CHURCH OF ENGLAND MAGAZINE. I quake shook the church in the midst of the storm. never saw the effect of awe and fear more strongly depicted. The whole congregation remained as still as death, but burst into a silent flood of irrepressible tears. With all these impressions on my mind, I was called on by the governor and the ambassador to read a thanksgiving service at the palace for our escape. I had no time to prepare, as I could wish, for such a solemn occasion; but there was no need to seek for appropriate words. During the prayers another storm came on, and another shock of an earthquake nearly caused the book to fall from my hand, seeming to rend the house asunder. My congregation, like those of the procession, were deeply affected. It was the voice of God himself that seemed to address them. Immediately after, I was called on to visit a sick man whom I had formerly known. His family hearing I was on the island, had sent for me, and requested my attendance, as they supposed him past recovery. In all my professional duties, I never witnessed so awful a scene. The man was dying, and he was surrounded by his family in the deepest affliction. The house had been shattered by the earthquake just before; and it was expected that every fresh shock, of which there were every moment some indications, would prostrate it. The storm of wind, thunder, and lightning, was raging without; the portentous hailstones were battering the roof, and dashing in the windows; the awful tremor of the earth, with the dismal and ominous sound that accompanied it, seemed like some warning voice that issued from a grave; and in this appalling commotion of the elements, the soul of our brother was about to leave its mortal tenement! In a few minutes afterwards he died. The Cabinet. THE BIBLE.-I use the Scriptures not as an arsenal to be resorted to only for arms and weapons to defend this or that party, or to defeat its enemies; but as a matchless temple, where I delight to be, to contemplate the beauty, the symmetry, and the magnificence, of the structure; and to increase my awe, and excite my devotion, to the Deity there preached and adored. -IIon. Robert Boyle. PRAYER.-Anger is a perfect alienation of the mind from prayer, and therefore is contrary to that attention which presents our prayers in a right line to God. For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grass, and soaring upwards, singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven, and climb above the clouds; but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern wind, and his motion made irregular and inconstant, descending more at every breath of the tempest than it could recover by the libration and frequent weighing of his wings, till the little creature was forced to sit down and pant, and stay till the storm was over; and then it made a prosperous flight, and did rise and sing as if it had learnt music and motion from an angel, as he passed some time through the air about his ministries here below. So it is with the prayer of a good man: when his affairs have required business, and his business was matter of discipline, and his discipline was to pass upon a sinning person, or had a design of charity, his charity met with the infirmities of a man, and anger was its instrument; and the instrument became stronger than the prime agent, and raised a tempest, and overruled the man; and then his prayer was broken, and his thoughts were troubled, and his words went up towards a cloud, and his thoughts pulled them back again, and made them without intention; and the good man sighs for his infirmity, but must be content to lose that prayer; and then he must recover it. When his anger is removed, and his spirit is be calmed, made even as the brow of Jesus, and then it ascends to heaven upon the wings of the holy dove, and dwells with God, till it returns, like the useful bee, laden with a blessing, and the dew of heaven.— Bp. Jeremy Taylor. USE OF MEANS. The promises are wells of comfort to the Church; and prayer, and the means of grace, are as vessels to draw the water out of these wells. To expect blessings, and not to seek diligently for them, is as foolish as if a farmer were to neglect ploughing or sowing his lands, and yet to look for a harvest in them.-Abp. Secker. CHARITY. One says, "I will give to-morrow," to Alas! do you excuse himself from giving to-day. know whether you shall be alive to-morrow in this "I am poor; I have need place? Another says, enough myself of all my means." Yes, you are poor, you are destitute; but it is of love, of benignity, of faith, and of mercy. A third says, "Whom do I wrong? I ask you, from whom did you I keep only my own." receive those riches? and whence did you bring them? Did you not come naked from your mother's womb; and shall you not return naked to the dust? Whence What is this did this wealth come ?-from chance? but Atheism? If you confess that you received it from God, why did it fall to your lot rather than to another's? God is not unrighteous in the unequal Why are you rich? division of property among men. and why is this man poor? It is that you may receive the reward of dispensing your goods faithfully, and that the poor may receive the recompense of his patience. When, therefore, you appropriate to yourself that wealth which belongs to many, and of which you are the steward, you are a robber.-St. Basil. Poetry. ON WITNESSING A CONFIRMATION. WELL may the bells peal sounds of praise, And God himself approves it well. To tread the steps their fathers trod. On earth the sacred vow is made, The Church records the ardent prayer, And Heaven, in lines which cannot fade, Re-registers the promise there. Come, Holy Spirit, from above, Fill every bosom with thy flame, And write in characters of love Indelibly thy sacred name. A martyr's spirit, and a heart Holy and heavenly grant to all, Nor shrink whatever may befall. Be strengthen'd for the holy strife, Enduring, win the crown of life. So, when their fathers sleep with thee, Stand in their place to call thee blest! THE RIVULET.