We wish to occupy a few pages of the Miscellany with a simple and merited tribute to the deceased father, whose name closes the list we have given above-Rev. John Simpkins of Brewster, Mass. If long and faithful service in the Christian ministry, an unspotted character, and a mind well disciplined and wise, present substantial claims to our respectful and grateful remembrance, few men are more worthy of commemoration. Amongst the names which we have enumerated, there are several which have been rendered more conspicuous by the possession of shining abilities, and obtained greater celebrity by the production of striking and extensive effects, but none that are more affectionately remembered, or that have secured a more enviable reputation for many of the most estimable qualities of mind and heart. Others may have exerted a wider influence, but none a purer and better.

Mr. Simpkins was born in Boston, on the 16th day of April, A. D. 1768. His father was for more than fifty-five years, from 1776 to 1831, the year of his death, an officer in the New North church; and for many years the senior and presiding deacon of the Congregational churches in this city. His mother was the daughter of Samuel Grant, also a deacon of the same church; who was elected to that trust on the 6th of December, 1742, and discharged it for more than thirty-four years, to the end of his life; which took place, as far as we have been able to ascertain, about the year 1777.

Descending from such an ancestry as this, it is easily to be accounted for that the subject of these remarks should have early imbibed a strong attachment to religion and the church, and a predilection for the sacred calling. His early studies were prosecuted partly at the Latin Grammar School in Boston; but principally at the Academy in Andover. He was admitted to Harvard University in 1782, and graduated, with a respectable reputation for scholarship and an enviable credit for purity of morals and integrity of heart, in 1786. Soon after leaving college, he undertook the duties of an assistant in Andover Academy, to which he devoted himself for about eighteen months. He commenced his theological studies under the tuition of Dr. Emmons of Franklin; continued them with the assistance of Rev. Mr. French of Andover, and subsequently completed them at Boston and at Cambridge. Mr. Simpkins entered upon his public professional labors in

1789, and in about two years after was ordained as the minister of a large and respectable congregation, in what was then the north parish of Harwich, but is now the town of Brewster. With a feeble constitution, he was enabled by strict regularity of living, by a peaceful conscience and an affectionate temper, to perform, with infrequent interruptions, a great amount of ministerial labor, and to attain to a 66 good old age." To his pastoral duties, which were at times rendered peculiarly arduous by the wide space over which his flock were scattered, he devoted himself with unwearied assiduity. His intercourse with his people was cordial and affectionate, without familiarity. His manners were gentle and pleasing, but dignified. Though he sought to conciliate, he never condescended to part with his self-respect. He was a quiet, but keen observer, without censoriousness. Though remarkably shrewd in reading the characters and detecting the motives of those around him, he was habitually charitable in his constructions. He greatly enjoyed social intercourse, and received in the families of his friends as cordial a welcome as he gave to them in his own.

The connexion of Mr. Simpkins with his parish continued unbroken and mutually satisfactory, during the long term of forty years. At the expiration of this period his increasing deafness and infirm health compelled him to ask a dismission, which, after the delay of a year, was at length granted, and he preached his valedictory sermon in October, 1841. His public services were characterized by great seriousness of manner, evangelical plainness and earnestness of speech, and correctness and clearness of style. His favorite topics were the goodness and mercy of God, and the obligations of all men to love and be grateful to Him as their beneficent Father. The necessity of repentance towards God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ-the burden of Apostolic preaching-was continually and faithfully urged upon his flock. Such instructions as these, seconded and rendered impressive by his own purity of life and pious conversation, could not, we may be sure, return unto him void. From year to year, the hearts and consciences of many were convicted by his admonitions, and responded to his fervent appeals. And towards the close of his ministry, especially, the good seed so perseveringly sown for many years sprang up abundantly, and brought forth fruit an hundred

fold. During the years 1818-19, it is recorded by him, that "a great and serious revival of the religious life occurred in his parish, in the course of which many whole families were baptized, and more than fifty respectable individuals presented themselves for a participation of the Lord's Supper."

One of his chosen maxims was, that the medium between extremes is the safest path,-that truth may generally be found between conflicting opinions; and that any truth stretched, according to a prevalent inclination in human nature, beyond its proper bearings and dimensions, stands thenceforth at variance with other well established verities, and not only terminates in error, but becomes one of the most prolific sources of error. By this maxim he sought to steer his religious course peacefully and consistently, between the opposing currents of theological opinion and sectarian controversy. Like many other excellent divines and excellent men, he persisted in maintaining, that it is possible to find a middle ground between contending partisans, and that this ground is not only tenable, but the post of honor, of happiness and of usefulness, to the followers of the Prince of Peace.

