Warn

which he could advance no claim. ings and denunciations were still given him, that God in all things might be justified; but the way by which he might harass Israel was left open; the gate that led to his own ruin was unbarred; and he was permitted to go through it to return no more. Little does the impenitent transgressor consider how he may be indebted to a restraining providence, which holds him back by a resistless, though invisible hand from adding sin to sin; and thus from heaping an increased weight of condemnation upon himself, and charging his soul with a still heavier burden of the wrath of God."-Vol. I. pp. 172-179. The remarks made upon the punishment of exclusion from Canaan, denounced against Moses and Aaron, impressed us as practical and judicious; we can only spare room for the following useful sentiments, which we wish were embalmed in the memories of all who minister at the altar of our God.

"I. View the offence with reference to the Israelites, and judge, whether it did not look towards them with an aspect of injurious tendency? Moses was placed among them, as a city set upon a hill, to exhibit an illustrious pattern of meekness, faith, and patience, and to call upon the people in the hour of trial, to be still, and to know that Jehovah was God. Instead of such a manifestation of the power of religion, we behold him exhibiting an undue and causeless anger,

Hear now,

ye rebels.' He had used this term on other occasions; but in a chastised and gentle spirit. That he was zealous for his God cannot be doubted; and that as the fire kindled he spake accordingly, is equally evident. But it was the strange flame of an uuhallowed burning. It resembled the mistaken zeal of the brethren, who would have called down fire from "heaven upon the village that denied en'trance and rest to their wearied Saviour. Israel provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.

Alas,

we know not what manner of spirit we are of! The wrath of man, however 'sacred the cause in which it may be excited, worketh not the righteousness of God. His great and glorious cause can never want the assistance of that warmth which is untempered by love, and of that zeal whieh occupies the mind, to the exclusion of some measure of that patience and long-suffering, which are continually exercised by God, in all his dealings with sinful men. God is love. He who dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. In such a spirit should every mem"ber of the family above stand forward, to

defend the honour of his heavenly Father. That is the only justifiable reproof which is administered with the mind that was in Christ Jesus, who, while he condemned sin in the flesh, came filled with holy love for sinners. He bore with their contradiction. When he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth uprightly.' He prayed for his murderers on the cross; and his purchased salvation, among its first acts of mercy, on the day of pentecost, converted above three thousand of those who had been instrumental in crucifying the Lord of glory. Behold then, O Chris. tian, thy propitiation, in the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world?' Behold thy pattern, in that meek and lowly Saviour, who hath invited thee to learn of him! Few temptations are more dangerous to magistrates, and ministers of religion, than that which prompts them to address offenders in anger, instead of endeavouring to restore such in the spirit of meekness.' Nor, do occasions often arise to their experience, in which they will not find it needful to offer up the Psalmist's prayer, 'Set a watch, O Lord, upon my mouth, and keep the door of my lips. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.'

"Hitherto the people had beheld in Moses the meekest man upon the face of the earth; a man whom no wrongs, no contumely, no scorn, could rouse to indignation. Sorrow he had often felt, when he saw the obdurate rebellion with which they provoked God. But that sorrow led him to plead in their behalf, and to intercede for them, that they died not. Alas, how is the gold become dim, how is the most fine gold changed!' That heart which once bore Israel upon it, in prayer to the throne of God, is now filled with wrath against the congregation. That voice which never spake to them, or of them, except in tenderness and love, is now loud in reproach and wrath. Moses should have been an ensample to the flock. How, if they follow it? How, if his rank, his high standing in religion, his nearness to the counsels, his acquaintance with the divine mysteries should sanctify his anger in their regard, and make them imagine it lawful to imitate him? Would to God, that all men who are placed in high situations were visited with a spirit of reflection, and would consider the present and eternal consequences which may follow from their example! Would to God, that those especially, who have felt the gracious influences of his Holy Spirit, would remember, that sinners will fortify themselves in iniquity, by the authority of their failure, be encouraged to defy God,

and bring condemnation upon themselves by the habitual commission of sin for which they will plead and magnify the least departure of a Christian from the law of his God, and the mind of his Saviour The authority of example and influence is one of the most formidable hindrances to a young pilgrim, in his way from darkness to light, and from Satan to God. As the sails of a ship may be filled with a favourable wind, while the rapidity of the current arrests her progress, so may the heart be much occupied by holy desires, while worldly opinion, and the sanction which professing Christians afford to evil by thoughtlessness and sin, 'may greatly prevent its access to God, aud detain it in the conflict of uncertainty between earth and heaven. It should be the desire of every man's heart who feels his weight of obligation to the Saviour, as the author of his redemption and his hope, to address all who see him-not indeed in the high mindedness of a pharisaical language, but in the silent pleading of a holy consistent, blameless life; Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ.'"--Vol. II. pp. 159--163.

