Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

it is a commonplace of history that many gorgeous civilisations bloomed out and faded in the East, from Egypt eastward to Hindostan, and all round to Asia Minor; and the more stable civilisations of ancient Europe shared the same fate. What gives its keenest edge to the pain such spectacles impart, is the thought that the incurable decay sets in precisely when majestic repose and pacific yet noble achievement seem to have become possible. It is because the poetry and the statuary of Greece were so beautiful, that we are distressed to see them ornamenting the grave of Greek civilisation. It is because the Roman, taking rank in the legion, or writing the law, was a grand specimen of man, that we look with amazed sadness upon the wretched Sybarites of the decline and fall. Nor had the diffusion of culture any appreciable tendency to arrest decay. The Greeks of the Lower Empire were philosophising about light, when their chains as a nation were being fastened; and the Roman youth flocked to the Universities of Greece and Egypt, when the strength of the Roman commonwealth was crumbling away. Turning with the spasmodic resolution of anguish from sights like these, the inquiring mind is apt to rush to the conclusion that there is no plan in history-that pantheistic flux and reflux is the highest law of things-and that it is best to exclaim with Mr. CARLYLE, "Alas! nothing will continue."

Two things we can advance on this subject with some degree of confidence. The first is, that the qualities and characteristics whose decay has heralded and proclaimed the fall of nations, have always been those connected with the moral rather than the intellectual

nature. The lights of culture have often been the ominous tokens presaging national death; but no people, while strong in faith, reverence, truthfulness, chastity, frugality and the simple household virtues, has sunk into national atrophy and paralysis. The second is, that there is much in the present state of European society, much even threatening ourselves, to indicate the failing moral vigor of civilisation. Negatively we have said that no nation, while retaining the simple and quiet virtues, has declined : positively we venture to add, that the unfailing symptoms of the distemper having set in have been a state of pervading excitement, a restlessness, an incapacity to enjoy natural and temperate pleasures. These have been associated with a combination, universally diffused, of pride and selfishness; man has conceived himself his own master; reverence and humility have passed away together; entertainment has become the grand object of existence; and universal triviality has ushered in the dance of death. Is there not much of this description that can be applied to our modern Europe? While the bloom of intellectual enlightenment is with us, have not the main branches, simplicity and chastity, and the stem of duty to GoD, begun to waste away? Is there not an atmosphere of excitement more or less encompassing us all? Has not amusement obtained more than its due place in the ideas of very many men? A necessity, a blessing, in its place, amusement, or even enjoyment,can never be the object of life. That is fixed for man. He cannot cast himself free of GOD. "To glorify GOD and to enjoy Him for ever;" this, as our antiquated fathers said, will be about the adequate

expression for man's chief end. The relaxation of the sense of responsibility to GOD, the assertion of a vacant, self-exalting pride against the GOD who is our Master, whether we choose or no, is at the heart of all our modern disarrangement. When we forget GOD, nature is no longer sufficient for our enjoyment. A hankering after inordinate, unnatural excitement urges us beyond the joys of simplicity and moderation. Can any one even think of the character of popular French literature-can any candid person think of the machinery and characters in several of the works of GOETHE-Without granting that this distempered yearning after the unnatural has shown itself in modern European society ? Other phenomena correspond. Rest becomes a weariness and impossibility. Social worship, on the part of persons of education, has, to an appalling extent, ceased over the continent; and we leave readers to determine how much, especially in our large cities, it has ceased among ourselves. The fever of which nations die has begun.

We believe that the state of Great Britain is more healthful than that of any continental country; but even we may do well to be warned. The grand supports of national stability are contentment with nature and allegiance to GOD. In our literature and our art, in our household arrangements and social customs, we must study simplicity, truthfulness, and quiet accordance with nature. We must learn the capacity of resting, and know that there may be a worthily-spent Sabbath, though it is not devoted to excited gaiety. We must learn to consider duty to GOD not a thing to be made subservient to our pleasure, or to be dispensed

with on the plea of discomfort. Worship we must learn to recognise as a reasonable and an inexorably imperative thing for man; we must unreservedly concede that he does not go to the house of God in order to interest himself, to pass an hour, to hear an eloquent sermon, but because he is by nature a God-knowing creature, called into existence to honor his CREATOR, and for whom it is not in the least a matter of choice or indifference whether he will honor HIM or no. We shall find that nature and GOD are in league. The natural joys of earth become dust in the mouth of him who knows not GOD; the pleasures of home and friendship, of the green field and dawning morning, of Christian fellowship and social worship, are sweet to him who is calmly and constantly conversant with the GOD of nature. The things and the pursuits of finitude become dignified and worthy in the light of the infinite; and we will not kill any of our seventy years of time if they are the vestibule to eternity.-Dial.

PATRIOTISM.

I, for one, do not call the sod under my feet my country. But language, religion, laws, government, blood;-identity in these makes men of one country. COLERIDGE.

THE FUNCTION OF FROST. This is a fine idea of Clarke's: The frost is God's plough, which he drives through every inch of ground in the world, opening each clod and pulverising the whole. EMERSON.

