very early there was no possibility of getting room in that very spacious large church. Mr. Rogers was (as he told me) at that time he heard him, on the subject of discourse which hath been for some time the subject of mine, the Scriptures. And in that sermon he falls into an expostulation with the people about their neglect of the Bible (I am afraid it is more neglected in our days); he personates God to the people, telling them, 'Well, I have trusted you so long with my Bible: you have slighted it; it lies in such and such houses all covered with dust and cobwebs. You care not to look into it. Do you use my Bible so? Well, you shall have my Bible no longer.' And he takes up the Bible from his cushion, and seemed as if he were going away with it, and carrying it from them; but immediately turns again, and personates the people to God, falls down on his knees, cries and pleads most earnestly, 'Lord, whatsoever thou dost to us, take not thy Bible from us; kill our children, burn our houses, destroy our goods; only spare us thy Bible, only take not away thy Bible.' And then he personates God again to the people: 'Say you so? Well, I will try you a while longer; and here is my Bible for you: I will see how you will use it, whether you will love it more, whether you will value it more, whether you will observe it more, whether you will practise it more, and live more according to it.' But by these actions (as the Doctor told me) he put all the congregation into so strange a posture that he never saw any congregation in his life; the place was a mere Bochim, the people generally (as it were) deluged with their own tears; and he told me that he himself when he got out, and was to take horse again to be gone, was fain to hang a quarter of an hour upon the neck of his horse weeping, before he had power to mount, so strange an impression was there upon him, and generally upon the people, upon having been thus expostulated with for the neglect of the Bible." GOODWIN CONSCIENCE TROUBLED. "There is a fact or fable alluded to by Southey, in one of his poems, concerning a bell suspended on a rock of the ocean dangerous for navigation, that the sound given as the waves beat upon it might warn the mariner of his propinquity to danger there is a story, we say, of the pirates cutting this bell because of the warning sound which it uttered. It so happened, however, that at a future period these very pirates struck upon that rock which they had stript of its means of admonishing them. Which things may be unto us for an allegory. Mankind take pains to stifle the voice that would admonish them, and they partially succeed, but it is only to find themselves sinking at last in the more fearful misery. The swelling of the passions has often been compared very appropriately to the swelling of the waves of the ocean. The reproaches of conscience may be compared rather to the ground swell, thus described by Mrs. Somerville, an eloquent scientific female writer:-It continues to heave the smooth and glassy surface of the deep, long after the winds and billows are at rest. A swell frequently comes from a quarter in direct opposition to the wind; and sometimes from various points of the compass at the same time, producing a vast commotion in a dead sea without ruffling the surface. They are the heralds that point out to the mariner the distant region where the tempest has howled, and they are not unfrequently the harbingers of its approach.' Every word of this description might be applied to those reproaches, which coming from various quarters, and rising at a great distance, move the soul far beneath its surface, and tell at once of sin that may be long past, and of storms yet to arise. THE WAY IN WHICH THE CON SCIENCE IS DECEIVED. "First, it contrives to banish as much as possible the remembrance of the sinful acts committed. When men go to sleep, they darken their windows; and when the guilty wish to be undisturbed, they shut out all thought and consideration of the evil they have done. The polluting lusts that were fondled, so long as they could communicate pleasure, are now banished out of sight when they have served their purpose; as the embalmers in ancient Egypt, sent for, in the first instance, with avidity, had to flee as fast as they could after their offensive work was completed. The malignant passions, after being gratified, must keep out of sight, as hired assassins are got rid of after they have done the deed. Secondly, the mind learns to present the deeds which it wished to do or to avoid in a false light. Certain features of the deed are brought out into prominent relief, and others are as studiously hid from the view. The conscience is led in consequence to approve of that which is evil, and condemn that which is good. Hence we find multitudes rushing eagerly to what is evil, yet carefully keeping the more painful part of the evil out of view, as the priests in Mexico rang the gong to drown the cries of the human victims offered in sacrifice."-IBID. Theological Notes and Queries. OPEN COUNCIL. [The utmost freedom of hallowed thought is permitted in this department. The reader must therefore use his own discriminating faculties, and the Editor must be allowed to claim freedom from responsibility.] Queries to be answered in our 7.-Is it scriptural to hold that the death of Christ is vicarious ?