sense, exquisite feelings, enlarged benevolence, and exemplary piety: but was snatched from his endeared attachment, when, to human appearance, these amiable qualities seemed most necessary to sooth the sorrows of his old age. The stroke was heavy and painful! but, as one that feared God, he used to say, 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?' and committed the keeping of his soul unto God, in expectation of soon following her to the world of spirits, where they should meet to part no more. The subject of this memoir, after this painful bereavement, lived much secluded from society, devoting the remainder of his days to a preparation for the coming of the Son of God. For six months previous to his death, he employed much of his time in reading the pious and excellent works of Archbishop Leighton; whence he derived many feasts of holy and heavenly consolation. He frequently spoke of his death with great composure, and as an event at no great distance; desiring to be made meet for the kingdom of heaven. The last time he attended the house of God, was the public prayer-meeting; after which he returned home, apparently as well as usual, and went to bed-to rise no more. The attack, with which he was seized during the night, baffled the efforts of medicine; and after struggling only four days, nature being overpowered, he gradually sunk under the heavy shock, and died in peace, on Friday morning, June 12th, 1818, in the eighty-third year of his age. He conversed very little during his short illness; but his mind was peacefully composed, his confidence firm, and his prospects clear. Behold the upright man; for the end of that man is peace. On Lords'-Day, June 24th, a funeral sermon was preached for the deceased, to a numerous and affected audience, at the Independent chapel, Tutbury, from the following words, being those of his own choice-This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.' with a view to praise the dead, but to It will be proper to direct the read er's attention to one leading feature in the character of this good man, not XXVIII. poses-promote the prosperity of Zion, where their assistance was most wanted —and, in this honourable employment, become distinguished blessings to society and the Church of God. Mr. G's liberality formed a striking contrast to that of many persons in wealthy circumstances, which not unfrequently consists in faint resolutions, vanishing like smoke. He did not deceive himself by deferring the exercise of his benevolence, till the shades of death were upon him, which, alas! is the awful delusion of too many; but he made the subject familiar to him through life, and it forsook him not in death In his last will and testament, he made the following bequests:-To the London Missionary Society, 1000l. -to the British and Forein Bible Society, 700.-to the Society for the benefit of the widows and children of dissenting ministers, 700/- to Rotherham Academy, 600l.-to Hoxton Academy, 400.- and to the Moravian Missionary Society, 400 Though he thus extended his liberality to promote the kingdom of Jesus Christ, both living and dying, this was not the foundation of his acceptance with God, and final admittance into heaven. He rested his soul on the atonement of Jesus Christ for pardon and salvation. In one important point, his case was not much dissimilar from that of the venerable patriarch, of whom it is said, Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect.' B. B. DEATH OF MRS. CHATER. Mrs. Ann Chater, wife of the Rev. Js. Chater, one of the Baptist missionaries at Ceylon, lately died at t. Helena, on her voyage home for the benefit of her health. Mrs. C. appears to have been converted under the ministry of Mr. Thomas, one of the first Baptist Missionaries in India. In 1806, she married with the express design of becoming personally useful to that mission. But a fast increasing family, together with declining health induced by a destructive climate, caused her some disappointment, as it regarded this object. In 1815, she suffered the loss of her two elder sons, on their passage, to England for education, in the Arniston sloop of war, which was wrecked on the coast of Africa. From that period, Mrs. Chater's health became so much impaired as to destroy her public usefulness, and oblige her to relinquish a school which she had, till then, conducted in Colombo, for the benefit of the missionary funds. In March last, having already borne ten children in India, and being again in a state of pregnancy, her physicians recommended her return, for one year, to her native land, assuring her, that they believed two months at sea would restore her to her original health. The embarkation of herself and 7 children, leaving her husband at Colombo, on account of his missionary engagements, was the last important effort of her firm and courageous mind. On their arrival off St. Helena, being in a state of such extreme debility as to make it necessary to the saving of her life that she should land, and await there her delivery, she did so, retaining her two youngest children, while her five elder ones were separated from her, to proceed, under the care of the captain, to England. On the 18th of May, four days after their departure, she was delivered of female twins, and her constitution being now in a state of rapid exhaustion, she expired on the 5th of June, leaving an interesting family of nine children, the eldest of whom is but just turned of nine years.. The four infants at St. Helena were instantly after her death taken under the protecting care of the Rev. B. J. Vernon, officiating episcopal clergyman of that place, whose attention to Mrs. Chater during her last sufferings, and subsequently to her children, and his Christian conduct in other instances of personal suffering abroad, entitle him to the respect and admiration of every Christian community. Although Mrs. Chater died in circumstances of almost unparalleled trial in a land of strangers, and severed from every earthly friend, her lamenting relatives have consolation in believing, that as she lived in the fear and the service of God, she died in.. the exercise of that faith which, realizing the Divine presence, makes the chamber of death the gate of heaven.' 