and all his attainments, there was an entire absence of the slightest approach to pedantry, or to such egotistical pretension and display as, in some instances, form so great a drawback upon the attractions of learning. His mind was of an order quite above all such littleness. Never was there in his manner any thing to make others feel their inferiority. All was affability and openness. At ease himself, every one else was at ease with him. In argument, he was never out of temper; and, whether he beat or was beaten, he had ever some pat citation or story by which to show in what perfect good humour he either got or gave the victory. He had a remarkably keen perception both of the ludicrous and the ridiculous; and he delighted in blending more sober and grave discussions with the lively and facetious, and the easy interchange of the sallies of wit and humour and friendly repartee, which, however free and pointed, were never such as to leave a wound. A wound from him on the feelings of another, would have been a deeper wound on his own. His countenance was open, animated, intellectual; and, whether in his sober or his more sprightly moods, he had a speaking eye. His manners were at an equal distance from embarrassment and affectation. He belonged to the nobility of mind; and exemplified the perfect consistency between eminence in learning and the easy politeness of the best society. In his mental character, indeed, there was much of balance and harmony. It was like the music, in which he was so scientific an adept, and by which, while he took delight in it himself, he so richly delighted others. And this harmony discovered itself in his religious intercourse, as well as in that of ordinary life. He was to the last, what he had been from the first, a Dissenter and a Congregationalist. He was so, not on the grounds of expediency, but of scriptural conviction. But his attachment to his principles partook not of bigotry; nor his advocacy of them of dogmatism. He loved all, of every denomination, who believed the truth, and who showed their faith by their works; and he at once exemplified and sought to diffuse, in the spirit of forbearance and charity, the sentiment, and the feeling, and the practice of Christian union. "Our friend was not perfect. He would frown from heaven upon any such representation of him. It were a contradiction of the Book of which he taught the lessons. He had within him those principles of corruption, whose remaining power Paul felt and mourned, and the conflict between which and the indwelling Spirit of grace, is the very distinction of the Christian. There can be no doubt in the mind of any one who has aught of the experience of a believer, that our departed friend felt the power him self of a deceitful heart and a tempting world, far more than their influence was discernible by others. Nor is it possible for fellow-Christians to live together in this sinful state, without witnessing in each other, as well as lamenting in themselves, the 'infirmity' with which they continue to be 'compassed.' With that infirmity the largest amount attainable of Christian greatness and Christian goodness will ever, on this side eternity, be blended. Those who knew most intimately the servant of Christ whom we now deplore as 'taken away in the midst of his days,' will be the first and most forward to own the large amount of both the greatness and the goodness, with the comparatively small proportion of the alloy, by which he was distinguished, and for which we have so much reason, in the terms of the Apostle of the Gentiles, to 'glorify God in him.' "With such endowments, from nature, from study, and from grace, we fondly anticipated for him a long career of active service in the church of God and in the world; in training the rising ministry; in publishing the gospel; and in promoting, by the press as well as by the pulpit, the advancement of the great cause of divine truth in the earth, and thus of the glory of God and the happiness of mankind. Again, therefore, we exclaim-O the mystery!-that qualifications which could not be needed in heaven, and which so eminently fitted their possessor for usefulness on earth, should be thus removed from the sphere where they were required, to that which required them not; and removed too, just when the particular situation had been found for them, to which, above all others, they were adapted! Not that there are no ends which, even in so strange a dispensation, we can suppose the Supreme Ruler to have in view. The fearful event, like other afflictive visitations, may do good to the living. It may serve to bring to decision, for God and for his service, the yet lingering and hesitating hearts of some surviving relatives, determining them no longer to halt between two opinions.' It may humble, and spiritualize, and stimulate fellow-workmen in the service of the same Master, rousing them to new animation and zeal, that they may 'redeem the time.' The striking manifestation of the power of true religion in such circumstances, so full of all that was agitating and distracting, so fearful a testing-time of principle, may impress and awaken some sceptical and careless souls, and commend the gospel to their consideration and acceptance. Yet still we wonder : and still we feel that we must go our way, and wait till the end be.' To us, as to Daniel, this is the injunction of God, when he sees the questions of unbelieving perplexity, or even of natural curiosity and in quisitiveness, rising to our lips we must obey it: "God is His own interpreter, And he will make it plain :" but whether in this world or in the next, we cannot tell. It must be left with himself; to his wise and sovereign pleasure." A MEMOIR of the late GREVILLE Ewing, Minister of the Gospel, Glasgow. By his DAUGHTER. 