departure from the precepts of Christ, nor from the Spirit which he manifested on earth." Pp. 30-34.

The manner in which he illustrates and justifies the warmth and emotion of such a time is good.

"I have seen, during the last few years, a common sympathy extend through all the commercial world. I have seen the merchants of our cities and towns agitated by a common apprehension of danger, and their hearts vibrating with a common emotion, from Bangor to New Orleans. I ask why there may not be as deep common feeling on the subject of religion? I have seen, during the past few months, this whole community agitated on the eve of a pending election. Two great parties, vigilant, active, energetic, fired with the hope of victory, and each feeling that the destiny of the nation depended on the result, were arrayed against each other. Committees were appointed to make arrangements; public meetings were held, and the flagging faith and zeal of vast assemblies were roused by appeals to patriotism and the love of country or of party; names were registered, and the sentiments of every man were ascertained, and the whole community was roused in the exciting struggle. Every man felt himself at liberty, or called on in duty, to speak to his neighbour, to sound his sentiments, and to endeavour to bring him to the polls. I blame not this zeal,-but I refer to it to ask why the same zeal and interest should be deemed improper on the subject of religion? Assuredly not because it is less important, or because it is less proper to propagate great and noble sentiments by an appeal to the common feelings of men. Let the same zeal and ardour be manifested in religion; let the churches evince the same anxiety for the honour of their Lord and Redeemer, and for his ascendancy in the hearts of men, which political organizations have done; or even let the members of the churches in this land be warmed with the same solicitude for the prevalence of religion which they have shown for the triumph of their party, and, I was about to say, it would be all that we could pray for in a revival of religion." Pp. 39-41.

Take again the following brief but pointed appeal.

In conclusion I would observe, that if the views which have now been presented are correct, you will accord with me in the sentiment, that such a work should be an object of the fervent prayer of every friend of the Saviour. If, then, you have ever felt in your own hearts the power of divine grace; if you have ever felt the worth of the soul; if you have felt that you are soou to meet your fellow-mortals at the judgment-seat; if you have any love for your children and friends, for the church and the world, for the thoughtless multitudes amidst whom we dwell, let me entreat you to cry unto God without ceasing FOR A REVIVAL OF PURE RELIGION." P. 47.

Our next extract is a brief sketch of the early American revivals.

" I. The first period, of course, is that when our fathers came to the western shores. I speak here more particularly of those whose opinions have had so important an influence in forming the habits of the people of this land on religious subjects-the pilgrims of New England. The pilgrim was a wonderful man; and remarkable, among other things, for the place which religion, as well as science, occupied in his affections. In his eye religion was the primary consideration. One of the first edifices that rose in the wilderness where he stationed himself was the house of God; near to it the school-house, the academy, and the college. Around the house of God, as a nucleus, the village was gathered; and from that, as a radiating point, extended itself into the surrounding wastes. From that point the forests disappeared; around that point the light of the sun was let down to the earth that had not for centuries felt his beams, so dense had been the shades of the interminable wilderness. Religion was a primary thing-primary in each house, each school, each settlement, each city, each civil institution. The pilgrim had no higher aim than

to promote it; he had no plan which did not contemplate its perpetuity and extension as far as his descendants might go. Such was the feeling when, more than two hundred years since, the great forest trembled first under the axe of the foreigner, and new laws and new institutions began in the western world.

"That this should continue to be always the leading feature among a people situated as they were, was not perhaps to be expected. He knows little of the propensities of our nature who would be surprised to learn that religion began before long to occupy a secondary place in the public mind. Doomed to the hard toil of felling the forests, and reducing a most perverse and intractable soil to a fit state for cultivation; feeling soon the influence of that then infant passion which has since in this country expanded to such giant proportions—the love of gain; engaged in conflicts with savages, and subject to the ravages of war-of that species of war which showed mercy neither to age nor sex-it was not wonderful that their early zeal should die away, and that iniquity should come in like a flood. Such was the fact. Within less than a hundred years a most sad change had occurred in this country on the subject of religion. Extensively in the churches of New England, and in all the churches, there was a most melancholy decline. From this state of apathy nothing could rouse them but a series of mighty movements like that où the day of Pentecost; and it was then-now just a hundred years ago—that those wonderful displays of divine power in revivals of religion, which have so eminently characterised our own country, and which were the pledge that God meant to perpetuate the religious institutions of our land, commenced.

