our own country to view its progress with an eye of jealousy. That national prosperity must be morbid and fugitive which trembles at the prosperity of other States, and calculates its own advancement by a ratio inverse to the moral order of the world. The safe and honourable dependence of this kingdom is on its own internal vigour; and national vigour expresses only the visible results of public and private virtue.

ART. XIX.—An Essay on the Character and Practical Writings of St. Paul. By Hannah More. In 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 290 and 348. London. Cadell and Davies. 1815.

IT has frequently been observed, that the dispensation of the

Gospel was committed, in the first instance, to men of no rank or reputation in the world. A few persons were selected from the walks of humble life to be the followers of Jesus Christ; and to them principally was delegated the sacred office of bearing witness to the history of his life, and promulgating the doctrines of salvation. Such was the will of Him, who devised the plan of redemption: such was the determination of infinite Wisdom: as if to prove, beyond the semblance of a doubt, that the power which gave effect to the preaching of the Gospel was the power of God, the foolish things of this world were chosen to confound the wise, and the weak to overturn the mighty.

Yet was not this rule so universally observed as to remain without exception, even in the first ages of the Church. Within two or three years after the ascension of our Lord, there was found in the college of the apostles, a young man of splendid talents and of uncommon attainments. He was ordained to be a special instrument of heaven in extending, far beyond the limits of Judea, the doctrines of the Cross, and in bringing the Gentiles to the fold of Christ.

When we reflect upon the manner in which he was commissioned, and the great end for which he was made a minister of the truth, we must naturally conclude that St. Paul would present a character of singular interest to the members of the Church, in every future period of the world. So intimately is the early history of our religion interwoven with the life and labours of this Apostle of the Gentiles, and so eminent a situation did he hold among those, who were the pillars of the Christian Temple, that an indifference to his name and character would seem to imply a disregard of religion itself. The records of antiquity

furnish many proofs of the marked respect, which in those times was paid to his memory. In addition to the minute history of his labours, which for a certain period is to be found in the New Testament, many particulars have been transmitted to us, which, if not absolutely certain, have a measure of probability; and if they prove nothing else, may at least be admitted to prove the interest excited by his life and doctrines. He is represented as a man of low stature, and inclining to stoop, of a grave countenance and a fair complexion: his eyes are said to have possessed a certain suavity of expression, his nose to have been gracefully aquiline, his forehead nearly bald, his beard thick, and, as he advanced in life, like the hair on his head, somewhat silvered by age. He is derided by Lucian as the high-nosed, bald-pated Galilean. Notwithstanding the abundance of his labours, his constitution is thought to have been infirm, and he is mentioned by Jerome, as much afflicted with the head-ache. Some writers have imagined that he had a defect in his eyes, and that, when speaking, he was apt to fail either in the command of words, or the power of articulation; but these are at the best only vague conjectures. The passages cited from the epistles in support of them are far from conclusive. His bodily presence is, indeed, said to have been weak, and his speech contemptible; but the charge is of little value, as it came from his enemies: it might possibly be true: it might easily be false. That he had some personal infirmity, which was visible to others, and which exposed him to many trials, may be inferred from the epistle to the Galatians: Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh, I preached the Gospel unto you at the first; and my temptation, which was in the flesh, ye despised not nor rejected: but received me as an Angel of God, even as Christ Jesus." He doubtless alludes in this place to that thorn in the flesh mentioned in the 2d epistle to the Corinthians. Of its nature we can know nothing, for nothing is revealed; and the conjectures of the ancients are of little more account than those of the moderns. The passage, which follows the verses just cited, "I bear you record that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me," sufficiently attests the love of the Galatians, but it proves nothing more.

Whatever were the infirmities of this Apostle, he possessed qualities which fitted him for the first station in the Church of Christ, and he was favoured with the peculiar notice and blessing of God. This man of three cubits in height, as Chrysostom tells us, was tall enough to touch the heavens: his conversation was there, and thence he derived those pure lessons of religion and

* Ὁ τρίπηχυς άνθρωπος καὶ τῶν έρινων απτόμενος. In Petr. et Paul, Serino,

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morals, that loftiness of principle, that fervour of feeling, that ardent and inextinguishable hope of immortality, which animated his own conduct, and afforded instruction and consolation to every coming age. No person ever yet repented of consulting the pages of St. Paul. "They are," as it has been justly stated, a golden mine, in which the diligent workman, the deeper he "digs, the more he will discover: the farther he examines, "the more he will find." We believe that few are more fully convinced of the truth of this remark than the pious and elegant writer from whose pen it proceeded. That she has long been intimately conversant with the sacred writings, has studied them. in the right spirit, and is deeply imbued with the principles which they contain, will be questioned by few who are acquainted with her former works, and with her exemplary life. It cannot be doubted that she had given a due portion of her time to the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of St. Paul; yet we feel a strong persuasion that, in composing the volumes now to be examined, many new views were presented to her notice, many new rays broke in upon her mind; and while she looked with increasing admiration upon the character of the man, she looked also with proportionate delight to the grace of God that was in him: while she beheld more distinctly the suitableness of the instrument for the end designed, she dwelt with more exalted pleasure upon the wisdom and grace which prepared and directed it;-wisdom, full of the contrivances of mercy; and grace, supplying all the wants of a fallen creature. If any reader of St. Paul should have discovered nothing of excellence in his character, and nothing to be admired in the counsels which selected this Apostle for the defence and propagation of the Gospel, let him be assured that he has much to learn. He resembles the heedless traveller, who perceives nothing in his. progress but the soil and the pebbles around him. It is to patient research that the scenery unveils its beauties, and spreads the secret treasures of its interior magnificence.

