The rich man is to blame, who defrauds the poor of his stipulated price. And even the idealist is to blame, who is forever tearing up foundations in the intellectual world, trampling on past wisdom, to bring in his own innovations, and who sets men afloat in their speculations as well as their practices: for it will always be found, that reckless speculation will lead to reckless conduct; and, as an invisible power of heat or cold, hardens or softens the surface of the northern seas, congeals them to ice, or bids the waters flow, so the ideal of the mind will shape the course of life. Those revolutionary storms, in which religion and liberty have perished, may not unfrequently be traced back to the visionary speculations of idealists and reformers.

We cannot allow this opportunity to pass, without expressing the pleasure we have felt, in seeing the public and decided stand which has been taken by some individuals and associations in Vermont, in opposition to that disorderly system which has recently been introduced among them. In the disclosures of this little volume, we find an ample justification, if any were needed, of the course they have pursued. This course was, no doubt, unwelcome, and adopted with reluctance, but was obviously required by fidelity to the great interests entrusted to their hands, and will be sustained by the judgment of the great body of American Christians. Were a like stand promptly and resolutely taken by ministers and churches similarly situated with regard to this wide-spread fanaticism, the dreadful evils which it occasions might be, in a great measure, prevented.

And as for those venerable men, who are extensively quoted as the apologists and supporters of this system, we trust it will be found, that their wisdom is not dead but sleepeth. To think of such men being led by a modern evangelist, would almost force a smile on the cheek of austerity itself. If the subject were not so serious, we would recommend to them a speech of Mrs. Boswell to her husband, when she was indignant at his fawning on Dr. Johnson. "My dear," said she, "I have often seen a bear led by a man, but I never saw before a MAN LED BY A BEAR.”

But, no! the subject is too serious for irony; and we would rather say, in words of serious and respectful expostulation, to those wise men, who have countenanced

this folly; to those sober men, who have followed this extravagance, and to those good men, who have promoted this corruption,-come out, and be ye separate, and TOUCH NOT THE UNCLEAN THING. They have made work for repentance; and they will repent, as surely as there is truth, for contemplative piety, in the revelations of time.

These remarks, we are well aware, will not meet the approbation of all whom they are intended to benefit; and the writer will, perhaps, be denounced by some, as the enemy of revivals of religion. Such is the sophism now employed! Truth means our creed; and religion is our measures; and if you do not approve of our measures, and adopt our creed, you are alike the enemy of truth and religion! This is, indeed, a short road to infallibility. In answer to all this, we must be permitted to say-not wishing to wound any man's feelings, but for the sake of that religion and truth which we have been charged with opposing that we know of no greater enemy of revivals of religion, than a genuine ultraist. He throws suspicion on all zeal, and retards thousands from moving forward. Nothing is more certain, in religion, than that the excessive kills the true; just as the tree, that luxuriates in leaves and branches, seldom bears fruit. Where men see such fair appearances fail, they loose their confidence in all pretensions to piety. A general distrust seizes the public mind. The zealot becomes a hypocrite. The revival ends in spurious excitement, and, for a moment's triumph, the long season of reverse and reaction comes. To use our old comparison, taken from king Pyrrhus, we gain the battle, and are ruined in the war."

* See the article in the last No.-Living on God.

ART. VI. REVIEW OF M'LAURIN'S ESSAY.

The Library of Christian Knowledge; edited by the Rev. Herman Hooker, M. A., author of "The Portion of the Soul," &c., Vol. 1. Containing Essays on Happiness, Christian Piety, Prejudices against the Gospel, &c.; by the late Rev. John M Laurin, of Glasgow; with an introduction, containing some notice of his life and character; by the Rev. Herman Hooker, M. A. Philadelphia: W. Marshall and Co., and Marshall, Brown and Co., Providence, 1836.

"GOOD words to instruct the age" is, we believe, the title of one of the publications, with which Gutslaff has enlightened the inhabitants of the Celestial empire. With sentiments like those such a title would awaken, do we hail the first volume of "The Library of Christian Knowledge." Judging from the specimen before us, it is our conviction that the Christian public will be deeply indebted to Mr. Hooker, in the progress of this work, for the substantial contributions it will make to their pleasure and benefit. It is intended to contain productions only of a high order, much above the general character of publications, in these book-making times. It will bring to light the riches, and beauty, and deep piety of authors, whose only fault is, that they lived in times, when originality, depth and completeness in thought, was esteemed quite a necessary ingredient of authorship, while it will be occasionally enriched with productions of living authors of superior excellence, and formed upon choice models of antiquity. We are glad to believe, that the plan of this work is in accordance with a growing relish of the times for the mental riches of other days, and doubt not, that the publications in the "Library" will be highly serviceable in cultivating and bringing to maturity so laudable a taste in the reading public. The first volume before us contains several essays of the Rev. John M'Laurin, of Scotland, a cotemporary and correspondent of the great Edwards. We consider them as having superior excellence, and we cannot but hope, they will be extensively read. There is a well written introduction, by Mr. Hooker, giving a short account of the author, and briefly characterizing his essays. We cannot better express the general propriety of the selection which has been made for the first volume of the " Library,” than in the language of the editor.

