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REVIEWS-MOODY'S NEW TESTAMENT.

disease, which baffled the efforts of medical skill. There was a failing memory: but his clear, happy faith shone out, amidst his weakness, as unclouded as ever. The "closing scene was indeed peace.

I

"What a comfort it is,' he said, 'not to have to seek salvation now; I can enjoy a salvation found! I know whom I have believed. The Gospel is a reality. I find it to be so now.' And again, after an interval,- Salvation sought is with fear and trembling; salvation found is always ready.' When a cup of tea was offered him, he said, 'I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.' Soon after, he added, 'That is a notable testimony of St. Paul, know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him until the day of Christ.'' Then, turning to his wife, 'We ought to bear testimony to the truth of His promises.' She asked what message she should send to Kelshall,Say I am very happy in God's love. Yet a playful cheerfulness mingled with his deep, solid joy, and his bodily sufferings. When some severe remedies were applied, he said, 'These are fiery serpents. I wonder the Papists have never used them for instruments of torture, to extort confessions.' Then, soon after, I have so

many mercies, I ought to be full of praise. How easy love makes every thing, when we know the love of God! This is a sweet direction, In every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.' There is more divinity in that verse than in all the Fathers. It is a bit of gold that enriches; they talk of the gold of California, but the gold of that land is good.'"

This was on the 3rd of February, (1850.) On the 28th he fell asleep in Jesus, after a month's illness. For further particulars of that illness, we must refer to the Memoir.

In conclusion, we content ourselves with the expression of the hope, that the holy ardour displayed by Edward Bickersteth may be widely made known and imitated, and that, in order to this, the volumes in which his character is so accurately pourtrayed may occupy a permanent position on our readers' book-shelves, along with the memoirs of Newton, of Cecil, Simeon, and Pratt.

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A HAND-BOOK FOR THE APOCALYPSE. Being an Explanation of its Symbols, deduced exclusively from their use in other Scriptures. 18mo. pp. 139. Nisbet & Co.

The compiler of this small but most useful volume has acted on the remark-which he has also adopted as the motto of his work-made by Bishop Horsley, that "it is incredible to any one who has not made the experiment, what proficiency may be made by studying the Scriptures without any other commentary than what the different parts of the sacred volume mutually furnish for each other." As far as we have had opportunity to judge, the compiler of this Hand-book has made an accurate selection of illustrative texts, under the various passages of the Revelations which require to be solved by a reference to similar expressions in other parts of Scripture. The short and judicious notes with which the texts are interspersed, render the whole book an admirable auxiliary to the student, and also to the willing labourers in our Sunday schools.

THE NEW TESTAMENT, Expounded and

Illustrated according to the usual marginal references, in the very words of Holy Scripture; together with the Notes and Translations, and a complete marginal Harmony of the Gospels, in Two Parts. By the REV. C. MOODY, M. A., Magdalen Hall, Oxford; Perpetual Curate of Sebergham. Part 2. Longmans.

The title of the above work is amply sufficient to speak as well to its contents as to its value. In one page we have at full length, and without the trouble of further reference, all the parallel passages, while the usual notes are distinctly printed in the margin. Both the text and the parallel passages are admirably printed, and the two Parts, bound together, will form a New Testament of much typographical beauty, and great utility to the student in theology.

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This is a pamphlet which should be most widely circulated, and seriously read by fathers; indeed by all who have female relatives under their care. We are fallen upon times in which the open and secret agents of Rome are endeavouring to seduce our sons and daughters from the Protestant faith, and are using every art to kidnap the latter, and secure them in nunneries; and those especially who have property are the objects of their greedy ambition. Bishop Ullathorne, the pseudo Bishop of Birmingham, affects to consider the class of what he calls "Religious women," grievously wronged by

the remarks in which Mr. Drummond and other Protestant speakers and writers have ventured to indulge. Romish bishops and priests would fain have us believe that monasteries and nunneries are very heavens upon earth; spots where men and women, vowing seclusion from the world, and perpetual devotion to the service of the Romish Trinity,—God, Mary, and the Saints, spend their days in one unbroken round of piety, purity, and peace.