⚫ FLOW winding on, bright rivulet, While gentle breezes glide I love to cull the violets sweet The moon's pale light and playful beam. Fast to thy golden sands! O may thy soft voice greet mine ear While spring's gay smiles were pour'd on thee, Tuned my lov'd harp, and happily Thy mystic music sung! But now the summer's bloom hath shed O bear my thoughts to heav'n above, My panting bosom fill:- Flow winding on, thou silvery wave, Thy banks, where many a flow'r shall dwell Miscellaneous. GALEN. The celebrated Galen, in the early part of his life, was not persuaded of the existence of a God. In one of his solitary walks he found a skeleton: having attentively examined the structure of the bones, their wonderful accommodation to receive and secure the nerves and muscles, their texture and figure to give support, strength, and activity to the whole body, he exclaimed, "Surely nothing but a God can have produced this frame!" Even those who have persisted in denying God to his face in the midst of his works, have been forced by the power of conscience to recant before they left the world. One of these maintained his infidelity to the last moment, when he fixed his eyes on heaven, and died exclaiming, " O God! O God!"-Valpy's Address. MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY.-The success of Mohammed's imposture may be ascribed, in a great degree, to the simplicity of what he taught, and its agreement with human reason, as well as with the previous belief of many of his disciples. "There is one God;" a truth, however obscured by the errors of idolatry, or lost in the darkness of ignorance, such as reason is willing to asquiesce in, and finds confirmed • From Songs for all Seasons. by the general appearance of the world. "Mohammed is his prophet." In declaring this fundamental part of his creed, he was careful to disturb no prejudices, and treated the feelings both of Jews and Christians with tenderness. While he asserted his own superiority, he gave station and authority in his scheme to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, and to Jesus. There is nothing in his Koran which we are surprised to find there nothing which may not be traced back to existing opinions, or to books within his reach. The truth to which he owed his success, and to which the long duration of his religion must be chiefly attributed, the unity of the Godhead, he found in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures: he had only to pronounce it anew, and to clear away the intrusive worship of images and martyrs, saints and angels, which had corrupted the Church in that dark age and country. When I subject Christianity to a similar test, no such result appears. I cannot account for its fundamental doctrines. They are agreeable, indeed, to experience and observation: they explain appearances which are and always have been universal throughout the world: they suit the character and meet the necessities of mankind; but they are so far from being on that account "as old as the creation," that a moment's reflection on what the tenets of the Gospel really are, will shew them to be in the strictest sense original. Like the theory of attraction, they explain phenomena long observed and every where observable; but, like that theory, the explanation was perfectly novel. It is difficult to suppose that unauthorised men, of any rank, education, or country, could ever have undertaken to promulgate such doctrines.- Bishop J. B. Sumner. TRUTH IS POWER.-Some men say wealth is power, some that knowledge is power, some that talent is power; but there is an apothegm that I would place on high above them all, when I would assert that truth is power. Wealth cannot purchase, talent refute, knowledge cannot over-reach, authority cannot silence her: they all, like Felix, tremble at her presence. Fling her into the most tremendous billows of popular commotion; cast her into the seven-fold heated furnace of the tyrant's wrath; she mounts aloft in the ark upon the summit of the deluge; she walks with the Son of God, untouched, through the conflagration; she is the ministering Spirit who sheds on man that bright and indestructible principle of life, light, and glory, which is given by its mighty Author to animate, to illuminate, and inspire the immortal soul; and which, like himself, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. The Bible, in the school of the parish minister, is as far beyond the philosophy of the schools as the expanse of heaven is beyond the surface of this little earth, and the interests of eternity beyond the trifles of an hour. If ever the cause of truth is to be maintained on earth, it is against a system which dares to invade the liberties of man as an immortal being, and which robs him and his children of their best and noblest privilege, the full, pure, and perfect word of God.