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higher authority than the Vedas of the Hindoos and the Zend-Avistas of the Persians.

We do not regard these volumes as reliable for accurate and just representations of religious history. They exhibit too great partiality for Paganism, and too great prejudice against the sacred Books of Christians. As Mrs. Child advises persons who are conscious of bigoted attachment to any creed or theory not to purchase this book, since its tone will displease them, we would add, that it will be displeasing to any person who believes that Jesus was the Son of God, the true Messiah, whose words are to us of divine authority.

Evenings with the Romanists: with an Introductory Chapter on the Moral Results of the Romish System. By Rev. M. HOBART SEYMOUR, M. A., with Introductory Notice, by STEPHEN H. TYNG, D. D. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1856. pp. 479. Price $1.00.

A sort of "Tractarian" Edition of this work was published in Philadelphia, which so misrepresented the Author's views, and defrauded the public of so much important truth, that a new issue of the book was demanded in its original form. The portions omitted in the Philadelphia edition afford sad evidence of the unprotestant character of that section of the Episcopal church which seemed to sanction the omission. The right of private judgment in the interpretation of the Scriptures; the actual unity of the Protestant churches; the Apostolic character of the church proved from its conformity to the doctrines of the Apostles; the existence of an invisible, spiritual church; the church character and claims of non-episcopal churches; the infallibility of the Scriptures as the Protestant guide, and other kindred topics, were excluded as dangerous sentiments for the perusal of High-churchmen.

The work as now published by the Carters fully represents the sentiments of this popular author. It not only presents arguments against Romanism, but offers much truth for the contemplation of those who are, perhaps unconsciously, exalting the church above Christ, and its external character above its spiritual life. It is an admirable book for Romanists to read; the method of argument is so simple, and the ar guments themselves generally so conclusive, that the Roman Catholic reader would be quite likely to be shaken in his faith, if not wholly dissatisfied with his religion.

Glances and Glimpses; or Fifty Years Social, including Twenty Years Profes sional Life. By HARRIET K. HUNT, M. D. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co. 1856. pp. 418. New Haven: Thomas H. Pease.

We have read enough of this book to be satisfied that it affords glances and glimpses of things well worth knowing. It appears to be. a frank, truthful expression of experiences which are not of the common order. Miss Hunt will probably be regarded by some, who will read these pages with great interest, as being somewhat too mannish in some respects; yet she has "rights" growing out of her intellectual and professional character, which cannot be claimed by all her sex, The religious aspect of the book does not strike us very favorably; the hints from medical life we deem much more valuable,

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HARPER'S CLASSICAL LIBRARY.-Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars; with supplementary books attributed to Hirtius. Literally translated, with Notes and a very elaborate Index.

The Anabasis, or Expedition of Cyrus, and the Memorabilia of Socrates. Literally translated from the Greek of Xenophon. By Rev. J. S. WATSON, with a Geographical Commentary, by W. F. AINSWORTH, Esq.

Cicero's Three Books of Offices, or Moral Duties; also an Essay on Friendship; an Essay on Old Age; Paradoxes; Scipio's Dream; and letter on the Duties of a Magistrate. Literally translated, with Notes, designed to exhibit a comparative view of the opinions of Cicero, and those of modern moralists and ethical philosophers. New York: Harper & Brothers. New Haven: E. Downes.

These volumes, like the three which preceded them, are reprints of "Bohn's Classical Library." We understand that the entire series will be published by the Messrs. Harper, thus giving the opportunity, to those who desire the best translations of the Greek and Latin Classics, to procure them at much lower prices than ever before offered. They are the best literary productions of the age in which they were written; and have afforded aid and material to those who have been distinguished in letters in all subsequent times. These volumes ought to have a wide circulation, as they doubtless will have, since more than ever before they are within the reach of the multitude of readers.

The Priest, the Puritan and the Preacher.
York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1855.

By the Rev. J. C. RYLE. New
Price 75 cents.

Latimer, Baxter, and Whitefield; the times in which they lived, their charities and opinions, their relations to the Church of England and to the interests of true religion, are the subjects presented in the first part of this book. Being the work of an Episcopalian, the justice of his observations are the most noticeable respecting the opinions of the early reformers, the wrongs suffered by the Puritans, and the doctrinal corruptions of the English Church in the last century. There is much truth in this volume, forcibly written, and well suited to the times. It should be read by those who are inclining to that class of High-church, Tractarian "dreamers, who have resuscitated Laud, and swear by Strafford in these ingenious days."

