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PIETY CONTRASTED WITH INTELLECT: Addressed especially to those who from profession or predilection are engaged in study. pp. 136.

Wightman, 24, Paternoster Row. To set moral truth over against intellectual, and show that the latter appeals to a lower order of mind than the former, is a needful work in this age, which seems greatly to err on that head. Thus, the leaning of modern infidelity is to the notion that nothing need be believed, unless it be so clearly proved that it cannot be denied; whereas the things which Almighty God specially requires us to receive, are those which do not force our belief, but so appeal to the mind that their rejection or reception tests (and stands inseparably connected with) its moral condition. Your Socialist would make man at best a mere mathematical

reasoner

"Forsooth, a great arithmetician :"

his principles are not adapted to the higher region of moral truth; a fish might as well be looked for flying in the heavens. And such an one (as is well said in this little volume) "is but half a man."

Our author has done well to contrast these two departments of inquiry, and has written a very earnest and sensible little volume on the supreme importance of religion, and the vanity of mere intellectual acquirements without it. "The charms and consolations of Divine philosophy," are all very well while life's summer lasts; but in trying seasons, as is here observed, "the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself upon it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it."

As for knowledge in the abstract, and independent altogether of religion, it is a thing of which we often hear; but of it we will only now say, that it is a thing, which we have no more been able to find, than we have been able to meet

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THE patriarch's history is here considered in fifteen chapters, whose titles are as follows: The Call; The Famine; The Equivocation; The Return and Parting; The imprudent Choice; The Return from Battle; The Encouragment; The Flight of Hagar; The well-governed Family; The Intercession; The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael the great Trial; The Death and Funeral of Sarah; The joyful Prospect; The Death of Abraham. The book is an Edinburgh production, and we have no idea whether these papers are the substance of a course of pastoral addresses; but in all probability it is so. They would do credit to a minister of any Church. They are clear, forcible, evangelical. The spirit and tendency of the volume is to put the reader on prayer and effort, that he be a "follower of this inheritor of the promises." It is a work, that has our good wishes.

A BRIEF MEMOIR OF W

0- Esq. Late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. pp. 144.

Religious Tract Society.

AN affecting Memoir of a young man of high talent and fervent piety, smitten by that destroyer of our lovely blossoms-Consumption. It was his desire to serve God on earth in the ministry of the established Church; and "it was well that it was in his heart;" but the Lord of the Churches, in His great goodness, ordained not so. This narrative consists chiefly of extracts from his own letters, written from abroad; and they show the gradual ripening of his spirit for the garner of God. It is a little book, well calculated to impress the importance of religion upon the youthful mind, and especially fitted for those, whose delicate health

gives note that they may look to be among the early called. We measure age by years; perhaps there may be a truer standard; at all events

"That life is long, which answers life's great end."

THE ART OF NEEDLE-WORK FROM THE
EARLIEST AGES. Including some
Notices of the ancient historical
Tapestries. Edited by the Rt. Hon.
The Countess of Wilton. pp. 405.

Colburn, Great Marlboro' Street,

Mr. Dore's discourse is well and favourably known to a large circle already. This is a very neat edition of it. It is an affectionate exhortation, originally addressed to a School in the neighbourhood of London, and very fit for a present to a young person at school.

Pastoral advice on recovery from sicknister has many a mournful rememness, is an interesting theme. The mibrance of that season. The trembling anxiety is subsiding; the solemn vow is fading into faint resolve; life with its vain pleasures again courts the soul's best love. We would wish no better companion for this important period, than the faithful counsel here issued from Olney

The last of these little books is a care

THIS very lady-like book does great credit to the noble individual, whose name is attached to it. It exhibits much shrewdness in many of its remarks, and completely presents to the reader-rich, favoured Olney. the whole history of the art of needlework. It is studded with rare and in-ful abridgement (pruned to suit the teresting anecdotes, showing a wellstored mind; and the moral kept in view is excellent. There is a short, but interesting chapter, entirely devoted to "the needlework of the tabernacle." Neither plebeian nor patrician lady need be unwilling to own herself the author of this volume.

