jesty's Commissariat in Nova Scotia; and his father formerly held a situation in the same department. • Mr. Goldsmith's opinion of this effort of his talent," says the Bishop, was very modest, and it would not have met the public eye, if it had not fallen under the observation of several friends who thought it deserving of notice and encouragement. They supposed that a poem upon such a subject, from the pen of a person bearing the name of the celebrated Author of the Deserted Village, and allied to him by blood, would hardly fail to excite some interest, more especially as it may be considered as taking up the history of the innocent sufferers who were driven from Auburn, and tracing their humble progress beyond the Western main, from their first settlement in a rude forest to a state of comparative comfort and enjoyment. Those friends accordingly recommended the publication of the Rising Village, and the Author consented to commit it entirely to their discretion. They are not without hope that it will be received with indulgence, as the first effort of a deserving young man, who has always recommended himself by his character and conduct. Nor have they a doubt that such reception of his first attempt will encourage him to new exertion. For he has an aged and widowed mother, now residing at Plymouth, whose comfort it is his chief delight to promote; and if his talent and pen can be made instrumental to such a purpose, they will engage his very earnest endeavours.' Need we add a word in recommendation of this interesting little publication? Art. VII. The Ten Commandments, illustrated and enforced, on Christian Principles. By W. H. Stowell. Second Edition. 12mo. pp. viii. 220. Price 4s. London. 1825. W E are by no means of opinion that a volume of plain lectures on the Ten Commandments is a thing uncalled for." We are quite sure, that to illustrate and enforce the Decalogue from the pulpit, is not a work of supererogation. Mr. Stowell is, we think, to be commended for setting so good an example, undeterred by the fear of having the cry of legality raised against him; and the reasons he assigns for entering on the present course will, we hope, lead many Christian teachers to do likewise. The preachers of the gospel generally lament the partial success of their exertions. The unwelcome truth is forced on our view, by the senseless indifference of the multitude, by the extreme jealousy towards the peculiarities of the gospel displayed in the reflecting classes, by the stationary kind of piety which prevails with numbers by whom these peculiarities are professedly admired, and by the comparatively lifeless and unproductive state of those for whom our better hopes are cherished. There is much outward decency; much observance of divine institutions; much professed regard to the Bible and all its principles; much interest taken in the tone, and style, and other circumstances incidental to the preaching of the gospel; much excitement and promise in the state of mind with which these things are attended to; but where is the result, the proof of being saved from sin, and enjoying fellowship with Christ, and triumphing in the hope of the gospel, and bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit in righteousness and true holiness? 'We are led to think that there are some points on which all our hearts and consciences need to be more earnestly impressed, and these points we believe to be connected with the requirements and denunciations of the law of God. But, there is a dread of legal preaching. If by this phrase be meant, the preaching which fosters the hope of salvation because of our obedience to the law, such preaching is most solemnly proscribed in Scripture, for it is destructive of the very elements of the gospel, We are persuaded, however, that men would never venture on such preaching, if they understood the law of God; neither, did others understand it, could they endure to listen to such preaching. The best antidote to these delusions, then, is an exposition of the law, in all the breadths and lengths of its requirements. But, if by legal preaching is meant, the faithful and fervid enforcement of these commands on every man's conscience, as the standard by which he is to walk now, and to be judged hereafter, whence, we demand, the dread of such a style of preaching? Surely not from an enlightened regard to the honour of God; we know nothing of that honour, but as we study and obey his law. Surely not from an enlightened attachment to the gospel; we do not understand the gospel, but as it enlarges our conceptions of the divine law, and constrains us to fulfil it. If the gospel had not been intended to exalt the character of the law in our esteem, to enhance its authority, and, by relieving the conscience from the guilt of having broken it, to influence the heart to a steady observance of its precepts, the whole genius of the gospel must have been the reverse of what it is. In proportion as the law is explained, and really understood, God is honoured; the conscience is enlightened; the gospel is valued; the necessity of holiness is acknowledged; the grief of penitence is awakened; the corruption of the heart is felt; the atonement of the Saviour is embraced; the influence of the Spirit is implored; the heart is purified; the soul is saved.' What is conviction of sin? A practical acknowledgement, in the sinner's mind, of the authority and perfection of the law. What is conversion? The turning of the heart to the statutes of the law. What is justification? Imputing to him that believes in Jesus the righteousness which fulfilled the law. What is holiness? Spontaneous and grateful obedience to the law. What are the precepts of the gospel but amplifications and enforcements of the law? What is heaven? "The eternal and perfect conformity of the soul to the law of God, and the satisfaction of being in that likeness.'' We sometimes hear the preaching of the terrors of the law spoken of in contradistinction from what is called emphatically the preaching of the gospel; and, in this point of view, the Law may still serve as a schoolinaster" to introduce men to Christ. But we are inclined to think, that the excellencies of that law, which is holy, and just, and good, are not sufficiently dwelt upon. The spirit of the Psalmist's declaration, "Oh how love I thy law: it is my meditation all the day!" does not pervade, as it ought to do, the practice of modern Christians. Nothing, we admit, can be more unaffecting and inefficient than cold disquisitions on moral virtue; yet, if there be any virtue," whatsoever things "are lovely, and decorous, and of good report," we are commanded to think of; and in order to their being rightly thought of, they require to be very distinctly brought forward in connexion with evangelical motives and the example of Christ. For this sort of legal preaching, if it be such, there is no small occasion. There is a vague notion afloat, that the Decalogue is not binding upon Christians,that it is a part of the Mosaic economy which is done away; notwithstanding that Our Lord expressly declared, that he came, not to destroy, but to fulfil the law. This notion is not confined to those who are par excellence