CHARACTER OF DAVID'S PSALMS.

THAT book of sacred odes which bears his name, and of many of which he was the author, though at least one of them belongs to a much earlier age, and others of them belong to a much later period, is certainly one of the most delightful and useful portions of the Old Testament Scriptures. The poetical merit of these divine hymns is of the highest order. In variety and richness of imagery-in sublimity and beauty, both of thought and language-and it may be, too, in symmetry of structure, if not in harmony of numbers,-they rival, they surpass, the most admired lyrical productions of Greek or of Roman genius. But poetical merit constitutes but an inconsiderable part of their praise. Like all the other Scriptures, they are given by the inspiration of God;" for the Spirit of the Lord spake by their gifted writers, and His word was on their tongue, and they are therefore "profitable for doctrine and for reproof, for correction and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, fully furnished to every good work." They breathe a spirit of the most elevated and rational, yet childlike and affectionate, devotion. They indicate a mind equally under the influence of veneration and love-a temper alien alike from the scepticism of the philosopher and the credulity of the vulgar. They are full of deep thought, but every thought is instinct with corresponding feeling; they are full of strong emotion, but the emotion is never unnatural, for its subject always fully warrants it. Their sublimity has nothing in common with the undefinable abstractions of mysticism, nor do their raptures ever degenerate into the ravings of an unenlightened enthusiasm. They form a body of religious experience admirably calculated for strengthening the faith, animating the hope, purifying and elevating the affections, and guiding the actings both of

the inner and the outer man. Though written under the influence of a comparatively obscure dispensation of divine truth and grace, many of them have a reference to that better order of things which " came by Jesus Christ;" and in most of them we meet with the expressions of that faith, and hope, and gratitude, and reverence, which are sentiments not peculiar to any dispensation, but are common to all good men, in every country and in every age. It is also deserving of notice, that the remarkable vicissitudes to which David was exposed, in the course of his singularly chequered life, have been overruled as the means of communicating a superadded value to his compositions, as they have naturally given origin to a variety in the psalms wonderfully suited to the diversity of situation in which good men may be placed, each characterised by its own responsibilities, and difficulties, and temptations. There are few shades of devotional feeling which the saint will not find here accurately delineated; and it would not be easy to imagine a conjuncture of circumstances in which a good man may be placed, for which the book of Psalms does not furnish appropriate warning, direction, and consolation.-Brown's Sufferings and Glories of the Messiah.

CONSOLATION FOR POOR HEADS.

SOME of us may have-forgive me the supposition-but poor Heads. We are no geniuses, but very ordinary, humdrum plodders. We have had little schooling, and what we had is associated in our memories with the bottom of the class-the dunce's cap-the ridicule of our sharperheaded school-fellows, who carried off all the prizes; with the frowns and cuffs of the pedagogue, who believed implicitly and loyally, according to the tradition of schoolmasters, in the quickening influence of strap, and cane, and birch, upon the young

idea, which like the hedges in a late spring, was long in shooting. O how we thumbed the spelling book, and watered Bonny castle and Wa'kinghame with hot, scalding, tears! How decimals bewildered us! How we stuck at the far-famed " pons asinorum" of Euclid! How our very heart sickened, and our heads reeled, and our eyes swam over angles and triangles, and circles and polygons, and tangents and sines and cosines! "Amo"-"I love"-how it puzzled the school-boy!-easy and pleasant as it has become to the man! Well; we were dull boys and stupid girls, and we are no geniuses now that we are men and women. Our brains have not grown, whatever our limbs have done-the manipulations of the phrenologist would result in an account of our organization by no means calculated to heighten our self-esteem. Let us take heart, though we be not of the race of the giants. The world needs not to be peopled with giants intellectual, any more than giants physical. A man intellectually little may be morally great. A dullard needs not to be a drone. There is work for us in the vineyard; a place for us in the "rank and file." We may attain to the greatness of goodness. Best of all, we may serve God and our generation; and further His glory who died for us. The church of Christ needs not that we be all geniuses. The church's Head can employ for noblest uses, and can prosper to greatest ends, the "weak things," and the "foolish things," and the "things that are not." We may "shine," though it be as rushlights, and not stars, or suns, or comets. Well is it indeed when intellectual and moral greatness are combined in Christ's service-when the cherub, who knows most, and the seraph, who loves most, are combined in one :-the piety of a Newton, with a Newton's intellect. But what good old Mr Simeon said of ministers, is, I believe, true universally, that (he gave

it as the result of his long and varied experience) the men whom God most honours and prospers with actual usefulness, are not the men of greatest intellect, but those in whom are united sterling pietyaverage talent--and persevering industry. "This witness is true." Let it encourage many among us. -- Miller's Heads and Hearts.

