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An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England; with a Short Account of the English Translations of the Bible, and of the Liturgy of the Church of England. By G. TOMLINE, D.D. late Lord Bishop of Winchester. To which are added, Notes and a Series of Questions, by the Rev. R. B. PAUL, late Fellow and Tutor of Exeter College, Oxford. Oxford: Vincent. 1835. Small 8vo.

THE additional notes, together with the questions appended to each article of this well-known work, render it particularly valuable to the student in divinity, and will be likely also to effect one great design of the Rev. Editor, viz. that "his young fellow-christians shall be induced to examine narrowly the doctrines of that Church to which they profess to belong, so as to be able to give an answer to every man that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them."

Passion Week: a Devotional and Practical Exposition of the Epistles and Gospels appointed for that Season, adapted for the Closet and the Family. By the Rev. ROBERT MEEK. London: Hatchard. 1835. Pp. xi. 187. 12mo.

MR. MEEK Commenced his career as a clerical author by the publication of his "Reasons for Attachment and Conformity to the Church of England," now in their second edition. These "Reasons" were followed up by his more elaborate treatise, entitled "The Church of England a faithful Witness against the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome." Having thus guarded the members of our Church, on the one hand, against the insinuations and attacks of dissent, and on the other, against the soul-destroying tenets of popery, he has, in the present work, endeavoured to "build them up in their most holy faith," by producing a series of Meditations on the Epistles and Gospels appointed to be read during Passion Week. They are, what they profess to be, strictly "devotional and practical;" and we cheerfully

recommend them to our readers, as being equally adapted to the closet and to reading in the family. We hope that the reception given to them will be such as to encourage him to proceed with his announced similar exposition of the whole of the appointed epistles and gospels, as read in the Church of England.

Oriental Illustrations of the Scriptures, collected from the Customs, Manners, Rites, Superstitions, and Traditions, Parabolical, Idiomatical, and Proverbial Forms of Speech, Climate, Works of Art, and Literature of the Hindoos, during a residence of nearly fourteen years. By JAMES ROBERTS, Corresponding Member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain. London: Murray. 1835. Pp. xxiv. 619.

THE application of Hindoo manners, customs, and allusions, to the illustration of the Holy Scriptures, is comparatively recent. Mr. Ward, at the end of the second volume of his profound work on the History and Theology of the Hindoos, (published about eighteen years since,) gave thirty pages of such elucidations. In 1827, Mr. Callaway furnished numerous additions to Mr. Ward's Researches, from the usages of the Ceylonese, in a small duodecimo volume of "Oriental Observations and occasional Criticisms." It was, however, reserved for Mr. Roberts to produce original illustrations of nearly thirteen hundred important passages of the Holy Scriptures from the Hindoo sources mentioned in his title-page. They are the result of nearly fourteen years' close observation of the manners, &c. &c. of the Hindoos; and they reflect great credit on his industry and research. The remarks are disposed in the order of the books, chapters, and verses of the Bible, and are equally curious and instructive. Very inany difficult passages of the Old Testament, in particular, are here happily elucidated. Future commentators may derive much valuable information from this beautifully printed volume, the value of which is enhanced by two copious indexes of texts and of the subjects; a sort of literary furniture

which we should be glad to see more frequently introduced into modern publications, instead of the meagre tables of contents which are too frequently prefixed to them.

An Authentic Account of our Authorized Translation of the Holy Bible, and of the Translators; with Testimonies to the excellence of the Translation: collected by the Rev. H. J. TODD, M.A. Second Edition. Malton: Smithson. London: Rivingtons. 18mo. Pp. 68.

A LITTLE work, but full of the most pleasing information as connected with the translation of our Bible. It will form a useful addition to the clerical library: and to the general reader, it offers a "distinct account how the translators were fully prepared, and in no respect deficient, to the good work they undertook.' The biographical notices are very instructive; and the volume has our warm commendation.

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The National Church a National Treasure; or the Excellencies of the Scottish Ecclesiastical Establishment delineated; being the substance of a Sermon delivered in the High Church of Edinburgh, on the 11th November, 1834, at the opening of the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale.

With an Appendix, containing copious Notes and Illustrations, in which the Religious State of America is particularly brought forward as the result of personal observation. By GEORGE BURNS, D.D. Minister of the Parish of Tweedsmuir, late Moderator of Synod. Edinburgh: W. Whyte & Co. Booksellers to Her Majesty. Glasgow W. Collins and M. Ogle. Perth: J. Dewar. Aberdeen; A. Brown & Co. 1835.