-Rev. R. Daly. A new Edition of Vol. I. is now ready, price 5s. 6d., embossed cloth. Vol. II. uniformly bound, will be published on June 30th, price FIVE SHILLINGS. Single Numbers and Parts, to complete Sets, may always be had. Portfolios, of a neat construction, for preserving the separate Numbers until the Volumes are complete, may be had of the Publishers, price 2s. 6d. LONDON-Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE. REVIEWS AND NOTICES. JANUARY 1837. Christian Patriotism; a Sermon delivered in the Mayor's WE have before expressed our opinion as to the limits Mr. Biddulph, during a long life of ministerial labour in Bristol, has been a decided upholder of the principles of government and civil order; and the sermon before us is an instance of his zeal to inculcate such principles. His text is from that passage of St. Paul, where he illustrates the privileges and duties of Christians, from the analogy subsisting between a Christian community and the structure of the human body: "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ." We give from this discourse an extract, which exhibits the author's views, at the same time that it contains most important truths : Mr. Biddulph, in the course of this sermon, makes some important remarks upon the professed identity of the Church and the State. We agree with him in thinking that there should be no recognised diversity between them; that "there should be no distinction between the members of the civil community and the members of the Christian Church: the one should be capable of being identified with the other." It is upon this firm and sound principle that we have a national Church; an institution for the religious training of the people, co-extensive with the bounds of the people, and embracing, in its objects, every individual in the realm. The author mentions several obligations which are comprehended in the comparison of the Christian to the human body. These are, mutual submission, unanimity of object, and sympathy. The sermon concludes with a striking passage from Lord Chesterfield, which shews the state of his "polished, but infidel mind, as death approached, in reflecting on a life spent in the bustle of the world, and in forgetfulness of God and of eternity." This discourse, like all that Mr. Biddulph writes, is full of scriptural, solid, and valuable matter. Ecclesiastical Legislation. Three Letters to his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, on Church Property, Episcopacy, Cathedrals, and the Clergy. By Clericus Anglicanus. Seeleys, 1836. THIS pamphlet contains suggestions on matters of exlimits and revenues, the change in cathedral establishtreme importance. The new arrangement of episcopal ments, with other recommendations of the ecclesiastical commissioners, laid in their reports before the public, and already partially acted on, must supply food for the gravest thought to every reflecting churchman. The proposed measures will be powerful for good or for evil. They will not be inoperative: they will produce, gradually it may be, but surely, results of a very decisive character. May the Spirit of wisdom be richly shed forth upon those individuals to whom the guidance of these changes is entrusted! The author of these letters is apprehensive of in "In our text, and in many other parts of St. Paul's epistles, the structure of the human body is employed to illustrate Christian privileges and duty. The body is composed of many members. Its senses, its limbs, its joints, sinews, and nerves; the action and reaction of the heart and its system of blood-vessels, with the inspiration and respiration of the lungs, are intro-jurious results; and his opinions are, for more than duced, as furnishing suitable emblems of the Christian community, its principles, and its conduct. But though the body consists of many members, there is such an union between them, that they constitute but one body. Their vitality, comfort, and usefulness, in their several functions, depend on inspiration of the surrounding atmosphere, by the instrumentality of the lungs; they are all dependent, for life and health, on a due circulation of the fluid of which the heart is the reservoir; and their sympathetic communion, one with another, justifies the apostle's remark, that if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; and that if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.' In the conclusion of our text, it is added, So also is Christ,' i. e. his mystical body, the universal Church, in which Christ is the head both of government and influence. Such it ought to be; and such it will hereafter become. The resemblance will then be more accurate, and the results more blessed. The spirit of life will then pervade the whole, and communicate health and vigour to all its members." one reason, entitled to great weight. He first adverts to Church property and episcopacy. And here he says, that the principle on which the ecclesiastical commissioners propose to act is dangerous, namely, " that of the arbitrary transfer of property, settled on one object of legitimate and local Church service, by a new law of settlement, to other or remote objects not contemplated in the original grants." This principle he conceives to be " but a modification of another, which appropriates Church funds to purposes of general religious education." Proceeding to details, he regrets that the opportunity is not taken, leaving untouched the present hierarchy, for the extension of what he calls" rural episcopacy:" he would have, in fact, suffragan bishops re-appointed, in order to "annual confirmations, parochial visitations, pulpit services, and frequent conferences with the clergy, in the spirit of primitive and apostolical simplicity." He regrets the curtailment of any of the bishops' revenues, as it will diminish the ability of the occupants of the richer sees to take the lead, as they now do, in works of piety and benevolence; and he thinks that those whose incomes are to be increased will be little benefited, but rather degraded, as becoming, in a measure, the sti pendiaries of a "bounty-board." ANTISM, they avow it to the fullest extent; and forgive me, my lord, if I too urgently and impressively ask, Whether the impulse that may be followed, and the cry that may be most unconsciously flattered, in present proceedings, have not their rise in that one and only charge, which nothing but our destruction can efface?"