There were many tears and sobs in the congregation. The infidel husband was overwhelmed; and from that day and hour he renounced infidelity, shortly after became a member of the Church, and lived to adorn the Christian religion.

"Mr. Collins believed in a special Providence, and he did not confer with flesh and blood, under a strong impulse of duty. And he yielded to the gentler emotions of the Spirit for good, even though he might not clearly see how the good was to be effected. The inclination to take the right-hand road was prompted, as he no doubt believed, by Providence, of which he could entertain no doubt when he saw the funeral procession, and preached to the mourning crowd. And is this too small a matter for Deity? Peter was called to preach to Cornelius; and his objections were overcome in an extraordinary manner. Philip, being prompted by the Spirit, joined himself to the chariot of the eunuch, and 'preached to him Jesus.' And who, that believes the Bible, does not believe that the same Spirit operates, more or less, upon Christians of the present day? The mode of its action may not seem to be miraculous; but it is spiritually discerned. It is a divine agency—that spirit, or light, a portion of which is given to every man. It leads to good actions and happy results. And we are commanded not to quench the Spirit. Every religion, without this spirit, is cold and lifeless. John says: 'Believe not every spirit; but try the spirits, whether they are of God.' The revelator was 'in the spirit on the Lord's day.' The apostles,' after they came to Mysia, assayed to go into Bythinia; but the Spirit suffered them not.'

"This doctrine is Scriptural; and it affords the sweetest consolation to the Christian. He can readily believe, if a 'sparrow falls not to the ground without his notice,' and the 'very hairs of his head are numbered,' that there is a special providence in his ways. And this encourages him to be firm under the most trying emergencies."-Pp. 62-66.

Scattered through the work are several very suggestive passages in regard to the duties, responsibilities, and rewards of the Christian minister. From among them we select the following:

Who can estimate the good that may be done by a devoted minister of the Gospel? Whether at home or abroad, on a journey, or engaged in his pastoral labour, every day brings to him new duties and privileges. The dawn of every morning is new to himself and to the world, and it constitutes a new chapter in the great drama of life. The sun rises to its zenith and then declines, as it has done since the beginning of time. How numerous and important are the events of each day! Physical nature, true to its laws, moves onward in its infinite modes of operation; but moral agency affords a theme of contemplation, of far higher and deeper importance than the laws of matter, whether applied to this globe, or to the endless systems of the universe. On this moral agency is founded our accountability, and the day of judgment. And each accountable individual, every day of his life, adds something to that record by which he shall be judged. Is this, indeed, true? It is, if the Scriptures be true. What importance is thus given to the events of each day! and how little do we reflect upon it!

"But the pious minister of the Gospel, who has given up all for Christ, improves every hour in every day, in recommending the religion he professes. He does this in his appearance, in his words, and in his acts; and the impulse thus given increases with time. In this way the works of many are seen and felt, long after their acts have been forgotten by the living. But in the day of judgment, nothing shall be lost. All things will then be made manifest in the presence of the human race. What a glorious reward will await the faithful minister!"-Pp. 89-91.

On the qualifications essential to the preacher of the Gospel, the sentiments of this writer may be of use to some who are getting wiser than their fathers :

"The man who aspires to eminence, must consider his work only begun when he leaves college. He has laid a foundation for a structure, which it will require his whole life to complete. But if he rest upon his college course, in a few years he will forget almost all that is valuable which he has learned. To avoid this, he must constantly add to his stock of information. But the man who cannot claim these

advantages, is often more studious in the acquisition of knowledge, from a consciousness of his deficiency. And this applies especially to the itinerant members of the Methodist Church. They are in the daily practice of preaching to a different congregation, which requires the exercise of their talents, and urges them to the attainment of knowledge. Facts will show how much many of these men, in vigorous eloquence and power, surpass those who have passed through college. Every man must make himself; the college cannot do this for him. Some who had very few advantages in early life, may be most emphatically said to be great men. Indeed, every man who becomes eminent, must be, in a substantial sense, a self-made man. "Bishop M'Kendree was not a classical scholar; and yet there has not appeared in the Methodist connexion a finer model as a preacher. He was eloquent, in the true sense of the term. Few men ever filled the pulpit with greater dignity and usefulness; and the beautiful simplicity of his sermons was, perhaps, unequalled in our country.