8vo. John Snow. There is no exaggeration in affirming that the subject of this memoir "was a burning and shining light in his day, and that many for a season rejoiced in his light." If he was honoured to do special service to the cause of Independency in his native land, his philanthropy, talent, and sanctified learn. ing, made him the common property, and the devoted servant of the Christian church. We are old enough to remember Mr. Ewing's "work of faith and labour of love," when Congregationalism took its rise in Scotland, when the spirit of home evangelization and foreign missions seized upon the public mind at one and the same happy period; and we can bear testimony to the fact, that to no single individual, for the last fifty years, is Scotland more indebted for the revival of evangelical religion, than to that honoured servant of Christ, whose memoir we now introduce to the favourable and affectionate notice of our numerous readers, especially those of them who are disposed to trace the steps of a man who was rendered a distinguished blessing to his age, and to posterity. We had much doubted whether any one now living could do justice to the memory of Greville Ewing; as we had always, with the short-sightedness which belongs to all human prepossessions, assigned the task to the late Mr. Orme, whose minute acquaintance with the history of the deceased, and whose profound admiration of his rare virtues, fitted him, in a peculiar manner, to supply the narrative of his eventful life. Little did we then imagine that the biographer of Owen and Baxter would be called to his heavenly rest before his venerable friend, who so far surpassed him in years. But God's ways are not our ways, neither are his thoughts our thoughts. Mr. Orme has many years been numbered with the dead, and it is to the lasting reproach of his more intimate friends, that no adequate memorial of his worth, and talents, and usefulness, has yet been supplied to the Christian public. His attached friend, however, in reference to whom he was ever wont to express himself in terms of unbounded admiration and love, has found a biographer equal to the task,-one, whose filial veneration and affection will be subject to no invidious exceptions-one, whose opportunities of forming a correct estimate of the deceased's character were equalled by those of no other individual, either living or dead; one who had been the companion of her father's studies, and no mean representative of his attainments; and one who has felt it to be at once the greatest satisfaction, and the greatest responsibility of her life, to rear a monument to the memory of one "whose praise is in all the churches." When Mr. Ewing, for ten long years, was indulging the grateful feeling of directing the classical and other studies of an only and greatly-beloved daughter, little did he anticipate that he was then preparing her for the task which she has now performed with masculine energy and distinguished success; entitling herself, by this labour of her pen, to rank with some of the best female writers of the age. The two best features of successful biography distinguish this volume: it presents a moral and intellectual portraiture of its subject, which no one who knew Mr. Ewing can mistake; entering into all the minutiæ of his personal, domestic, and ministerial character; and exhibiting the developments of his social and spiritual history, through all the phases of a lengthened and diversified ministerial career. Our author has enabled us to become well acquainted, not only with the leading scenes in her father's life, but with many of the most interesting exercises of mind, to which those scenes gave birth. There is a dash of beautiful and sound philosophy pervading the memoir, though it is divested of everything bordering on pretension. Its other striking feature is, the relation in which Mr. Ewing is seen standing to the times in which he lived; first, in the severe mental conflict which issued in his renouncing his position in the Scottish Establishment; and, secondly, in the train of new difficulties which awaited him as one of the leaders of Congregationalism in his native country. Our author has justified abundantly the step which her father took, when he left a church, which, at that time, had sunk into a state of ecclesiastical torpor and death; and she has been no less successful in dealing with certain untoward facts which occurred between him and certain of the early friends of Independency in Scotland, particularly the late Mr. Robert Haldane. There has been a great sensitiveness generally in writers who have meddled with this controversy; but our ingenuous and discreet author has touched upon it fully and delicately, in a way, which, as we think, leaves nothing for the lovers of truth and peace to desire. One of the most touching and edifying features of this memoir, is the abundant evidence