It is plain they must have been from those who feared the word of the Lord. Hence we learn that those of the servants of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord, were a stumbling-block to Israel: and hence R. Simeon ben Jochai says, Slay thou the best amongst the Gentiles, and of the best of serpents bruise the head. Thus far the Talmud, and by this they mean to say, that as of serpents he especially is to be killed that is the greatest and best of its kind, Christians are to be dealt with in the same way. For killing Christians, and throwing their children into pits, and even for killing them when they can do it secretly, they derive an argument from that which is said in the book Aboda Zara, chapter En Maamidin, 'As to Gentiles, and robbers, and those that tend small cattle, they are neither to be helped out of a well nor to be thrown into it. But heretics, and informers, and apostates, are to be thrown in, but not to be helped out. The Commentary of Rashi says: Heretics mean, the priests of idols; informers mean calumniators, who betray the wealth of their brethren into the hands of the Gentiles. R. Shesheth says, If there be a step in the pit, removing it, let him find an excuse and say, Lest an evil beast descend upon him. Rabba and R. Joseph both say, If there be a stone upon the mouth of the well, he is to cover it and say, I do it that the beasts may pass over it. R. Nachman says, If there be a ladder in the well, he is to take it away and say, I wish to get down my son from the roof.' Thus far the Talmud. Thy prudence, O reader, may perceive that the Talmud, which so perniciously teaches them to lie and to kill Christians, is not the law of God, but the figment of the devil, &c." Thus says Raymund Martin, and it is evident that if he had known of any passage authorizing Jews to use violence in order to effect the death of Christians, or requiring them to use christian blood every year at the Passover, it would have been more to his purpose, and he would infallibly have quoted it. His intimate acquaintance with Jewish writings gives us reason to conclude that if such a passage had existed, he must have known it. His total silence on the subject is, therefore, a strong argument to prove that in his time no such practice existed.-Pp. 31-33. Now, it may be true, as Dr. M'Caul contends, that the above passage does not convict the Jews of killing Christians for the Passover; but it does convict certain of their doctors, not only of egregious folly, but of most atrocious wickedness. It, therefore, would be infinitely desirable that these flagitious principles and maxims should be publicly and solemnly renounced by persons of the highest authority in the Jewish nation, throughout the world, in the name and behalf of all their people. We have lately seen that the following declaration has been made by some among the Jewish converts to Christianity now residing in England: "We, the undersigned, by nation Jews, and having lived to the years of maturity in the faith and practice of modern Judaism, but now by the grace of God members of the Church of Christ, do solemnly protest that we have never directly nor indirectly heard of, much less known, amongst the Jews, of the practice of killing Christians or using christian blood, and that we believe this charge, so often brought against them formerly, and now lately revived, to be a foul and Satanic falsehood."—P. 45. So far, all is well. But the declaration would have been much more satisfactory, if it had gone further. It is an awful thing to find that some of the books and the traditions of the Jews have given their express sanction to the guilt of poisoning the fountains of justice, and of marking down all Gentiles as legitimate victims of a bloody and secret proscription. We, therefore, hope to be forgiven, if we put it closely to the con Pugio Fidei, Part III. c. xxii. § 22. science and to the humanity of every estimable Jew, whether these execrable doctrines ought not, also, to be publicly abjured. Till that is done, we almost despair of seeing the people of Israel restored to their just rank in the confidence and affection of the christian world. LITERARY REPORT. Looking unto Jesus: a Sermon, preached in St. Mary's Church, Burlington, on the Sunday before Advent, 1839, being the next after the Decease of the Rev. BENJAMIN DAVIS WINSLOW, Assistant to the Rector. By the Rt. Rev. GEORGE WASHINGTON DOANE, D.D., Bishop of the Diocese of New Jersey, and Rector of St. Mary's Church. Burlington: J. L. Powell. Pp. 56. Or this interesting Sermon we need say little more than that it was preached by the Bishop of New Jersey on the death of a young minister, who was assistant in the church where the Bishop usually officiated. Mr. Winslow's