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Review of Books.

HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR; comprising also the progress of the Christian Mission established in 1818; and an authentic Account of the recent Martyrdom of Rafaravavy, and of the Persecution of the native Christians. Compiled chiefly from original documents. By the Rev. William Ellis, Foreign Secretary to the London Missionary Society. In two volumes. Fishers and Co.

FEW portions of the world can present to the Christian philanthropist a spectacle more interesting, more encouraging, or more touching in its details than this noble island, which Mr. Ellis justly terms the Great Britain of Africa. As connected with the thrilling question of the slave-trade, it furnished a most important object to those engaged in upholding, or bent on exterminating that hideous system of inhuman crime and of late it has possessed an irresistible at

traction for the follower of Jesus, exhibiting the glorious aspect of a persecuted church, sealed with the blood of martyrdom, and rejoicing to this day in being counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake and the gospel's.

Mr. Ellis has provided our libraries with a book of no ordinary value, combining as it does all that is interesting in statistics, with the character of a missionary memoir. From this island of the sea a voice has been heard, glorifying God in the fires. The blessed martyr, Rafaravavy, remarked, in discoursing with a friend, that if her blood were to be shed on the land, she trusted it might be the means of kindling such a feeling of interest in Madagascar as should never be extinguished. We hope so too: and we augur well for the fulfilment of this aspiration of Christian patriotism, from the publication of a work so eminently calculated to rouse and to rivet public attention. At present the government maintains an attitude of determined hostility against the Christian faith its professors are fined, imprisoned, and reduced to slavery; our missionaries banished, and the door seemingly closed against their return. It is a pause of solemn interest; a demand on the importunate prayers of all who remember those in bonds as being bound with them. We are far from anticipating the general spread of Christianity to which many zealous brethren look confidently forward: we believe that by the preaching of the gospel the Lord is gathering his elect from the four corners of th earth, while the great mass is ripening for the harvest of wrath. We look for fiery judgments to destroy these adversaries, and to usher in that glorious period of light, love, and knowledge, to which all are direct

ing their eyes, howsoever they may differ as to the mode of its introduction, or the detail of its dispensations. To every missionary work we heartily bid God speed: for we know that he has commanded the gospel of the kingdom to be preached to every creature; and we also know that the preached word shall prosper in the thing whereto he sends it. Man cannot distinguish spirits, therefore must the invitation be addressed to all; and on this ground we say to every missionary enterprise, Go forward.' To those engaged in its promotion we say, "Be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord."

Some pleasing embellishments are introduced.

By

TITLES AND OFFICES OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, illustrated in a Series of Essays. Isabella Gray Mylne. In two volumes. Oliphant.

THE prefatory account of the manner in which this work grew to the size of two octavo volumes, illustrates the depth of a subject that is indeed inexhaustible. A simple collection of the names and titles given to our glorious Redeemer in the holy scripture, with a remark resulting from the prayerful meditation on each, as to its obvious meaning, was found to occupy so large a space, as to require its curtailment to one-third of the original list. A series of short essays on the more remarkable and prominent epithets was at length adopted; and a work of real value is the result. The authoress has largely drawn on sources

that bespeak her judgment in selecting authorities: Leighton, Charnock, Flavel, Scott, Camden, &c. We recommend it to families and schools, as a book calculated to endear while it illustrates the Bible, and to promote the glory of the Lord Jesus in the domestic circle, where there exists a spirit of diligent research into the most rich, most precious mine of spiritual treasure that can possibly be opened to the investigation of his creatures.

THE NIGHT OF TOIL: or a Familiar Account of the Labours of the first Missionaries in the South Sea Islands. By the Author of the " Peep of Day." Hatchards.

ADAPTED to children, in very easy and familiar language, and giving a good account of the first arrival and settling of the missionaries at Tahiti, with their subsequent operations in that quarter. There is not, perhaps, so much of doctrinal instruction conveyed as the subject would have admitted of; but it is a very nice book altogether, and will interest young minds in the missionary cause.

FEMALE BIOGRAPHY. Religious Tract Society.

We have seen two volumes of these useful compilations, one containing memoirs of Mesdames Judson, Huntingdon, Newell, and Miss Linnard; the other of

Mesdames Baxter, Walker, Turner, Althans, Graham, and Lady Glenorchy. External neatness and convenient size, combine with the valuable character of their contents to recommend the series, at this giftbestowing season; and we announce with pleasure such additions to the libraries of our young friends.

HISTORICAL SKETCH of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of the Reformation in Poland; and of the influence which the Scriptural Doctrines have exercised in that Country, in Literary, Moral, and Political respects. By Count Valerian Krasinski. In two volumes. Murray, Hatchards, Nisbet, &c.

WHAT a lovely thing is Christian patriotism! A notion is too prevalent that, in his character as a citizen of the world—a member of that body which is composed of individuals out of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, the believer in Jesus has nothing to do with the tie that binds a man to the land of his nativity. In proof hereof, it is asserted that throughout the pages of scripture no such injunction can be found, as that the child of God should especially love his own country. Perhaps not: neither is there any injunction for a mother to remember her sucking child, though the bare possibility of her ceasing to do so, is put in answer to a query that seemed to imply she could not forget it. It is really absurd to ransack the bible for positive commands to do what is as natural to man as to draw his breath; to cherish a tie so touchingly alluded and appealed to in many parts of holy writ; where the fate of him