that this admirable little volume will become a very general part of the closet-table furniture of true Christians in Britain and America, as its originals long have been with the most pious persons in Germany. The subjects which the translator has selected from the numerous writings of his author, in addition to the "Life and Character," are"Extracts from Letters ;" and selections out of Tersteegen's various works upon "The Constraining Love of Christ ;""Faith and Justification ;"-"Inward Prayer ;"-" True Godliness, considered in its Nature and Utility, different Degrees and Manifestations, Shadow or Form, Substance or Power;""True Wisdom, or Communion with God and Ourselves ;" -"Short Instructions for Seeking God and the Light of his Counte"The Excellent Way of True

nance

Love;"-Poetry.

THE CHRISTIAN WARFARE ILLUSTRATED. By the Rev. ROBERT VAUGHAN. 8vo. pp. 415.

(Concluded from page 436.)

OUR notice of this excellent work last month was necessarily so brief, that we regard it as a duty we owe to the esteemed author, to lay before our readers a few extracts, that they may judge for themselves, and that they may be induced to furnish themselves with a volume which contains such a large portion of sound instruction and wholesome counsel.

The subjects treated of, in sixteen chapters, are-HUMAN DEPRAVITY-JUSTIFICATION-SPIRITUAL INFLUENCES-The CHRISTIAN WARFARE as connected with BELIEVING - REPENTANCE PRIVATE DEVOTION PUBLIC DUTY-PERSECUTION-RELIGIOUS DECLENSION-DESPONDENCY-OCCUPATION

RETIREMENT— -PROSPERITY-ADVERSITY -THE FEAR of DEATH-The CLAIMS of the CHRISTIAN WARFARE.

There is much judgment and much piety evinced in the author's mode of treating the several branches of the important subject he has undertaken to discuss.

In asserting the practical and holy tendency of the doctrine of justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ, he has the following admirable appeal :

There may be men base enough to abuse this truth. But what has been the general character of its disciples? Who sustained the Christian cause in the early ages of the church, when exposed, during several centuries, to the most subtle and powerful attacks from pagan persecutors ?—The disciples of this doctrine. Who were the lights of the world, through the long night which followed from the fall of the Roman empire to the dawn of the Reformation, protesting alike against pagan and popish imposture, and doing it to the death ?The disciples of

VOL. X.

this doctrine. Who, when the days of reformation came, stood forth as the defenders of holy writ, braving all danger, to the jeopardy, and even the loss of life, that they might restore to mankind the free use of their noblest possession?-The disciples of this doctrine. Who were the main instruments in perpetuating our own liberties and our own religion, during the generations which followed upon that crisis, and when both were exposed to manifold peril?-The disciples of this doctrine. Who broke up the slumbers of our guilty land in the last century, rekindling that flame of devotion which the return of the profligate Charles Stuart to our throne had almost extinguished?-We answer again, The disciples of this doctrine. And again we must ask, Who gave existence to the most powerful states of the New World, and were the donors there of those best of all gifts, a free government and a pure Christianity? Is not the answer nigh thee, even in thy mouth? And, above all, who have they been who in ancient times, or in modern times, have been every where derided as the pure, the precise, the sanctimonious, the righteous over much; pointed at as being of holier aim than their neighbours; railed at as those who would shake both hemispheres with the voice of their cry, and by the energy of their labours, in what they regard as the cause of humanity, religion, and their God? We need not say who they are who have been all this, who have endured and done all this. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God. By their fruits ye shall know them. "" -pp. 50, 51.

