Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THE PROPHECIES, with reference to their Interpretation and Fulfilment, and to Personal Edification. By the Rev. Edw. Bickersteth, Rector of Watton, Herts. Sixth Edition, enlarged. Seeley and Burnside.

MOST heartily do we rejoice with the estimable author of this book in the increased interest aroused in the church on the all-important subject of prophecy. It is vain to look for any effort commensurate with the present emergency, among men who close their eyes to this question. Mr. Bickersteth took up the right ground in his former edition, but his views have since been greatly enlarged, and a glorious prospect has opened on every side, while he gazed around. The preface to this sixth edition is important; so are the additions that he has made. We wish the book an unlimited circulation.

EPISCOPACY, ORDINATION, LAY-ELDERSHIP, AND LITURGIES; considered in five Letters. By the Rev. Archibald Boyd, A.M., Curate of the Cathedral, Derry. Seeley and Burnside.

It is very well known that Ulster was colonized to a great extent by James I. with those who, like himself, were Scotsmen and Presbyterians. The church of Scotland has, in that part of Ireland, "divided the land" with her episcopal sister; and although the want of a common enemy to contend with, on a soil whence Popery had in a great measure been driven, tempted the two Protestant sisters occasionally to

gratify their pugnacious propensities at each other's expense, still whenever the foe contrived to take the field, they were found knit in the closest amity, ready to spend and to be spent in the cause of their common faith. Witness the glorious epoch which their children are now about to commemorate-the month of December, 1688-when by Episcopalians and Presbyterians together, the gates of Derry were closed in the face of the Popish foe; and together they manned the walls, together endured the horrors of a protracted siege, bombardment, pestilence, and famine, until together their ashes reposed in the scene of their noble achievements, and they bequeathed to their posterity the precious jewel of civil and religious freedom, with its great and only palladium, an unfettered Bible.

In our days, Satan knowing that his time is now short, is excessively diligent to stir up strife; and effectually he has prevailed on the very spot where unanimity once so signally defeated him. We know right well that a most restless spirit of hostility against the established church recently manifested itself among some of the Presbyterian leaders there; and while in the south our poor church has been pressed beyond measure, almost to death, by her open foes, northward she has been wounded in the house of her friends. For our own part, we wish all such differences were buried in the deepest bed of the Foyle, and all stirrers-up of fratricidal strife transported to another hemisphere; but since it has pleased certain of the Presbyterian ministry there to fan into a new flame this coal of their own kindling, we cannot marvel that Mr. Boyd, than whom no man is better qualified for the task, should have felt himself again

PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION PUBLICATIONS.

565

bound to come forward and rebut the uncalled-for, unjust, unbrotherly attack upon the church to which he belongs.

Of the book itself, we can only say that the tone of severity occasionally apparent is well merited by some of the assailants, who persist in representing the author's purely defensive, and very temperate "Sermons on the Church" as an aggressive workan attack on Presbyterianism, which it was never intended to be, and into which no human ingenuity can honestly twist it. It is a mere ruse de guerre to entitle the answer 66 Presbyterianism defended." For the manner in which Mr. Boyd has fulfilled his task, we refer our readers to the volume. A more powerfully-written one we never took up. It is the production of a great mind roused into action in defence of a great cause. We deeply lament that ever it should have been called forth, because we covet such a champion for Protestantism in the general, and doubly mourn the devilish craft of the great adversary in diverting both parties from the battle-field of their common faith. We also know that it has occasioned much grief to many among the best ministers and members of the Presbyterian church; but we honour Mr. Boyd for thus maintaining a post to which he was forced; and we pray God to re-unite the divided churches, and to baffle the devices of our ancient foe.

PUBLICATIONS OF THE PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION. Vol. I. Seeleys, Hatchards, &c.

WE rejoice to see a handsome volume already com

pleted of these short but weighty publications. The Protestant Association has risen wholly out of the recent aggressions of Popery; it was for a time as unpopular as the pernicious liberalism and sickening lukewarmness of a Laodicean age could make it; but God pronounced a blessing, and who could reverse it? We glory in its increasing prosperity, for it is as the healthful pulsation gradually returning in veins where the life-blood had almost ceased to circulate. Twelve months ago, the committee ventured on starting a small periodical, a monthly magazine at the humble price of two-pence, and many were the prognostications that it would not survive its birth. Now, however, we have the gratifying announcement that it is to be doubled in size; and also that a second travelling agent is requisite to meet the rising call for more associations. This volume is really valuable, and we trust its circulation will be the means of abundant, extensive good.

SONGS OF MY PILGRIMAGE.
John East, M.A. Second Edition.
London, Simpkin and Co.

By the Rev. Bath, Binns.

He says,

WE must flatly contradict the author. "These songs have no pretensions to poetical merit." We tell him they have much, and to better things than that. In truth, they are very sweet and elegant, no less than spiritual; and in their pretty binding as nice a Christmas present as we could wish for a friend.

A NEW MAP OF IRELAND, in Six Sheets.
Founded upon the Government Survey, the Copyright
of which was purchased from the Crown.
Charing-cross.

Wyld,

If we be deemed guilty of an Irish bull, for placing this notice among reviews of books, we plead that Mr. Wyld's publication is far more like a book than any map we have ever seen. It is, indeed, the most beautiful specimen of topography imaginable; and to its fidelity we can, to a great extent, bear personal testimony. The beauteous lakes, with their delicate indentations and fairy isles, the mountain ramparts, and chains, and passes, the bold sweep of broader rivers, and the winding course of lighter streams, the village, the city, and the coast, all are so accurately traced, so beautifully tinted, and so exqusitely finished, that we cannot but congratulate Mr. Wyld on having achieved the rare exploit of rendering 'Justice to Ireland,' in a form alike acceptable to all parties-equally adapted to the castle of Darrynane and to the corporation-hall of Derry. This splendid map does honour to both countries, and we trust that in both it will be rightly appreciated.

THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW ; with a concise History of the Corruptions, Usurpations, and Anti-social Effects of Romanism. By Sir W. S. R. Cockburn, Bart, A. M. Parker.

A SPIRITED work. Sir W. Cockburn officiated as chairman at a Protestant meeting in Bath, and

« AnteriorContinua »