of, and even where this is kept uppermost, undoubtedly those subordinate motives of pleasing friends, and doing credit to teaching, &c., are, and ought to be very powerful. Much sound and Scriptural truth,-much that opens up the deceitfulness of the natural heart, the folly that is "bound up in the heart of a child," and much also that leads to the only remedy, is enforced in these letters. At the same time, there is enough of what children do delight in, a story; and enough concerning the little boy and girl addressed is casually introduced, to keep up the attention, and to give interest to the whole.

The illustrations are simple and practical, drawn from the little every-day occurrences which are common to most children. But perhaps the leading characteristic of the book-the charm which will, we trust, find its way to many a young heart, is the truly maternal affection which breathes in every line. It must be evident even to those who know not by experience, how "a father pitieth his children," that these letters have been penned by a mother's hand, and flow from that full unfathomable fount-a mother's heart. We must confine ourselves to one short extract among the many which it would be pleasing to transcribe. P. 124. "When dear mamma was at your age, she had no one to teach her, or tell her about good things; yet she loved to go alone and pray to God, who graciously taught her by his Spirit, and gave her a hatred to sin, when surrounded by it. How much more, my child, may you not expect from that Divine teacher, who are daily urged to seek his help, and at the same time kept from the contaminating influence of wicked companions! But remember, my loved one, where much is given, much will be required.' All the advantages you have is a proof of the Redeemer's love to you; then how you ought to love him in return. Oh, I wish that you would think more of Jesus. All good people think much of this wonderful friend; one good man says that the name of Jesus hath a thousand treasures of joy and comfort in it; and it is, therefore, mentioned by St Paul five hundred times in the Testament. Another christian says 'The name of the Saviour is honey in the mouth, and music in the ear.' No wonder that such persons love Jesus, and think him the fairest among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely."

The Lord our Shepherd, an Exposition of the 23d Psalm. By the Rev. J. STEVENSON. London: J. H. Jackson. 1845.

We cannot say that this volume equals its predecessor, either as a book of thought or exposition. It is tamer and less rich. Yet it has many excellencies. It is pleasing, quiet, spiritual in its tone, and full of most precious truth, well stated, and well applied. It will help the meditations of many a saint, we doubt not,-strengthening the weak, and speaking a word in season to the

weary.

The Nursery Governess. By the Author of "THE WEEK." Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley. London: 1845.

This is a simple and pleasing tale, embodying an excellent outline of the best system for that important period of every child's life, the education of the

nursery.

Those who have attentively observed children for any length of time, will bear us out in the remark that nothing about a child is too trifling to be worthy of notice, that nochild is too young to becapable of imbibing moral impressions, and that for the most part, the character of the future man or woman is stamped by what takes place in the nursery. What an awful responsibility then rests with parents, and with those entrusted with thecare and

direction of those young and susceptible minds! Too often in our own day, accomplished mind and high attainments are all that are required by parents who are in search of assistance for the discharge of this solemn trust. Too often the one essential qualification which alone can fit for the training up of an heir of immortality, is entirely forgotten or treated as a secondary thing. We do not mean to underrate other acquirements, but to urge that all that is attempted in this early stage should have a strictly moral basis. The little work before us plainly shows, that education does not so much consist in the routine of classes and lesson books, as in that sort of watchful tact which will turn everything to the best account, leading the mind to think for itself, and the thoughts to flow in a right channel. Also, that without so entering into the mind as cheerfully to be able to condescend to the understanding of the pupil, encouraging their little inquiries, whether at study or at play, and without making them feel that you take a personal interest in making them both happy and wise-little influence can be gained, and little progress made.

But the groundwork of the whole, and that which we think gives the work its highest value, is the principle, that education, to deserve the name, must have a religious and Bible-teaching foundation; and that this must not only be the beginning, but must be interwoven with the whole system. The absence of this principle, and its effect when followed, are well illustrated in the following conversation between two young persons, each filling this responsible position, but with very different views, and opposite motives to duty:— "Miss Oswald opened the way for conversation by remarking, I have been much pleased with your method, and with your intelligent little girl. You must excuse my having sat as a spectator, for I wished for the opportunity, and I thought, besides, the scene might be useful to my two pupils, and that it would, perhaps, stimulate them to some desire of imitation. But you see they are so little prepared for those instructions, that they seemed to have no interest in what was going on.

"I did observe their indifference; but you may be able to open their minds by patience and kindness, and condescending for a time to lay aside your own superior pleasures of high attainments, in order to dig and lay a foundation in their young and neglected minds.

"O the labour of such a task!

"Cannot you think of the great benefit to the young ones, and remembering God's condescending love to us, endeavour to undertake this office, without which we can never have the great pleasure of building up.