it affords of the deep and fervent piety of the deceased. Mrs. M. has furnished a striking sketch of Mr. E. in the study and in the family; and the conviction we receive is, that he walked in intimate fellowship with God, and wrestled daily with the Angel of the Covenant. Yet we gather no impression from the volume, that his piety partook, in the slightest degree, of the morose and austere; on the contrary, he was bland and cheerful in all his intercourses, and recommended religion by the sweetness and amenity of his dispositions. With an innocence and gentleness of manners unrivalled, he combined at times a facetiousness and repartee which made his society truly exhilarating to those who enjoyed it. He could be very witty, and even sarcastic, when the occasion demanded it. But he reserved all his attic severity for occasions which rendered the exercise of it something bordering on a virtue. Mr. Ewing's literary and theological character is ably set forth in this memoir. In biblical knowledge, that is, in accurate acquaintance with the Scriptures in their original tongues, Mr. Ewing had few equals, perhaps no rival. He was generally acknowledged, by all good judges who had heard him in his best days, to be a most finished expounder of the sacred oracles. His insight into the mind of the Spirit was deep and penetrating; but it had nothing in it of empiricism, nothing even of mannerism, nothing of any particular school of theology; it consisted simply in the power which it evinced of making the Bible its own interpreter. Upon the whole, we have risen up from the perusal of this volume with a degree of satisfaction bordering on delight. We congratulate our excellent friend, Mrs. Matheson, on her distinguished success; and we earnestly pray that her devoted labour, in preparing a work which bears innumerable marks of close and careful application, may be blessed to thousands in the present age, and to generations yet unborn. MEMOIRS of the Rev. JOHN THORNTON, forty-one years pastor of the Independent church and congregation, Billericay, Essex. By JOHN THORNTON, Stockport. 12mo. pp. 226. Ward and Co. For the space of more than thirty years, the truly estimable subject of these memoirs was an habitual contributor to the pages of the Evangelical Magazine, under a variety of signatures, which renders it somewhat difficult to determine the actual number of papers supplied. The subjects of them were in general well chosen, having reference either to some cardinal point of Divine truth, or to some topic rendered interesting by the signs of the times. He was a writer of great perspicuity, and of very considerable resources; and having read the best of our English classics, and stored his mind with the theology of the Puritan divines, there was an air of gracefulness and solidity in his compositions, which rendered them acceptable alike to persons of taste and of deeply spiritual feelings. He was one of those regular correspondents whose loss has been deeply felt by us. For though we can command writers in many respects equal in talent and attainments to the deceased, there are but few who so well understand the precise character of articles suited to our pages. Never was correspondent more indulgent to the feelings of an editor, than Mr. Thornton. Instead of petulantly requesting that no corrections should be made in his manuscripts, which is often the case with writers of an inferior stamp, most of his communications had this brief sentence accompanying them: "Here it is, do with it what you think proper curtail, enlarge, or suppress, as seemeth good to you." We are truly glad to welcome the memoirs of our departed friend. Few men, in our day, have deserved better of the Christian church. His writings alone, to say nothing of his ministry and social intercourses, have exerted a powerful and beneficial influ ence on the age. Before authors had multiplied so greatly as they have done during the last twenty years, Mr. Thornton had secured for himself the public ear, and, for the space of more than thirty years, he retained it, suffering only the disadvantage which has accrued to authors, from public societies taking up the work of publication. It is a great satisfaction to find, from the volume before us, that Mr.Thornton has himself furnished a very interesting record of the leading facts of his life, in a series of letters addressed by him to a neighbouring minister and fellow-student. We greatly prefer autobiography to every other species of memoir; especially when it comes from the pen of one whose head and heart may be confided in. In thirteen letters, extending from 1826 to 1835, Mr. Thornton has sketched, with graphic force, all that will be most interesting in his story to posterity. The letters are admirably written, and are worth many large volumes of biography written by survivors. They have the stamp of truth and nature upon every page; and exhibit a striking example of an original mind struggling through almost insurmountable difficulties to solid attainments and extensive usefulness. We could earnestly wish to see this valuable and characteristic piece of autobiography in the hands of every candidate for the Dissenting Ministry. It is well fitted to tell in the right way, and to put theological students upon a useful tack. It is pleasing to see what diligence and close