of the work. A companion to it (as it may well be termed) has just been published by the same author. 2. Life of Mr. James Renwick, the last of the Scottish Martyrs. By the Rev. Robert Simpson, Sanquhar. 18mo., pp. viii, 220. Johnstone, Edinburgh: Groombridge, London. MR. RENWICK was one of the Scottish Covenanters ; a man of deep piety, a Minister of fervent spirituality, highly evangelical, and of powerful elocution. He seems to have lived, preached, and died under the constraining influence of the love of his Saviour. He was one who might have said, had the lines existed in his day, "My heart is full of Christ, and longs Its glorious matter to declare: Of him I make my loftier songs; I cannot from his praise forbear: He was born in 1662, and, while yet a child, was brought, by the blessing of God on the labours of his pious parents, (and especially of his mother,) to the saving experience and profession of religion. He studied for the ministry, and was ordained at the University of Groningen, in Holland, and immediately returned to Scotland, where he ran a brief but laborious course, holding meetings, and preaching, in such wild and unfrequented places as seemed to promise safety, during the latter part of the reign of the wretched Charles II., and the earlier years of that of his likeminded, but more bigoted, successor. Of earthly comforts he knew little, as he was hunted about from place to place, like some noxious animal, often experiencing the most remarkable escapes. But a fire burned in his heart that neither labours nor opposition could extinguish. A proclamation was issued, by the authority of James, offering a reward of £100 to whoever should take him, alive or dead. But he pursued his course without flinching. An extract from a letter written by him to some "religious ladies" will show something of his views and feelings, and of the subjects of his ministry. He says, "Do not deceive yourselves with a counterfeit, instead of a reality; with a flash, instead of conversion; and a delusion, instead of Christ: but get ye a sight of your sinful and miserable state, a sense and feeling thereof putting you in perplexity, and discouraging you from resting in it, a conviction of your inability to help yourselves, and of your unworthiness that God should help you out of it; and look unto Christ as your alone Saviour, receiving him wholly in his threefold office, of King, Priest, and Prophet, welcoming him, and taking up his cross against the world, the devil, and the flesh, and resting on him alone for salvation. And if ye have thus closed the bargain with him, then you will find in you a war declared and maintained against all sin; a respect to all the commandments of the Lord; a liking of the way of happiness, as well as happiness itself; a high esteem of justification and sanctification; a prizing of Christ, and a longing to be with him; and an admirable change wrought in you,—a new judgment, a new will, a new conscience, a new memory, and new affections; in a word, all the faculties of the soul will be new in regard of their qualifications, and all the members of the body in regard of their use." He was apprehended early in 1688, and tried for refusing to acknowledge James as his lawful Sovereign. He was found guilty, and suffered death on the 17th of February, a day or two after he had completed his twenty-sixth year. On the previous day he wrote what he termed his "dying testimony." It thus concludes: "Farewell, beloved sufferers, and followers of the Lamb; farewell, Christian intimates; farewell, Christian and comfortable mother and sisters; farewell, sweet societies and desirable general meetings; farewell, night-wanderings in cold and weariness for Christ; farewell, sweet Bible and preaching of the Gospel; farewell, sun, moon, stars, and all sublunary things; farewell, conflicts with a body of sin and death: welcome, scaffold, for precious Christ; welcome, heavenly Jerusalem; welcome, innumerable company of angels, and general assembly and church of the first-born; welcome, crown of glory, white robes, and songs of Moses and the Lamb; and, above all, welcome, O thou blessed Trinity, and one God: 0 Eternal One, I commit my soul into thy eternal rest." On the day of his execution, his mother and sisters were admitted to a last interview. He took a little refreshment with them, and, in returning thanks for it, used these remarkable words: “O Lord, now hast thou brought me within two hours of eternity; and this is no matter of terror to me, more than if I were to go to lie down on a bed of roses. Nay, through grace, to thy praise I may say I never had the fear of death since I came within this prison." His behaviour on the scaffold was christianly collected and serene. NOTICES OF ANIMATED AND VEGETABLE NATURE, FOR AUGUST, 1843. BY MR. WILLIAM ROGERSON, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. "WITH bread, the heart of man to cheer, See, bending low, the ripen'd ear Bow its luxuriant head. In vain, ye swains, had been your care, The promise of the summer fair, "He bade the soft refreshing gale But when the ear began to rise, To Him we raised our anxious eyes: THE influence of the bright orb of day during this month brings forth fruit in abundance, and ripens the corn for harvest-time. Considerable pleasure is derived from agricultural pursuits, especially during this interesting and lively season of the year; and anciently persons of the greatest eminence did not think it beneath their attention. Gideon, the Judge of Israel, left the threshing-floor to preside in the public assembly of his country. Cincinnatus, the conqueror of the Volsci, quitted his plough to conduct the Roman armies to battle; and afterwards declined the rewards of his victories, to return to his former rural employment. General Washington found the most pleasing relaxation from public business in the management of his own estate. It is stated that the Emperor of China, at the commencement of every spring, goes to plough in person, attended by the Princes and grandees of his empire: he celebrates the close of the harvest among his subjects, and creates the best farmer in his dominions a Mandarin. The crops generally begin with rye and oats, proceed with wheat, and finish with peas and beans. In all this, the Christian observer of nature will contemplate the goodness of God, and meditate on his gracious promise, "Seed-time and harvest shall endure to the end of the world." The first half of the month.