tended beyond our usual limits, but we hope not a tedious or uninteresting one. The diversified extracts we have given, will serve, better than any remarks of ours, to shew of what variety of character and of what intellectual range this species of composition is susceptible. We shall not repeat the remarks we threw out in a former article,* on the causes which have hitherto operated to depress the standard of pulpit eloquence in the English Church; but simply advert to the fact, in proof that the mere absence of eloquence is no indication of a closer adherence to the business of the Apostolic ministry. On the con trary, it will generally be found, that the most eloquent sermons are those which are the most richly tinctured with evangelical truth; and the utmost simplicity and fidelity are by no means incompatible with the highest strains of sublime and pathetic oratory. Art. VII. Sketch of the Evidence of Prophecy; containing an Ac count of those Prophecies which are distinctly foretold and which have been clearly or literally fulfilled. With an Appendix ex tracted from Sir Isaac Newton's Observations on the Prophecies. By the Rev. Alexander Keith, Minister of the Parish of St. Cyrus. 12mo. pp. 224, Price 4s. Edinburgh. 1823. W WE are inclined to think that a proper stress has not been laid upon the evidence of Christianity supplied by Prophecy, that the practical and familiar use has not been made of the argument, which it is capable of affording, and that the prophecies of the Old Testament are much more frequently accommodated, than explained in connexion with their fulfil ment. The declaration of our Lord, that if men believed not Moses and the Prophets, neither would they believe though one should rise from the dead,-seems to ascribe to the evidence of prophecy a higher degree of force than that of miracles. He who "knew what was in man," intimates, that the witness borne to himself by the prophets so many hundreds of years before he came into the world, was, in its very nature, more adapted to convince the Jews of the truth of his Messiah, ship, than even his subsequent Resurrection. The sign of prophecy was a clearer sign; the testimony more direct and unequivocal. In either case, the proof was supplied by a Divine interposition; in the one instance, by a display of the incommunicable prerogative of foreknowledge, in the other, of * Art. Butler's Reminiscences. Sept. 1822. Vol. XXII. N.S. Q almighty 'power. But the interposition by which successive prophets were qualified and sent forth, was a series of supernatural interferences, a concurrence of miracles, and therefore more convincing than any solitary fact, how clearly soever supernatural; nor could the voice of one risen from the dead be more truly a communication from the unseen world. That prophecy is the effect of Divine interposition,' remarks Mr. Keith, cannot be disputed. It is equivalent to any miracle, and is of itself evidently miraculous. The foreknowledge of the ac tions of free and intelligent agents, is one of the most incomprehensible attributes of the Deity, and is exclusively a Divine perfection. He knows the determination of the human will, though he hath left it free: he looks upon the future as we look upon the past. And there can be no stronger proof of the interposition of the Most High, than that which prophecy affords. Of all the attributes of the God of the universe, his prescience has bewildered and baffled the most, all the powers of human conception; and an evidence of the exercise of this perfection in the revelation of what the Infinite Mind alone could make known, is the seal of God, which can never be counterfeited, affixed to the truth which it attests.' But it is not only in the argument with the infidel, that this mode of proof is so effectively available. As connected with the doctrine of Providence, the study of prophecy is most important. Nothing is better adapted to fix and cherish in the mind an habitual conviction of the Divine sovereignty and providential government of the world. History ought to be read by the light of prophecy; for, while it is true, that the literal interpretation of prophecy is supplied by the historian, the moral interpretation of history is supplied by the inspired analysis. In this view, the study may be regarded as au important branch of elementary Christian instruction; and such a work, as the present, which affords a compendious account of the historical and existing proofs of the fulfilment of ancient prophecy, is one that deserves our warmest recommendation. The volume is divided into seven chapters. Chapter I. is introductory. Chap. II. treats of the Prophecies concerning Christ and the Christian Religion. Chap. III. Prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem. Chap. IV. Prophecies concerning the Jews. Chap. V. & VI. Prophecies concerning the Holy Land, Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, and Egypt. Chap. VII. The Arabs, the Africans, European Colonies in Asia, and the Church of Rome. VIII. The Prophecies of Daniel.-In illustrating the fulfilment of the predictions, relating to the Jews and other nations, Mr. Keith has diligently availed himself of the accounts of those countries furnished by modern travellers. His volume is by this means rendered as entertaining as it is instructive. It comprises a fund of interesting information, which, to young persons, especially, will be of much assistance in the study of the holy Scriptures. Art. VIII. The Slave, and other Poems. 8vo. pp. 40. London. 1824. THESE anonymous and unpretending pages would probably have escaped our notice, but for the title, which arrested our attention; and we have been so well pleased with the spirited manner in which the subject is treated, the feeling which pervades it, and the excellence of the sentiments, that we cannot withhold our recommendation of it to the notice of our readers. It opens with the following stanzas. The Slave! Hark! now I hear the sounding lash, As, from the scourge, gash after ghastly gash, And from his mangled corse scarce stays his bloody hand. When thus that blood by Power's red hand is shed: 'I heard the Negro, on his couch of straw, Driven to the dreadful hope, that life might prove but brief.' The horrors of the Middle Passage are described with much force, and there are some exceedingly striking lines. He saw the conflict of all passions there, Into her jaws without contrition thrown : And some were given her, ere life had fled, groan, Whilst bubbling billows for a while made known • Without was peace; but war within prevail'd- Of those whose blood the murderer's hand had dyed, There were death-shouts, and ceaseless cries for water; With threats of deadly hue, and blows, and vengeful vows. And seek by wounds to heal a madman's woe; All was in vain; the slaves remained still, By anguish arm'd, of Death the least afraid : They dar'd the drawn sword's sharp and shining blade, And curs'd the gain bound hand, the lifted steel that stay'd.' pp. 7-9. The Christian Missionary is afterwards introduced, and the moral change is finely depicted, by which the victim of oppression becomes at once emancipated in spirit, and reconciled to his chain. I heard that Negro, on his lowly bed, For those whose hellish hate was glutted with his gore! pp. 17, 18. After some stanzas, in which the language of indignant remonstrance is succeeded by a solemn and appropriate reference to the fearful meeting which awaits the tyrant and his tortured slave, within the awful precincts of the grave,' the poem concludes with the following elegant apostrophe to the friends of the slave. ་ Hail, Wilberforce! the Slave's unwearied friend! And ye whose voices have for years been heard, Those heartless realms that Freedom's visits fear, And tremble when they dream her angel form is near! |