GRAVITATION.

What we call gravitation, and fancy ultimate, is one fork of a mightier stream for which we have yet no name. Ibid.

[blocks in formation]

A circumstance of importance in the figurative diction of the New Testament, relates to the source from which it is drawn. Our Lord himself generally adverts to the works of nature and the ordinary labors of men; but in the epistles, it is particularly observable that the materials of allusion, comparison and metaphor, by which doctrinal points are illustrated, are derived almost exclusively from the religious observances of the Old Testament; the constitution and the principal officers of the Israelitic state; the site and the services of the Temple; the sacrifices and the altar; the holy place and the mercyDR. PYE SMITH.

seat.

THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT.

It is a common thing for Christians of all times and all denominations to seek in the Old Testament that support for their favorite doctrines which they fail to find in the New.

MATHEMATICAL TRUTH.

The immense mass of mathematical truth which the intellectual labor of ages has accumulated is a vast group of splendid corollaries, logically deduced as necessary and unavoidable consequences of the very simplest facts that present themselves to the notice of man. DR. HALLE.

THE CONNECTION OF PROTESTANTISM WITH LANGUAGE.

It is a most significant circumstance that no large society of which the tongue is not Teutonic has ever turned Protestant, and that wherever a language derived from that of ancient Rome is spoken, the religion of modern Rome to this day prevails. MACAULAY.

HASTY CONCLUSIONS.

Men see a little, presume a great deal, and so jump to the conclusion. LOCKE.

SCIENCE.

[blocks in formation]

correctly. Opinions are equally the natural result of thought and the cause of conduct.

NATURE.

Everything in nature answers to a moral quality; is an ex

ternization of virtue. The poet need not put the shell to his ear in order to hear its music; and sees further into celestial space without the telescope than with it.

Literary Notices.

[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. unjust to praise worthless books; it is robbery to retain unnoticed ones.]

It is

THE REVIEWER'S CANON.

In every work regard the author's end,

Since none can compass more than they intend.

ARCHIPPUS; OR, THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. In a Series of Letters to a Young Minister. By PASTOR EMERITUS. London: Judd and Glass.

We have seen many works of this class, but not one which we could more confidently place in the hands of a young minister, or a student for the ministry. The experience of the author, who is evidently emeritus in both senses-veteran and meritorious-and his zeal tempered with soberness and sagacity, knowledge of human nature and of the world, enable him to give wise counsels to those at the door of a profession, in which, beyond all others, the tyro needs, and ought to be grateful for, help of this nature. While in some other works of the class, such as "Bickersteth's Christian Student," and " Bridges on the Christian Ministry," the student will find more detailed information on books, especially the old divines, we do not think that one of them equals this in those practical counsels for the conduct of the ministerial life, which are equally valuable, if not indispensable. We should augur much good for the colleges and the churches, were this book to become a common handbook amongst them.

THE UNITY OF THE FAITH, in its Relations to the Authority of Scripture, the Sacredness of Conscience, and the Supremacy of Christ. By the Rev. ALEXANDER LEITCH. Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot.

THIS is no ordinary book. The author conceives that "there is an urgent call for a revival inside the Christian community as well as the outside," and that in particular in regard of the charity which is so seriously violated by schism. He is evidently one of the choicest spirits of the church, and, like all such, has ardent aspirations after unity. This subject he treats with great philosophic ability. A considerable portion of the book is thrown into the form of dialogue between Bellarmine the Papist, Melancthon the Evangelical Protestant, Herbert of Cherbury the Deist, and Theophilus, who acts as umpire, and who, we presume, utters the sentiments of the author. We venture to predict for this work that it will have a very wholesome influence in the present position of ecclesiastical parties. If ever that obstinate dark spirit of jealousy and mistrust which now broods over the churches be dispelled, it will be by a sun which sends forth such rays of truth and love, light and heat in combination as irradiate the pages of this volume. Taking exception to a few Scotticisms, we cordially recommend the book, for glowing Christian affection, great intellectual ability, and considerable scholarship.

THE DIVINE LIFE IN MAN. By JAMES BALDWIN BROWN, B.A. Minister of Clayland's Chapel, Clapham Road, London. London: Ward and Co.

AMONGST the younger ministers of the Congregational Denomination, we understand Mr. Brown has long been conspicuous for a freedom of spirit, which awakened the hope, that, when he was no longer a stripling but had past into middle life, he would have effectually emancipated himself from the fetters of clique. In what measure that hope has been fulfilled or disappointed, we cannot say. It certainly looks well that this volume is dedicated to A. J. Scott, who is, we believe, one of the proscribed; though for what reason we cannot divine, unless it be for depth of thought and boldness of utterThe discourses themselves are manifestly intended to constitute a series, beginning as they do with "Paradise Lost," and ending with "The Way Home." A word for the discourses themselves. To compare them either to Robertson's or Guthrie's were beside the mark. They are extremely unlike either, and have a character and merit of their own. Vigorous thought within orthodox limits, somewhat extended; a practical piety, nicely steering between the Arminian

ance.

« AnteriorContinuar »