his death, he was entirely confined to his house. His case, in a physical point of view, was a singular one. It appears to have been a spinal affection, which rendered him scarcely able to bear his own weight. Yet, his mind continued clear and sound, and in his temper he exhibited the most exemplary meekness, patience, and humility to the very last. It has frequently, says his Biographer, been a subject of inquiry, how a person could support entire confinement to the house, and even to one seat, during many years, and yet preserve to the last a comfortable state of health, evenness, and cheer‹ fulness of spirits, and surprising vigour of mind.' The details of his manner of passing the day will be read with interest. Religious reading and meditation, as he advanced in years, became increasingly acceptable to him; and the undecayed warmth of his affections will be seen from the few extracts from his private papers which have been preserved. On every anniversary of his marriage, he was accustomed latterly to present to Mrs. Murray an expression of congratulation and affection in writing. The following bears date 1821:

This day, my beloved Hannah, is the fifty-fourth anniversary of our marriage. At this late period of our lives, we cannot, in the course of nature, look for a much longer continuance together. Our remaining time here must now be short. Perhaps we may not be permitted to see another anniversary of our union. If this should be the case, or whenever we may be removed from this transient scene, may the God of love and mercy be graciously pleased, through the blessed Redeemer, to give us an inheritance in his holy and happy kingdom; there to be reunited in our spirits, and joyfully employed in thanksgivings and praises, and the most devout and zealous serviees, to our heavenly Father and Redeemer, for endless ages!

Whichever of us may be the surviver, I hope that Divine Goodness and Mercy will be near to support that surviver under so deeply trying an event, and to produce a humble, reverent submission to the will of Heaven. May we both, my dear Hannah, now when the curtains of the night are soon, or before long, to be drawn around us, be more and more diligent to make our calling and election sure; to be prepared for striking our tents, and removing to a better world; where, sinful and unworthy as I am, I hope, through the infinite mercy of God in Jesus Christ, to be admitted; and where, if admitted, we shall be finally delivered from all sickness and sorrow, from all sin, temptation, and imperfection.' pp. 165, 6.

6

It is a comfort for me to feel,' he writes, that the longer I live, the greater is my regard for my friends and acquaintance, ' and my desire that we may all meet in a better world.' His reflections on his seventy-second birth-day are very striking and characteristic.

I am this day seventy-two years of age. How many preservations and mercies have I experienced in this long course of time! How poorly I have improved the goodness and forbearance of God to me! What has been the design of this long continuance of life, and of the blessings with which my cup has run over? Plainly, that I might improve these mercies, by gratitude, love, and obedience to my great Benefactor; and be prepared to enter into his holy and happy kingdom, there to glorify and serve him for ever. May this be my joyful experience, through the mercy of God, in Jesus Christ, and for his sake! I know, by long and repeated proofs in myself, and by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, that of myself I can do nothing to effect my salvation: my powers are all inadequate to this great end. It is by the grace of God alone, that the work can be effected. May I ever look to that, and pray for it, and finally experience it to work in me a most comfortable and steadfast hope, that I shall be made one of those holy and happy beings, who shall glorify, adore, praise, and serve Him, for evermore, with the highest degree of love and gratitude, that their enlarged spirits shall then be made capable of exerting.'

Preserve me from all vain self-complacencies; from seeking the applauses of men; and from all solicitude about what they may think or say of me. May I be made truly humble, and of a meek and quiet spirit! If I have done any good to my fellow-creatures, or, in any degree, promoted the will of my heavenly Father, may I unfeignedly give him all the glory; attributing nothing to myself, and taking comfort only from the reflection, that an employment in his service, affords an evidence that his mercy is towards me, that I am not forsaken by Him, and that he is training me for an inhabitant of his blessed kingdom, there to glorify and serve my God and Redeemer for ever.' pp. 167-169.

In the full enjoyment of life, he attained his eighty-first year; and on his birth-day, he appeared so well and cheerful, that the prospect of losing him seemed as remote as on any similar occasion during many preceding years. In the autumn and winter immediately preceding his death, he appeared unusually free from indisposition. His sight and hearing were good; he could read the smallest print with spectacles; and his memory was remarkably retentive. His hair had become entirely white; his countenance bespoke age and feebleness, but still retained an expression of intelligence and sweetness. On the 10th of January, 1826, Mr. Murray was seized with a slight paralytic affection in his left hand, but it was of short duration. On the 13th of February, he had a return of the numbness, which again speedily yielded to friction. In the evening, however, he was seized with acute pain in the groin, accompanied with violent sickness, and after a short but painful illness, endured with his wonted meekness, on the 16th of February, he expired.

Mr. Murray's income, independently of the profit of his publications, scarcely exceeded at any time five or six hundred pounds; but, with this income frugally managed, he maintained so high a character for beneficence, that he was generally esteemed rich. The profits derived from his various publications, and which he uniformly devoted to benevolent purposes, afforded him, indeed, a considerable fund of charity.* He was a sincere and enlightened philanthropist, and took a lively interest in the success of various public institutions, designed to promote the cause of religion and humanity, especially the Bible Society and the African Institution. To each of these institutions he bequeathed £200, and to seven different charitable establishments at York, the sum of £25. each. The residue of his property, after the decease of his wife, he directed to be vested in trustees at New York, so as to form a permanent fund, the yearly income of which is to be appropriated in the following manner :

In liberating black people who may be held in slavery, assisting them when freed, and giving their descendants, or the descendants of other black persons, suitable education; in promoting the civili. zation and instruction of the Indians of North America; in the purchase and distribution of books tending to promote piety and virtue, and the truth of Christianity; and it is his wish, that the "Power of Religion on the Mind," with the Author's latest corrections and improvements, may form a considerable part of these books; and im assisting and relieving the poor of any description, in any manner that may be judged proper, especially those who are of good character."

