But, Lord, the violet, bending low, Father, forgive us, and the flowers 12.-To the Parishioners of Calvary Church. New York. 1848. A Pastoral from the Rector to the Parishioners of Calvary Church, New York. 12mo. pp. 24. THIS is a pastoral letter from the Rev. Samuel L. Southard to his flock. We are acquainted with the author only by means of this little pamphlet. He seems to be a serious, earnest man, desirous of promoting the spiritual welfare of his parishioners; but it is written in the spirit of the Catholic clergy in the times of Saint Bernard. At the first glance over these pages a liberal and intelligent man will naturally smile at the pretensions to authority set forth by the Rector of Calvary Church; but soon a sincere man becomes sad at the sight of such pretensions in America, and the middle of the nineteenth century, especially when he remembers that there are thousands who will probably yield willing necks to this priestly domination. He says, (the Italics are not ours,) "You should look on the ministry as divinely appointed to rule over and teach you; to preach the gospel, as this Church hath received the same;' and give you the means of grace. Not as agents of man, or your agents-supported, but not hired. Never speak against them without compulsion. If you differ from your Pastors in opinion, be content to differ without words. Receive all you can of profit from their ministrations, and be still. If they err in judg ment, pray for them. While you remain in a parish, never cause a division of the people. And always remember that more must be yielded to the judgment of your Pastors, than is due to your own; it is their province; and theirs is the responsibility." "The connexion of the clergy and the people in spiritual things is nearer than any relation on earth. There is no tie so near- of friendship or of blood." "Removals from parish to parish are to be avoided if possible; never change from whim or caprice: never altogether from taste. In changing your residence, have an eye to proximity to a Church, before all things but health; and as a general rule go to the Church which is nearest." ،، .... Always, unless from a conscientious excuse, attend service and worship in your own parish Church. Be content with the services there. They will be enough for your soul: more than you will improve. If you fancy you need more of nourishment than you receive, apply to your Priest; but never stray off to seek it yourself. You know your own pastures; but you may eat garlic elsewhere. Your Shepherd, whoever in the Providence of God he may be, is the Shepherd for you. Itching ears are one of the heaviest judgments of God, and mere curiosity in religious affairs may be a sin. Sheep who wander from pasture to pasture will be cared for by none, and may meet the wolf in the way." "Never marry one to whom you may be related nearer than the fifth degree. Never marry the relations of a deceased wife, in any degree nearer than you are. You should never marry out of the faith [i. e. the faith of the Episcopal Church]: especially a woman, who, thereby, becomes subject "to the law of her husband," who may keep her away from the Church. Better never to marry than make shipwreck of the faith [i. e. of the belief of the Episcopal Church.]" "Use hospitality. Be careful to entertain strangers; and especially the ministry of God. A clergyman [i. e. of the Episcopal Church] should never be left at an Inn." 12.-A Letter of the celebrated John Foster to a young ministèr, on the duration of Future Punishment: with an introduction and notes, consisting chiefly of extracts from orthodox writers; and an earnest appeal to the American Tract Society in regard to the character of its publications. Boston. 1849. 12mo. pp. 120. THE anonymous author is apparently an able scholar, and writes with the style of a serious and thoughtful man who feels that his words will have effect, as they certainly have weight. He shows, in the first place, that many men otherwise "orthodox," that is more or less Calvinistic, do not believe the doctrine of eternal damnation. He then addresses the American Tract Society, and justly censures that body for publishing books which contain the doctrine in its most odious form. He shows the power of the Society, by telling of the number of its publications. "The Society have already issued more than one hundred millions of books and Tracts of Alleine's Alarm, 120,000 copies; Baxter's Saint's Rest, and Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion, each 100,000; of Baxter's Call to the Unconverted, 250,000; and in some efforts of late to supply our large cities, 10,000 volumes were circulated in