I have been unwilling that you should run any unnecessary risks, until you are better able to estimate your peculiar religious advantages. But I must leave you for the present: to-morrow we will resume our conversation, when Maria and Emma will also be able to join us." "

Another scene, full of graphic but subdued quiet humour, must not be omitted :

"In spite of Catherine's educational respect for dissent, she could not help laughing at her cousin Charles Newton's account of a visitation which had been inflicted on Mr. Thornhill; he informed her he could vouch for the very words, as Dr. Sinclair had heard them while sitting in a room adjoining Mr. Thornhill's study. Charles informed his sister and cousin, that though Mr. Thornhill's congregation had generally adopted his views and sentiments, there were a few desirous of showing the genius of dissent; and as no Independent minister ever gave entire satisfaction to his Independent congregation, Mr. Thornhill must not be considered peculiarly unfortunate if he numbered some among his church (as it was called), who no longer found him an acceptable preacher: they could plainly discover, they said, that in proportion as his intimacy with Dr. Sinclair and Mr. Woodward increased, his preaching had become more legal; he did not now feed them with the bread of life,' but his sermons were mere human compositions; so cold, so lifeless, that they were convinced they had been written, word for word, like a cold formal clergyman's; they therefore felt it their duty to behave in a very rude, disrespectful manner to their minister, to tell him that he had never preached the Gospel, and to give him the invaluable benefit of their sage advice and counsel for his future conduct, if he wished to retain them among his congregation.

"And pray, Charles, how do you know that such were their thoughts and feelings?'

"By their after-conduct, dear Catherine.'

"But who were they ?' inquired Gertrude.

"They were four very worthy young men: two of them following the very humble occupations of assistant baker and shoemaker; the other two serving their apprenticeship to shopkeepers. Earnest were the conversations which passed between these reformers as they walked one evening towards Mr. Thornhill's residence; at one time, indulging in speculations as to the effect their unlooked-for appearance would occasion in their minister, they pictured to themselves his hesitation in seeing them; but at length became perfectly convinced that this exhibition of their spiritual-mindedness would effect a radical reform in their deeply-erring minister, who must be perfectly convinced by their judicious and conscientious rebukes.'

"You must excuse me, Charles, if I say I consider that you have shown yourself a bigoted Churchman by your account of this circumstance. I cannot think a real dissenter would act in this way.'

“Nay, Catherine, do not condemn me; if you dislike the nature of dissent, it only proves, my dear cousin, that your education and judgment are at variance: the latter disallows what the former has required. But do you wish to hear the conclusion ?'

«Oh, certainly,' replied the young ladies.

"They were immediately,' resumed Charles Newton, 'admitted to Mr. Thornhill's study, where, finding themselves not quite so much at their ease as they expected, they thought it expedient to enter at once on the business in question. They appeared at first a little confounded at Dr. Sinclair's presence, but their holy zeal had been aroused by perceiving that the gentlemen had held converse of a religious nature, for there lay the Bible and Prayer-book together on the study-table; they therefore abruptly and rudely informed him, that it was

their decided opinion that he had not been called to preach the Gospel, for if he had been a true shepherd of the flock, they should certainly have received more benefit from his ministrations: his sermons had contained no Gospel truths lately, and they felt it their duty to be candid in telling him, if he did not give up the friendship of such men as Dr. Sinclair and Mr. Woodward, (the Doctor had retired at the commencement into a room immediately adjoining the study,) who were plainly denominated in Scripture as greedy wolves, they must withdraw and not give sanction by their presence to such direful apostacy as was exhibited in their pastor. This excellent harangue, my dear Kate, having been delivered by the aforesaid worthy young men, Mr. Thornhill prepared himself with becoming gravity to address so august an audience, suppressing with considerable trouble his inclination to laugh at the absurd group before him. My friends,' he replied, 'you will wonder, I have no doubt, greatly at what I am going to tell you, that while there is much in your speech to which I cannot agree, on one point we are in unison, and that one point is my call to the ministry. I have for some time past entertained doubts on this subject, and therefore am not astonished that you have not received good to the extent you might have done had I been an ordained minister of God, lawfully commissioned to preach the Gospel; on that account I consider I have no other claim on your respect than as a friend who is anxious to warn you against danger. It is my intention to resign my pastoral office among you. I have endeavoured, and rejoice to know that I have done some good in my irregular way, and would, as my last ministerial advice, direct you to the fountain-head for spiritual instruction. Avoid for the future, my friends, carving out for yourselves broken cisterns which can hold no water,-cultivate a spirit of humility,-take the proper station for a disciple at the feet of his master,―treat your authorized ministers with the respect which their situation as ambassadors of the King of heaven deserves; then your days will pass in tranquillity and happiness as obedient children to your mother-church, forming a strong contrast to those who spend their lives in the whirlpool of the distraction, noise, envying, and emulations of a dissenting faction.' Having delivered this short advice, he politely wished them good evening; and, judging from the young men's countenance, they walked away completely puzzled.'