Mrs. More commences her work by stating, in the Preface, the nature of her plan: it is written with the candour and judgment which we were prepared to expect from her, and with a degree of modesty which may serve as a useful lesson to others. She neither claims the chair of the expositor, nor enters into that sort of critical learning which, however valuable to the scholar, is of no great importance to the general reader. Her object is to exhibit the character of St. Paul, as a model for imitation to Christians of every class; and this she endeavours to accomplish, not by lowering the dignity of the Apostle, but by bringing us to a more intimate acquaintance with his principles and dispositions. Her aim is to show, from his example, from the spirit and temper

which he displayed in the discharge of his duties, and the pressure of his unparalleled sufferings, in what manner our common actions are to be performed, and our common trials sustained. We are not called to the post which he occupied, nor will future ages look back to us with the reverence which belongs to St. Paul; but the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel are given for the benefit of all men, as the guide of their faith, and the rule of their constant practice: the efficacy of them is to be shown in our ordinary concerns, in the pursuits and engagements of every day; and thus it is that they are expounded and applied by the Apostle of the Gentiles. As he has unfolded more distinctly than others, the great truths of our religion, so has he been careful "to extend his code to the more minute exigencies and relations of familiar life."

It is evident that a work of this nature should enter into particulars. In perusing the Acts of the Apostles, and the letters of him who was the chief of their number, we can hardly fail to admire the character of St. Paul, and the tendency of his writings. But to convert this knowledge to a practical purpose, we must not be contented with a general view of the subject. It is highly useful to examine the matter somewhat in detail: we must be apprised that this clear light, which is shed around the path of the Apostle, is composed of many distinct rays, and that it can be separated into its constituent parts: that to compose the moral excellence of a man like him, there must be a concentration of many Christian virtues and Christian graces, and that these can be best seen each in its place, and each as occasion calls it into action. We shall thus also perceive that all these virtues and graces proceed from one general principle; that whatever be their diversity, they flow from the same source; and that, if we partake of the real spirit of the Gospel, it must be displayed in our lives as it shone forth in the life of St. Paul.

With a view to the benefit arising from detail, Mrs. More has divided her work into 22 chapters; in which, after an appropriate Introduction, she points out in order some of the chief traits of the Apostle's character and writings, and concludes by a few pages of useful discussion, to which the subject seems naturally to lead.

The days appear to have pretty well passed away, when thinking men could be so far deluded as to place the principles and practice of the heathen world in competition with those, which are inculcated by the revelation of God. Yet it may fairly be doubted, whether the abominations of heathenism are usually viewed in their real colours, even by those who acknowledge that the light which was in them was darkness. In the first chapter, on the morality of Paganism, although our amiable author enters not into any minute description of the atrocities which disgraced the

manners of Greece and Rome, sufficient information is afforded to demonstrate the necessity of the Christian revelation. So deplorably bad in its principles was the religion of the heathens; so low and uncertain was the standard of morals; so wretched was the whole system of mythology; so absurd, on many important subjects, were the notions even of reasoners, comparatively virtuous and wise, that it seems impossible not to acknowledge the want of pure and unauthoritative instruction. It is true that, in this lamentable night of ignorance and irreligion, here and there a few solitary rays appeared to shoot over the horizon, and in some sense to mitigate the general gloom; but they proceeded not from the Sun of Righteousness: there was none of that continuous and uniform lustre which indicates a fountain of light. The moral aphorisms of heathen antiquity were founded upon no principles, which could give them a powerful effect: they presented few motives of influence, and led to no certain results: they were scattered like meteors in a troubled sky, which, however dazzling when contrasted with the deep shadows around them, are of little service to direct the pilgrim on his way. He looks for the day star to arise, and waits for the dawn of the morning. "Under the clear illumination of evangelical truth every precept becomes a principle, every argument a motive, every direction a duty, every doctrine a law."-" The glory of the Pagan religion consisted in virtuous sentiments; the glory of the Christian, in the pardon and subjugation of sin." (P. 25.)

The second chapter, which is also preliminary to the main subject, contains many useful and judicious observations on the historical writers of the New Testament. It states, in a popular way, some of those peculiar evidences of Christianity, which appeal most strongly to the reason and good sense of plain and intelligent men. Such, for instance, is the wonderful agreement of the several books of the sacred volume, composed by persons of very different ranks, and of every variety of character:-Sovereigns and fishermen;-historians, legislators, orators, poets. Such also, with a coincidence of general plan, are the occasional discrepancy and incidental variation to be found in the Scriptures. Such too is the manner in which the Evangelists speak of themselves, and record their own errors;-the simplicity of their narrative, and the total absence of every thing like fraud or collusion. "The

Evangelists, it is remarked, did not so much attempt to argue the truth of Christ's doctrines, as practically to prove that they were of divine origin." A miracle furnished an argument easy to be understood.

Historical books, like those of the four Gospels, are evidently not calculated for a full developement of the doctrines and precepts of Christianity. They were meant for another purpose; and in