they fond of poetry as who was not? On these Saturday afternoons Chaucer might tell them over again some of his quaint old humorous Canterbury tales; Shakspeare would unfold to them the secret springs of our human nature, Milton paint his scenes of grandeur and sublimity, and Burns sing some of his wood notes wild.' Were they fond of the past? They might listen to the eloquence of Demosthenes and Cicero,-gaze upon the grandeur, greatness, and glory of bye-gone ages, and become acquainted with the achievements and triumphs effected by the great and good who had long since left this world. Were they fond of contemplating the wonders of creation as exhibited in other lands? They might employ their half-holiday (at least in imagination) in climbing the Alps, ascending to the summit of Vesuvius, wandering through the deserts of Africa, or the prairies and dense back woods of America. They might spend it in conversation with the Laplander about his reindeer, in Wandering among the untutored Arabs, or in conversing with the North American Indian in his wigwam about his hunting grounds, the Good Spirit, and the wrongs over which he had to mourn. Would not this be a delightful way of spending a halfholiday? With poetry, history, and the Book of Nature open before them, and thus studied, every day would be a witness to their advancement and elevation; truth's would speak home more powerfully to their minds, and they would feel more and more of their force and importance. Best of all, they had God's book, the word of everlasting truth. They might read as Isaiah unfolded the glories of the latter day; they'

might hear Jesus Christ, as he discoursed on the mountain side or the plain; and they might listen to the voice of God himself, as he spoke to them in tones of love and kindness about time and eternity, glory and heaven, about a world in which the good and faithful should have an everlasting holiday, and where they should dwell in everlastingpeace, and unchanging, uninterrupted felicity. He need not say, improve such seasons as these; treasure up such golden hours as these. It became them to look upon them as talents for which they would have ere long to give an account. If they did so, they would become wiser, and know more of subjects in which they would be interested not only in this world, but throughout all eternity in the world to come. As they went out on a starry night," if they had employed their half-holidays aright, they might look to the heavens above them, and hold communion with other worlds, measure their distance and magnitude, call the very stars by name, like old familiar friends, until this world became but the stand-point given them by God from which to look out upon the millions of others which rolled through a vast and boundless universe. Mr. Chown, with much earnestness and eloquence, recommended the young to study the great volume of nature which lay open before them, extracting from everything they came in contact with, something which they could lay under contribution for the common good. He concluded by urging them at the same time to study that Book which contained the highest and best of knowledge-the Book of God.

THE INDEPENDENTS NOT THE FIRST ASSER-
TORS OF FULL LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE,
WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE VIEWS
OF THE FIVE DISSENTING BRETHREN IN THE
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES. BY
EDWARD BEAN UNDERHILL.
Pp. 20.
Leeds: John Heaton; London: Benj.
L. Green.
Our Independent brethren, under the
leadership of Dr. Massie, have lately been
carrying through the principal towns of the
kingdom a large picture by Herbert, in

which the honour of having maintained the fullest liberty of conscience in the Westminster Assembly in 1644, is assigned to Philip Nye and four other Independent divines. Nye is represented standing and uttering the following memorable words:" That, by God's command, the magistrate is discharged to put the least discourtesy on any man, Turk, Jew, Socinian, or whatever, for his religion;" and the assembly (all the rest being Presbyterians) were in a great rage with him for the same; and the pith

of these words we saw actually engraved on the splendid gilt frame of a specimen print taken from the painting!

Will our readers believe, as Mr. M'Kerrow of Manchester lately stated, at the opening of a Presbyterian chapel in Bradford, that "the whole picture is a fiction,”the portrait of Nye, the most prominent figure, for none exists of him; the words assigned to him, for he never uttered them, and was opposed to what they assert !!! Yet such is the fact. The Independents of the Commonwealth (with inconsiderable exceptions) knew nothing of full liberty of conscience. Toleration, a word now justly detested, was "the great Diana of the Independents," as Mr. Underhill observes in the tract before us; and even that was not to be extended to those whom they deemed "not sound in fundamentals!" Yet such are the men canonized in a splendid painting and engraving, as the apostles of religious liberty-men whose colleagues were at the very time banishing Roger Williams, and whipping Quakers and Baptists in America! No; Baptists had long taught, from their first appearance, both anti-state-churchism and the congregational order of church government. Nye and his friends did not at first very well like the name Independents. But he and the other Pædobaptist Congregationalists had at that time learned from us only our ecclesiastical independency of one church on another. They, all five of them, as well as Owen and the leading Pædobaptist Congregationalists of the day, strenuously contended for the magistrate's right to supervise their churches, and to take order for the preaching of the true gospel! They have only in later times learned the value of the great principle for which oceans of Baptist blood have flowed, and which needs not to be better expressed than in the noble words falsely put into the mouth of Nye, who utterly denounced it.