THE RELIGION OF RUSSIA.

THE supreme pontiff over the Greek church is the Czar himself; all its springs of power are in his hands, and all are regulated by him, so as to subserve his pleasures. It is not too much to say, that in Czar and keep his commandments is the the popular creed of Russia, to fear the whole duty of man. It is true there is one disobedience, under his theocratic sway, is God, but the Czar is his prophet, and civil held forth, by priest and magistrate, as being at once impiety and treason.-British Quarterly.

RUSSIAN ESPIONAGE.

THE Russian walls have more than ears; the whole country is, in fact, a Dionysian ear, so perfect is the system of espionage established by Count. Benckendorf. His power is as much dreaded as the horrors of the Inquisition, to which in some respects it may be safely compared. By his rules, suspicion is so nearly allied to actual guilt, that innocence can hardly escape the penalties of crime. Society is ruined, and an unguarded remark may cause the explosion which will seal the fate of the unconscious delinquent, and consign him to an unknown doom; or, if a foreigner, expel him from the country at twenty-four hours' notice.-Thomson's "Life in Russia.”

B.A.

London: Albert Cockshaw. THIS book is no sham. It takes a wide sweep of discussion, and displays a happy union of original thought and patient research. It does not deal in common-places, nor does it feebly and timorously tread in a beaten path. Its merit is not that of unmerciful vituperation, or extravagant eulogy, on the different sides of the ques

tion, but of calm and thorough inquiry, followed up by honest and earnest vindication of a great and blessed principle. At the same time, we are bound to add that the volume contains not a little extraneous matter, which, however interesting in itself, contributes nothing to the strength or success of the argument. There is also an affectation of philosophical precision assumed in the preface, and occasionally manifested throughout the volume. Great men's names are sometimes quoted in proof of mere truisms or the tritest observations;

and much learning and ingenuity are now and then expended in illustration of merely collateral topics. The volume is, in short, too full-too much matter being compressed into its pages. But this plethora of materials is relieved by the freshness and pregnancy of many of its uncommon and exuberant illustrations. And it nobly proves its theme. That church which Christ and the apostles planted was free, pure, and powerful-mighty in its apparent weakness, and glorious in its august simplicity. It flourished amidst the bloodiest persecutions, for its faith and hope reposed upon its exalted Lord. It relied on the promise, "I am with you alway." It looked not to an arm of flesh, but to the encircling protection of the King of kings. It "came, saw, and conquered." The logic and the sword of hostile paganism were alike powerless before it. It ruled "in the midst of its enemies," for some of its noblest triumphs were in Jerusalem, Antioch, Corinth, and Rome. No foreign power dictated to it, nor was it bound by any political edicts. It did not cringe because it was paid, nor did it bow to the throne because it got from the exchequer. All it asked from the states of earth was-to be let alone. But its early glory soon faded. The spirit of the world was introduced into the church; faith grew dim in the midst of speculation, and unity vanished amidst factious conflicts. The master minds of those early centuries had fallen from the simplicity of the New Testament in creed, ritual, and ethics. The church, indeed, was sadly corrupted ere the policy of Constantine endowed it. It must have been debased by carnal ambition and earthly stimulants, before it could stoop its neck to the yoke. Place, power, wealth, and imperial grandeur, formed a bribe which the church of the fourth century could not resist; for, as ecclesiastical pretensions had risen, genuine piety had declined. The period of endowment was preceded by the fatal period of hierarchical assumptions. Books were forged to create and foster a sacerdotal spirit, and sustain and widen a prelatic platform. "The Clementines," the "Apostolical Constitutions," and the spurious epistles of Ignatius, were a base machinery employed to alter the constitution of the church, and give it that worldly spirit and organisation, which made the subjugation of it by Constantine an easy and a welcome task. Ah! what mischiefs has not that baleful union produced, not only in the development of Popery, but in secularising and enfeebling so many Protestant churches! "Shake thyself from the dust; arise, loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion."

The reader, as we have hinted, will find

in this treatise of Mr Cooper much useful information on the condition of the Jewish and Gentile world before Christ, on the teaching of our Lord and the apostles, and on the age and influence of the apostolical fathers as a transition-period. The characters of Victor, Tertullian, and Cyprian, are each well executed. The whole book is, in short, a unique and valuable contribution to our ecclesiastical literature. The newest sources on all disputed points have invariably been consulted,-such as the Treatise of Schliemann, the publications of Rothe, and the Oxford Edition of Hippolytus. The Society under whose auspices such works as Mr Cooper's are issued, has our heartiest thanks and co-operation. It merits well of the entire dissenting community.