Boston, 10,000 in Charleston, S. C., 17,000 in Philadelphia and vicinity." "In Boston nearly 2,000 gentlemen circulated by voluntary effort about 10,000 volumes on sale, for which they received $3,500. In Hartford and New Haven, Conn., about 4,000 volumes each were circulated. In Providence, R. I., nearly 10,000 volumes were sold; in Troy, N. Y., 7,000; in Philadelphia, 18,000; in Charleston, S. C., 10,000, including 400 sets of the Evangelical Family Library, amounting to $3,000; and in Savannah and Augusta, Ga., nearly 4,000 volumes each. More than two hundred pious colporteurs are employed by the Society in conveying these publications to the homes of the people." "From small beginnings in 1825, the Society's operations have gradually increased, till, in the last year, its receipts for books sold and donations, were more than $160,000; more than half a million of books and five millions of Tracts were circulated; and 267 colporteurs, including 44 students for vacations, were in commission, in 27 States, for the whole or part of the year37 of them among the German, French, Irish, and Norwegian population-who visited 215,000 families, or a twentieth part of our entire population." Surely such a society must be dangerous to the welfare of the great mass of uneducated persons who read its works. The Society thus states the agreement of all "the great family of the redeemed": "There is a happy agreement among all evangelical Christians regarding the fundamental truths of the Bible. However they may differ as to philosophy and religious order and ordinances, the doctrines of Man's native sinfulness; the purity and obligation of the law of God; the true and proper divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ; the necessity and reality of his atonement and sacrifice; the efficiency of the Holy Spirit in the work of renovation; the free and full offers of the Gospel, and the duty of man to accept it; the necessity of personal holiness; and an everlasting state of rewards and punishments beyond the grave,' and related truths, are loved alike by the great family of the redeemed, of every name and nation." The author complains of the character of the works published by the Society; descriptions of torment, and images of pain "have been multiplied and combined, as it were, in an infernal kaleidescope, so as to present images of variegated, picturesque, and transcendent horror." The publication, on so large a scale, of books like "Baxter's Saint's Rest," "Alleine's Alarm," and the like, must be regarded as a national calamity. We could wish that such large resources, and such exemplary skill in their management as belong to this society, were devoted to a better purpose. 13.- Human Life: illustrated in my Individual Experience as a Child, a Youth, and a Man. By HENRY CLARKE WRIGHT. 12mo. pp. 414. Boston: Bela Marsh, 25 Cornhill. 1849. THIS book is the work of a true and earnest man, who has a clear idea of the purpose for which he was placed in this world, and who has devoted himself heartily to its accomplishment. Engaged in agricultural and mechanical labor, with scarcely any opportunities for book-learning, until the age of twenty, he then began a course of education for the Orthodox ministry. On entering the Theological Seminary at Andover, he determined to take nothing for granted as true or false, right or wrong, but to doubt on all subjects, rejecting every thing which he should find to rest solely on authority, or to which he could find a reasonable and unanswerable objection. Guided by this principle, he entered upon a course of assiduous and indefatigable study, and soon found himself driven to conclusions widely different, not only from Andover theology, but from the popular opinions in business, literature, and politics, religion, and morality. He seems ever since to have continued faithful to this idea. His motto is "Institutions for men, not men for Institutions." He regards beneficence to men as the true service or worship of God, and sets at nought all customs, laws, constitutions, and scriptures which examination shows to be at variance with the rights or the welfare of mankind. The book is intensely interesting, for the same reasons which make the lives of Silvio Pellico and of Blanco White interesting; yet this man is very different from them, and his book from their books. His style is direct and energetic, yet at the same time prolix and repetitious. He seeks to know God and man, shrinks from no investigation and from no conclusion, and makes the freest use of all materials, himself included, in attaining this knowledge. A year hence, he promises a second volume. 