.

"

II

Perchance he gazeth on a broken arch,
A ruined column, or forsaken altar,

Or lightly treadeth in his thoughtful march
The tomb of some proud prelate, who could palter
Himself perhaps, yet spare no lay defaulter;
And oh the Pilgrim may from these, I ween,
Withouten priest, or prayer-book, or psalter,
Perceive how frail man is, and aye hath been,
And learn to look beyond this world to the unseen!

III.

Perchance he thinketh of departed ages,

And myriad souls evanished from the earth;
In mental eye, calls up the fools and sages,
Who came and went, as if they ne'er had birth;
Wanders in fancy to the mouldering hearth
Of peasant long-departed, or of peer-
Beholds all desolate, where life and mirth

And gladness reigned through many a bygone year,
And then he trusts that Heaven hath all that's wanting here.

IV.

Still thou hast reason, ELGIN! to be proud
Of thy Cathedral; for it shows man's power
As well as impotence: -oh! not the shroud
Prepared for him who hath his little hour
On life's stage strutted, nor the withered flower
Erewhile so full of loveliness, displays

Of frailty such an emblem; yet in tower,

And arch, and area may be seen the traits

And impress of the mind, which dies not nor decays!

V.

Yes, there is mind-apparent not alone

"In the gigantic grandeur of its plan—
But e'en each curious and fretted stone

Bears mind's rich stamp, and shows indeed what man
Hath power to accomplish-though a very span
Of life for these and all his works be given!

True, they are not the noblest which he can
Or ought to aim at, as the heir of Heaven,

Yet well they mark his power—ay, such old ruins even!

VI.

And many a generation hath gone by,

Since thine old walls, majestic Pile! were based;
And many a race will yet spring up and die,

Ere thou shalt be, old as thou art, erased!

But thou hast not been useless-man hath praised
His Maker, and the troubled soul's been calined
Within thy courts!-e'en now, though old and crazed,
Thy ruins, mute yet eloquent, have psalmed,
And in one breast at least fine feelings have embalmed!

R. H.

REVIEW.

An Expostulatory Letter, addressed to the President, Secretary, and other Preachers constituting “the Wesleyan Methodist Conference," assembled at Liverpool, in July, 1832; charging that body with maintaining and enforcing Irrational and Antiscriptural Dogmata, as fundamental principles in their system of Theology; with a Challenge to a Discussion upon the points at issue; and a brief statement of the only True System of Christian Theology. By Samuel Tucker, V. D. M. Professor of Christian Theology. (Upwards of 30 years a Preacher in the Conference Connexion.) Liverpool: Worrall & Taylor.

A CURIOUS title, prefixed to a curious pamphlet. The writer is evidently an original thinker, an acute reasoner, and a fearless advocate of what he believes to be Divine truth. Perhaps he has allowed the provocations of his opponents, and what now appears to him the glaring absurdities of the falsely called " orthodox" system to extort from him some expressions which do not well accord with that high and holy cause in which he has engaged. Possibly too, he will, on further examination and reflection, find, that such phrases as "the divine filiation and consequent essential divinity of the LOGOS, as the MONOGENES of the Father;" "the generically spiritual identity of the Son of God, with the offspring of Adam and Eve, as under God, the true and proper Father of all human spirits," are as mystified and as totally inapplicable to the promotion of sound morality, true piety, and spiritual devotion, as are those antiscriptural dogmas which he so dexterously exposes and so justly condemns. However, the pamphlet is another proof added to the thousands already furnished, that whoever sits down to a perusal of the New Testament, determined to close in with its direct and unequivocal testimony respecting the nature of God and the person and character of Jesus Christ, will rise from that perusal with an undoubting conviction, that God is there declared to be one, eternal, almighty, omnipresent Spirit; and that he who is styled the Father, is the only true God, and the only object of religious worship; and that Jesus Christ is distinct from, inferior to, and dependant upon God the Father, and received from God the Father all his power to become the the instructor, the saviour, and judge of man. ›

Satisfied on these points himself, Mr. Tucker seems anxious to convince Trinitarians generally, and the Wesleyan Methodist preachers in particular, that a Trinity of

co-equal, co-eternal persons, making up the one God, is unknown to the Sacred Volume; but he finds it a most difficult task, it would appear, to overcome error, prejudice, pride, and worldly interest, united as they are under the banners of blustering, anathematizing orthodoxy.

Still there can be no doubt, that the questions proposed by Mr. Tucker must be found by the Trinitarian as difficult to be answered fairly and satisfactorily, as they are necessary to be asked by every inquirer after Scripture truth. Q. I.-Does any one, and which, of the persons in the Trinity, possess inherently, in, of, by, and from himself alone, all the essential attributes of Deity? If so, must not that person alone be the only true God????

"Q. 2. Did any one person in the Trinity ever worship another person therein, and solemnly declare and confess HIM to be the only true God; and, as such, greater than himself? And if so, was the worshipper, in that instance, correct in his judgment, and soundly orthodox in his principles?"

