fire." (Jude 7.) And it will be found a joyful truth, that those who have interest in the second Adam, a law representative, will possess eternal pleasure. The former shall go into everlasting punishment, the latter into life eternal (Mat. xxv. 46.) Deliver them, the righteous, from going down to, not out of, the pit of hell, for I have found out a ransom. Job xxxiii. 24. I am astonished that any man of professed attachment to morality, should imbibe such a sentiment that is so manifestly calculated to rob God of his glory, as a moral agent; and to make man lax to his duty, as a moral subject. Well, saith the father of lies, the punishment of sin is only for a time, and therefore you may as well take your fill of it, heaven is sure and certain at the last.

I do think it will be a very distinguishing act of mercy, if some of these restitutionists are not sent to hell, to be witnesses against themselves, and the doctrine that they have preached. For, I must give it as my opinion, that it is a system unworthy the character of God, who is harmony itself, and of consequence, unworthy the credit of every rational creature. Jer. xxiii. 28.

"My soul come not thou into their secrets, unto their assembly, mine honour be not thou united." Gen. xlix. 6.

Reader, to know the truth of the gospel, and the gospel in truth; to hold the mystery of the faith, and the mystery of faith in a pure conscience; to partake of the ministry of the Holy Ghost, and to inhabit the person of the Holy Ghost; to sit under doctrine, and to be taught doctrine; to have wisdom, and the experience of wisdom; to have a deceitful heart, and to deceived by the heart; to be in the flesh, and to war after the flesh, are things very distinct, and truly distinguishable. Col. i. 5, 6; 1 Tim, i. 19; Heb. vi. 4; 6 Cor. vi. 16; Titus ii. 12; Ec. i. 15; 2 Cor. [January, 1848.]

vi. 8; Jer. xvii. 9; 2 Cor. x. 3,

Predestination to adoption, election to justification, regeneration to communion, to consolation, to assimilation, to manifestation, to manifest your relation to the eternal Three, are doctrines, in experience and practice, that are inseparable. Eph. i. 5; Rom. xv. 13; 2 Cor. iii. 18.

And, if your understanding is not spiritually illuminated by the truth, if your will is not spiritually subdued to the truth, if your affections are not spiritually elevated with the truth, and if your actions are not spiritually ornamental to the truth, if spiritual things are not the objects of thy faith, the subjects of your joy, and the glory of God the ultimatum, or desired end of your thoughts, of your words, and of your actions, your character as a believer in the truth is doubtful; there is room for suspicion that you are a bastard and not a son, that your heart is not right in the sight of God, and that you have no part or lot in the great matter of the gospel, or in the salvation of the Son of God. Acts viii. 23.

You

Should you obtain but little information from what I have wrote, you are requested a repetition of it, with much prayer and reflection. are to recollect that it is said, "Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart." As truth lies deep, light must be deeply sown, and in order to a joyful harvest, much attention and close application are requisite. Furthermore, I do most affectionately recommend to your particular attention, thecontents of each chapter, as it will serve to render the subject facile, and easy in the comprehension of it. And should it be thepleasure of God the Spirit to give itaccess to your understanding, you will be not only competent to form just conceptions of the acts of Jehovah, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, from predestination up to

D

glorification, but to make it manifest "that you are of the family of of heaven, and of the household of faith; by walking worthy of him who hath called you to his kingdom and glory." 1 Thes. ii. 12.

And now, reader, "I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified by faith, that is in Christ Jesus." Acts xx. 30, and xxvi, 18.

LETTER TO A FRIEND.

T. P.

should rather that you pray the good Lord to send the gospel to Coventry, and that you wait patiently and constantly on him, at a throne of grace, watching his blessed hand to fulfil the desire of thine heart, which he has kindly promised shall be granted. You may tell the Lord's people in Coventry that I am willing to come over any week-night they may please to send for me, Wednesday excepted. But on Lord's day, I cannot, except they will get a supply that my friends here can receive.

My dear young friend, keep close to your Bible, close to Jesus, close to his blessed truth, give him thine heart, and let thine eyes observe his ways, he will direct thy steps, comfort thy soul, and save thee with an

Your sweet letter was duly received, for which you have my hearty thanks. I do not wonder at your being persecuted for your attachment to the word of life, for all that will live godly in this world, must, for Christ's sake, suffer persecution. With respect to your coming to Birmingham to hear me, I say that I

life, the length of thy days, and thy portion for ever, thy Husband, Lord, and everlasting King. Therefore, love, serve, obey, and worship thou him, then none shall harm thee.

dren much of his sweet presence, Wishing thee and all his dear chil

I remain,

Yours in love for his sake,

W. W.

Tidings from the United States of America, wherein Mr. James Osbourn's character, as a citizen, a christian, a minister, and an author, is amply set forth, by the Rev. C. B. Hassell, of North Carolina, published by W. Garrard, of Leicester. 12mo., pp. 38. London:

Houlston.