Joshua's remonstrance with the Israelites, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you? suggests the following strain of heart-stirring expostulation.

"I ask you then, my brethren, who profess to have entered within the spiritual boundaries of the kingdom of heaven, but who, instead of going on towards perfection, are loitering in self-indulgence and worldliness, does no analogy exist between your case, and that of the ungrateful, thoughtless Israelites ? Hath not the Lord God of your fathers freely given you a title to the country of peace and rest in heaven? May not an entrance be administered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?' His hand broke asunder your chains, when ye lay helpless in the land of your spiritual bondage-when Satan was your task-master, sin your service, and death your wages. He paid the full ransom of your deliverance. He made a way for you to escape, when you were beset with difficulties, as impassable in your own strength, as were the mountains and forts, the Red Sea, and the Egyptians, when Israel was shut up among them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud has led you in the day of prospe rity, and its light of fire in the gloom of affliction. The bounty of a gracious God has largely ministered to your spiritual need, in sacramental mercies, as he poured manna from heaven, and made water gush

from the rock of Horeb, to follow his fainting heritage through the desert. Ye have engaged with your enemies, while your great Intercessor was praying for you on the hill--while infinite love and almighty power held up his hands, that ye might conquer. Often endangered, and even worsted, ye have not been destroyed. The same hand which took you forth from the captivity and death of sin, has still led you onward, cheered with increasing hope of reposing in the kingdom and glory of Jesus Christ. As your day, so has your strength been. When ye have been disposed to faint beneath your warfare, and to shrink from the difficulties of the combat, have ye not heard within your hearts the animating voice of that God and Saviour who appoints your station in this holy war, To him that overcometh will I give to sit upon my throne; even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father upon his throne?' Now is your salvation nearer than when ye believed.' While ye are in the midst of the spiritual blessings which the gospel opens to the need of lost and dying transgressors-while the scriptures and the public ordinances of religion are as widely opened to your approach, as the porches of the pool of Bethesda to the sick of old, will ye refuse to profit by the mercy? While your Redeemer stands at the door of your hearts, and knocks for admission--while the pardon of God, his peace which passeth all understanding, the sure and certain hope of a resurrection to eternal life, and the unfathomable depths of joy and glory which it will open to the soul, are placed within your reach by the rich bounty of your heavenly Father, will ye be contented to remain at a distance, as strangers and foreigners, instead of becoming fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God?' The feast is spread, the voice is spoken, All things are now ready, come ye to the marriage.' Is there then, in the little circle of perishing enjoyments around you, is there, even among the present spiritual privileges, with which divine love has invested you, any thing sufficiently great to satisfy the aspirations of one who looks for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life? Blessings temporal and for ever await your acceptance; and will ye rest short of their full possession? Will ye not aim to obtain an interest in them for both worlds? Will ye not appropriate them to yourselves; and say of him, in whose goodness they originate, This God is my God, for ever and ever?' Others have already entered into present rest, by believing the gospel, and fulfilling the demands of that spiritual kingdom which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Behold the fair inheritance which they possess, in the abundant mercies of your common Sa

viour; and hasten onwards to the same distinctions. A great cloud of witnesses encompasses you. Having fought the good fight of faith, they are now surrounding the throne of their Leader and Saviour, with ceaseless songs of adoring love and wonder. Will ye linger here, when the mansions of their rest are also thrown open for your reception: and when you, like them, may join the armies of the living God, in the service of his eternal temple? We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence, to the full assurance of hope unto the end-that ye be not slothful, but followers of them, who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.' You march beneath the banner which led them to victory. You have resources in the same ame all-sufficient Spirit which supplied their necessities. By the grace of God they only are what you may be. 'Arise then and behold the land, for it is very good and are ye still? Be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land.' "pp. 425--429.