All this Mr. Underhill sustains by overwhelming evidence in the tract before us, which is in great part a reprint of a valuable review by Mr. Underhill in the "Baptist Magazine," October, 1847; but with so many additions, &c., that its value is very much increased. Mr. Underhill had indeed

kindly furnished the writer of this notice with these additions to strengthen the positions of the review, in reference to the local controversy in which the writer was engaged.† Their worth at once determined him to request Mr. Underhill to reprint the review and incorporate them. In this view a learned and candid Independent brother, who read the whole with pleasure, fully concurred, observing, "By all means let us have the whole truth out." It is the duty of every Baptist, wherever the picture has come or may come, to possess himself of this tract, and to shew it to the local Independent lecturers, who generally sin in ignorance of the question. It will also be read with pleasure and advantage by every Baptist who is interested in the honour of the denomination. We may add, that diffusing information as to the truly enlarged views of Christ's kingdom, held by Baptists from the beginning, will do more than anything else to lessen that prejudice against our views, which, and not Pædobaptist arguments, is the real hindrance to their rapid spread.

TRUTH OR ORTHODOXY; TO WHICH MUST WE SACRIFICE? A FRIENDLY ADDRESS TO THE WESLEYAN METHODIST PREACHERS OF GREAT BRITAIN. BY HENRY BURGESS. Pp. 24. Leeds: John Heaton; London: Benjamin L. Green.

We were much struck with the correspondence between Mr. Noel's description of the effect of the Church of England creeds and formularies in repressing all honest independent thinking among curates, and Mr. Burgess's proof that Wesleyan travelling preachers are reduced to the same mental bondage by the extraordinarily long creed to which their assent and consent is required. It is nothing less than four volumes of Mr. Wesley's sermons, and his Notes on the New Testament. Mr. Burgess's pamphlet is an admirable appeal to them on this subject. Full of a just and kind admiration of the good Methodism has done and is doing, yet pointing out, with christian faithfulness, the debilitating effect on their ministry of the present system. This he illustrates under the following six particulars: 1. The doctrinal standards of the

Wesleyan Methodist Connexion tend to produce in the preachers a low estimate of the truth.

2. There is danger of tampering with conscience when the alternative is, to maintain our belief of certain doctrines unaltered, or to suffer for changing it. 3. The influence of doctrinal standards is unfavourable to that free biblical research which is the duty of christian ministers. 4. A fixed doctrinal standard lessens the usefulness of the pulpit, by keeping it in the rear of the public mind. 5. Doctrinal standards have the effect of involving religious societies in the charge of persecuting those who can no longer follow them. Lastly, Doctrinal standards, as far as they restrict the progress of truth and fetter the conscience, grieve the Holy Spirit, and cause the withdrawal of His gracious influences.

This pamphlet, however, does not concern Wesleyans merely. It is the best protest we have ever seen in the same space against the imposition of human creeds, as terms of communion, by any church. To us, Mr. Burgess's reasoning appears irresistible. Pious Churchmen, Presbyterians, and all churches amongst us, if such there be, who require more than the honest practical acknowledgment of the Holy Scriptures as the condition of fellowship, will do well to study these pages. We think our young and enquiring friends will be much pleased with "Truth or Orthodoxy." It exhibits so impartially and reverently the just deductions from the great principle to which Baptists, of all Protestants, are the most attached," the bible, and the bible ONLY,' -that they will find their views probably much cleared by reading it. Truth the writer considers to be found with absolute certainty in the sacred records alone. Orthodoxy has always practically meant exact conformity with some human interpretations of those records.

We noticed one or two sentences which some, perhaps, will think inconsistent with strict communion; but we also observed others which they would think necessarily involved that principle. The whole is, however, conceived in such a spirit that even those who stand most in need of its corrections will feel that it is indeed the smiting of the righteous.

A LETTER TO THE HON. AND REV. B. W. NOEL, M.A.; CONTAINING REMARKS ON HIS RECENT SECESSION, AND PROPOSING CERTAIN MEASURES FOR THE IMMEDIATE REFORMATION OF THE CHURCH OF ENG

LAND. By the Rev. THOMAS SPENCER, M.A. Pp. 16. Houlston & Stoneman.

