ness all power in heaven and earth, as "Head over all things for his church"-can we believe that he will allow a maternal control to be exercised over him in heaven, where he is, visibly and gloriously, the Son of God as well as the Son of man, to which control he did not submit, when acting as the Son of God, upon earth? Nay, what strong or valid plea can Mary now employ, even if we could accept as true the incredible and monstrous fiction that she has been taken up bodily into the celestial regions, and enthroned there as the queen of heaven? The mortal life which he possessed on earth, and in which he spake and acted while sojourning among men, this life Jesus received in Mary's womb, and, therefore, she may doubtless be said to be, in the ordinary sense of the terms, the mother of that mortal life. But in what possible or conceivable sense can Mary be said to be the mother of that resurrection life, of that immortal life, which Jesus, when lying dead in the grave of Joseph of Arimathea, received as a gift and reward from the Eternal Father, in the dark and silent womb of that new and rockhewn grave? This is the immortal life in which Jesus now lives; and every act of the glorified Christ at God's right hand, is done by him as the possessor of this resurrection life. Is it not, then, worse than puerile and absurd to suppose that Mary, the mother of the mortal life of Jesus the Incarnate Word-which mortal life he laid down on Calvary as the Saviour of sinners, of whom Mary herself was one-can have any authoritative maternal control over the heart, and will, and acts of Christ, in his glorious and immortal resurrection-life in heaven ?

The ceaseless aggressions of ultra-Tractarianism and Popery make it alike expedient and necessary to study anew those passages of the New Testament which show that Mary never had any power over Jesus, when acting as the Son of God, not even when he was only a child of twelve years of age; and that the doctrine of Mary's resurrection, and elevation to a throne near the Son of God, as queen of heaven, and as an all-prevailing maternal intercessor with Jesus, is not merely unscriptural, but anti-scriptural, absurd, and blasphemous.

Again, the baneful spread of rationalism and neology renders it absolutely incumbent upon the sincere Christian to study anew those parts of the gospel history which bear more or less directly on the great truth of the divine sonship of Jesus of Nazarethwhich teach us that he was the Son of God, not in that lower sense of the title in which the term is used of believers by the Most High, "I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty," but rather that Jesus was so truly the Son of God, that he was not the son of Joseph, and that he was conceived in the womb of Mary, while yet a virgin at Nazareth, by the power of the Holy Ghost. CLERICUS.

THOMSON'S STORY OF NEW ZEALAND.

The Story of New Zealand, Past and Present-Savage and Civilized. By Arthur S. Thomson, M.D., Surgeon-Major, 58th Regiment. Two Vols. London: J. Murray. 1859.

The

NEW ZEALAND has passed through many phases within the last half-century. At the beginning of that period it was an inhospitable land, the abode of fierce and cannibal tribes. Soon after, it became the scene of an anxious and disappointing, though not hopeless, Christian mission. Then the darkness began slowly to break, and the light of the Sun of righteousness dawned upon some few hearts. The Lord was saying, "Behold me, behold me!" to a nation that had not been called by his name. light spread further, and with surprising rapidity, until heathenism had well nigh vanished away. What changes to happen within a less space of time than forty years! Next came the natural consequence of such advances towards civilization, where the land was fertile, the climate genial, water abundant, the landscape beautiful, and the country thinly peopled. English enterprise saw a field in which it might prosper, and settlers went out to make that distant land their home. Many of these were more refined and educated than the ordinary run of emigrants. At the point of time when that flow of European population first set in, and rights of property began to be acquired by the new-comers, the messengers of the gospel felt some alarm in prospect of fresh and probably counteracting influences entering in to mar their work. Uncertainty and disorder were actually produced by mismanagement and defective government. A further change has since passed over the scene, not without its shades of melancholy. It is too evident that the aboriginal inhabitants are gradually fading away. The Christianity, also, of the native population appears to be less vigorous than it was when first it grasped their minds and hearts. In the second generation since conversion commenced, there is (as experience elsewhere suggests to be probable) a larger proportion of merely nominal Christians. Still, however, the word of God has free course amongst them, and is glorified by the faithfulness and sincerity of many of its adherents. Meanwhile our colonies have been growing, maturing, and prospering, in the northern and middle islands, with every prospect of filling those southern regions with a people reflecting our own character, and maintaining many of our institutions. Oh that they may be a more virtuous and religious people than those whom they have left behind in the father-land!

At this stage of the history of New Zealand and its inhabitants, the work of Dr. Thomson renders an opportune service to the

world. The traditions of the past have been caught up by him, and recorded, when they were in danger of disappearing under the new circumstances in which the native population is placed. The new settlers have necessarily been great innovators; they have brought with them their arts and scientific skill, their habits and civilization, their flocks and herds, their poultry, even, we are told, their sparrows, and we know not what besides. Much information concerning the days of old - the primitive times of that people-has hitherto been scattered here and there in various publications, many of them ephemeral. The author speaks of ninety volumes, two hundred pamphlets, and nearly a hundredweight of parliamentary papers. He might have added, whole files of newspapers. Of these, no small proportion is already consigned to oblivion. He therefore has done the world good service, in having culled from these sources what ought to be remembered, and having thrown it into a readable form, within a moderate compass. A further debt is due to him as one who has used the favourable opportunities presented to him for collecting on the spot memorials of the past, which still linger in the recollection of the people, but which are fast dying out as the aged are gradually withdrawn from their earthly dwelling-places and removed into another world;—many, happily, to be with Christ.

