ponents. The income of the Church Missionary Society amounted last year to $146,000. It employs as missionaries, schoolmasters, &c. 200 persons. it is educating not less than 10,500 heathen children, and has missionary stations in the four quarters of the globe. It placed $22,000 at the disposal of the Bishop of Calcutta, for the use of the Missionary College established by his Lordship; and it supports a college at Cotym for the improvement of the Syrian Church, in which there are now twenty-one students, who are intended for the ministry; and is thus preparing the way for a union between the Church of England and this ancient and apostolic, but long persecuted Church. The Prayer Book and Homily Society have, in nine years, distributed 60,000 Prayer Books, and about half a million of homilies, articles, and ordination services, in tracts. They have published the Liturgy in Irish, Welch, modern Greek, Chinese, Hindoosta nee; and also for the use of the Syrian Christians, in Tamul and Malayalim. They have published homilies in English, Manks, Welch, French, Italian, Spanish and German. All this, it must be confessed, does not look as if the British and Foreign Bible Society had paralized the zeal of its Episcopal members, for their own Church."

It is no wonder, then, that when Professor Marsh treated this subject, he avowedly" adduced not a single fact," but rested wholly on "abstract reasoning." This would indeed be the wisest course for those who embrace the same sentiments in this country; for facts are equally against them. They will hardly be able to shew that the "venerable Father in the Episcopacy." Bishop White, bas become less zealous for the benefit of his Church, by being so long at the head of the Philadelphia Bible Society; and as for the zeal of those Rectors of Episcopal Churches in NewYork, who belong to the American Bible Society, and to whom so much

allusion is made in this controversy, if any one has doubts as to their zeal, fidelity, and success in adding to the strength of the Episcopal denomination in that city; we have only to say, let him go to their churches and satisfy himself.

Equally decisive are the facts to which we have here alluded, on another position taken by Bishop Hobart,--" that it is the duty of Episcopaliaus, consistently and exclusively to bend all their efforts to the advancement of their own Church." This we consider one of the main fallacies with which the opponents of Bible Societies deceive themselves; and quite as hurtful to their avowed object, as it can be to that which they oppose. It proceeds from a policy too narrow to be wise. They who will confine their religious benevolence within the pale of their own denomination, will find the streams of that benevolence feeble in consequence of the confinement. A law of the Most High is, "The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand." Let christians of every denomination cultivate a

spirit of liberality towards each other, and they will uniformly find themselves excited and strengthened for more extensive usefulness in their own particular church as well as in the cause of the church at large. There is no reason to fear that men will give to Christ's cause, till their resources are so exhausted that there shall be nothing left to give the evil to be apprehended is, lest their hearts should not be so far opened that they will give according to their ability and their duty. And we do but repeat the language of good and holy men of all denominations when we say "It is from the altar erected within the hallowed precincts of Bible Societies, that they have caught the melting flame which has most effectually disposed them to those good words and works in which they have aimed to 66 do good unto all men, especially to the household of faith."

But while Bible Societies can be thus vindicated against all the charges of evil which are brought against them, let us ask in the spirit of kindness and frankness,-is there no evil created by opposition to them? We do not mean evil to the Societies.They have grown by means of the very opposition which was designed to injure them : every new contest bas issued in an accession to the ranks of evil their supporters. But does no result to those who make the opposition? We most firmly believe that such men as Dr. Maltby, Professor Marsh, and Bishop Hobart, have all due respect for the word of God: yet in their opposition to Bible Societies they have been led, as we have seen, to advance sentiments which, in their consequences, are most injurious to the integrity and perfection of the sacred volume. And besides, what is the effect to their opposition, between themselves and their brethren

of their own church? It has produ

Iced distractions and alienations, which we have lamented to see; and which would never have existed, had the friends of Bible Societies been allowed the same peaceful enjoyment of their liberty of conscience, which they have allowed to their opponents. Finally; there is an bour before us all, when the heats of secta

rian zeal will abate; when nothing will gratify or cheer the heart, but confidence in the word of God. Let us aim to decide on this question in such a manner as will promise us the most peace in that solemn hour. We know of holy men who have died giving thanks to God for the aid they had been enabled to render Bible Societies. Is there one who has died giving thanks for the opposition he had made against them?

