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interest and information. Mr. Fraser is well qualified, from his personal acquaintance with the country, to undertake the task of writing a history of Persia; but he has not hesitated to consult the best authorities, as well as draw upon his own knowledge, for the purpose of rendering his book complete. The map of Persia, constructed from a personal survey, is decidedly the most correct which has hitherto been laid down : and the engravings, which are well executed, form, not only a pleasing appendage, but have their use in the way of illustration. We could wish that the chapter on the Natural History of Persia had been somewhat more comprehensive.

The Nun. London: Seeley & Burnside. 1833. 12mo. Pp. 326. THIS novel is founded upon the horrors and depravities of a Romish Nunnery; for the details are not only highly graphic, but clothed in all the reality of solemn truth. The description of the forms and ceremonies of taking the veil, and the penalties attending a refractory victim, is peculiarly touching. We are happy to acquaint our readers that, after the legitimate form and fashion of a novel, the affair concludes with a couple of weddings, and a third in embryo; and that the person becomes "the mother of two sons, taller than herself, and of three daughters, Emily, Pauline, and Agnace.'

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Richard Watson, late Secretary to the Wesleyan Missionary Society. By THOMAS JACKSON. London : Mason. 1834. 8vo.

Pp. xv. 667. DEATH, within these few years, has removed several of the Wesleyan ministers; of whom Dr.Adam Clarke and Richard Watson were among the most eminent. The memoirs of the former, written by his son, are highly interesting; nor is the volume before us deficient in that respect. It is written indeed in that peculiar style which marks the sect from which it proceeds;

but we are not inclined to be over fastidious in perusing the account of a good man, because either his biographer or himself entertain notions to which we are unable to assent. Like

all Wesleyans of candour and judgment Mr. Watson was an admirer of the Church of England and her Liturgy; and we are equally ready to venerate his piety, though we could not conform to his tenets. These "Memoirs" will form the introductory volume to the entire works of Mr. Watson, now in course of publication, and to be completed in eleven or twelve volumes.

The Life, Character, and Literary Labours of Samuel Drew, A. M. By his ELDEST SON. London: Longman & Co; Fisher & Co. 1834. 8vo. Pp. 530.

.ON taking up the Life of Mr. Drew, whose writings exhibit a profundity of thought, we are presented with the progress of a mind of the highest order; from a condition of moral depravity and ignorance, to an honourable and exalted station in literature and religion. But it is the man rather than the metaphysician that the biographer has attempted to portray; and the narrative of his father's early hardships and priva tions, of his struggles against the evils of penury and obscurity, and of his pursuing the most abstruse and sublime subjects, amidst the common avocations and the drudgery of life, in reading look only for amusement, cannot fail to gratify even those who

while to those who seek information it will convey a deeper lesson.

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His master-piece of metaphysical argument is contained in his " Essay on the Immortality of the Soul," from which he has been styled The English Plato. His subsequent Essays, on "the Resurrection of the Body,' and on "the Being and Attributes of God" (which last he thought by far his best), evince a greatness of mind. These three will ever be standard works in the theological libraries of thinking men.

In tracing the vicissitudes of the

eventful career of this excellent man, we are led to admire the gracious hand of Providence, which brought him forth as one of the most powerful champions of sacred truth against the advocates of scepticism and infidelity. His son has ably and faithfully delineated his character, exhibiting a combination of the finest intellectual endowments with all the amiable qualities which adorn our nature-a character, the contemplation of which

excites our esteem and veneration. He deserves our commendation for the manner in which he has executed his task; and, though a venial partiality may have betrayed him into an occasional minuteness of detail which another would perhaps have avoided, we are rather disposed to think that it adds not a little to the interest; for the man may be seen as he is more truly in private and domestic, than in public life. The work may be appropriately termed, the Life of a CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER.

Facts and Documents illustrative of the History, Doctrine, and Rites of the Ancient Albigenses and Waldenses. By the Rev. S. R. MAITLAND. London: Rivingtons. 1833. 8vo. Pp. viii. 546.

MR. MAITLAND is well known as the writer of several tracts respecting the prophetic period of 1260 days; and the work before us is compiled with reference to the same subject. It is more immediately directed against certain statements and inferences of Mr. Faber, in his "Sacred Calendar of Prophecy," and of Milner, in his "Church History." The documents contain much that tends to illustrate the history and opinion of the highly interesting people to whom they relate; but the question at issue, between Mr. Maitland and his opponent, is, we conceive, adhuc sub judice.