application will effect, in the absence of early training. Most of Mr. Thornton's fellow-students had had greater opportunities of early culture than himself; but few of them were his superiors in knowledge or in elegant reading, when he left the college. But the men of his day who have come down influentially to posterity, with few exceptions, were early risers, and stimulated each other in the career of honourable improvement. It is gratifying to find that the eldest son of the deceased is his father's biographer, and that his filial veneration for one of the best of parents is pleasingly manifest in every page he has written. It is due to the author to say that he has performed his important task with considerable ability, and with most commendable feeling. The memoir at large is deeply interesting. There is no spinning out of parts. Every chapter is stored with facts, and facts which cannot fail to obtain a reading. Indeed we hardly know of any specimen of modern biography in which greater care has been taken to avoid prolixity, or the vice of substituting dissertation for real narrative. The result is, that every page of the work is inviting, because it discloses facts, instead of expressing opinions. We sincerely thank the author for so pleasing a memorial of his honoured parent. It does equal honour to his head and heart; and we have reason to believe that it will eminently subserve the interests of vital and practical Christianity, to the promotion of which the life and labours of Mr. Thornton were assiduously devoted for the space of more than forty years. LECTURES on TRACTARIAN THEOLOGY. By the Rev. JOHN STOUGHTON, of Windsor. Foolscap 8vo. Jackson and Walford. The cry of "No Popery" has been louder' perhaps, in the Established Church of this country than anywhere else. Yet, strange to say, its clergy and members are rapidly embracing the distinguishing tenets of that corrupt and vicious system. Nice distinctions may be drawn by ingenious minds, but Tractarianism is Popery, in all its deluding and damning influence. That portion of the clergy, a very large one it is to be feared, whose minds are tainted with the ecclesiastical epidemic of the age, are as anxious as any Popish priests in the land to put down the Bible, and to put up tradition; they are struggling, to a man, to bring Englishmen, and especially the poor, under the dominion of priestcraft; they are teaching the people to trust in their own official administrations, instead of Christ; and they are everywhere evincing the persecuting and exclusive spirit of "the man of sin." It remains to be seen whether the laity of this country will tamely submit their necks to the yoke which is now preparing for them. We can only say, they deserve to feel its galling influence, if they will passively submit themselves. The cure of this monstrous evil is with themselves. If in every church where Popish tricks begin to be played off upon the people, all sound-hearted laymen would just take up their hats and walk out, the present nuisance would soon be abated, and we should have no more of such charges from the bishops as that recently delivered by his lordship of London. While Meanwhile we are glad to find that Nonconformists are doing their duty, as they ever have done when Popery has reared its head in this country. They are bearing a noble testimony on the side of Protestant truth. The future historian of passing events will be constrained to record their fidelity to the grand cause of the Reformation. Antichrist threatens to triumph, let them continue their denunciations. The ignorant, the selfish, the worldly, who will swallow any religious system that can be rendered fashionable enough, may not estimate their labours; but the faithful in the land will hail them in their course, and their record will be on high. Mr. Stoughton has, with many other congregational pastors, performed his part in this struggle against antichristian error and superstition. The Lectures before us supply ample evidence of the author's thorough acquaintance with every peculiarity of the Popish controversy. He has read history with care; and, what is still better, he has read his Bible, so as to be able to detect systems which are antagonist to it. Tractarianism he has shown to be opposed to the word of God, by a train of reasoning equally applicable to Romanism in the direct form. The Lectures, which are devoted to tradition, apostolical succession, the sacraments, and the church, we regard as very masterly defences of Protestant truth. The argument is well sustained throughout, and the whole subject of Tractarianism is disposed of effectively in four brief discourses. We earnestly recommend this well-written volume to those who wish to understand the prevailing heresy of the day, but who have little time for elaborate or extensive reading. The WORKS of WILLIAM JAY. Collected Bartlett, London and Bath. ders it next to superfluous for the conductors of the religious press to say anything respecting this new and elegant edition of his works, which have long since secured for themselves a place among the standard literature of the Christian church. We owe it, however, to ourselves, not to overlook an undertaking which affords gratification to our beloved and excellent friend, in the evening of an active, devoted, and useful life. How gratifying