The language of religion is"Those who take the sword shall perish by the sword;"—and what ever be the side on which we fight, he must be wrong who loses his temper. The character, the genius, the spirit of the Gospel is love, is union with God and with one another. It speaks of God as an universal Father;-of the world as one vast family;-of Christ as having shed his blood to unite this great family to unite them to God and to one another-to graft them like branches into the same stock-to pen them like sheep in the same fold -to infuse into them that newnature by which they may become one with Him, and one with God.We can indeed, in this fallen world, but imperfectly judge of the exact character of the Divine dispensations. If we would know what is the final result designed by Godwe should lift our eyes to heaven, where the full consequences of the Divine dispensations are seen, where their work is done, their triumphs are celebrated. And in heaven all is union-" no passion touches a discordant string." The principles, objects, tastes, are all the same. In the chorus of the universe no voice is silent, and one song employs them all-Worthy is the Lamb who was slain." Even the multitude which "no man can uumber" have no diversity of pursuit, or discordancy of feeling-all cast their crowns before the same throne, worship the same Lord, and rend the concave of heaven with one harmonious shout. Such is religion where its full effects are seen, where its full harvests are reaped, and where man no longer scatters among them the tares of human corruption. I have, sir, but one more remark to offer. If it be the tendency of the religion of Christ to produce union, then may we who profess this religion endeavour to display a spirit of concord in our own conduct, and to cultivate it in those around us. And let us begin by cultivating a spirit of union in the worship of God. O what a glorious sight would it be to God and angels, if in uttering the same devout words, we all breathed the same spirit, and felt the same love! How would such prayers, like the congregated strength of an army, assail the gate of heaven, and take it by that holy violence and force to which a gracious God opposes no resistance! Nor would such union in religion terminate in itself. It would gradually insinuate itself into the circumstances of our daily life, and produce union upon other points. It would gradually, under the Divine blessing, destroy selfishness, irritability, and suspieion, and make us love our neighbour as ourselves. Soon we might hope to see substituted, for the lean and hollow language of ceremony and politeness, the honest language of warm and affectionate hearts. O then may we endeavour, that in one place at least, the ancient testimony to religion may be repeated, "See how these Christians love one another!" "O may the same mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus!" who became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, for a guilty and miserable world. May we be thus ready to suffer for the good of others! May we remember the declaration of the disciple whom Jesus loved, and who best perpetuated his spirit and character to the world! "God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." C. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. You were so obliging as to notice a small publication which lately appeared, respecting the Waldenses, in which it was said that they are in distress, and that a Committee would be formed for the purpose of applying any sums of money that might be offered for their relief. It is due to those benevolent persons who may have intended to contribute to the alleviation of their sufferings, to state, in the first place, that in consequence of a private letter from the Vallies to the respectable Minister of a French Protestant Church in London, a collection was made in that church, and amongst the minister's friends, so that about 1007. was transmitted to Piedmont;-in the next place, that efforts have been made, and will in the proper time and way be continued, with a view to recover a subsidy which the Waldenses have lost;-and, lastly, that it is not expedient to receive or transmit sums of money to them until affairs on the Continent present a new aspect, since the Vallies of Piedmont form one of the passages from France into Italy, and may be therefore thrown into a very unsettled condition in consequence of the military operations in those countries. When the present difficulties are removed, it is hoped that means will be found to preserve their schools from decay, &c. that so the light of Christian truth, which has for so many ages illumined those Vallies, may not be at length extinguished. S. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE practice of driving stagecoaches and other such vehicles on the Sabbath-day, which is become so common, not only in the metropolis, but all parts of the kingdom, is certainly a most daring offence against the laws both of God and man. Of the former, I presume, there can be no dispute; since we are forbidden, in the strongest and plainest terms, not only to work ourselves, but to suffer our servants, or our cattle, to labour on that sacred day of rest. But concerning the laws of the CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 161. land, in this matter, some doubts, perhaps, may arise; because the word coach or stage does not occur in those Acts of Parliament which relate to the due observation of the Lord's-day. However, as they strictly forbid all carriers, waggonmen, wain-men, &c. travelling on that day, and enact "in general, that no tradesman, artificer, workman, labourer, or OTHER PERSON, shall do or exercise any worldly labour, business, or work of their ORDINARY CALLINGS, on the Lord's-day;" it follows undeniably, that the driving of stages, or the like, though not explicitly, is virtually disallowed and condemned by those laws. At the time when they were made, stage-coaches were not in use, therefore could not be