understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver unto thee." Perhaps it is owing in some degree to a harshness and ungraciousness of manner employed by some pious parents, that so little advantage is gained by their children, from all the anxious pains taken with them; and perhaps in other instances, to a want of due seriousness of manner when instruction is given. Let it, therefore, always be seen that you are quite in earnest, and that you are guided by love to their immortal souls. Remember the natural aversion of the heart to the things of God, and beware of exciting prejudices and increasing reluctance to the duties of religion, either by indifference or severity of manner. Look to God for wisdom to enable you to discharge the duty aright; for in this case it is eminently true, that wisdom is profitable to direct ;" and that it "cometh down from the Father of lights," and must be sought by believing and earnest prayer. The motives by which David and Bathsheba were induced to devote their attention to the religious education of Solomon were numerous and powerful. Love to their son excited them to labour for his welfare; and what does a good man or woman consider as best for their children? Doubtless what they consider best for themselves-the knowledge of God -the fear of God—the enjoyment of God. And can we know God, love and fear Him ourselves-can we ourselves be persuaded of the truth, and importance of religion, of its absolute necessity for our present comfort and future welfare, and not wish that our children should be partakers of the same blessed advantages and hopes? And if we wish this for them, shall we not do what in us lies by the use of appointed means to communicate to them the knowledge of God, and lead them to that Saviour who alone can bless and save their souls? When parents neglect the religious education of their children, their negligence can be accounted for only in one or two ways; either they do not really love their children, or they do not themselves believe the truth and necessity of religion. The example of their godly ancestors, also, excited David and Bathsheba to educate their child in the fear of God. David had the honour to descend from a long line of ancestors, who were not merely respectable in their generation among men, but, which is unspeakably more, who were approved and honoured of God-ancestors of whom he had reason to be proud-ancestors whose memory it was his duty to respect, and whose godly example it was his wisdom and honour to copy. It was the immemorial custom of that family not only to worship God themselves, but to instruct their children in His fear. His forefathers made it their business to tell their children what God had done for them, "Showing to the rising generation the praises of the Lord, and His strength, and His wonderful works." And above all the venerable Abraham, the founder of the family, was remarkable for his attention to this part of duty: so remarkable that his diligence is honoured with the very particular commendation of God, and recorded for the imitation of others. "For I know him," said God, " that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." Doubtless this approved example had its influence on David, a son of Abraham, and a fearer of the God of Abraham, as an incitement to diligence in the instruction of his own family. And why should not we THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF SOLOMON. 103 also follow the commendable practices of our godly forefathers. The positive injunction of the law of God, though last mentioned, must have been first in its force on the conscience of Solomon's parents, exciting them to see to his religious education. It was not left to the option of David, or any other father in Israel, whether, in this respect to follow the example of their pious ancestors or not. It was enjoined as a positive duty, and so particularly stated that it was impossible to plead ignorance. "These words which I command thee this day, shall be on thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Such was the law which was binding on every parent in Israel; and David, a man who loved God's law, and meditated thereon day and night, must have felt its high authority, and acted under its influence, in his diligent endeavours to instruct his son. And this law is still obligatory. It is not one of those things peculiar to the old dispensation, which have passed away, but part of that law by which we are bound under the dispensation of the gospel. Our obligation. to attend to the religious education of our offspring, is inseparable from our relation to them as our children. When God gives a person the blessing of children, he unites duty with privilege, the duty of educating them for God, with the privilege of enjoying them as his gift. Our children are given us in trust to be educated for God; and the neglect of this duty must be infidelity to God, as well as ingratitude to Him who committed it to us. Shall we, then, incur the guilt of being at once ungrateful, unfaithful, and cruel? Shall we not rather fear God, and keep this commandment, so reasonable in itself, and to a pious mind so pleasant? God lays the charge on us again and again, for it is no light matter, no affair with which we are permitted to trifle. "Suffer the little children," he says, "to come unto me." "Feed my lambs."" And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” The use which Solomon made of his parents instructions is apparent. His parents, who had instructed him with such pious care in his youth, at least his father David, were dead many years before he wrote his Proverbs, but we find that at the time he wrote this book, they still lived in his affectionate remembrance of them and their pious care; and in token of this, he quotes some of their early instructions, and in imitation of them, enforces on his son attention to the same duties. And good reason had he to cherish a grateful recollection of them; for in thus training