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of the intelligence or spirituality of any person who could read these volumes without deriving both pleasure and profit. Mr. M'Cheyne's biographer has done himself great credit, by raising such a monument, as these memorials constitute, to the memory of his deceased friend. Perhaps we ought not to conclude without stating, that Mr. M'Cheyne had attached himself to the Free Church of Scotland."

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FOX'S BOOK OF MARTYRS, Edited by the Rev. JOHN CUMMING, M. A., Super Royal 8vo. Parts XXXI, to XXXIII. GEORGE VIRTUE.

THE purchasers of this most excellent edition of Fox's Martyrology cannot fail to have been pleased with the successive Parts of the work, as they have been published. The typography, paper, and the numerous beautiful illustrative steel, and wood, engravings, are such as entitle the work to very high praise.

THE HERALD OF PEACE. April 1844. 8vo. 50 pp. WARD & Co. EVERY right-minded person must admire the object of this publication-the Abolition of War, and the consequent establishment of universal and perpetual peace. This important purpose must be greatly advanced by spreading the information which this work imparts. Philanthropic persons will do well to aid in extending the circulation of this and the other publications of the Peace Society. We copy, from the present number of the Herald of Peace, the following awful account of the results of the military exploits of Napoleon :

"Never," says a Paris paper, "was there a conqueror who fixed more cannon, fought more battles, or overthrew more thrones than Napoleon. But we cannot appreciate the degree and quantity of his glory, without weighing the means he possessed, and the results which he accomplished. Enough for our present purpose will be gained, if we set before us the mere resources of flesh and blood which he called into play, from the rupture of the peace of Amiens in 1804, down to his eventful exit. At that time, he had, as he declared to Lord Wentworth, an army of 480,000; and his different levies from 1804 to 1814, amounted in all to 2,965,165. This account, derived from Napoleon's official journal, the Moniteur, under the several dates, is deficient in the excess which was raised beyond the levies; but even if we deduct the casualities, as well as the 300,000 men disbanded in 1815, we shall be under the mark, in affirming that he slaughtered 2,500,000 human beings, and those all Frenchmen. But we have to add thousands and tens of thousands of Germans, Swiss, Poles, Italians, Neapolitans, and Illyrians, whom he forced under his eagles; and at a moderate computation, those cannot have fallen short of 500,000. It is obviously just to assume, that the number who fell on the side of adversaries was equal to that against which they were brought.

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Here, then, are our data for asserting that the latter years of Napoleon's glory were purchased at no less expense than 6,000,000 human beings! And what was gained by all this sacrifice? This horrible inroad on the fairest portion of the population of Europe, resulted in the abandonment of every conquered territory; the bringing of foreign enemies, twice within twenty-four months, under the walls of Paris, and the erasure of his name from the records of dominion."

THE TRUMPET BLOWN IN ZION; or, the Present Condition, Duty, and Incitements of the Church of God; a Sermon, by G. WALLIS, Wesleyan Methodist Association Minister. Published by request. 8vo. 35 pp. PEARSON, London; ZIEGLER, Edinburgh.

THE text, on which this discourse is founded, was addressed to the people of the Jews, to encourage them with the prospect of deliverance from their oppressors, to stimulate them to arouse their slumbering energies, and to manifest their joy in the day of their triumph by putting on their most beautiful apparel. In the discourse before us this is admitted; but, it is said, "That the rescue of the Jews from the thraldom of the Assyrian yoke, was a type of the redemption of the world by the Saviour of our race," and that this "must be conceded." We, however, are not convinced that such is the case. A type is, some circumstance, person, or

event, which is designed to prefigure and illustrate, some other circumstance, person, or event. Now we do not remember that there is any evidence to prove that Jehovah designed that the deliverance of the Jews from the Assyrian yoke should prefigure our deliverance by the death of Christ. If such had been the purpose of Jehovah, then the words of the text, on which the discourse before us is founded, ought to be rather regarded as addressed to those who have not yet found deliverance from the yoke of Satan, than as addressed to those who are brought into the liberty of the sons of God. We know that it is a very common practice, even with some highly distinguished men, to take latitude in interpreting passages of holy writ, and to deduce therefrom meanings never designed to be expressed in them by the Holy Spirit. Although good doctrine may be thus inculcated, the practice is by no means commendable. Notwithstanding we think some such liberty has been taken in the Sermon before us, yet we must admit that the words of the text have frequently been so applied. The discourse is designed to arouse the slumbering energies of Christians to increased exertions for spreading the knowledge of Divine truth; and is highly creditable to the talents of its author. Several verbal inaccuracies have escaped correction.

HINTS ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SCHOOLS for Early Education, and on their Superintendence by Committees, Patrons, and Visitors. Published under the direction of the Committee of the Home and Colonial Infant School Society. RIDGWAY. 12mo. 34 pp.

THIS is a useful manual for those who are engaged in superintending Infant Schools. There are some very important suggestions which will afford valuable aid to Committees and Visitors.