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The Gospel of the Old Testament; an Explanation of the Types and Figures by which Christ was exhibited under the Legal Dispensation. Rewritten from the Original Work of Samuel Mather. By the Author

of "The Listener," "Christ our Example," &c. London: Seeleys. 2 Vols. Pp. xxiv; 292. viii. 237. THIS work, which has been for some years consigned to partly unmerited neglect, now appears in a new dress and more pleasing exterior; and we have great pleasure in offering our thanks to the Editor for the large fund of information, on the vital doctrines of Christianity, which he has thus placed within our reach. There is also an admirable little work upon the same subject, by the Rev. J. Grant.

The Warnings and Examples of the Past; a Sermon, preached before the University of Oxford, on Easter Tuesday, 1834. By the Rev. E. BoSANQUET, M.A. Oxford: Slater. London: Rivingtons. 1834. Pp. 24. WE think it was Burke who said that, "Nations learn nothing by experience-individuals may." If nations could, we might hope the able and eloquent Sermon we here notice would remind them-at least our own

nation-of what our forefathers suffered by their apathy to vital religion, and their utter indifference or contempt of "the powers that be." We thank the Author for this exertion of his powers in the good cause; and we could sincerely wish that many more might be found who would speak with the like zeal, and with the like plainness and good sense. Some excellent notes are appended.

Observations on Mr. Binney's Address. Reprinted from the Christian Remembrancer of March, 1834. London: Pickering. Pp. 15. THE opinion we entertain of the above may be well known from its appearance in our pages in March last. We think it calculated to stop the mouths of the gainsayers of our Church, and therefore heartily recommend it to general perusal.

SHORTLY WILL be published, A Letter to Sir R. H. Inglis on the Relative Numbers, Influence, and Benevolence of Churchmen and Dissen

ters.

A SERMON FOR THE CHURCH-BUILDING SOCIETY,

WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS UPON VOLUNTARY CHURCHES, BY A COLONIAL

CLERGYMAN.

ACTS XVII. 1—3.

Now when they [Paul and Silas] had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews; and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.

THE text presents us with three particulars connected with St. Paul's ministrations in Thessalonica, to which I shall call your attention. I. The method of his ministrations; "he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." II. The subject of his ministrations; "he opened and alleged that JESUS was the CHRIST. III. The circumstance which seems to have led, in a manner, to his ministration among them:-there was a place of worship in the city; "they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue.

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I. We will, first, remark upon the method observed by St. Paul in his ministrations: "he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." St. Paul, indeed, was treating on a particular subject, and the Scriptures which he quoted were of a particular character; they bore immediate reference to the doctrine which he was discussing,-a doctrine, indeed, which is the very key-stone of our holy faith. I will only now call your attention, however, to the general practice of St. Paul, of those who held the place of teachers in the Jewish church, and of our blessed Lord himself during his own ministry on earth. Whether we peruse in the book of Nehemiah (viii. 4—8) the graphic description of Ezra standing upon a pulpit of wood, and of the priests and Scribes and Levites opening the book in the sight of all the people, reading in the book, in the law of God distinctly, and giving the sense, and causing them to understand the meaning;—or whether we behold our Lord at Nazareth (Luke iv. 16-21), standing up, and reading the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, and closing the book, and declaring, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears ;"- —are we not very strongly reminded of the primitive method of ministration which prevails in our churches at this day? What a prominence is given throughout our services to the sacred Scriptures! How mindful the Church is of the example of the ancient priesthood, of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, and of Christ himself, in this particular! When we listen to her introductory sentences, her canticles, her daily psalms, her daily lessons from the Old and New Testaments, her weekly and occasional epistles and gospels, and the reasonings of her Clergy out of the Scriptures, may we not congratulate the members of our Church, that in no community of Christians is so great a portion of the pure word of God proclaimed, in the course of the christian year, as in the services of our temple? The

most unlettered person amongst us might through attendance on the services of the Church, gather, in the course of the Sundays and holidays of the christian year, a knowledge of all the saving doctrines of a Christian's faith; or, if he be unknowing in these doctrines, there must be wilfulness-there is guilt-in his sad ignorance!

We who stand in the pulpit, indeed, and reason with you, to the best of our ability, out of the Scriptures, may fail sometimes in causing you to understand them so fully as we desire; yet who that values the Bible as the record of the will of God, the depository of the doctrines of salvation, and one of the main instruments of the Spirit in the conversion of men's hearts to God, can fail to be grateful that so much of the pure word of God, unmingled with any fallible human reasonings, is brought, on each Lord's day and in our daily service, before the ears of the members of our Church? Who can doubt that the blessing of the Holy Spirit must rest, each Lord's-day, upon thousands thoughout our favoured land and her dependencies, whose manner it is to walk humbly, on this day, towards the sanctuary, and there to "hear meekly, and to receive with pure affection," the holy word of God?

