you will see the folly of resting your hopes upon such uncertain objects. You will build your house on a high foundation, where you will enjoy perpetual sunshine, while you hear the thunder of the distant tempest. But, young gentlemen, if you are not yet resolved to make the advancement of mind in moral and intellectual excellency your greatest care, let me remind you, that you cannot, with impunity, wave such a resolution. The obligation, which rests upon you to do so, results from your endowments and relations; and it is as much beyond your power to cast it off, as it is to effect your own annihilation, or to dethrone the Majesty of heaven. It does not belong to you to say what shall be the number of your talents, or the nature of your connections. These are unalterably fixed by that Being, with whom there is no shadow of turning. It is only for you to say, whether these talents shall be improved, or abused, whether your relations shall be sustained with honor, or with ignominy, and, whether your undying spirit shall be fitted to swell the chorus of heaven, or the wailings of despair. In view of alternatives, marked with such a momentous difference, you cannot be ignorant of the path of wisdom.

MR GOODRICH'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

Outlines of Ecclesiastical History, on a New Plan, designed for Academies and Schools. By Rev. CHARLES A. GOODRICH. Illustrated by Engravings. 12mo. pp. 424. Hartford, NewYork, and Boston, 1829.

We like the design and the general plan of this compendium. Its execution, too, for the most part, is worthy of commendation. And we are very sorry that we cannot recommend it to the public, as being altogether what it should be, and what the professions and the presumable means of the author would lead us to expect. His work is intended for the use of' Academies and Schools,' in which the children of persons belonging to the various religious denominations meet promiscuously. He assures us in his preface, that he has endeavored to keep this fact in view, and that he has not considered it his province to enter into the discussion of contro verted points, nor to give his individual opinion on which side the truth lies.' He tells us that he has endeavored to confine himself to facts, and to facts of importance.'

After these bland professions, we were not a little grieved to find, almost in the very beginning of the History, such statements as the following: p. 25: The great object of Christ in coming into the world, was to place the church upon a new establishment, upon which it should finally embrace all nations.-There never was but one church in the world.' P. 26: Christ made his first appearance to John on the banks of the river Jordan, where he was baptized.' [Is it a fact that Christ was baptized on the banks of the river'?] The object of his being baptized was to be legally

and solemnly consecrated as High Priest.-Under the law, the priests were consecrated to their office by baptism, and anointing with oil. Instead of oil, he was baptized with the Holy Ghost. For, the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and lighted upon him.' P. 27: He introduced the Lord's supper in the room of the Jewish feasts; baptism in the room of circumcision.'

Whatever may be the 'individual opinion' of the author, a little sober reflection must, surely, convince him of the great impropriety of obtruding upon our children, doctrinal notions like these, under the disguise of uncontroverted historical facts.

On the 398th page, it seems to be taught that the fathers of New England had a right to hate the Quakers, and to punish them severely, though not quite so severely as to put them to death. And on p. 386, it is insinuated that the general principle of the Baptists in respect to admission to the Lord's supper, is the offspring of an illiberal spirit. On the next page, it is stated, "They have several churches in New England, but are chiefly to be found in the southern and western states.- -They have a college at Providence, R. I. which is a respectable institution; a theological seminary at Waterville, Maine, and another at Washington city.' We are glad that justice is done to the college at Providence; but, unhappily, the reader is left to infer that we have no other college, and no other 'respectable institution.' The author ought to have been acquainted with the existence of Waterville College, and of the College at the city of Washington. As to the Seminary at Hamilton, in the State of New York, and the Newton Theological Institution, in Massachusetts, and others, it may, some ages hence, be very plausibly maintained that they did not exist in July, 1829, the time of this History's publication.

And yet, this History is probably not more defective and partial than most other Histories that contain accounts of our denomination, drawn up by good men who have viewed us either at a distance, or through some distorting medium. It may easily, by a judicious and candid revision, be freed from the faults and errors which we have mentioned, and from some others which we have passed over in silence, and thus be rendered worthy of general approbation and patronage.

