condemned, and they combine in our view so much of the true and the practical and the vital in religion, that we must be suffered to express our pleasure at meeting them in such a connexion. And yet we are not able to recommend the book that contains them. With much that is admirable, there are portions which we should hesitate to submit to any young and unreflecting or undiscriminating mind. Especially in the chapter on "Future Existence;" in which the school-boy is told to imagine himself hereafter, standing among "pirates, and murderers, and debauchees, the inmates of all dens of pollution, drunkards, blasphemers, and all who have passions violent and malignant"—to be his companions forever—while "afar off in the distance," he sees all the pure and happy, and among them discerns his father and mother, and yet feels that "with fiends for his companions, and endless woe for his portion, he is never more to see them." We cannot believe that such pictures will ever make a child better, and we have no disposition to try the experiment. To some boys and girls whom we know, of settled mind and quiet and cheerful faith, we should be inclined to give this book, for the great preponderance of good it contains; but from the mass, we should withhold it.

Riches without wings is a good book-a very good bookfor children or adults, for the family or the school. We know not who Mrs. Seba Smith is, though we take it she is a real personage. But real or fictitious, if she can write as well as this, she can do good, and is called to do it. Let her throw rather less of common love and courtship into her storiesthis is rather a blemish, than an objection in the present story -and she may use her pen profitably for others, if not for herself. The title of the book is remarkably happy, the whole thought is a good one, and the execution good.

The Sailor Reclaimed has been just published in Boston, and was written evidently for the benefit of the Bethel there, perhaps in connexion with the late Fair. It is a simple, probable, moving story of a young and fresh sailor-boy reclaiming an old sinner and helping him to become a happy

christian. Some scenes in the story, particularly the death and burial of a hardened but at last subdued seaman, convicted and wretched in death, are well drawn and will go to the hearts of all who read them. The best portion of the book is in the beginning, and it is not as well sustained as one would have expected, from the materials and the power of the writer. But it is a good thing decidedly, and no one need fear procuring it for his own children or a Sunday school.

Shanty the Blacksmith attracted us by its name and face, and as we had read nothing of Mrs. Sherwood for a long time, we sat down in a book-store and ran through it. But we did not buy it. And though we would by no means advise that no one should buy it, we yet would strongly advise that they read it first. For those who like that class of stories, it is very well worth its price and time. It is rather a large book, and aims at the highest religious impression. But gipsy stories, and those too which are wild and improbable, young novels in disguise, we do not relish. They are often entertaining, as is this, and quite harmless, as this is also. But for children we think there is better food provided, and enough of it. It is curious to think of Mrs. Sherwood writing such stories. It shows what power a good name has, especially an orthodox name, to carry anything through. Think of this Lady and her books, in comparison with certain countrywomen of our own, whose writings, of whatever character, would never find their way into a great proportion of the Sunday School libraries in the land! H.

THE MINISTRY AT LARGE. Second Report addressed to the Committee of the Liverpool Domestic Mission Society, by their first Minister to the poor. October, 1838.

We have read this report by the Rev. J. Jones, with peculiar interest. It is cheering to see that in distant cities this good work is going so nobly on. That not only the rich but the

poor, have the Gospel preached to them. That there are men who will go among them—of high moral worth, sound judgment, and untiring industry-to exhort-to advise and reclaim. In every city throughout christendom there should be those who devote themselves to the poor, to sympathise with the afflicted, to enlighten the ignorant, to snatch from ruin the tempted.

We quote two passages from this report, which are interesting as the testimony of one who has had much personal experience among the poor.