"Classical learning is of great value, and should be acquired, if practicable, by every individual who aims at a professional life. But this learning does not qualify an individual for the high duties of the pulpit or the bar. There must be a deeper knowledge, which can only be attained by much reading and mature reflection. An individual who is brought in contact with men, and whose aim it is to influence them, must become acquainted with the sympathies of human nature. And he must himself possess those sympathies in a high degree, or his efforts will be in vain. How often have we seen men in the pulpit, with great zeal, and in a vociferous manner, speak for hours without producing any other effect than weariness on their hearers! Such speakers, however zealous, are strangers to those gushing emotions of the heart which, with an electric effect, are imparted to the auditory. Without these, no man can be eloquent. He may be instructive; he may string his sentences together, and embody all the figures of rhetoric, but he can never reach and overcome the citadel of the heart. And unless he can do this, he can never become a successful instrument of reform."-Pp. 46-49.

We should be glad to quote more largely from this little book did our space allow, but we hope our readers will all procure and enjoy it for themselves.

ART. X.-SHORT REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS.

(1.) MESSRS. LANE & SCOTT have just issued a small and beautiful devotional volume, entitled "Living Waters, drawn from the Fountains of Holy Scripture and Sacred Poetry, for Daily Use," (18mo., pp. 200.) It contains a passage of Scripture and a stanza of verse for every morning and evening throughout the year, the texts being alphabetically arranged under each month. The utility of such manuals has long been known; and this is a very neat and convenient one. It has the novel advantage of an Index of subjects at the end, thus making it serve for a collection of Scripture promises.

(2.) MESSRS. HUNTINGTON & SAVAGE (New-York) are indefatigable and deservedly successful school-book publishers. So far as we have examined their publications, there has not been a bad one among them. This course, continued, will make their imprint of itself a recommendation for a book. They have just issued a new edition of Burritt's "Geography of the Heavens, revised and corrected by O. M. MITCHELL, A. M., Director of the Cincinnati Observatory," with a new Atlas to illustrate the text, containing twenty-four

star-charts. To adapt the work to the present state of the science, Prof. Mitchell has in great part re-written it; and the charts have been prepared expressly for it. The same publishers have sent us Woodbury's “Youth's SongBook for Schools, Classes, and the Social Circle," whereof, not being musical, we cannot speak with any knowledge.

(3.) MESSRS. HARPER & BROTHERS are now publishing in numbers the "Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, by his son, REV. C. C. SOUTHEY, M. A," to be completed in six parts, of which we have received two, carrying the biography down to 1805. It is hardly possible that any of the subsequent numbers can be equal in interest to the first, which contains an auto-biography (in that delicious prose of which Southey was the rarest master) of the first fifteen years of his life. The change in passing from it to his son's writing, is like the transition from a smooth highway to a cross-road full of ruts and stones. But the son has wisely chosen to write very little; the book, as far as we have it, is made up mostly of Southey's letters,-and delightful gossiping, easy, erudite letters they are. Till we have the whole, we have nothing to say in the way of criticism; thanks are all we have to utter for so rich a feast as the book has afforded us. We quote one passage for the benefit of our readers-and our own. Remember that Southey wrote more reviews perhaps than any man of his time, and then see what he says in a letter of March 30th, 1804:

"I look upon the invention of reviews to be the worst injury which literature has received since its revival. People formerly took up a book to learn from it, and with a feeling of respectful thankfulness to the man who had spent years in acquiring that knowledge, which he communicates to them in a few hours; now they only look for faults. Everybody is a critic; that is, every reader imagines himself superior to the author, and reads his book that he may censure it, not that he may improve by it."-P. 177.

(4.) "History of the Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, from the Organization of the Missionary Society to the Present Time, by REV. W. P. STRICKLAND, A. M." (Cincinnati, Swormstedt & Power, 1850: 12mo., pp. 338.) A record, in permanent form, of the Missionary operations of the Methodist Episcopal Church, has begun to be a necessity; the Reports of former years being now quite rare. This volume digests the substance of these Reports, and a great deal of other matter, under appropriate heads, into a connected narrative of the whole work. It is divided into twelve chapters. The first gives an account of the organization of the society. We should have been glad to see here an account of the "Missionary Society within the bounds of the Philadelphia Conference," which was formed before the present Parent Society. Chapters II-IV. treat of the home work, namely, the missions to destitute points within the bounds of the several conferences, and the missions among the Indian tribes. Chapters V -X. are occupied with the foreign missions in Africa, Oregon, South America, Texas, and China. The Mission to the Germans of our own country is exhibited separately in the ninth chapter. The twelfth chapter is an urgent appeal in behalf of missions; and an

Appendix contains several valuable speeches and other missionary documents. We wish we could finish our summary by mentioning a copious Inder, but that feature, so essential to the usefulness of a book of reference like this, is unfortunately wanting. We hope the author will supply the lack for his next edition, and we trust that many editions may be called for. The book should be read by every Methodist minister, and placed in every Methodist family.