FOUR MONTHS IN ENGLAND. By a West Indian, the Rev. JOHN HORSFORD, Wesleyan Missionary, St Vincents.

London Partridge & Oakey. MR HORSFORD is a lively and pleasant writer, without anything very remarkable in his experience of travel or his manner of relating it. Some interesting notes of the state of Methodism in England occur throughout the volume. The author is a zealous Conference-man, and does his best to construct an argument in behalf of the recent high-handed proceedings of that body-but not, as we judge, with any degree of success. A West Indian born, and with some African blood in his veins, he may be excused for his warmth in maintaining the sugar interest, the use of liturgies, and the affirmative of that questio verata in modern Methodism - gown or no-gown, in the pulpit services of regular travelling preachers. He visits Scotland in the course of his four months; but has not recorded much to help us in seeing ourselves as others see us. He seems, by the way, to have found our Glasgow ministers a very comfortable class. Speaking of our western metropolis, he says:-"How parties do steam away, both on sea and land, at this season,-deserting towns, and seeking the country,-where they breathe the refreshing air, and enjoy relaxation, both of body and mind! The Presbyterian and Independent ministers, at this season, leave their homes, deliver their flocks over to an assistant pastor, while they enjoy rural recreation, unbend their minds, and give elasticity to their spirits, worn and fatigued all the year through with the work they love. Only the Wesleyan minister has no relaxation: for Mr Wesley taught him that a candle was made to burn; and so his labour commonly ends only with his life."

We hope this is true of all the Glasgow

brethren, and wish the example of their congregations, in giving them this relaxation, were more extensively followed. For the burning of the candle at both ends is both haste and waste.

THE FOUNDATION, CONSTRUCTION, and ETERNITY of CHARACTER. By the Rev. J. A. JAMES. HEADS and HEARTS. By the Rev. J. C. MILLER, M.A., Rector of St Martin's, Birmingham.

London: Hamilton & Adams.

WE call the attention of young men to these admirable Lectures, delivered before the "Young Men's Christian Association" of Birmingham. Mr James, as usual, attracts by his practical Christian wisdom, graceful illustration, and affectionate earnestness. Mr Miller is singularly happy in exhibiting the greatness of goodness, and exposing the danger of disconnecting religious and moral from intellectual worth. His lecture is among the best we have seen of the numerous minor productions intended to meet the newest phase of scepticism.

FINE ARTS-PORTRAIT OF MRS BEECHER

STOWE.

Glasgow: M. Kyle.

A FINELY executed lithograph portrait of Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe, the justly celebrated American writer, has just been published by Mr Morrison Kyle, of Glasgow. We can attest its perfect accuracy, having seen the daguerreotype from which it was copied, and which was taken recently expressly for this print. There is a thoughtful benevolence, and a fine lightened sentiment in the countenance, harmonising well with the moral and intellectual qualities of this richly gifted woman. We understand the

price is very low in order to induce a large sale, and we are sure the friends of religious truth and the advocates of the true dignity of human nature, will rejoice to have a perfect likeness of one who has done so much to promote both of these grand objects.

A GENERAL HISTORICO-CRITICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT, by H. A. CH. HÄVERNICK, late Teacher of Theology in the University of Königsberg. Translated from the German by WILLIAM LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D.

Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark. HÄVERNICK was one of the most eminent theologians in Germany on the side of Evangelical religion. He was a man of undoubted piety, and he laboured with untiring earnestness to counteract the Rationalistic views that were so prevalent amongst his countrymen. His "Introduction to the Old Testament," of which the

volume before us forms but a small part, is a work of high mark. The numerous topics which it embraces, are handled with vast learning and consummate ability.

The volume now under notice relates to the canon, the language of the Old Testament, the history of the text, and ancient versions. Much valuable information is communicated regarding these points; and the views presented bear marks of being the fruit of extensive and patient investigation. Sometimes, indeed, you have considerable difficulty in apprehending the author's drift. Occasionally the point in But dispute is not very clearly stated.

the work, nevertheless, is one of sterling excellence: it is the work of a right-hearted man. It embraces the most recent results of critical inquiry, and it cannot fail to be acceptable to British theologians.