THIS is an able and well written Sermon on the advantages derived from ecclesiastical establishments: but as it is particularly adapted to the national Church in Scotland, we do not deem it so necessary to give extracts from the Sermon itself. The information, however, which Dr. Burns has furnished from his own observations, on

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But is church accommodation provided in America, in proportion to the increase of population, or the real necessities of the people? By no means. No such principle of supply has as yet come into operation, for this very obvious reason, that what is every body's business is nobody's, and the spiritual good of the multitudes living in a state of heathenism in the finest of her cities, is left to the casual regards of well-meaning Christians, or the mercenary services of a ministerium vagum, in its most unseemly form. Places of worship are not erected in the localities where most required because teeming with a population at once poor and ignorant, demoralized and wretched, but where a spirit of party may have occasioned divisions in preexisting congregations, or where a spiritual empiric may think he has a chance of making a profitable lodgment, to say nothing of the impetus applied to shrewd and calculating worldlings by the sanguine hope of making a lucrative speculation. Whilst such principles are acted on, it is not to be expected that the scattered settlements throughout the vast interminable forests should find either

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nursing fathers, or nursing mothers," in as far as "saving health" is concerned. If they have any ministry at all, it is in general neither of a regular nor useful character, and seldom indeed can a backwoods-man of the west be said to "smile when a sabbath appears," for, alas! there is nothing to mark its approach-around his humble dwelling it casts no blissful radiance.-Even in the most favourable circumstances, where the population is dense, and the sacred edifices are both commodious and elegant, a minister is too often viewed as a secondary object, and an occasional passenger, who will be contented with a trifle of pecuniary remuneration, is all that is expected to conduct the public devotions of the sanctuary. To rear even a handsome wooden structure is comparatively an easy task-one giving ground, another furnishing materials, and a third contributing personal labour, and there the matter is at an end; but to be liable for the permanent support of a resident minister is quite a dif

ferent thing; such a burden is not rashly taken upon them; and when, in particular circumstances, it has been assumed, it is thrown off with little ceremony as soon as the limited period of engagement expires, in virtue of that power of dismissal which is usually retained in the hands of the managers, and too often exercised on the most frivolous pretences. What would be thought in Scotland of a worthy minister being set adrift, merely because a man was employed to open and shut his vestry or pulpit door? and yet, such was the fate, a few years ago, of a respectable Episcopal Clergyman, in an enlightened city of America, it being conceived by his more pious and influential hearers, that he thus betrayed a spirit inconsistent with that becoming in a servant of the lowly Jesus! While such is the mode of procedure, how is a permanent, or efficient, or respectable ministry to be secured for any people? If ministers of the gospel are to be regarded by their employers as mere birelings, and as such to be subjected to the most degrading surveillance, must it not operate greatly to discourage respectable parents from training their sons, by means of an expensive education, for such a profession? And if a church is not provided with a constant succession of qualified clergy, how is the cause of religion to prosper within its pale? To such causes may be traced the low standard of ministerial talent and character which admits, even in such cities as New York, persons of the humblest pretensions as laymen in this country, to acquire a status, (on reaching that land of free and open competition,) equal to that of any minister in our metropolis, either within or without the Establishment, and that too without study, and without probation. On crossing the line of demarcation between British and American territory one of the first things that naturally strikes a member, either of the Anglican or Scottish Church, is the elevated position occupied by Unitarians, as evinced not only by the splendour of their churches, the extent, the wealth, and influence of their congregations; but also, by the control which they possess over some of the most important seminaries of education, such as Harvard University at Cambridge, near Boston; where an attempt was lately made to secure their complete and permanent ascendancy-a consummation which they had very nearly effected. And so little is a divine of either of the British Establishments accustomed to meet with persons in this or the neighbouring section of the island, who openly

call in question the peculiar doctrines of revelation, that he feels not a little surprised and shocked, to witness in the higher and best informed circles of America, a spirit of bold and determined scepticism, on those points which distinguish revealed from natural religion, together with a disposition to depreciate the understandings of all such as adhere to churches which have these for their credenda. This comes of being left free from the trammels of creeds and confessions, of having no system of doctrine drawn up from the inspired records, in the knowledge and belief of which the youth of the country are trained, of leaving every public and private individual to cull from the Bible what suits his own preconceived opinions; in short, of a national government requiring no test of faith in a single doctrine peculiar to revelation on the part of any functionary, either sacred or civil. "Oh!" said a venerable Presbyterian divine in Philadel phia, to the writer of these pages, 66 you live in a happy country, where the true religion has got the imprimatur of the statehere, where my lot is cast, a synagogue of Satan would just have as much favour from the powers that be, as the purest church in the whole land!"-Pp. 38-40.

Church and Home Melodies, being a

New Version of the more devotional
parts of the Psalms, together with a
Version of the Collects, and Original
Hymns for Congregational and
Domestic Purposes. By the Rev.
THOMAS JAMES JUDKIN, M. A.
London: Hatchard & Son. 1834.
Pp. 659.