In reference to public duty, and to the manner in which some minds of a superior order excuse themselves from its discharge, the author well observes :

"How many intellectual men pass life away without any thing deserving the name of labour! And this, perhaps, is their conduct, while professing to regard their ability to do good as a matter of which an account must be given hereafter. They read, they talk, they luxuriate; but they shrink from real exertion. They look, probably, to the Redeemer of man, expecting ere long to receive from his hand a place in heaven; but they are idlers in his cause on earth. The same kind of delinquency frequently occurs in the instance of the man of business-the individual whose province is in practical affairs. He might bring his discernment, his experience, and his leisure, to the aid of many an important object. But it is easier to beguile himself with trifles than to apply himself to duty. He is more concerned to provide personal amusement than to benefit either the church or the world. Remind these persons of the guilt they contract, and, like the covetous man, they will either find

or make a thousand excuses, that they may still hide their hand in their bosom, and refuse to labour. The slightest opposition will be, to their pampered nature, as a hedge of thorns, They will not plough by reason of cold; or they will say, there is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets."—pp. 168, 169.

Speaking of PRIDE as a hindrance to the call of public duty, Mr. V. thus observes:

"To do good, it is usually necessary that we should stoop rather than rise; and the proud man is not accustomed to stoop, except it be for the purposes of self-gratulation. The circle of usefulness generally consists of a number of little things; but pride is ever disposed to pass over little things, in contempt of their littleness. The individual who would be serviceable, on any thing approaching to a large scale, must avail himself of assistance from others; and to this end must possess a power of interesting their favourable feeling, and of attracting their confidence. But a proud man, in proportion to his pride, must be deficient in this power.

He would often rather leave the best service unperformed, than attempt the doing of it in company not exactly to his taste. If you would employ him, it must be for an object suited to his overweening notions on the subject of his own importance; and it must be with associates regarded as upon his own level. It is this feeling which frequently determines what a man shall believe, no less than what he shall do. There are persons whose religious creed, whose political creed, and the whole of whose conduct, whether connected with religion or the world, are manifestly the choice of this one absorbing passion-pride. Their reason, their very conscience, is its creature."-pp. 171, 172.

This is powerful and seasonable writing; and we can only express our earnest wish that a work which abounds in such appeals may realize an extensive and permanent sale.

THIS Volume is dedicated to Dr. Holloway, the minister of Fitzroy Chapel; but, from its very objectionable contents, we are willing to believe that that worthy individual is no party to the publication. We are not, in general, fond of high-wrought and confident descriptions of death-bed repentances; and we regard it as both rash and injurious to hold up heartless murderers and other atrocious criminals to a kind of posthumous sympathy. Not that we doubt the freeness or the efficacy of divine grace in its application to the very

chief of sinners; but because we consider the evidence of conversion, in such cases, to be but partial and defective, and because we fear that flaming accounts of the piety of condemned housebreakers and murderers tend only to foster presumptuous hope, or to awaken feelings of contempt and derision for all serious godliness.

We

The writer of this volume lays before the public a full account of what she deems the conversion of Cook, the murderer of Mr. Paas, through the instrumentality of ladies who visited him while under sentence of death. Now we beg distinctly to state, that we commend the said ladies for all their humanity, and for all their zeal to pluck such a brand as Cook from the everlasting burnings. It was highly Christian to seek admission to his condemned cell, to draw from him the full confession of his horrid crime, to call him to repentance and prayer, and to point him to the blood of the Lamb, which cleanseth from all sin. It was, moreover, perfectly correct to watch the symptoms of religious concern, and to aid them by every suitable exhibition of the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. will even go a step further, and say, that, if the penitence of the miserable man was apparently deep-if the expressed sense of guilt was in proportion to the extraordinary and almost unheard-of atrocity of the crime-if humility and self-abasement were obviously blended with simple reliance on a crucified Redeemer, then might the ladies referred to in this volume have allowed themselves to hope all that was favourable, and in the private circle of Christian friendship might have spoken, with gratitude to God, of what they had seen and heard. Further than this we dare not go. Ostentatious accounts of the conversion of public criminals we must hold to be very dangerous to the interests of religion and morality; and must ever look upon the evidence of such conversions as too feeble to justify any thing like the strong represen

tations of the volume before us*-a volume which we should never have noticed, but on account of the notoriety which the name of Cook will necessarily confer upon it.