Antinomians; it is favoured by Paley and has been espoused by Jeremy Bentham. The chief pretence for this notion is, that the fourth commandment has undergone some change or partial repeal. We have known individuals who were willing to recognise the authority of nine commandments out of the ten; but they stumbled at this Jewish law of the Sabbath. It is obvious that this opinion, however, has no small tendency to relax the obligations of the other nine; and what may be in some individuals a conscientious fear of juduizing, leads, we are persuaded, to an insensible depreciation of the Divine law. But nothing is susceptible of clearer proof, than that the precepts of our Lord and the teaching of his Apostles, are built upon the law of the Ten Commandments, and presuppose its perpetual obligation; that this law is still the unchangeable measure of righteousness; that the righteousness of Christ, by faith in which the believer is justified, has itself relation to that law; and that conformity to the righteousness of Christ must therefore be ascertained by the same rule. The opinion in question strikes at the very foundations, therefore, of the evangelical system, since it tends to obscure the lustre of that righteousness which is the foundation of a sinner's hope, and to weaken the force of the example of the Saviour. It must be of infinite importance, then, that clear ideas should be entertained on this subject. There is no part of the decalogue which has not been afresh promulgated by our Lord, not excepting the fourth; and it is highly desirable that the Commandments should constantly be enforced upon professed Christians, by an appeal to the language, as well as the life of our Lord. But, in their collective and specific form, as originally inscribed by the finger of Jehovah, they come with a peculiar distinctness and authority upon the conscience. On this account, no child ought to be suffered to pass through a Sunday school without learning them by heart; and the practice of insisting on them in this form from the pulpit, appears to us not less desirable. Such was the practice of wise and holy men of old, and we know that it was the practice of Him who spake as never man spake. As the first publication of a young man, it would not be fair to bring this volume under minute criticism.. The only foult we are disposed to find with it, is, that the phraseology is not sufficiently plain and simple. There is somewhat too much of essaying; and the lectures are much more fit to be perused, than to be heard, a circumstance, however, which will not detract from its merits as a publication. Nor should we advert to it, were we not anxious that young preachers should be guarded against adopting in the pulpit an ambitious style, The volume has our cordial recommendation, and will, we hope, be extensively useful. As a specimen of the Author's style, we shall make room for an extract from the Third Lecture... The name of the Lord may be taken in vain, in worship." The absence of religious feeling has already been considered as a breach of the second commandment, because that commandment requires the expression of cordial homage to the Lord our God. The same lifelessness in performing the external acts of worship is a violation of the third commandment; because, in the act of worship, you take the name of the Lord; but the act being unaccompanied by the feeling of which it ought to be the indication, is without meaning-it is, therefore, " taking the name of the Lord in vain." 2 When accompanied by false or spurious feelings. Mere emotion, remember, is not spirituality. There is much animal excitement, and, as we conceive, much moral excitement produced by sympathy, by terror, by imitation, by natural susceptibility of impressions, where the mind is not spiritually enlightened, nor the conscience quickened, nor the heart awakened to holy and earnest solicitude about the salvation of the soul. If such temporary or occasional excitements are all the feelings with which you attend to the forms of social or of secret worship, beware of self-delusion; watch nar VOL. XXIV. N.S. 2 B rowly the state of of your affections and your temper; have a special guard over the manner in which you search the scriptures, and over the spirit in which you attend to the more tranquil, ordinary, and selfdenying duties of religion. Sooner or later you will discover that you knew not what manner of spirit you were of;" that you have been "taking the name of God in vain." 3. When accompanied by forbidden feelings; by self-complacency, by reliance on the merit of your performance, or even the thought that, in the estimation of God, it is meritorious; by the indulgence of malevolent dispositions, carnal imaginations, and hypocritical intentions; by presumptuous familiarity; by the bold and confident assuming to yourself of characters and privileges, which ought ever to be contemplated with some mixture of fear and trembling. It could not be without a most instructive meaning, that He who knew what was in man, taught his disciples thus to pray: "Hallowed be thy name." " • Much need not be said of the violation of this commandment by WRITINGS All those publications which contain what is blasphemous, irreverent, treacherous, or profane in the use of the name of God, are, at once, condemned, however adorned by the brilliances of fancy, or the fascinations of genius. To whatever extent an author of such productions gratifies his own taste, and promotes his own objects by the employment of such language, he is obviously "taking the name of the Lord in vain ;" and, besides this, he encourages, sanctions, and palliates the same impiety in every mind that can be influenced by his sentiments or his example. Is not the eager appetite for this mental stimulus an alarming symptom? We may just remark here,-to witness theatrical representations, in which the name of God is so commonly and awfully insulted, is to be "a partaker of other men's sins.” This commandment has annexed to it the declaration of a truth involved in the announcement of all the rest: but it is added here, either to intimate that there is something peculiarly aggravated in the 'sins forbidden, or to detect in the human heart the thought, or hope, that such sins are comparatively trifling: "The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” To be held guilty is to be judged, and punished, according to the sentence of the law. The sentence pronounced on transgressors of the law, is the curse of God; and whether you have transgressed in one or other of the ways we have pointed out as breaches of this commandment, you are guilty. The laws of the community, having nothing to do with personal character but as it affects the community, may not recognise these transgressions of the law of God. To the taste of society, in some of its circles, many of the habits denounced may be perfectly congenial. The maxims of the age may excuse them. Your conscience may be so dark or obtuse, or so unheeded, as to leave you in undisturbed indulgence. The deserved and threatened wrath of God may not be speedily executed. The goodness that ought to lead you to repentance may only harden you. Be not deceived by these flattering cir |