A tract full of admirable and powerfully expressed sentiments. We cannot think with the writer, however, that Mr. Noel, with the views of its liturgy which he has given in his book, should have remained in the Church. Mr. Spencer can do so with a good conscience, and therefore with peace of mind. We cordially wish Mr. Spencer success in his noble object, namely, without seceding, to dissever the Church from the State, and to convert its endowments into truly national property, by demanding, from within, that amount of “Church Reform." We think both he and Mr. Noel could not devote their lives to a nobler object than the destruction of the Heathen, the Papal, the Presbyterian, and the Anglican Establishments of the British empire. They would do more for the kingdom of Christ by travelling round the country and lecturing on the subject, than they can ever do by ministering to single congregations for the remainder of their lives.

A BRIEF REVIEW OF "THE WORK OF GOD AND THE WORK of Man in CONVERSION;" A COURSE OF LECTURES BY FRANCIS JOHNSTON, Edinburgh. By Peter Grant, Stirling. Pp. 24. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.

Not having seen Mr. Johnston's Lectures, we are incompetent to judge how far his views are fairly represented by Mr. Grant. We strongly suspect that Mr. J. and Mr. G. are each laying stress on one of two apparently contradictory classes of Scripture texts, and endeavouring to make their favourite class swallow up the other; but till we have seen both pamphlets, we must suspend our judgment. We remark meantime, that we must be very careful, in deducing consequences from an opponent's views, also to give him credit for his own, and especially to secure our own views against like artillery. From some sentences on the 18th and 19th pages, it would, we think, be easy logically to arrive at Pantheism, which must be, indeed, far from the writer's thoughts. While we quite accord with Mr. Grant's theology, so far as he goes, we think his criticisms of Scripture, in several instances, quite erroneous. For instance, 1 Cor. iii. 5, where the Greek word exac can have only the sense Mr. Johnston assigns to it. Also, Rom. ix. 22, where, after "fitted," he interpolates "by them

selves;" he will not find such a meaning of Καταρτιζομαι in the New Testament or the classics. Macknight and the Arminianized interpreters commit two errors: first, they read the word as the middle voice, and next, they give to the middle voice an unwarranted meaning. To act honestly by this passage, we must think of a sense in which God could justly fit these vessels for destruction. The difficulty is not greater than in verses 17-21. It is, indeed, a solemn subject; but we may not supply agents to verbs which the context does not give us; and in this case, indeed, turn the object of the verb into the agent too, although the immediate context on each side makes the agent indubitable.

HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS FROM THE EARLIER AGES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME. By the Rev. JOHN STATHAM, late Missionary to India. Pp. 16. London: Aylott & Jones.

A kind of tract much wanted. The facts it mentions ought to be generally known. We may suggest, however, that a style a little more graphic and vigorous is very desirable. Several minor statements appeared to us singular; as the early date assigned for the origin of the Independents, John Milton's dying in prison, &c.: also the printer's use of the wrong diphthongs. We

should like much to see a lively and devout shilling book, for popular use, on Baptist history, written by some one who, like our brother Underhill, has made it his business for some time to study the minutia of the subject.

THE COURT OF PERSIA VIEWED IN CONNEXION WITH SCRIPTURAL USAGES. BY JOHN KITTO, D.D. Pp. 192. Religious -Tract Society.

One of the monthly volumes of the Tract Society. The subject, from its connexion with the later Jewish history, which is much illustrated by this volume, is an interesting one to all readers of the Scriptures; and Mr. Kitto has made it very interesting for its own sake too, as a description of eastern royal usages and habits.

AN APPEAL TO Dissenters AND OTHERS ON
BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE'S LEAGUE; WITH
AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE PLAN OP
AGITATION RECOMMENDED IN A SERIES
OF ARTICLES RECENTLY INSERTED IN THE
"NONCONFORMIST."
THE PEOPLE'S LEAGUE. Pp. 24. Lon-
don: Miall & Cockshaw.

By A MEMBER OF

Well worth the attention of Dissenters. We sincerely wish the writer's recommendations were acted upon in every town and village in the kingdom.

MARIA JOHNSON,

OF SHEFFIELD.

