virgins, her companions that follow her, shall be brought unto thee." This certainly refers not so much to the entrance of the saints into the kingdom of glory, as to their manifestive entrance into the kingdom of grace. To the former, however, the author adapts it, and thus opens to himself a field, in which he can more lavishly scatter those flowers of language which he has so readily at his command. The author begins with a display in reference to the union of Christ and his church: we were preparing to say what he went on with, but we can scarcely discover the subject, it is so enveloped in the wild exuberance of an uncurbed and most creative tautology.

Will our brother forgive us in stating that such publications are but seldom blessed of the Lord: God's smile not often rests upon works intended more to exhibit the writer's talent than to exalt God's grace. The author has in some of his former pieces sometimes lifted us almost as it were to Tabor and to Pisgah: but the writer who possesses such gifts should look, even more than others, unto the Lord to guide and sanctify them. Paul was taught to prefer above the excellency of human wisdom, the demonstration and power of the Spirit: and the writer will do well in his next publication, to seek less to please men, and more, what he has heretofore been privileged to do, to animate, and encourage, and strengthen saints. He has sought here to make the gospel of Christ acceptable to empty professors by arraying it in gorgeous robes: he has sought, by bending it where it seemed too harsh, and smoothing it where it seemed too rough, to conciliate to it those with whom the true gospel will always be at enmity. Let not the sons of God thus imitate the devil and his children. They clothe wolves in sheep's clothing to deceive, and thus sometimes are successful in alluring the saints into the enchanted ground. But as the gospel of God

is never truly received and believed in but by the power of God, it is lost labour to seek to render palatable, that which will always be a stumblingblock and a rock of offence, until the invincible energy of the Eternal Spirit, causes old things to pass away, and all things to become new.

The Believer's Triumph over Death: being a Brief Account of the Lord's Dealings with Jane Cox. 18mo. pp. 12. London: Houlston and Stoneman.

Or both the subject and the writer of this little narrative we know nothing but what is in the tract before

us.

It supplies not all we should have been pleased to see, but it is very interesting, We were particularly struck with the remark make by the departed when, just before her death, she requested the minister to pray with her; "Dont speak loud; speak softly; the Lord is here!" and with another remark, just at the moment of her departure: she had lain in death-like stillness for about two hours, when opening her eyes and looking up, with a smile on her countenance, and brightening with immortality, she said to her friend, "Mary, tell Mr. Wills it is beautiful; my soul is safe!"

Seven Sermons Founded on the Mes

sages to the Apocalyptic Churches. By E. Andrews. L, L: D. 12mo. pp. 24. London: Palmers.

WE have so often introduced this

series to the notice of our readers, that we now need do little more than announce its completion. We have, in former numbers, candidly given our opinion of them: this sermon is of similar character with the former, and the series supplies a volume which, while it affords not, nor professes to do so, any very deep elucidation of the prophetic or doctrinal character of the epistles, elicits important in

THIS tract, in giving the reason for the author discontinuing to attend her accustomed church, the clergyman of which has wandered into the follies of the Oxford Tract party; exposes, and with some ability, the innovations which Dr. Pusey has introduced into the Church of England.

Some of our readers may be ignorant of the extent of Dr. Pusey's clerical absurdities, which, we lament to say, are daily becoming more frequently adopted by men who, ignorant of the power of godliness and gratified by an excess in form and ceremony, are thus blindly and speedily retrograding to the papal apostasy. For the information of such we give an extract in which the author depictures some few of their whims.

66

Divine service is now turned into a scene of theatrical performance, for what other name could be given to this new mode of worshipping :-to see the minister enter the church accompanied by about twenty boys in surplices, who take their stations each side the chancel while he ascends a low open carved desk facing the south, from which he turns to the west to address the Exhortation to the people; then to the south for the Confession; then to the people for the Absolution; then to the south for the Lord's Prayer to the end of the Psalms; then he comes down towards the centre of the church, where stands the Bible on the eagle's wings, to read the First Lesson; then goes back to the desk again for the Te Deum; then comes back again to the Bible for the Second Lesson; then back again to the desk for the Psalm Jubilate; then ministers and boys, by one impulse, turn round

to the east to say the Creed; then round to their right place again, where the minister remains to the end of the third Collect, when he comes down to kneel before a faldstool placed towards the east and faeing the altar for the Litany, and thence goes to the altar to read the Commandments. Besides these, the continued music and singing from the beginning to the end of the service; the few collects that can be spiritually enjoyed, being continually interrupted by the loud Amen shouted from the organ and the screaming voices of the boys.

I heard also several clergymen had adopted different kind of dresses to use according to the parts they perform; such as Cope, Gospeller, Epistoler. Is that the way to worship God in spirit and in truth? Will God hear one prayer better to the east than to the west, and another to the south than to the north? some prayer prove more efficacious in one dress than another? The Puseyite says these are to give more solemnity to the service, and to keep up the spirit of the people which would otherwise become tired and drowsy."

Will

The tract may be circulated advantageously as an antidote where the poison has began to spread.

A Guide to the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper, and the Welcome Guest at the Lord's Table. By the late R. Hawker, D. D. 32mo, pp. 80. London, Palmer and Son.

This little manual has been now too long known to need recommendation. It comprises two distinct works; in the first of which the author gives his views of the nature of the ordinance, and in the second describes the characters for whom it was instituted. This is the twelfth edition. It is tastefully done up in imitative watered green silk and gilt edges.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD.