The Bible History of Prayer, with Practical Reflections. By CHARLES A. GOODRICH. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co. 1855. pp. 384. New Haven: Thomas H. Pease.

This is not a formal treatise on Prayer, but rather a commentary on the substance of the several prayers recorded in the Scriptures, with explanations of the circumstances which gave occasion to the utterance of them, and such historical and biographical notices as the subject seemed to demand. The design and tendency of the work is to encourage the Christian in his communion with the Father of spirits, to quicken and deepen his interest in that great privilege, and to render this high act of devotion a delightful and profitable exercise. It is a work of permanent excellence and usefulness, which may be earnestly recommended to all classes of readers.

Lectures upon the Philosophy of History. By WILLIAM T. G. SHEDD, Brown Professor in Andover Theological Seminary. Andover: W. F. Draper.

1856.

This volume is little in size, but weighty in contents. It contains four lectures, written in the winter of 1853-54, as an introduction to the author's course of chuuch history. The titles of the lectures are as follows: Lecture I, The Abstract Idea of History; Lecture II, The Nature and Definition of Secular History; Lecture III, The Nature and Definition of Church History; Lecture IV, The Verifying Test in Church History.

The style of these lectures has striking merits. The author chooses his words with rare skill and taste, from an ample vocabulary; and writes with strength and refreshing simplicity. No one who is competent and reads the book, will complain that Professor Shedd has failed to give a lucid exhibition of his views. The Philosophy of Realism, in application to history and historical theology, is advocated by vigorous reasoning and made intelligible by original and felicitous illustrations.

We cannot here enter into an examination of the substance of this attractive volume; and must content ourselves with recording our dissent from several fundamental positions which are taken in it-bespeaking, however, for the discussions, the attention which their importance, as well as their candid and admirable tone, may justly claim. Sermons by Rev. Reuben Tinker, late Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Westfield, N. Y., with a Biographical Sketch, by M. L. P. THOMPSON, D. D., Buffalo, N. Y. New York: Derby & Jackson, Publishers, No. 119 Nassau

street. 1856.

Every one who ever heard Mr. Tinker preach will desire, on seeing this work announced, to have it in his possession. Mr. Tinker had the reputation with all that had listened to his discourses of being a thoughtful, evangelical, racy, original and eloquent preacher; though he had a rough exterior, and his elocution and manner were peculiar, and at first unpleasant. And the sermons in this volume will sustain that reputation. Indeed we do not know where to find thirty discourses, in any one volume, more worthy of being read, or more worthy of ministers or intelligent laymen.

He

The "biographical sketch," by Mr. Tinker's intimate friend, Rev. Dr. Thompson, of Buffalo, is, like Dr. Thompson himself, appreciative, sensible, genial, hearty, full of soul. The life of Mr. Tinker was full of interest and so is this sketch of his life. The outline of it is this. was born in Chester, Mass., in 1799; experienced religion in Winsted, Ct., in 1819; and united on his twenty-first birth day, with the First Church in Hartford, in which city he was then acting as book-keeper. Soon after, with strong desire to seek and save the lost in preaching the gospel, but without any pecuniary reliance, he determined to obtain an education for the ministry, and left Hartford for Amherst, one wintry day, on foot, with all his worldly effects tied up in a pockethandkerchief. Graduating with honor in 1827 at Amherst College, he at once entered on theological study at Auburn Seminary, and on De

cember 28, 1830, sailed for the Sandwich Islands, as a missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. In 1838, he left the service of the Board, and labored as a missionary at Koloa on Kain, obtaining his support as he could, by his own labor and the free will offerings of the people. He returned to this country, with his wife and six children, in May 1841; intending, after making arrangements for the education of his children, to resume the missionary work at the Sandwich Islands. But Providence ordered it otherwise. After preaching four years in Madison, Ohio, he was installed pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Westfield, N. Y., in Sept. 1845; where he labored, to the great acceptance and profit of the people, and with a benign, strong and growing influence in all that region, till his death, in October, 1854.