"let me

"Let me observe," says the writer of the report, observe, to the honour of our common nature-and the glory of Him, who only knows its essence and its issues—that the instances I have witnessed of the kindness of the poor to one another, have been such as to convince me, that, do what you will with humanity, you cannot wholly quench the divine ray within it. I am not now speaking of those passing and easy kindnesses which cost no effort and demand no sacrifice, but of those which really required both exertion and self-denial, and which were wrought to all appearance, without the slightest expectation that they would ever become known beyond the spot which gave them birth. I speak of dangers encountered from infectious disorders; of nights passed in watching by the sick beds of those who had no claim of affinity and no power to reward; of arrears suffered to accumulate when there was no hope of their being discharged; of compassion shown to the orphan and the widow, to the destitute and the mind-stricken, which would have shed a lustre upon religion, had it been prompted by religious motives, but which in most instances is to be referred, I believe, to the active instincts of the heart, called by strong sympathy into unwonted but not unnatural life. I rejoice in bearing this imperfect testimony to the existence of that which clearly proves the possibility of extensive good being wrought among the lower orders of society, by those who have the time, the will, and the power, to call forth those imperishable instincts into less precarious and intermittent action." p. 10.

In another part of the Report the writer adds :—

"I have never found a human being all evil. In the lowest and the worst, in the most brutalized and malevolent, I have found traces and seen proofs of something indestructibly good, hidden perhaps, but yet distinct and distinguishable, like honey in the cup of the poisonous flower. I have generally found,

also, that men are bad, when they are so, not from the agency of many vices, but of one. One single vice becomes the moving impulse of many. It throws the whole moral constitution off its balance. Reform the one false point, and the equilibrium of the whole is, in some measure, restored. The self-rectifying principle recovers its liberty of action. The disturbing influence is withdrawn, and the shaking magnet of duty again points more or less tremulously to its pole. In many instances, I have watched with the deepest interest the outward and visible signs of this interesting moral process." p. 14.

NEW PUBLICATIONS. Among the new works which met our eye on the counters of the book shops, during the Anniversary week, were many of great interest. The "Works of Buckminster," in two neat volumes, 12mo. we were especially glad to see, and hail their appearance with hearty congratulation. It is long since his sermons were out of print; they are now put within the reach of all. Additions are made to the present edition, to the amount of nearly half a volume; among which are the very beautiful and affecting notices of Mr. Buckminster's character which appeared shortly after his death in the General Repository. Dr. Palfrey's Dudleian Lecture on Natural Religion, and Mr. Dewey's Sermon at the Dedication of the new Unitarian Church in New York, are among the welcome pamphlets of the day. Miss Sedgwick's "Means and Ends: or, Self-Training;" a very charming and useful book for young people. Mrs. Follen's "Poems," a handsome volume, filled with most pleasing productions of what may be called the social and domestic muse.

INTELLIGENCE.

CONDITION OF THE JEWS.-It is becoming evident in many quarters, that the hope which the Jews have always cherished of a final restoration to Palestine, is becoming more strong and vivid. It is manifested by the constantly increasing numbers of pilgrims to the Holy Land. Several thousand Jews in Russia and Poland have bound themselves by an oath to go as soon as possible to Jerusalem, and spend their time in fasting and praying unto the Lord, until he shall send the Messiah. The number of Jews in Palestine has increased wonderfully within a few years. Forty thousand are now there, where for years scarcely two thousand could be found. In all parts of the earth, the hope of a restoration to the Holy Land is warmly cherished.

"Already," says the London Quarterly Review, "some of the Jews assemble themselves on the eve of their Sabbath under the walls of Jerusalem, where the abomination of desolation still standeth, and chant in mournful melody the Lamentation of their Jeremiah, or sing, with something like a dawn of hope—

But a more interesting fact to us is the disposition of the Jews to listen to and examine the arguments of Christians in regard to the Messiah. Along the north coast of Africa, in Palestine and in Poland, the Christian Missionaries are visited by crowds of inquiring Jews. As a consequence of this more friendly intercourse between Jews and Gentiles, kinder feelings are entertained by the Jews towards their converted brethren. The amount of conversions from Judaism to Christianity has not been large, relatively to the actual numbers of Israel, yet large enough to encourage the hearts of Christians. Among the converts, several have become ministers of the Church of England; on the Continent we find many among the Lutheran and Reformed Clergy; there are three professors and two lecturers, formerly Jews, in the University of Breslau. A great part of the success in the conver