The translation is executed with fidelity and skill, and is free from any offensive intermixture of foreign idioms. Dr Alexander, indeed, questions whether it be possible to present a German author in an English dress without sacrificing some of the proprieties of the English tongue. Doubtless the task is one of great difficulty. But surely the object aimed at ought to be to exhibit the thoughts of the original in a style purely English. No doubt there should be a harmony between the style of the original and the style of the translation; but that harmony ought to be secured without trenching upon the proprieties of good English-though we allow at once, that where the exact thought of the original cannot be set forth without some sacrifice of English idiom, such sacrifice should be made. The first object is to give the true meaning, neither more nor less; and the second is to give it in the best possible English, with a style somewhat in keeping with the style of the original rhetorical, where the original is rhetorical; concise, antique, or flowery, qualities. Any translation of a German where the original is characterised by these book, whatever pains be taken to make the English pure, will always retain quite enough of a foreign aspect.

There is a quotation at page 60, from Sack, which the translator renders ad verbum, as not having any notion of what it means. It is indeed a vague statement; and it is vague because it tries to establish a distinction where there is no difference. Some have said that the prophets possessed a higher degree of inspiration and the writers of the "Hagiographa" a lower; and the quotation from Sack is an attempt to define wherein the difference lies. Sack's words are the following:

:

"Der eigenthümliche character der Hagiographen ist der, dass sie nicht das in der

offenbarungsthatsache gegebene mittheilen, sondern ein aus der subjectiven und doch keiniswegs bloss menschlichen anregung des offenbarungsgeistes entstehendes Gedankengebilde in solcher beziehung auf das anderswo gegebene Gotteswort hinstellen, dass daraus reineres und lebendigeres verständniss von diesem hervorgeht."

Thus rendered, ad verbum, in the work before us :

"The peculiar character of the Hagiographa is that they do not communicate the thing given in the Revelation-act, but set forth a thought-image springing from the subjective and yet by no means merely human excitement of the Revelation-spirit with such a reference to the elsewhere given Word of God, that a purer and more living understanding of the latter thence proceeds."

Now something like the following seems to be Sack's idea:-"The prophets had something new communicated to them by the Spirit of God in the act of Revelation, and this they record. But the writers of the Hagiographa do not exhibit any thing that was thus supernaturally imparted to their spirits. They rather present a form of thought that has arisen out of their own subjective condition-out of the exercises and experiences, and excitements of their own minds, elevated somewhat above the ordinary level of humanity by the Spirit of God. And this form of thought they present in such a relation to the other parts of Scripture, that a purer and more vital knowledge even of them is attained."

The distinction thus contended for is purely imaginary. Not a syllable from Scripture can be adduced in defence of it. Let it not be supposed, however, that Hävernick favours this notion. He quotes the passage from Sack for the purpose of condemning it.

Dr Alexander deserves thanks for his very excellent translation of a very excellent book.

appearance of this publication is one symptom among many others, indicating the presence of vigorous life in this most interesting mission, sorely tried though it has been.

A TREATISE ON THE ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. BY PATON J. GLOAG, Assistant Minister of Dunning. 18mo. Pp. 120. .

Edinburgh: Paton and Ritchie.

THE author of this little volume modestly refrains from pretending to great originality of thought, to profound theological lore, or to high artistic merit. He has nevertheless produced a clear, scriptural, and judicious work on a subject which should nearly concern all Christians. It is comprised in six chapters, which are thus entitled-1. Assurance is Attainable; 2. The Grounds of Assurance; 3. Assurance not Essential to Faith; 4. The Benefits of Assurance ; 5. The Means of obtaining Assurance; 6. The Causes of the Want of Assurance. We have read this treatise with interest and pleasure; and, though we could not help noticing a measure of carelessness in the diction, and occasional inaccuracies of expression, together with a tendency to fall into popular misquotations of certain passages of Scripture, it appears to us worthy to be commended as decidedly evangelical in its doctrine and spirit, and as likely to be more useful to the many than productions of far higher literary and theological pretensions.

THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES, AS REVEALED IN THE APOCALYPSE. By DOMINICK M'CAUSLAND, Esq. 1852. Pp. 247.

Dublin: James M'Glashan.

THE writer of this work on Prophecy is a man apparently at once intelligent and devout. With many of his views we do not coincide; but we cannot refrain from expressing our satisfaction with the way in which they are stated and defended. His hope is in the personal reign of the Saviour upon earth. His opinions upon this point are very plain and explicit. He says expressly:-"We conceive that Jerusalem will, in the fulfilment of the prophecies, become the metropolis of the world, and that all the other nations of the earth shall be subdued and become subordinate to the kingdom of Israel, restored to God's favour, and in possession of the blessings promised and secured by covenant to the fathers, with Christ, their acknowledged king, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling gloriously with his saints on Mount Zion." Occasionally, however, the author's sentiments are not only gloomy, but bordering upon fatalism. Thus he says:-" The time will come when England too will be drawn