-in other words, Am I as a sinner right in regarding the death of Jesus as a sacrifice of fered to the justice of the universe, for my sins;-and can a sinner's conscience, without realizing that satisfaction has been offered to offended justice, approve of God pardoning sin? L. J., Belfast. [WE hold it to be the duty of an Editor either to give an early notice of the books sent to him for remark, or to return them at once to the Publisher. It is unjust to praise worthless books; it is robbery to retain unnoticed ones.] LYRA SACRA, being a collection of Hymns, ancient and modern odes, and fragments of sacred poetry. Compiled and edited with a preface. By the Rev. BOUCHIER WRAY SAVILLE, M. A. London: Longman, Green and Co. "THE lamp of genius shines with the brightest lustre, when it is fed with the purest oil. Holy thoughts clothed in beauteous words form the essence of all true poetry." Amen! With a recognition of this sentiment as produced in this beautiful volume, all the poems here are of the choicest kind, and very few are to be found in any other volume. In order to enrich our pages, and stimulate our readers to procure the work for themselves, we intended to have re-, printed one or two in full, but a press of matter at the last moment has crowded out our extracts. The first poem in interest is a HYMN TO THE CREATOR, composed by Eupolis, one of the pupils of the "Great Socrates." The poem is remarkable, composed as it was five hundred years before Christ, by one who had never enjoyed the written revelation of God. The poet evidently belonged to one of that great class of thinkers in ancient heathendom, described by the apostle, as seeking the Lord, if happily they might feel after him. Though he be not far from every one of us." It begins: 66 "Author of being source of right." The next a thrilling hymn of the middle ages, by Peter Daurain, who lived in the eleventh century is terribly descriptive of THE JUDGMENT TO COME. The next is on the BURIAL OF MOSES, by an unknown author. There are but few poems in the English language that will approach, and we know of none that will excel, it in exquisite beauty. The next poem of especial interest in this volume is Milton's on his OLD AGE. It was evidently written when he was old and blind, and conscious of being on the verge of eternity. It is rarely, if ever, found in his usual collection and works. THE WORKS OF THOMAS GOODWIN, D.D., WITH MEMOIR by Dr. HALLEY, Principal of New College, London. Vol. II. Edinburgh: James Nichol. IN our August number we called the attention of our readers to Mr. Nichol's enterprise of publishing the most distinguished puritan Divines, and also noticed the first volume of Dr. Goodwin's works. Although we regard these old puritanic authors' expositions as inferior in many respects to those of some of our modern biblical exegetes, we heartily rejoice in their republication, for they afford an opportunity to the Biblical student of judging how much truth there is in the vaunted superiority of the old to the modern theologians. We have an impression, we hope it is not uncharitable, that the ministers who are constantly extolling the Old to the disparagement of the New, are men of fourth-rate ability among their contemporaries who have never made themselves acquainted with that which they extol ; whose adulations of the old are stimulated by desire to depreciate the productions of those modern authors whom they regard with a little of that envy which is characteristic of inferior natures. The memoir of the author in this volume by Dr. Halley, though not as brilliant and as photographic as some of the writer's previous productions led us to anticipate, is notwithstanding fraught with much valuable information, and written in the clear and easy style of one who is the master of his pen. Dr. Halley, however, has made an omission in his article, which to us is inexplicable and astounding. In presenting a list of ministers down even to the present occupant of the pulpit, who succeeded Dr. Goodwin in Fetter Lane Chapel, London, he omits the name of the Rev. Caleb Morris. Why is this? Was the writer ignorant of the fact that Mr. Morris officiated as the minister of this chapel we think for about twenty years? This could not have been the case, for Dr. Halley was the tutor of the Independent College, Highbury, during a large portion of that period, and the most intellectual of his students, used to resort to Fetter Lane on the Sabbath day;-indeed, Fetter Lane at that time was the great attraction to the students from all the Colleges in and about London. The omission could not spring from ignorance. Was it because he felt Mr. Morris too insignificant to deserve notice in the list of Goodwin's successors? The supposition is ridiculous. To give the history of Fetter Lane Chapel, without the name of Caleb Morris, is like giving that of Hamlet without his Father's ghost; of the Reformation without Melancthon; the Commonwealth without Cromwell. We write from experience, and under the influence of grateful reminiscences. When we came in verdant youthfulness from the principality to the metropolis, we were directed at the most critical stage in our spiritual history to this Fetter Lane, and for upwards of four years we attended the ministry of Mr. Morris. His popularity at this time was great, his influence over thinking young men was immense, and is felt to this day in the most vigorous pulpits in England. His congregation was made up at that time of that human stuff from which men are made. It is true he was no clique man; with denominational committees he would have nothing to do; from demonstrational ovations he shrank with a sensitive disgust; as an independent thinker he called no man master in theology; he preached Christ, not creeds. A ministry so rare in all that is broad, manly, and Christlike, is a ministry which we cannot allow to be ignored without some humble protest. POEMS SACRED AND DESCRIPTIVE WITH A TRIBUTE OF FRIENDSHIP. By Rev. J. GRAHAM. London: Judd and Glass. WE understand that Mr. Graham is a popular preacher, and a prosperous pastor. He here appears before us in a new capacity, that of a poet. In the preface he anticipates the astonishment of his congregation in finding him in this new character, he expects to hear them say, "How can you, with all your stated and occasional engagements, find time to write poems"? In these days when congregations expect so much from their ministers, it is interesting to know that there are some congregations who are likely to be astounded |