of the kingdom―our nobles, senators, and magistrates, attended by their households, sojourn. Here the most useful members of society, the traders and agriculturalists of the empire repair. Here the most susceptible and important part of the community, I mean the young of both sexes, continually visit, some to behold the glittering shows and metropolitan grandeur of our city, others to obtain professions and to prosecute studies in sciences or in art. It is most apparent then, that if the inhabitants of London be cursed with a moral plague, these visitors are fearfully exposed to the infection; they breathe the same atmosphere, they are subject to daily contact, and they cannot escape. They imbibe pernicious principles, acquire corrupt habits, and return to our country towns and more remote villages, carrying the daily poison with them, and thus it spreads

"Through all the veins of our vast empire."

In fact, the facilities of intercourse which now exist between the metropolis and the remotest parts of the kingdom, however agreeable they may be to the trader and the tourist, are the sluices through which vice flows, with a rapid and unobstructed current, from this vast reservoir to the humblest village of the land. But of the visitors to this city, alas! how many do not return, for as it, like a mighty whirlpool, draws within its vortex multitudes from many a league around, so many become the victims of its fatal influence, and are quickly dragged down to perdition! Have not the pastors of our churches ofttimes witnessed this! Many a youth, the son of pious parents, and the child of many prayers, brought to this metropolis for the advantages of trade or study, having

been corrupted by its vices, has lost his health, reputation, and peace, and sought at their hands, in the last hour, for the consolations of that religion which blessed his childhood.

The conversion of men is of the greatest moment, dwell where they may; yet the importance of that work is increased, as their relative influence is extensive; for as a grain of gunpowder is explosive any where, but most dangerous when ignited amidst a million more, so the facilities of propagating mischief are fearful, when a dense mass surrounds on every hand. O, had we realized the baneful influence which is thus exerted, should we not, like Aaron, have rushed between the living and the dead, that the plague might be stayed? pp. 12-14. The selfish lepers, when they awoke from the apathy in which they had too long indulged, exclaimed with alarm, " If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us;" and therefore hasten to announce the gladsome intelligence to the centinels, and they quickly spread it through the city. Now if they entertained a fear of punishment from their Lord and King, may not we, my brethren, apprehend some just visitation from HIM, who, walking amidst the golden candlesticks, addresses his lukewarm churches, with " Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen; and repent and do thy first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except ye repent." He has often made the sins of his people the instruments of their correction, and the vast population abandoned by us to all the seductions of infidelity, popery, and crime, may become a fearful scourge to the Christian Church. Thus, the Romish priesthood in France left the people uninstructed in the true principles of religion, and neglected to sow "the incorruptible seed of the word" in the public mind, till the agents of an infidel philosophy entered on the fallow field, and scattered those tares which soon brought forth a fearful harvest of anarchy and blood; not that I perceive any intellectual adaptation in the present advocates of infidelity amongst us, to the task of spreading their anti-social and demoralizing principles, to an extent which might produce a convulsion dreadful as that which shook the fair capital of France. No; the feeble objections, the unblushing falsehoods, the low abuse, and the moral degradation of those who are foremost in this work of evil, form a striking contrast to the learning, eloquence, and influence of the continental unbelievers. But let it never be forgotten, that when God designs to correct a people for their sins, he can employ, as in the case of Egypt, either some mighty angel to smite the transgressors, or swarms of mean and loathsome insects to plague the land.

The emissaries of Popery also are not inactive in this city: besides the influence which they have evidently obtained over some daily journals, they have also enlisted, or perhaps hired, some popular writers well skilled in addressing the public mind, to disguise its errors, and to palliate its crimes. Whilst, in our sweetest poetry and most attractive prose, its charms are unveiled in all their fascinations to the unhallowed imaginations of the ardent and the young; Heaven forbid, my brethren, that Popery, denounced of God, and abhorred of all who love liberty and truth, should rear its head again in this Protestant capital, and renew those scenes of persecution which its great market-place once exhibited.

The Saviour may employ yet another and more fearful mode of correcting us still: he may withhold from us his genial influence, and leave our churches in all the coldness and gloom of night,-a night produced by the withdrawment of the Sun of Righteousness! No pious Churchman can contemplate the state of parochial religion in this metropolis without solicitude and alarm, nor can an Evangelical Dissenter recollect the affecting changes which have occurred amongst the separate churches of this city without humiliation and sorrow. p. 20, 21,

A brief Review of the Reciprocal Duties of Ministers and People: the Substance of a Sermon, preached at St. James's Church, Guernsey, December 24th, 1826, on the Death of the Rev. Peter Maingy, M. A., one of the Ministers of that Church. By the Rev. GEORGE WASHINGTON PHILIPS. London: Hatchard.