AN AFFECTIONATE APPEAL TO OUR Mental Improvement. By a Friend. 12mo. 12 pp. and SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL.

YOUNG MEN, on their
THEAKSTON, Scarborough ;

THE writer, it appears, has assisted in procuring an abridgment of the hours of business for persons engaged in shops in the town of Scarborough, and wishing that the leisure thus afforded should be devoted to the best purposes, he has published this pamphlet. The advice it contains is very excellent and appropriWe wish it an extensive circulation.

ate.

GEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. No. III.

(For the Wesleyan Methodist Association Magazine.)

THE wisdom displayed in the works of creation, has employed the pen and excited the wonder of men of the highest endowments in every age; and that the Most High cares for the creatures he has made, is witnessed by what we see, of such a Providence, carried on before our eyes, as well as by the evidence of the Book of Revelation. But though not a sparrow falls to the ground without our heavenly Father, yet as we are entitled to conclude, even on natural grounds, that man is of higher value than many of these, we have no fear, of successful contradiction, in laying down the axiomthat man is the most important being in the material world; and that through whatever changes that world may be made to pass under the supervision of Omnipotence, especial reference will be had to man, the visible head of the creation of God. This is clearly seen even in the present day; whether we regard the countries occupied by thinly scattered aborigines, or those which have been recently colonized, or those which have long been occupied by settled communities. The condition of man is in every case

that which controls the existence of the inferior animals; and the conduct of the human race toward them, however objectionable in individual in

stances, continually on the whole, bears witness to the impression, that the general direction is in conformity to the Divine will.

"The soul's high price is the creation's key,
Unlocks its mysteries, and naked lays
The genuine cause of every deed Divine:
That in the chain of ages which maintains
Their obvious correspondence, and unites
Most distant periods in one bless'd design:
That is the mighty hinge on which have turned
All revolutions, whether we regard

The natural, civil, or religious world;

The former two but servants to the third:

To that their duty done, they both expire,

Their mass new cast, forget their deeds renown'd,
And angels ask, where once they shone so fair?" "

YOUNG.

But in respect to the dependency of the animal tribes on human interests, the impressions of the mind in the bulk of the human race is generally found to have a reference to the material conveniences only: to the means of comfort or support which the presence of some animals supply or take away, or to safety from danger, which the prevalence of others would place in hazard. We can easily suppose that in God's providential arrangements, His prescience has a wider range than this, and that it extends to otherand we may add, more important objects. The moral government of man, and his condition in the developement of dispensations may be supposed to have occupied a high-even the highest place in the Divine contemplation; and, for this purpose, that at different periods in the lapse of ages, there should be developed different qualities of the human intellect, or different, though not discordant intentions of the Divine purposes. Even if man had. never sinned, there is no reason to believe that the world and its inhabitants would have passed on through their different ages without considerable changes; which would have been subservient to the display of the different attributes of the all-wise Governor, according as the human intellect had attained the faculty of comprehending them. Such at least, has been the order of the Divine procedure since man became a sinner. The moral condition of the human race has been different, not in degree of guilt and innocency only, but in manner also, of which the elements have been formed by his opportunities, his prejudices, his foregone conclusions, and even the means of easy or difficult subsistence: and therefore, in different ages of the world, in consequence of these different conditions, and to prepare for others, the great Eternal has seen fit to change the externals of human existence; among other things, and in a way to excite special attention (though assuredly not for this alone) changing the length of human life, from almost the duration of a thousand years, down to the ordinary span of seventy years, at which we now see it. The Scriptures inform us that this did not proceed from any wearing out or declension of human vitality, as some have supposed; for creation knows nothing of such a natural wasting. It was not gradual; though this might have been without any impeachment of the Divinity of the procedure: but the better to display intention, it was sudden, as testifying that the cause, however connected as we may allow it to have been with natural phænomena, was not a perpetually acting one. In philosophical accordance with this remark we will here notice-what perhaps we shall again have to refer to-that competent authority has shown, that the extinction of the tribes of animals, now known to exist only in a fossil state, must in every case have taken place on the occurrence of some suddenly acting cause; for if it had been accompanied with a gradually altering state of natural circumstances, (as those of the composition of the air and water, temperature, elevation or depression) the living creatures

themselves would have passed through some changes of structure, to accommodate themselves to these new conditions of existence, until the change became so great or rapid, as to exceed their capacity of further adapting themselves to it: none of which is found to have been the case. The believer in Revelation holds this as proceeding from an original and express command of Deity; but, no believer in a God-except perhaps the follower of Epicurus who imagined that the Most High is above caring for any of these things-can doubt that the eye and intention of God must have seen and permitted these things. In such a case, to see and permit is to order: for even the capacity of tendency to change must have entered into this comprehension of the Creator when he exercised his creative power.

