The prolific pen of the Rev. R. PHILIP, of Maberly Chapel, has just sent forth a new and interesting volume, under the title of “ Redemption; or, the New Song of Heaven, the test of truth and duty on earth," which is published by Messrs. Forbes and Jackson. It presents much important truth in a devotional spirit, and considerable originality of style. This volume will form an agreeable companion to its author's ،، Guides," with which it is uniform in size and price. Our young friends may very profitably direct their attention to an instruc tive and valuable book just issued from the Religious Tract Depository, entitled, "An Explanation of the Principal Parables of the New Testament." It is very good and very cheap. "Verses for Pilgrims," by the Rev. C. I. YORKE, M.A., Rector of Shenfield, Essex, sold by Crofts, is an elegant volume of poetry, some of it rising to considerable beauty, and all of it correctly delineating scriptural facts and feelings. We have read some of its contents with very considerable interest, and hope that our readers will very generally put themselves in possession of it. Mr. EDWIN SAUNDERS's "Five Minutes' Advice on the Care of the Teeth," the sixteenth edition of which lies on our table, is a small pamphlet published by Renshaw, which commands attention from its correct information, plain sense, and sound advice. It can scarcely be introduced into a family without advantage. "The Sea-boy," and other poems, by R. RUEGG, of Blackheath, published by Darton and Harvey, is a little volume breathing a spirit of piety, and indicating the possession of poetic feeling. In the present day, no poetry but that of a very high order meets a chance of public reception; but we really think that Mr. R. has only to write with careful study, to try his best, and to publish slowly, in order to produce something that may be favourably received, and that shall rise. We have perused with great pleasure the reprint, in Glasgow, of a "Memoir of the Rev. Gordon Hall, A.M., one of the First Missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, at Bombay." By HORATIO BARDWELL. It is a volume which forcibly illustrates the benevolent and zealous spirit which Christianity inspires, and will greatly promote the missionary cause wherever it is read. The work is very handsomely printed, and the engraving is well adapted to excite great interest in the affecting event it delineates. No. V. THE FAMILY MAGAZINE. DECEMBER, 1834. VOL. I. PIETY ESSENTIAL TO THE FULL DEVELOPMENT OF THE MENTAL POWERS. (Concluded from page 104.) IV. PIETY insures to us divine teaching. And, with all the weakness and insufficiency of man, who, that knows his own ignorance and the inability of human means alone to cure it, would not esteem such teaching above all price? He who has yielded obedience to the divine commands, and thus become imbued with the spirit of piety, is included in the gracious declaration of Christ, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine;" in which is promised not merely knowledge on one point, but also, by implication, such a clearing of the perceptions, that all divine truth (and why not all human knowledge?) shall assume a vividness and a plainness, in which it was never before clothed. By piety one becomes a child of God. He not only claims God as his Father, but God acknowledges him to be his son. He puts on the meek dependence of a child. And if an earthly father, of cultivated and disciplined mind, rejoices to lead a meek, obedient, inquiring child into the paths of knowledge, shall not God much more rejoice to enlighten the minds of his ignorant and erring children? especially when increase in knowledge is so intimately connected with increase of holiness; when every new faculty of the mind, of which the Christian gets command, is to be employed for the divine glory; when every item of knowlege is to be made the means of waking him to fresh adoration, and every advance in mental vigour is a consecrated advance-consecrated to the divine praise? There are various passages in the Scriptures, which favour the idea, that devoted Christians enjoy the peculiar teachings of God. We may call attention particularly to the promises of Jesus in his valedictory address to his disciples. He there tells them plainly that he withholds some things, "because ye cannot bear them now"-but adds, "when the Spirit of truth is come, he shall guide you into all truth." And again, "The Spirit shall teach you all things, and shall bring all K things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.' When brought before heathen courts, the disciples were assured that the Spirit should teach them how, and what to speak. And although, in these days, Christians may not covet that special divine inspiration which was enjoyed by the disciples, yet that they may expect, and that they actually enjoy the teachings of God, in a manner to which the impenitent are strangers, we fully believe. The nature of the case favours it, and facts confirm it. President Edwards, who is acknowledged to be the most acute metaphysician America has produced, was eminently a man of holiness. Sir Isaac Newton, we have abundant assurance, loved the volume of God's word, as much as the volume of his works. Payson, whose splendid and glowing imagination, consecrated without reserve to the cause of Christ, almost distinguished him as the inhabitant of some middle world, where he could hold familiar converse with the glories and the beauties both of earth and heaven, of things visible and invisible, was emphatically a Christian of a high order. There seem to be exceptions, indeed, especially among the French philosophers, and the scientific men of a still later date. But if such men as Voltaire, in the last century, and La Place, who has been dead but a few years, had been as holy as they were talented, under the teachings of the blessed Spirit, what great achievements among men might they not have effected? If, in their impiety and infidelity, they attained to such mental grandeur, what might they not have attained, if they had gone further, and studied the mysteries of the kingdom of God? When He," in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," condescends to teach men, there is no danger that they will fail from dulness. He will either supply new strength, and give some new impulse to the torpid