"II. This was the second period in our religious history. It began under the ministry of Whitefield, Edwards, the Tennants, and their fellow-labourers, and continued from about the year 1730 to 1750. Of this great religious excitement, which extended from Maine to Georgia, and which created the deepest interest in Britain and America, I need now to say little. The history has been written by that great man who was a principal actor in those scenes -I mean President Edwards. I will just add, that the character and talents of the men engaged in those religious movements were such as to place them above the suspicion of their being the work of feeble minds, or the productions of fanaticism. The Tennants were among the most able ministers of the land. Davies, afterwards the successor of Edwards in Princeton College, was one of the most eloquent and holy men that this country has produced. Edwards, as a man of profound thought, as an acute and close reasoner, has taken his place by the side of Locke, and Reid, and Dugald Stewart, if he has not surpassed them all; and his name is destined to be as immortal as theirs. Probably no man in any country or age has possessed the reasoning faculty in such perfection as Jonathan Edwards; a man raised up, among other purposes, to rebuke the sneer of the foreigner, when he charges America with the want of talent, and to show that the most profound intellect is well employed when it is engaged in promoting revivals of religion. From those profound disqui sitions, those abstruse and subtle inquiries which have given immortality to his name, he turned with ease and pleasure to the interesting scenes when God's Spirit descended on the hearts of men. The name of Whitefield is one that is to go down, as an orator, as far as the name of Demosthenes or Cicero. Garrick, first of dramatic actors, rejoiced that he bad not chosen the stage, confessing that if he had, his own fame would have been eclipsed; and Franklin-that great philosopher-sought every opportunity to listen to the eloquence of that wonderful man. He influenced more minds than have ever before or since been swayed by any public speaker; and diffused his sentiments through more hearts than any other orator that has lived. It pleased God that these revivals should be produced and carried on under the ministry of the most profound reasoner and the most eloquent man of the age, that scepticism

itself might be disarmed, and that the world might have a pledge that they were not the work of enthusiasm.” Pp. 68-73.

We can only further give the interesting statement he makes concerning the work of revival under his own ministry.

"I can never, while life, and breath, and being last, or immortality endures, forget the time when God was pleased to bless my labours in a most remarkable and extensive revival of religion in a large country congregation. I had at its commencement some five hundred members of the church, and nearly five hundred families that were nominally connected with my charge, covering a region of country nearly ten miles in diameter. For more than a hundred years the gospel had been faithfully preached there, and with eminent success. Revival after revival had crowned those labours: and since the days when God so blessed this land under the ministry of Whitefield, Edwards, and the Tennants, scarcely ten years had elapsed in which there had not been a revival there. At the time I speak of, a simultaneous impression was produced, under the ordinary preaching of the gospel. There was an unusual spirit of prayer; a deep anxiety on the part alike of the pastor and of the church members for the salvation of souls.

"The emotions deepened, until the heart became full; and all in the community were willing to converse on the subject of religion. Scenes of amusement and pastime gradually gave way to the deep business of religion; no voice was raised in opposition; no noise, no disorder characterised the places where men bad assembled to ponder the great question of their salvation. On all the community an influence had come down silent as the sun-beams, and gentle and refreshing as the dews of heaven. There was deep sympathy in all that community; a calm, subdued, serious, and holy spirit of conversation, which showed that the God of peace' was there.

"Who can doubt that if such a power were to descend on the population that occupies the same extent of territory here;-if the same heavenly influeuce should pervade the two hundred thousand here that pervaded the comparatively few hundreds there; and if the same deep inquiry were to exist here on the topics pertaining to our eternal welfare;-if the effects were to be seen in closing the places of sinful amusement, in directing the steps of the guilty to the house of God, and in bringing out the lost and loathsome victims of crime, and lust and disease, to the light of heavenly day; and in filling the mansions of the rich and the gay with the sweet peace of religion, and of holy communion with God, who can doubt that such a scene would be in accordance with man's exalted nature, and would be a spectacle on which hovering angels would look with wonder, gratitude, and joy? But alas! tens of thousauds here are far away from any such heavenly influence; thousands sneer at the name of revivals, and perhaps some hundreds of professed Christians would have no sympathy in such a work of grace." Pp. 154–156.

We have only farther to add, that Mr Noel's preface is excellent, though brief. We do trust that the faithful ministers of our church are beginning to see the necessity of labouring more abundantly, in season and out of season, for the revival of the work of God in their parishes. We must awake. We have slept too long.

The Messiah as an Example. By the author of "Think on these Things," &c. Edinburgh: Whyte and Co. 1842.

We shall use few words in commending this brief but truly excellent commentary on our Lord's temptation, to our readers. As an exposition, we commend it, as a practical treatise we commend it,—and as a word of exhortation we commend it. We trust it will prove extensively useful among Chris

tians, quickening many to follow more closely and entirely the footsteps of him who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. A'Kempis' "Imitation of Christ" may seem fuller and more adorned than this small tract, yet the deficiencies of the former are of no trivial or unimportant kind. It calls on us to imitate Christ, but it does not first lead us to the cross,-the blood, to be forgiven and reconciled, in order that having been thus pardoned, we may follow Christ. It rather gives one the idea that we must imitate Christ, in order to be pardoned and reconciled,-subverting or reversing the whole gospel. A book such as that of the much-esteemed author before us, proceeds on a different foundation. It is the blood that is first pointed to. It is pardon that we are taught first to find, before we can even begin to be holy -a free pardon through the simple knowledge of Christ. We are taught first to be reconciled before we can either walk with God, or be followers of his Son. The sooner that such popish works as Thomas A'Kempis' are supplanted by treatises such as the present, the better for the church of Christ.

Notes on the Acts of the Apostles. By ALBERT BARNES. London : Thomas Wood and Co.