"It does not suit me; such ABC work belongs to other minds; and then, the time that would be required, and the utter coldness of the parent towards my efforts. She is eagerly anxious for the children's attainment of all that seems to me needful, but she wants to jump upon all at once, without recollecting she has neglected the gradual preparation whilst their minds were impressible, and their self-will unprejudiced against instruction. made a mistake in engaging me under the present state of the children. She should have had them prepared, by ground-work plans, and then have looked to the succeeding higher branches.

✦✦ She has

"Yet this does not alter my idea, that you would find the reward in the pleasure of having accomplished a great work, could you prevail upon yourself to lay aside your own preference, and recalling to mind the simple steps by which you yourself attained your present high acquirements, patiently tread them over again, hand in hand, with your little neglected pupils. Feel for them, and let kindness move you to make this sacrifice for their good. “Tell me, Miss Oswald asked, if you found it pleasant to lay aside your own preference for this first foundation-work?

"To confess the truth, I have never been tried; I have learnt what it is by the method of patience and love which has been exercised towards myself.

"O then, I see you have been a kind of pupil yourself, under that superior woman, Mrs Clifford!

"Yes indeed I have; but her lessons were not confined to those things which you have called foundation work. Such to her would be superficial. She dug deeper, and laid a foundation which she had practically experienced— a more sure support of that which she proposed to build thereupon.

"O! I perceive you mean religious foundation; but I have never entered deeply into that subject.

"Then, Matilda answered, as the zeal and honesty of her heart swelled to utterance, then, Miss Oswald, may I venture to reply without offence, you have yet to learn the first training for your arduous pursuit, and to become a little child, to sit at the feet of Jesus." Pp. 94–98.

Relievo Map of Palestine, illustrating the Sacred Scriptures and the researches of Modern Travellers, constructed from recent authorities and MS. Documents, in the Office of the Board of Ordnance. London: Dobbs, Bailey, and Co., 1845.

This is an attempt to make the picture as like the living scene as possible. But it is a harder thing to transfer the face of the green earth to paper or canvass, than the face of man. The latter can be done with all exactness, the former never, at least on any save the smallest scale. Still the attempt is

worth the making; and we have in this relievo map of Palestine an admirable specimen of such an attempt. It is new in plan, and very superior in execution. Perhaps it might have been carried a little farther without much trouble. We might have had the green of its woods, the blue of its lakes, and the snow of its mountain-peaks, and other such small touches, as would have made the scene still more vivid and natural. But even as it is, it is excellent; and it has the additional recommendation, of having passed under Dr Wilson's eye, and of being enriched with some geological remarks from his pen.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

IN regard to Scotland we have nothing to add to what we gave in our last. We hear no tidings of the progress of the gospel amongst us. The seed is sown, but the shower and the springing have not come. How long, O Lord, how long! Defer not, for thine own name's sake, though our iniquities have separated between us and thee.

UNION FOR PRAYER.-We believe that another union for prayer among all Evangelical Churches has been agreed upon and fixed for the beginning of January 1846.-It will, like the former unions, be for ten days, commencing with Saturday the 3d, and ending with Monday the 12th. The hour, between eight and nine, morning and evening, or as near that as possible, to be devoted to secret prayer. The former of the two Saturdays being more especially set apart as a day of humiliation and fasting, the latter of the two Mondays appropriated to thanksgiving and praise.

As to Ireland we give the Report of the Committee on the state of religion at full length.

"At the last annual meeting of Assembly a Committee was appointed to consider the best means of promoting an increase of vital godliness over our

Church. That Committee presented a report to the Assembly, before the termination of its proceedings, which was received and adopted. The introductory measures suggested in the report, and sanctioned by the Assembly, were these:

"1. The preparation of an address, calling on all the members of our Church to humble themselves before God because of past unfaithfulness, to seek forgiveness, and earnestly to supplicate an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon ministers, elders, and people. This address was accordingly prepared, and circulated over the whole Church.

"2. Special meetings of Presbyteries to be convened for the purpose of consulting on the state of religion within their respective bounds. These meetings were very generally held, and attended, not only by ministers, but by many of our elders, who, as a body, have evinced a deep interest in the great object proposed by the appointment of this Committee.

"3. The first Sabbath of the next October to be set apart by each minister for directing the attention of his people to the importance of seeking a revival of religion, and for special prayer to God that he would bestow on all our hearts an enlarged measure of this renewing and invigorating grace. This recommendation, there is reason to believe, was almost universally observed: and not only on the day above mentioned, but on many other occasions throughout the year, addresses have been delivered to our congregations on the same subject.