3 REVIEW OF RELIGIOUS PUBLICATIONS. An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance: By John Foster. 8vo. 316 pp. 78. 6d. THE subject of this volume seems to us to be hardly less intricate than important; and therefore liable to be treated so as not merely to do little or no good, but even to be productive of material damage. To be alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in us,' is a very different thing from the want of general education; and it no less characterized the polished Ephesians, than the barbarous Scythians. When God testified by his prophet, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,' he added, Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee.' Hos. iv. 6. Even the Gentiles were never left so destitute of means for the knowledge of God, as to furnish them with an excuse for ignorance of him (Rom. i. 19-32;) much less the Jews; Christians still less, even though degraded by superstitions; but least of all protestants; among whom not only education is much more general than among papists, but the Scriptures are publicly read to such as cannot read for themselves. If spiritual destruction involved the bulk of mankind inevitably, from want of the means of knowledge, it would reflect rather on divine than on human government. The latter, under whatever form, has seldom been backward to dictate in matters of religion, either Pagan or Christian; but it is of course always liable to err, even with the best information and intentions; and where these have been wanting, the mischiefs are equally deplorable and notorious. Education, unconnected with religion, belongs to political economy, and there fore exceeds the scope of our review. The well-known author of the work before us, has exerted his peculiar powers to exhibit an affecting view of this subject, but we think has insufficiently discriminated the branches of it, that we have now endeavoured to distinguish. The religious ignorance which he attributes to the uneducated, we have found no less in persons of superior education. We think also that his laboured representation might have produced stronger effect, had he admitted into it sufficient lights to form some contrast with the = general gloom. He seems to us not only to have omitted various memorable events of this character, but so strangely to have bedimmed such as he could not exclude, that even the promulgation of the GosPEL itself rather casts a lurid glare over the picture, than serves at all to irradiate it. His tints are likewise so uniformly and deeply sombre, as to preclude what painters call keeping, in the dismal recesses of the tablet. The horrors of war, famine and pestilence, could not have been denoted by darker shades than those which he has employed on the clumsy manner in which beasts are usually slaughtered for our public markets. We should have thought the amusements of hunting, angling, or shooting, (by which more birds are wounded than killed) better entitled to his reprobation; for surely it is preferable that animals should be killed for food, as a business than as a sport. The author gives due credit to the pious zeal of Methodists, of both denominations, and to the various recent labours of philanthropists, for the dissi pation of popular ignorance: but the use to which he turns his review of these exhilarating topics is truly characteristic. And now,' says he, p. 96, 'when we have put all these things together, we may well pause to indulge again our wonder, what could have been the mental situation of the inferior orders, the great majority of our nation, antecedently to the creation of this modern comprehensive economy of so many influences and means for awaking them to something of an intelligent existence.' Such views are not adapted to excite sanguine expectations. A reader might naturally conclude that, as popular ignorance was from the beginning, and is now, it will be world without end. But the author's hypothesis so far yields to matter of fact, as to admit, p. 259, of the following suggestion: In all probability, the improvement of mankind is destined, under Divine Providence, to advance just in proportion as good men feel the responsibility for it resting on themselves, as individuals." With this sentiment we have the pleasure cordially to coincide; but we pause to indulge again our wonder, what (if so) could have been the use of invectives against human governments, for not taking such a responsibility upon them? We think it much safer and more likely to be efficient where Divine Providence has placed it. We therefore gladly listen to whatever encouragement can be given for 'patient continuance in well-doing.' 7 'Let the promoters of education and Christian knowledge among the inferior classes, reflect what has already been accomplished; regarding it, we once again. repeat, as quite the incipient stage. It is most truly as yet the day of small things; but let them recount the individuals, whom, nevertheless, they have seen rescued from what had all the signs of a destination to the lowest debasement and utter ruin; some of whom are returning animated thanks, and will do so in the hour of death, for what these, their best human friends, have been the means of imparting to them. Let them recollect, of how many families they have seen the domestic condition pleasingly, and in some instances, eminently and delightfully amended. And let them reflect how they have trampled down prejudices, greatly silenced a heathenish clamour, and provoked the imitative and rival efforts of many who, but for them, would have been most cordially willing for all such schemes to lie in abeyance to the end of time.'