In his conduct and conversation, Mr. Murray conformed to the peculiarities of the Society of Friends, of which he was an ornament; but, though attached to his own sect, his catholic spirit led him to regard truly religious persons of every denomination as members of one church, children of one 'holy and blessed family, and fellow-travellers to a heavenly 'country.'

The extensive circulation of his grammatical works in Ame rica was particularly gratifying to Mr. Murray's feelings; and without underrating their value and usefulness in this country, the service which he has thus rendered to American literature may be regarded, perhaps, as the most important result of his labours. They will doubtless,' remarks his Biographer,

For the Grammar, Exercises, and Key, Mr. Murray received £700.; for the Abridgement, £100; for the Reader, Sequel, and Introduction, £750.; for the Lecteur Francais and Introduction, £700.; for the Spelling Book, and First Book, £500.; for the Selections from Horne, £100.

tend in no small degree to preserve the Anglo-American language from corruption, and to stop the progress of useless innovation.'

An interesting portrait is prefixed to this volume, the profits of which, the Editor states, will be applied, like those arising from Mr. Murray's works, to charitable and benevolent purposes.

Art. II. Lyra Sacra: Select Extracts from the Cathedral Music of the Church of England. Adapted for one, two, three, and four Voices; with an Accompaniment for the Organ or Piano-forte. By the Rev. Joseph Jowett, M. A. Rector of Silk Willoughby. Parts I. to III. 7s. 6d. each. London. 1826.

A FRIEND of ours, on putting the question to a lady of great musical taste, whether she ever played sacred music, received for answer, that she did not possess an organ. To perform it on a piano-forte, was deemed out of the question. This excuse for excluding church music from the domestic circle, and for neglecting to consecrate the powers of hand and voice to the noblest and most delightful of employments, if musically valid, will hardly be regarded as morally satisfactory. It suggested, however, one cause of the prevailing neglect of sacred music among us, and the deterioration of our psalmody. The piano-forte is an exquisite instrument, capable of great pathos and variety of expression, but its distinguishing excellencies are distinctness, delicacy, and brilliancy. Its powers are limited and ill adapted to the majestic and sustained harmony of what Dr. Crotch styles the sublime in music, being best suited to the ornamental style. Under the hand, indeed, of a Crotch or a Clementi, it is capable of assuming a character not its own; but the genuine effect of some of the finest compositions is wholly lost, when attempted on this favourite instrument by ordinary performers, and they become insipid and monotonous, like beautiful poetry in a bad translation. The universal and exclusive adoption of this instrument has, therefore, necessarily led to a preference for a corresponding style of composition, and a distaste for organ music. Brilliancy of execution is almost the only kind of merit which is aimed at by the performer, and our very psalmody has become secularised in accommodation to the frivolity of modern taste. Most of our organists live by teaching the piano-forte, and they betray, too often, by their touch and style of handling the sacred instrument, how little conversant they are with its genuine character. The difficulty of procuring a good organist has sometimes been a source of no small perplexity, and

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the use of barrel organs in our churches and chapels has been gaining ground. We cannot but lament this. As lovers of sacred music, though we are by no means so fastidious as to decline the use of the piano-forte as a substitute in the absence of the organ, we deplore the preference so generally given to the modern instrument, which is indeed better fitted for purposes of display and hours of gayety, but must preclude, to a great. extent, the cultivation of the manlier and nobler styles, and a relish for the severer graces of devotional harmony.

We are aware that many persons object against an organ, its not being an instrument fitted for the small apartments of modern houses; and we are not insensible to the advantage which it derives from the accessories of echoing aisle and vaulted roof, when placed where it seems wrought into the building, and sounds the very voice of the architecture. We

too

-love the high embowed roof
With antique pillars massy proof,
And storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light:
There let the pealing organ blow,
To the full-voiced choir below,
In service high and anthem clear,
As

may with sweetness, thro' mine ear,
Dissolve me into ecstacies,

And bring all heaven before mine eyes.'

Still, we would no more, like the Papists, confine the organ to consecrated edifices, than forbid a layman, as they did, to exercise the funetions of organist, or to lay a profane hand upon the keys. The organ is capable of being adapted to any range or compass, and is eminently fitted for the purposes of do-mestic devotion or of lonely solace. Allowance must be made for diversities of taste and ear; but all persons, we think, who are susceptible of the soothing and elevating effect of sacred harmony, will be disposed to admit, that there are seasons at which the two instruments are felt to differ as widely as the soothing converse of a friend from the brilliant impertinence of a stranger. An organ then is strictly a domestic, and it is at the same time a manly instrument;-not exclusively such, for our painters by common consent assign this instrument to St. Cecilia, as not less properly belonging to her than the lion to St. Mark, or the eagle to St. John. And we should deeply regret that the organ were altogether resigned by the Cecilias or Lucillas of our own country. Yet, there is, perhaps, something in the semi-ecclesiastical cha racter of the organ, that renders it more adapted to a mascu