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tion. In this list we must place the author of the work before us. We discover in it much to admire, much to excite doubt, and much on which the veil of darkness still remains.

Our author's object has been to bring forth things new and old. With the Bible before him, and we doubt not with prayer sanctifying his studies, he has examined the writings of his predecessors-he has traced in the history of Europe the fulfilment of the inspired predictions, and, neither afraid nor ambitious of originality, he has, as he found reason, adopted the opinions of his predecessors, or has stated his own.

To all classes these lectures are fitted to commend themselves. They are ingenious, without being fanciful; they exhibit great research, united to sound judgment; they are free from dogmatism; and furnishing alike meat for babes and for strong men, they affectionately illustrate and apply those precious doctrines and precepts with which the Apocalypse abounds.

As to language, perspicuity is the principal thing to which the author attended. "To the other beauties of composition," he adds, "he makes no pretensions." But this estimate is too modest. The sentences

certainly have not the careful balance of Gibbon, nor do we say that they have the ease of Addison; but the whole composition seems the work of one who had words at will, and who, without effort, could wield them with considerable effect. We see clearly the subject, and are not detained as if there were any medium between us and it.

On the accuracy or inaccuracy of Mr. Culbertson's theory little need be said. Like most of his predecessors and cotemporaries, he has advanced many arguments which have thrown light upon the subjects to be illustrated, accompanied with much ingenious reasoning, which, though hypothetically legitimate, will sometimes be found inconclusive. This is the great defect which has associated itself with all the dissertations on unfulfilled prophecy which has hitherto fallen under our notice. Proceeding on equivocal data, the writers may reason accurately, and yet their conclusions will always be uncertain. A firm foundation is essential to a permanent result.

No man has perhaps ever yet written on the prophecies, who has not illuminated, in a greater or less degree, some part that was previously involved in obscurity; but at the same time he has furnished either himself or his friends several occasions to

With theories, hypotheses, speculations, and conjectures, on the Apocalypse, we have, through a series of years, been both amused and perplexed. In every instance we have observed that each author has been warm and sanguine in favour of his own interpretation, as though he alone had been selected from the great mass of mankind to illuminate the world. We have, however, been taught by long observation and experience, that "history is the best, and only infallible interpreter of prophecy." When events arise on the stream of time, that coincide with ancient predictions, we naturally associate them together, and rest satisfied in the conclusions we draw; but until such events appear, and such associations are perceptible, darkness must accompany the most plausible arguments. The lectures before us, like all others on similar topics, naturally carry us forward into futurity, and nothing but the lapse of time, and the birth of occurrences, can confirm or correct what the author has advanced.

REVIEW.-The Last Supper, or Christ's Death kept in Remembrance. By the Author of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice, and Farewell to Time. 12mo. pp. 453. Whittaker, London. 1828. Ir will be readily admitted by all who are acquainted with church history, that the subject of the Lord's supper, designed originally as a bond of union among Christians, and a symbol of divine love, has been made through several ages the ground work of unholy animosities, and of deadly feuds. This circumstance, perhaps, more than any other, has tended to place this divine ordinance, in the estimation of many professing Christians, much below its primitive importance, and to give it a secondary rank among the institutions of the gospel.

The opinions of men, however, and the manner in which it has been received or abused by professors, are not the standard of authority by which its administration and observance are to be measured. As an ordinance of divine appointment, it is to be viewed with reverential awe; and although not in itself essential to salvation, to be received wirh seriousness, as one of those numerous means through which divine grace is communicated to the soul.

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tions, the acts of legislation, the orders of privy councils, and the proclamations of kings, and throws himself entirely on the plain language and obvious import of scripture; and from the decisions of this awful tribunal, he concludes, in the language of Paley, that "no two things can be more contrary than the heroic and the Christian character."

The letter addressed to his Majesty is couched in plain and expressive, but respectful, language; and no man who reads it with attention can doubt that the writer has been actuated by pure and conscientious motives. The tide of public opinion may very naturally be expected to set in strongly against his sentiments, but those by whom he may be calumniated and ridiculed, will find it much easier to pronounce a sentence of condemnation on the man, than to refute what he has advanced.

War, he considers, to have originated in the pride and wickedness of the human heart; and while iniquity thus predominates, his hopes are not very sanguine of finding many advocates to embrace, or even to defend, his endeavours to drive the monster from the bosoms and practices of mankind.

In his subsequent letters, addressed to a friend, his language is sober and temperate, his appeals to scripture are numerous and appropriate, his quotations from the writings of Eramus and others apt and corroborative, his reasonings strong and commanding, and his conclusions too herculean to be strangled with the hand of contempt. In these letters he examines war in all its prominent branches and bearings, states with brevity the arguments that are urged for its support and continuance, and manfully defeats them from the ground on which he has taken his stand. Of the truth, the justice, and the incontrovertible fairness of his principles, in the abstract, no believer in revelation can justly entertain a doubt; but whether the world is sufficiently removed from barbarism, and advanced in civilization, as to receive them, may well admit of a serious question. Guided by the unerring word of prophecy, we rest assured that the period will arrive, when all the objects for which he contends will be cordially embraced; but it is much to be feared, that rivers of human blood will be spilt, before that desired moment shall present to the nations of the earth, the smiling olive branch of universal peace.

We have perused these letters with a more than common interest, arising from the nature of the subject, and the obloquy which has been poured on the writer in 121.-VOL. XI.