14. Two Sermons of the Moral and Spiritual Condition of Boston. By THEODORE PARKER, &c., &c., &c. Boston. 1849. 12mo. pp. 74. IN the first sermon the author considers, 1. the actual state of morals in Boston as indicated by trade and the press, by poverty, intemperance and crime. 2. he compares the morals of the present with former ages, and 3. inquires what can be done to improve the morals of the city. In the second sermon he finds that Religion is in a low condition in Boston, but in a better state than ever before. He cites examples to prove that the present complaint of the "decline of Piety" is not new, but began as early as 1636, and has been regularly continued till the present time. We give below an extract from a sermon of Dr. Increase Mather to the same purpose: "I know there is a blessed day to the visible church not far off; but it is the judgment of very learned men, that in the glorious times promised to the church on Earth America will be HELL. And altho' there is a number of the Elect of God to be born here, I am verily afraid that, in process of time New England will be the wofullest place in all America, as some other parts of the world, once famous for religion are now the dolefullest on earth, perfect pictures and emblems of Hell. When we see this little Academy (Harvard college, for Dr. Increase Mather was President thereof, and preaching in the college chapel,) fallen to the ground, then know it is a terrible thing which God is about to bring upon this land." NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. Two Discourses: the Kingdom of the Truth; the Range of Christianity, by A. J. Scott, M. A. London. 1848. 8vo. pp. 48. Letters on the Development of Religious Life in the modern Christian Church (to be completed in six monthly parts,) by Henry Solly. Part I. Luther & Munzer. Part II. Zwingle & Calvin. London. 1849. 12mo. pp. 11. and 98. A Letter to the President of Harvard College, by a Member of the Corporation. Boston. 1849. 8vo. pp. 54. A Plea for Harvard; showing that "the University at Cambridge" was not the name established for this Seminary by the Constitution of Massachusetts, but the name authorized by that instrument was "Harvard University," by an Alumnus. Boston. 1849. 8vo. pp. 30. Requisites to our Country's Glory. A Discourse delivered at the Annual Election, Wednesday, January 5th, 1849, by John Pierce, D. D., &c., &c. Boston. 1849. 8vo. pp. 62. Philosophy of Space and Time, by G. A. Hammett, M. D. Newport, R. I. 1849. 12mo. pp. 40. Unitarianism and Congregationalism. A Discourse preached at Gloucester, Mass., by A. D. Mayo, Pastor of the Independent Christian Society. Gloucester. 1849. 8vo. pp. 20. The Claims of Seamen. An Address delivered at the annual meeting of the New Bedford Port Society, ... by Rev. John Weiss, &c., &c. Boston. 1849. 12mo. pp. 36. A Review of the Bishop of Oxford's Counsel to the American Clergy, with Reference to the Institution of Slavery. Also Supplemental Remarks on the Relation of the Wilmot Proviso to the interests of the colored class, by Rev. Philip Berry, &c., &c. Washington. 1848 12mo. pp. 26. Embryology of Nemertes. With an Appendix on the embryologic development of Polynoë, by Edward Desor, &c., &c. Boston. 1848. 8vo. pp. 18. Catalogue of the Pictures of the Old Masters, with a list of the Engravings at the gallery of Lyceum Building, 563 Broadway. 2d Edition. New York. 1849. 8vo. pp. 64. The Law of Human Progress. An Oration delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Union College, Schenectady, July 25th, 1848, by Charles Sumner, &c., &c. Boston. 1849. pp. 48. An Inquiry into the alleged tendency of the Separation of Convicts one from the other, to produce disease and derangement, by a Citizen of Philadelphia. Philadelphia. 1849. 8vo. pp. 160. Republication of Essays upon Art, &c., &c. New York. 1849. 8vo. pp. 40. An Address to the Suffolk North Association of Congregational Ministers, by J. P. Lesley, Minister of the First Evangelical Church, Milton, Mass. With Sermons on the Rule of Faith, the Inspiration of the Scriptures, and the Church. Boston: Wm. Crosby & H. P. Nichols. 1849. 12mo. pp. 130. A Correct Apprehension of God essential to True Worship: or a View of the Trinity as it stands connected with the whole Gospel Scheme, by Rev. J. N. Tarbox, &c., &c. Boston. 1849. Pictures and Painters; Essays upon Art; The Old Masters; and Modern Artists. New York. 1849. 12mo. Poems. By James T. Fields. Boston. 1849. 12mo. pp. VI. and 100. The Soul, her Sorrows and her Aspirations; an Essay towards the natural history of the Soul, as the true basis of Theology. By Francis William Newman, &c. &c. London. 1849. 12mo. pp. x11. and 222. |