him they had done him the greatest kindness-a kindness for which he could never repay them, and which it would have been the highest ingratitude if he should ever have forgotten. Gratitude for the pious instructions, counsels, and admonitions of our parents in our early years, is a duty incumbent on all who have enjoyed so inestimable a privilege; and if we have derived any measure of spiritual benefit from them, is a duty which we shall most cheerfully perform. How pleasant, to a truly pious mind, the recollection of parents, who were not only the authors of our being, but, under God, the instruments of our salvation; who first taught our infant lips to pray, and our thoughtless hearts to seek the Lord! We have it not in our power like Solomon, to record our gratitude in a book that shall be read by future generations to the end of time; but if "we have tasted that the Lord is gracious," we shall record it in our grateful hearts, and never think of them, nor speak of them, but with respect and affection. G.S. Reviews. WOMAN'S SPHERE AND WORK, considered | she is no woman at all, and does not in the Light of Scripture. A Book for BOTH these books are collected lectures deserve the name of woman, whose principal recommendation is the costliness and . Did you Splendour of her dress. know the feelings awakened in some of the best men, when thrown into contact with women whose dress betokened a station in life in which cultivation and refinement of mind might be expected-did you know their feelings when, on attempting to engage them in conversation, they have discovered the body so elegantly dressed, was allied with a vulgar mindyou would require no urging to put you on your guard against decorating the poor perishing body, while you neglected the cultivation of the beautiful and immortal soul." And again, on another part of his theme, Mr. Landels says, "Woman is not the rival but the helpmeet of man, by doing the work which he cannot do so well, and occupying the sphere from which, by her feminine qualities, she is more peculiarly adapted. He does not need her to mount the pulpit, nor appear on the platform, to take part in the deliberations of the senate, nor plead in the courts of law. This and similar work he can do better for himself. And the woman who aspires after it, in becoming, or attempting to become, the rival, ceases to become the helpmeet of man..... Woman's sphere is not the public arena, but the retirement of home." Our author speaks of woman as specially qualified to soothe man's troubles, encourage him under the hard pressure of daily toil, and soften his more rugged character. He illustrates this part of his subject by glancing at the power of woman over the hearts of the rudest natures, soldiers, sailors, and navvies; and quotes, with singular effect, instances of the last from the recent work, entitled "English Hearts and Hands." In that book, says Mr. Landels, The first volume is far more more finished than the second. Since delivery, the lectures have been re-cast, and the substance only is published. Their theme is not soon likely to grow unattractive. The writer avows his purpose as "not simply to treat of woman in her married state, but of woman, as such, in her relation to man.". He touches, at the outset, on woman's mission as defined by her Creator; contends that the description of Eve is the description of a representative woman; that she was not Adam's rival, nor his plaything, but helpmeet. The strictures on dress in this lecture were never more applicable than at the present time; and those who make themselves “lay-figures,” on whom the milliner and dress-maker are allowed to display all the freaks of fashion, will do well to ponder over the following words: "The love of ornament, inherent in human nature, is peculiarly strong in woman, and is a feel-"You will see how a christian lady goes ing moreover in which the human nature forth among "navvies," a class of men shares with the Divine. The beauty with than whom it would be difficult to find which God has garnished the earth and rougher, or more uncultivated, and by heavens; the manner in which he has her influence, draws forth their better made them pleasing to our tastes, as well nature in a manner which shows that the as serviceable to our necessities, shows English labourer is made of the same maGod's love of beauty. And inasmuch as terial as the true English gentleman........ the desire for ornament is right in itself, How the great, strong, boisterous men beand as the desire for decorating her per- come gentle as lambs in her presence, and son is peculiarly strong in woman, we how her mild rebuke, in which kindness doubt not that it is consistent with the and faithfulness are blended, brings tears Divine purpose that she should minister into their manly eyes-how they listen to to man's pleasure, while she gratifies her her teaching with the docility of children own taste, by such decoration. . . But-how, by appealing to their better feel REVIEW. ings, she quells a riot which the police, by injudicious meddling, only serve to aggravate-how two with clenched fists and angry words, are threatening to proceed to blows, she kneels between them until they both kneel by her side, and with tears of contrition, are reconciled, and remain ever afterwards the fastest friends. Here is your work, young women-the work for which man needs, and your nature fits you to soften and harmonise preparatory to christianising your brothers." The wife, the mother, the unmarried women's mission in various occupations, and in reference to religion are subjects of the remaining chapters. It is a very suitable present to put in the hands of any young woman, married or single. POEMS, By J. Truman. London: Longman, and Co. THESE poems are of various merit, and on subjects widely dissimilar. There is a melody in the rhyme, a pathos in the sentiment, and a beauty in the treatment that cannot fail to charm the most fastidious reader. The author has allowed the genuine mood of joy