members of the Legislative Assembly, and enjoyed every comfort and luxury consistent with his safe custody, including perfect freedom of intercourse with his family and friends.

He was buried in the common burial-ground, where not a shrub or stone marks the spot. A common fate. What stone or shrub, we would ask, marks the spot where the remains of the distinguished and gallant Lieut.-Col. Milne, of the 19th, whom we followed to the grave in 1827, are deposited?

Sentence of death, it is true, was passed upon this missionary by a court martial, every member of which was of equal rank and equal honour with Captain Studholme Hodgson: many of them we personally know; and we much doubt whether they will feel flattered by this sneer levelled at them by a brother officer; but we know such Truths as we have now noticed will be estimated at their full value by every individual who has visited the West Indies.

ART. III.—Sermons, par ATHANASE COQUEREL, l'un des Pasteurs de l'Eglise Reformée de Paris. Paris: Cherbulier. 1838. Pp. 500. If the spirit of the gospel be a spirit of charity and forbearance, meekness and humility, unity and love; and if a restless ambition, a compassing of sea and land to make one proselyte, a desire to be lords and rulers in the church and in the world, and a readiness to call down fire from heaven upon all who will not bow the knee to the god of their idolatry, be at variance with the precepts of the Saviour of mankind, the tone and temper in which the pastors of the Romish and Protestant Churches respectively address their flocks, is amply sufficient to determine on which side we are to look for the truth as it is in Jesus. It is not altogether to the fearful extreme of papal virulence as exhibited in Ireland that we allude-the denunciations of unoffending Christians from the altarthe Bible-burnings by sacrilegious priests, and the murderings by their besotted and misguided instruments; for the fire only burns less vividly because the breath of opposition does not fan it into flame, in every country where the influence of the Vatican is felt. In the Netherlands that influence was the moving principle in the separation of Belgium and Holland, and many years will not elapse before the heretic Leopold is hurled by the same power from his tottering throne. In Prussia, the affair of the perjured Archbishop of Cologne is close akin with the proceedings of the brother hierarchy in Ireland; and nothing but the prompt and energetic resistance of the monarch would have prevented the speedy visitation of his kingdom by scenes of discord and strife, like those which follow in the train of O'Connell and McHale. Even in France, where religion of any kind has long been at a fearful ebb, and the priesthood

is neld in no very high esteem, the unquiet and intriguing demon of Popery is at work in endeavouring to regain the ground upon which the master fiend of Republicanism and Infidelity had reared his conquering standard. The effrontery on the one side, and the temporizing irresolution on the other, which marks the conduct of Hyacynthe, the papist Archbishop of Paris, and Louis Philippe, the half-papist, half-sceptic King of the French, in the matter of the approaching baptism of the Conte de Paris, is a sufficient indication of the feeling with which the Holy See and the Court of the Tuileries mutually regard each other.

But we must not be led astray from a comparative estimate of French preachers and their discourses, into a discussion of the signs of the times. The fact is, however, that the character of pulpit eloquence in France is a striking feature in the aspect of the period. There was a time when France could boast of her Massillons and Saurins; men, upon whom even the baneful atmosphere of a corrupt church had little or no effect; who laboured in the ministry faithfully and effectually, and whose names will be for ever honoured in the universal church of Christ. Their place is now occupied by violent declaimers against the grand schism of the 16th century; whose favourite topic is the necessity of yielding mind and conscience to the undisputed keeping of ghostly confessors, and the utter hopelessness of salvation beyond the pale of the Romish communion. Rarely indeed are any save such declaimers to be found; and the few men of talent who have not devoted their oratorical powers to the bar, find too much temptation in political display, to admit of any strenuous exertion for rousing their country from its present deplorable state of religious indifference. The course which has been run by the well-known Abbé la Mennais, would be pursued by a host of others, if they had but the sagacity to frame some theory equally mischievous, and the energy to carry it out.