These quotations satisfactorily prove how compatible the fait discussion of the historical types, is with doctrinal accuracy and practical appeal, and the successful attempt of the able preacher before us, will encourage, we trust, many others thus to employ the narratives of the Old Testament, for the purposes of evangelical in

struction.

We cannot congratulate Mr. Buddicom upon the construction of his divisions, which, though sufficienty accurate for the purposes of discussion, have a very trite and meagre air; indeed, on looking through the forty-three discourses in reference to this subject, we were surprised at the wearisome monotony, and great poverty of invention which his leading heads of arrangement discover. We are not the advocates of complicated plans and jingling alliterations, but we have often observed a powerful effect produced on an audience by the announcement of an elegant and perspicuous scheme, at once disclosing in harmonious agreement all the parts of the subject under discussion. This is a defect Mr. B. can easily correct, and as there

is found in his style of composition

so many of those qualities which constitute a finished sermon, it is most desirable that he should avoid that which gives a negligent air to the outline of almost every discourse.

We take leave of Mr. Buddicum with feelings of sincere respect, and rejoice in the providential suggestion which led to the composition of these Sermons, which, under the divine blessing, we doubt not, will reward him in a large degree with that recompence after which he evidently aspiresusefulness. These handsome volumes are inscribed by permission to Dr. Blomfield, the Bishop of Chester, and we ardently wish that every pulpit of his Lordship's diocese echoed with discourses like those now on our table.

་་་་་་་་

Narrative of a Tour of Hawaii, or Ohwyhee; with remarks on the History, Traditions, Manners, Customs, and Language of the Inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands. By William Ellis, Missionary. 8vo. pp. 442. Fisher and Co. Price 12s.

(Concluded from page 260.) THE arrival of the late king and queen of the Sandwich Islands in this country, excited no ordinary degree of interest amongst all classes of the friends of missions. Those who are in the habit of forming right views of the influence and danger of worldly associations; who know how much there is to deplore in this nominally Christian land, respecting the principles and manners of the great majority of its population, and who regard the public amusements and fashionable dissipations of the metropolis as prolific sources of vice and misery, could not but feel the deepest regret at the circumstances in which the sovereign of Hawaii, and his consort and attendants were placed, during their short and melancholy resi

dence in England. The journals of the day informed us of their movements and their gratifications; and, we doubt not, every thing which was deemed conducive to their enjoyment was readily and courteously adopted by those who ministered to their pleasures; but who, with any measure of Christian feelings, could forget, that not long before they embarked for this country, they had been visited by the "servants of the Most High God," who were anxious not only for the civilization, but for the moral interests and eternal happiness of the population over whom they presided? Who could forget that it was the high and sacred object of that "band of men, whose hearts God had touched," to erect the standard of the cross, to establish the principles of "pure and undefiled religion," and to lay the foundation of a new order of things in the laws and institutions of that spiritual kingdom, which is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost?" By such men it would naturally be regarded as one of the direct and immediate results of their benevolent enterprise, that in proportion to their success, the people of Hawaii would be induced to abandon not only the "abominable idolatries" by which they and their forefathers had been fascinated and seduced, but all those scenes of revelry and dissipation with which they were associated. Imagine then, that with the distinct remembrance of the solemn deliortations with which a Christian Missionary would denounce and condemn the sensual and polluting festivities of the Sandwich islanders-under the impression that they were precisely of the same order, and had the same tendency with the kwμa, the "revellings, and such like," forbidden by an inspired apostle; imagine, if such were the remembrances and impressions of Rihoriho, and his attendants, what

must have been the effect produced on their minds, by the circumstances and connexions which surrounded them on their arrival in this country! "What," they would naturally exclaim, "is this that land of Christians, of which we so often heard our good instructors speak, in our native isles? are these scenes of mirth and voluptuous gratification compatible with the profession and the principles of the new religion? May we introduce to our people on our return to them, the amusements and the dissipations of this great Christian country, without fear of being told by the Missionaries, on our arrival, that they who "live in pleasure are dead while they live!' For where is the essential difference in point of tendency and effect, between the festivities of our idolatrous ancestors, and the revellings of this Christian land? We are not a whit the less indisposed by their influence, to all that is earthly, sensual, and devilish!" "