A DAILY REMEMBRANCE OF THE ME

DIATOR.

YOUTH INVITED ΤΟ THE CELESTIAL

CANAAN. By JAMES DORE. pp. 96.

PASTORAL ADVICE from a Minister to

from sickness. By the Rev. JAMES one of his Parishioners recovering BEAN, formerly Vicar of Olney. pp. 68. THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LAMB.

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Discourse by the Rev. WILLIAM DYER, A.D. 1676. With an Introduction by the Rev. THOMAS PAGE, A.M., Minister of Christ Church, Virginia Water. pp. 72.

Religious Tract Society,

HERE is a cluster of goodly fruit. We will just look at it for a moment.

The "Daily Remembrance of the Mediator" supplies a text for every day in the year, each bringing before us Him, "who is before all things and by whom all things consist." Every day its reader learns, that "Christ is all and in all." Can he weary of a subject, of which we almost ever hear when " door is opened in heaven," and the songs of the upper sanctuary are heard? We think the idea of compiling such a col lection good; and we are sure it is well executed in this little volume.

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changed literary tastes of the age) of a valuable discourse of the seventeenth century. It is a faithful exhibition of that order of truth, that knows not centu ries, but is ever young. It is earnest and scriptural, and speaks to the heart.

THE FAMILY READER OF TAE NEW

TESTAMENT. By the Rev. J. E. RID-
DLE, M.A. No. 1. Price 6d. pp. 32.

Simpkin and Co., Stationers' Hall Court.
THE first number of a monthly pub-
lication of the New Testament, with a
Commentary, chiefly of a practical na-
from one number, it promises well.
ture, such as is suitable to be read aloud
As far as we can judge

ONE HUNDRED SONNETS, translated after the Italian of Petrarca; with the original text, notes, and a life of Petrarch. By SUSAN WOLLASTON. pp.

257.

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THE COURT.

Her Majesty and Prince Albert have attended Divine Service at the Chapel Royal, St. James's, every Sunday Morning of late, except on the 14th, when they were at the afternoon service only.

Date.
Preacher.
Text.
Feb. 28... Bp. of St. David's.... John xiii. 38.
Mar. 7.. Bp. of Chichester..1 Cor. xii. 12-14.
21.. Bp of Lincoln............

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28..Bp. of Rochester......John viii. 51.

PARLIAMENTARY.

It is right to add, that no notice had been given of any other motion, than "to take the petition into consideration;" which may account for so thin a House.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

THE OXFORD TRACTS.-In the last No. (the 90th) of these publications, it is argued, that the Articles of the Church of England may be so interpreted, as not to condemn the doctrines of Purgatory, On the 18th of March Mr. EASTHOPE Pardons, Worshipping of images, Invobrought before the House of Commons cation of Saints, and the Mass, as taught the case of Mr. Baines of Leicester, who authoritatively by the Church of Rome, had been imprisoned since November but only certain absurd practices and last for non payment of Church Rates, opinions, which intelligent Romanists which he admitted himself to be able to repudiate. In consequence of this, it was pay, but declared he could not consci- resolved as follows, at the weekly Meetentiously discharge; and he moved a ing of the Vice Chancellor and Heads of resolution, stating that "thus to impri- Houses, on the 15th of March; "Conson him for refusing to contribute to-sidering that it is enjoined in the statutes wards the expences attending the worship of the Established Church, from which he conscientiously dissents, is to punish him for acting in accordance with what he regards as a religious duty, and is a violation of the principles of religious freedom." Lord JOHN RUSSELL said he had no hesitation in directly negativing this motion; Mr. Baines must not set up a standard of his own as to what should be law for him, and declare that what he thought oppressive to the conscience he would not observe. When he was summoned before the magistrates at.first, his defence was that the rate was not legal; and having thus ousted the magistrates' jurisdiction, he refused appear in the Ecclesiastical Court to prove that the rate was not legal. Other men thought as badly of some other laws; and where was the line to be drawn, if Mr. Baines's plea were allowed? In setting an example of disobedience to the laws, Mr. Baines was guilty of a crime against society. HAWES argued that there was a clear line of distinction to be drawn, in respect to conscience, between civil and religious institutions. Sir R. PEEL said, that even then tithes must fall; but in fact he did not see that this line was