Mr. Simpkins's published writings were few; but those few are of a character to do credit to his mind and heart. They consist chiefly of services at ordinations. In 1828 he established and undertook the editorial charge of a religious periodical, entitled the Christian Visitant-published once in two months, simultaneously in Boston and New York, for the space of two years. Its chief design was to promote practical piety, the cause of which was then especially in danger of being neglected, in the heat of theological controversy. Most of its articles were furnished by himself, and indicate a healthful intellect and a spirit of unaffected piety.

Since the dissolution of his ministerial connexion, it has been the habit of Mr. Simpkins to spend his winters amongst his children and numerous friends in his native city. These seasons have afforded him unspeakable refreshment and delight. To the last, the faculties of his mind remained unimpaired; his interest in the passing events of the day unabated; his attention to the changes and progress of theological science unwearied; whilst his desire to keep pace with the valuable issues of the press was quickened rather than diminished. Every annual visit seemed happier than

the former, and the last the happiest of all. He had often spoken of the probability of these pleasant seasons being soon interrupted by death; and the thought had often occurred to his mind that the present winter might bring them to a close. Every thing, both in his outward affairs and in his inward condition, was brought and kept in readiness for his departure-come when it might. And the angel of death could not have been commissioned to bear his spirit to its heavenly home at an hour, or in a manner, more opportune and felicitous, than those in which it executed that solemn office. In the bosom of his own family, who loved him as a husband and a father, no more than they venerated him as a Christian and as a man,-by a short and not a peculiarly distressing sickness, -allowing him, in its comings on, to talk in glowing language of the goodness of God, and of the visions of glory that flitted before his up-looking spirit, and at the conclusion of its work, lulling him into a deep and gentle slumber,-he gave up the ghost and slept with the fathers, on the 28th of February, 1843.

It is a fact worth recording that, at the time of his resignation in 1841, Mr. Simpkins was only the third minister of the First Church in Brewster, since its formation, October 16, 1700-a period of more than one hundred and forty years. This circumstance, creditable alike to the parish and its ministers, affords a pleasing contrast to the instability and fickleness which in these days too generally characterize both pastors and churches.

Whilst preparing this brief memoir and investigating the personal and professional history of its subject, we have been more than ever impressed with the greatness of our obligation to the venerable fathers of our Congregational churches, the last of whose representatives are fast disappearing from our pulpits. We have found in the life of Mr. Simpkins the same manifestations which give venerableness and beauty to the characters of so many of the old clergymen of New England-the almost Apostolic sanctity, the intellectual soundness, the correct scholarship, the pru dence coupled with guilelessness, the wisdom mingled with meekness, the dignity tempered with suavity, the independence softened by gentleness-such qualities as will always be necessary to the permanence, success and happiness of the ministerial connexion.

C. R.

NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

THE HOME or Family Cares and Family Joys. By Frederika Bremer, Author of "The Neighbors." "The Neighbors." Translated from the Swedish by Mary Howitt. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1843. pp. 124, 8vo.

THE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTERS.

A Narrative of a Governess. By Frederika Bremer. Translated from the Swedish. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1843. pp. 86, 8vo.

THE H

FAMILY. By Frederika Bremer. Translated from the Swedish. Boston: J. Munroe & Co. 1843. pp. 212, 12mo.

No books, probably, are read by more persons in our community, just now, than these. We see them lying on all centre-tables; we find persons reading them, just as we have done, to pleasant circles of friends. We shall not speak of them therefore as to strangers. In saying this, we include The Neighbors, which has had a separate notice from us already. The titles of the three of which translations have appeared since that, we have arranged according to our estimation of their comparative excellence. The Neighbors should be placed second only to Home, and is far superior to the other two. In respect to dramatic rules Miss Bremer commits considerable errors. She is least successful where she is most ambitious; in her conceptions, that is, of character. Yet in connexion with some of her most singular characters, she writes truly fine passages. We have never been reconciled to Bruno; and we followed Serena to his home with trembling and fear. The power of the story depends greatly upon him; but we get little good from him after all. The Authoress seems to have a propensity in her different compositions to lead upon the stage some one individual marked by strangeness, wildness, unhealthiness of temperament,-Bruno, in The Neighbors; the blind Elizabeth, in The H-Family; Sara, in Home; and though morbid in a milder degree, Edla, in The President's Daughters. Their peculiarities do not strike us always as peculiarities of nature.

Miss Bremer occasionally fails in an evident attempt to impress a certain sentiment upon the reader, as she would desire. This