history and character are here given in detail; and unless the partiality of friendship have biassed the judgment of the preacher (which we do not suspect), and unless the public testimonies of affectionate regard to the memory of the deceased be altogether unfounded (a thing very improbable), we must consider the death of this young minister as, humanly speaking, a great loss to the Church. Here is ample proof of his early piety, of his devotedness to his sacred calling, and of considerable talent. It seemed good, however, to the Great Head of the Church to remove him from his sphere of usefulness when his labours were but just commencing. A mysterious appointment! but all is well! And possibly the fact of his being so soon taken away, and of his bearing striking evidence to the power of the Gospel in his last hours, as he had done in his previous life, may, through God's blessing, be more beneficial to the congregation with which he was connected, and to the Church at large, than a longer continuance of his ministration. The discourse before us will also suggest many a valuable lesson, not to young clergymen only, but to thoughtful readers of every description. We adduce merely one passage from the Sermon, and this chiefly on account of the verses which conclude it : For many weeks, he had been setting all his house in order. Not an interest, however small, that could be affected by his death, that he had not provided for. Still, he pursued his favourite studies with alacrity. He was as devoted to his Greek Testament, and to his Hebrew Bible, as if he expected to have use for them yet forty years. For seven weeks he had watchers every night; and uniformly did they declare the hours so spent among the happiest of their life. Among them was the friend of his youth, who had baptized him, and admitted him first to the Holy Communion, the Rev. Mr. Croswell, who came from Boston, especially to see him. "It was a memorable night," he writes, "that I spent with him, on the 14th of October. God forbid that I should ever forget it. In the dead of night, while his lamp burned dim, he had songs upon his bed; and recited those beautiful stanzas, suggested to soothe his restlessness, by the Oriental sentiment, This also shall pass away.' I took them down at his mouth, and shall cherish them always as his cycnean strain: 'Death darkens his eye, and unplumes his wings, And his sweetest song is the last he sings.' It proved so. The poetic talent, which before his ordination he had exercised to the delight and admiration of the Church, he sacredly repressed upon his entrance to the holy office. But in his latest days, the fire that he had kept from flaming, burned within him, and burst forth in these delightful lines,-the very transcript of his faithful, peaceful, hopeful spirit: When morning sunbeams round me shed In darkling lines, that dim each ray, 'Mid shades; "This, too, shall pass away." Blest words, that temper pleasure's beam, That early sadden youth's bright dream, The world which shall not pass away.-Pp. 22-24. Subjoined to the Sermon, are- -The Rector's Address before the Administration of the Holy Communion on Advent Sunday, 1839, and Obituary Notices. The Christian Gentleman's daily Walk. By Sir ARCHIBALD EDMONSTONE, Bart. London Burns. 1840. Pp. 175. THE author has attempted to pourtray the character of a Christian Gentleman, something in the manner of Herbert or Fuller, but in modern style, and with reference to existing circumstances; and has succeeded in producing a very pleasing volume. It contains much good sense, and its general tone is that of genuine, sober, and practical piety. We add one or two extracts. The writer is treating of the Christian Gentleman's mode of educating his children :— But obedience is the foundation on which alone he can securely build; if that be not firmly laid at the beginning, he can never hope to raise the superstructure. If the parent stop to parley;-if he think it advisable to account for what he inculcates, or profess to explain everything to his reason;-he at once makes his child his judge, and lays the foundation of self-willed and independent temper; whereas, when the habit is formed of implicit reliance, it becomes safe and easy to call the judgment into exercise; and the christian father will be as cautious in riper years of requiring a blind submission to his injunctions, as in earlier days he had been of assigning his reasons. Pp. 73, 74. - Miss Edgeworth's books for children are delightful; but we doubt whether the system of education they illustrate does not tend to sow the seeds of a selfsufficient and rationalistic spirit. The following is the Christian Gentleman's judgment on the much controverted points of churchmanship: The Church of England thus