MR JAMES'S FAMILY MONITOR.

The Family Monitor, or Help to Domestic Happiness. By JOHN ANGELL JAMES. 12mo. pp. 234. Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1829.

DOMESTIC Happiness!-who can think of it without emotion, and the awakening of a thousand tender recollections, and an unutterable interest in respect to his own prospects? Who will not welcome a Help to the attainment of so desirable an object? We

need not expatiate on its importance. All who have reflected on the subject, and all who now reflect on it seriously, must admit that this is indeed one of those matters which come home to men's business and bosoms.'

Mr James's book well corresponds with its title. It consists of seven chapters, on the following subjects; namely the domestic constitution, and the mutual duties of husbands and wives; the special duties of husbands and of wives; the formation of the marriage union; the duties of parents: the duties of children to their parents; the duties of masters; and the duties of servants or hired persons.

Whoever has read the Christian Father's Present to his Children,- -a work by the same author, and one which it would be well for every father to put into the hands of his children,—will be desirous of obtaining the Family Monitor, to which we are now inviting the attention of our readers. This is a present to the whole family. It addresses the language of wisdom and affection to all, in a manner admirably adapted to make a salutary and lasting impression. Only a faint idea of its value can be formed from any specimens that can here be introduced: yet it may not be useless to transcribe the following paragraphs, which occur in the first chapter.

'Precious, indeed, are the joys of a happy family; but oh, how fleet! How soon must the circle be broken up, how suddenly may it may be! What scenes of delight, resembling gay visions of fairy bliss, have all been unexpectedly wrapt in shadow and gloom, by misfortune, by sickness, by death. The last enemy has entered the paradise, and by expelling one of its tenants, has imbittered the scene to the rest; the ravages of death have been in some cases followed by the desolations of poverty; and they who once dwelt together in the happy enclosure, have been separated and scattered to meet no more. But religion, true religion, if it be possessed, will gather them together again, after this destruction of their earthly ties, and conduct them to another paradise, into which no calamity shall enter, and from which no joy shall ever depart.

Happy then would it be for all who stand related by these household ties, if the bonds of nature were hallowed and rendered permanent by those of divine grace. To found our union on any basis which does not contain religion in its formation, is to erect it on a quicksand, and to expose it to the fury of a thousand billows, each of which may overturn the fabric of our comfort in a moment; but to rest it upon religion is to found it upon a rock, where we shall individually still find a refuge, when the nearest and the dearest relations are swept away by the tide of dissolution.

'It is a pleasing reflection, that the domestic constitution depends not for its existence, its laws, its right administration or its rich advantages, either upon family possessions, or the forms of national policy. It may live and flourish in all its tender charities, and all its sweet felicities, and all its moral power, in the cottage as well as in the mansion. . . It accommodates itself to every changing form of surrounding society, to every nation, and to every age.'

p. 19.

'As the wife should be willing to help the husband, in matters of business, so he should be willing to share with her the burden of domestic anxieties and fatigue. . . . My heart has ached to see the slavery

of some devoted, hard-working, and ill-used wives. After laboring all day amidst the ceaseless toils of a young and numerous family, they have had to pass the hours of evening in solitude; while their husbands, instead of coming home to cheer them by their society, or to relieve them for only an half hour of their fatigue, have been either at a party or a sermon: and then have these hapless women had to wake and watch the livelong night, over a sick or restless babe, while the men whom they accepted as the partners of their sorrows, were sleeping by their side, unwilling to give a single hour of their slumber, though it was to allow a little repose to their toil-worn wives. Why, even the irrational creatures shame such men; for it is a well known fact, that the male bird takes his turn upon the nest during the season of incubation, to allow the female time to renew her strength, by food and rest; and with her, also, goes in diligent quest of food, and feeds the young ones when they cry.'

p. 33. There may be wives who need the rebuke, here so eloquently and so justly administered to unnatural husbands: It may be So, • And mothers monsters prove;'

but we rejoice in believing that the number is very small.

