offices of this kind,-and whether they gather flowers to regale their own senses, or because they think that others will expect them to appear with decorations, they are in equal danger of forgetting that what is redolent with truth is most fragrant to heaven, that what is adorned with moral beauty is the most appropriate garb of its messengers. The cast of mind, however, to which we here refer and which has called forth the previous remarks, is seldom sceptical. It is at ease, takes the generalities of Scripture, does not trouble itself with innovations, is literary rather than controversial. Something worse is before us. When a young man has made an engagement with a church, delivered his confession, and avowed his object, all eyes are upon him, not only to catch truth from his lips, but to witness and imitate his benevolent ardour on behalf of the sinners who are perishing around him. He is next to certain, from what he has read of ancient and modern heathenism, that, but for the Bible, God would have been unknown to this hour; he finds in the genius of scripture what could not have originated in the human heart; he sees in Jesus Christ and in the gospel the grand remedy for fallen man. He believes this, and wants no more to decide his course. Faith, energy, zeal, pity, bespeak his sense of what he owes to his Master and to his Master's cause. Can these hands grow weak and these knees smite one against the other? No, if the man would only keep to his work with fixed purpose. But he encounters infidels, and thinks to foil them. He hears their theories, and must needs study them. One brings the phrenological, another the geological, a third the socialist scheme before him; and, instead of contenting himself with general principles, with which metaphysicians and politicians content themselves, he takes a rapid glance at the three together, and, if there be very little in any one by itself, yet he is half disposed to think that there is something in the whole. And what if there is? Why, then, it is necessary to use a modified, ambiguous phraseology, and to leave off work-at least out-of-door work-until he can settle whether or not his entire system is true, aye, and absolutely true at all points. All this time the evidence of scripture is fading from his sight, and he cannot but think that man is wonderfully the creature of his organization and his circumstances. He feels that he is not able to answer either the theological or sceptical writers on the doctrine of necessity. Months pass away, he is still on the ocean; speculating for six days, preaching the seventh, though he doubts his own declarations, and is, for the present, to all intents, an undone man. "It is certain," says he, "that many marvellous things have been explained in a natural way, it is therefore the part of a liberal mind to hold itself in suspense, as, possibly, what have been termed miracles, and ascribed to Jesus Christ by his Apostles, may be susceptible of a similar explanation." Hereupon, he magnanimously, and for the pure love of truth, determines to learn German, and to inwardly digest" what the Neologians have said upon the subject. He cannot be satisfied with Dr. Smith or with any authority, though capable of wading in these waters to any depth, graditurque per aequor

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Jam medium; necdum fluctus latera ardua tinxit,

but, forgetful of his stature, is resolved to make the experiment for himself. The result he might have foreseen. In his perilous undertaking he meets with companions, whom he accepts for guides, and they inform him that a profound knowledge of Hebrew will enable him to detect a difference of style in various parts of the sacred volume, which, though blended now, in reality belong to ages widely removed from each other. This is a fresh shock to his creed, the damage of which it is proper to repair by an inquiry into its extent and nature. He now, therefore, girds up his loins to this task, which will take him only a life. We might multiply these illustrations. It is needless. The subject of this speculative habit has forgotten the interests of mankind, is chiefly taken up with what he shall believe, and is likely to be so for a long time to come. By turns in faith and in doubt, suspended between contrary forces, which neutralize each other; every thing that he does is done with half a heart, questioning both its present good and its final recompense.