-Pp. 65-67. In his second letter, our author states his objections|ing, and indissoluble union in the cause of PROTESTto the proposed modifications of the chapters of cathe drals. He contends, that a dean and four canons, keeping residence in rotation, will be inadequate to the due performance of their duties; and that by the transfer of cathedral property, the fabrics will not be sustained, the charities of the neighbourhood will lose their most munificent patrons, and the Church will ere long miss her well-accoutred champions of truth, most of whom have heretofore issued from the cathedral precincts. In the third letter, the writer discusses the measures chiefly affecting the parochial clergy, the provisions in the bill lately introduced into parliament in regard to pluralities, residence, duties, &c. He thinks that the effect will be harshly to bind down the clergy, and, hence, to substitute less noble motives for the high and holy principles of action which should influence the ambassadors of the living God. But the question of appointments, the most vital of all, he says, is yet untouched. "The one primary evil, the source of innumerable others, has been the error of appointments ---appointments made for unhallowed purposes, and of unqualified persons. . . . . Let the commissioners leave unchecked the power of appointment, and they may proceed to abolish dignities, to reduce incomes, and break down or individualise the clergy in obscure residences and compulsory duties; and they will add in no sensible degree to their improvement in character or usefulness, to their respectability before man, or their acceptableness to God." We regret that we cannot enumerate every topic on which our author treats; nor would our limits now permit us to enter on a full examination of his arguments. We will, therefore, only say, that, without coinciding in all his opinions, we cordially recommend his letters to the careful perusal of our readers. We must, however, find room for the following extract : "The clergymen of the Church of England ... hear of disgrace and degradation branded on their brethren in Ireland, whose conduct has been an example to the Christian world. They have been warned to be faithful in the discharge of their own duties, and plead to have moderately profited by a warning which ought never to be in vain. They have been lenient beyond all example in receiving payment of their dues; and they have so far imitated their Irish brethren, as to have often chosen to forego their claims, rather than force them from unwilling or unable hands. They find the storm, nevertheless, coming nearer and nearer to their doors,-measure upon measure pressed forward in public with unwonted haste, without a voice of their own being asked, yet fraught with incalculable hazard to their sacred profession, and leading, in the general estimation, to inevitable and swift destruction. They ask, what is the cause, what the charge or accusation against them? Charged with the crime of wealth, they have, by the evidence of documents, triumphantly rebutted it. Charged with luxurious habits, they must be true thaumaturgi to make a luxury of that of which for the most part they can seldom make a living. With a want of charity their very enemies have not ventured to charge them; and if they are charged with a want of learning, of eloquence, or of devotion, I leave the selection of names, from many a bright and blazing column, to answer the accusation: can I leave it in better and more appropriate hands than in those of your grace? Scarcely can they be charged with a severe or implacable feeling towards even their enemies or traducers; but, charged with a firm, unbend The Christian Keepsake and Missionary Annual. Edited by the Rev. William Ellis. 1837. Fisher, Son, and Co. London. WE consider this to be one of the most elegant of the Annuals. It is prepared with great care, and does much credit to the editor; and we cannot but feel an interest in its success, its object being to spread the knowledge of the missionary exertions which are being made throughout the world. The author, in his preface, thus states its character:-"Carefully adhering to the great objects to which the work has hitherto been devoted-the promotion of piety among its readers, and the diffusion of authentic information respecting the progress and effects of Christianity in different quarters of the world-the editor confidently anticipates, that as The Christian Keepsake' becomes better known, it will be still more generally patron ised." The work contains a memoir of the Rev. Dr. Carey, professor of oriental languages at Calcutta ; an essay on Mohammedanism in India, by Rev. W. Campbell, a missionary; a memoir of Mrs. Hemans; Prayer the most important means of missionary success, by Rev. E. Bickersteth; Recollections of Bishop Heber, by Rev. Dr. Doran; a short sketch of the life of Bishop Ryder; Elijah, a poem, by the Rev. Thos. Grinfield; the death of the last child, by the Rev. Thomas Dale; Christ the Purifier, by James Montgomery; and many other beautiful little productions. It has also sixteen plates illustrative of the work, executed in a finished manner. We never see one of these tasteful Annuals of a religious class, without applauding the effort of the com pilers to furnish a useful, at the same time that they publish an ornamental book; but we always remember that these works are the fashion of the day, and are designed, in a great measure, for fashionable folks. At the same time, therefore, that we wish such works to take the place of the sickly trash that has been so long served up to suit the vitiated palate of that class of society, we would remind the purchasers of such works, that the piety which is gained and nourished only, or principally, by religious Annuals, will be of a very flimsy character. These books will be of no use if they do not induce readers to quench their thirst at the fountain of living waters. Researches, Antediluvian, Patriarchal, and Historical, concerning the Way in which Men first acquired their Knowledge of God and Religion, &c. &c. By Thomas Clarkson, M.A., formerly Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge; author