-p. 265. It would gratify us to add, for the same purpose, the paragraphs, pp. 275, 277, if our limits admitted; but we can only recommend them strongly to general attention. The whole volume will repay the trouble of those who can patiently study its contents: but we do not promise that they will judge this an easy task. They may sometimes find the process difficult, where the issue is very plain, and might apparently have been attained both by an easier and a shorter track. There also is neither chapter, section, table of contents, nor marginal head, throughout the volume; and it has undergone transmutations, from a sermon to a written address, and from that to an essay, till (especially amidst the profound gloom of its subject) it corresponds with Virgil's description Informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum. It possesses, notwithstanding, (like all Mr. F's performances) so many and so great merits, that our chief motive for marking its defects, is to preclude them from being admired, and imitated as beauties. Orient Harping. A Desultory Poem, in 1st. As it may shew the world what sort of persons are employed in the arduous undertaking of missionary labours. 2dly, As it exposes the ignorance or hypocrisy of those who attempt to sanctify the absurdities and barbarities of Hindoo superstition, compared with which, the cruelties of Islamism, and the extravagances of the Koran, are purity and innocence; and the disciples of Mahomet enlightened and moral men, contrasted with the worshippers of Yoogadya, Krishnu, and Juggernaut, and the believers of the monstrous nonsense of the Shasters. These are the subjects of the first part of the Poem, which the author has treated with a mock dignity of diction,' and a sarcastic humour well suited to the ridiculous gravity of Eastern idolatry. These themes are new to religious poesy; the marvellous adventures that occasioned the descent of Ganga, have indeed been sung by Southey in his Curse of Kebama,' but in a different manner and for a different purpose than that of our author, who concludes the wondrous fiction with the following just reflection; Ye "Thus have I told my tale-and now draw near, blest, enlightened men, ye gentle Of weight, and worth, and vast rotundity, Incessant. Day of rest relieves thee not, Calcutta, sun-burnt city! For the morn, Unblest with sabbath peace, throws her grey light O'er hubbub scenes, and through the live-long day "Tis noise, and merriment, and labour all.' "With all the sunbeam colouring of burnish'd metals.' These, and such like, being in the burlesque part of the Poem, we should have thought the author indulged himself with a little licence, had not similar instances occurred in the serious parts; such as in page 7, line 17, We insert also the following, from the Blood-spirtled flags unfurling the cross Poor Bengalee' Convert: O Great Power!' thus would he say, With eves fixed, on the ethereal conflicting; "Whoe er thou art, where'er thou dwell'st; or wrapt In everlasting mystery, known to exist blest Than these thy darker walks, not less thy own; Whoe'er thou art, heard in the hurricane, ! Seen in the fulgence of the firmament, Felt in the immortal soul, yet still unknown To me, though ever felt, and seen, and heard ; Reveal Thyself! if aught so immensely great 'May but be faintly understood, and loved By mortal things, adored by energies Made to adore, or else create in vain !' We should observe, that besides the general division of the poem into the first and second part, each part consists of separate pieces with appropriate titles, like so many chapters; yet that a connexion runs through the whole, and the changes are not more abrupt than the transitions usual, and needful, to keep up the attention throughout a long poem. The reader of taste will find in the perusal much to admire, and the severe critic but little to blame. A few carelessly constructed and inharmonious lines may be found; such as-page 63, line 11, May dare expect rest for the sole of foot Polluted. Page 80, 4 lines from the bottom, In weanedness, she would live and gladly die To inherit her desire.' Occasionally the ten syllable line is lengthened into 11 or 12 syllables, as in page 46, line 6, 'Or perpendicular, rising in the fields.' Page 48, line 8, or moon.' But as such irregularities are more admissible in blank verse than in rhyme, many writers avail themselves of that liberty. Considered in the whole, this Poem contains many accurate descriptions of Eastern scenery, many quaint touches of humour, many sublime flights of fancy, and many a powerful appeal to religious feeling. It is creditable to the author, and will interest the reader. A few instructive notes illustrate the res pective subjects, A Commentary on the Psalms, called Psalms of Degrees; in which, among many interesting Subjects, the scriptural Doctrine respecting the divinely instituted and honourable Estate of Matrimony is explained and defended, &c. By Martin Luther. To which is prefixed an Historical Account of the Monastic Life, particularly of the Monasteries of England. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Tuis Commentary is not now first published in the English language, being, as the Editor himself observes, taken from an edition" Imprinted at London, by Tho. Vantrollier, dwelling in the Black Friers, by Ludgate, 1577,"-and seems to have undergone little or no alteration but in the modernizing of the spelling.* The Commentary itself contains a great deal of sound practical divinity, combating, as in all Luther's writings, the errors and superstitions of popery. On the 128th Psalm in particular (which is incorporated into our marriage service) he defends not only the lawfulness of matrimony, in opposition to popish celibacy, but the character of woman, in opposition to those who consider a wife only as a necessary evil;' and who assert that, to bury a wife is better than to marry her.' (See p. 293.) Luther, it may be recollected, was charged by the papists with a double crime: 1st, in marrying *It was translated from the Latin by a Mr. Bull, and recommended to the reader by Mr. John Fox-as we presume, the martyrologist. |