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The Old Bachelor of the Scottish Village. Edinburgh:
Myles Macphail. 1845.

There is really a great deal of vigorous writing and clever painting in these sketches. There is much good feeling, religious and moral, pervading it. Still it is too much of the mere novel; and often there is more of lightness in it than suits our taste.

Protest of the Free Church of Scotland, Illustrated by Subsequent Facts. Edinburgh: W. P. Kennedy.

We need do nothing more than announce this new and neat edition of the Protest,--an edition which has been enriched by a few pages of forcible remarks and historical facts.

The Present Aspect of the World, and the Future Prospects of the Church. By Rev. A. M'GILVRAY, of the Free Church, Keith. Edinburgh: W. P. Kennedy, 1845.

We thank Mr M'Gilvray for this most seasonable word of warning, upon the present aspect of the world and the prospects of the Church. May it be blest for arousing a slumbering church and a careless world, to listen for the midnight cry, Behold the Bridegroom cometh!

Sharpe's London Magazine. Parts I. and II. Nov. and Dec., 1845.

This Magazine does not lie altogether in our way; yet as it has come before us, we cannot help bearing testimony to the ability which pervades it, and the singular beauty of execution in all its parts, pictorial and typographical, external as well as internal.

Hogg's Weekly Instructor. Edinburgh: J. Hogg. Part 8.

This periodical still moves on, much as before,—on the whole good and clever, but in several parts too light for us.

Cardiphonia Latina: sive Epistolæ quædam Humaniores, in quibus Vita Christiane Ratio fusius explicatur, et jam tandem in Usum Piorum Literis Latinis illustratur. Londini: S. Bagster.

This is a Latin translation of some of John Newton's letters, neatly printed and well executed. As the preface is not long, we shall allow the translator to speak for himself :

"The following little work was first published several years ago, and a few words may be expected in explanation of a second edition being sent forth, and indeed of its having been published at all.

"The object which the translator had in view (it will easily be seen that the work is a translation of a few of John Newton's letters, entitled Cardiphonia) was to meet the wants of such as might desire to become more familiar with the Latin language, without becoming in a correspond

ing degree familiar with the folly and impurity of heathen habits of thought.

"It is not for a moment supposed that any one could become a classical scholar without studying the classics. Such an idea would be as unreasonable as that of learning the arts of swimming or navigation on dry land. But the power of consulting critical or professional works written in Latin, and especially of using lexicons or grammars intended to facilitate the study of the original Scriptures, is needed by many who have neither leisure nor inclination for the attainment of a high degree of classical knowledge. For such, more particularly, these pages are designed. To supply the deficiency thus supposed to exist, one of two alternatives may be recommended:-1. The study of the Latin fathers. -2. The use of Latin versions of the Scriptures themselves. With regard to the latter, it is hardly too much to say that a close translation will be barbarous in proportion to its fidelity. To this rule Castellio is no exception, whose elegance is the measure of his departure from the simplicity of the Word of God. And with regard to the fathers, most who know the value of the Gospel will admit that it is safer, even in a doctrinal point of view, to learn Latin from Cicero than from them. Without venturing to recommend the Hamiltonian system, it being too superficial for general use, the writer would suggest, by the way, that there is some advantage in having the originals wherewith to compare the Latin version written in correct and elegant English.

"In few words, if the object of the translator has been in any measure attained, the following will be a description of his success: that a manual has been furnished, of sound matter and correct Latinity, for the use of such as may desire to familiarise themselves or others with the Latin language, without exposure to the evils too commonly resulting from the study of Roman authors.

، There was, indeed, another purpose which entered largely into the original design of the writer. This was the benefit of continental readers, among the educated portion of whom the tract might have a wider circulation than if translated into any one of the modern languages of Europe. With this view a considerable part of the first edition was, ̈in 1836, presented to the Church Missionary Society, as an addition to their supply of tracts, &c., issued to the Mediterranean station.