We have a very great aversion to anything like puffing. Even in worldly commodities, we have lived

long enough to have found out, that we get as well or better served at the shop of the reputable tradesman, who conducts his business quietly, as if we frequented the shop of one who keeps the neighbourhood in a ferment with his placards and his advertisements. It is right to say that this pamphlet is not published by Mr. Osbourn; but its aim is to exhibit him as the apostle of the age, the greatest preacher of modern

he

It is frequently found that goods really tolerable, are lightly looked upon, through the abundance of puffing which introduces them. So it has been with Mr. Osbourn; from the language used by the Gospel Standard, we confess we looked almost for a second Paul; he came ; preached; he differed from the favourite vocabulary of the Standard, and lo, now he is cast off, and even the chapel of which regular announcements are made on its cover, was struck out, while Mr. Osbourn was the supply. Now, although we had read, before his arrival, some of Mr. Osbourn's writings, and were sufficiently pleased with them to take an early opportunity of hearing him as a minister, we have simply concluded that his trumpeters were poor judges; but we regard him still as a gracious man, a well-taught man, an experienced child of God, and a most valuable missionary, rash however and unguarded in many of his expressions; but, when the floating lamp has floated back again to his adopted Baltimore, England can spare him; and even if he were younger, we question if he would receive an invitation for his visit to be renewed. This comes of over-much puffing. Had Mr. Osbourn visited England more as a humble saint, and been vaunted less as an apostle, we question if his welcome had not been

more cordial, and his ministrations higher prized.

As it regards his confusion respecting doubts and fears, he is simply wrong, and more than that, he knows that he is wrong; he is too well taught not to know it; but, for an apostle to recant! no, that won't do at all! So he selects other phraseology, and preaches doubts and fears under other names. Let the discerning christian wait the publication of his coming book on the subject, and he will find that it will be in print as it has been in the pulpit. Be it observed, however, that Mr. Osbourn is only so far wrong as when he says the child of God knows nothing of them: they err much more who foster them, and encourage the believer to cherish them as evidences. Doubtless their error first prompted Mr. Osbourn to speak so decidedly on the subject. We will not say what prompts him to persevere in the face of conviction or rather we will say, it is old Adam's pride, which even in a spiritual man, in this time state, is not wholly subdued.

;

This pamphlet consists of a letter from Mr. Garrard, of Leicester, communicating to Mr. Hassell, his friend, Mr. Osbourn's safe arrival in this country, with Mr. Hassell's reply, acknowledging the same, both pursuing that same course of puffing poor Mr. Osbourn, which has proved so fatal to his welcome reception in England. There are some curious phrases in Mr. Garrard's letter; he congratulates Mr. Hassell in being a unit-that in all his religious views there is a perfect mutability with Mr. O.-that the American floating lamp was conducted over the perilous Atlantic in good health and spirits, with his bow abiding in strength, &c. He hates fullsome encomiums, but he considers Mr. O. as an American apostle; like one of the old prophets risen from the dead. I felt, he says, "as if Paul were preaching

before me. Mr. Osbourn is not of the cloven-footed tribe, nor of the claw-footed wolfish tribe, no he is calve-footed; he dont go a circumbendum path." Apart from these, and a few other similar crotchets, Mr. Garrard's letter is a good letter, and just such as we should have expected our good brother would have written.

so.

Now, we come to Mr. Hassell's rejoinder. He is a perfect stranger to us, but he writes like one who is no stranger to the things pertaining to the kingdom. We infer he is one to whom Mr. Osbourn's ministry has been useful. We can readily appreciate laudatory expressions from such. Our spiritual fathers are to ourselves the greatest of ministers, and justly Mr. Hassell seems to consider we are on the eve of a second reformation, and that Mr. Osbourn is to be the second Luther. We quite concede that a second reformation is indeed needed, and gladdened should we feel, if near, or even afar, we could discern the tokens of its approach. Alas, a day of darkness, of thick darkness, seems more the characteristic of the present period, and the clouds to us seem gathering thicker and closer. As the coming reformer, Mr. Osbourn is to publish to us many great and wonderful things, among the rest he is to preach to us Jesus Christ as a poor, hungry, and thirsty mortal. This is unscripturally expressed. True, indeed, our Lord took upon him our human nature, that therein he might fulfil an obedience, and yield an atonement for his church; but his obedience was sinless, and his death was voluntary, just because his human nature was not mortal. He assumed our nature, such as it was before sin had contaminated it and rendered it deathly, and when he said, "I lay down my life, no man taketh it from me," it was no empty boast, as it would have been had his nature been mortal, and