presents herself in a double point of view, as a part of the settled constitution of the land, and as a distinct religious community. The time happily is past when conformity was enforced by penal enactments. Whether to come within the pale of this community or not, remains simply now for individual conscience to decide, according to the obligation it may attach to preserving christian unity. The churchman sees sufficient warrant in Scripture for regarding schism as a sin of no slight magnitude; hence he holds this holy institution in peculiar veneration, and examines into her claims on his obedience, not in a spirit of proud independence, but with deferential respect. He finds accordingly, that a system of government, such as she possesses, with the distinct orders of bishops, priests, and deacons, may be traced back to the apostolic age; and as the line of succession has continued unbroken, the outward character of a church according to the primitive model he considers to have been in her preserved. Nor does she fail in her internal qualification for being a due recipient of that gracious promise, that Christ will be with His church even unto the end of the world. She receives nothing to be believed as necessary to salvation, but what is found in, or can be proved by Scripture; but as diversities of opinions may be, and too often have been, drawn from the same words, the church, while she puts the sacred volume freely into the hands of all her members, offers her own explication of the fundamental truths contained in it; nor does she presume to do so arbitrarily. The creeds, as defined and settled by the early councils, she has accepted as the authoritative standard of orthodoxy; and the unanimous opinion of primitive antiquity affords her a faithful rule of interpretation on points which would, otherwise, be left to individual apprehension. Tradition is thus the interpreter, not the rival in authority with Scripture; but as no promise is given of private infallibility, the value of such a standard will be duly appreciated by all who desire to obey the gospel injunction, " that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment."-Pp. 144–146. The Miracles of our Lord explained, in a Correspondence between a Mother and a Daughter. By the Author of "Conversations on the Parables," &c. &c. London: Seeley. 1839. 12mo. Pp. 170. THE object of this little work is "to open up, more especially to the young, the inexhaustible mine of spiritual wealth" contained in our Saviour's miracles, considered not merely as manifestations of his "supreme power over the material creation, but as typically indicating his sympathies with the spiritual sufferings of man," and his power to minister to the maladies of the soul. We are better pleased with the design of the writer than with the execution. It is a laudable attempt to give to the mind of youth a religious bias and direction, and the subject of our Saviour's miracles may be usefully employed for that purpose; but we doubt whether it is expedient to teach a child that "they are all typical either of future events, or of some doctrine which our Great Teacher designed to inculcate." (P. 2.) Is it not more profitable to regard them in the light of attestations to the office of the Messiah, and as the divine credentials of his mission, than to set the imagination to work to devise some recondite meaning, concealed under these outward manifestations of his power? The former was the view our Lord himself encouraged, when he referred to his works as a proof that he came from God; and if the mind of the child were duly impressed with this branch of christian evidence, more good, we conceive, would be effected, than by filling the fancy with speculative notions, which may or may not be just. We much question the propriety of making a child of twelve years of age talk of feeling that her sins were "blotted out." (P. 28.) Nor can can we approve of such language as the following, from the mother to the daughter, "I read your heart, and saw written there, in indelible characters, the blessed word, 'adoption!" (P. 31.) In books on religious subjects, professedly composed for the young, we prefer a system of authorship encouraging the development of early piety, in the way of a quiet, unobtrusive performance of christian duties, a vigilant control of the temper, and a due regulation of the will and the affections. A Remonstrance, addressed to the Rev. SYDNEY SMITH, M. A., Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's, &c.; on the Tone and Tendency of his late Protest against Lord John Russell's Dean and Chapter Bill. By a Prebendary. London: Hatchard. 