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"will contain not only all that is valuable in the Praxis, but much more of a similar nature, and more complete in its kind," and that the learned author is hoping" at some future day, not far distant, to publish a history of the Hebrew language, in a form more enlarged, and better adapted to the present state of Oriental knowledge, and to the wants of students, than that contained in the former editions of his Grammar."

We think the size of this Grammar as much diminished now, as it well can be, without reducing it to a bare skeleton; and against such a reduction of it, the following very satisfactory reasons are assigned:

"Experienced teachers, who have a thorough knowledge of the Hebrew, and who wish to communicate a radical knowledge of it to their pupils, will never employ a skeleton grammar. The testimony of such scholars as J. D. Michaelis, Vater, Gesenius, Hoffmann, and many others, against this practice, is sufficient to render it very doubtful; and the nature of the case decides altogether against it. Whoever uses a skeleton grammar merely, must either remain ignorant of more than one half of the grammatical phenomena of a language, or he must consume his time in filling up, by means of his teacher or of other grammars, the skeleton which he uses. How much loss of time, and how much perplexity and discouragement, this would occasion, it is not difficult to foresee.

The typography of this work, and the mechanical execution generally, are excellent. "The labor of correcting the press," says the author, "has been nearly equal to that of preparing for it." In beautiful and accurate Hebrew printing, we doubt whether the Codman press at Andover is now exceeded by any in the world.

4. The American Reader: Containing extracts suited to excite a love of Science and Literature, to refine the taste, and to improve Designed for the use of Schools. Brookfield : Boston: Peirce and Williams.

the moral character. E. and G. Merriam.

While in literary merit, this compilation is not inferior to most of its competitors, in point of moral and religious sentiment, it is in our judgement, superior to any recent similar publication which we have seen. More than half the selections are from American authors, many of them now living. The work is not, to be sure, of a sectarian character-that is, it is not designed or adapted to gratify exclusively any particular religious sect; and yet the names of Dwight, and Griffin, and Humphrey, and Wayland, and Beecher, and Wilcox, and Fitch, and Hawes, and many others of similar character, on both sides of the Atlantic, from whom selections are made, afford sufficient security that the book contains nothing which a Christian teacher might not write, or which a Christian parent would be unwilling his children should read. We recommend the work to the early consideration of School Committees, and hope it may be extensively circulated.

A Discourse concerning Meekness. By Matthew Henry. Second American Edition. Plymouth, 1828. pp. 144.

5.

This Discourse was first published just one hundred and thirty years ago; and is now printed, for aught we know, for the hundredth

time. But of this we are confident-it has not been printed more frequently, or read more extensively, than it deserves. Its circulation, in the present state of excited feeling on the subject of religion, will be highly seasonable, and cannot fail to be useful.

6. Lives of the twelve Apostles, with explanatory Notes. By F. W. P. Greenwood, Junior Minister of King's Chapel, Boston. Boston Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins. 1828. pp. 148.

In reading this little volume, we were disappointed in two respects, its style of composition, and its religious character. The composition of the volume did not afford the interest we expected; its negative character, as to religious sentiment and application, was not what we anticipated.

Our disappointment in the first particular, however, was chargeable upon the reader rather than the writer. We are aware, that from what we had heard of the author and his book, we sat down to the perusal of it with expectations unduly raised. We were disappointed. With an appetite set for honey, even sweet things were hardly acceptable to the taste. Our disappointment led us to read the book again; and in doing it we met a contrary disappointment, equal to the first. And we now express our sentiment when we say, that without the splendid and the imposing, which we expected, there is a simplicity, which wants not some of the finest touches of the beautiful. The style of composition is very happily adapted to the subject. It is biographical narrative. And the narration is

enriched and rendered attractive by not a few choice specimens of taste and ease in writing. In specifying, for example, reasons why the Saviour should have a select company of personal attendants, the writer says;

"The twelve were brought into a close personal intimacy with the Saviour in order that they might study his example, borrow his spirit, and so receive the image of his life that they might reflect it in their own.-Like those flowers which are known to drink in the light of the sun while he remains above the horizon, and then give it out in mild flashes when the evening shades come on, so the disciples, while their Master sojourned with them, while the sun of righteousness shone upon them, absorbed the beaming excellence of his character, and then, when he left the earth, emitted it partially again amidst the moral darkness which surrounded them."