*

Dr. Thompson says of him, "Never, in the entire course of my life, did I make the acquaintance of a man in whom I found more to admire and love, with less to censure and reprove. * I knew him through and through. He was a man to be so known, for he was frank, open and sincere; his soul spoke through his face, and his heart be carried in his hand. He was loving, truthful and true; full of rich and racy thought; and generally, where the circumstances did not excite his constitutional and habitual diffidence, conversational and communicative. I always found him prudent, sagacious, wise, not highminded, not heady; not a man who delighted in by-paths and cross ways, ambitious of signalizing himself by original speculations and novel theories, and unusual modes of acting, but modest, quiet, unassuming; choosing to follow rather than to lead, patient to listen rather than eager to speak; easily persuaded, yet clear in his own convictions, and once convinced, unmovable as Gibraltar, rejoicing only in the truth. There was never a doubt, and never could be a doubt, that conscience and the fear of God governed him. To be useful, to do good, to promote Christ's Kingdom, these, with him, were the ends to which all other ends were subordinated. I do not write this as a mere eulogist, but because what I say is the truth Mr. Tinker was just such a man, and so every one who knew him will confess."

We will notice, in a few words, one of his sermons, which illustrates the peculiar and pertinent character of his mind. He was compelled by that fearful disease fungus hæmatodes, to have a leg amputated. The amputation was successfully performed, about six months before his death, and he resumed his labors with great cheerfulness and gratitude, and soon thereafter preached a sermon with this introduction and text: "The Christian dispensation is more tolerent of bodily imperfection than was the Levitical; or my ministry either here or elsewhere would be ended by my literal compliance with that injunction in Mark ix, 45,

"If thy foot offend thee, cut it off."

The heads of the sermon were, I. By the loss of one limb, we learn to prize more highly those that remain. II. We learn, in parting with our hand or foot, how to treat offending members in a family or church. III. From the treatment of an offending foot or

hand, learn how to employ the truth in the removal of sin. IV. If you amputate a diseased hand or foot, it is not certain that life will be prolonged thereby; while it is certain that, if you break off your sins by repentance, and your iniquities by turning unto God, you shall live forever.

An Earnest Plea of Laymen of the New School Presbyterian and Congregational Churches in New York and Brooklyn for the Continued Paternal Union and Cooperation of these Denominations in Home Missions, &c.

The unexpected length of some of the articles in our present Number, has compelled us to relinquish, at least for the present, our purpose of discussing in detail the subject which is commended to attention in this well meaning pamphlet. Probably the subject will undergo a new discussion in the now impending session of the New School General Assembly; and a few weeks hence the agitation about Home Missions may come up again, in connection with new questions and projects. Meanwhile we take the liberty of suggesting, in connection with the title of the "Laymen's" pamphlet, some considerations which our friends on both sides of the question will do well to think of.

Thus

1. Within the last twenty-five years there has been growing up in the Congregational churches a more intelligent and settled conviction of the superiority of their own ecclesiastical order as compared with Presbyterianism. There was a time-not long before the revolutionary war-when the danger that an Episcopal hierarchy might be imposed on the colonies by the authority of the British Parliament, not only had the effect of re-uniting the Presbyterian Church, which had been, as now, divided in twain, but also brought the Congregationalists of New England, and the Presbyterians of the middle and southern colonies; into a close correspondence and sympathy. Thus originated those formal connections between the Congregational clergy of New England and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church, which, soon after the revolution, ripened into a kind of federation, including a yearly exchange of delegates, and the "Plan of Union" for the temporary government of mixed churches in the new settlements. there came to be among Congregationalists, and especially among the clergy, the habit of feeling that inasmuch as they and the Presbyterians were alike in rejecting prelacy, there could be no great difference between their two systems of church order. A natural consequence was, that though the New England emigrants moving westward generally constituted Congregational churches, the New England missionaries and emigrating clergymen, almost as generally, formed themselves into Presbyteries, for the sake of a full connection with their brethren in the General Assembly; and by a steady pressure from these presbyteries, the churches were gradually crowded off from their own platform, and brought "under the care of" Presbyterian judicatures. Thus Presbyterianism grew and prospered. But such prosperity was not altogether to the taste of the original and genuine Presbyterians. Jealousies were awakened. The New England theology, under the then dreadful names of Hopkinsianism and Emmonsism, was denounced.

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