consequently certain to die whether he would or no. These wonders Americans may appreciate, but English christians desire to shun them. Mr. Osbourn, likewise, according to Mr. Hassell's account, is to strike heavily those who slumber at the gate, without lifting the latch, and forcing their way into the great arcana of God's covenant mercies, the rich storehouse of his gospel, the green pastures of his love: his heavy strokes may elicit presumptuous endeavours, but real saints know that a greater than Mr. Osbourn must lift the latch, and open the way, before they can gain a right entrance, and those that strive to force admission by any other way are thieves and robbers. Much more of the letter is devoted to other wonders which Mr. Osbourn is to tell and do; we cease pursuing the subject: we have said enough to expose the silliness of such a publication, and to say more would seem as if we thought all the commendation ill-deserved.

Mr. Osbourn has now taken his leave of London; after a progress in the provinces, he returns to America, his adopted country. We earnestly desire that at his return he may find his former friends eager to receive him, and that during his continuance in this vale of tears, he may have much and frequent occasions of rejoicing in witnessing the blessing of God upon his ministry, awakening, liberating, and establishing many; that his last days may be indeed his best days, and that when the Master calleth to his aged servant to come up higher he may brightly and triumphantly pass into the immediate presence of the Lord. Christian Converse, whilst journeying to a better country, by William Giles. 8vo., pp. 188. London: Foster.

"Did not our hearts burn within us whilst he talked with us by the

way, and while he opened to us the scriptures." Thus expressed themselves, two gone-home pilgrims of earlier days, who, when journeying from Jerusalem to Emmaus, were overtaken by one who, in talking to them of the things of the kingdom, exhibited himself at last as the King of the kingdom himself. We are all of us, while in this time state, pilgrims and sojourners, and too often we are journeying with our backs towards Jerusalem, with our hearts depressed, and with our countenances sorrowful: may we not pursue the resemblance, and add, that often when thus cast down, our gracious Lord, ever mindful of the infirmities of his feeble ones, either by his own scriptures, by his ministers, or perhaps by a word spoken by some brother pilgrim, accompanied and carried home to the heart by the power of his own Spirit, hath manifestly overtaken us, joined himself to our company, talked with us, and so opened up to our souls his own scriptures, and the precious promises, privileges, and prospects therein contained, that our hearts have indeed burned within us, and the joy and the consolation thus communicated have been so abundant and overflowing, that without our telling, our countenances, no more sad, have already told to our companions that we have had a visit from and enjoyed fellowship with the King.

The voice is too circumscribed a medium for brethren that are widely apart to communicate thereby; and yet we love to hear of their welfare, we would fain participate in their joys and sorrows, and we feel cheered by their kindly sympathy in our own experience. Epistolary correspondence thus becomes indeed valuable, and where is the christian who has not been comforted, and does not highly prize the spiritual epistles of some spiritual friend. These are abiding communings: we read them often and

love them always, and who shall say, when are made manifest the various methods which the Lord hath been pleased to adopt and own, for the bringing in of his banished ones, for the encouragement of his sorrowing ones, and for counsel to his perplexed ones, how many will acknowledge blessings received by these living messengers.

The volume before us is of such a character, the majority of the letters are to and from the author's own family, united not only in natural but spiritual relationship. There are one or two by Mr. Gadsby, excellent of course, or they would not be his. We have read the volume with much delight, and passing by some minor details of a family character, which might as well have been omitted, we cordially recommend the volume to our readers, as a valuable addition to their libraries.

Life, a Sermon, by the Rev. J. H.

Evans. 12mo,. pp. 12. Robeson. Some one has sent us this sermon, with a request that we will notice it in our review department. We are at a loss to know why they have done so, and we always feel that these sermons, as issued in the Penny Pulpits, are not open to that same criticism with which we might test a publication sent forth by an author himself.

Taking it for granted, however, that this sermon, as published, was taken down by the short-hand reporter, fully and correctly, we confess that we have read it with surprise, and have asked ourselves, is it possible that a minister, standing on the high eminence of popularity which Mr. Evans occupies, should maintain such a position by preaching sermons, such as this? We are well aware of the eloquence and pathos with which Mr. Evans' sermons are delivered; we know how much he excels in pulpit tact, and