“ As the work is a translation, the writer can hardly be considered responsible for more than the language; he feels, however, answerable for selecting and recommending the parts he has translated of the Cardiphonia. On this subject he has only to say, that he believes the author of that work to be generally sound, and the passages selected practical and profitable.

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Beyond this, he would simply leave the whole, as under God, to the judgment of others;-of the Latinity, to better scholars; of the doctrine, to more advanced Christians than himself."

Priests, Women, and Families. By J. MICHELET. Translated from the French, by C. Cocks. London : Longman, 1845.

Eloquent, learned, powerful. As a book of history, it is masterly; as

an exposure of the Jesuits, it is overwhelming. Fifty thousand copies have already scattered themselves over France to the consternation of the Romish priesthood, who have raised the demon yell of fanaticism against the author from press and pulpit." We have hit the mark too fairly (says M. M., in the preface to the third edition), it would seem. Woman! this was the point on which they were sensitive. The spiritual guidance of the women is the vital part of ecclesiastical authority, and they will fight for it to the death. It is a sad sight to see pontiffs, elders of the people, gesticulating, stamping, foaming at the mouth, and gnashing with their teeth."-But the book demands a review rather than a notice.

Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation; a Book for the Times. By AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. New York.

1841.

Do. do. Edinburgh: R. Ogle, and Oliver & Boyd. 1845.

We have before us both the American and the Scottish edition of this book; a book which has become of considerable note within this last year. The Edinburgh edition is decidedly the better of the two, and to those wishing to purchase the work, we would recommend it both on account of its neatness and its cheapness. So much for externals. As to internals, we must be a little more explicit.

We need not scruple to say that it is an able book, with much that is fresh and vigorous in thought about it, though by no means so strikingly original as some of its admirers would have us to believe. It contains also much that is true and much that is profitable. But it is sadly, deeply defective. It leaves out of sight the essence of atonement, viz., substitution, and makes it to consist altogether in the moral influence which the atonement exercises upon the soul in healing and rectifying it. Now, were the author merely setting before us a secondary and subsidiary view of "the plan of salvation," we should have by no means the same objection to his work as we have now. Had he first discussed and settled upon its true basis the sacrificial and vicarious nature of the work of Christ, we should not have complained of his defects; but when, from first to last, his philosophy of redemption resolves itself into a setting forth of its moral influence upon the soulthe other being overlooked, if not denied then we feel that we are entitled to object to its theology, as vitally defective, if not altogether unsound. We do not deny that there is a mass of most precious truth contained in this volume, and if it did not profess to be the whole truth, or the main truth, we could not only afford to be silent, but even to join in the many eulogies with which the work has been hailed on both sides of the Atlantic. But as it professes to give the philosophy of the plan of salvation, and yet keeps out of sight the most essential and glorious part of that plan, we are constrained to differ in our opinion of its merits, from many with whom in general we entirely accord.

We know not if our readers ever perused Thomas Erskine's three essays on "the unconditional freeness of the gospel," published about eighteen years ago, and which may be said to be the spring and origin

of Rowism. They contain in them many a passage of precious truth, written with a power and beauty to which the present work can lay no claim; but their philosophy is precisely the same. Any one reading the two works together, would be struck with the similarity of idea pervading them; and were it not that the limits of a critical notice rather straiten us, we would make good our averment by extracts in parallel columns. One extract from each of the two must suffice.

Thomas Erskine.

"I conceive all men to be in this state, that all are forgiven,— but that those only who know somewhat of the amount of their debt, and the value of that ransom by which they were redeemed, love him, who hath thus loved them ;— the rest, those who are ignorant that they have incurred a condemnation, cannot appreciate the love of him that pitied them, and therefore they love him not. But heaven, and happiness, and salvation, are all summed up in holy love,—and it was to produce holy love that the atonement of Christ was proclaimed. If the proclamation has not produced holy love, it has produced neither heaven nor happiness, nor salvation.” P. 52.