WE receive this volume as another proof of the general and increasing interest which is felt on the subject of Church Psalmody. Impressed as we are with the importance of congregational singing, and convinced that singing will never be truly congregational, until the people shall be furnished with psalms and hymns which they can dwell upon in their hours of retirement and meditation, we hail whatever may advance so desirable an object.

The volume before us contains nearly 600 originals. If it be censure to say that few of them reach our standard, that censure must be extended to most of the productions of our most popular and approved writers of hymns. After

having laboured through more than a hundred volumes of psalms and hymns, original and selected, we are compelled to declare, that in no department of our literature is there so much that is bad, so little that is truly excellent. If we were to class our volumes in the order of their respective merits, Mr. Judkin's would not have a low place. We offer the following as specimens.

PSALM 121.

Up to the hills I lift mine eyes,

From whence alone in streams descend Those free and bountiful supplies,

Which neither measure know nor end. They flow from Thee, whose word hath made

Heav'n's boundless heights, earth's spacious plains,

Whose eyes no slumbers may invade, Whose strength thy people's course maintains.

Thou art our guardian; nor by day

Shall smite the sun's intenser light, Nor yet the moon with sickly ray

Shed baleful influence o'er our night. Thy grace preserves the soul from sin, Thy Spirit shall to health restore; Our goings-out, and comings-in,

Thou blessest now and evermore.

P. 155.

COLLECT FOR GOOD FRIDAY.

O Lord, in pray'r before thy throne
We meekly bow the knee,

That thou with pitying love mayst own
Thy human family.

For whom, by heav'nly mercy sent,

Of glory disarray'd,

Thy blessed Son, in meek content,

Čame forth to be betray'd;

And all-resign'd and yielding now,

The pure and wise and good

Saw from the cross, with bleeding brow, The mocking multitude:

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A multitude of the heavenly host praising God. LUKE ii. 13.

There's music in the heav'n amid the stillness of the night,

While shepherds are abiding yet, to watch their fleecy care;

The clouds are rolling rapidly, and in the bursting light,

To golden harps are carolling the angels bright and fair.

Oh! listen to the choral song which hails a Saviour's birth,

That fills those humble watchers' hearts with wonder and with love, "Good tidings of great joyfulness to all who dwell on earth,

"And glory in the highest be, to God enthron'd above!"

The world that had been travailing so long in pain and woe,

Hath heard amidst its guilty fears a voice which soothes to rest; And God the Father's gracious face, with cloud obscur'd till now,

Shines through the image of his Son, the blessing and the blest.

With the music of the angels be the music of my heart,

And let the shepherds' gratitude my ev'ry power inflame;

And with the anthems of the church, my

soul, bear thou thy part,

For all thy mercies shown to thee in
Christ's redeeming name.

P. 501.

The volume is dedicated, by permission, to the good and venerable Bishop of Salisbury.

A SERMON,

FOR THE SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE EASTER DAY.-MORNING.

MATTHEW XXVI. 14-16.

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

THIS passage brings to our notice one of the most extraordinary, and, perhaps I may add, one of the most melancholy, circumstances of the gospel history-the treachery of one of our Lord's twelve chosen disciples. It had been, indeed, decreed in the eternal counsels of God, that Christ should be betrayed to his enemies, and die for mankind. Our Lord had himself foreseen and foretold that these things should come to pass. He knew, even from the beginning, who should betray him. But that the traitor should have been found amongst his own favoured companions, is in truth a sad, as well as an amazing consideration.

But why, and how, was this act of treachery accomplished? It appears that the chief priests and scribes had already met together in council to consider by what means they might best bring Jesus into their power to put him to death. They had decided, moreover, that it would be expedient not to attempt this till after the Passover, which was near at hand, because they feared the people, of whom great multitudes came up to Jerusalem for the feast, might interfere in his behalf. (Ver. 5.) Having, then, come to this decision, what must have been their astonishment, when they saw "one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot," coming to them, as it seems, unasked, and proposing to make agreement with them to place his Master in their hands! But we must recollect that this Judas-his surname of Iscariot is added to distinguish him from another Judas or Jude, who was also one of the twelvethis Judas Iscariot was from the first a bad man. This our Lord well knew, and had known all along. It is expressly said in one passage of Scripture, that he "was a devil," (John vi. 70,) that is, was wholly under the influence of the evil spirit; and in another passage, that he "was a thief." (John xii. 6.) The fact was, Judas had resigned himself to the seductions and dominion of Satan; and the consequence seems to have been, that under his guidance, covetousness had become the ruling passion of his heart. The love of money-the desire of gain, had obtained full possession of his soul. No doubt, he had first attached himself to our Lord, and afterwards continued with him, in the hope of gratifying this his ruling passion. It is, indeed, particularly mentioned, that he carried the bag or purse which contained such money as belonged to our Lord and his disciples; and thus had secured an opportunity of continually taking money therefrom. But this was not all. He hoped, no doubt, that his Lord would in time throw off his great humility, and

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