Our readers shall judge for themselves whether this volume can be of good tendency or not, from the following extract :—

"Oh! could you behold," says one of the ladies, who regards herself as an instru

*Such memorialists as our fair author refer to the case of the penitent thief as a justification of their conduct; but let them remember, that two things are wanting in order to a just parallel-in the first place, they have not the Saviour's assurance that Cook, and others like him, are taken to paradise; and second, they have no Scriptural precedent for their extravagant eulogies and disgusting representations of almost angelic perfection.

ment of Cook's conversion, "this most interesting child of God! Grace! grace!O the wonders of grace-of redeeming love! When I entered the prison, I fell on a text which gave me a powerful assurance that Cook would be saved; and though I saw in him much to discourage us, yet I never doubted. The assurance followed me that he would be saved. He is ripening so fast for heaven, that such a sight I never could have imagined I should behold on earth. Could you but see him! He takes the Bible, and astonishes us with his beautiful child-like remarks. He does indeed answer the description of receiving the kingdom of God as a little child. -Christ shines in every look and every word. His ripening for heaven is the most rapid and wonderful thing I ever beheld. He is the brightest child of God I ever saw. He looks on death with a smile. His exceeding holiness in word, look, and manner, exceed any thing I ever beheld in man.-I think Christ's coming is close at hand; pray that we may be found among the wise virgins watching for our Lord, loving his appearance. The nearness of the comet, too, which is expected next October, calls for our serious attention. This world is to be burnt up, and I think it will be at that time!"

Such is the rapture of this lady with her new convert, that she quite spurns the thought of considering him any more as a murderer.

has chosen

"Can you believe," she says, "that God and me as the spiritual instruments to draw Cook, the m that was, for I cannot Now bear to hear the word applied to him-unto himself!"

What shocking cant is this! and what a stumbling-block to the world must be any modification of religion which teaches even female nature thus to soften down the horrors connected with a murder of unusual aggravation, and of almost diabolical barbarity! Such methods of exalting the sovereignty of divine grace have no warrant either in the facts or reasonings of the sacred volume.

a few of her solitary hours, than in drawing up these sketches of departed worth.

In the two youthful individuals whose memory is here embalmed, the rising race may find examples of the unutterable importance of early attachment to the concerns of a future world. And in this age of restless activity, in which village preaching has been so justly estimated, and followed by such important results, we could wish that all engaged in that department of the Lord's vineyard would study the character, and imitate the conduct, of the senior Mr. Butler, than whom few perhaps, in a humble sphere,

-"in," to use his own words, "a room with the ceiling close to his head, and filled with a plain, poor people, the situation he most enjoyed,"-have been more signally honoured in usefulness to the souls of men. There is prefixed to the pamphlet a recommendatory notice by the Rev. A. Douglas, of Reading; and two funeral discourses on the death of Mr. John Butler, by the Rev. J. Tyso, and the Rev. W. Oram, of Benson, are added to this interesting narrative.

THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE PASTORAL OFFICE,
AND THE GLORIOUS RESULTS OF THEIR
FAITHFUL DISCHARGE: a Charge, intended
to be delivered at the Ordination of a Son.
By the late Rev. WILLIAM WILLIAMS, of
Norwood. With a brief Obituary Notice
of the Author, by JAMES WILLIAMS.
R. Baynes.

THIS is a pleasing fragment from the pen of one who, being dead, yet speaketh. The author of this charge was not spared to deliver it; but we doubt not his son will regard it, on this account, as more impressive. It is full of sound counsel and high encouragement. The biographical notice which precedes it, and which has been drawn up by the son for whom the charge was prepared, gives us a favourable impression of his piety, feeling, and good sense.

HINTS ON THE GIFT OF PRAYER; or, a Pastor's
Endeavour to assist the Devotions of his Young
People. By THOMAS MANN, Minister of
Sun Hill Chapel, West Cowes. 18mo.
R. Baynes.