specified; but as other carriages are not suffered to be driven on Sundays, the use of these is byevident implication forbidden. See 3d C. I. and 29th C. II. and by a later Act of 9th Anne, which licenses certain "hackney coachmen and chairmen within the bills of mortality," there is no exemption of stages, or other carriages of any sort; which surely would have been mentioned, had any such indulgence been intended. Would it not be advisable, Mr. Editor, to recommend associations to be formed in all parts of the kingdom, for the discouraging, by every way and means, all those coaches which make it a constant rule to travel on that sacred day? Might not the members of such associations particularly countenance and support those coach-masters, &c. who should discontinue the practice of so profaning the Lord'sday? The very threat of forming such societies might be attended with a good effect. But I only drop this as a hint to be farther improved, should any of your readers or correspondents think the subject deserving notice. 2 R THEOGNIS. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. An Essay on the Character and Ir was with peculiar satisfaction we found ourselves called upon, in the discharge of our critical duty, to examine the volumes which we are now to introduce to the notice of our readers. We felt encouraged to expect, from the name of their author, that our task would be grateful to others as well as to ourselves: nor could we approach, without emotions not easily defined, another production from the pen of a writer who has been edifying the public for uearly half a century; and whose debilitated state of health has suggested the painful apprehension, that in reviewing the latest of her works, we might possibly be reviewing her last. Indeed, we cannot sufficiently admire that unwearied activity which will not allow this distinguished person to accept her discharge from a service in which she has done so much. If to have written much, and well, upon subjects of the highest interest; if to have presented the wisest lessons in the form most attractive to all classes of society, from the throne to the peasant; if to have stocked our shelves with volumes, in which good taste is associated with sound piety, just sentiment with devotional feeling, and classical refinement with didactic sagacity--if performances like these could have satisfied her ardent mind, she might have quitted the field in the plenitude of her honours; and, in a state of wellearned repose, have awaited her removal from her retirement on earth, to an incorruptible inheritance in heaven, Such would probably have been the case, had her conduct been influenced by no higher motive than that selfish and secular ambition which doats on human applause, and circumscribes its views by the limited circle of present or posthumous reputation. Warmed by that flame which is kindled at the sanctuary, and which animates its possessor to exertions of bepure nevolence, she disdains a compromise with ease or with fame. Never thinking she has done enough for God., and her fellow-creatures, while she retains the power of doing more; she seems resolved to fill up the measure of her usefulfulness, and to gild her declining years with the same lustre which surrounds the period of her health and strength. Such were the impressions under which we took up the volumes before us; and a careful perusal of them has fully convinced us that Mrs. More runs no risk of impairing her reputation by adding to the number of her works. Time has in no degree debilitated her intellect, or clouded her imagination: her eye is not dim, nor is her natural force abated. The present, considered as a whole, is certainly a work of no ordinary merit; and there are portions of it, which, for vigorous thought, apt illustration, and just, yet glowing expression, may challenge comparison with the best and most finished of this author's com positions. The subject of this "Essay" is judiciously chosen; and though the manner in which it is treated is not wholly original, it is sufficiently so to discriminate it from productions of a similar class, and to invest it with as much of the charm of novelty as may recommend it to general perusal." The Portrait of St. Paul," as graphically sketch ed by the admirable La Flechere, their religion from the school of besides being an unfinished performance, exhibits the Apostle systematically as "a model for Christians and pastors ;" and the plan of Mr. La Flechere's undertaking was constructed with the express design, "that these two objects might be so closely united, as to fall under the same point of view." (Preface to Portrait.) There was room, therefore, for a work which might so generalize the subject, as to accommodate it to the use of Christians in every walk of life. And such is the object of Mrs. More. On the importance of such a work, in a variety of views, it is not necessary to insist. In addition to usefulness in forming the Christian character, we cannot but highly estimate its direct tendency to rescue from misconception, and advance into deserved notice and estimation, one of the greatest characters that ever appeared on the stage of human action. To us it appears that no individual, certainly no one among the sacred writers, has been more ingeniously misrepresented, both by those who meant to exalt, and by those whose object it was to depreciate him, than the great Apostle of the Gentiles. Of his enemies some have, almost sacreligiously, attacked himself as though but partially, or not at all inspired; and his writings, as they might have done the effusions of a heated enthusiast, or the deductions of an inconclusive reasoner. Others, without without disputing his claims to inspiration, have entertained such confined notions of the purposes for which his Epistles were written, as to deem them merely local and temporary, and therefore of little value. On the other hand, the admirers of this Apostle have not always shewn their judgment, either in