BACHELORS' COMMENCEMENT PAPER.-January 23, 1830.

Those gentlemen whose names are preceded by an asterisk have one or more terms to keep previous to being admitted to their degrees, although they passed their examination in the following order of arrangement.

-WRANGLERS.

Walford, Trin.

Buckston, Trin. | Quayle, Trin. Richardson, Joh. | Trimmer, Magd.

George Thackeray, Esq., Fellow of King's College, was admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Arts at the same time.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

It is pub

The Pamphlet of Dr. Wotton, to which we referred in our last Number, is entitled, "Some Thoughts concerning a proper Method of studying Divinity." lished by Parker, Oxford; and Rivingtons, London.

We have received several communications on the subject of "Disembodied Spirits," which must stand over for the present.

The Remarks on the advice offered to Pope Julius III. will appear shortly.

"G. B." "G. R." and "E. B." are under consideration.

fair friend are pretty withal, but do not meet our views.

The lines of "C. W.'s"

The tract on the "Rubrick" will be continued in our next, and concluded in the following Number.

An article on "Mr. Dale's Lectures" is unavoidably postponed.

Dr. Milner's "End of Religious Controversy" was answered by Dr. Grier, in one vol. 8vo. and published by Cadell.

*These gentlemen, and those in brackets, were equal.

THE

CHRISTIAN

REMEMBRANCER.

APRIL, 1830.

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

ART. I.-Death-bed Scenes and Pastoral Conversations. By the late JOHN WARTON, D.D. Edited by his Sons. Second Edition. In 6 Vols. 12mo. Price 18s. Vols. V. & VI. London: Murray. 1829.

THE four antecedent volumes of this excellent work were reviewed in our pages some two years since. We endeavoured at that time to award them the ample meed of praise, which their various merits so loudly demanded at our hands; and we rejoice at finding them upon the list of the books of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; for we can point out no volumes which contain more valuable matter in a more attractive dress than the posthumous publication of Dr. Warton, to which we have again the agreeable province of inviting the attention of our readers. If our former report have induced any of them to purchase the four volumes, we can assure them that the fifth and sixth (now on our table) are equally deserving of their perusal, being of equal merit with their admirable predecessors.

We confess, indeed, that we had some misgivings of mind, when we first saw these new volumes; because we are sensible that an author, whose popularity and success have been deservedly great, can encounter no rival more perilous to his fair fame than HIMSELF; and that, where the expectations of the public have been unusually raised by previous performances, it is amongst the most arduous of attempts to endeavour to satisfy their judgment: nor do we forget the danger of diminishing the sale, and of detracting, by consequence, from the usefulness of a work, by adding to its original contents. With regard to the pages before us, however, our fears are dissipated, and our expectations completely fulfilled. The reputation of Dr. Warton will still be unsullied; and his sons, (" pater, et juvenes patre digni," †)

*See Christian Remembrancer, June, 1828.
Horat. Ars Poet, 24.

VOL. XII. NO. IV.

D D

in their publication of these additional volumes, have graced his temples with an additional wreath. Indeed, there is an important topic, that never fails to attract the attention of the minister of God in his parochial visitations, and is beset with peculiar difficulties, which was but cursorily glanced at in the antecedent volumes of our pious author, and might have challenged a detailed consideration. That deficiency is now supplied, and "THE EUCHARIST" very justly forms one half of the last volume of "Death-bed Scenes, and Pastoral Conversations."

66

The Editors have told us, in their preface, "That several persons have expressed a curiosity to know what guarantee they have for the truth and accuracy of the stories ;"—that some persons have declared them to be entirely fictitious;" and that " even eminent Clergymen, speaking of them in the most courteous terms, are reported to have said, that they themselves have not been so fortunate as to meet with any such cases in the course of their own experience." (Preface, p. 67.) We are free to acknowledge, that we are altogether indifferent as to the truth and accuracy of the little histories before us; and that we are at a loss to understand how the intrinsic usefulness of these volumes can be affected by such considerations. Whether the stories be founded on fact, or have sprung from the fertile invention of their author, is a point which we will not assume the province of deciding, because we deem it to be a question of no importance whatever, neither touching the talent of the author, nor connected even remotely with the beneficial effects to be anticipated from the general perusal of a work so true to nature, so interesting in its anecdotes, so orthodox in its principles, so devout in its spirit, so happy in its execution, and so replete with instruction upon subjects, in comparison with which all other knowledge is but foolishness and vanity.

The two volumes now on our table contain three chapters, subdivided into sections, the leading topics of which may best be learnt by an inspection of the table of contents, which runs thus :

Contents of the FIFTH VOLUME. Chap. I. Mr. Marsden. Obduracy. Chap. II. Jacob Brockbourn.-Warnings. VOL. VI. Chap. II. Jacob Brockbourn.-Warnings. Chap. III. Thomas and Margaret Turner.-The Eucharist. The fate of Mr. Marsden is the melancholy picture of a hardened sot. His profligate habits had brought him to the brink of the grave; yet he refused to listen to pastoral exhortation: and, having associated with infidel devotees in all their vulgar debaucheries, he literally "lived without God in the world." Having one day detected his daughter reading the Bible, he is said to have "snatched it out of her hands with great violence, and to have thrown it into the fire." "Radicalism and irreligion" had transformed this unhappy

sensualist into a brute. From such a one his spiritual pastor could expect no welcome reception: accordingly we find Dr. Warton most uncourteously assailed upon his first visit by the sick man.

The issue of our pastor's conversations with this obdurate sinner, though they were conducted with imperturbable patience, and renewed ever and anon at the most likely intervals, was eminently unsuccessful.

But it will be the duty of those, (adds our humble divine,) for whom these dialogues are principally written, to learn something from my failures, as they may do from my successes.-Vol. V. p. 30.

The second chapter of this volume, entitled "Warnings," contains the histories of Jacob Brockbourn, (the murderer of his wife,) Mrs. Martin, Mrs. Hudson, the Souths, the White family, the Hodges family, and of many others, with whom our venerable minister came in contact in the course of his official circuit through his extensive parish. They are admirably sketched, and manifest, in a striking light, the versatility of the Rector's talent, the promptness of his judgment, and the measureless advantages accruing to the souls, committed to the charge of clerical inspection, from the assiduous visitation of the sick. The minister, who contents himself with the weekly performance of the public services of the church, and thinks his obligations discharged by the casual fulfilment of what are called the occasional duties of a parish,-(the baptizing of infants, the marrying of adults, and the burial of the dead,) miserably underrates his opportunities for usefulness, and omits "one huge half" of the ministrations which his flock will justly challenge at his hands. It is not merely for these perfunctory services that he is furnished with the means of living generally in the precincts of his parish; nor will the two-edged sword of the word of God, however skilfully used, be a thousandth part so efficacious from the reading-desk or the pulpit, as when displayed in the chambers of the sick; and the most honied words, and the most persuasive arguments, and the most awful menaces, and the most precious promises of the Gospel, will prove powerless and ineffectual, when delivered in the church, in comparison with the wonderful energy with which they are driven home to the bosoms of men in their retirement. It is especially in the hour of sorrow and disease, that the minister of Heaven may hope for a beneficial exercise of his office, when the weakened body, and the wounded soul of his patients, weaned as they then are from the vanities of the world, and alarmed as they are sometimes, under such medicinal visitations at the approach of death, make them anxious to listen to the words of life, and to thirst after the waters of immortality. It is in these moments of solitude and soberness, that the visit of the