a lion, seeking whom he may devour. I mind how my mother and me used to look at him, when he came home in the spring, lest there should be any change; and I will never forget how my godly father wrestled in supplication that the Almighty Father would be a wall of fire about the lad, keeping him from evil: but that day (I wonder if Claude remembers it as I do!) our anxiety was calmed with a measure of sure confidence, and of trust in Him that had brought us hitherto, and had kept us in the way. 66 'My mother was sitting in the corner of the pew-feared to look up at first; my father sat at the door, with his face (I ever thought him like the beloved Apostle, but never more than on that day) turned stedfast to the pulpit; and I cowered in between them, whiles taking a glance round the kirk to see how folk attended, and whiles venturing to look up to where my one brother stood up in his young prime, and preached the everlasting word to the folk that had known him all his days. It might be called sinful pride. I know not, but they would have had strange hearts that said so, after hearing, as I did, my father's thanksgiving at our evening exercise, and seeing my mother lift up her white face (for she was spent with trouble), and take into her own hand the hand of her one son, and say, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.' Truly it was a blessed night that to us, the happiest that had been in the manse of Pasturelands for many a day!" The attraction of the book is the simple and touching style in which the incidents are recorded, and the genuine piety which breathes through its pages. The defects are, two rather trashy love stories, and the absence of nature, and simplicity in the letters written by the heroes and heroines. - If any of our young readers should think of taking the book as a model of composition, we humbly counsel them to write as like as possible to the author of the book, and as unlike as possible to her youthful correspondents.-As is the fashion now, the work concludes with certain economical dialogues upon the management of property, and of the poor who dwell upon it. It will not be Miss Margaret Maitland's fault if the heirs and heiresses of property are not as great a blessing to their estates, as Sir C. Trevelyan, when, as Secretary of the Treasury, in the Irish famine of 1847, he was the instrument, in the hands of a Higher Power, of checking the progress of disease in Ireland, and of stimulating at least a part of that unhappy population to habits of forethought and industry, which, next to the extinction of Popery, would have been the truest remedy for all their diseases. The Child's Preacher. By the Hon. and Rev. L. Barrington, M. A., Rector of West Tuderly, Hants. Wertheim and Macintosh. THIS is a little work far superior to the mass of those prepared for children. The Author, anxious for the instruction of the young of his flock, and pressed with the much felt and almost invincible difficulty of preparing addresses which might at once satisfy the old and benefit the young, first tried the prescribed plan of catechising, and then the plan, not uncommon on the Continent, of opening his church on a summer week-day evening, for a service expressly for the younger classes of his parishioners.—In the American Episcopal Church, particularly at Boston, churches have been built expressly and exclusively for this object. The Author, without pursuing so costly a plan, has accomplished the same end; has brought his children within the walls of the parish church, and these are some of the addresses he has made to them. They will be an acceptable gift to all parents and teachers. "Christmas Tyde:" A Series of Sacred Songs and Poetical Pieces suited to the Season. Pickering: London. THIS is a very acceptable volume; collecting, as it does, in a small compass, most of the valuable short pieces of poetry which relate to the blessed season of the year to which we are rapidly approaching. Ancients and moderns have been laid under tribute for the supply of these poetic offerings on the altar of the Nativity. Happy had it been if poets had thus, in a larger number of instances, taken theirharps from the willows to sing the songs of Zion.- Mrs. More, a little pertly perhaps, though with too much truth, speaks of the poets as-" Gentlemen who, to do them justice, are never behind-hand when any mischief is to be done.' We are glad to welcome them in another character in this volume; and to hope that there will be many who will not blush for their earthly melodies when they are permitted to listen to the harmonies of the world of spirits. "The Christian Sabbath considered in various Aspects." Johnston and Hunter, Edinburgh. THIS is a collection of most of the modern treatises on the subject of the Sabbath. The collection comes from what is a little proudly termed by some of our Northern friends and neighbours, "The Modern Athens ;" and it breathes something of that spirit of national partiality for which they are celebrated-inasmuch as it is nearly appropriated to the Scottish champions of the sacred day. In another edition, the Editors may think it fair to include at least the brief Treatises of the present Bishop of Calcutta, and of the late J. J. Gurney of Norwich, which may be fairly weighed in the balance with any in this volume. We