their manner of estimating his character or conducting his defence. It has been too much the custom, with many who profess to have learned this Apostle to exhibit him as exclusively a doctrinist, and to cite and commend him in terms which would encourage the belief, that they considered him rather as the mere promulgator of a creed than a preceptor of the theory and the practice of Christianity. The consequence is (a consequence to which each party has, though with very different motives, contributed), that St. Paul has been defectively appreciated both as a teacher and an example; and his writings and his conduct have been abridged of that influence to which they were entitled in fixing the standard of truth and virtue. The author of these volumes has formed her conception of this distinguished Apostle, not from insulated circumstances in his history, or detached sentences in his Epistles; but from a connected view of the facts which constitute the former, and of the sentiments and feelings which are developed in the latter. She takes the gauge and dimensions of his character, and contemplates him under circumstances which put the highest and the lowest of his great qualities to the trial. In performing this task, she never loses sight of her professed objectthe improvement of her reader; and it would be difficult to say, whether she most excels in the beauty of her drawing, or the wisdom of her reflections; in delineating the model, or persuading to the imitation of it. But it is time we should enter upon a more particular examination of the volumes themselves. As St. Paul was a Christian and an Apostle, and every thing respecting him was to be sought for in the canon of Scripture; some preliminary steps appeared to be necessary, in order to possess the reader with a suitable conviction in favour of that system, on the truth and excellence of which the propriety of what was afterwards to be stated, would in great measure depend. With this view the first chapter is devoted to "The lives of their great men abound in splendid sayings, as well as heroic virtues, to such a degree, as to exalt our idea of the human intellect, and, in single instances, of the human character. We say, in single instances, for their idea of a perfect character wanted consistency, wanted completeness. It had many constituent parts, but there was no whole which comprized them. The moral fractions made up no integral. The virtuous man thought it no deroga. tion from his virtue to be selfish, the conqueror to be revengeful, the philosopher to be arrogant, the injured to be unforgiving: forbearance was cowardice, humility was baseness, meekness was pusillanimity. Not only their justice was stained with cruelty, but the most cruel acts of injustice were the road to a popularity which immortalized the perpetrator. The good man was his own centre. Their virtues wanted to be drawn out of themselves, and this could not be the case. As their goodness did not arise from any knowledge, so it could not spring from any imitation of the Divine perfections. That inspiring principle, the love of God, the vital spark of all religion, was a motive of which they had not so much as heard; and if they had, it was a feeling which it would have been impossible for them to cherish, since some of the best of their deities were as bad as the worst of themselves. "When the history of their own religion contained little more than the quarrels and the intrigues of these deities, could we expect that the practice of the people would be much better, or more consistent than their belief? If the divinities were at once holy and profligate, shall we wonder if the adoratiou was at once devout and impure? The worshipper could not commit a crime but he might vindicate it by the example of some deity; he could not gratify a sin ful appetite of which his religion did not furnish a justification. "Besides this, all their scattered docu. ments of virtue could never make up a body of morals. They wanted a con necting tie. The doctrines of one school were at variance with those of another. Even if they could have clubbed their opinions, and picked out the best from each sect, so as to have patched up a code, still the disciples of one sect would not have submitted to the leader of another, the system would have wanted a head, or the head would have wanted authority, and the code would have wanted sanctions. "And as there was no governing system, so there was no universal rule of morals, for morality was different in different countries people places. In some thought it no more a crime to expose their own children than in others to adopt those of their neighbour. The Persians were not looked upon as the worse moralists for marrying their mothers, nor the Hyrcanians for not marrying at all, nor the Sogdians for murdering their parents, nor the Scythians for eating their dead. "The best writers seldom made use of arguments drawn from future blessedness to enforce their moral instruction. Excellently as they discoursed on the beauty of virtue, their disquisitions generally seemed to want a motive and an end.-Did not such a state of comfort less ignorance, of spiritual degradation, of moral depravity, emphatically call for a religion which should bring life and immortality to light? Did it not imperatively require that spirit which should reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment? Did it not pant for that blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin.”—Vol. i. pp. 6-10. After some pertinent and striking remarks on the imperfections and inefficiency of their mythological religion, the author draws this pointed and beautiful conclusion: "A religion so absurd, which had no basis even in probability, and no attraction but what it borrowed from a preposterous fancy, could not satisfy the deep-thinking philosopher;-a philoso phy abstruse and metaphysical was not sufficiently accommodated to general use to suit the people. Lactantius, on the authority of Plato, relates, that |