to

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of this University that every student shall be instructed and examined in the Thirty-nine Articles, and shall subscribe to them; considering also that a tract has recently appeared, dated from Oxford, and entitled 'Remarks on certain passages in the Thirty-nine Articles,' being No. 90 of The Tracts for the Times, a series of anonymous publications, purporting to be written by members of the University, but in no way sanctioned by of interpretation such as are suggested in the University itself; resolved that modes the said tract, evading rather than explaining the sense of the Thirty-nine Articles, and reconciling subscription to them with the adoption of errors which they were designed to counteract, defeat the object, and are inconsistent with the due observance of the above-mentioned statutes." The Rev. J. H. Newman has since avowed himself the author of the

Tract.

CHURCH RATES.-Results of recent contests:

St. Ives, Hunts.
Fenny Stratford.

Berry Pomeroy.
Rushden.
Great Staughton.
Hythe.
Brighton.

Rate refused.
Rate postponed

12 months.

Rate refused.

Rate carried.

Rate carried.

Rate carried.

Rate carried.

At a vestry held at the parish Church, Newport, Monmouthshire, in February last, a resolution was unanimously adopted, that a voluntary subscription was the

best means of providing for the payment of the Church expences. This mode has also been adopted at Huddersfield.

Mr. Baines of Leicester, being still in prison there for non-payment of Church Rates, seven thousand females in that town have signed a Memorial to the Queen praying her Majesty to order his release notwithstanding the law!

MISCELLANEOUS.

and learnt and profited beyond most of
my fellows. I grew passionately fond of
it, would scarcely walk but in measured
time, and was constantly tripping, mov-
ing, and shuffling in all times and places.
I began now to value myself, which, as
far as I can recollect, I had never thought
of before; I grew impatient of controul,
was fond of company, wished to mingle
more than I had ever done with young
people. I got also a passion for better
clothing than that which fell to my lot in
life, was discontented if I found a neigh-
bour's son better dressed than myself. I
lost the spirit of subordination, did not
love work, imbibed a spirit of idleness,
and in short, drank in all the brain-sick-
ening effluvia of pleasure; dancing and
company took the place of reading and
study; and the authority of my parents
was feared, indeed, but not respected,
and few serious impressions could prevail
in a mind imbued with frivolity and the
love of pleasure: yet I entered into no
disreputable assembly, and in no one case
ever kept any improper company; I
formed no illegal connexion, nor asso-
ciated with any whose characters were
either tarnished or suspicious. Never-
theless, dancing was to me a perverting
influence, an unmixed moral evil; for
although by the mercy of God it led me
not to depravity of manners, it greatly

POPERY-A correspondent of a Sussex Newspaper writes from Brighton as follows: "There is a curious theological controversy at present carrying on in this town, from the pulpits of two of our popular preachers. Mr. Addison, one of the vicar's curates, preaching at St. Peter's (the new) Church, has delivered several lectures, the object of which is to show that the Roman Catho lic Church is not Antichrist, but a genuine Church of Christ, and the Church of England another branch, purged and purified of the errors still existing in the Romish branch. This brought into the field Mr. Sortain, minister of the Countess of Huntingdon's chapel, and A.M., of Trinity College, Dublin, who is now delivering a course of lectures in direct contradiction to the other; that is, to shew from Scripture that the Roman Catholic Church is Antichrist. I have heard two of his lectures, which are cha-weakened the nioral principle, drowned racterised by great ability and research, though quite a young man, as is his opponent. He quotes much from the ancient fathers, and from the canons and homilies of the Church of England, whose doctrines he stoutly defends. And this, to me, appears the most curious part of the affair; here is an ordained clergyman of the Church of England standing up to defend that of Rome, which his own Church has declared damnable and blasphemous, and the minister of a dissenting congregation as warmly supporting the doctrines of the establishment, though of course in common with that of all reformed Churches. Pusey has been a good deal here, and I suppose has made a convert of the first named gentleman. We have candles burning at the altar; and the 'absolution' delivered from the communion table."