of the History of the Abolition of the Slave-Trade, &c. &c. London, Longman and Co.; and S. Piper, Ipswich. THIS is one of the most vexatious books, as far as its form is concerned, we have ever met with. It has no table of contents at the beginning, and no index at the end; so that we had no hope, at the outset, that we should find the work itself an orderly production. We should have been glad to have had this expectation The aucorrected; but such has not been the case. thor has had far too much in hand in this book, as will be seen when we complete the title-p e-page, which is much more lengthy than what we have given above; for, after the words "knowledge of God and religion," it is continued thus: "And as to what were the doctrines of the churches of Adam and Noah, with an account of the long night of idolatry which followed, and darkened the earth, and also of the means designed by God for the recovery and extension of his truths, and of their final accomplishment by Jesus Christ." If Mr. Clarkson re-considers this title-page, he will pardon us for our suspicions, that his book would prove any thing but a lucid speculation. When a work of the very moderate dimensions of the present proposes to traverse so large a field of inquiry, it is almost certain to turn out either very obscure or very superficial. The author, in his preface, "thinks it right to say a few words concerning the origin and the manner of the progress of the book, and also on the subjects it contains. He tells us that, "sitting one night in a meditating frame of mind, a thought came across him how the first men obtained a knowledge of God and religion.'" The answer which he furnished to this question, and the musings which followed, we shall give in his own words, from the beginning of Part II. of his work, where he thus states the summary of his preceding opinions, and of what was to follow :"We have seen," he says, "in the preceding essay, that the first men gained all their religious knowledge from God himself; but that they had made so bad a use of it, or that so many of them had gone off, and so many more were on the point of going off, into idolatry, even so early as the time of Abraham, that, if it had not pleased God to interfere, the probability was, that every family then upon earth (for the inhabitants of the whole world then lay within a very small compass) would, in a short time, have been infected by this moral contagion. We have seen, again, that God did thus actually interfere, by selecting Abraham to preserve his truths, from whose loins also a long line of descendants should spring, for the same purpose, such as Isaac, Jacob, David, and others; and that from the last in this line the Messiah should come. And we have seen again, that, when the Messiah actually appeared, all the known world had lost the knowledge of the true God (which God himself had given to their ancestors), except the descendants of Abraham just mentioned; and that it was his (the Messiah's) object to renew to all those, both living and to come, the light which their ancestors had thus lost, and to accompany it with new light of greater splendour than the former, by which they should be enabled to see new prospects, and to lay before them a grand scheme of salvation for the human race. Now, when we consider that the coming of the Messiah was the greatest and most glorious event that ever took place in the world, we should have judged it probable, speaking as men, that God would have given such intimations of it beforehand, that not only men would be looking out for such a personage before he came, but that, when he came, he should answer the description contained in these notices so clearly, that he would be recognised generally as the person sent; and in fact such notices were given. It is my intention, therefore, to inquire what these notices or intimations were, and how the different people of the earth acquired them, and whether, when Jesus Christ came into the world, he answered the character which had thus been given of him." The work contains much which may be considered curious and ingenious: whether any important results would follow from adopting its speculations, we will not determine. Its author deserves to be spoken of with high respect, as having been the friend and fellow-labourer of Mr. Wilberforce in the noble cause that occupied nearly his whole public life, and which the latter lived to see accomplished-the abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions. Sacred Poetry. By a Layman. A new edition, "These simple lays, they budded forth, Yet haply the reflecting mind, A joy to ripen on the word From which those musings flow'd." The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, by the Rev. Gilbert White, M.A.; with the Naturalist's Calendar, and Miscellaneous Observations, extracted from his Papers. A new edition, with Notes. By Edward Turner Bennett, Esq., F.L.S., &c., Secretary of the Zoological Society; and others. 8vo. pp. 640. London, J. and A. Arch, &c. &c. 1836. A MOST elegant edition of a most delightful work, which, during the last few years, has appeared in various shapes and sizes by different editors. The present edition is, in all respects, a most valuable production, whether the additional copious notes, the illustrations, or the letter-press, be considered. Mr. Bennett was (we regret we cannot say is, for he was removed a few months ago by death) well known as a naturalist; and the important situation which he filled of secretary to the Zoological Society would, of itself, have been a pledge that he was qualified for the work he undertook. With the view of gaining additional information respecting Selborne and its vicinity, he resided in the village for some time during the autumn and winter of 1835, and was thus enabled to enrich the work by the enumeration of many facts which |