finds an easy passage to the heart. Other men have brought large stores of learning to the illustration of the sacred Scriptures, and have gone more deeply into the investigation of real or supposed difficulties, and in some respects have no doubt rendered greater service to the church than Mr. Henry; but we may safely say, that no other man has brought to this work a mind more fertile in bright and beautiful thoughts, or a heart more richly imbued with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and that no one has contributed more to render the study of the Scriptures attractive and delightful. It is a work which may be recommended without qualification to every class of readers, from the most learned and accomplished minister down to the unlettered peasant; and he who can read it without interest and profit, has no eyes to discern the most beautiful simplicity, or no heart to relish the purity of heaven.

Notwithstanding Mr. Henry's character was in some respects peculiar, even in the age in which he lived, yet in the most material points, and especially in regard to his piety, he may be considered a fair representative of the great and good men of his day. To those who are at all acquainted with the peculiar developements of religious character in the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries, especially among the Reformed and Congregational churches of Great Britain, it is manifest that the piety of the present day, though of course the same in all its essential elements, is yet in some important respects different from that which then prevailed; and this difference is no doubt to be traced in no small degree to a difference in the general circumstances and habits of the times. The piety of that day was more contemplative, and probably more deep: it discovered itself more, so far as we are able to judge from the writings which have come down to us, in exercises of devotion, in faithful self-communion, and in the diligent study of God's word. The piety of the present day, on the contrary, is more active, more busy in devising plans of general usefulness, more disposed to go abroad on arduous and holy enterprises, more encouraged to labour by a prospect of the speedy fulfilment of the great promises of God. In the former case, there seems to have been more attention to the inner man of the heart, more diligent and constant efforts for growth in personal holiness: in the latter, the spiritual improvement of others seems to be the commanding object which fills the eye

and the heart of the church; and Christians now look for the evidence of their having been regenerated, far more than formerly, in a course of active effort for carrying salvation through the world.

And if we look at the different circumstances which marked that age, and see how different they were from those by which our own is characterized, we shall be at no loss to understand why the two periods sustain a different religious character. The period in which Baxter, and Owen, and Bunyan, and Flavel, and the Henrys lived, was signally marked by the spirit of persecution: several of these illustrious men, whose names are destined to be the common property of the church to the end of the world, were actually forbidden to preach the gospel, and deprived of their personal liberty, and some of them were subjected to the inconveniencies and sufferings of a long imprisonment, not to mention the noble company of martyrs who not many years before had left their testimony to the truth written in their own blood. Such a state of things was fitted above any thing we can conceive, deeply to imbue the hearts of true Christians with the love of Christ; to bring them to cultivate the most intimate communion with him, and to cherish practical Christianity as an all-sustaining principle, by the aid of which they might be enabled to triumph in their peculiar trials. There was every thing to carry them out of themselves, and to lead them to an implicit confidence in God, as their protector and Redeemer; for amidst all the uncertainty and suspense which marked their condition, with the arm of secular or ecclesiastical domination continually stretched over them, and liable every hour to be arrested and imprisoned for the exercise of their ministerial functions,-what under their circumstances could sustain them, but the arm of Almighty strength? And hither they came and rested with the simplicity and confidence of children: and their close and intimate communion with God was the channel through which were communicated to them those large measures of grace, which enabled them to contemplate with calmness the prisoners' dungeon and the martyrs' stake. And as the trials to which they were called, naturally led them to cultivate a deep and earnest piety as a means of triumphing over them; so the legitimate effect of their trials was fully accomplished in their experience, in cherishing especially the more retired graces of the Christian character. That Scripture

was delightfully fulfilled to them, which declares that "tribulation worketh patience;" and that also which assures us, that the affliction of the righteous worketh out for him "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

But while the circumstances of the age were eminently adapted to cherish in Christians a habit of devotion and spirituality, and to keep up an intimate intercourse between them and their Redeemer, they were fitted to repress that expansive spirit of Christian benevolence which aims more directly at the renovation of the world. Christians were occupied necessarily, to a great extent, in a kind of self-defence. They had as much as they could do to sustain themselves even partially in the exercise of their Christian rights, and to concert plans for softening the ferocious character which an unhallowed bigotry had imparted to the age. If they could labour within their own limited sphere, and be permitted to meet unmolested their respective congregations on the Sabbath, to dispense to them the word of God, it was as much of public service as they could expect to be indulged in; and even this privilege, when it was enjoyed, was often held by a precarious tenure. And then again, there was no door open in Providence for prosecuting any great effort for evangelizing the world. The nations were separated from each other to a great extent by impenetrable barriers; and the difficulty of access to the more benighted portions of the earth, seemed to discourage the formation of any of those noble projects of benevolence which have since come into existence, and which may be said emphatically to have the world for their field. Indeed, Christians of that day, notwithstanding they were many of them giants in piety, and more distinguished for many of the graces of the gospel than perhaps any who have succeeded them, seem to have regarded the conversion of the world altogether as a work for future ages; and amidst all their bright visions of faith, it does not appear that they ever had a distinct conception of that magnificent system of moral machinery, which constitutes the most distinctive characteristic of the period in which we live.