Bless God, my beloved fellow-churchmen, for this your inestimable privilege of hearing so much of his sacred Scriptures in his house. Bless him for it, you of higher earthly rank. You are exposed to the distractions of earthly occupations, to the idolatry of creature comforts, to the fascinations of secular science. Were it not for this continual presentation to your minds of the humbling truths of holy writ, might you not become unmindful of the worthlessness of all merely human learning, and ignorant of yourselves? Might you not, in the midst of earthly abundance, be spiritually poor indeed? and, in the hour of the proudest triumphs of this world's philosophy, might you not be unvisited by a single ray of that peaceable wisdom which comes from above?

Bless God for this privilege, you, too, of humbler earthly rank. You were, perhaps, called into this your state of probation, before the duty of giving christian instruction to the poor was so generally acknowledged by Christians as now. You may not have received, therefore, that early instruction which might enable you to enter on the delightful, the instructive study of the sacred volume for yourselves. Bless God that, though the dimness of your aged sight, or the lack of early scholarship, denies you the power of reading God's word, yet its lessons of instruction, its saving doctrines, its strong consolations, the Holy Ghost, its divine inspirer and its divine interpreter, and the holy Jesus, its divine subject,―are (thanks to the Church, thanks to those whose commission it is, after the manner of the apostles, to go in unto you, and to reason to you out of the Scriptures every Sabbath-day,) not unknown to you.

II. This holy Jesus is, indeed, the chief subject of the entire volume of the sacred Scriptures: he is their Alpha and their Omega, their beginning, their centre, and their end. You will remember, that the second observation which I proposed to make upon the preaching its St. Paul at Thessalonica was, that the Messiahship of Jesus was of subject.

When our Lord himself held a conversation with two of his disciples,

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upon the road to Emmaus (Luke xxiv. 13-27), he began at Moses and all the prophets, and expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself; and, with reference to his late sufferings and death, he said, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" i. e. was it not to be expected, that the Christ, in agreement with all those prophecies which came from God, should have been reviled as he was, have suffered as he did, have risen as you perceive he has risen, and go up into yonder heaven, as you shall shortly see me go, to enter into the glory which I have had with the Father before all worlds?

This was the method of teaching which, the text informs us, St. Paul adopted at Thessalonica. These Scriptures, and the obvious reasonings from these Scriptures, and the comfort and assurance which the Christian derives from them, have, in the order of the Church, been recently presented to you at Easter. Your attention has, doubtless, been drawn to that long train of prophecy which throws light, as from an heavenly arch, upon the head of our Lord, Christ Jesus. I need not, therefore, take up to-day the precise argument of the Apostle, and point out to you how he shewed, by close reasonings, and minute quotations from the prophets, that He who was engaged in bearing our burdens; who was cut off, but not for himself; who was crucified, and rose again from the dead for our salvation; was the Ruler in Israel who should come out of Bethlehem; the Immanuel who should be born of a virgin; the righteous Branch which should be raised unto David; the Rod which should come out of the stem of Jesse; the Seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed; and to whom should be given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him; an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and a kingdom which shall not be destroyed. I shall only briefly allude to the manner in which St. Paul is represented to have preached the Messiahship of Jesus. This, however, leads me to remark, again, upon the peculiar privileges of the members of our Church. Although we who now go in unto you as teachers, do not need to follow, on every occasion, precisely the course of reasoning by which the Apostle combatted the prejudices of the Jew, and opened the understanding of the heathen, yet, inadequately as we perform it, are we not still, in general, mindful of our duty, that we explain to you how the promises respecting the Messiah are complete in Him; that we preach Him to you, in his mercies, his character, his offices, and his requirements; that we "know nothing among you but Christ, and Him CRUCIFIED?" When we reason with you out of the Scriptures, is not Christ the subject of our reasonings ? When we pray to the Father, is it not in the name, and through the merits, of Him whom Paul preached at Thessalonica? And, throughout the offices of the Church, who but Christ is held forth as our CovenantHead, our Mediator, our Atoning Sacrifice, our wisdom and our righteousness, our sanctification and redemption?

Brethren, let not the frequency with which this topic is urged diminish your reverence for that name, or your deep interest in it. Are you wearied with the infirmities of this sinful nature? are you burdened with the remembrance of your sins?-direct the eye of faith

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