Besides which, Mr. T. asks, in substance, "how many supreme, eternal, self-existent, and omnipotent Gods are there in the Universe. If but one, is that God one pure simple spirit, or is HE a compound being, consisting of three or any other plural number of distinct spirits? If but one spirit, who is that spirit? Is it not HE who in' the New Testament is designated God the Father? Who then is the Lord Jesus Christ, and who is the Holy Ghost? If it requires the conjunction of THREE persons to constitute ONE all-perfect being, what is each person in his individual capacity? A third part of the supreme God? This is the unavoidable consequence, and thus the whole Trinity of persons' is undeified seriatim. If Jesus Christ be the supreme God, who then is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? And who then is the Son of God? Is Jesus Christ both his own Father and his own Son? Or is God the Father an inferior being? If Christ be the supreme God, who is the one Mediator between God and men'? Does Christ mediate between himself and men? If Christ be the supreme God, to whom did he make an atonement? Did God punish himself to atone to himself for the sins of mankind?"

And after the foregoing and other kindred questions, Mr. Tucker proceeds to say,

"In my Triumph of Scriptural and Rational Truth,' as well as in my forthcoming Critical Analysis of Christian Theology,' all the preceding questions are amply discussed, and explicitly, satisfactorily, and triumphantly answered. The errors of all the old

theories are therein detected, exposed, refuted, and exploded; while the celestial harbinger of truth, waving the banner of the cross, bearing the apostolic inscription- For there is ONE GOD, and one MEDIATOR between GOD and MEN, the MAN Christ Jesus,' emblazoned upon its shining tapestry, firmly and majestically. 'walks over' the arena of this controversy, without seeing the face of an opponent to impede his victorious progress! Before that sacred STANDARD, every difficulty vanishes, every error is annihilated, the infernal harpies of ignorance, prejudice, and bigotry, take their everlasting flight! All the enigmatical problems of ever-blundering orthodoxy' are solved or obliterated: confusion itself is confounded, while her liberated slaves are guided by a sunbeam of divine truth, under the hallowing influence of the Spirit of Truth,' to the temple of a simple, but cordial worship of 'the only true God,' through the mediation of the Son of his love,' who is the bright effulgence of his Father's glory, the impressed image of his ineffable hypostasis, and the receptacle and repository of all the fulness of the Godhead, which dwelleth in him bodily'!"

Mr. Tucker thus pointedly and truly addresses the Methodist preachers:

"You ought assuredly to know, at least, the true and proper object of divine worship, and the divinely authorised medium of that worship; whereas, to this hour, most of you know not whether any one person of the Trinity be alone the supreme, God, or whether it requires the whole three persons to constitute that God. Neither can many of you tell whether the Lord Jesus Christ be himself the only true God,' or merely the Son of that God, and our Mediator with HIM. Most of you profess to believe the absurd and self-contradictory dogma, that he is both the one and the other! In fact, you know not whether God be ONE spirit or THREE-ONE being or THREE. You cannot define the individual character or qualities of a person' in the Godhead, nor do you, in reality, know whether there be THREE supreme GODS or only ONE in the universe! And the reason is obvious:-You do not, you cannot, nor do you even profess to understand your own principles. -You say they are incomprehensible mysteries; and, by pretending that God is their author, you tax that glorious Being with equal folly, injustice, and cruelty, in giving to mankind an incomprehensible revelation of himself, as their inefficient guide to the saving knowledge of his person and character!"

There seem to us many inconsistencies scattered up and down this pamphlet. The author, though crying out against prejudice, has a strong prejudice and horror of what he, like many others, calls "Socinianism." This may, however, be readily forgiven in one so lately bound in darkness and error. That he is sincerely anxious for truth, and that his labours will tend to, its further dis semination, we cannot question, and, therefore, we heartily rejoice, in, his exertions.

Illustrations of Political Economy, Nos. 11 & 12.—For Each and for All; and French Wines and Politics; by Harriet Martineau. Charles Fox, London.

THE first of these tales is equal to any thing Miss Martineau bas yet produced, in liveliness and vigour of dialogue, and felicity of illustration; but as a story, it appears to us deficient in interest and dramatic effect. The leading characters talk indeed, with great power and brilliancy, but there is something less natural and spontaneous in the manner in which the scientific illustrations are brought forward, than on some former occasions. A Lord Fhad taken a wife from the stage-a very beautiful, and what is better, a very wise woman. The world, as might be expected, wonders a little, and sneers a great deal at this step-certainly judging a priori, rather a rash one. Lord and Lady F- however, care little about the world's wonder or ill-nature either; their time in town or country is spent in trying to do good upon the largest scale and in the soundest manner; and their endeavours to effect this, elicit some of those striking illustrations of the doctrines and precepts of political economy, in which the authoress chiefly excels. Miss Martineau is fired with a generous enthusiasm in favour of the aristocracy of talent, and her object in forming this apparent mès-alliance is obviously to throw a lustre around the latter, and to show its value to society, by its effects upon public morals and social happiness. The object is benevolent, and the execution is equal to the object. There is a speculating merchant of the name of Waldie also introduced, who nearly ruins his family by unwise speculations, and at last actually becomes insane from the effects of joy, at the fortunate issue of a mercantile adventure. We shall extract the scene, in which poor Waldie appears in a state of violent excitation, which to us, appears one of the most powerful pieces of painting, we have ever met with.

"I do wish Waldie would control his spirits a little," said Maria, showing the note to her sister, and then looking as if she would fain have withdrawn it. "How can he bring himself to write in such a way ?"

Letitia had nothing to say at the moment; not even congratulations on the wealth of Croesus having crowned all these vicissitudes. She asked for the children. They were gone out with Therese and their own nurse-maid. She offered a turn in the hrubbery; but Maria was not, she presently saw, strong enough