Notes on the Epistle to the Corinthians. By ALBERT BARNES. London: T. Wood and Co.

Minute criticism, in the case of either of these works, is, in a notice like this, impossible. We cannot enter into an examination of these two commentaries, either to draw out their excellencies or to call attention to their defects. And this is the less necessary, as the author has been for a considerable time known to the public, as a useful, though not faultless commentator. The present edition forms two of the numbers of Ward's library of standard divinity, and, like the rest of that valuable series, executed in a superior style."

Complete in Christ. By the author of " Visit to my Birthplace," "Thoughts in Suffering," "Glory, Glory, Glory." Edinburgh: Whyte and Co. 1842.

Finding much in this little volume that is truly excellent, we pass over any expression with which we may not entirely accord, and, as a whole, commend it to the perusal of our readers. It seems the work of a superior as well as spiritual mind. One thing we would recommend to the author, viz. to discontinue the use of the expression "the Spirit's influence," p. 47. It is unscriptural and improper. We conclude with a specimen of the work.

"Under the law of Moses, the curse was connected with two things, as we see, Deut. xxi. 22, 23-having committed a sin worthy of death, and having been hanged on a tree. This law was provided by him who was making preparation for the manifestation of his Son; therefore was it provided that au innocent person might be considered accursed, because Christ was to bear the curse without committing the sin; and an outward sign was requisite to make this plain to men. Another sign was similarly given in the serpent of brass, set on the pole in the wilderness, as recorded, Numbers xxi. 8, 9. Here the question naturally arises, why was a serpent chosen as a means of deliverance? and what connection has this with deliverance from the curse? The connec

tion may be seen by referring to Genesis iii. 14. The language therein used,

* We have said, "that not faultless commentator," for, in the midst of much that is excellent, we cannot help condemning his opinion, that "there is no decisive evidence of Stephen's inspiration," p. 98, and thus accounting for what seems to be an inaccuracy of statement in his speech before the council.

implies that the curse came upon all, but on the serpent was a climax of curse -"above all." By means of the serpent, sin was introduced; it was, therefore, a fit instrument of punishment on the disobedient Israelites. It was also an accursed thing, and therefore a suitable sign whereby God might typify his dear Son who bore the punishment of our iniquities-who was hanged upon a tree-who was emphatically made a curse-on whom the condensed load of a world's sin was laid.

"The type was a combined one; the figure of the brazen serpent typified the source of sin- the old serpent, which is the devil'-the curse denounced on sin; and Christ, who was made a curse for us, to redeem us from the infliction of the curse.

"The twenty-second Psalm gives a prophetic description of the way in which Christ was exposed to suffer the penalty of the curse. He is there represented as separated from God. The first words of this pathetic complaint are nearly the last he uttered when hanging on the accursed tree; the whole Psalm, indeed, is clearly applicable to the suffering Saviour; but the language of the second verse is mysterious when addressed to God by him whom he declared his well beloved Son: O my God, cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. Why was God's well-beloved Son allowed to cry, and not answered? The answer to this inquiry is found in the next verse; the complaining speaker answers it himself, -he justifies God: But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.' Thou art holy, therefore must I cry for help, and not be heard; for while thou continuest holy, no sinner can approach thee until sin be atoned for: thou inhabitest the praises of Israel as a Saviour, therefore they must be saved; and he who saved others, cannot save himself.

"This is a marvellous description of Him who said, Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me;' and again, The Father loveth the Son, and hath committed all things into his haud.' Yet to this agrees another equally striking prophetic description of the work of Christ in redeeming us from the curse: It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief -when his soul shall be made an offering for sin,' &c. (Isaiah liii. 10, marginal reading.) We can easily understand the meaning of being bruised, being put to grief, both being human sensations: bruising is suffering in the body; grief is suffering in the mind; both were endured by Christ as man: but it is more difficult to understand the soul being made an offering for sin. We know what men did to the body of the Lord; but we know not, we never can know, what his righteous soul underwent. We are told it pleased the Father;'— it was for a righteous purpose; therefore, however his trust in God was mocked at by his persecutors, Christ could address the Eternal God, as the Being with whom he was one in mind, and one in work, and say, O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee.'

"In this offering of his sinless soul for sin, was indeed our deliverance from the curse; in this was the realization of the types and ceremonies of the preceding dispensation. The blood of bulls and goats could not indeed take away sin, but it could shadow out him whose blood was not only shed, but whose soul was made an offering for sin, in conformity with that beautiful prayer in the twentieth Psalm,-in the third verse of which God's acceptance of the sacrifice is desired,- Remember all thy offerings, and accept (or, as the margin reads, turn to ashes,) thy burnt sacrifice. It was a complete, a perfected sacrifice; it was laid on the altar, and the fire of divine justice utterly consumed it. By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. The atonement is complete. Almost all the prophetic descriptions of the sufferings of Christ allude to the sufferings of humanity, but in that most wonderful account which has been left us of what passed in the garden of Gethsemane, we approximate to a nearer view of the nature of these