It may be said that cases of this kind are rare; we hope they are. But is exclusive, stern devotedness to the work of the ministry common? If not, some reason may be found for it, either in the understanding or the heart. What, then, do you propose? may be asked-to put an end to investigation? By no means. We take the following view of the matter. In every system short of demonstration something must be assumed. If you once settle great principles, these should be given up only on evidence of the same kind with that on which you received them. The argument from prophecy, for example, cannot be disproved by the doctrine of necessity. It remains as before with respect to Jesus Christ, the Jews, the Gentiles, and, indeed, the whole economy of Christianity. The argument from the scriptural character of God, compared with all that Homer sung and Plato taught, is not to be set aside by conjectural reasonings on the first chapter of Genesis, nor even by proof against its philosophical accuracy. The argument from the oneness, continuity, and sublimity of design pervading revelation, is not touched by evincing that one man is more favourably constituted than another. But who says all this? We refer not to what is said, but to what is done in and out of the ministry at the present day. The proper proof of Christianity is forgotten in the supposed proof of theories which ought to be tried by it. We add another remark or two by way of explanation. When the Bible has been received on satisfactory grounds as divine, the reading of the working ministry should be directed to consolidate, not to unsettle this foundation. Men tremble for the Ark, who know not what supports it. If they do not enter heartily into the subject and somewhat exclusively, the time they have for study will be occupied with passing novelties and systems, and their impression of the value and grandeur of the christian scheme will die away. As to objections which do not affect the original reasons on which their faith rested, it will be necessary for them to content themselves with the answers that have been given to these objections by men of competent ability. If a minister (who has work of another kind to do) mean to enter into

every one of them, let him not assert the immortality of the soul until he have studied physiology. The Bible settles this at once; it would take some time to settle it in any other way. A revelation rationally admitted, which the profession of a minister implies, calls for energetic action. The forces of the mind must not be dissipated by scattering over a wide country small parties to encounter petty foes, but we must concentrate them in a steady, determined assault on the empire of sin. Our duty is to work while it is called to-day. These observations have been made in order to awaken attention to a peculiar feature in the character of Mr. Everett. He by no means declined speculation, but he made short work, as far as he himself was concerned, with whatever did not affect the bulwarks of Christianity. This gave him prodigious practical energy. "These things," he would virtually say, " may be plausible, my faith appears to me to be true, to rest on a basis which, in the general, cannot be shaken; I am not going to abandon a fortified for a defenceless position. In my view, God has spoken, therefore let God be true, and every man a liar.' We do not convey the notion that he was credulous. On the contrary, it was because he was thoroughly versant in the great arguments for revelation, that he felt authorized or rather bound to despise, at least to pass by, what others would pause to examine. Nor did he, in these matters, ever wish to denude of all meaning the declaration of the Saviour, "Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." With a sense of his own infirmities as deep as any man could have, the closest observer could never detect any thing that betokened forgetfulness of his high Vocation. We were acquainted with him when a student, saw him under circumstances that allowed of no disguise, and speak deliberately in saying, that we never knew an individual, young or old, who came up to his moral elevation. When he gave up the eight thousand pounds, left him by his uncle, to discharge debts which his father died without being able to pay, no one of his brethren regarded it as an extraordinary act for his virtue. "It is just like Everett," was the common remark amongst them. His friend and biographer was happy in having a subject on whose character he might freely exhaust his admiration. We thank him for the Memoirs, and for his own part in them. Let our readers peruse this volume, and then say whether Mr. Crump has been either too eloquent or laudatory in his estimate of his fellow student and intimate friend. Quite the contrary. We write from personal knowledge, and yet give him credit for keeping within the limits of actual truth, even when he speaks the most vividly of our lamented brother, of whom, in a moral sense, it may be soberly said, that "the natural element of his mind was greatness."

We can bestow only a few words on the other volumes named at the head of this article. All of them have a degree of interest. Mr. Ely's notice of the venerable Slatterie, and the Funeral Sermon by his successor, form an affectionate memorial of that good man's worth. The Remains of Dr. Nevins are full of thought, and, in the Essay prefixed by Mr. Winslow, there are some excellent observations on the mode of preaching adopted by our American brethren.

