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wise endeavor to make a faithful application of the public instructions to their own hearts and consciences. This is absolutely necessary to give them any efficacy; to make them answer the design of the christian ministry. Unless they perform this duty, their preacher may as well address the stones of the street, or the trees of the forest. But if they co-operate with him, the fruits of his labors will appear in their increasing piety, benevolence, and holiness. B. W.

A SISTER'S GIFT; consisting of conversations on sacred subjects, intended for the instruction and amusement of the younger branches of her family, on Sundays. 2 vols.

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We have read these unpretending little volumes with entire approbation. They were written by an English lady, an Episcopalian, but are wholly free from anything exceptionable in doctrine or expression. They are written with correctness and in a style of pleasing simplicity, and contain many just and striking views and observations fitted to make a salutary impression on young minds. We are particularly gratified with the pure and elevated tone of moral and religious feeling which pervades the work. It is a book of precisely the character wanted for families and juvenile libraries. It consists, as stated in its title, of conversations on several religious subjects, among which are the conduct of Jonah, and of Daniel; the second commandment;

the destruction of Jerusalem; the conduct of the disciples in forsaking Jesus; the persecutions of the early Christians; the origin of monkish retirement; the Emperor Constantine; the Passover; prayer; domestic unity; truth; the appearance of Jesus to his disciples after his resurrection; a taste for devotion; observance of the Sabbath; and several others of an interesting and practical nature.

The present edition was published by the Boston Sunday School Society in connexion with the American Unitarian Association, and forms one of a series, original and selected, which the society proposes to publish, suitable for juvenile readers. The society deserves the thanks of the public for what it has already done, and we hope that it will be enabled to succeed in its truly laudable design. Besides the intrinsic merit of its publications, they are very neatly printed, and come recommended for their remarkable cheap

ness.

DODDRIDGE'S CORRESPONDence.

THE 'Private Correspondence of Dr Doddridge, Edited from the Originals, by his great-grandson, John Doddridge Humphreys, Esq.' has been recently published in England. This work belongs to a class of writings of a peculiarly attractive, and often of a very in

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structive nature, and the name of Doddridge will not fail of procuring it numerous readers. TheNew Monthly Magazine,' (London,) gives the following account of its contents. The portion of Doddridge's correspondence now published is exclusively that of his youth, extending only to his twenty seventh year, and containing little of the grave matters, and graver discussions, the reader might haply anticipate from so venerable a name. The topics are chiefly relative to matters of personal interest; to the course of his education; to the subjects of his lighter readings; the affairs of his friends; the state of his feelings and affections; his solitude in the obscure village he resides in; and the unlicked and unintelligent society his intercourse with the world is confined to. He was not yet in conflict with much of the important business of life. In a subsequent portion, we shall find him in correspondence with all the more influential of his own class, and with many of the distinguished personages of the day, appealed to as authority, and respected as a sage and a saint; but with this we have at present nothing to do. If the reader be disappointed by lack of incidents, or the absence of weighty topics, he will be amply repaid by the truth and nature, that reign through the whole of his communications with his familiar friends. writes with all the warmth and vivacity of youth; free from all affectation, and unrestrained by any mistrust. He has no misgivings, no apprehension of misconstruction in the midst of what has occasionally an air of levity. Light-hearted and unsophisticated, he indulges his nat

He

ural gaiety and turn for humor, and gives expression to the promptings of a playful fancy, in a tone of innocent badinage, that must be felt at once to be perfectly guileless. Mr Humphreys has clipped away none of his exuberance; he is too wise a man to comply with the fastidious and sectarian admirers of Dr Doddridge. "Should the gaiety of expression," says he, "conspicuous in much of the correspondence, be to any a source of offence, I wish them warmer hearts and sounder heads."

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This notice relates only to a part of the correspondence. The remainder, with the Diary, says the journal just quoted, is promised next season, when ample opportunities will be afforded us of presenting this excellent, liberal-minded person in the light, which his admirers (some of them at least,) probably think he ought only to have appeared in. That is not our opinion. We like him the better for his humanity. Things as they are, is our motto, and away with disguises.'--The specimens of the work which we have seen, certainly partake of nothing of the ascetic spirit, and much of it will be read with no little surprise by a portion, at least, of those, who have known Doddridge only in the character of a sober divine. Some parts of his amatory correspondence, particularly, will be deemed, and justly, by most persons of correct feeling, in these improved times, as objectionable for their silliness, if not on a graver ac

count.

THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL AT CAMBRIDGE.

THIS Institution, it has been said, and we believe with truth, is the only one, on this continent, designed exclusively to prepare young men for the ministry, in which students in divinity can begin, pursue, and complete their theological course, without being required to profess their preference for any particular human formulary of faith or mode of church government. The Bible is their only authority in regard both to belief and practice; and every one is left perfectly free to interpret the sacred writings for himself, and to adhere, without the least apprehension of reproach either from his instructers or fellow students, to whatever conclusions, in these respects, he may arrive at, by the honest exercise of his own mind. This is as it should be. Such an institution deserves the encouragement of an enlightened and liberal community; and we are gratified to find that the one, of which we speak, is growing more and more in the public favor. The class, last entered, is by far the largest that has belonged to the school; and the demands for ministers of our denomination, have at no period, we learn, been so frequent and pressing as at the present. Three have been settled since the year began; Mr Green at Cambridge, Mr Barnard at Wilton, N. H., and Mr. Thayer at Beverly. Invitations have also been given to four others; from Walpole, N. H. to Mr Whitwell; from Concord to Mr Goodwin; from Natick to Mr Thompson; and from Berlin to Mr Walcutt.

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