Thou Everlasting God,

Who doth in glory dwell;
Sending thy power abroad,

O'er heaven, and earth, and hell:
Who worketh all things to fulfil,
Th' eternal counsels of thy will.

By thy own wise decree,

Permitted man to take Of the forbidden tree;

And thus the covenant break:

But Adam knew the penalty
Was certain death and misery.

But why did Adam sin?
Why ruin thus our race?
That Jesus might bring in,

Salvation by free grace :-
The Saviour came to bleed and die,
And thus the law did magnify.

By offerings thou wast sought,
Thy counsels to fulfil ;
By faith was Abel's brought,

And Cain's was by freewill:-
By faith in Christ was Abel saved,
On Cain thy justice was displayed.

What filled proud Pharoah's heart,
And woke his foolish boast?
That he might feel thy smart,

With all his royal host :

For this same purpose thou didst raise,
That thou mightst by him shew thy praise.

Why did poor Jonah dare
To disobey the word?
That Jonah might declare,
Salvation 's of the Lord :-

'T was Jonah's sin made Jonah cry,
And God the Father glorify.

Why did King Jesus leave,

His radiant throne above?
That he might come and save,
The objects of his love:-
T'obey the holy law's commands,
And pay stern justice its demands.

Why did the King permit
Himself to be betrayed,
By Judas with a kiss?

That Israel might be saved;
And Judas to his place might go,
The place he was appointed to.

I stand not alone in fall'n nature's pride,
My hope, my trust 's in the Crucified:
Thou hast won my heart in the day of thy
power,

And now I rely on myself no more;
And my soul thy saving grace hath known;
Thrice blest be thy name, I stand not alone.

I stand not alone in the thorny way,

Still thou 'rt my comfort, my bope, my stay; From a heart o'erwhelmed often bursts the sigh,

But thou lead'st to the Rock that is higher than I:

Dear Lord, thy sustaining grace I've known, And blest be thy name, I stand not alone.

I stand not alone in affliction's sea,
Though stormy the billows around may be ;
I stand not alone in the furnace hot,
Even there, my God, thou leav'st me not;
And earthly delights, they may all seem flown,
But blest be thy name, I stand not alone.

I stand not alone, for in every strait
Thou givest me strength on thee to wait;
Thy voice bids my doubts and darkness flee,
And I cast my burdens, my all on thee:
Oh, how much of thy mercy and truth thou'st
shown,

Thrice blest be thy name, I stand not alone.

And when time is past, and the day is come When men shall be summoned to hear their doom,

To account unto God for the deeds they 've done;

Then, made perfect in his co-equal SonTho' the Pharisee sinks engulphed in despairI shall stand not alone, my God will be there.

EMMELINE.

LEBANON LEAVES.

"The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way."-Mark x. 51, 52.

Dost thou inquire which is the earliest guest
Within the awakened bosom: whether first
Life breathes the vital prayer, or light
Diffuses its bright beamings? Go and read
Creation's mystic history, and thence,
If thine experience tells thee not, obtain
Full answer to thy question. O'er the void,
The dark and formless void, the Spirit moved :
And afterwards, when thus the shapeless
gloom

Was visited by God-by God who breathed
The breath of life into the senseless clay,
And man became a living soul—then, not
before,

God uttered the command, "Let there be light!"

And o'er the new creation radiance came : Light, which the Almighty seeing said was good.

Observe the little infant, has it first Knowledge or life? and 't is to these the Lord Likens his children. Oh, methinks the men Who say light first illuminates the soul, Which, learning thus its need, inquires for life, Have never known the light which God calls good.

The shapeless void was dark and passive when The Spirit moved upon it: dark, and still, And passive as the breast of ignorance,

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THE

FURNITURE OF THE THIRD HEAVENS.

"By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens."-Job xxvi. 3.

THE Lord's called ones know that the Holy Ghost is a divine distinct person in the Godhead, equal and coeternal with the Father and the Son, possessing the same nature and attributes with them both, who guaranteed in covenant love and settlements before all worlds, to quicken all the elect of the Father, and to fit them for their eternal destiny.

Before we advert immediately to the third heavens, let us take a survey of the visible heavens, that grand and magnificent arch that displays so wonderfully Jehovah's handy-work, who created all these bright ornaments by which they are so masterly embellished, who bringeth out their host by number, he calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth (Isa. xl. 26). Here we obtain at once the most correct information; " By the word of the Lord were the heavens made: and all the hosts of them, by the breath (or spirit) of his mouth," Ps. xxxiii. 6. Thus it is clear that God the Spirit, August, 1840.]

in co-operation with the Father and the Son, spake all things into immediate existence out of mere nothingness by his bare fiat: "God said Let there be light, and there was light," Gen. i. 2. And that the word God, in this portion, refers to the person of the Spirit, is evident from 2 Cor. iv. 6, where we have it thus,-" God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God (the Father), in the face (or person) of Jesus Christ." And as the Holy Ghost made the light, so we are told (Gen. i. 6) he made the stars also, which night unto night proclaim his inimitable skill; or as one poetically expresses it, are

"For ever singing as they shine,

The hand that made us is divine."

But let us now advert to the church of the First-born, whose names are written in heaven. As the elect church of God is frequently called heaven, in the word of inspiration (see Rev. xii. 7; xi. 19), this heaven he studs and bespangles with gospel ministers of his own ordination and sending :

Separate me (said the Holy Ghost) Barnabas and Saul, for the work