THE utility of funeral sermons is, we think, in many cases, extremely doubtful. The orations which the ancients pronounced at the funeral obsequies of their dead were merely intended to recount the praises of their valour or public services. The sermons in which the French clergy have afforded the best examples of their national pulpit eloquence were those pronounced on such occasions as these; but they are liable to the same objection as the funeral orations of the ancients, and are, in general, filled with unjust and unbecoming flattery. The error is more or less apparent in the many sermons of this description pronounced from English pulpits, according to the character of the preacher. The only call, we conceive, for a funeral sermon, is the use which can be made of the character of the deceased by way of warning or example. The author of the sermon before us has very judiciously applied the lesson of mortality to the most important purposes; and, in paying a just tribute of respect to the departed, has afforded a series of instructions, which cannot fail to be useful to the young minister of the Gospel. Mr. Philips is known as an active and diligent minister; and, both for his own sake and the real merits of his sermon, we shall present our readers with a rather large extract from his pages. In a note at the foot of page thirteen we read

If one soul exceed in value the whole material world, because it must endure for ever-then what are all the temporal calamities which the cruelty, ambition, or other evil passions of men have brought upon the world, compared to the evil produced by the unfaithfulness of one minister? and how is it possible by numbers to compute its aggregate amount ?

It may be presumptuous to suppose any of my brethren, who are called to preach the Gospel, unacquainted with the importance, responsibility, or difficulties, of their station. If the great Apostle, whose words have furnished the subject of my discourse, was nevertheless constrained to exclaim, "who is sufficient for these things?" we doubtless ought to feel that the office of a Christian pastor should be undertaken only after mature deliberation let it be remembered that upon the faithful discharge of its duties, eternal consequences depend. That every minister is a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. Tremendous indeed will the event prove, should he become the latter by his wilful negligence, or timid irresolution; at his hands will God require the blood of every sinner who perishes unwarned. Sufficiently awful is the reflection that he may bring destruction on himself—but tenfold more so, that in the day of judgment thousands may appear as witnesses against him, denounce VOL, I.-NO. III.

2 T

him as the author of their perdition, and with imprecations, call for vengeance on his devoted head. A consideration of these solemn and appalling truths should produce their proper effect on the minds of ministers. They should ever follow St. Paul's example, and not "shun declaring all the counsel of God,"-calling to remembrance his exhortation to Timothy, "Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine-continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee, assured that it is only by preaching and practising the Gospel in its purity, that either we or our hearers can be Jastingly benefited.” p. 13.

The ideas intended to be conveyed in the following passage are very good. There is an absurdity, however, in the first line, which should warn our younger readers against ever meddling with metaphysical language in either writing or speaking, "intellectual apprehensions floating on the surface of the mind"!!!

That intellectual apprehension which floats upon the surface of the mind, without penetrating into the recesses of the heart, as it would be useless to himself, so it would be little beneficial to his hearers. As we should distrust the guide when we found him loitering on the road-suspect him when in close intercourse with the inhabitants of the country, he describes as dangerous—and doubt him when unprepared against the enemies he announced as numerous and powerful; so should we also mistrust, suspect, and doubt the minister living in conformity to the world, whilst he is warning us against its snares and delusions.

The motive by which every minister should be influenced, must be superior to, and unconnected with, the different circumstances, in which he may be placed in the discharge of his duties; thus, he must rise above the applause or censure of his people, so as not to be improperly exalted by the one, nor distressed by the other,-it must be a motive able to subdue all his selfish feelings, and preserve him from those fluctuations to which he would otherwise be exposed, since, without such a motive, he will never be enabled successfully to effect his object. This motive can only arise from the divine principle of love to the Saviour. He only is willing thus to devote himself to the service of his fellow-creatures, to fill up the measure of the afflictions of Christ for the Church," and to lay down his life for the brethren," who feels that Christ "loved him, and gave himself for him." This will raise him above the world, above the church, above himself, and enable him in his practice, to offer a beautiful illustration of his precepts, so that many may be won by his example who may not be convinced by his reasoning. This man alone is qualified to speak to his followers the word of God. P. 14.

The following is a specimen of the manner in which our author connects the immutability of Christ with the doctrines of grace and a holy conduct.

He will therefore state, that the doctrine of "Election" and "Predestination," originating in Divine Grace, is the basis of the glorious plan of redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ; that although the plan was executed in time, it was formed in eternity, and that hence he is called "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;" therefore, the people of God are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Necessarily arising from the structure of this plan, and indispensable to its execution, is the doctrine of the new birth, which the minister will most urgently press