energies of the soul, or so direct their powers, that the mind will infallibly commence a rapid and glorious progression. For, is any thing too hard for Him? Cannot He who created the mind, open and enlarge its faculties, and so direct it as to make it, on earth, an angel in embryo ? Cannot he cause that it shall begin here that steady advance in strength, which shall go on till it is rendered perfect before the throne? V. Piety is the earnest of eternal and joyful progress in knowledge. It would be truly a melancholy thought, that after having gained a little mental power, and begun to approximate to the likeness of God, we must lie down in an eternal sleep; or, that our advance toward perfection must, at death, cease for ever. But to the pious there are assurances that the work here commenced shall go on hereafter with 66 greater facilities, and proceed with a rapidity hitherto unequalled. As soon as the tabernacle falls, and the soul is freed from the clog of earth, it will become an inhabitant of that world of spiritual realities, with which it had been before but in part acquainted. The hinderances, which are opposed to its development by the world of sense around it, will be taken away. The light of eternal knowledge will concentre itself upon the redeemed spirit-yea, in the immediate presence of the source of all knowledge, it shall enter upon a new progress; and, in the society of the pure, omniscient mind, shall it gather mental energy, and press toward perfection for ever. In that world, to which all the holy shall be admitted, there shall be eternal life, eternal employment of all the faculties on the most ennobling and enrapturing themes, and eternal advance from light to light, from strength to strength, from knowledge, as well as from bliss to bliss, from joy to joy, from glory to glory." When we are perplexed with our darkness on earth, we sometimes long for the intellect of a seraph before the throne, and would scarcely esteem any sacrifice too great for such power. But if we have piety, we are destined to attain more than all the vigour of his intellect, more than all the glory at which he has arrived, more than all the joy he has yet experienced. Like that star in the heavens, which, in a few hours, passes from the dimness of the fourth to the brightness of the second magnitude, will the mind advance toward the perfection of the great Fountain of light; but, unlike that star, there will be no return to its former dimness. If the Christian ministers before the throne, he is constantly receiving and reflecting back the beams of God's glory; and if he be sent to minister to the heirs of salvation on earth, he will still bear with him the radiance of that glory, and be enshrouded in its blessed influence. The fulfilling of his Father's will, in whatever part of his dominions, will not for a moment retard him in his intellectual career. After the contaminating and contracting influence of the body is once taken off from the soul, and its joyous eternity is begun, whatever be its employments, and wherever, still its course will be onward-onward. In conversing on literary, and still more on metaphysical topics, with the unregenerate, we can never avoid a feeling of sadness; for we cannot escape the thought, that if they remain thus unregenerate, the acute powers we sometimes witness, if destined, as they are, to progression in a future world, are destined to a progression any thing rather than joyous. Without piety, those splendid unfoldings of mind, which we admire on earth, can be no desirable treasure to their possessors. Great power can only give more ability to agonize under the wrath of an offended God. But on the contrary, when we converse on similar themes with a believer, we are filled with delight in viewing every mark of cultivated intellect; because we are sure it is only the earnest of an immortal and accelerated progress in the life to come. Whether we have proved the proposition advanced in this essay or not, we leave others to judge. Even though we may not have succeeded, we are sure it is true, that piety is essential to perfect mental development; and that, to whatever the mind may attain, if it be without piety, it is, as it were, shut up in a narrow cave, which is never visited by the light of heaven. A man may have learning, which the ignorant may almost worship. He may be so acute and profound, that they shall look upon him with as much reverence, as if he had his dwelling among the stars, or were as omniscient as they suppose his knowledge to be. He may himself glory in the noble aspirings of his mind, and the restless grandeur of its operations, and its panting for a state where it may unfold, in a manner and under influences more worthy of his dignity. But, if he have not piety, far preferable is the ignorance of the poor widow in her garret, and her views of spiritual realities, which, with all her divine intercourse, are comparatively narrow. We would clasp to our hearts her hope of heaven, and prize it beyond all his "treasures of wisdom and knowledge." On some future day, upon the hills of immortality, she will be clothed in radiant apparel, and advanced in intellectual vigour, so that she will be a meet companion "of the saints in light." Every power will then unfold under the teachings of the Holy Ghost. Her soul will be large as the soul of angels. And, in such society, she will go on in her immortal progress, while he, with all his boasting, will have gone to the companionship of "the devil and his angels." It is time that this paper, already too far protracted, were brought to a close. But we cannot consent to dismiss our readers, without reminding them, that in their own breasts is an immortal spirit. Many of you have been engaged, it may be for years, in the direct work of cultivating and training that spirit. We would beg leave to recal the suggestion at the commencement of our remarks, and inquire, for what purpose are you seeking to become educated? Have you no end, no purpose, no object? Surely that mental cultivation which you are attaining has some end; and it must have an influence, either for weal or woe, on your immortal destiny. If your progress in holiness is not equal to your progress in knowledge, what will be your progress through eternity? We will only add, it is the sacred duty of every Christian to seek |