The gospel of Christ was designed for, and admirably adapted to, every class of society, as well as for the inhabitants of every country, and for every period of time. But it has always been most generally received and enjoyed by those who are situated in the humbler walks of life. The Great Teacher declared it to be one evidence of his Divine mission, that "to the poor the gospel is preached;" and the history of his church in all ages proves the truth, that a large proportion of such persons are "chosen by God to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him." It may likewise be true that the piety of such persons is generally more practical and consistent than that of those in the higher ranks. The Great Head of the church

chose for himself the state of poverty du ring his incarnation, and his immediatedisciples were selected from the same rank,. which he may have done to teach us the superiority of spiritual privileges to all the distinctions which riches, or titles, or learn-ing may bestow upon those who possess them, and the folly of those who prefer the transitory and unsatisfying pleasures of the world to the more substantial and durable advantages of his service.

Maria Johnson's condition and character present a striking evidence of the correct-ness of these remarks. When about ten years of age, she was deprived of her. father by a violent death which occurred when he was at a distance from home. This event was a severe affliction to the family, as their support depended principally on his exertions. A benevolent lady, residing in the same street, visited them,

and, among other acts of kindness, induced the widowed mother to send Maria to the Sabbath school at Townhead-Street chapel. Here she conducted herself greatly to the satisfaction of her teachers; and during one of the addresses given to the scholars, the Lord opened her heart that she attended to the things which belonged to her peace. When about sixteen years of age, she was received by baptism into the church under the pastoral care of Mr. Larom, and discharged the duties of a member in an honourable and consistent manner till the time of her decease.

When she was about twenty years of age, she met with a serious accident by falling down a staircase, which injured her spine considerably, and from which she never recovered during life. This was the commencement of a course of very acute and distressing suffering during a period of fifteen years; for she repeatedly informed the writer, that she was never free from pain for a single waking hour ever afterwards. She had a variety of infirmities and privations to sustain during the remainder of her earthly existence. But the power of religion was eminently displayed in her spirit and conduct. Her beloved Saviour was pleased to keep her in the furnace of affliction for a long season; but it was her happiness that he was ever present as the Refiner and Purifier of silver, and He was graciously careful that she should not lose any of the precious graces He had implanted in her soul, but only the dross of corrupt nature, during this long protracted trial.

She manifested great anxiety that her relatives, who were almost all destitute of personal religion, might be converted to God; and her fervent prayers were in some measure answered, by one of her sisters being induced, principally by her holy example and faithful conversation, to make an open profession of faith, and unite herself to the same church. There was a strong bond of affection between these two sisters, which was increased by the decided conversion of Ruth, and resembled the close and intimate communion of spirit between David and Jonathan. In all the vicissitudes of life, they maintained unshaken regard to each other; and while some of their other relatives manifested scarcely any interest in their welfare, even under their greatest trials, they sympathised with each other at all times, and especially when Providence separated them from each other.

Maria's circumstances were frequently much reduced, and she was, for many years, almost entirely dependent on the benevolence of christian friends. On one occasion, both she and Ruth had scarcely any food for several days, while their mother was gone to some friends at a distance with the view of obtaining relief. They were both of a modest and unobtrusive disposition, and would not apply to any of those friends who had been accustomed to relieve them, and would have done it most readily if they had been at all aware of it. They enjoyed, during this trying season, the sweetest communion with their Heavenly Father, pleading his precious promises to his afflicted children, and exercising humble faith in his unchanging word.

The writer has enjoyed frequent interviews with this eminently pious and devoted character. She repeatedly told him that for a long time she could not sincerely affirm, "Not my will, but thine be done;" but that grace had taught her to experience that cordial acquiescence in all the appointments of her adorable Lord, which enabled her to say, "Not my will, but thine be done."

Some of her favourite quotations from Scripture, which were a source of comfort and support to her mind in the most painful dispensations, were, "As thy day is, so thy strength shall be," "All things work together for good to them that love God, and are called according to his purpose,""Our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,"-"All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come."

Her first medical attendant, who was exceedingly kind and attentive to her, though not a religious character, often said that she could not have continued so long if her mind had not been preserved in so calm and quiet a frame.

She was subject to fainting fits, during which her friends never expected her to revive, and when she did so she was ready to express a feeling of disappointment that she had returned to life again. She took great delight in prayer and experimental conversation, and frequently endeavoured to encourage young christians in entering on the narrow path; and many have spoken highly of the benefit they derived from her prayers and instructions. She was visited by Christians of different denominations,