For the Oracles of God, four Orations. For Judgment to come, an Argument, in nine parts. By the Rev. EDWARD IRVING, M. A. Minister of the Caledonian Church,

Hatton Garden. 1 vol. 8vo. pp.
340. New York, 1823.

SINCE the period when we assumed the censorship of the press, and undertook to stand between the multitude of authors and the ravening or ravened public-there has not been a volume issued, whose title page and preface, and general execution, are less unpretending than the one we would now subject to review. The author "having given plentiful occasion for criticism, deprecates it not;"—and having sent forth his host of opinions, the result of "ten years meditation," armed at all points in such fashion as he could prepare them he leaves them to fight their way and gain such acquiescence as their truth may enforce. We remember no book of a theological kind, in which the general scope of the writer's opinions might be more easily mistaken, or the general judgment of its merit be more currently misdirected, by the selection of some passages singularly infelicitous. It has happened to Mr. Irving, as to some other champions, older than himself by ten years-to advance so rapidly over a contested field, as to leave many important points unguarded; and in his anxiety to gather uprecruits for the holy war, he some times speaks unadvisedly; and puts his appeals to the men of this generation, a little too far out of a christian shape; and at such times is as much wanting in the good taste which would invite the attention of his readers, as in the exhibition of the truths which might convert them. And yet he has great power, much originality, and often a pathetic, and sometimes a sublime eloquence. The audience that he has brought together, prove him to be possessed of qualities which operate through a wide sphere of attraction. The christian minister who can bring the Lords and Ladies of St. James' into the city, to his Chapel in Hatton Garden, by the ringing of his fame, and fill the walls within which he presides as an ambassador, from the pre

cincts of Westminster Hall and the interior of St.Stephen's Chapel, must have powers of a high and varied order. Since the time of Amos, and since to the poor the gospel has been preached, the pride of man, and force of sensuality, and current of the world's opinion, have for the most part excluded the true prophet from the King's Chapel, and the King's Court; and we look with intense interest at the former assistant of Dr. Chalmers, who has clambered so high into the sources of civil power and ecclesiastical influence. We rejoice that he counts the prime minister among his auditors sometimes, and hope he will continue to bear himself as modestly, and will use his weapons in as masterly a manner, as we remember to have seen Dr. Chalmers do, when the doors and windows of the church where he was to preach were besieged by some of the same members of Parliament and King's Counsellors.

The sort of popularity which each of these preachers and authors enjoys, deserves a remark. They are of a new school which will number a large class, and may possess great variety, if those who follow be as unlike each other, as Mr. Irving is different from Dr. Chalmers. It is not in depreciation of the genius and original powers of the great man whose fame has brought the world under tribute, to name him as head in the school of those who have sought to render "evangelical religion" "acceptable to men of cultivated taste." We describe the school, of set purpose, in this phraseology, because very many of our readers have the key which at once unlocks our meaning. The good taste of the cis-atlantic public early sought out and admired Foster's Essays, and we know from various sources that Dr. Chalmers' view of the value of the fourth essay agrees with our own. He has endeavoured to bring into practical application the principles and reasonings there adduced; and in the present effort of Mr. Ir

ving, the attempt is most formally acknowledged. We propose in the following analysis to inquire what, beyond great popularity, has been the success of this endeavour. It is thus announced in the preface of this volume.