"The Committee have been much gratified to obtain, from so many quarters, expressions of cordial and affectionate sympathy, and of earnest solicitude that the arm of the Lord may be revealed in awakening our whole Church to a fuller sense of its arduous duties and responsibilities. They feel that an important point has already been gained in having so many minds earnestly and simultaneously directed to the necessity of increased and united effort for the salvation of souls. This, indeed, was the main object which they proposed to themselves within the limits of the past year. Little more has been sought than to keep the subject before the attention of their brethren, that they might be led to think more closely of the end of the gospel ministry, and to consider how far that end has been accomplished within their several localities; that they might be drawn to compare the promises of God to his people, and his noble works of power and of grace in the apostolic times, and in the days of our fathers, with the present state of our congregations; that each of our ministers and elders, each of our Presbyteries and Sessions, might meditate apart, and determine whether any, or what measures should be adopted for deepening and extending the spirit of vital and practical godliness of the church. The Committee trusted that if any continuous and prayerful deliberations were given to this subject during the year, the Assembly would be prepared, at its present meeting, to proceed with measures which, under God, may prove a blessing to the Church and to the country.

Conceiving it desirable, however, that the thoughts of the brethren should be fixed on certain specific points, a series of queries were drawn up and transmitted to all our ministers. These queries were as follow:

"1. What course ought to be adopted in order to attain, under the Divine blessing, the object for which the committee was appointed-namely, the awakening of a higher spirit of religion in the Church?

"2. What do you conceive, judging from your own observation and experience, to be the main obstacles amongst us to the conversion of sinners? "3. How should we attempt the removal of these obstacles?

"4. Are there any special duties which, in your opinion, ought to be urged on the attention of the ministers, elders, and private members, of our Church?

"5. Have you any practical suggestions to offer for elevating the standard of

family religion, of Church communion, of Sabbath Schools, of prayer-meetings, of the spirit of missionary zeal, throughout our congregations?

6. Have you any general remarks to make on the means best fitted for rousing the great mass of the population, both within and beyond the territory of our Church, to the more earnest consideration of eternal things?

7. Has the attention of your people been directed, during the past year, to the necessity of seeking a revival of religion, and what has been the result?

"The answers returned to these queries, which were sent out at the close of last April, may be considered as affording no inadequate representation of the mind of the whole Church on the points submitted. All of them testify, that we have much need to search and try our ways, and humble ourselves before the Lord our God; that multitudes seem to be perishing under the sound of the gospel, and that even where it is most faithfully preached, it is not accompanied by that measure of saving power which the Divine promise leads us to expect. The prominent topics to which these returns advert, and which the Committee are thus instructed, respectfully but earnestly, to present to the consideration of the Assembly, will now be detailed. And here the Committee must express their regret that they have not been able to introduce into this report many of the valuable suggestions contained in the instructive and interesting communications with which they have been favoured by their brethren. It was felt necessary, at least for the present, to confine our attention to points of prominent and pressing importance, and to measures likely to meet with the prompt and general acquiescence of the Assembly. The leading points to which our attention is called are the following:

"1. It is universally agreed, that the awakening of the Church must commence in the hearts of its ministers. In every variety of language it is stated that we, the ministers of the gospel, must become more fully alive to the tremendous responsibility of our office as stewards of the mysteries of God, ambassadors for Christ, watchmen set for the salvation of immortal souls-that we must ourselves realise the joy of salvation, in order to be able more successfully to teach transgressors the ways of God, and to convert sinners unto them-that we must seek to have the love of Christ constraining us to pray, and labour, and long, and live, to promote, under him, the recovery of souls from the bondage of Satan and of sin. In order that ministers may be more habitually reminded of the duties and qualifications connected with their high office, it is strongly recommended that they should hold monthly conferences among themselves. Their object in such conferences should be, to ask counsel of God and of one another, respecting the state of their own hearts, and the mode in which they perform the work of the ministry. At these meetings, their own personal experience-the subjects on which they have principally dwelt in their pulpit addresses during the previous month-their mode of preparation for their public and private services-the measure of visible success which God has vouchsafed to their labours;-these and other kindred topics would furnish abundant material for mutual instruction and edification. Such conferences, if conducted in the right spirit, might tend to remove many of the obstacles which, it is apprehended, ministers themselves present to the conversion of souls. Some of these are stated to be, want of suitable preparation, both of mind and of heart, for the services of the Sabbath-omission to dwell with sufficient fulness on the office and work of the Holy Spirit, and to recognise the gospel of Christ, as peculiarly the ministration of the Spirit-deficiency in pointed application of Divine truth to the various classes of hearers to whom it is presented-unbelief in not looking for fruit, and in not striving to obtain it-secularity of character, arising from an undue pressure of worldly engagements-and frivolity of spirit, in the weekly intercourse of the minister with his people. These are some of the hindrances to minis