"There are individuals who seem formed to connect the past and the present-men who, in elevation of mind and devotion, distinguish their

age, and shed an enduring lustre on all succeeding time. We should endeavour to catch their mantle, and profit by their beams. Their works follow them. They are their epistles to us, in which, though dead, they yet speak as one of us. Their character is a part of our inheritance, and it is but duty that we should understand it, and use it to good effect. Among all the great men of his day, there is not one who appears to be distinguished for so many excellent qualities, as the author of the essays in this volume."

There is also, we conceive, a peculiar fitness in this publication to our own times. It will contribute much to the increase, among us, of sound Christian knowledge. The author was a man of deep thought, and one, whose treasures of thought were exhibited in a bright and impressive course of action. His writings are on truths, whose high and holy influence he manifested in his daily walk in life, and which collected to a burning centre the emotions and sentiments of his pure and pious soul. wrote as he felt and lived.

He

He was, moreover, eminently capable of contemplating truth in the form of abstract principles; but, with this power, he combined the rarer tact of viewing abstract truths, as they descend from their lofty position, and influence the practice of men. There are writers, who paint human life as they see it moving before them, but without the power of analyzing the springs of human action, and pointing men to those great elements of truth, which, incorporated with their characters, will lead them onward in the path of duty and happiness. There are, on the other hand, writers who seem almost gifted with a new faculty of perception, so clearly do they discover the lineaments of abstract truth, and with such wonderful familiarity do they portray the relations of thought above the reach of common minds, but who cannot come down from their elevation to the minutiae of ordinary experience. Those writers appear to be most useful, who can seize general principles, as they stand out in the great lines of character; can trace their influence upon action, and point their fellow-men to that adjustment of general principles according to the decisions of truth and duty, which, thrown fully into the life, will secure to them the highest end of their being. Such authors draw rules of conduct from a diligent study of human nature, as it passes in review before them, and exhibit general conclusions, alive with the spirit of reality breathed into them from the busy scene of

human existence. A single glance of such a pen at some most familiar instance of ordinary experience, opens a volume of truth in a clear and impressive form. This trait will be found to have been one of the rare endowments of M'Laurin. Some comprehensive principle, which sweeps over the whole range of the subject he is treating, is at the same time proved, and rendered surprisingly clear, by an allusion to some well known, but perhaps unnoticed feature of daily action. No system ever exhibited more perfectly this method of illustrating truth than that of the Gospel, as in the life of its author were combined all those higher principles, which should guide the conduct of men, enforced by the brightest example ever set before us. And he who most completely embraces the whole truth of the Gospel, and at the same time most nearly approaches the method adopted in the divine oracles, for setting it forth, may be termed the most useful writer, in the highest and best sense of utility. The truth of the Gospel, exhibited in the style and spirit of the Gospel, stamps this utility with a clear impression upon the pages of M'Laurin. He wrote as one that viewed life with the anxious and thoughtful eye of a philosopher, but also with the deep interest of a Christian, for its greatest practical improvement, and its true welfare.

The character of such a man will appear in his writings. It may not, therefore, be amiss to notice some traits of his character, a knowledge of which may add to our interest in his productions. He was a man of great humility. In minds like his, this lowly grace is morally sublime. It results from the exercise of great powers successfully employed in investigating man's high destiny, and returning from a view of the universe of truth, and from communion with the infinite Creator, under a just sense of the littleness of man, beside the immensity with which he has been conjoined. Those whose views are largest, can enter most fully into this overpowering sense of their own nothingness. And the spectacle of such minds, bowing before that greatness, in the contemplation of which they have been lost, should be to all an instructive example, and a means of humility. This enviable state of mind is one of Heaven's choicest gifts, and it is only by communion with infinite greatness, that this sublime humility can be attained. How noble that description of the inspired poet: "Thus saith the high and lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose VOL. III.

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