-Young willow-wrens, gardenwarblers, blackcaps, &c., are now very busy in the orchards among ripe fruits, and may be taken by proper traps, baited with red currants. They will soon become very tractable in confinement, and feed on bread and milk, ripe fruit, German-paste, &c., and pour forth their sweet and interesting songs. In Jesse's "Gleanings" we find the following observations on the ingenuity of birds:-"Thrushes feed very much on snails, looking for them on mossy banks. Having frequently observed some broken snail-shells near two projecting pebbles on a gravelwalk, which had a hollow between them, I endeavoured to discover the occasion of their being brought to that situation. At last I saw a thrush fly to the spot, with a snail-shell in his mouth, which he placed between the two stones, and hammered at it with his beak till he had broken it, and was then able to feed on its contents. This bird must have discovered that he could not apply his beak with sufficient force to break the shell while it was rolling about, and he therefore found out, and made use of, a spot which would keep the shell in one position. When the lapwing wants to procure food, it seeks for a worm's cast, and stamps the ground by the side of it with its feet, somewhat in the same manner as I have often done, when a boy, in order to procure worms for fishing. After doing this for a short time, the bird waits for the issue of the worm from its hole, which, alarmed at the shaking of the ground, endea vours to make its escape, when it is immediately seized, and becomes the prey of the ingenious bird. The lapwing also frequents the haunts of the moles. These animals, when in pursuit of worms, on which they feed, frighten them, and the worm, in attempting to escape, comes to the surface of the ground, where it is seized by the lapwing. The same mode of alarming his prey has been related of the gull." "Let us walk where weeds are growing, By the alders in the mead; Where the crystal streams are flowing, "There the golden carp is laving, With the trout, the perch, and bream; "Now they sink in deeper billows, Insects are now numerous: in the evenings moths abound, which gives the entomologist the opportunity of enriching his cabinet. The feathers of a moth's-wing, &c., afford scope for admiring the wisdom of the great Creator, especially to the microscopic observer. The vegetable department of nature teems with richness and beauty; and, whether we direct our steps through the fields or gardens, Flora's children smile upon us everywhere. The last half of the month.-The puffin migrates, and, shortly after, the swift disappears, and the pretty little wryneck takes its departure. Broods of young goldfinches and linnets are seen. The gor-cock, or moor-cock, now arrests attention: the beak of this bird is black and short; over the eyes there is a bare skin of a bright red. The general colour of the plumage is red and black, variegated and intermixed with each other, except the wings, which are brownish, spotted with red, and the tail, which is black; the legs are covered with long thick feathers down to the very toes. This bird is common in the north of England, and in Wales. The flesh of this wild fowl is very delicate, and holds on our table a place equal with the partridge and pheasant. The hen lays seven or eight eggs, of a reddish-black colour. "Where smooth, unruffled by the northern blast, Among the flowers now in bloom is the belladonna lily, (amaryllis formosissima,) one of the most beautiful ornaments of our gardens. When the sun shines full upon it, its deep red colour sheds a lustre like gold. The first roots of this plant ever seen in Europe were procured in 1593, on board a ship which had returned from South America, by a physician, at Seville. At first it was classed with the narcissus, and afterwards called lillio narcissus, because its flower resembled that of the lily, and its roots that of the narcissus. It was also called flos Jacobæus, because some imagined that they discovered in it a likeness to the badge of the Knights of the order of St. James in Spain, whose founder, in the fourteenth century, could not have been acquainted with this beautiful amaryllis. The Guernsey lily (amaryllis Sarniensis) is also at this time in bloom, and its magnificence is not inferior to the former. This plant was brought from Japan, and was first cultivated at Paris, where it blowed for the first time on the 7th of October, 1634. It was called the Guernsey lily, by Roy, from the following circumstance-A ship, returning from Japan, was wrecked on the coast of Guernsey; and a number of the bulbs of this plant, which were on board, being cast on shore; took root in that sandy soil. As they soon increased, and produced beautiful flowers, they were observed by the inhabitants, and some of the roots were sent by the Governor's son to his friends who were fond of cultivating plants. The order of a garden at this season is delightful, from the combination of both fruits and flowers. BRIEF ASTRONOMICAL NOTICES, FOR AUGUST, 1843. BY MR. WILLIAM ROGERSON, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. "IN olden time, when from primeval night The Architect divine, to angels' view, Bade, with surrounding globes, this pendent earth, THE solar system is a piece of machinery, infinitely transcending all that the mind of man can conceive of magnitude, of intricate yet simple movement, and of most elaborate, yet beneficial operation; a system of bodies vast in themselves, and far removed from each other; their courses and influences extending over a space many hundred millions of miles from the main-spring of their complicated movements. One class of its members move in the same common plane, and in the same direction; another class in planes which make all possible angles with, and moving in paths entirely adverse to, each other; yet each invariably pursues its own course as an independent body, and all observe the same centre, and obey the same fixed and immutable laws. The grand Mechanist of this wondrous frame is the Creator of the universe. The whole system, in its formation, locality, and various revolutions, was commanded into |