(5.) AMONG recent biographies we have been more edified by none than by "Memoirs of Mrs. Angeline B. Sears, with Extracts from her Correspondence, by MRS. M. HAMLINE." (Cincinnati, Swormstedt & Power: NewYork, Lane & Scott: 18mo., pp. 294.) There was nothing very remarkable in Mrs. Sears' experience until the last year of her life, but that year was full of blessing to her; and the modest record of it given in this little book will, we trust, be made a blessing to the Church.

(6.) "Sketches of Minnesota, the New-England of the West, by E. S. SEYMOUR,” (New-York, Harper & Brothers: 12mo., pp. 281.) The expansion of our country is almost fearful. Here is a new book about a far-off land in the North-West, of which but a few years ago less was known than of the antipodes; and the book tells us not only of surveys and pre-emptions, but of towns and villages, of churches and schools, springing up as by magic. The writer is evidently unpractised in author-craft, but he sees well, and describes well what he sees. The book is divided into two parts, of which the first gives the history of the territory now known as Minnesota, and the second contains the author's itinerary through it. We commend it to all who think of emigration to the great North-West.

(7.) "Ireland as I saw it: the Character, Condition, and Prospects of the People, by W. S. BALCH," (New-York, G. P. Putnam, 1850: 12mo., pp. 432,) is a sketch prepared, we should think, in haste, of a rapid journey through certain parts of Ireland. The book is too large for the matter. But the author has a quick eye, and he has given some very graphic descriptions, as well as shrewd remarks, upon the state of Ireland and its causes.

(8.) “An Historical Geography of the Bible, by Rev. LYMAN COLEMAN," (Philadelphia: E. H. Butler & Co., 1850: 12mo., pp. 513,) is a work prepared with truly German skill and diligence, and at the same time adapted to practical use in families, as well as in school and College classes. The results of modern research in sacred Geography and Topography are set forth in connexion with the history of each locality; thereby securing a double association to interest the student, and to fix what he reads in his memory. Appended to the book are valuable historical tables, with Indexes to the passages of Scripture quoted,

a general Index, and, what is of special value, an Index of places, with references to their localities on the maps. The maps themselves are not old ones reproduced, as is too often the case in books of this class, but have been carefully prepared anew, on the basis of Kiepert's Bibel Atlas. The book is one of the few that we can commend without any reservation.

(9.) MR. G. P. R. JAMES, who has written so many scores of novels, has of late betaken himself, with his wonted industry, to history. But whether his latest book, "Dark Scenes of History," (New-York, Harper & Brothers, 12mo., pp. 419,) be history or fiction, it puzzles us to say. On the whole we are inclined to think it is history, with just as little of the novel-painting as one so long used to making pictures could well lay on. The "Scenes" are sketches of those dark events in human history which are associated with the names of Herod, Arthur of Brittany, Perkin Warbeck, and Wallenstein; of the barbarous cruelties by which the proud order of the Templars was finally extinguished, and of the not less barbarous persecutions endured by the Albigenses. Altogether the book, truthful though it be, is too dark for our taste. It affords proof, however, that the horrors of history in reality transcend those of fiction.

(10.) "The Early Conflicts of Christianity, by Rev. W. INGRAHAM KIP, D. D." (New-York, D. Appleton & Co., 12mo., pp. 288.) The plan of this book is admirably conceived. The outward obstacles which Christianity had to encounter in the outset, in the way of persecution and oppression, have been often detailed. This book, on the other hand, undertakes to sketch the spiritual and intellectual enemies which Christ's truth had to encounter, and exhibits them under the five heads of Judaism, Grecian Philosophy, the Licentious Spirit of the Age, Barbarism, and the Pagan Mythology. Dr. Kip, in his Preface, characterizes the work as a "gleaning from the writings of those who have gone before,”—and he was wise in so doing; for he owes a great deal, both of substance and language, to the authors whom he cites, if we may judge from a glance at one or two of his references. But, as a well-conceived and wellprepared compilation, the book has merit.

(11.) MESSRS. PHILLIPS, SAMPSON, & Co., of Boston, have commenced issuing "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by EDWARD GIBBON," with Milman's Notes. It will be completed in six volumes, duodecimo, uniform with their neat edition of Hume; and will be the most portable and convenient edition of Gibbon ever issued. A new and copious Index will be added.

(12.) THE sixth and last volume of "Hume's History of England" (Phillips, Sampson, & Co., Boston, 12mo., pp. 554) has appeared. It ends with a complete Index to the whole work. We renew our recommendation of this edition as one of surpassing neatness, cheapness, and convenience.