These men affirm that these monks and nuns are voluntary recluses from the world; and that it is a perfectly gratuitous undertaking for Protestants to attempt either to rescue them from the happiness of their cells, or to inform the minds of those not yet caged, as to the true character of the socalled retreats of virtue and devotion. The facts recorded by history, both of early and recent dates, are quite sufficient pleas for the opinions and protests of christian men, and even of those who are not influenced by such high and holy principles.

The commencement of Mr. Drum

mond's letter brings a singular, though perfectly correct, charge against the literary double dealing of Romish theologians and controversialists:

"The principal difficulty, in a discussion with Roman Catholic priests, arises from their using words, when writing on

matters connected with religion, in senses different from those in which those words are employed by all other writers. To assume that the clergy do this from ignorance, would be refuted by an appeal to their writings on other subjects, in which they show themselves not behind other people of ordinary education; to suppose that they do this with an intention to deceive, seems to be hard, without some proof of such intention. However the fact may be accounted for, it is nevertheless obvious, and will appear in the present case as we proceed, that their words are not to be trusted in their plain and obvious signification."

After this preliminary statement, Mr. D. dashes at once into the proof of his charges against the cruelty and wickedness practised in convents. He says, "The fact complained of is this,

young women are locked up for life in houses, the doors and windows of which are barred with iron; nothing is known by their parents and friends of what goes on within the walls, and the key of the prison is given to a priest.'

Of these people, Bishop Ullathorne thus speaks, "For these religious women are truly the most happy, the most cheerful, and the most peaceloving persons on the earth.'

To this assertion, Mr. Drummond makes the following happy rejoinder:

"Thus, then, we have a community of free ladies, all under a vow to remain in one house to say aves and paters; all prodigiously happy in this their useless vo

cation, and, of course, without the smallest inducement to leave their residence, but every motive of duty and happiness combined to make them remain where they are so contented, and, above all, 'in perfect security from despotic power.'

"It is singular that, to a body of ladies so circumstanced, holy Church should have come forward to give them the collateral security of felons' bars and a Chubb's lock. True, holy Church teaches the merit of works of supererogation, but no work was so entirely useless as locking and barring up people in a place where they are the most happy and the most cheerful' persons on the earth. Poets have imagined, with great propriety, bars and bolts to keep the unhappy in Tartarus, Purgatory, and Hell; but the imagination of Popish priests alone has gone the length of devising similar means of keeping the blessed in Heaven. Never

REVIEWS FRESH GATHERINGS FOR CHRISTIAN CHILDREN. 329

theless, in the Council of Trent, which they hold of more authority than the word of God, 'The holy synod enjoins on all bishops that they make it their especial care that the enclosure of nuns be carefully restored wherever it has been violated-repressing, by ecclesiastical censures and other penalties, without regarding any appeal whatever, the disobedient and the gainsayers, and calling in for this end, if need be, the aid of the secular arm.' Bishop Ullathorne burns with wellfeigned indignation at the notion of magistrates being appointed to see that young women are not tyrannised over by heartless priests; but not one word of complaint ever escapes his lips, or of any one of his class, at magistrates and constables being employed to incarcerate them in these gaols and workhouses, which they call religious houses. Yet 'The holy synod exhorts Christian princes to furnish this aid; and enjoins, under pain of excommunication, to be ipso facto incurred, that it be rendered by all civil magistrates. But for no nun, after her profession, shall it be lawful to go out of her convent, even for a brief period, under any pretext what

ever, except for some lawful cause, which is to be approved of by the bishop.'-Sess. XXV. c. v.

"It is impossible to give a more accurate description of a prison than that which the priests and monks, assembled at Trent, have here done. The description would answer equally well for the Bastile, for Coldbath Fields, or Newgate."