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most of our public journals in which they have been noticed, and fear not to participate in the common censure awarded to all those who assert that war is inconsistent with genuine Christianity. On the enthusiasm and madness attributed to the author, we have kept a steady eye, but have discovered nothing to sanction the reproach. For the moral and political condition of the world, he seems to have been born a few ages too soon; unless we admit, what warriors will hardly concede, that the world is unfortunately a few ages behind what it ought to have been. Let this question, however, be decided as it may, it will not alter the truth of the following lines, with which we shall conclude:

"What are ye monarchs, laurelled heroes say,
But Etnas of the suffering world ye sway?
Sweet nature, stripped of her embroidered robe,
Deplores the wasted regions of her globe;
And stands a witness at trutb's awful bar,
To prove you there destroyers, as ye are."
COWPER.

THERE is something so barbarously romantic in war, that every man becomes a poet when he either gazes on its devastations, or reads, in the writings of another, a delineation of the horrors which accompany its desolations; and so powerfully is the imagination excited by realities, that the field in which fancy has been accustomed to expatiate is already occupied. Hence, no description, either in language or painting, in prose or verse, can fully reach the altitude of our expectations.

Aware of these facts, the author of the volume now under consideration, has carefully avoided those exhibitions of blood and fire, of carnage and rapine, of mutilation and murder, which would disgrace a demon, but in which consist the glories of war, from a full conviction that he never could succeed in painting enormities which defy the pencil, and beggar the force of words. He has hovered round the margins of fierce contention, has placed us on the mountain

'Where sailing vultures pause to whet their beaks,' to survey the human tigers that are marshalled below, directed us to behold the sun-beams gleaming on their arms, and touched on some of the emotions that may be supposed to agitate a warrior's bosom, when on the eve of a mortal conflict.

The principal poem, entitled "The Campaign," is certainly not altogether what the words would seem to import, though we hear at times the sound of solitary muskets,

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of louder cannon, and of tremendous volleys. We see the marshalled preparations for destruction, and when the battle is ended, catch a few momentary glances of the field of death; but the intermediate horrors, the reader's imagination must supply.

In the campaign, the battle-eve, the scene after the battle, the dying soldier, and the deserter-there are some well-wrought scenes, and many excellent lines. All the occasions are pathetic and melancholy, yet the author's muse has added a deeper gloom to their natural character, and given to our chords of sympathy a new and powerful vibration.

The minor poems are numerous, brief, and miscellaneous, possessing no ordinary share of merit. We have perused several of them with much satisfaction, and would have selected a specimen or two, but for the want of room, and the claims of other articles. Viewed as a whole, it is a respectable volume of poems, which, though not mounting into the regions of sublimity, contain a decent harmony, and a suitable strength of expression.

REVIEW. Occasional Thoughts on select Texts of Scripture. By the late John Mason Good, M. D. 12mo. pp. 204. Hatchard, London. 1828.

THE name of this gentleman is so well known in the learned, the scientific, and the religious world, that no commentary can be necessary to give it publicity. During his life-time he was extensively known, and highly esteemed among the more valuable circles of society; and since his decease, his character and writings have been honourably placed before the world by Dr. Gregory, of Woolwich, who, from a long and intimate acquaintance with him, which time, and a congeniality of spirit, had ripened into personal friendship, was, perhaps, better qualified than any other man, to accomplish the pleasing but arduous task.

It is well known that Dr. Good was a Christian, not merely in theory, but in the enjoyment of its sacred influences on his heart and life; and that he took great delight in turning his powerful mind, and the ample stores of learning with which it was fraught, to the discovery and elucidation of important truths contained in the sacred pages. Many valuable specimens of his talents, thus employed, have been recorded by his biographer, and in this little volume many more have been selected by his friends.

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These "Occasional Thoughts," are always judicious, always spiritual, in their bearing, and sometimes profound, in the depth of penetration which they display. They can hardly be said to come under the denomination either of sermons, essays, or expositions; yet they all have something inviting to the eye, and in the perusal they prove sincerely gratifying to the understanding. To the Rev. Mr. Jerrom, by whose care and judgment this selection has been made, every reader will acknowledge his obligation, at the same time regretting that these "Occasional Thoughts" have not been more numerous, and that the volume has not been more extended.

WHEN reading in the author's preface the following sentence, "I have found it very useful to use often two words, one for the ignorant hearer, and the other for the enlightened," we were strongly reminded of an anecdote that has been circulated respecting Sir Isaac Newton. Having a cat of which he was remarkably fond, a hole was cut in his study door, through which grimalkin might always have ingress and egress without interruption. At length, when puss had kittens, he ordered several small holes to be cut in his door, that these, also, might have an easy passage; without once imagining that it was possible for the little ones to go through the large hole that had been made for their parent!

In looking through these sermons, we have found nothing peculiar, either in the matter they contain, or the manner in which the author treats his subjects, to entitle them to any critical ordeal. On the leading doctrines of the gospel they scarcely touch; and perhaps we might prosecute a laborious search through the volume, to learn the grounds of a sinner's acceptance with God. There can be no doubt that they inculcate the discharge of many important duties, and enforce the necessity of something more than nominal Christianity; but the author seems to be so dreadfully afraid of cant, or Methodism, that, in order to discountenance it, he actually neutralizes what he recommends.

BRIEF SURVEY OF BOOKS.

1. The Hackney-Coach and Cabriolet Pocket Companion, containing the Fares