should be glad to find that the remonstrances of the friends of religion in Scotland had more weight with their railroad managers and proprietors. Blank-paged Bible. Bagster. MR. BAGSTER has given to the public, what they have long wanted, a cheap, portable, interleaved Bible. We advise every young student of the Sacred Volume to supply himself with this or some similar work; and, from the first day of the coming year, to insert every fact, criticism, and interpretation, which he thinks worth saving from the ravages of a treacherous memory. Let this rule befollowed, and we shall have far less reason to complain of empty or fanciful sermons. VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. THE image which Mr. Sheridan introduces as an extravagance into the speech of one of his dramatis personæ in "The Critic," when describing the state of the country at the approach of the Spanish Armada, "And England's fate, like a clipped guinea, Trembled in the scale,❞— seems scarcely too extravagant to describe the state of a great part of civilized Europe during the past month. Nothing has been at rest for a moment. The "scale" has done nothing but tremble. The sublime and the ridiculous have approached even closer to each other than usual. We have gone to bed fully expecting that the damp newspaper of the next morning, which our impatience would not allow us to dry, would present us the record of some tragical event in Hesse, or in whatever other spot the opposite armies are congregating. The Bavarians or Austrians are pushing towards the field of battle in one direction; the dark legions of Prussia in another; the outposts almost touch. A few shots even have been actually fired. Nothing short of a miracle would seem sufficient to prevent an onslaught. But something very short of a miracle arrives. An old gentleman, and he a man of no peculiar power, is introduced into the Cabinet-and, at once, a change comes over the whole scene. The trumpet ceases to sound, and the drum to beat ; and like that renowned King of France who first "went up the hill,' and "then came down again," his royal successor, the Monarch of Prussia, after vaporing and boasting, and calling out the landwehr, or local militia, amounting to at least 400,000 men, to swell the list of his already gigantic army, is contented to retreat from the advanced post which he had occupied, and to slink back to a less threatening and dangerous position. Such a retreat, however, is not enough for the peace of Europe; nor can the Prussian King so easily escape from his difficulties. When Rhoderic Dhu waved his hand, each "Tuft of broom gave life To plaided warrior armed for strife." And when he waved it again,— "Down sunk the disappearing band, Each warrior vanished where he stood, Now, the Prussian Sovereign has indeed succeeded in calling forth from each house and cabin in his country an almost countless host of armed men. But the question is, whether he can lay them to rest again? It was hoped, till within a few days, that the Councils of Peace had prevailed; that Prussia had at length seen her folly in endeavouring to dissolve the Confederation which was the best security for the peace of Europe; that she repented of her ambitious design to crush the Austrian empire, and to build her own throne upon the ruins; that she would now take means to extinguish the flame of war and hatred which she had endeavoured to kindle. But a sudden cloud has again darkened the field of vision. The King has met his newly assembled Parliament; and his speech breathes so belligerent a spirit as to awaken afresh the fears of all who reasonably tremble at such a conflict as that of the troops of Bavaria, Russia, Austria, on the one side, and of Prussia on the other. We have not time to wait for the denouement before these sheets go to press; and nothing short of a mesmeric second-sight could enable us to speak of what is to come. There is some hope arising out of the fact that General Radowitz, the late foreign minister, and the person who is supposed to have the largest influence over the mind of the King of Prussia, has arrived in London. And we must believe that in his conferences with the Foreign Minister of England he will find every thing to discourage a contest which would drench with blood and whiten with bones some of the finest parts of Europe. It is a melancholy reflection that when it was hoped the population of Germany would be busied in preparation for the Congress of Peace at the English Exhibition of 1851, they should be called to sharpen the instruments of war, and prepare for a contest which is likely to be one of the bloodiest that stains the page of history. It is next to impossible that every heart should not, in the first instance, take the part of the combined powers in the conflict; because they ask for nothing extravagant, or even new; but simply contend for the "Confederation" of Germany, as signed by Prussia itself. But two considerations are calculated to deaden this sympathy with the combined armies; the first, that the war of Austria and her auxiliaries, with Prussia, is that of absolute against representative Government; and the other, that it is the war of Papists against Protestants-against a free use of the Bible--against the rights of conscience-and, therefore, against the true welfare