Very different are the circumstances of Christians at the present day, especially in Great Britain and our own country. The spirit of persecution has been, to a great extent, driven back to the pit; and men may not only think and feel, but speak and act, for themselves, in respect to all that belongs

to religion, without any to molest or make them afraid. But this great blessing has no doubt been perverted by the church, in a degree at least, to foster a spirit of religious apathy, and to induce a comparatively superficial piety. Not being trained up, as our fathers were, in the rough school of adversity, we are wanting, there is reason to believe, in that depth of Christian experience, that stern self-denial, that unquenchable thirst for communion with Christ, by which they were so much distinguished. Our theological writings of the present day exhibit less of holy unction, of that devout and lively sense of divine things, which results from a constant impression of the presence of God, than we find in the works of the divines to whom we have already referred; and in going back to the latter, though we find them with the imperfections of the age to which they belonged, yet we get our hearts refreshed by breathing a holier atmosphere, and we seem to be in communion with spirits who, while they were on earth, were yet always near the gate of heaven. But then it must be acknowledged, that there is much more of activity belonging to the character of this age than of the period to which we have been referring. While Christians are exempted to a great extent from those evils which in other days have palsied the energies of the church, and kept her labouring and struggling in order to sustain herself in existence, the Providence of God has been working mightily in removing the obstacles to the propagation of the Gospel, and in opening a field for the efforts of Christian benevolence as wide as the world. Blessed be God, the church has heard the voice of her Almighty Head, and has surveyed this field in the whole length and breadth of it, and there is a spirit of benevolent action going forth, which is no doubt destined to live, and brighten into more vigorous exercise, until nothing shall remain to be done for the consummation of God's great and holy purpose of giving the heathen to Christ for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession.

Let not the present generation of Christians conclude that they have nothing to learn from those who have gone before them; and especially let them not imagine, in the indulgence of a self-confident spirit, that the great and good men of other days are all cast into the shade by the superiour lights of the present age. What if those men displayed less of Christian activity than is exhibited by many of the friends of Christ

now;-yet that no doubt was owing to the circumstances in which they were called to act; and had they lived at this day, with the spirit of deep devotion and ardent love to Christ, which glowed in their bosoms then, they would unquestionably have showed themselves mighty in religious action, and have been foremost in the ranks of those who are enlisted to send the gospel to the ends of the earth. Let the church then, while she retains all her activity, and becomes more and more active, cultivate a deeper spirituality, a more entire dependence on the influences of divine grace, a more constant and intimate intercourse with her Redeemer and her Head. Let the Christian ministry especially endeavour to become more richly imbued with that spirit of enlightened and fervent piety, which glowed in the bosoms, and breathed in the lives, of the Baxters, the Flavels, the Henrys, of other days. And let both ministers and private Christians remember, that there never was a period in which this spirit was more imperatively demanded, than it is at the present; for nothing else will be a pledge even for the continued activity of the church; nothing else will keep her humble under the success which has already attended her efforts; nothing else will secure to her activity the blessing of God. Let every Christian then consider it his duty to do all that he can to improve the character of this age by imparting to it a greater degree of spirituality; and then it will be, in a still greater degree than it has yet been, an age of benevolence, an age of glory.

ART. VIII.-REVIEW OF CHANNING'S WORKS.

By Rev. LEONARD WITHINGTON, Pastor of the Church in Newbury, Mass. Discourses, Reviews, and Miscellanies, by William Ellery Channing, Boston, published by Carter & Hendee, 1830.

THERE are certain writers who might be appropriately designated as the nightingales of the moral grove. They charm the ear, they delight the fancy, without directing the reasoning powers. Their loveliest strains leave no definite impression behind. Among these writers we must place the distinguished author, whose works we have undertaken to review. For musical diction, for the poetry of prose, he