It hath appeared to the Author of this book, from more than ten years' meditation upon the subject, that the chief obstacle to the progress of divine truth over the minds of men, is the want of its being properly presented to them, In this Christian country there are, perhaps, nine tenths of every class, who know nothing at all about the applications and advantages of the single truths of revelation, or of revelation taken as a whole; and what they do not know, they cannot be expected to reverence or obey. This ignorance, in both the higher and the lower orders, of Religion, as a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart, is not so much due to the want of inquisitiveness on their part, as to the want of a sedulous and skilful ministry on the part of those to whom

it is entrusted.

reflection upon the clerical order; but it

This sentiment may seem to convey a

is not meant to reflect upon them, so much as to turn their attention to the subject. They must be conscious that reading is the food of thought, and thought the cause of action; and therefore, in what proported with religious truth, in that proportion the reading of a people is impregnation will the conduct of a people be guided into religious ways. We must, therefore, lay our hand upon the press as well as the pulpit, and season its effusions with an admixture of devout feeling and pious thought. But, whereas men read for entertainment and direction in their several studies and pursuits, it becomes needful that we make ourselves adept in these, and into the body of them all infuse the balm of salvation, that when the people consult for the present life, they may be admonished, stealthily and skilfully invaded with So that, admonition, of the life to come.

until the servants and ministers of the living God do pass the limits of pulpit theology and pulpit exhortation, and take weapons in their hand, gathered out of every region in which the life of man or his fahave religion triumph and domineer in a culties are interested, they shall never country, as beseemeth her high original, her native majesty, and her eternity of freely-bestowed well being.

To this the ministers of religion should bear their attention to be called, for until

they thus acquire the pass-word which is

to convey them into every man's encamp

ment, they speak to that man from a dis

tance, and at disadvantage. It is but a parley; it is no conference, nor treaty, nor harmonious communication. To this

end, they must discover new vehicles for conveying the truth as it is in Jesus into the minds of the people; poetical, historical, scientific, political, and sentimental vehicles. In all these regions some of the population are domesticated with all their affections; who are as dear in God's sight as are others; and why they should not be come at, why means should not be taken to come at them, can any good reason be assigned? They prepare men for teaching gipsies, for teaching bargemen, for teaching miners; men who understand their ways of conceiving and estimating truth; why not train ourselves for teaching imaginative men and political men, and legal men and medical men? and, having got the key to their several chambers of delusion and resistance, why

not enter in and debate the matter with their souls? Then they shall be left without excuse; meanwhile, I think, we ministers are without excuse.

Moved by these feelings, I have set the example of two new methods of handling religious truth-the Oration, and the Argument; the one intended to be after the manner of the ancient Oration, the best vehicle for addressing the minds of men which the world hath seen, far beyond the sermon, of which the very name hath learned to inspire drowsiness and tedium; the other after the manner of the ancient

Apologies, with this difference, that it is pleaded not before any judicial bar, but before the tribunal of human thought and feeling. The former are but specimens ; the latter, though most imperfect, is intended to be complete. The Orations are placed first in the volume, because the Oracles of God, which they exalt, are the foundation of the Argument, which brings to reason and common feeling one of the revelations which they contain.

Now without attempting an apology for those unhappy ministers of religion who teach the sermou❞ "to inspire drowsiness and tedium" and make the themes of heaven redolent of earth, and scatter poppies from the desk, it must at the same time be acknowledged that there is great inherent difficulty in the enterprize to which Mr. Irving would incite us. Even supposing we were allowed to forget what the scriptures disclose of the radical opposition of the human heart to the truth of God -that it is an opposition as essential as darkness to light, and as active as

a

demon's malice-even if we should strengthen ourselves for the combat by putting out of view what the sad experience of all that have ever preached the gospel, since Paul stood before Felix, unveils-that principalities and powers of sin are the welcomed tenants of the human soul -still one question will address itself to our common sense with unavoidable pertinacity. It is whether "poetical, historical, scientific, polit. ical and sentimental vehicles," can, even with the most enlarged spirit of accommodation, carry this new burden which our feeling of expediency would impose upon them. Without reasoning the point, we summarily state our conviction that they will not; we believe that these new carriages will either break down at once, and not go at all, or else will fall into the rail-ways for which they were originally constructed, and and ruu back into the field of the world's corruption. The religious novels which we have had of late, we presume, are "sentimental” vehicles, but with rare exceptions, we think they tend little to make "religion to triumph and domineer in a country." We have seen many attempts "to teach bargemen" and to put the high truths of christianity into the current phraseology of sailors, but, with scarcely a single exception, we think we have discovered that the native majesty of Truth has been hurt by the soiled garments put upon her; and it is only our reverence, and affection for the good and zealous men who have made these transformations, which prevents our dwelling upon the idea, that religion thus dressed up bears more the aspect of a mountebank drumming off his wares, than of an ambassador of Christ, clothed with sincerity and love.