"The remedy which God has given to man is the gospel. Its object is to displace self and the creature from the heart, to restore the love of God to the supremacy which is its due, and thus to restore man to his place, in the happy family of God. The value of the gospel consists in its being a true representation of the gracious cha racter of God in relation to his rebellious creatures. Jesus Christ is the subject of the gospel, for he is God in relation to sinners. The gospel tells us how full of love he is towards sinners, in all his feelings, and in all his actions. It tells us of a love beyond utterance and conception, of his humbling himself even to the death of the cross for them, of his suffering for them

American Citizen.

"The Apostle preached CHRIST CRUCIFIED, an exhibition of selfdenial, of suffering, and of self-sacrificing love and mercy, endured in behalf of men; which, when received by faith, became the power of God and the wisdom of God to produce love and obedience in the human soul. Paul understood the efficacy of the cross. He looked to Calvary and beheld Christ crucified as the sun of the gospel system. Not as the moon, reflecting cold and borrowed rays, but as the Sun of Righteousness, glowing with radiant mercy, and pouring warm beams of life and love into the open bosom of the believer.

“The laws which govern physical nature are analogous to those which the gospel introduces into the spiritual world. The earth is held to the sun by the power of attraction, and performs regularly its circuit around the central, sustaining luminary; maintaining, at the same time, its equal relations with its sister planets. But the moral system upon the earth is a chaos of derangement. The attraction of affection which holds the soul to God, has been broken, and the soul of man, actuated by selfishness-revolving upon its own centre only-jars in its course with its fellow spirits, and crosses their orbits; and the whole system of the spiritual world upon earth revolves in disorder, the orbs wandering and rolling away from that centre of moral life and power which

on earth, and of his reigning for them in heaven. It tells us that this is our God, the God who made us, and with whom we have to do; that this is he from whom we have been turning away with fear, or hatred, or disgust, or indifference, and who yet hath all along been thus loving us, and hath been putting forth his love to us continually, every breath which we draw, and in all the care, and protection, and support which we experience; and it tells us all this that we may be constrained to love him supremely, and to choose him for our portion, and to depend on him, with an absolute confidence, and thus to have our individual will subordinated to his will." Pp. 90-92.

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alone could hold them in harmonious and happy motion. Into the midst of this chaos of disordered spirits, God, the Sun of the spiritual world, came down. He shed light upon the moral darkness, and by coming near, like the approaches of a mighty magnet, the attraction of his mercy, as manifested in Christ crucified, became so powerful, that many spirits, rolling away into darkness and destruction, felt the efficacy, and were drawn back, and caused to move again, in their regular orbits, around the Light' and Life' and 'Love' of the spiritual system." Pp. 162, 163.

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Now, much of all this is true and valuable; but then it is defective. There is truth in it; but then it is truth dislocated-truth presented out of its Scriptural connection. It is a part given forth to us as the whole. We would only farther remark, that the author's remarks on the agency of the Holy Spirit, in carrying on the work of redemption, are not at all full or satisfactory, (see ch. 18.) But on this we cannot enter.

The Child's Mirror. By Mrs HALLS. London: J. Nisbet & Co. 1845. A most elegant little volume, containing for each day of the week a short prayer, and some well selected passages of Scripture, appropriate for the guidance of a child in his conduct first to his Heavenly Father, and afterwards to his earthly parents. To this is added a selection of the Scripture stories most interesting to children; and, we are glad to see, entirely in the simple language of the Bible.

A Lily of the Vale; or, Memorials of T. M. By the Rev. W. CHAM-
BERS, B.D., Vicar of Ashby, Berks. London: J. Nisbet. 1845.
This is a short and beautiful account of a simple village girl, who, like
Mary, had chosen the better part. It sweetly illustrates the power of
true piety to refine the mind, and to adorn the humbler ranks of life.

Passages from the Life of a Daughter at Home. London: Seeley and Burnside. 1845.

Clever upon the whole, and conveying a clear and pointed moral, though somewhat heavy, and crowded with lengthened conversations. The characters are well drawn, but there is a want of incident to keep up the reader's interest in them. The author has surely forgotten that the study of German was not so common an accomplishment among the young ladies of the last century, as it is now.

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