MODERN GREECE: REVIEW OF DR HOWE'S SKETCH OF THE
GREEK REVOLUTION.

An Historical Sketch of the Greek Revolution. By SAMUEL G. Howe, M. D. Late Surgeon in Chief to the Greek Fleet. New-York: 1828: White, Gallaher, & White. 8vo. pp. 452.

GREECE, once the "land of science and of song;" since "trampled by the ruthless Ottoman"-Greece, once the "home of freedom, the nursery of the arts, the asylum of the oppressed;" since "mangled and bleeding at every pore"-Greece, has long been a standing topic for the blazonry of declamation, and the enthusiasm of poetry. For ages her very name has been invested with a hoary sacredness that has commanded almost universal admiration and respect. But during her recent insurrection, and most sanguinary struggle for liberty, she has been the subject of a still more intense and absorbing interest. The touching associations of thirty centuries have gathered thickly around the spirits of the philosopher, the artist, the statesman, and especially the Christian, appealing strongly to their sympathies, and awakening a generous solicitude for the redemption-the civil, intellectual, and moral redemption, of a noble, but down-trodden people.

The open warlike operations of the Greek insurgents commenced early in the year 1821. From that time until the destruction of the Turco-Egyptian fleet, in the harbor of Navarino, Oct. 20, 1827, the contest was fierce and destructive. For a detailed statement of its odious scenes of perfidy, bloodshed, and atrocious cruelty, we refer our readers to the sickening disclosures of the "Sketch" before us. It was a contest between the Greek, who felt that he

had endured sufficiently long the indignities of a merciless servitude, and the Turk, whose nature, education, and religion, unite to render him an incarnation of barbarism. And it was distinguished by events which justify Dr Howe, and other friends of Greece, in denominating it "The Greek Revolution." Notwithstanding the numerous imperfections and vices with which the Greeks have been chargeable, such as are incident to their ignorance, their habits of life, and their oppressed condition, added to the common depravedness of the heart, yet they have, in the main, exhibited a love of liberty, a devotion to their country, a patriotic bravery, and a spirit of self-sacrifice, which have seldom been surpassed.

We abhor war in all its shapes. It is utterly hostile to the spirit of Christianity, and we conceive the occasions to be few, very few, where man is justifiable in shedding the blood of his fellow man. If there ever were such an occasion, surely the one before us possessed that character. If believers in the Christian religion may fight for any thing, certainly they may for liberty-for their country's rights-for the products of the soil which they cultivate-for their own dear homes, their wives and daughters. For all these have the heroic Greeks been most resolutely fighting, and in the unequal struggle, they have most bitterly suffered. Thousands and thousands of their best citizens-thousands and thousands of their women and children, have been savagely butchered, or still more savagely dragged off to a slavery thirty fold worse than death. Their cities and fortresses have been levelled to the dusttheir villages blackened with entire desolation-their fields and vineyards swept bare of every thing which fire would burn-their houseless population scattered over the ravaged plains, or driven to the fastnesses of the mountains, and reduced to the severest extremities of nakedness and hunger. But amid all these scenes of carnage, devastation, and suffering, Greece maintained the contest, and would doubtless have continued it until the last Greek should have expired in her defence, were it not for the peculiar intervention of Heaven, who was evidently resolved to prevent the extinction of the race, and spare a portion for higher and nobler purposes. Factions, excited and led on by selfish, remorseless, unpatriotic chiefs, were continually sucking the heart's blood, and debilitating the energies of their country's government. The citizens of Christian nations were embezzling her loans, and coldly speculating upon her miseries. Mahometans were ravaging her territory, dismembering, impaling, enslaving her population. Yet Greece held on her way, enduring her frequent reverses with unblenching fortitude, maintaining a vigorous hope of ultimate success, and looking up to God for his merciful guidance and protection. And that protection He granted at a moment when her whole condition and prospects wore an aspect the most dark and unlovely. A benignant Providence interfered at a critical juncture, raising up friends to pity her woes, and lay a strong hand upon the aggressions of her pitiless invader.