The fact appears to us to be, that religion is a matter too ineffably solemn to endure these trappings. All that she asks is a hearing, and that we understand our vernacular tongue; she may then draw a thousand illustrations from our domestic

employments; but she will not wrap herself up entirely in allegory, and tell us that the world is a ship, (which it is not,) and all men sailors, who must catch the word of command as it goes. We take the strongest possible case when we select a class of men isolated from the rest of the world, as are sailors; but although our experience in preaching to them is limited, we have always feared to look into Jack Tar's face, when such things might have strongly struck our fancy, lest he should rather smile than weep. These remarks do not apply to such narrative tracts, as embody religiou in actual examples provided they be really fact, and not merely founded" on it; but they show us the limit beyond which it does not accord with the heavenborn majesty of truth "to trim and truckle to the times." The example of our Lord's parables is often adduced to justify the course now become so popular, and of the good effect of which we are very suspicious-but these stand in the unapproachable originality of the inspiration of the Son of God, the hallowed monuments of unaffected description of pure nature and of the application of saving doctrine. They may be imitated, but cautiously, and they ever shame all human competition as much as the holy and harmless and undefiled Son of Man is above all comparison with the best of the generation of his servants. Yet if this example be pleaded, we must remark that we find none of the sea-terms from the Lake of Gennesaret embalmed in the amber of our Lord's discourses. The truth is, the difficulty is seldom in making men apprehend the nature of Christ's doctrine it is to force their minds to dwell upon its everlasting sanctions. These are not to be brought into view by reminding us that we are gipsies or barge-men or miners-but by naming us all in one word-the the most intelligible in the language -sinners;-by uttering one sentence "the wages of sin is death,"-by VOL. VI.-No. 3.

20

putting forth one command, "flee from the wrath to come," and by naming Jesus Christ, "God manifest in the flesh"-" Prince" "Saviour," "Redeemer," "Advocate," "Intercessor" and Eternal "Judge."

These observations may seem to be a little wide of our text, since Mr. Irving proposes a higher range" of pulpit theology and pulpit exhortation;" and yet their bearing is most decidedly against the full swing of the system inculcated. If we disprove the necessity and advantage of it in the extreme case-all other cases are yielded by parity of reasoning, or surrendered as soldiers whose officers have capitulated. If sailors who have little pliancy of mind, are not aided by these human helps, much less are the men of highly cultivated and accomplished intellect to be brought to the knowledge of the truth, and to saving conversion, by the "imaginative," or "political," or "legal," or "medical" reasoning, which we can employ. If, when we are preaching to the sailor, the continued use of sea imagery is more likely to set his mind loose upon the four winds from the recollection of former 'scapes, than to bind him in fast, conscientious attention;as likely is it that we set our more cultivated hearers to ranging over the fields of vanity, when we remind them continually that we have soiled our minds in the turbid streams of Shakspeare's genius, or can almost apologize for Burns' immoralities, (see page 156.) or know all the fens and fastnesses in which Scottish fable entrenches itself. We may have auditors upon these terms; but we shall teach them only what they know already, and we symbolize with them in mind, on condition that they symbolize with us in our churches, in body.

Here, to use a phrase of Mr. Irving's, we say, "Mistake us not; for we steer in a narrow, very narrow channel, with rocks of popular prejudice on every side."-Our argument is only for the very sparing