Although we cannot transfer to our pages the telling facts gathered and recorded by Mr. Drummond in proof of his assertions, we do most sincerely believe that not one of them is inconsistent with truth; and that were it possible for many a poor consciencestricken priest to unburden his breast, or were the hapless victims of monastic and conventual horror and misery, freed from their hideous mockery of voluntary seclusion from the world, we are sure that these actors and victims in a system of fraud, hypocrisy, and cruelty, could disclose far more revolting and convincing testimony that these so-called "religious houses are, in point of fact, either prisons or brothels; indeed, with greater truth, one might say that they are both."

The British Parliament, on the clamour of Irish Romanists, professed to be scandalized with the utterance of the above words, by one of their Pro

testant fellow-members; let it beware that, in their own families, they may they did not, as senators, care to acnot too speedily have to lament that knowledge as truth what, as men of education and common sense, they cannot in reality fail to know and believe. FRIENDLY OBSERVATIONS, addressed to the Sculptors and Artists of Great Britain, and to Foreign Contributors, on some of their works in the Great Exhibition. By a Lover of Painting and Sculpture. pp. 30. J. F. Shaw.

In a recent article upon the opening of the Great Exhibition, we dwelt for a while upon the very topic on which this little brochure treats. There is much in the pages of this appeal to the morals and feelings of our artists, that we entirely subscribe to; and we could wish that one capable of writing so well and so faithfully had not withholden his name. We are sure that in our own country at least, many thousands of the visitors to the Crystal Palace would sympathise with the statements and arguments by which the author seeks to correct the glaring faults which detract from the true value of the rich and beautiful treasures in our temple of peace. With our author's remedy we are not prepared to deal; we must leave for the consideration of our sculptors and artists, the question whether it be possible, by his suggestions, so to remove the well-founded objections of all really morally minded men and women, who must feel strongly that such objections do exist within the wonderful enclosure at Hyde Park.

FRESH GATHERINGS FOR CHRISTIAN

CHILDREN. By the Author of "The
Good Shepherd," &c. &c. pp. 198.
London. J. H. Jackson.

The best way of introducing this
little book, which is a compilation of
interesting and instructive stories for
children from seven to twelve years
of age, is to let the compiler tell his
own story. In his prefatory remarks
he says,
"I am a planter and a ga-
therer of flowers and fruit for chil-
dren, but my nosegays and my bas-

kets all fall into the shape of little books, with pleasant stories and thoughts of what is good for young folks, who have to pass through a world where sin and sorrow are ever mingled with the good and happy.' From our own perusal of this very

prettily illustrated gift-book for Christian children, we can truly say that it may be very safely and very profitably placed in their hands by those most alive to their real pleasure, and, what is far better, their spiritual instruction and eternal welfare.

Entelligence.

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In the present session of parliament the abstract question of Church Reform has gained much by frequent discussion upon the sources and management of episcopal revenues. The most strenuous supporters of the Church must be daily becoming more sensible that some thorough and systematic plan of Church Reform must be promulgated by its friends, or it will inevitably be taken in hand by parties hostile to its best interests. Our wisdom, as men who are bent upon the maintenance of the Established Church in all its integrity of pure Christian and Protestant doctrine, will be to head a movement in favour of absolutely needed reform, and not to wait until unsafe minds and hands shall proceed to frame and carry measures either grievously detrimental or entirely destructive. There are those from whom, above all others, this line of wisdom might be confidently expected, but who completely disappoint the just expectations of those who are accustomed to look up to them as advisers.

In our editorial capacity, as well as in our individual experience, we have lately had reason to know, that those who have station, influence, and a sincere desire to accomplish much of real good, for the stability, extension, and more perfect purity of the Church in its outward as well as in its more internal condition, are trammelled and kept back by the very class who ought to encourage and urge them forward.

We know this to be especially the case with reference to the vital and growing question of a liturgical revision;-Evangelical clergymen, and one or two of their most received literary organs, are continually speak

ing and writing in the most determined but unreasonable strain of opposition, even to the consideration of the subject; while those who have minds unfettered by prejudice, and hands and tongues untied by clerical subscriptions, cannot but see and declare the false foundation on which their satisfaction or continued acquiescence in the present state of the liturgy, now rests. We are desirous that our Evangelical clerical brethren should be awakened from the dream of security in which they are indulging;-those, who are enabled from their daily intercourse with the world at large, and who are not limited by the opinions, prejudices, and fears, of a class, are anything but satisfied with the grounds, hypothetical or conditional, on which they contend for the maintenance of our present ritual intact.