It is pleasing to turn from this unfavourable picture, to the thriving state of Protestantism in France; and as an example of pastoral fidelity and ministerial success, it would be difficult to select a better than M. Coquerel. In the pulpit he is full of animation and energy; carrying his hearers along with him from the beginning to the end of his discourse, and leaving an impression upon the mind which is not likely to be speedily effaced. He speaks at once to the heart and to the understanding. The true spirit of christian love, the most expansive charity for all sects and denominations of Christians, the most enlarged beneficence, enforced upon the only solid foundation, Christ and him crucified, constitute the pervading characteristics of his ardent appeals. He speaks as the minister of "peace on earth and good-will to man," not as the herald of discord and malevolence. Instead of vehement denunciations against the professors of another creed, his are the words of meek persuasion to

the erring and the wayward, of affectionate compassion for the unbeliever, of sweet consolation to the penitent, of mild reproof to the sinner; and, if called upon to defend the faith against the scorner and blasphemer, he speaks not the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. The Bible is the fountain from which he draws the waters of life; and, stranger alike to sectarian pride and Romish bigotry, he maintains the pure and comprehensive religion of the gospel in the language of "truth and soberness."

Such is the manner of M. Coquerel's ordinary preaching; and the volume before us, which is the third of a series, affords ample illustration of its excellence. Religious truth can never be new; but there is an original turn of thought running through these discourses, which gives the charm of novelty to the tritest subjects. Without the remotest shade of fanaticism, the language is eminently spiritual; and so strong an interest is kept up by the vivid pictures which the writer has the peculiar gift of presenting to the mind, that they are equally adapted for the closet and the congregation. We are fearful that our translation will fall infinitely short of the spirit of the original, and our extracts shall be accordingly few-but, we trust, sufficient to interest our brethren on this side the Channel, in the labours of their fellow-workmen abroad. volume contains fifteen sermons, on the following subjects:—

The

Ex. xxxiii. 18-23.

1 Tim. iii. 16.

Matt. v. 13.

Luke x. 25-37.

Matt. vi. 21.

John xv. 15.

2 Tim. ii. 5.

Matt. vi. 34.

Gen. i. 1.

1 Cor. xv. 22.

Heb. xiii. 8.

Numb. xvi. 49.

We begin with an extract from the opening of the first discourse :Thus it is that God impresses Moses with the most exalted idea of the divine perfections. I beseech thee, said Moses, show me thy glory;-and what is the reply? I will make all my GOODNESS pass before thee. How striking and sublime the contrast! Man speaks of glory; God only of goodness. Man would fain be dazzled with the majesty and grandeur of the Deity, and the divine goodness alone is unveiled before him. So true it is that those, who contemplate the Godhead as clothed in terrors-as a Being inexorable, severe, and implacable-have

formed a very erroneous conception of his nature. The glory of the Almighty consists essentially in his goodness.

Again:

To know God, is to know every thing. The knowledge of God is the essence of all faith and of all practice. This study embraces and regulates every other; and it is impossible to mention a single branch of science which does not grow on this majestic trunk-which does not shoot from this spreading tree, whose shade covers the earth, and offers to all mankind repose and shelter beneath its verdure. God is the first and the last, the beginning and the ending, the Alpha and Omega. He is the centre of every human thought, the source of all memory, the end of all foresight; and all knowledge is but a path which leads to him. Love ye to peruse the history of bye-gone days, and meditate on the ages which have passed away? The numbering of these days and years cannot fail to remind you, that one day with God is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day; that eternity is His, who is, and was, and is to come; and that mankind are but one of the numberless objects of his providence. Love ye to plunge into the depths of space, to trace the stars in their courses, and to calculate the amazing distances at which they move? You cannot but be convinced, that if you ascend up into heaven, God is there; and if you make your bed in hell, he is there also; that immensity is his, and at his disposal. Love ye rather to look nearer home, to examine the beauties of surrounding nature, and to observe the countless beings which fill the earth with all the wonders of animate and inanimate existence? You will find the name of God written on the leaf of every flower, on the veins of every stone, and on the face of every metal; and you will meet at every step with some new proof of a Creator's hand. Would you dive into the stores of moral science, compare the codes of nations, the forms of governments, the interests of families; and inquire upon what foundation is based the claim to be free, and the duty to be good? If nations and governments were truly wise, the best model of legislature and jurisprudence would be found in the gospel; and that morality is the simplest and the purest, which is written by the Spirit of God upon the heart of man. Lastly, would you raise your thoughts to the most exalted mysteries of philosophy-form a deliberate estimate of the faculties of the soul-measure the extent of human knowledge-ask of the universe why it exists-and see if it be really true, that every thing which God has made is good? Then will you surely arrive at the source of all wisdom; and you will trace it to that God, who alone could say to Moses, I am that I am, and to the world, by the mouth of His beloved Son, I am the truth to that God, of whom every creature may acknowledge with thankfulness, that God Is Love.