THIS is a book of "hints," according to its title; and we must say that the hints given, upon almost every subject connected with prayer, are truly enlightened, and in a high degree adapted to the times in which we live. The author writes like a man of observation and experience, and adapts all his suggestions to the actual exigencies of the church. Such a work was just wanted, and we earnestly implore the blessing of God upon it. The subjects treated are as follow: The lawfulness of desiring to excel in Spiritual Giftsthe Duty and Privilege of learning to pray

the Encouragements to attempt to pray-the Propriety of imploring the Help of God in Prayer Prayer to be offered to God through Christ—the Use of Holy Scripture in affording Qualifications for Prayer-Integrity essential to acceptable Worship-the Grace of Prayer more important than the Gift-Private Devotion a Preparative for Social and Public Prayer Ejaculatory Prayer-the EffortProcrastination-Forms of Prayer-Subjects of Prayer-Frequent Contemplation of the Character of God-Influence of the Promises -Self-knowledge-Faith-the State of the Heart and the Influence of the Understanding in Prayer-Meditation-Timidity in Public Prayer-Hesitation and EmbarrassmentPrayer in the Family-In the Sick Chamber -In the Sunday-school-Long Prayers and Repetitions-Variety-Presence of GodWandering Thoughts-Uncandid Criticisms -The Path of Duty-Gestures, Tones, and Enunciation-Language, Diction, or Expression, in Prayer-Opinions of Others-Personalities in Prayer-The Influence of Ill Temper in Prayer-Premeditated PrayerOn Rejoicing in the Success of Others-Pride -Depression-Effect of Prayer on the LifePrayer Meetings-Objections to them.

WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED.

1. A Portraiture of Modern Scepticism; or, a Caveat against Infidelity: including a Brief and Practical View of the Principal Evidences which show the Scriptures to be a Revelation from God. Intended as a present to the Young. By JOHN MORISON, D. D. 12mo. 3s. 6d.

2. Advice to a Young Christian on the Importance of Aiming at an Elevated Standard of Piety. By a Village Pastor. With an Introductory Essay, by the Rev. Dr. Alexander, of Princeton, New Jersey, America. Silk, 2s. 6d. This is one of the best books the Tract Society has hitherto published.

3. The Power and Pleasure of the Divine Life; exemplified in the late Mrs. Housman, of Kidderminster, Worcestershire, as extracted from her own papers. By the Rev. RICHARD PEARSALL. To which is subjoined, an account of her Triumphant Death, drawn up by one that attended her in her last sickness. A new edition. By CHARLES GILBERT, Minister of Islington Chapel. 18mo. 2s. We are glad to find that the Book Society has been induced to publish this deeply experimental and truly excellent volume.

4. Lives of British Reformers, from Wicliff to Fox. pp. 504. 6s. This work seems to have been got up with considerable regard to accuracy, and is altogether a good compendium of the History of the English Reformation during the period to which it refers. It contains fine portraits of Wicliff, Tindall, Cranmer, Latimer, Edward VI., Becon, Knox, Hooper, Ridley, Bradford, Jewell, and Fox.

5. A Commentary upon the Holy Bible, from Henry and Scott; with occasional Observations and Notes from other Writers. Vol. III. Job to Solomon's Song. 5s. 12mo.

6. The Amulet; a Christian and Literary Remembrancer. Edited by S. C. HALL. 12s. As in former years, this is an elegant present for the young, of good moral tendency, and distinguished by a large portion of well-sustained talent. There are papers in the present volume exquisitely written, among which we would enumerate "The Trials of Grace Huntley," and "A Pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre," not forgetting that animated, beautiful tale, for which the Editor was indebted to his amiable and intelligent wife at what he calls the eleventh hour. The engravings are well chosen and well executed.

7. The Juvenile Forget-me-not. Edited by Mrs. S. C. HALL. 8s. "Well adapted to little boys and girls of from ten to sixteen," is the motto we should write on this little volume. It is worth all the eight shillings for Dr. Walsh's "Travelling on the Ice," Allan Cunningham's "Poet's Invitation," and Mrs. Hall's "Seven to Seventeen;" to say nothing of other pieces, equally meritorious. "Mistakes" is an admirable article, and so is "The First Weavers," by Mr. Williams.

PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION.

Early in the present month will be Published, an interesting and useful volume, to be entitled The Missionary Annual, for 1833. Edited by W. ELLIS. The Missionary Annual will comprise original contributions, in prose and verse, from esteemed and instructive writers, on subjects connected with the highest interests of religion. It will also contain accounts, either original or selected from authentic sources, of the progress of Christianity in the world, with illustrations of its influence on individuals and communities. Besides information on these subjects, it will furnish geographical and other notices of existing Missionary Stations; descriptions of the manners, customs, superstitions, ceremonies, idols, &c., of the various tribes among which Christian Missions have been established.

2. A Twopenny Family Bible.-On the 1st of November will appear, and be continued weekly, price Twopence, No. 1. of a Family Bible, Illustrated with Notes, Explanatory, Critical, and Practical, selected from the Writings of the most eminent Divines of various religious denominations. To be Edited by the Rev. THOMAS RUSSELL, A. M. The work will contain also beautiful Engravings on steel, from the designs of the old masters. For the convenience of some, the work will be done up in monthly parts.

LONDON.

SLAVERY.

Ar the Board of Congregational Minis ters, held on Tuesday, October 16th, 1832, Rev. Dr. WINTER in the chair, -It was resolved to renew the resolutions of the board of October, 1830, respecting colonial slavery, and most earnestly to entreat the electors of their own denomination to

support only such candidates as will engage to promote its immediate and entire abolition. The following resolutions were thus renewed :

I. THAT it is the fixed and unanimous opi→ nion of this meeting, that, of all the rights common to man, those of the person are the most sacred and inviolable; that, therefore, a state of slavery is a positive, entire, and extreme evil, the nature of which cannot be

altered by any meliorating circumstances: that it is, in its mildest forms, destructive of human life, social intercourse, moral character, and intellectual advancement; that it is as hurtful to the oppressor as to the oppressed, since he must become less than man who can willingly traffic in the life and liberty of his fellow man; that it is a CURSE, and a CURSE

ONLY.

II. THAT this meeting have always sympathised with the exertions made to abate and to abolish this enormous evil; that they are grateful for the measures which were taken by the government in the year 1823, though they are constrained to pronounce them totally inefficient; that they are fully convinced the government itself can only realize the object as it is supported by the PUBLIC VOICE; and that, while a noble effort is now being made by the British community in its distinctive connexions, they esteem it particularly their duty, as Christian ministers, to lift up their voice on high, and solemnly to protest against the aggravated crime of claiming property in man, as contrary to the benign principles of religion and the explicit commands of Almighty God.

III. THAT, especially in this view of the case, they seriously acknowledge it to be their bounden duty to continue in the use of every constitutional means for the early and total abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions; and they earnestly call on their brethren in the same ministry, and the congregations committed to their charge, to aid them in this holy cause; they invite them to give and receive a pledge of unwearied devotedness to this service, till not a man living under the British sceptre shall sigh beneath the bonds of his fellow-man-till this crying offence shall be blotted out from the list of our national transgressions.

IV. THAT, although it is always incumbent on them to pledge themselves to an act of justice and mercy, there are, at the present time, special and striking reasons which should influence their conduct. That this is evidently a season of providential visitation to the nations; that no kingdom can now be safe but as it is established in righteousness; that Britain, whatever may be her comparative state, has yet upon her, to a fearful degree, the blood of innocence; that, therefore, there is an urgent necessity pressing on every one-prince or subject-if he has any love to his country, "to repent him of the evil," to cleanse his hand from the blood of his brethren, and to fulfil the great law of wisdom and equity by doing "TO ALL MEN

WHATSOEVER HE WOULD THEY SHOULD DO UNTO HIM."

THOMAS HARPER, Secretary.

To give effect to the preceding resolutions, it is desirable to lay before the denomination, as well as the Christian public at large, such