Another circumstance bears so strong an air of verisimilitude, that we think Miss Christmas must have really had it from some dissenting deacon:

"Ah! Mr. Woodward,' exclaimed one of these persons, 'you would make us all Catholics.'

"Would, my dear friend, I had that power: I would indeed have you all Catholics, but not Roman Catholics. The Romish doctrine, which you are confounding with the purely Anglo-Catholic one which I have been insisting upon, is essentially different. She (the Romish Church) insists upon the belief of her members in all the doctrines of her church, irrespective of their being at variance with the pure word of God, because she claims infallibility as one of her attributes.'

"No wonder,' exclaimed the astonished auditor, that the mass of the Roman Catholics are going down to the pit of destruction: they cannot be saved.' "It is certainly a very awful fact,' continued Mr. Woodward, 'that so many are blind. Yet even in her corrupted communion there are the means of salvation; the foundation of their faith is sound, (Jesus Christ being himself the chief corner stone,) although on that foundation they build hay, straw, and stubble, (viz. man's own endeavours); still, if they have rested on the right foundation, they shall be saved; but their works shall be destroyed. She is a church

founded by Christ and his Apostles, as well as our own; but she, alas ! has not kept her first estate.'

66 6

Now, sir,' observed Mr Godwin, 'how do you think I ought to act, supposing that I cannot see any particular doctrine of the church to be in unison with the Scripture ?'

"In such a case,' replied the clergyman, it is your duty and your wisdom to ask counsel of your minister, whom Providence has appointed to watch over you.'

6

"And if,' pursued the interrogator, the explanation does not make it clear to me ?'

"Do as you would in the case of a law-suit: you cannot enter into all the detail of the man of law, but you expect, in that particular branch of study to which he has for so many years directed his attention, he must necessarily be your superior adopt the same mode of thinking and acting with regard to your minister. Add to this, prayers to God for that wisdom which you lack, and he who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not, shall answer you well. Mr. Godwin,' said Mr. Woodward, 'have I so much surprised you by the way in which I stated your duty to you, as to have deprived you of the powers of utterance?'

666

Why, sir, I must say you bring strange things to my ears. I have always been taught that one man's opinion of the word of God is as good as another's; but if what you say is true, and I confess I cannot gainsay it, my practice and opinions have been much at variance with the word of God. At the commencement of my religious career I was a Baptist, but our minister and many of us did not agree. He did not preach the Word with that unction which gives it power to the heart; we wished him to leave, but he was unwilling to do so, and we were obliged to resort to coercive measures to turn him out.'

666

'May I ask the nature of those measures ?' said the clergyman. "We gave another minister a call; contrived to get the meeting-house keys, by which we occupied it first; got our preacher in the pulpit; and stationed constables on the pulpit stairs to prevent the old pastor from ascending. We defeated him in that manner the first Sunday evening. He made a strong effort the following Sunday, and he was successful in keeping the pulpit that day; but we of the opposition agreed to grant him no supplies, to pay no pew rents, nor to allow of any collection while he remained there. His own party being very small, were unable to support him; consequently in less than three months we established our own minister, and were once more settled for some time.'

"Is it possible that your new pastor was willing to be a party to the spoliation of a brother minister? I have been told, too, that dissenting ministers are frequently obliged to preach such doctrine as the heads of their respective congregations may choose to hear; and of course your brother must have been afraid to denounce any particular sin to which the leading men in his congregation were addicted, for fear of losing his situation. But I am anxious to learn how long your new pastor enjoyed his office over such a quiet, peaceable flock.' "We went on pretty well for a good while, when our minister's health not being equal to do all by himself, we agreed that he should have an assistant, The different academies sent their most talented young men to preach before us, and after due consideration we selected a very promising young man possessing many gifts, who was the means of doing much good for two or three years. But the ministers at length could not agree; the elder minister accused his junior of being an anti-teatotaller: the congregation were divided, and after ineffectual attempts at reconciliation, one half of the congregation built a new chapel and chose another minister.'

"And which party did you attach yourself to?' asked Mr. Woodward. "To neither, sir; for my poor wife was so averse to contention, that she persuaded me to take sittings at the Independent chapel, which I did.'

"Was that before Mr. Thornhill's time? years, and he was here when I came.'

666

I have been at Singleton eight

Yes, sir, Mr. Parsons was the minister then; but a year or two afterwards he resigned, and we gave Mr. Thornhill a call.’

"I suppose he acted very differently from the young minister at the Baptist meeting-house?'