1840. Pp. 24. WE are much obliged to Mr. Dalby for this spirited remonstrance. If the Church is founded upon Christ-if it is not the mere creature of human policyif it is the depository of the truth-and not a system of gross hypocrisy, then nothing can damage it so much as secularity in the clergy. For this reason, the efforts of those who have undertaken its defence, as if it were a mere temporal Society, have ever affected us with feelings of a painful description; and wit and humour, when applied to this purpose, seem out of place, and unworthy the dignity of the subject. There must be a limit to the maxim, "Ridiculum acri Fortius et melius magnas plerumque secat res;" and Horace himself might have been startled at the idea of applying it to religion, since he mentions it as a point of wisdom "Publica privatis, secernere sacra profanis." VOL. XXII. NO. VIII. 3 P The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but those formed against us are; the darts, therefore, which have been shot so lavishly from the citadel of St. Paul's, fall harmless at the feet of our adversaries, but may one day be retorted not a little to our disadvantage. Mr. Dalby's object is to disclaim in behalf of himself and the clergy in general, the feelings and views of that writer to whom his remonstrance is addressed -he desires they may be considered, as we are inclined to believe is really the case, the sole property of him who has the merit of bringing them before the public. At the same time, Mr. Dalby professes that he should not have been provoked to take this step but for the circumstance, that in some cases the opinion was gaining ground that the clergy in general were really actuated by the principles attributed to them by this author. For our own parts, we have no hesitation in saying that clergymen ought, whenever there is a fair opportunity, to enter a protest against all low and degrading, and mere pecuniary views of ecclesiastical questions; even although such views may come recommended by very good jokes. To be sure it is no easy matter, and may be somewhat unkind to argue with a jester; but still it may be worse in certain instances to leave him to the full enjoyment of his joke. And there is too much reason to fear that some even of the sober and reflecting part of the community, will think it no slight argument in disfavour of cathedrals, that they have been thus defended by a canon residentiary; and will see little difference between jesting in their defence, and not being in earnest in upholding them. Essays, Addresses, and Reviews. By the Rev. ROBERT NESBIT, Missionary of the Church of Scotland, Bombay. Berwick: Melrose. 1840. Foolscap 8vo. Pp. 126. THOUGH Constrained to differ from Mr. Nesbit, we must do him the justice to state, that the contents of his volume are characterized by a fair portion of mental vigour and theological acumen. We must, however, observe that his opening essay "On the Sovereignty of God," embodies sentiments which it is difficult to reconcile with the doctrine of man's responsibility, while the remarks "On the Morality of the Bible" wear a somewhat morose and repulsive aspect, and would seem to divest the ways of religion of a portion of that pleasantness and peace which will invariably attend its cultivation. A History of British Birds. By WILLIAM YARRELL, F.L.S. V.P.Z.S. Illus trated by a Woodcut of each Species, and numerous Vignettes. Part XIX. London: Van Voorst. July, 1840. Ir is a question of no inconsiderable import, to what extent the natural sciences may be rendered subservient to the interests of revealed religion. We are aware that there are many well meaning persons who imagine that the attestation of the works of the Almighty, as the Creator of the world, to the truths of revelation, are manifold and irrefragable-who wonder at the possibility of a "naturalist" being an infidel, and that a knowledge of the wonderful harmony and design so conspicuous in the perfect adaptation of structure to function, which is observed in the whole of the organic creation, should fail to force, as it were, a student of this delightful science into a belief in, and an obedience to, the peculiar doctrines and obligations of the gospel. Now it appears to us that this anticipation is scarcely reasonable. That a man already imbued with the spirit of divine truth, as manifested in the great work of redemption, should see many and beautiful illustrations of the same sublime attributes of the Deity in the works of his hands, as are still more strikingly exemplified in the wonders of his grace, is perfectly natural and legitimate; but to expect that a knowledge of the Almighty, as the God of nature, is necessarily to lead to an acknowledgment of his character as the reconciled Father of his guilty children, mysteriously reconciled, too, by the sacrifice of his own most blessed Son, appears |