We have lately received some intelligence that leads us to implore those who are right-minded in doctrine, not to allow that doctrine to be evil spoken of, by their repugnance to a movement having for its object the more perfect development and spread of the faith they love.

It is the height of imprudence, as it is manifestly unjust, to fight as long as possible against the adoption of changes, which in the sight of God we know to be called for; it will be the ruin of the Church, if those who know and love the truth, do not range themselves on the side of those who are zealous that the Church shall no longer speak in language that may and does countenance its opposite quality.

While we deprecate and take no part in premature and rash movements, which while they themselves naturally do but fall to the ground, yet injure the cause they espouse,—

INTELLIGENCE-ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL.

yet we anxiously wait and pray for some course of action, spiritually and prudently directed, which may issue in the good of the Church and the glory of the Redeemer's kingdom.

THE BISHOPRIC OF BOMBAY.

We are sincerely gratified by the nomination of the Rev. JOHN HARDING, of St. Ann's, Blackfriars, to the see of Bombay, vacant by the resignation of Dr. Carr, on the ground of continued ill health. Mr. Harding's career, as an eminently faithful and useful parochial minister, is well known to the readers of the Christian Guardian; while his active support and defence of the Church Pastoral Aid Society, with other kindred Associations, gives abundant promise that the evangelical labours of a Wilson in Calcutta, and a Dealtry in Madras, will find a zealous coadjutor in Harding of Bombay.

It has been wise for our Government to step out of the beaten track of high university standing and college life, to take from a parish of the metropolis a man so eminently fitted to adorn the episcopate. We wish that in the appointments for home service in the Church, our rulers did not deem it so essential almost always to select from a body of men, who, whatever may be their qualifications for presiding over colleges and halls, do not necessarily possess the gifts requisite for the administration of a diocese.

THE JEWISH BILL.

It is needless to disclaim any participation in a spirit of persecution when we say that we rejoice in the fresh rejection of this Bill by the House of Lords. We are glad that their lordships were not beguiled by the plausible argument, that as we had admitted the Romanist we could not exclude the Jew. The commission of one national sin is no plea for the perpetration of another; besides, in the emancipation of the Papists, its advocates had the colour of the truth

that they were pleading for equal rights for fellow-Christians; but here the partics claiming admission to

331

parliament are professed unbelievers in and abhorrers of the entire christian faith of this country. If the Jews should ever succeed in overturning this last national barrier, we cannot imagine for a moment how the Church of England can remain in alliance with a State which shall consent to admit those who deny and deride the Rock upon which it is alone built, to share in its virtual government. We did protest, and we do protest, against its being legislated for by Romanists; but the Church must do something more than protest, if the decision of christian or Church questions may hinge on the votes of Jewish senators.

ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL.

The House of Lords has dealt vigorously with the above Bill; and before these pages are published, it will most probably have passed into the law of the land. We accept the measure, such as it is; but we warn our Government, present as well as future, that to satisfy the deep feelings of a Protestant people, it must be acted upon, whenever and wherever the Romanists shall dare to set its enactments at defiance.

The debates on this measure have served to draw out, in a very remarkable way, the religious tendencies of our leading statesmen, and it has been without surprise that we have marked the steady opposition with which the shadow of the Peel party has met its progress. Mr. Gladstone, Sir J. Graham, S. Herbert, the Duke of Newcastle, the Earl of Aberdeen, and others of this class, have so perfectly damaged their reputation by the course they have taken, that we trust the country will reject with determination all pretensions on their part ever again to assume the govern

ment.

While we must accord to Lord John Russell some degree of praise, in his perseverance in carrying some Bill through the Commons, yet the manner in which he met, and opposed to the last, all amendments having for their object the effective execution of the measure, has considerably

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