The information which the author has collected is put together with skill and intelligence, by a mind qualified for much of the work which it has undertaken. His history of the New Zealanders, and the clue he has accepted to the discovery of their origin, are interesting and probable. He has thoughtfully studied the natural history of the country, in the animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms, and may have left little to be expected from the research of other naturalists. His estimate of the intelligence of the native mind and of the solidity of the native character, if below our previous impressions, and therefore so far disappointing, does not appear to have been formed hastily, and we can only defer accepting it until it be confirmed or rejected by other competent judges.

To Christianity he is favourable; he speaks of it with respect; and he looks to it for further and important results. But to its preachers and promoters we think that he is not just; he does not disguise his distaste towards them; he often notices them with an air of contempt; his reference to them and to their views are never likely to provoke their vanity. His representations of the work they have accomplished appears to us manifestly unfair. We will not believe that our missionaries ever regarded an idle sleepy glutton as an eminent Christian, and looked upon the same man as fallen from grace when he studied to do his own business, and worked with his own hands.

In the later history of New Zealand, as a country occupied by our colonists, which is the subject of the greater part of the second volume, we have been wearied by the minuteness and tediousness

of the story; but we acknowledge that it will have an interest for a select number of readers, though too full of petty politics and partial views for the generality to peruse with satisfaction. While speaking thus, we must admit it to be quite right that a true and particular narrative of these important years of the infancy of the colony should have been written. At the same time, we doubt whether a just measure of approval and censure has been awarded to the several parties who appear in succession in these pages. The author appears so much wiser than all the governors and councils, that perhaps he ought to have been governor himself, or at least prime minister.

But there is much for which we have to thank and commend him; and we have no wish to be severe. He had an undoubted right to form an impartial judgment of the proceedings of the home and of the colonial governments, and to express it openly. And if he has judged of our missionaries as a man of the world might be expected to do, more than as one sympathizing with them, and making allowance for their infirmities, we must needs regret for his own sake, and for that of the cause of Christ and of humanity, that such was the point of view from which he was disposed to contemplate their operations.

Dr. Thomson was a resident in New Zealand through eleven eventful years of its early colonial history, as surgeon in her majesty's 58th regiment. He had ample opportunity for observation, and he used it diligently. Instead of limiting himself to the immediate duties of the service to which he belonged, he devoted himself to the investigation of the history and customs of the people of the land, and, as an important auxiliary to his research, he acquired a knowledge of their language.

He first describes the prominent geographical features of the islands, and then their flora and fauna; under the latter head giving some account of the gigantic race of wingless birds, standing thirteen feet high, now extinct, and only known by tradition, and by the bones which still are found to testify that they once were there. He describes the climate with some particularity, repeats what other authorities have mentioned, that it is a region of winds, and states that, besides inviting emigration more than any other of our possessions, the island will be found an invaluable residence for Europeans who have lost their health in India, China, or the warm districts of Australia." (p. 49.)

We pass over these subjects the more hastily, because we apprehend that our readers would prefer our devoting the space at our command to the history of the aborigines. The author has availed himself of the researches of others; but he appears also to have investigated the subject for himself with much diligence and reflection, bringing to its consideration a discerning mind, which has a manifest aptitude for the successful prosecution of such an inquiry. The results are contained in the third chapter of the

first volume. He believes that the ancestors of the present race of New Zealanders were the earliest inhabitants of the islands, and that they arrived there about twenty generations ago, and in the 15th century. He has satisfied himself that they were Malays, which we remember to have been stated by the bishop of New Zealand to be his conviction also. Dr. Thomson divides the inhabitants of the islands in the Pacific into two distinct races, the one brown skinned, and the other black. These have their separate physical characteristics. The black have peopled the islands from the Fejees to New Guinea. The brown occupy the Sandwich group, and have spread themselves southward to New Zealand. Following Mr. Hale, of the United States' exploring expedition (1838--42), Dr. Thomson considers that the Navigators' Islands were the first peopled by the Malays, having been previously uninhabited, and that from that fountain-head went forth the primitive inhabitants of the other Polynesian Islands.

We must here quote a paragraph :

In

"Sumatra was the birthplace of the Malays, and at present they are living everywhere on the islands in the Indian Archipelago, and seldom on the continent of Asia. The Malays are universally known as a bold, piratical, maritime, commercial, and partially industrious race. A.D. 1160 they issued out of Sumatra, and founded Singhapura; and a century afterwards, Malacca. These migrations were made in ships, as the Malays at an early period possessed extensive fleets. For ages, Malay fleets have habitually resorted to Australia, and at present two hundred Malay proas, according to captain King, annually frequent the northern coast of that continent, to fish. On these expeditions, the Malays, accompanied by their wives and children, were prepared to take up their permanent or temporary abode in any favourable locality." (Vol. i. p. 53.)

He supposes a fleet of these proas, accompanied by welcome dogs and uninvited rats, setting forth under the common belief that the ocean was studded with fruitful islands; and, aided by a variety of winds which he describes, sailing boldly forward on a definite course, and passing by the islands which they knew to be already occupied, until they came in sight of the Navigators' Islands, and there terminated their long and daring voyage.

The time of these migrations of mankind to Polynesia is not beyond the reach of credible conjecture. Hindu and Jewish customs are traceable amongst these Malays; and there are no traces of anything that could claim a Mohammedan origin. These circumstances suggest that the Malay ancestors of the Polynesians settled in their new abodes before A.D. 1278, the date of the Mohammedan migration to the Indian Archipelago, and of the introduction of their religion to the Malays.

We advance to a still later period for the peopling of New Zealand. The traditions of the natives give the name of Hawaiki to the island from which their forefathers came. There are several