"We thought him more nice than wise when he inquired whether it was Mr. Parsons' wish to leave; and if not, declared that no offer should tempt him to be the means of displacing another minister, especially an older one: but the old gentleman resigned, and Mr. Thornhill succeeded in a few months. I assure you, sir, that although I did not see the evil of these changes, still I was tired of them, and determined to continue with Mr. Thornhill until my death. He was much plainer, sir, in telling us of our sins; and when we complained that we did not profit under any occasional minister so much as when he preached, he used to urge us to the duty of self-examination as to whether the fault was not in ourselves; and very often, when his congregation were loud in condemning the church ministers and customs, he would gently remind them that they were by far too prejudiced to be impartial judges. He used to say there was much in the church he greatly admired: he condemned severely all such conduct as I have been describing. He said God was a God of order and harmony, and it could not fail to be very offensive to Him; if our consciences did not condemn us, it was because the god of this world had hardened our hearts and blinded our minds by filling us with arrogance and pride. Indeed, sir, he was so good a man, that there was surely no necessity for his changing his principles," "

The story, of course, ends with certain marriages, and is interspersed with a few legends, which, however, do not possess so much merit as the narrative in which they are set.

We are so much pleased with this book, that we shall, and do, recommend it as a present to young persons, and to form a part of all the lending parochial libraries; and we shall hope, ere long, to meet with other productions from Miss Christmas's pen.

We shall conclude with an extract from the Preface, which we beg earnestly to recommend to the notice of all teachers :

"And here, perhaps, we may be asked of what moment is it that men should be prepared to argue in defence of their faith, if that saving faith is within them? "We freely confess, that in many cases it is but of little consequence that the believer should be able to dispute on theological difficulties, nor would we wish to occupy the time of the humble Christian about knotty points in divinity, when he might be resting at the foot of the cross; but there are those who fill a somewhat more prominent, we will not say important, station in society: these ought to be thoroughly educated,--the head as well as the heart-the intellect as well as the affections: they may have to instruct, they will have to influence others, and they must be more or less subjected to the influence of argument by others.

"So far we think it will be generally, if not universally allowed, that theology should be taught more systematically and more scientifically than it is in ordinary cases. No liberal education can ever be considered complete without some such teaching; and setting aside entirely the vast importance of truth and consistency on such topics in a spiritual point of view, we now regard it solely as a branch of secular knowledge, which ought no more to be neglected in education than history or geography.

"It ought not to be left to the pupil's private reading. It cannot be supplied by books of devotion or Christian practice, and very rarely indeed by sermons,

either heard or read. Thus it will be seen at once, that the instruction we require is theoretical, not practical, except so far as the soundness of theory tends to correctness of practice; that we would have the intellect informed as well as the heart influenced, and Christianity presented at once to the understanding as a philosophical system, and to the affections and conduct as a pervading principle. How far this is the case with, perhaps, nine-tenths of those who profess to understand our holy religion, is a question which it would be invidious to answer."

ART. XV.-An Introduction to the critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. By Thomas Hartwell Horne, B. D., of St. John's College, Cambridge; D. D. of Washington College, Hartford, Connecticut, and of the University of Pennsylvania; Rector of the United Parishes of St. Edmund the King and Martyr and St. Nicholas Acons, Lombard-street; Prebendary of St. Paul's. Ninth Edition, corrected and enlarged. Illustrated with numerous Maps and Fac-similes of Biblical Manuscripts. 5 Vols. London: Longman & Co., 1846.

THE student of Scripture, who wishes to obtain a competent knowledge of the sacred volume, and who, at the same time, is unable to procure funds for a large library, or time for the investigation of many books, was, until the appearance of the work before us, almost destitute of the means of realizing his wishes. Commentaries, indeed, there were, and always were in abundance, but few worth more than an occasional reference; while the history of the Bible itself, of its many versions, and more especially of that which is authorized among us, is almost if not totally neglected. It was by one of those happy thoughts that occur so seldom, but which when followed out are productive of such happy consequences, that Mr. Horne was first led to the compilation of the present work. It must be a source of high and holy satisfaction to this veteran divine, to see the incalculable advantage which his labours have produced to the church. It is not a little owing to him that the younger clergy are so far better informed than were their predecessors in their holy office; he has given them a book which will supply a complete body of critical knowledge, and that thorough information, which it was at once so desirable and yet so difficult to attain, he has here condensed and presented to us. The edition before us-(the ninth)—is not a mere reprint. In it Mr. Horne has given us the fruits of his latest studies, the discoveries in sacred antiquities of the most recent divines; and if it were an indispensable book in its former condition, much more may it be pronounced to be so now. The following are the principal features of the new edition :

1. The whole has undergone a careful revision and correction. 2. In former editions the author gave, in No. 1 of Appendix to vol. i., a concise statement of the evidence upon which the Church