Mr. Hague's Sermons are written in a neat, pleasing and impressive style. They were addressed to the young people of his charge, and evince that tender solicitude on their behalf which we should naturally expect from a man of so much amiability and excellence. Mr. Paterson's Discourses will, we doubt not, be acceptable to his friends and to pious members of the establishment generally. They might have been so to other sections of the church, if winnowed of illiberality. But this is not the case. Even on a missionary occasion, this good man apprised his hearers, as a motive for exertion, that they were "members of the purest and most vigorous of the branches of the visible church of Christ-blessed with the labours and attentions of an apostolical responsible ministry,”—and that he "was bound to regard them as not, like many worshipping assem blies in the land, exposed to the corruptions and perils of an heretical confession or a fanatical ministry."-pp. 337, 338. His journal advocates the same cause, in language of pathetic exclamation."Oh! the spirit of dissent is a bad spirit."-p. 52. Now, it is easy to reply, we think much the same of the spirit of conformity. If a clergyman can with propriety put the following question-" Where, amidst our baptized population, do we meet with those who, even in the judgment of charity, can be regarded as yielding more than a general acquiescence in the doctrines, with an imperfect attendance on the ceremonies of the national faith?"-p. 271. And if these form "an immense majority," is it a good, true and right spirit to admit and confess that "God has vouchsafed to regenerate these his servants by water and the Holy Ghost, and has given unto them for giveness of all their sins?" We trow not. Whatever praise we may be disposed to give to Mr. Paterson, on the score of conscien tiousness, we pity the man who can overlook the important part which Dissenters have borne in the conversion of the heathen, and with equal pity do we hear him talking about his own order and faith in a pompous style, contemning and casting out others as "fanatical," "heretical," &c. at a moment when his "dear and distinguished, evangelical, blessed church,”-p. 52, “Remains,”—is furnishing our country with bishops and with priests, as nursing fathers, to one of the worst corruptions of Christianity.

We conclude our remarks on these volumes by just hinting that, as death is at hand, ministers should be diligent; that, as scepticism and error are abroad, they should be students of the Bible, well versed in its evidences and criticism; that it will be wise to leave speculative questions to the literary men amongst us, and literature, also, somewhat to itself; and that the only efficient course for those who are engaged in the work of the ministry, is to satisfy themselves, in the first place, of the true grounds of Christianity, and then to act on them, in season and out of season, with all their might. No man hit a happy medium more exactly than Mr. Everett. He could enjoy works of taste and art; he was intellectually equal to far greater things than he ever did; but he was magnanimous enough to remain ignorant of what was not requisite for his profession, if its attainment would take up the time that he had to give to the salva

tion of sinners.

In a theological and literary sense, the Remains of Dr. Nevins stand at the head of these publications. In relation to our object, we attach greater importance to the Memoirs of Mr. Everett, under the solemn conviction that a spirit like his, pervading our churches, would do wonders, and call forth an amount of energy that would bless ages yet to come and generations yet unborn.

The Benevolence of God towards all Mankind; a Sermon delivered at Bilston and Ramsgate. By the Rev. James Mather. 12mo. pp. 28. London: Snow.

THE crowded state of our pages will not usually permit us to take notice at length of single sermons, however excellent, but the remarkable circumstances which occurred during the delivery of this discourse at Ramsgate, and which, although it was originally studied without any such intention, led to its publication, demand from us a deliberate critical opinion.

The facts are these-while our venerable brother was delivering his sermon, "The congregation became manifestly uneasy, and not less than fifty individuals retired from the place, several expressing great disapprobation, and some going so far as to charge the preacher with speaking blasphemy." His object therefore, is, to appeal against the judgment of this portion of his hearers, to the christian public; and thus to vindicate his character as a minister of Christ.

We have read the sermon with attention, and we earnestly hope the hearers above described, of whom we literally know nothing except from their conduct on this occasion, will give us credit for following our honest conviction, when, for our parts, we decidedly pronounce in favour of the preacher. Though, speaking critically, we might perhaps find fault, in a few instances, with the composition, as not sufficiently guarded against having its import misconceived, yet, on the whole, we think the discourse to be sound, instructive, and useful.

The object of the preacher is, to illustrate the benevolence of God towards all mankind, by a discussion of that most encouraging passage, in St. Paul's Epistle to Timothy," God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth." These words are not interpreted on the scheme of the Universalist, as one might have imagined from the offence taken; but the glorious truth which they palpably express, is enforced by many appeals to other parts of the divine word, as well as by the obvious import of many of its facts and statements. As a firm believer also in the doctrine of election, the author not only asserts the consistency of the two doctrines, but endeavours to show how they may be reconciled. We think he has adduced many pointed and important observations on the subject of this harmony; but whether, in the judgment of his hearers, he did, or did not succeed in this part of his design, there could be no excuse, since he not only did not deny, but affirmed the truth of both, for their harsh and unchristian treatment of an aged minister, and disregard of the solemnities of divine service.