must it be to this Pastor of more than half a century, whose authorship extends over a period of forty years, to sit down and revise a series of works associated with all his most cherished recollections, and upon which God has so eminently stamped the seal of his approbation! What gratitude must he feel to his gracious Lord, in finding that his bow yet abides in strength, and that after a ministry and an authorship so protracted, he is now as acceptable to the public as when, in all the bloom of youth, he first drew towards him the public ear and eye! We are glad that Mr. Jay has not attempted any serious alterations in the volumes hitherto published. Here and there a mere verbal emendation has been introduced; but the works are just in the last edition what they were in the first. As his prefaces were always peculiarly racy and touching, we are not sorry to find that he has added something in this department. Several of these notices are historical, and will be read with deep interest when the author has gone the way of all flesh. Considering the amount of letter-press, and the superior style in which this edition of Mr. Jay's works is got up, we regard the volumes as cheap at seven shillings. If our readers feel towards dear Mr. Jay as we do, which we believe to be the case very generally, they will be thankful to receive from the pen of this eminent servant of Christ, a corrected edition of works which cannot fail to be a blessing in every family to which they may find admission. His Morning and Evening Exercises; his Life of Cornelius Winter; his Christian Contemplated; and his Occasional Sermons; are all of them gems which can never lose their brightness, while taste and piety exist in our country. The SIMPLICITY that is in CHRIST; or, A Church of England Pastor's Warning to his Flock. A Sermon preached at Park Chapel, Chelsea, on Sunday, August 6th, 1843. By the Rev. JOHN C. MILLER, M. A., Lincoln College, Oxford; Minister of Park Chapel. Published by request. 12mo. Hatchard and Son. This Discourse is equally creditable to him who preached it, and to the flock who requested its publication. It is a faithful defence of apostolic truth, in opposition to existing and prevailing errors. We are glad to find a clergyman of Mr. Miller's learning and ability fully committed, in these shaking times, to the doctrines of the Reformation, which it is now so common for the younger members of the University of Oxford to repudiate and condemn. There is a measure of courage required, on the part of young clergymen, who venture to withstand what the Bishop of London has more than winked at. But what has conscience to do but to obey the voice of God? May the hands of all clergymen, who, like the writer of this Discourse, are true to "the simplicity that is in Christ," be strengthened and upheld by the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls! WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED. 1. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the United Dioceses of Ossory, Ferns, and Leighlin, at his Primary Visitation, in September, 1842. BY JAMES THOMAS O'BRIEN, D.D., Bishop of Ossory, Ferns, and Leighlin. 8vo, pp. 300. Seeley. This is really, though but a charge to Dr. O'B.'s clergy, a volume of surpassing merit. What will the Bishop of London say of the following paragraph? I must express my satisfaction in believing, that there is no need that I should administer any caution to you against those singularities in dress, and gesture, and posture, which are heard of from time to time, as introduced by individual ministers, but apparently with a kind of concert, -into the services of the Church in the sistercountry. I am happy to believe, that in these dioceses there is no trace of such mischievous fopperies. If they appeared in ordinary times, they might only deserve to be censured as individual frivolities; exhibitions of that uneasy vanity, which in common life leads those who are harassed by a craving for distinction, and who have no better mode of attaining it, to seek it by eccentricities in dress, or equipage, or deportment; only more reprehensible as appearing in God's ministers, and in his house, and in his solemn service." 2. Reflections after Reading; or, Sketches, Biographical, Ecclesiastical, and Historical. By JOHN COCKIN. 12mo. Ward and Co. 3. Notes, Explanatory aed Practical, on the New Testament. By ALBERT BARNES, Minister of the Gospel, Philadelphia. Vol. V. 1 Corinthians. 12mo. Blackie and Son, Glasgow. 4. The Requirements of the Times, urged on the Attention of the Rising Ministry. An Address delivered to the Students of Rotherham College, on Wednesday, June 28, 1843. By the Rev. JOHN ELY, Minister of East Parade Chapel, Leeds. 8vo. Jackson and Walford. 5. The Gathering of Fifty Years; Poems, &c. By RICHARD HERNE SHEPHERD, Minister of Ranelagh Chapel, Chelsea, and Secretary to the London Annuity Society for the Widows of Members. Second edition, 12mo. Hatchard and Son. 6. Pastoral Recollections, addressed to his Pa rishioners at the Close of his Ministrations in the Establishment. To which is added, a Discourse preached before the First General Assembly of the Protesting Church of Scotland. By the Rev. JOHN A. WALLACE, Hawick. 12mo. J. Nisbet. 7. The Child's Guide through the Bible; or, a Help to Understand the Bible, as the record of |