DANCING. "When about 12 or 13 years of age I learned to dance. I long resisted all solicitations to this employment, but at last I suffered myself to be overcome,

the voice of a well-instructed conscience, and was the first cause of impelling me to seek my happiness in this life. Everything yielded to the disposition it had produced, and every thing was absorbed by it. I have it justly in abhorrence for the moral injury it did me : and I can testify, (as far as my own observations have extended, and they have had a pretty wide range,) I have known it to produce the same evil in others that it produced in me. I consider it therefore as a branch of that worldly education which leads from heaven to earth, from things spiritual to things sensual, and from God to Satan. Let them plead for it who will, I know it to be evil, and that only. They who bring up their children in this way, or send them to those schools where dancing is taught, are consecrating them to the service of Moloch, and cultivating the passions, so as to cause them to bring forth the buds of a fallen nature, with an additional rankness, deep-rooted inveteracy, and inexhaustible fertility." Extract from the Life of Dr. A. Clarke.

THE

EVANGELICAL REGISTER.

MAY, 1841.

SCRIPTURAL DIVINATION.

OUTLINE OF A LECTURE, DELIVERED IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH,
BY THE REV. THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D.

THERE are several ways, in which a man professing the art of divination, might make good his claim; as by pronouncing on the sum of money in my pocket, the number and variety of coins of which it consists, &c. And if this were done correctly, on repeated trials, it is conceivable that it might produce a firm and just conviction of his having a reach of knowledge beyond other men; in fact, of his having miraculous powers.

Now I may tell this fact to others; but it has then to pass through my testimony; and they may choose to discredit it. They may distrust my powers of observation or memory, or may suspect collusion; and before they can be made to believe it, the divination must take place in reference to themselves. I may be called false or fanatical; yet I am warranted to place my confidence in him, from whom I have received so many proofs of power.

I

But suppose, that instead of the money in my pocket, he divines the thoughts in my heart, and reads the characters engraved in the chambers of imagery there; showing that the little world of self is naked and open before him; piercing so deeply as to "divide asunder soul and spirit,' ,"* and make everything manifest. may be so overpowered, as to give full credence to his pretensions, and embark all my prospects on the assurance of his being a messenger from God. But I cannot place another man in the same situation. I cannot put a window into my bosom, that he may see the coincidence between my feelings and the divination which has been exercised respecting them. I am the only man living, that can see this; and to me alone is the full strength of the evidence applicable. Some kinds of evidence are accessible to all men; but this is accessible to me alone. Each must have the divination passed on himself. Another may think me weak; but he has no access to the grounds on which my judgment is founded. He has not forced his way to the penetralia of my mind; and not till he has done this, will I admit his right to pronounce on the correctness of my judgment.

There is something to confirm all this in Scripture. The Saviour read to the woman of Samaria a passage in her present and by-gone history; and she said, "Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet!" She told her countrymen; but we are told that "many more believed, because of His own word." It is not said whether it was on account of a similar divination passing on each; but we learn that their belief did not rest on the external miracle; for they said, "We have heard Him ourselves!" ¶ But the deficiency of information here, is made up in other passages; as in the case of the gift of tongues, which ought to have secured the attention of all. For the external miracle, I think, did not produce the faith that is unto salvation, but only attracted attention; and if we have now other means as well suited to excite attention, we now stand on as high vantage-ground as they did then. The multitude who witnessed the gift of tongues, must have been convinced of the reality of the miracle, and that it demanded their attention; but some would not reflect at all; putting away the subject from them; while some pronounced the apostles to be mad, and others that they were "full of new wine."§ John iv. 42. $ Acts ii. 13.

• Heb. iv. 12. + John iv. 19. VOL. XIII.

John iv. 41.

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