We may add indeed, that this little volume, considered simply as a collection of biographical sketches, is an interesting and finely finished production.

We suppose, nevertheless, that a cold-blooded critic, in his punctilios of sensibility, might occasionally see cause at least to raise a question. In contemplating the change, which came over the fortunes of the fishermen of Galilee, when they were made apostles of Jesus Christ, our author seems a little inclined to indulge in the romantic. But when he does it, and when speaking of the disciples he refers us to "their native lake," we hardly suppose he meant to imply that they were aquatic animals, or that they were any other than the illiterate, honest hearted men, he had been speaking of before.

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We have now to speak of the second respect in which we were disappointed, and in which our disappointment was not at all diminished by a second perusal of the book. We did not expect a volume, on such a subject, so almost entirely negative as to religious sentiment and application. We did not expect this, even from a Unitarian. We did suppose that the day when Unitarianism was to be propagated by mere negatives, had gone by. Yet, the volume before us is, in this respect, what it might have been, had it been written twenty years ago, when the plan of operation was to displace truth, not by attack and refutation, but by passing it untouched, and by silently presenting other things to take its place.

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We noticed, indeed, in our author's introduction, that he speaks of Christ as that holy prophet of God, for whom we feel a reverence only inferior to that which we entertain toward Him who sent him ;"-forgetting, we suppose, the divine requisition' that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.' We noticed also this reason, among others, why Christ should have bosom companions" the qualification which it conferred on them for recording his deeds and words, and preserving to posterity the invaluable memorial;"-never once intimating that inspiration did, or could, qualify them for so important a service; or that without inspiration, however intimate their acquaintance with the Saviour, they would be in any degree unqualified for it. Indeed, we are told, "it was from having witnessed his miracles, from having been instructed in his religion, and been made intimately acquainted with his character, that the chosen companions of Jesus were qualified in the best manner to transmit to the latest ages, an indubitable standard of Christian truth.” Really, if we might be allowed an apostrophe, we would exclaim, O Inspiration, stand by and stand back! A man might be full of the Holy Ghost, and yet, in comparison, be poorly qualified to give the world" an indubitable standard of Christian truth."

With the exception of a few expressions of this sort, the Unitarianism of the book before us is concealed beneath the attractions of elegant simplicity and taste; and thus it comes to us recommended by its dress and equipage, rather than by its own features. Its own true form is kept away in dusky vision, where light and shade commingle in a thousand images of imaginary beauty. Or if, perchance, some hapless touch brings it more prominently up, the elusive shape soon steals away, so that we see not what we seem to see, like one looking for a meteor, in its track of

"Shade unperceived, and softening into shade."

As we were disappointed in the negative aspect of the book as to sentiment, so were we at the almost entire absence of practical application to the heart and conscience. Where, we must be allowed to ask-where shall a man, and especially a man claiming to be a minister of the Gospel, find that which will lead him to address the hearts and consciences of those to whom he preaches and for whom he writes, if not in the lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ? Yet the writer can hold them up before us, and make us see how sublimely they "teach, and dare, and suffer, and do, and die," without

one thrilling appeal to our hearts, or one attempt to make us feel that we must soon stand, with consciences keenly alive, before the judgement seat of Christ. And it remains to be seen, whether a Unitarian may not write the history even of Christ himself, without being reminded by it that men have consciences, and are hastening on to the judgement of God.

MISCELLANEOUS DEPARTMENT.

FIRST REVIVAL OF RELIGION IN BOSTON.

In the year 1633, the third after the settlement, what is now the city of Boston, was favored with a season of special attention and interest on the subject of religion. It immediately followed the coming of the celebrated Mr. Cotton, and the commencement of his labors here. The account of it is thus given by Winthrop and Hubbard :

"It pleased the Lord to give special testimony of his presence in the church of Boston, after Mr. Cotton was called to office there. More were converted, and added to that church, than to all the other churches in the bay. Divers profane and notorious evil persons came and confessed their sins, and were comfortably received into the bosom of the church. An eminent spirit of grace was poured into the lips of that famous preacher, and other eminent gifts did abound in private brethren of that church, which forwarded the edification and salvation of others. Also the Lord pleased greatly to bless the practice of discipline, wherein he gave the pastor, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Leveret, an elder, a singular gift, to the great benefit of the church."