It will require but a small portion of our stores of philosophy to show -First-that the present constitution of this world is well fitted to the existing nature of its inhabitants: including in the enumeration the multiplicity of beings of the various natural races which people the air, earth and sea. Many volumes have been written in illustration of this proposition; and if any one is inclined to entertain doubts on the subject, he is referred to Ray, Derham, Paley, and the Bridgewater Treatises: in one or other of which he will find the first philosophers of this or any other age, triumphing in this important demonstration-that the constitution of living animals, of which man is the chief, is closely adapted to the nature of the air, temperature, seasons-yea, to the whole frame work of nature, as it is now seen; displaying something more than an accidental approximation: and proving that the one was made to suit the other.

Secondly, our stores of philosophy will show, what indeed is no more than a corollary from the former principle:-that if the nature of man were in any remarkable degree made to differ from what we now see it to be, it would become less adapted to the existing nature and constitution of the globe: and that consequently when undergoing, if he must do so, a very important natural change, the world itself, in its air, water, temperature and other (as we are accustomed to regard them,) essential portions of it must undergo changes corresponding thereto; or by remaining as it is become ill adapted to the safety, comfort or existence of its principal inhabitant. That in the lapse of ages man has undergone important changes in his natural temperament, is testified as as well by the Bible as by ancient traditions of all nations, and is believed by the generality of the human race.

That the world has also suffered change we have already seen referred to in St. Peter's remarkable words, and shall have further to develope. It is at the foundation of the science of geology, and is proved by every rock and fossil on which we cast our eyes; and we will put this question to every candid enquirer; whether in the vast multiplicity of the species of the animal and vegetable creation, all endowed with the specific characters, and a limited capacity of existence, it is not exceedingly probable, that in the course of the great alterations which may have taken (we say may have, but we intend to show that they must have taken place under the circumstances; and the material proofs remain) in the air, water, temperature, seasons, and structured composition of the solid portions of the earth, as has been already shown (in No. 2) some tribes of animals and vegetables will not be found, whose living existence could not be maintained, amidst the changes or under the new constitu tion of things? The conclusion seems unavoidable, and therefore instead of feeling surprise that in the course of ages some tribes of beings should drop out of existence, the wonder might have been greater if it had been otherwise. They had a place in one harmony of nature; but in a new arrangement their place is no more found, and to have kept them alive would have been to support anomalies in an unnatural state. The knowledge of their natural affinities may be as well preserved in their fragments consolidated in a rock; and for that alone it is that the philosopher would desire their presence.

It is well known that man as he is now constituted, is capable of living and fulfilling the objects of his existence, under a vast variety of physical circumstances and changes: so that the cold of the Pole and heat of the Equator, the level of the sea or the highest mountain, the free air of the ocean or desert, or that of the crowded city, are alike natural to him. The dog is the only animal capable of living and propagating under similar circumstances; but if any of the other existing races were compelled to pass through conditions which both of these would suffer with impunity, they must sink under it; and we can even conceive of changes greater than any of those which are measured out by transitions from the Equator to the Pole-where the composition of the air and water might be altered, under which many must die, to whom other or slighter changes might be indifferent. We even know that there are creatures, whose limits of existence are exceedingly circumscribed, and whom a comparatively slight variation of temperature, moisture, or even light, would drive out of existence. The birds of paradise, and humming birds, for the most part, can only exist within the tropics; and the Proteus Anguinus only in the dark caverns in Carniola. In our next paper we shall proceed then to the application of these observations, to the purposes of our geological reasoning; and we shall find no great difficulty in reconciling the utmost that the geologist can legitimately contend for, with the truths contained in the Divine Records.

(To be continued.)

ON PUBLIC WORSHIP.-No. V.

CONCLUDED.

(For the Wesleyan Methodist Association Magazine.) NON-ATTENDANCE.

LATE-ATTENDANCE.

FROM the earliest period of the world, the worship of the Supreme Being nas been considered a duty of the highest importance, obligatory upon every human creature possessed of rational powers. The worship instituted in the first ages appears to have been exceedingly simple, consisting of an offering made to Jehovah of the fruits of the earth, by which the bounty of his providence was acknowledged; whilst the offering up of a lamb or a goat, or some other animal from the flock was designed to express consciousness of guilt, and a confession of the necessity of a sacrifice. Generations of men succeeded each other in the downward course of time, witnessing no change in the mode of approach to Deity, or in the institutions of religious worship; save and except that, as families increased through the patriarchal dispensation, the number of priests became necessarily augmented;-the head of each family being charged with the duty of presenting for himself, and those belonging to him, the usual required offerings. Scripture and reason concur in inducing the belief that as no member of a family was excluded from participating in the benefits of Divine Worship, so none were exonerated from the regular performance of it, as a solemn duty.

When the Israelites became settled in Palestine, and a regularly ordained priesthood established, a most important change in the mode of conducting public worship, under the immediate direction of the Almighty, took place. As an acknowledgment of the necessity of an atonement for sin, by Divine appointment, a public sacrifice was offered up every morning and evening, on behalf of the entire inhabitants of the country. The worship of Almighty God thus became more distinctly recognized; and his claim to the public homage of his rational creatures, established on a lasting founda

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