If such must have been the thoughts and feelings of these visitors, supposing them capable of thinking and feeling at all on the subject, then it must be most seriously regretted that they witnessed no better specimens of the influence of Christian principles; and that no higher illustrations of their practical effect were presented to their notice, during their short residence in our country. We know not, indeed, what were the "reasons of state" that prevented these interesting personages from being introduced to a direct intercourse with those classes of society in which something like the tendency and effect of true Christianity would have been contemplated. But we think it would have afforded more grateful materials for recollection, if the influential members of our Missionary Societies, regardless of the petty and worthless formalities of etiquette, had used all practicable

means of effecting an immediate in troduction to the party on their ar rival-had endeavoured to encircle them by Christian associations and had been as anxious about their knowing something of the religion of Britain, as others were to initiate them into the mysteries of its follies and its pleasures. But the opportunity of doing them good, has passed away for ever; and Rihoriho and his queen have been cited before the Judge of "quick and dead!" May it appear another day, that this country has not contributed to their condemnation! It may have been the interposition of mercy on behalf of their country, that they were not suffered to return.

These remarks have detained our readers from Mr. Ellis's interesting account of the late king and We shall now present queen. all that he has communicated respecting them.

"The late king of the Sandwich Islands was the son of Tamehameha, former king, and Keopuolani, daughter of Kauikeouili, and Kakuiapoiwa. He was born in the eastern part of Hawaii, in the year 1795 or 1796. The name by which he was generally known was Rihoriho, which was only a contraction of Kalaninuirihoriho, lite rally, the heavens great black-from Ka Tani, the heavens, nui, great, and rihoriho, applied to any thing burnt to blackness. On public occasions, he was sometimes called Tamehameha, after his father, though names are not always hereditary Besides these, he had a variety of other names, the most common of which was Jolani. The word lani, heaven or sky, formed a component part in the name of most chiefs of distinction.

"The early habits of Rihoriho did not warrant any great expectations. His natural disposition was frank and humane. The natives always spoke of him as goodnatured, except when he was under the influence of ardent spirits; his manners were perfectly free, at the same time dig nified, and always agreeable to those who were about him. His mind was naturally inquisitive. The questions he usually presented to foreigners were by no means trifling; and his memory was retentive. His general knowledge of the world was much greater than could have been expected. I have heard him entertain a party of chiefs for hours together, with accounts of the different parts of the

He

earth, describing the extensive lakes, the mountains, and mines of North and South America; the elephants and inhabitants of India; the houses, manufactures, &c. of England, with no small accuracy, considering he had never seen them. had a great thirst for knowledge, and was diligent in his studies. I recollect his writing-desk, that he expected more his remarking one day, when he opened advantage from that desk, than from a fine brig belonging to him, lying at anchor opposite the house in which we were sitdaily teachers, and have often been surting. Mr. Bingham and myself were his prised at his unwearied perseverance. I have sat beside him at his desk sometimes

from nine or ten o'clock in the morning, has not been out of his hand more than till nearly sun-set, during which his pen three-quarters of an hour, while he was at dinner.

"We do not know that Christianity exerted any decisive influence on his heart. He was willing to receive the missionaries on their first arrival, availed himself of their knowledge to increase his

own, and, during the latter years of his object; declared his conviction of the life, was decidedly favourable to their truth of Christianity; attended public worship himself on the Sabbath, and recommended the same to his people.

"His moral character was not marked by that cruelty, rapacity, and insensibility to the sufferings of the people, which frequently distinguish the arbitrary chiefs of uncivilized nations. He appears in general to have been kind; and, in several places on our tour, the mothers shewed us their children, and told us, that when kissed them-a coudescension they seemed Rihoriho had passed that way, he had to think much of, and which they will probably remember to the end of their days. But, though generous in his disposition, he was addicted to intoxication; whether from natural inclination, or the influence and example of others, is not now to be determined; frequently, to my own knowledge, it has been entirely from the latter. Had he, in early life, been privileged to associate with individuals whose conduct and principles were favourable to virtue and religion, there is every reason to suppose his moral character, with respect at least to this vice, his mental habits would have been as irreproachable as were commendable. But, alas for him! it was quite the re

verse.

"Though not distinguished by the ardour and strength of character so conspicuous in his father, he possessed both decision and enterprise: the abolition of the national idolatry was a striking instance of the former; and his voyage to England, of the latter.