or sorrow to glass themselves in his poems : " "Some bright and tender, like the moonSome sad and bitter, like the sea." The longest poem is entitled "Edith Grey." A dying maiden dreams of Heaven and of seeing her lover enter, old and grey, introduced hy "two tall imperial angels,' who "kindly upbare him on the abysmal air." "As they stepped upon the heavenly marge, She tells her dream on awakening to her "I looked around the place of prayer, 105 Now sometimes in the world afar, O! saving human sweetness rare — blessed boon beyond compareTo think, with feelings undefiled, Upon the Saviour, like that child." "Avocation" is a poem of another kind. There is in it a shrill, trumpet-call to work, set to the key-note of Longfellow's "Psalm of Life." "Bethany," "Salvation," "The wee bit birdie," The Maiden and the Streamlet," have each a beauty of their own. The lyrics "From the Swedish," are full of poetry, but lack the natural feeling of the poems entitled "My Mother," and "The Cottage." The sadness that occasionally flits over the author's mind as he muses "More yearning for the days of old. " find expression in more than one poem. A grief like the burden of Jeremiah," which was as a burning fire shut up in his bones," tells its own sad story in "Grasmere," "Derwentwater," and " Despondency but the holy trust that asks to be "saved from infidel despair," and avows itself in the following stanzas, is certain to find a response in every sensitive and christian heart :— "Shun we the sceptical unrest, That questions of the Final Will; In wakeful hours of doubt and dread; As one of old hath deeply said, We count them happy which endure," PALISSY, THE HUGENOT POTTER. A true tale. By C. L. Brightwell. Royal 18vo., cloth. Religious Tract Society. PALISSY's wonderful story is well told by Mr. Brightwell, special regard being paid throughout to that which most other biographers have neglected his religious character. Palissy was a keen observer, and has left behind materials that the writer of this tale has wisely consulted. His preference for the reformed faith brought him, like many others, into collision with the French court. He was cast into prison, and had been saved only by an artifice of friends in power from a martyr's death. The king himself visited Bernard Palissy in prison, to effect, as he vainly thought, by a personal interview, a change in his faith. My good man," said the king, "for many years you have been in the service of my family, and we have suffered you to retain your religion amidst fires and massacres; but at the present I find myself so pressed by the Guises and my own people, that I am com. pelled to give you into the hands of my | By MEMOIRS OF AN INDIAN CHAPLAIN. MR. CHURCH, the subject of this memoir, Obituary. DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH GOADBY, OF LOUGHBOROUGH. THE announcement we have now, with the deepest regret, to make, is one that will be received with heartfelt sorrow through the length and breadth of the General Baptist connexion, and by all the other branches of the one Church of Christ, in which he was known. The Rev. Joseph Goadby, for more than twenty years pastor of the church at Dover-street, Leicester, for just eleven years pastor of the Wood-gate Church, and for many years the able Editor of this Magazine, is now no more. After a brief illness, of little more than a fortnight's duration, he died on Saturday, the 19th February. Until the previous evening, great hopes were entertained of his recovery; but, at that time, an unsuspected disease of the lungs manifested itself, which carried him off in less than twenty-four hours. He sank calmly into the arms of death, and, though physical weakness prevented conversation, yet the truths and hopes he had so long proclaimed to others, sustained and comforted him in his dying moments; one of his last requests was to his eldest son to read to him such passages of God's Word as he mentioned to him. He was interred on Wednesday, Feb. 23rd, in the Loughborough Cemetery in a spot he had himself selected, little conscious he would so soon be laid there. The funeral service was conducted in Wood-gate Chapel, which was crowded in every part by a mourning and heart-stricken audience. The Rev. E. Stevenson read suitable scriptures, and delivered an eloquent funeral address, paying a just tribute of respect to the character, ability, and usefulness of our departed friend; he was followed by the Rev. H. Hunter, who addressed words of consolation and encouragement to the bereaved widow, family, and church, and to the ministers present; the Rev. George Cheatle, of Birmingham, concluded with a most appropriate prayer. A funeral procession was then formed, which slowly wended its way to the cemetery; first were the Dissenting Ministers of the town, of all denominations, and the church town Missionary; then followed the Revds. W. R. Stevenson, W. Gray, J. Lewit, H. Wilkinson, W. Miller, G. Needham, E. Bott, T. Gill, G. Staples, J. Staddon, J. C. Pike, J. Pike, T. R. Stevenson, J. F. Stevenson, J. Taylor, J. Riley, J Malcolm, T. Stevenson; then came a mourning coach, containing all the officiating ministers; the hearse, and five mourning coaches, containing the family and relatives; officers of the church, and from two hundred to three hundred of the church and congregation, in mourning attire; in addition to these, large numbers of the inhabitants attended, as well as many friends from neighbouring towns and villages. At the grave to show their respect for his memory Mr. Stevenson delivered a second address and engaged in prayer, followed by a concluding prayer, by the Rev. W. Underwood. The death of Mr. Goadby is a connexional loss; the absence of his form, his voice, his counsel, and his information, will be much felt at all the gatherings of our body; and the General Baptists have lost a man of extensive literary and theological attainments, of eminent pulpit abilities, a large heart, a true patriot, and an uncompromising friend. B. B., L. |