The second Sermon, on the death of Abijah, is, to our mind, not only the best in the book, but one of the most elegant and powerful disquisitions on the immortality of the soul, and the certainty of a future state, which exist in any language. For depth of thought, perspicuity of reasoning, and piety of reflection, it will bear comparison with many treatises of far greater pretension; while the energetic simplicity of the language brings it within the reach of the humblest Christian, without affording an excuse for the sneer of the fastidious, or the criticism of the sage. If Abijah was cut off in the flower of his age because in him only was found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam, it was not because death is an eternal sleep; and, instead of sorrowing as men without hope for the premature death of the

only virtuous member of a godless house, we are rather called upon to rejoice in the sure and certain hope of his glorious resurrection.

Which of us is ignorant of all the ordinary details which occupy the last sad lingering hours of the dying, and attend the bed of death? The fatal moment at length arrives; and then one last look, and the eye is fixed in darkness; one last word, and the mouth is closed for ever; one last sigh, of which it were vain to impede the passage, and all is over. Then comes that icy coldness, gradually seizing upon the limbs; that silent, stiff, and motionless insensibility, which bears not, whatever may be said, the most faint resemblance to the sleep of life; then the coffin and the shroud, the opened grave, and the earth again filled in as if there were nought below;-all agitating occurrences, which cannot fail to impress, to awe, to terrify even the most thoughtless, and make him shudder at the idea which arises, though but for a moment, to the mind-There I shall one day lie! Yet are all these but deceitful appearances. They are but the outward signs and visible consequences of death, which is, in its real and actual import, quite another thing. Death is but a simple and tranquil change of existence, a separation which must take place; and though sad and heavy be the fall of dust to dust, light and joyful is the flight of the spirit to God that gave it. The last moment of this transitory life ushers in the first of the life eternal.

Turn we to the sermon on the Good Samaritan.

Who is my neighbour? This was a question which the most celebrated schools of antiquity, the most civilized nations, and the most pious individuals, had endeavoured in vain to solve. Narrow indeed was the empire of charity before the preaching of Christianity; and the commandment to love one another, was, as Christ declared, a new one. Who is my neighbour? demanded the pharisaic lawyer: and Jesus replied to him by parable." At the first words he uttered, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, methinks I see the eyes of the attentive crowd fixed eagerly upon him; for the very scene of the narrative must have awakened the interest of all present. The road, winding through desert tracks and mountain passes, was the dread of travellers; and had acquired, from the deeds of violence and bloodshed which had there been perpetrated, the name of the bloody way. In the simple and affecting story, there is no deficiency, no exaggeration. Jesus-and to this I would direct attention, as a most important feature in the parable-says nothing of the name, age, condition, country, or religion of the unfortunate traveller. Was he young or old, poor or rich, obscure or illustrious, simple or sage, invested with public functions, or moving in the private walks of life? Was he Greek or Roman, Barbarian, Scythian, Jew, Galilean, or Samaritan? Was he a privileged Israelite, or an idolatrous heathen? Of all this we know nothing; and learn only from the narrative, that he was a man! This was his name, his country, his profession, and his claim: he was a man; and this was sufficient.

There is a passage in the last sermon in the volume, which was preached on a day of thanksgiving for the cessation of the Cholera, which, splendid as it is, we shall quote not so much for its intrinsic beauty, and the energy with which the preacher lifts up his voice against a most uncharitable doctrine, as to point out the limit, beyond which, as we think, he has carried his denunciations too far. We will first give the passage; and conclude our remarks with a few words of comment. Regarding the Cholera as one of those secret dispensations of Providence which are intended as trials as well for thrones as for cottages, for kingdoms as for