of nations. We heartily wish that our Protestant friends and allies would take care to be such genuine Protestants as to have always a just cause, and to use none but just means to advance it. As it is, we confess ourselves to be a little ashamed of our Protestant brethren. Nothing that is of much importance is recorded, during the month, as respects Spain and Portugal,-or in Italy, if this last country be only politically considered. In America the conflict as to the extinction or perpetuation of slavery every day assumes a more formidable aspect; nor can the public feeling subside till right is done to injured human nature, and the Western children of Great Britain strike off those chains, which are the disgrace both of their own people and of the mother-land from whence they spring. In France, the speech of the President has done wonders in dispelling at once the fears of the wise and good, and the hopes of the factious and wicked. After all that has been said of his inferiority to his more brilliant uncle, he seems to possess that sort of prudence, self-control, and common sense, which, for practical purposes, largely outweighs all the attributes of genius.-The Court of Bankruptcy in England, as though no phase of human existence was to be unknown to him, has recently presented to us the late monarch of France, in the character of a money broker; trying (neither very royally nor very honorably) to enrich the Orleans property at the expense of the rest of "la belle" France. Never was there a more strange coalition of the great and the little, than in the single breast of this expatriated monarch. The home news of the month is all concentrated in one subject— "the aggression of the Pope." In the Public Affairs of last month, we referred to the Bull mapping out the whole of England into districts, and appointing Bishops to preside over them, as little more than a rumour. Since then, the bubble shall we call it, or the CHRIST OBSERV. No. 156. 5 Y tempest, has burst; and we have seen with amazement an Italian Bishop, who, within a few months, was skulking away from his capital in the disguise of a livery servant, and is, at this moment, held on his throne only by the bayonets of a French army, has presumed to claim this Empire as ecclesiastically his own; to trample under foot the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Queen; to usurp an authority which must, in the end, extinguish every other-and, in effect, remove the mitres of our English Bishops to the heads of Bishops of his own appointment. At such a moment, we could not be occupied with the question, as to our own duty to our readers. It might have been necessary for us to set the trumpet to our mouth and call the slumbering masses of England to resist so monstrous an aggression. But such warnings, we are thankful to say, have become altogether superfluous. The men of England have needed no exhortation. They have arisen as one man. One thought, feeling, passion, pervades every county, city and village; one voice is heard from laymen and clergy, from churchmen and dissenters, which proclaims that we are Protestants at heart, and that we renounce and throw back Popery as that "accursed thing" which must have no place, even for a moment, in the camp. The truth is, that the public zeal seems, at the present moment, to need rather a bridle than a spur, and the office of every friend of religion is rather to "ride in the whirlwind and direct the storm," than to invite a louder discharge of its thunders. In such a state of things may we hope for pardon, if, however conscious that we are speaking to many well fitted to guide ourselves, we venture to offer a few words of suggestion for the use of those who announce themselves in some measure perplexed with regard to the path of duty under such circumstances. In the first place, it must obviously be the duty of every man who loves God supremely, and who loves, as he ought, his Queen, his Church, his Country, the cause of truth, and the Sacred Volume in which it is deposited, to come forward and add his name to petitions to the Crown, the Bishops, and the Houses of Parliament, that effectual measures may be taken for crushing this monster evil, if possible, in the first weeks of its existence. In the next place, care must be taken lest, in our anxiety for the civil and political interests of the country, our addresses to the various authorities of the land should fail to present the religious enormities of the system which this act of aggression is designed to force upon us. Again, care must be had to trace the present movement to its true sources-not exclusively to the ministerial concessions to Popery in England, Ireland, or the Colonies; nor exclusively to the weakness and treachery of certain members of our own Church— but to both of these causes, perhaps in an almost equal proportion. No measure of gratitude for Lord John Russell's manly declarations to-day, must cast into the shade the ministerial dalliance with Popery for the last twenty years. And no tenderness to our Romanizing brethren, must tempt us to cast a veil over their follies and crimes against the Church and the country. The Government have at least political difficulties-especially in Ireland-to plead in palliation of their faults. The Tractarians have no plea to offer. |