COTTON MATHER A DISTRIBUTOR OF TRACTS.

The name of Cotton Mather is known, wherever the history of New England is read. Many particulars respecting the Fathers of the country have been preserved from oblivion in his pages. And though it were greatly to be wished that dates and notices had been better regarded by him, and that he had been a more philosophic and statistic historian, admitting fewer speculations, and listening to fewer narratives of doubtful faith; and though his method of life may seem too artificial, and his rules of employment too embarrassing-yet no one who makes himself acquainted with his labors and example can, if truly ingenuous, fail to look on them with admiration. He was a great reader and a good scholar, a pious, devoted minister of CHRIST, loving his Master and his work, and a sincere friend to his country, exerting himself industriously and to the utmost in doing good. This character is duly appreciated at the present day, on both sides of the Atlantic. Nor is it practicable to ascertain how instrumental he was in bringing forward what we, too fondly perhaps, affect to call "the age of benevolence." At least, beside some account of his literary apparatus, the following extract from a manuscript of his, addressed to his son, will

*It appears from the records that thirty-seven were added to the church in the space of three months-a great number truly, considering the population, and infancy of the set

tlement.

show us that the distribution of religious tracts is no novelty. He lived between 1663 and 1728.

"I had, from my childhood, employed at least a tenth of what money I got, in pious uses, and now I had a considerable quantity of money coming in, I employed much more than a tenth in such uses. My Son, do you always devote a tenth of your gains unto the special service of our great Melchisedeck, the Lord JESUS CHRIST, I earnestly exhort you, and advise you and you shall be no loser by it, I assure you.

"But what I have here to note, is, that one of the first contrivances for the glorifying of the Lord, which I recorded, was, to spend much in buying of good books to give away.

"How many hundreds, yea, how many thousands of good books I have thus given away, I cannot reckon. I suppose I have given away near a thousand in

one year.

"But I will observe two things unto you, my son, upon it. "One observable is this. While I gave away small books unto others, God gave great books unto me. I mean that I had a secret and a wondrous blessing of God upon my Library. A good library was a thing I much desired and valued; and by the surprising providence of God, it came to pass, that my library, without my pillaging of your grandfather's, did, by cheap and strange accessions, grow to have, I know not how many more than thirty hundred books in it: and I lived so near your grandfather's, that his, which was not much less than mine, was also in a manner mine. This was much for a Non-Conformist

minister.

"Another observable is this. While I was giving away good books written by other men, I had all along a secret persuasion that a time would come, when I should have many books written by myself, likewise to give away. And I have lived since to see this persuasion most remarkably accomplished. ***** All I will say is, that no Non-Conformist minister now surviving in the nation hath had so many,"

DR. VANDERKEMP.

The following extract from a narrative of the religious exercises of the late Dr. Vanderkemp, missionary to South Africa, written by himself, shews the inefficacy of mere suffering, to melt the natural heart, and lead the hardened sinner to repentance.

"You desire to have an account of some particulars respecting the conversion of my soul to Christ.

"Christianity, to me, once appeared inconsistent with the dictates of reasonthe Bible, a collection of incoherent opinions, tales, and prejudices. As to the person of Christ, I looked at first upon him as a man of sense and learning, but who, by his opposition to the established ecclesiastical and political maxims of the Jews, became the object of their hate, and the victim of his own system. I often celebrated the memory of his death, by partaking of the Lord's supper; but some time after, reflecting that he termed himself the Son of God, and pretended to do miracles, he lost all my former veneration!

"I then prayed that God would prepare me, by punishing my sins, for virtue and happiness, and I thanked him for every misfortune; but the first observation I made was, that though I was oftentimes severely chastised, it did not make me wiser or better. I therefore again prayed to God, that he would shew me, in every instance, the crime for which I was punished, that I might know and avoid it; but finding this vain, I feared that I should never perhaps be corrected in this life by punishment; still I hoped I might be delivered from moral evil after death in some kind of purgatory, by a severer punishment; yet reflecting that punishment had proved itself utterly ineffectual to produce even the lowest degree of virtue in my soul, I was constrained to acknowledge that my theory, though it seemed by a priori reasoning well grounded, was to

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